While I used to be a heavy PC gamer, I just can't keep up with the cost of upgrading my PC every time a new game comes out. While I'll miss things like mods to some extent, I'll be able to run Skyrim on my 360 looking perfectly good, and not having to spend an arm and a leg in order to make it run without lagging and make it look remotely like the screenshots.

Are you from 5 years ago? While there was once a time when you would have to keep upgrading in order to run everything on max, this has not been the case for many years now. Crysis is still one of the most technologically demanding games ever made, and that's from 4 years ago. Gaming technology is stagnant, there's no need to upgrade.

This.

Game developers have to build their games with console specs continuously lurking at the back of their minds. If they didn't they would never be able to put their games on those platforms, and that's where most of the money is.

My PC is around 3 or 4 years without an upgrade, and it still runs anything out there, very well. There was a time when I could justify upgrading every couple of years, but because the primary market is stagnant, frozen with console limitations, it means I don't have to. In either case I don't mind because it saves me money and I seem to be enjoying the games just as much. <3

I'll believe it when Skyrim comes out and runs acceptably on four year old hardware.

Screw you, just because I can't afford my own orange tree doesn't mean you have to lord the fact that you own one over me all the time. Jeez, just let me enjoy my one damn withered, dusty, orange! It's all I got, man, don't make me cry.

^le'joke

I'll be waiting for that day. The only reason it wouldn't is terrible optimisation, and I believe bethesda learnt their lesson about that one. Crysis is 4 years old. That's a pretty important statement.
Admittedly going off 4 year old hardware we do need about an 8800 GT, simply because of the adherence to the DX10 spec, to play *every* game, but then, the only games you can't play are the ones where the developers at least tried to not be constrained by 6 year old hardware. You can look up benchmarks, if you like, the 8800 is still a perfectly viable card.

@Tater; But you can see the little brown bits!

Imagine,just for a minute,that your a developer for bethesda.
You've worked hard for 5 years or so on a new game.
You've tried to push boundries graphically across a multi-platform,you tried to implement your own ideas and creativity,while at the same time trying to add things for the fans.
Better graphics,better AI,better animations,better scenery....and many many other things.
While also trying to compete with your competators.....it's not easy.
If you'd worked hard to do all that,then saw some of the comments on this forum,wouldn't you be a little pissed off ?
You cannot please everyone when making games....it's impossible...we are all different in what we want and expect.

As a whole console users are happy with what they've seen,and seem happy with what they getting with the game so far.
PC users also have the luxury of mods,better resolutions,and other things that will be added before release.
It really isn't that bad.

To me.....skyrim is going to be amazing!
Lets appreciate what bethesda is trying to do for everyone

The graphics simply stun me.
Its like being in a Vincente Segrelles book.

I love em.

My opinion has changed since i watched the trailer 400 times (the audio is amazing!) I've noticed the lighting is phenomenal, look at the shadows of the Forrest, and how sharp most of them are. The textures are also really nice looking, however my problem are with the Meshes, they look..'last gen' and not 'next gen'

You tell that to my pc that cannot run Morrowind.
It can do other things fine, like forums.

Plain fact is not everyone has the funds to upgrade every two years.
People like me use a device untill it is thoroughly broke, and then we despair and break the penny jar.

Even if gaming tech is stagnant, Im going to play on xbox. Because I cannot and will not buy a new darn machine every six months.
Im happy Skyrim is for xbox360. I think it looks stunning.

After all, I bought the thing just for Oblivion, its rather nice I get to play another game on it.
..
Is it only me thats slightly peeved that things dont last a lifetime anymore?

Xbox360 has only 512MB of shared RAM. Everything you see and hear in Skyrim has to be stored in that little bit of memory. A Modern computer has at least 2GB of system memory + 512MB of VRAM.

The texture quality is guaranteed to be much higher on PC.

Your PC obviously wasn't in the last five years.

I understand what you're trying to say, but I don't get the exaggeration. You don't have to change a machine every six months. At the current development, I think it's valid that, even with a not too impressive PC, you still don't even have to upgrade every two years (I've certainly gone 2 years of no upgrades on my PC's), especially if you have no problem downgrading to "medium settings" or something. Ofcourse, if one plays games, chances are they will upgrade something in that period. It's their choice, and they will get better performance/graphics because of it (something you can't do in a console. Game has certain performance in the console. You can't do much to enhance it.).

I have no problem with your view. It's valid. The other view is just as valid though, and not as bad as you make it out to be.

Skyrim looks stunning, and Bethesda have done fantastically well with the game engine. I hope EVERYONE enjoys the game regardless of the platform. Personally I have a very good machine, and I'll be going for that version first since I've invested in my PC, but I'm tempted to go for the xbox version since I enjoy playing with the pad, and lets be fair the graphics look utterly amazing regardless of platform. When consoles reach their next iteration, the gap in graphics will have closed effectively to a point where nobody but a professional can tell the difference, so it's utterly pointless to argue where the best platform is. They will all end up being the same level eventually, especially if they implement forward scaling i.e. better draw distances, textures, resolution etc for current games on next gen systems.

Which is it? 6 months, or two years?

Technology moves on. This won't stop, there's a reason we're not all running on 20 year old hardware, and that's because modern hardware is cheaper to produce, and much faster. No gaming technology has ever lasted a lifetime, so I don't know *where* you're getting that from. You're shouting at the tides, you can't stop them.
I don't have the funds for much. Actually, I barely have the funds for anything at all. And yet, I'm a PC gamer - why? Because it's cheaper in the long run, and a much more flexible experience. I don't want to buy a console so I can have the privilege of giving another company money for things that should come standard (like online gameplay), or should be left to the open market (Hard drives), and I enjoy the freedom to do what I like with what I have. I've put probably more than 1000 hours into Oblivion, and a decent chunk of that into F3, I've played X3:Reunion and Terran Conflict for more time than I dare check, so on and so forth.

You're quite welcome to prefer consoles, but in the same way I'm not going to say PC gaming is easier than console gaming (it isn't), you shouldn't say you have to upgrade every 2 years (you don't) or that it's significantly more expensive (it isn't, and could be the opposite depending on how many games you buy).

I'm still wondering why they decide to use the 360 version of the game for gameplay trailers. Wouldn't it be more impressive to show the best version of Skyrim they have available?

Well they obviously cannot show a high end PC running the game. Then we would have complaints when it comes out about why it doesnt look as it did in the trailer on either console or a mid range PC. I have been going back to play Oblivion lately. I tried to do it with a vanilla install, but I just felt bored after playing the MQ so long. I added QTP3/OOO/MMM/Frans and it looks so much better and it still runs perfectly. A midrange PC wont handle that too well. Sort of the same reason they cannot show the best they have right now.

Also they know that the largest point of profit is on the consoles.

Couple of possibilities:
1) They don't want to show the PC version maxed out, and then have a loud contingent of console gamers get angry(*) that their half-decade-plus old hardware doesn't look as good as a comparatively recent PC.
2) The PC version will look pretty much the same, so you won't see drastic improvements by showing the PC version. Todd has mentioned that they're trying to make the games look similar on all systems.
3) Something in between.

(*) Yes, I know not all console gamers would get angry or be loud about it. But you can't deny that there would be, just like I can't deny there would be angry PC gamers for a 2011 game not looking like it's using 2011/2010 hardware. Heck, I'm one of those PC gamers that think we should be seeing much better, and I have a system that would be lucky to make it look as good as the console version. >.>

+ load times + control scheme

I'm a preferred PC gamer, yet I own a 360 and a PS3. So, I am a gamer, period.

All I want is for them to give the Creation Engine the best showing it can on release day. Leaving out DX11 features at this stage simply to (be fair) sooth the console players seems like a poor move in my opinion. "Get with the times or get left behind" kinda falls into place. (Though I know we die hard fans will get it no matter what, just trying to make a point I guess.) In my opinion, you can not release a new engine, then cripple it straight out of the gate, it's just dumb! You want it to shine, and that would require DX11 in my opinion. Otherwise it's just a new skin for old tech. May as well keep using Gamebryo. :shrug:

Just to be clear, I love what I saw in the trailer, but as someone running a beast of rig, I want this game to utilize all of it's potential.

Faces I'm happy
http://i.imgur.com/i9iFS.png

Good point and I completely agree with you. The foundation of a game isn't in the graphics, it's in the open world and good gameplay.

I hate that the first thing that comes up for discussion is graphics, especially in the ES series. Also, BGS has 8 months and two weeks for upgradement and aprovement in Skyrim. I think we're all in for a big treat.