I have a problem with the way in which Skyrim, and Oblivion before it, holds the player's hand by pointing him directly towards wherever he is supposed to be going. Some would argue that people like me, who have a problem with the quest markers and quest arrows, should just stop whining and turn them off, which the game admittedly allows you to do. However, the problem with this is that Skyrim was designed to be played with the quest markers and arrows turned on. Whilst some quests can be completed without them, the game generally doesn't do a good enough job of pointing you towards your destination without the aid of the arrows and markers. Morrowind would often drive me batty as I wandered around the wilderness like a complete moron for hours on end looking for a well-hidden cave, or an out-of-the-way fort, but you were always given directions: head west along the river until you reach a bridge. Then, cross the bridge and head towards the large building to the south-west. Once you reach the building the cave is only a short stroll to the east. Finding places by using such directions was an adventure in itself, and very rewarding. Skyrim doesn't offer the player such detailed instructions. Sure, you might be told which city to visit, but once you reach said city, without the quest marker, you've got a long and tedious search for the NPC that you're looking for. I experienced this first-hand when a quest marker glitched, and I was unable to proceed because the game didn't tell me where the hell I was supposed to be going and I ended up having to post on these forums for help.

In addition, in relation to the charge of "just turn the damn arrows off if you're so unhappy with them", I also have a problem with playing a game in a manner in which the developer had not intended it to be played. By turning the quest arrows off I feel as though I'm just wasting my time, searching for NPCs or dungeons that I have not been directed to in an adequate manner. Without the fun of having been given old-fashioned directions (west at the inn and then south through the marsh) I may as well just turn on the quest arrow and mindlessly follow it to my destination. And by mindlessly following quest arrows you don't tend to pay much attention to your surroundings, and so the sense of adventure, and the sense of discovering and mapping strange, new lands that Morrowind had in abundance, is largely absent from Skyrim. There's no sense of danger as you wander halfway across the map, travelling into territory no harsher or hazardous than the farmland outside of Whiterun where you start the game. Challenge me! Give me some high level enemies in certain sections of the map that will own my sorry butt until I am of a sufficiently high level to best them! The whole levelling issue from Oblivion is back in Skyrim, and with a vengeance.

I also wanted to play the game as a pure mage: a High Elven mage at that, specialising in Destruction magic. Then I realised that Destruction magic is beyond gimped, and that if I was to have any sort of joy using it as my only means of attack then I was going to have to invest heavily in Enchanting to lessen the amount of magicka required to cast spells. I recently took off my enchanted gear, just to see what it would be like to dungeon crawl without it, and it was a complete and unmitigated disaster. A few Fireballs here and a Flame Atronarch there and I was plain out of magicka and having to run in circles around enemies whilst I waited for it to replenish.

I can honestly say that I have encountered more crashes and freezes and game-breaking bugs in Skyrim that I did with Fallout 3. Perhaps I am looking back upon Fallout 3 with rose-tinted spectacles, although at least Fallout 3 didn't force you down a linear "good guy" path with regards to the main quest. The way in which my scumball High Elf was forced to play the hero and demolish his fellow Altmer brethren just totally ruined a lot of the game's roleplaying aspects for me. I say "scumball High Elf"- he really wasn't as a result of the game not allowing me to roleplay him as an evil git.

I don't expect any long replies to this stream-of-consciousness rant of mine- I just find myself lamenting what I perceive to be a missed opportunity with the last two Elder Scrolls games, after the promise shown by the flawed yet engrossing Morrowind. And in saying all that, I am still playing Skyrim and I will no doubt buy whatever DLC that they bring out- DLC that is supposedly going to be meatier than anything that they gave us after Fallout 3. You could say that I am somewhat of a professional moaner. :biggrin:

The quests are sorely lacking in quality. The quests in Fallout 3 were a lot more interesting and a lot more fun, and I'm disappointed in particular with the Mages Guild quest line. You find a strange, glowing ball of energy in the first dungeon that you're sent to, and you are soon after visited by a representative from a cult of strange, ultra-conservative mages who warn you that mankind (or elves or whoever) are not sensible enough to use the ball's power. The energy ball, which is thrust upon the player as some kind of extremely powerful magic but which is never adequately explained, felt like such a silly plot-device and it was hard to get invested in such a lame story after that.

I also found exploring to be more exciting in Fallout 3. The fact that Skyrim lets you warp about all over the map straight from the off hinders the joy of discovery. I would like to see a return to the way in which Morrowind handled things, where the map is incomplete from the start and you have to tentatively venture out from your starting point in order to find more of it. You need a bit of mystery in a game like this- far-flung locales that are hard to reach and which you are excited about visiting. Most of Skyrim is accessible within the first hour of play, and as such I can't remember being very excited upon first visiting a new city.