Yeah this game is legit. I rented it over the weekend and definitely decided to pick up a copy for myself. While I have beefs with some aspects of the game (lack of character voice, lack of cinematic camera angles, melee combat could be implemented tighter) this game really is a lot of fun.

I've yet to delve into NPC companions (outside of mission auto-provided support) in detail but I look forward to bringing along some lackeys. That's one area I wish Bethesda would improve on; NPC Companion character development. BioWare has found a way to tap into this and really flesh out supporting characters in their games that adds a TON to story immersion.

One thing that I've been doing (since it bothered me so much in Oblivion) was to have multiple characters for different thematic playstyles. So instead of having one character be this mega hybrid of Melee, Stealth, and Magic I've made dedicated characters for each corresponding guild. This also lets me play around with different races too since the NPC's will react differently. I've ran through the Mage arc at the College and it was a TON of fun (Conjuring is nasty in this game. Summons and bound weapons are smexy).

So yeah, heads and shoulders above Oblivion.

Man, Daedric Shrine missions are so different in this game. I didn't know I was doing the Sheogorath mission until midway through when I met him (which btw was totally awesome). Feel I should mention that he absolutely confirms he is the Champion of Cyrodil.

As much as I prefer this game to Oblivion,
there are touches of Oblivion (and older games) that I really miss...
especially several of that game's spells.

While I don't lament the loss of create-a-spell
half as much as I thought I would
(this causes me to value the "proper" spells much more),
I *do* miss quite a few old spells.

Illusion seems to have suffered the most-
no Silence, no Command Creature, no Nighteye,
no Chameleon, NO CHARM (that's the real killer for me).

Conjuration is much weaker, as well.
Not only is the list of potential summons *much* shorter in Skyrim,
all undead summons require a corpse as fuel.
I can appreciate the flavor of this,
but it does make Conjuring *much* less useful.

Restoration can no longer absorb or fortify skills or stats.

Alteration lost FEATHER (ridiculously useful), Burden, and Unlock.

Thankfully, Destruction is fairly unmolested,
but even it lost things like Damage Magicka or Stamina
(outside of Shock and Cold spells, that is).

While I can't deny Skyrim has (most of) what's important,
I also can't say I don't miss fun things like robbing someone,
then Charming them out their rage,
or fortifying my Mercantile/Speech to get the best prices at a shop.
And I *really* can't say I don't miss being able to Charm
or increase my carrying capacity with a quick spell.

I know some of these effects can be gotten from potions,
shouts, and standing stones, but I still miss being able to cast them at will.

You can buy the invisibility spell from the illusion trainer at the college but it will only appear in his items for sale list when your illusion is level 75. If you also purchase 'muffle' and use it prior to turning invisible, it is just as strong as it was in Oblivion

^^^ Sorry about that oversight.
I just re-read the Skyrim spell list and noticed I had missed that,
but you had already pointed it out by the time I fixed my post

I'm glad Invisibility is still a spell.
Now if only Charm and Feather were still there...

Lucien Lechance actually recognized Shadowmere! Neat!

Feather is technically in, it just isn't directly called feather. More or less, there are enchantments that increase your carrying capacity. Not quite the same as feather, but the end result is basically the same.

Just smithed a full set of Daedric armor. Feels good man.

WAT.

Fuck me hard, Skyrim, I've been looking for charm this whole damn time.

Subman. Watch the spoilers. :|

It's especially annoying because one of the load screens even MENTIONS Charm, but it does not exist in the game.
Calm has a (*somewhat*) similar effect,
but it won't let you Charm your way out of a crime.

Maybe the expansion(s?) will add it

On another note:
AZURA'S STAR OMG!!!

Spoilers: (Highlight to reveal)

Thanks in advance!

my bad :\

it's not to late to edit your posts ya know (for anyone else who wanders in here unprotected).

I don't give two shits about the spoiler, only thing I wanna say is that nightingale armor looks SWEET.

I love the game. The game has such beautiful environments, and gives such a sense of scale that few games offer (even the GTA series IMO).

My only complaints (minor) are, I dislike the fact that you can't max out every skill. I'm sure it's just a temporary cap (81 levels is a really odd number) until the DLC is release, but I don't like it none the less. I'm also not crazy about how the difficulty fluctuates. I almost lost interest in the game at the start because the difficulty was so hard even on normal. I was just dying so much. It kind of balanced out a bit, once I maxed out smithing, and got some legendary deadric weapons, but the difficulty still fluctuates. I can take down most enemies with 2-3 hits on the legendary deadric sword, but then I run into some kind of apprentice mages/deadric mage while trying to purge Azura's star and get killed with 2 fireball hits, and I'm getting put up against 3 of them at once.

All the major gaming news hubs are reporting, G4 included. One curious player found a gate outside of the borders of Morrowind and Skyrim, with an invisible wall blocking the path. He turned on a no-clipping command, and discovered completed aspects of Morrowind, such as Solthseim and the Red Mountain. If that wasn't enough, he turned his attention southward, and found a way into Cyrodiil-and the Imperial City. The reports are that there are no real detail or people in these areas, but it seems detailed to the point of redundancy if they weren't going to implement them as DLC.

Here is the Speculation

A. They used these landmarks as a focal point for the map developers.
B. We just found the two upcoming DLC packages.

Lord help us if this game takes up half of Tamriel. Nobody will leave their houses again.


Also, if they somehow do manage to surprise us with these areas, and I'm not getting my hopes up, the provinces we know and love won't be the same. Cyrodiil has been war ravaged, and Morrowind (especially Vvardenfell) is a wasteland.

Finally made it to level 33. Killed a bunch of Cat people. I can't even go to Markarth anymore. My bounty is 30000. That's where my current quest is telling me to go. This won't end well for somebody...

Guard, my fine has been paid let me out!

I'm sorry my ears aren't so good, did you say something?

I said my fine has been paid! let me out!

Oh would you look at that; I seem to have lost my keys, might take me awhile to find them...Oh well, I'll get around to it eventually....

curse you!

81 is the cap because you can only reach it when you max out all of your skills to 100. It just seems weird because after level 50 the leveling system changes so that it takes much longer to level up.

Lucien Lechance is a perfect example of what I wish all NPC Followers were like in this game since he has dedicated dialogue to scripted events.

I've been dragging Lydia along wearing some smithed Legendary Orc armor and she's a pretty durable companion. The only chatter I get from her is:

Lydia: "I really don't like the look of this".

Which of course is followed by me charging headlong into a swarm of zombies. See I actually LIKE the fact that all builds dont just dissolve into one Mega Min/Max build. Just doesn't feel right. My complaint would be that there's no system in place to reward a "specialization" build. They could've thematically linked "Ascended" trees to a Diety or one of the Daedric Princes that unlocks a small tree linked to mastery of a base skill. They seemd to have tried to implement this to a degree with some of the daily Daedra powers but...they're daily and thus highly situational. I mean you're going to end up OP in this game anyhow, might as well make it thematic instead of just giving you damn near every skill. My complaints so far are related to the guild factions (Completed Mage, Thieves, Warriors, and Dark Brotherhood) and are full of spoilers so I won't bother to post them.

Judging from the guides, it seems like *several* of the Daedric Quests can be completed with failure to obtain the desired artifact,
*especially* if you aren't ruthless in your pursuit of them.

Many of the quests require you to kill an innocent if you want the prize,
including Vaermina's.

Azura's Quest also has two outcomes,
and I was NOT happy with the one I first received.

Which one did you recieve? I have the star and it does nothing. Which blows. But what happened to you?

Once repaired, Azura's Star is an infinitely reusable Grand Soul Gem.
However, it's the less valuable of the two outcomes-
if you take the Broken Star to Nelacar in Winterhold
(instead of Aranea outside Azura's Shrine, as I did the first time),
you get The Black Star, an infinite Black Soul Gem.
Black Soul Gems are hard to come by, so a reusable one was worth the backtracking, IMO.

I'd recommend any completionist read this page (and the pages it links to) to avoid missing out on any powerful artifacts.

I still hate FFXII for denying me that Zodiac Spear

I laughed hard when I did this ingame. I wanted to go back and spew storms on that guys feet.

Is it me or are most people in this game real dicks?

Ahh man, finally hit 90 smithing. 10 more.

I don't know but I really want to chop up that old lady in whiterun that keeps telling me bout knowing my place.

I beat the main quest and only after 145 hours of gaming do I know what class I finally want to play.

and you know what really pisses me off?

YOU CAN'T MARRY SAPPHIRE! I WANT ME SOME OF THAT!