I just registered to say congrats to Bethesda for yet another masterpiece! I'm a long time TES fan sense Arena -94. Admittedly I never finished the Oblivion MQ (too many gates) but Skyrim however, I intend to experience more thoroughly.

As a professional 3D-artist (11+ years in archviz) Skyrim is a masterpiece in regard of graphics IMO. It doesn't need all the latest shaders or ssa to look amazing. The design makes up for it. Few games allow the player to stop and just enjoy the vistas for a while and Skyrim is full of such moments. The scenery is breathtaking at times (PC) with the volumetric fog in the distance hugging the landscape, snow blowing around you and following the geometry of the landscape. Amazing! Too many details to mention here but it's a huge improvement over Oblivion to say the least.

On top of this the music is once again done by my favorite composer Jeremy Soule. Thank God for that because TES would never be the same without it. His music is what nails the magic atmosphere of TES that is consistent across all the latest titles. It's what makes the battles epic, landscapes majestic and the dungeons creepy. This time I feel the game is worthy of his music. Who can forget the music from Total Annihilation? Jeremy Soule is the gaming industry answer to John Williams.

Apart from being a piece of artwork, the gameplay is second to none. Bethesda is the father of the open-ended / sandbox concept. The gaming world feels vibrant and dynamic, and even more so with the radiant quest system that is new in Skyrim. People can play for days and never touch the MQ. That says a lot.

OK that's it. Got to work for a few more hours and then it's back to Tamriel once again. By Azura!

This pretty much sums up my experience of the game.

I agree, my friend.

All of this hatred is ridiculous in my opinion. Skyrim is fantastic and I think it's far better than Morrowind, Oblivion and Fallout 3. It basically takes the best things about those games and combines it into one. All the while improving upon everything else. Hell, even the glitches are severely reduced in this game. There's still glitches no doubt, but I feel they are far less then Oblivion and ESPECIALLY Fallout 3.

I'll put it this way: This game is so awesome, it even makes up for the worse UI I've ever seen in an PC RPG game. Any other game I would have probably given up after 5-10 minutes, but with Skyrim, I can't wait to get back home and start playing some more.

I partially agree. Compared to M&B the fighting system is horrible at times. Not sure if it's stat related but sometimes after I block (two handed) I have to click MB1 frenetically to make him swing once. It's like the sword gets stuck in block for a second and that's just enough time for the enemy to waste you. Also having to open up the inventory to drink potions, change spells / weapons mid fight gets old quickly. That is however of my own choosing. I could just stick with one weapon.