We speculated for months on Bethesda's comments about the land mass Skyrim being 'about' the same size as Oblivions but the world feels bigger due to the topography. The trenches were dug deep in peoples convictions long before ever playing the game.

Now that we have all had the chance to run through Skyrim it's time to own up to your official opinion. You could even post your pre-release stance.

I was of a "wait and see" but as of this morning I finally came to the conclusion the land mass feels bigger than Oblivion.

Since I play the game and not the map, the map always feels like it is the right size.

Now, that being said, the game feels bigger to me than Oblivion and Morrowind. Is it really? I don't know and it does not matter as the content of the map is what is important, not how big the map is.

There seems to be a lot more concentration in points of interest. I think they utilize the z-axis a lot better in Skyrim, too, so there's also that to give the game the illusion of being larger; Oblivion felt kind of like a big bowl with the south eastern and western sides flowing into the ocean. It feels about right to me, personally, though.

10 times bigger then Oblivion and I factor most of that to the lower speed rating that your character has and the fact that everything isn't unlocked in the beginning. I love Skyrim's terrain, could walk up a road for hours and with random encounters it would be a fun journey.

I have only visited 3 of the big cities, and I've already seen more than in Oblivon...

so, yes.

There just seems to be so much more to see in Skyrim than there was in Oblivion...

I guess it feels bigger because the terrain is more mountainous. Larger Surface area basically.

I voted that it feels bigger, but I feel I have to add a caveat in that I am continually surprised by how far I can travel in so little time.

It feels around about the same for me.

Urggh I love this game and not generally one to complain, but Im probably going to have a small rant, only because I Im in two minds about restarting my character and alot of it has come down to the map and travel. So my answer to the OP yes and no, it sometimes feels smaller, because sadly Im more attracted to fast travel in skyrim than oblivion which I want to break the habit of. In oblivion I purely went on foot or by horse. I have no idea why the fast travel option has appealed to me in skyrim so much,perhaps because quests are more focused on flinging you far reach places on the maps from the onset, and the horses AI is a bit of a pain. I still travel 70% by foot but feel like Ive cheated somehow in RP by fast travelling. Is it just me or is getting around on foot much harder here, Im finding many more unclimbable mountain ranges than oblivion, and the map being the way it is, its often hard to find a path to the target destination on foot, what looks like a path isnt, this often also makes fast travel tempting. In that sense at times it feels smaller because its quicker for me this time to get from A to B and Im discovering the main cities at a rapid rate. Saying that, on foot its definately feeling bigger, the cities are much more complex and the small towns are more independently scripted from the cities and more frequent. At level 34 Im seriously considering restarting to get back to my RP feel and hoofing it all the way, does anyone else feel this way?

World size, they're about the same size Skyrim being slightly larger, but concerning content, I feel Skyrim has MUCH more content.

It doesn't really feel bigger to me - it's just harder to get around because of the steep mountains everywhere. There is, perhaps, more interesting things to find and do - Cyrodil had lots of dungeons I never bothered entering because after a certain points, it was kind of like "What's the point"? With Skyrim, if nothing else, there's almost certainly going to be a word wall at the bottom of that dungeon. The improved AI/Story system does seem to be making the game more interesting overall. Also, the "environment" is more varied from place to place (I mean, there was some variation in Cyrodil, but it feels like there's *more* variation in Skyrim, so far).

Also, I think that they've done a better job of "spacing" things in Skyrim - I think one thing which made Cyrodil feel so small was that you encountered an Alyeid ruin ever 200 meters (at least in some areas; other areas were pretty barren). If everything feels packed in on top of each other, it can start to feel like the world is "small".

I couldn't care less, if it feels bigger or smaller. To me it's big enough and not too big.
Who cares, if it's a bit bigger than Oblivion or smaller or the same? It is like it is, and it is about right.

The world is a lot more diverse and believable than the one of Oblivion, which is much more important. Only the mountains are always rather similar:
- cliffy
- snowy
- only pathes and ruines

Some more wide open mountains with green grass, farms and maybe even small villages would have been cool.
But anyways, the world in Skyrim is great. Probably the best open world in a fantasy RPG ever.

I suppose it feels about the same, but with more physical barriers it forces you to take longer routes to reach destinations on foot and that could give the illusion of it being bigger, particularly if you happen to be overencumbered. I'm with uHu on the mountains thing, not much variety there and I'm tired of the snow and desolation in those higher locations. I've not visited many of the cities so far, but those I have toured have been disappointingly small.

Visit the capital of Skyrim: Solitude.

It's actually the same size, or even lesser a lil' bit than Cyrodiil. But it's precise according to the maps & lore.
Although I feel it at least 2times larger than Cyrodiil because there are a lot of obstacles and rough terrain in my way. Since I do hardcoe RP I don't use climbing glitches and exploits like "spiderhorse", etc. And yeah, Solitude is disappointingly small!! (compared to IC.)

It's interesting, it "feels" bigger, but part of that illusion is created by the amount of crappy (crappy as in snowing/foggy) weather. I recall making my way to a hidden burrow located in an isolated part of the wilderness. Going in I fought through sleet and snow. I exited ona peaceful night and there, right across a tiny valley was a tower. After checking my map I realized there were half a dozen locations within 30 seconds of the entrance where I stood.

The density of dungeons/towers/towns/vilages/mines makes it feel smaller.

Yep, going on foot from A to B is a pain due to the crap map. Areas that look like paths arn't in fact,and there is much more impassable terrain than either Morrowind or Oblivion which means long trekking detours. Usually that is fine and i am happy to get side tracked along the way by other caves and bandits but sometime i want to just get where i am going at a decent speed without being interrupted by dragons every 5 minutes.



Personally i think Skyrim world might be a little bigger than Oblivions.

In a word, yes.
I can actually get lost. That's not a bad thing, honestly.

Ahh Im not alone in my pain, I guess its pretty real though, its an old place, theres no sat nav, maps are probably more realistic in the RP sense, must start new charcater.

I'm having a similar experience. I've only done much inside of Whiterun and Marakath and at 28th level I feel like I've played a bigger game than Oblivion easily. Certainly my character is higher level than I've achieved in Oblivion or Fallout 3, and I dumped hundreds of hours into those two, just with a ton of different characters. I really look forward to not just getting to try a different approach to the things I've done but getting to experience locations and quests I haven't. I've already put more time into this game than many of the AAA titles of the year (Arkham City, Deus Ex, Rage), so yes, I'd agree Skyrim is (or at least feels) bigger.

It feels a little smaller somehow... But i'm not sure if it's really smaller... I just hit one of the invisible barriers some hours ago, so maybe that added to it as well...

It does feel much bigger to me than Oblivion even though the square mileage is about the same. It is also very well designed - transitions from one biome to the next feels perfectly realistic and unnoticeable.

The map makes it feel small though. After walking for 10 minutes, I feel like I haven't gone hardly anywhere until I look at the map and I'm like, "woah, I travelled THAT far?". I wish there was a way to disable the map altogether.

In my search for Daedric shrines, I learned the Skyrim is actually much smaller then it looks on the map.

I thought I got swindled when I first purchased a Horse, only to learn it was already seven years old. But he's a well trained steed that conquers Skyrim's terrain with ease =]

As it should be! The Imperial City is the biggest city in Tamriel. Solitude is just the capital of what I will assume must be one of the least populated provinces according to lore.