Hello Fellow Forumites,

Let's see, well the last time I wrote in some opinions/ observations, a few of you gave me quite an earfull,...er...eyefull: cool, this is why I carry a copy of the Bill of Rights with me. It seems I wasn't specific enough when I thought the Elder Scrolls team was pretty close to gaming perfection with Oblivion, that needed a few tweeks. Some folks stopped reading, some questioned if I ever played Morrowind, and some actually thought I was kidding. Well fellow Elderites, I'm here to reply that I was introduced into the Elder Scrolls family with Oblivion, so yes, there is a certain amount of favoritism. I was so taken in by it that I actually played Morrowind, to get the feel of why you folks love it so much... so yes, I understand. I went into Morrowind "blind", and I learned the hard way of being careful who I killed, as I was also killing the possibility of playing many of the quests! Yup, I turned into one saving SOB after that game!
Someone mentioned that I was hoping that Skyrim would be an Oblivion2. On that note, I look at gaming in many facets, as we all do. My top few are Character Development, Game Play, and Game Mechanics/Electronics. So I will admit that I am guilty as charged when it comes to Character Development, that I was hoping Skyrim would be like Oblivion, as well as Morrowind. You see I REALLY love the whole attribute/ skill leveling of ES 3&4!!! My style of playing Oblivion was to max-out my attributes, and my skills, to really be what I played! I'm at level 69, and I'm at 100 on most of the skills. Leveling in skill and game at this point in my Skyrim playthrough is at an extreme snails pace. I feel like I'm just going through the motions with Skyrim.... this game IS NOT a " you are what play " game!
My challenge to the Elder Scrolls team, to prove my point, is to play Skyrim as a PURE Mage... like you could with Morrowind, and Oblivion. The fact of the matter is, you can't. As I have mentioned in past posts, Skyrim is a mixed soup of game play from other games, sadly of which none happen to be in the Elder Scroll series. However, as a suggestion to Mr. Howard, if they plan on an ES6, and are intent on useing the Fallout3 perk system....again; that they give a perk choice for every, let's say, 10 points of skill increase, as opposed to 1 every game level increase. Might I also suggest that you go back to giving a player automatic "perks" every 25 skill leveling.
Anyway, I've vented enough about Skyrim, but I will say, to it's credit, that there are many aspects to it that I enjoy, and is worthy of staying in my gaming library. For some reason, when I open the Skyrim map to that birdseye view of things, for the briefest of moments, one word comes to mind....Levitation.

I've been playing TES games since Daggerfall (Never played Arena), and I've got Battlespire too. Yeah, there were things that were removed from the system to open it up to a broader audience, and yes I lament this, but on the whole I am really liking Skyrim. I haven't played a pure mage yet. I was a pure warrior first time through, this time I'm basically a spell sword, but I do plan on trying mage at some point. But I've heard arguments on both sides for ability to play full mage, some suggesting it's impossible, others suggesting that it's not at all impossible. On that note, I can't comment regarding that, but the perk system I can comment on.

So far I like it. It really makes you stop and think, every time you level up, and consider where to put those precious perk point. I think it lends to more interesting character development, as you cannot fill all the perks. You have to be careful to make the choice that fits the character you have in your head.

I can't wait to see what the next iteration in the series will be. Hell, I can't wait to see how they do the next Fallout, after this one. Granted, yes, I'd like to see some of the more hardcoe RPG elements return to the series, but that probably won't happen.

Holy crap, separate your paragraphs. If you can't indent with tab, use block format (vertical space between paragraphs).

And I thought China's Great Wall was impressive.