I think Skyrim does look pretty good overall. I wish that they could have incorporated more unique architecture into the game however. You essentially have your wooden structures for the village feel, or larger structures which are made of stone. Then of course you have some construction company who is plopping inns all over the countryside with the same blueprints... Remember how visually unique Ebonheart, Sadrith Mora, Balmora, and Ald'ruhn were? There is nothing even remotely comparable to this variety in Skyrim. I hope in the DLC and through mods they can introduce some more unique locations, because I'm definitely suffering from the "Oh, look, another building that looks like it is straight out of Valhalla" syndrome.

I find the individual holds to have quite diverse architecture, thankyouverymuch.

not halo:reach bad

Nah, Skyrim got lazy.

Looks better but not in an artistic way. Blood Moon expansion of Nord territory was much nicer to look at.
Something I noticed is, why isn't there any big log house villages with fur decor?

Copy paste copy paste .....

No.

Yeah, don't get me wrong the graphics are obviously superior. I'm not sure most people really remember what Vanilla MW and OB look like we have been playing heavily modded versions for so long. I'm OK with the textures and what not, that is pretty standard for TES games and I know it will be addressed by the community. To some degree it is more "authentic" to have such a similar looking world considering the size, but it really makes the game feel "smaller" by sort of emphasizing that you are in a single geographic region. Breaking it up with some drastic architecture changes would have made it feel larger.

Markarth, Whiterun, Windhelm, and Solitude all have very unique looks to them. I don't even know what you're talking about.

It'll never be as bad as Oblivion where every city has the same exact walls.

Well... The Nordic Houses of the Nordic Country do look similar. I agree with you there.

I think that we got "bad-used" because both Morrowind and Cyrodiil were intended to have some fair different architecture (Even then, Oblivion is mostly Tudor Style). While Skyrim is intended to be a consolidated Nord Country.

Wait why the hell are there trees in Ald'ruhn? I am all for making the game look more visually impressive however my problem with some of these mods that try to make the game look "better" is that they totally destroy the look and feel that the original game was originally trying to capture. Also I find in a lot of these mods "better" is a fairly subjective word, take Bananasplit's "Better" Cities for instance, to me it just made the cities more cluttered and claustrophobic, they tried to add too much to too small a space.

http://cdnstatic.gamesas.com/akqacms/files/tes/screenshots/Whiterun_wLegal.jpg
http://cdnstatic.gamesas.com/akqacms/files/tes/screenshots/Markarth01_wLegal.jpg
yep the architecture looks exactly the same

tis ok

I just wish they make an expansion to incorporate Ayleid Ruins and dungeons, maybe some imperial forts I really miss them and want to see them in this new engine

Indeed I cant even tell the difference, wait, its not the same city is it??

I am pretty sure it is just the same image photshopped

Bungie cashed in, will never forgive them for ruining Halo multiplayer.

I think it is fine. Although I haven't been in Europe much (just London) it seems from what little I've seen that old Roman or Greek architecture had similar looks. Not like some old ruins in one part of Greece looks vastly different than old ruins of the same time period in another part of Greece. But I could be mistaken.

Having a similar feel shows, to me, a common heritage in a rugged land of a proud people.

On a side note. I stumbled upon a fort in Skyrim (don't know it's name) and was pleasantly suprised that it actually looked like a fort. Not like OB's "here's a round structure with a few outside levels connected by some stairs and a door to go underground", rinse, repeat for pretty much every single fort.

And I like how caves don't have doors, you just walk into them (with a load screen of course). Better than previous TES, opening a door to a cave that is inhabited by mudcrags and wolves. Nice to know they can operate a door knob and close the door behind them.

I somewhat agree with this. Markarth is the only TRULY unique architecture. I would've liked other similarly unique places. Sure, Windhelm, Solitude, and Whiterun look a somewhat different, but Morthal, Falkreath, Dawnstar, and Winterhold all have the exact same architecture. That was disappointing. Even Oblivion's cities all had slightly different styles; there were not 4 completely similar cities.

:violin:

Yeah, you have a point. That's what happens when Americans try to reproduce Scandinavia.

Cause they were there originally. Vurt's Ashland trees mod is how they should have been in the first place.