It is called being human. When you are liking your first impression, then you feel very optimistic about the product. Then you start finding more and more flaws, and eventually the optimism wears off and you start scratching your head and wondering why you just found more bugs and broken quests in 3 weeks on a live game then you did in 3 months of product testing for Ubisoft.

To be fair, skyrim's beggining is amazing. Up until you start reallizing every quest is the same, you stop feeling challenged completely as you level up and eventually you just find yourself running errands and looking at the graphics, crossing your fingers to not hit a bug, or have your companion vanish on you. Most of us (who are voicing our disapointement) expected more out of a RPG that promised to let us be whatever we want to be.

The first line in my post was: I loved this game two weeks ago.

I am/was fully aware that my enjoyment of the game took a 180*, didn't need some creepy kid to reiterate what I said in my post.

When you are spending the time to search and cross reference the post history of random people on the internet, you have a problem. Its a form of stalking.

The beginning really is great. The game is well tuned for levels 1-15. After that is starts to get ragged around the edges, and then starts to fall apart.

The problem is that no amount of patching and modding can fix the unfinished storylines. The factions will remain 7 quests long, the main quest storyline ending will remain an absolute joke, and often times there's no way to add choices to a quest to make the quest dynamic. The result is we can have all the armor, Smithing balancing and bug fixes we like, but the story and RPG aspects are still gonna svck.

This is why I suggested that they add cutscenes and other multimedia to the game. There is really nothing building up the most important plot lines. They don't stand out from the background side quests. I feel with some writing and cutscenes, they could be made to feel bigger and more important.

Games have gotten really sophisticated. Skyrim feels like a game that is 5-7 years old but with marginally updated graphics.

I played GTA 4. It was a fun game and I thought the story was nice. It was only up till the very end, that I realized something important.

I was doing the same old stuff over and over again. I was basically grinding; shoot people, drive, shoot people, drive. I only realized it when I went to the police car to get additional generic missions to shoot criminals, because there wasn't much else to do after the main quest. I thought the generic police missions were bland. But that's what I've been doing in the main quest.

The reason why I didn't feel it during the journey of the main quest was because they gave me enough story, and the illusion of progress. I was doing the same things over and over again to see more of the story. I also kept doing it to earn more money. They maintained the illusion well because they mixed it up. They didn't do too many shootings in a row, or too many cutscenes in a row. They put in just enough variation to prevent it from being monotonous.

In the end, all games are just grinding. You just keep pressing buttons over and over again to "progress". But games cover it up by adding in systems like combat system, traveling, money, gear, etc.

Unfortunately Skyrim doesn't do that too well. All it needed to do was enforce balance and prevent exploits from ruining your experience, throw in enough variation like reputation systems, purpose in repeatable quests, making money scarce to make it valuable, etc. But it didn't, so that's why it feels repetitive.

It is fortunate, that there will be mods in future who will fix it for them.

this

I've played 137 hours on my first character and have not yet retrieved Jurgen Windcaller's Horn, however that's largely because when I initially go somewhere I tend to wander and end up diving into various caves and ruins to see what's there, so it takes a while to finish a given quest unless I concentrate on it to the exclusion of all else. I also spend a fair amount of time either crafting stuff to sell or improving stuff I looted prior to selling it, which gets further increased by having to visit multiple towns to sell everything due to vendor cash stocks remaining fairly low until I have Speech perked out.

I am definitely not bored, though; since I love to explore I keep finding stuff hidden in out-of-the-way corners, as well as the occasional unmarked location containing a campsite or hideout, and occasionally get some pretty good loot in the bargain. It helps that I play Dead-is-Dead, since it adds a layer of tension when exploring and/or fighting; when death means you delete the character, you have to be a lot more aware of your surroundings, especially since high-level NPCs can wreck you in short order if they get first strike.

IMO this is the ultimate anti-grinding game, if you are grinding in Skyrim, that would probably explain why you aren't having any fun. I am sorry you don't like the game, it has quickly become my favorite game of all time. It isn't perfect but, way back when I played the original King's Quest, I sort of dreamed of a game like this, and now here it is. I don't like interactive movies, or games that hold your hand while playing. I also despise cut scenes (especially when repeatedly thrown at you). Not all games can be all things for all gamers. To me, this game is amazing, it is 100% about the gamer, there is no fluff at all, just pure gaming goodness. I can understand why some people prefer point A to point B games, or the ones that limit you to pre defined play styles, or shower you with "better" loot in the form of a crumb trail, or throw more powerful stuff at you every time you kill something, and that is certainly their right. As for me, I am going to go kick back and immerse myself in the game world that is called Skyrim.

As an additional note, I have decided to save the MQ as my endgame. I don't plan to even progress the story to the dragon spawning point till I am about level 50. What other game lets you decide exactly what you want your endgame to be?

I am going to be playing this game for a long time to come.

I too, have a very hard time staying on task. I always have good intentions to get to my quest point, but always decide to wander into some random cave or take a small detour to find some treasure that the red X's on my "cloth" map seem to point to. Many hours later I realize I still haven't even started on my quest!

"Dead-is-dead" is pretty hardcoe, you definitely have my respect! Do you mind if I ask what difficulty you play on? I get one shot killed so often, I would be like on my millionth character! It does seem like the perfect way to make the easier playing modes much more of a challenge. It is possible I will try that with a future character.

Stop it with the generic 1 liners, and please explain yourself:

What pure gaming goodness? The amazingly deep//challenging combat? The epic and complexe storyline? The great roleplay the game allows you to do by letting you give your character a personality that is percieved by the game NPC and changes their interraction with you? The lasting impact you can have on the game world? The enthralling imaginative questing system? Skyrim has none of that.

Seriously, what about this game is 100% about the gamer? To me, it seems like this is quickly turning (as you level up) into a fantasy exploration simulator: every gaming aspect was treated as a secondary element to the graphical aspect. Im not saying there is nothing to like, as obviously I do like it myself: it can be quite entertaining. But to say it is 100% about gaming goodness... you must not have played many RPGs in your life...

What I have or haven't played in the past really is irrelevant, not to mention not really any of your business.

You want specifics? That's the problem, games are supposed to just be fun, and this one is.
I do enjoy the combat, the world and the quests and many other things. The game isn't perfect, but what game is? This game throws number crunching, theatrics, hand holding & other modern gaming tropes out the window and just allows you to enjoy it. Pure.Gaming.Goodness.

You don't have to like the game, I strongly believe no game can make all gamers happy. There have been plenty of well loved games that I have not cared for and I am ok with that.

Here is where I am confused though, I know why I come to these forums, as well as others who enjoy this game, it is because we enjoy this game and want to talk about it with others who also enjoy it. I also get why people who are frustrated with bugs or game issues not related to the gameplay go to vent in the tech forums (because they really want to be able to play). What I don't get is why people who simply don't care for the game at all come here to these forums? Do they not have better, more interesting things to do with their time? You don't like the game but you feel the need to talk about it. Do you need people to agree with you to validate your opinions? I am really curious. I have never gone to the forums of a game I didn't enjoy so I don't really understand the desire to do so.

Surely there is irony when people are being called "fanbois" on a fan forum?

No, it's called checking up on posters, who generally lie and/or misrepresent their positions just to pick a fight or troll. It's the nature of forums. You call it stalking. I call it research.

You're just angry because you got caught.

So you have lost interest. OK, well I am glad that Skyrim was not the goal for the rest of your life.

I've been saying that Skyrim plays more like a single player MMORPG than anything else. Problem is, it's a single player MMORPG with:

1. No neat bosses to kill.
2. No unqiue gear to go after.
3. No unique dungeons that have a totally different design from one another. Blackreach doesn't count.

The entire time I'm walking around outside, all I could think of was "Man, I remember doing this in EQ, except in that game I had an actual purpose".

97 hours in and i'm nowhere near being done.

Interesting and good review. I'll focus on this point:

I've played games with great cutscenes and no cutscenes. Morrowind, for example, had less than 5, Half-Life had 0. It's about storytelling, and storytelling can be more than adequately done without the use of any cinematics at all. I recently replayed Half-Life 1 and Half-Life 2, neither of which has a cutscene, yet the stories told by these games (more so the former than the latter) exceeded the stories told by many others that I've enjoyed. Take the Command and Conquer series (albeit an RTS by its very nature cannot tell much of a story in its gameplay) which relies almost entirely on cinematics for storytelling; some C&C games told very compelling stories (I haven't played the more recent ones). Morrowind told a great story in the MQ because the story does live in the imagination of the player. And that's the brilliant part. I didn't need to be shown the Battle of Red Mountain in order to visualize it. And how do you define multimedia. Gaming and music are multiple media.

* Production value. The graphics are pretty good, but there are no cinematics or multimedia to enhance the experience. I'm not expecting something as involved and detailed as the Witcher2, but even WOW managed to integrate cinematic scenes into the main questline. If these exist, and I have not seen them, my apologies, but I think there should be more. The game relies solely on its middling graphics and large scope of its world. The rest lives in the imagination of the player.

I agree that this would be nice, and I see that you are new to the series, however, I am as well and I have learned that this is simply not the style of Elder Scrolls games. This is something that WILL NOT be fixed by developers. When the creation kit comes out people might be able add some cut-scenes and such.

*Ability to Abuse Save without Repercussion- I have over 300 saves. I save because I don't want to re run content that I have already done should I die. The game just doesnt feel dangerous because of this. I wish there was a way to limit saves. I know this is not an MMO, just wish there was some negative repercussion for abusing save and reloading. Perhaps skills that were mid-level would regress if you start abusing save. Don't know how they would implement this, but it would be good.

This is something that does not need to be fixed. Just try to limit yourself from saves, maybe only use auto saves or set a timer on your desk for x minutes.

*Limited voice acting- I think they did everything with five actors. It svcks to hear the same voice over and over in different characters. This really needs to be expanded.

I'm pretty sure there are more than 70 voice actors in Skyrim

*Crafting Limited- The economy and crafting is not as evolved as a game like WOW. I originally thought there was more diversity, but in Smithing you can keep crafting Iron Daggers, which should not give you skill ups. Alchemy system looks better, but I did not use it.

I agree with this because in real life you do not increase in skill by doing the same thing over and over again. I think it would be great of there was a bar for each item and the more times you made each item, the better you would get at it. If you make a thousand iron daggers in real life, you'll be pretty damn good at making iron daggers, but you will be absolutely no better at making heavy armor. Forgive me if I misunderstand the current system, I have not tried smithing yet.

*No classes- There is no incentive to replay as another class type because i can just power level any of the skills until I am level 80 or so. Freedom and flexibility is great at first, but none of the game is off limits depending on my "class". For example in WOW, a priest wouldnt have access to Warlock trainers, and there were class specific items and lore. I took a potion and my warrior faked his way into the mage college. Just didn't feel right. Sure it didn't restrict me, but I would be more compelled to play a mage if I hadn't been able to see it with my warrior.

This is a feature of customization that was supposed to help. However, if you want to play as a "class" then roleplay and take only perks and skills would attain to the class in other games. When you do this you actually end up with far more possibilities because you can create your own type of playstyle. No one is forcing you to take magic skills if you want to play as a fighter.

Basically what happened is the idio...err designers at bethesda decided that the console market was more important. They found the problems with making a game on console.

The limitations of the console have basically made the game 'Cheap'. They took the easy way out in MANY areas.

Oi stone and nubius are spot on in nearly every sense of the term

This is a elder scrolls game, not witcher 2 the elder scrolls is known for its stop time menu, and its an sand box game if you get bored, im sure you havent beat all the Misc quest's, and other then that, it's a RPG you playing a character with a life story you made up, go live the life you have for your charcter in this game, it's like life, not every part is fun, but you have to make do with it.

Why did you post a new thread when there is a feedback thread designed to nerf new threads from idiots who think they're important enough to deserve their own little thread?

I keep it on Adept, since I don't have the ability to reload after getting trashed at low level on higher settings. As I play a sneak-sniper style I probably could manage even on Master, and plan to try on at least one character, but bosses would massively svck until I had really good gear. There is one downside to not raising the difficulty: due to the nature of stealthy combat, once you do have at least mid-range stuff almost all non-boss fights become trivial.

what makes me chuckle is i see a lot of posts lately saying stuff like played 70/80/90/100 hrs and i am done with skyrim, well imo you got you moneys worth already!!
now i know some of you are gonna come back and say 'but i played over 5000 hrs on MW and/or OB' and i am sure with some imagination you could get a lot more hours out of skyrim, i have done 100hrs now and still not done the main Q and lots more i wanna see and accomplish!

back to WoW then op.