Yup, my console is full of

prid a2c94moveto player

:lmao:

Better add MSNBC as well if you're going to say FOX

I don't think the menu system is perfect at all, as IGN says. Quite the opposite. Every time I open the menu it's like my character pops out his iPad or something to check the stats. It looks really unsuitable for a fantasy game and out of place. They should have continued building on the Medieval book type of interface we had in Oblivion, learned from the feedback and perfected the interface instead of porting this from console to PC. Modders will fix it though, like Darnified did with Oblivion, so I have no fear at all.

Otherwise I kind of agree with the rest of that article.

Didn't they both also give Skyrim and MW3 the same score?

LOL I stopped paying attention to any companies gaming scores a loooooooooooooong time ago.

Of Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim I overall like Oblivion's menus though they aren't perfect, I'm not fond of Morrowind's but I can trudge through them, and I really dislike Skyrim's.

Skyrim's menu interface is nothing short of a catastrophe of design mistakes. Form over function, all the way. The only part I love is the perk constellations, which I think was pulled off very well. I understand WASD functions horribly for them though.

The accents really bug me. Don't most developers have a kind of director/producer/QA guy in the recording studio? It's like they just told the voice actors "do something vaguely European" so we have Ahnold's Austrian accent, vaguely Eastern European gypsy thing (Tali anyone?), various permutations of British and just plain Midwestern American all mixed into the same place. Not sure I've heard a single Scandinavian accent ever, though I don't doubt some of the actors were attempting it. Ridiculous and sloppy.

I don't know how much voice actors are paid, but I'm sure it's fairly decent. Make them all sit and watch 10 hours of Ingmar Bergman films before doing any work on Skyrim.

I'm imagining the mods we're sure to see in the future. Average amateur developer guy doing some horrid accent into his cheap headset mic. Oh god.

For the record, there were 11 regular voice actors in Oblivion, not including the "guest stars". Admittedly still not enough, but not as bad as some claim. Personally, I had no problem with Linda Kenyon's voice acting and she is the female Dunmer as far as I'm concerned, though I missed the squeaky Bosmer women in Oblivion.

Overall I hate the voice acting in Skyrim: I think it's horrible for the most part. Not a slight on the voice actors necessarily, though I feel most are horribly miscast, what with the very thick-accented children sounding out of place and inappropriate colloquialisms like "this here's" etc: it's very much like the much derided Kevin Costner's "a Texan in quaint ol' Nadding Ham" all over again. Absolutely horrible. Surprisingly, the one voice I don't object to is the player's: I thought that'd be terrible but actually sounds pretty much like I'd expect my character to sound, thankfully.

Sadly enough I clicked everything. Only improvements I've seen are the water physics and force. Everything else is broken or flawed.

I can't believe the IGN article wants MORE than a map marker on the map, a medieval GPS telling you exactly where you are, a 3d map, a clairvoyance spell, AND fast travel if you want... just to find his way around a couple of square kilometers of terrain. At this rate it'll soon be impossible to make games that demand anything at all of the player.

Same here! I've lost count of the number of times I've learnt that and similar incantations.

For the record, "a2c94.moveto player" saves a few keypresses for those of us who use it (and similar) often...

That gave me a really good laugh. Nice one, IGN. Wrong on almost all counts.
You can still level by abusing the system (spam circle of protection to level restoration / punching bag method to level armor skills / etc). You don't learn by doing because many skills have been cut and/or mushed together. I don't get better at anything by using staffs, I don't get better at anything by using fists, etc.
Perks are, as feared, divided into the categories of essentials, overpowered and useless. And numbers didn't use to be invisible. Now they are, because tool tips like "increases your power" are totally meaningless.

And the voice acting is great. Sure the dialogue is limited, but the acting is good.

I chose combat. I actually like the combat system, but I chose that option because allies still run in front of your attacks. Very annoy in both Oblivion and Skryim. I was hoping Skyrim fixed that. I was hearing things about weapon magnetism that would draw it to enemies and not allies. But I just got finished with a battle with a bunch of allies and they kept running in front of my Warhammer just after initiated and unstopable blow, and then complain about being hit.

Dumb allies.

So I like the combat system, but that was to closed category on the poll for what may be the most annoying problem in Oblivion.

You're acting like what IGN published (what ONE writer wrote) reflects on the opinions of everyone at IGN. This article the OP posted is just the opinion of that one writer...

Here are my opinions:

- Combat: It's much better than Oblivion, which was in turn much better than previous TES games. Sure we have less spells (though optional spell combinations is through the roof) and we obviously aren't playing an action fighting game like Demon Souls or Prince of Persia. This combat is suitable (although everything can be improved) to an adventure RPG.
Verdict: Fixed (But not perfect)

- Animation: Well, there's a lot of things that can be fixed. Clipping and collision is a problem in this game, even if it doesn't necessarily detract from the overall game. Still, it's a lot better than Oblivion and much better than Morrowind.
Verdict: Needs Work

- Voice Acting: I am happy with the amount of voices we have to listen to in this game in comparison with previous TES games. However, it is by no means well done. I understand if the occasional Nord has an English accent, say if he was a travelling Nord born outside of Skyrim. But the fact that people born in Skyrim and have lived there all their life speak in a different manner and accent than their own family is unnerving and upsetting. Maybe I'm just being picky, but it would be nice to have some more consistent speech patterns.
Verdict: Not Fixed, maybe even Broken (Somehow it's still better)

- The Skills System (Modifying this to leveling in general): The fact that some skills have perfectly useful perks and others have perfectly useless perks is upsetting. Let's take the Lockpicking perks and look at them, from where I stand with the ability to lockpick a master lock with like a 20 in lockpicking, at least half of the perks immediately become useless. Now let's look at Sneak and you can clearly see that only one of its perk is useless, and even that is debatable. A silent roll provides role playing and looks cool at the very least. Sure, I'm happy that they got rid of Major and Minor skills as well as simplifying the attribute system, but it's upsetting that to get this easier to work leveling system we have to sacrifice the usefulness of some skills.
Verdict: Broken

- The Menu Interface: Amazing. I don't think I've been more pleased with a menu system other than possibly the Pip-Boy in the Fallout Series. Really it's smooth, it's elegant and it's simple despite all the stuff that could be cluttering it up. Bethesda did very well on this, I don't think I can quite explain how happy I am about this.
Verdict: Could not be better

- Pathfinding: It's fine. Yes, the white arrow is meant to provide the straightest route to your goal, it's still your job to find your way there. What do you want them to give you checkpoints so that it leads you all the way around the mountain? If the white arrow is on the other side of a cliff, in real life you would probably find your way around that cliff right? Not to mention the fact (since everyone constantly compares every TES game to Morrowind) that Morrowind didn't provide a compass with objective points, you had a map and that was IT. You had to find your way across the landscape then too.
Verdict: Constantly Improving

- Quest Writing: There are things that could be improved, obviously because there always are. Still, it's a whole lot better than Oblivion was in terms of how interesting the stories are and a somewhat larger variance in what you're doing in those quests.
Verdict: Fixed

- NPCs: There is a lot of work that needs to be done here. The conversation options are really limited for some things, such as when you're married. Bethesda could have done WAY better in filling out a romance and I agree with the OP that it seems like they only did it to check it off a list. Actually it seems like a lot of people are only doing the whole Marriage option in games so they can check it off on a list. Then there's all the lack of Radiant AI when it comes to dialogue, nobody respects you for what you've done right and reacts poorly to what you've done wrong, or barely anybody. There seems to be no recognition outside of "structured" conversations, and even then it's limited.
Verdict: Broken and needing serious attention.

- Companions: They are boring, most of them have such unvaried dialogue and have such a lack of character that I don't even want to have them around normally. Throw on top of that the fact that they walk over and set off obvious traps, get in between me and my enemy whenever I'm casting a spell or shooting an arrow, even when they're a ranged fighter as well. Companions need character, they need to make the game much better when they're around otherwise there is no point in having the option. Sure they can occasionally cover a gap in skills that you have: fighting a dragon that won't land and you're specced for melee combat, you've at least got the option to pick up an archer or a Mage. That's not good enough and I agree with the OP that Bethesda could have taken notes from some of Bioware's games.
Verdict: Broken

- Glitches: Alright, well with a game as massive as this, there are bound to be bugs and glitches. It's bound to happen because no game company could realistically comb through a game and find everything wrong with it with so much on their plate. That's why once they release it to the masses and we start finding problems, they immediately start working on fixes which can be easily implemented via the internet and everything associated with gaming networks these days. In the "good ol' days" when we found a bug that could be exploited or was game breaking, it was stuck in the game. There wasn't a way to correct an error on a game cartridge.
Verdict: Never Gonna be Perfect (But that's okay)

Overall I am happy with Skyrim. Not just content, not just trying to fool myself that the game is okay. Genuinely happy with it. It's sleek and smooth, they updated the graphics, fixed problems with Oblivion's system (though the havok system could be toned down) but overall it's a better game. It comes back to a lot of the things that made Morrowind so damn fun. It is a game filled with a life all its own. With consistency in character (aside from some patchy voice acting) and tons of things to do, I will be playing this game for a long time.

Every game needs more work from some angle, but even sitting at an angle where there are tons of things that I think Bethesda could have done better, I am happy. With some hope in my mind that Bethesda will continue to listen to the problems the TES community talks about and find a way to fix them.

That IGN article is just moronic.

The UI is fixed? The new UI is a desaster, it has tons of redundant user action, its barely usable with a mouse and keyboard, it wastes space like no tomorrow, doesn't keep anything neat and orderly.
Morrowind had a good UI, it used icons instead of text, so you could see at a glance what you were looking at. When you equipped an item it went to the front of the list, so you didn't have to search through the entire list to look at the items you're wearing. It allowed you to name your spells so you could alphabetically arrange them, then use the "next spell" and "previous spell" buttons to navigate them in real time. The hotkey system is awful in Skyrim, since you can't select what hand you want to equip the hotkeyed item to, the fact that the favourites system pauses the game is absolutely flow breaking and just poor design.

Then they go on about how the animations and voice acting are bad... Huh what? Those are things that are actually a huge improvement over Oblivion. There are no more NPC that talk with two different voices, and the characters look a lot better than before.

Pathfinding and companions are fixed? Huh-what?!
They should watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vH-okOFLIpk

I think quests in Oblivion had better writing than Skyrim IMO.

Skyrim improves on Oblivion in almost all respects except:

UI - one of the worst in the industry IMO
Steam - took me over an hour to install with three aborted attempts. I installed Oblivion in 5 minutes after purchase.

Everything else is better.

Pathfinding is usually used in the context of AI and has nothing to do with YOUR ability to find your way around but NPCs ability to find paths and move around without getting stuck, lost, etc... it's a fairly complicated AI issue. I haven't seen as many pathfinding issues as I saw in Oblivion and on occasion I have been surprised to see a bear take quite a large detour to come get me after I shot an arrow off a ridge - in general the pathfinding seems done very well.

My opinions:
Combat:
- Is it better than Oblivion? Yes very much so

- Could it use some refinement, definitely. Some kill scenes are a bit glitchy, and sometimes power attacking is a bit wonky but overall it's been fixed. Can you compare it to a third person only game like assassin's creed or demon souls? No sir you cannot, twirling around like a clown doesn't work so well in first person, that's why those ballerina death kills are in 3d person.

Verdict: Fixed (but could use refinement)

Animation:
- Mixed bag here my character doesn't pay attention or turn to face when someone is talking to them even tho it locks my character, faces are better than most games tho I would also like the upper face to move more, but whatever.
Agreed. Body animations are vastly improved though.

Verdict: Fixed

Voice acting:
- I'm just glad not to hear the same old 7 voices over and over again with ever Female Dark elf sounding like a 90 year old women... Haven't noticed the consistency problems so

Verdict: Fixed.


The Skills System:

- I've never seen so many ways to exploit a game, 100% mana reduction on spell schools, using alchemy and enchanting to smith weapons to KO a dragon in one hit on master difficulty this is not fixed far from it.
Agreed to some extent. If you don't exploit the game you won't notice so I don't see why this deserves a "F#@%&*% BROKEN" verdict, quit being nooby and if you don't like something don't do it. Simple.

WITH THAT SAID, I agree more time should have been spent with skills. Perhaps some skills should level you more than others. Maybe if they had the skills in say 3 tiers. (Warning: not thought out at all, just an example) Offensive(+0% to level experience) Defensive(-3% to level experience) and Other(-10% to level experience. That way leveling destruction would be much better than say enchanting.

A lot of perks were sorta lazily done as well, the main example is lockpicking. Those first few perks are 100% useless.

Verdict: A step in the right direction not 100% fixed though.


The Menu Interface:
- I play on PC and have no problem with it anymore. I use WSAD + E/Clicking to move about and select things. Clicking on stuff is kinda wonky though. The favorites menu saves my most recent weapon choice so most of the time I just have to choose what to put in my right hand and the left hand it automatically chosen.

Verdict: 90% fixed


Pathfinding:
- What do you expect them to do IGN teleport you to every quest? You already have fast travel what more do you want? Why don't they just do the quest for you? Finding you way through your locations is part of the game.
Agreed, coming up on dead ends is part of the immersive experience. The compass markers should be enough.

Verdict: Fixed and Fixed Again!

Quest Writing:
- Not as many options as say a Bio-Ware game but agreed fixed.

Verdict: Fixed

NPCs:
- Agreed once I go through a set of dialog I shouldn't be able to do so again, but thats a minor issue and a bit nitpicking, but I have no Idea why they would give an achievement to get married and than have 2 options of either "make me a sandwich" or "Give me money" Really no thought went into this and seems like it was just on a check list. If you're going to do something do it right.
Agreed, kind of annoying that the guy in Riverwood keeps thanking me for retrieving the golden claw SEVERAL in-game months ago. And sometimes I often listen to what a person says before pressing e to interact with them, and they repeat the thing they said the first time.

Verdict: Not Fixed

Bugs:

- I play on PC. Haven't encountered a single game breaking bug. Just a few hilarious/odd bugs: I helped a guy get a horse, now there's two of him outside of Whiterun, on of them is halfway in the ground, the other is standing behind me. Another one: I killed a Frost dragon in the College of Winterholds fountain area, I come back later, his bones are still there. I leave and go do some quests and when I return it's an Elder Dragon's body fully skinned.

Verdict: Fixed(for me anyways)


Companions:

- I'm fine with Skyrim's companions but they could use work. Why are quest companions ass-holes? I'm a stealth character yet these guys traipse around heavy foot alerted the enemy of our presence. I usually let them go into combat and run away so I can stealth my way through it.

Verdict: Good enough, could be better. Would be cool if some companions had an interesting story though.

IGN are the ones that used Pathfinding as a term to find your way around.

It's pretty confusing, though: you'd think they'd know better than to use a term that's often used for NPCs finding their way around if that's not what they meant.

i honestly dont understand how anyone with even the most basic appreciation for narrative structure can say skyrim had good writing. oblivion wasnt good, and skyrim is easily worse. every damn plot thread consists of someone doubting you, you doing something almost completely unrelated to their doubts, then... success? the main quest builds up alduin as this great godly threat, asks you whether you even SHOULD try to stop him, establishes animosity between the blades and greybeards, and then... nothing. it never continues or finishes ANYTHING dramatic it brings up, and the whole thing boils down to just doing what the magic compass tells you until things nonsensically sort themselves out. the guild quests are much the same.

the menu is great... if your on a console. i play the PC version my cousin has and its barely usable... so very painfully an afterthought of a port. the controls are just as haphazardly thrown together, and there is no fluidity or ease of movement to anything compared to the console, none of the hotkeys or shortcuts that are as standard to PCs as voice-acting is in modern games. i played oblivion just fine on both systems, the menu wasnt even that bad once i murdered it with mods, so i dont know what went wrong... actually i do; the PC version was an afterthought. thats what went wrong.

i agree with them on the pathfinding, cause its pretty much the same inherently obvious flaw of oblivion's transportation system; it defeats the bloody purpose of the game. the magic compass does more harm than good in skyrim because theyre is never a direct path anywhere, so all it does is cheat you out of exploration by giving you a beeline straight through some surprisingly traversable 80degree inclines. there is often almost no other way to find a location because bethesda couldnt be bothered to write one additional line in the quest log giving you direction, so this is a serious, SERIOUS problem. as a great internet reviewer once said, a sandbox is only as fun as your ability to navigate it, and i dont think anyone here can honestly say instant teleportation and scaling barriers that were never meant to be scaled is a very fun way to get around.

Didn't even read all the poll choices, and none of the replies save skimming a few on my way to scroll down to the Add Reply button. First I have not pressed the console key once in my entire time of playing (I used to use it in Oblivion simply because the leveling system there was flawed without it, in my opinion) and I have not encountered one bug or error, aside from the continual werewolf counter/guard comments after being cured, and maybe one or two falling mammoths, which I didn't mind. My choice of a poll option to add would be that the game does not somehow manage to raise the IQ of anyone who plays it by at least 10 to 20 points and also prevent them from ever in the rest of their life, especially within the near future, in person or on the internet, of acting like a whiney, complaining brat. In fact, despite its epic awesomeness, somehow it seems to do the complete opposite.

Voted animation. The animation I still feel is fairly poor. Facial animations still seem unnatural (take some advice from BioWare) and just general animations. For example the sneak roll cuts off and jumps to crouch position at the end of the roll, its not fluid. And I feel like it is especially seen in dragon fights. I thought the dragon animations were pretty good but they dont stream together very well. The dragons make sharp angled turns while flying and when the dragon switches from flight to the landing animation there is a jump, its not fluid. At least for me, if Bethesda worked more on making animations better the game would improve by a lot.

The second choice would have been interface, but I do feel like it is a step up from Oblivion even if it is made for consoles and takes some getting used to. Also bugs are something I come to expect in Bethesda games and feel like it would be close to impossible to remove all bugs from such a large open world game.

Until the AI can jump and swim as good as I can, there isn't a thing in Skyrim that serves as a threat.

Skyrim doesn't have any difference in the bugs and exploits. However, they are incredibly reduced and there's no repeat of something like floating paintbrushes. The worst glitch for me so far was that the game flung my dead enemy into a door and got it stuck at its torso.

It also really messed up on the UI. It's for consoles and those sitting like 7 feet away. What Bethesda should've done was change the UI for the PC version so that the PC players could also experience the same thing the console users could. After all, PC gamers seem to be the highest group of Elder Scrolls people, slightly above XBOX people. You can't ignore such a big demographic like that.