Was watching a youtube "Let's Play" style video and the poster mentioned having sound issues at best quality sound setting. Bumping the sound down to the next best settting fixed the issue for him. Perhaps not the most desirable solution, but it made the game playable for him.

I've only found one solution that works. I've had to go into my Bios and turn on the onboard audio (turns out, that's Realtek High Definition Audio), then plug my speakers into the corresponding socket and disable my sound card.

Doing that allowed me to then go into the properties for that audio device (displayed as High Def speakers) and to finally select the Loudness Equalization option on the Enhancements tab.

That tab and the loudness equalization option are not available through my sound card. Hence the convoluted work around.

It's annoying, but at least I now have sound at an acceptable volume. The only other solution would have been to buy a 4.1+ speaker system. No easy task where I live =/.

Enjoying the game so far only 1 ctd but your right about the sound way to quiet.

Enjoying the game so far, I played 4 hours with no crashes nor obvious bugs except the sound issue reported by some and the unability to play with numpad which is pretty annoying because I'm left handed, but not dramatic.

Overall the game plays better than oblivion, the world seems much more coherent the story more interesting, your character can't be a jack of all trade any more which is pretty good.

Now the bad.... This game was made for console in mind, it's good for them but having a dumbed down GUI, no character stats which means all races are pretty much the same despite their appearance and special ability, looks like a step down for PC RPGs. Also playing in "normal" is not very challenging.

So far the game seems excellent to me. The game world might be a bit smaller than Oblivions - but it is far more detailed and interesting, the relatively flat cookiecutter fantasy world replaced by a mountainous expanse of river valleys and peaks.

The first dungeon you go to really sets the bar. If the rest of the dungeons in this game are this good, it's a huge improvement over Oblivion.

The main characters I've met so far are relatively cliche, but at least more talkative than in Oblivion. The plot also feels relatively cliche this far - you are "The One" (as always in Elder Scrolls games), but you don't know that, and you're miraculously saved from certain death in the opening stages.

I see there's a trophy for "harvesting" 20 dragon souls though. Hope that's not going to turn out to be another oblivion gate type fiasco embedded in the main quest.

That wasn't sound though, was it? That was omniscent guards (ie, they attacked even if they realistically shouldn't know anything had happened).

Waiting for Skyrim to download is maddening it's taking forever to download. GoG's Downloader would have had it downloaded in a couple of hours. I'm hoping Skyrim has improved the gameplay over Oblivion. Edit: Found a better server on Steam it's downloading much faster now Yay! Although GOG downloader still is way faster. I will soon be able to give my opinion on this game too.

Oh and why does the elder scrolls games have an obsession with having the player character always start in a prison or dungeon? Why not have it so you start as a Corrupt King who gets overthrown by the people of the village below and sent into exile or something even better than that?

A way to introduce a nobody character without screwing up the world? I've lost count of RPGs that let you generate the entire party, which start with "adventurers arriving on a boat from a faraway land".

Im watching jessie cox lets play skyrim and it seems not much different to oblivion to be honest.

it just one hour of gamplay tough. Question: how diverse is the environment? Just snowy mountains and valleys with forests everywhere?

I am relegated to re-installing Oblivion and playing that until I can figure a way to get skyrim [legally] :/

I have been watching Nagidal's play through of Skyrim and, aside from not caring much for the look of the UI, it seems awesome.

Start as a farmer, with the starting quests being to help your neighbors, gain local reputation of being helpful (or a nasty sunovabitch), then work your way up?

That sounds like a great idea I would really go for that. You could also possible incorporate that you can grow crops for bonus xp. Doesn't that Harvest Moon RPG game do that?

Soo... Fable meets Harvest Moon?

That would require too much thinking and creativity. Easier to use one prison routine and call it a trademark of the series.

And farming... damn, I had to do enough of that in Nier. Anything bu that - young hunter, arming squire, traveler... sole survivor of a remote village wiped out by flu.

I mean, there are a lot more choices beyond "prisoner" if the end result should be "start from scratch".
Just the first example I could think of.

Hell, start as a commoner child and learn the basics of combat and survival as you grow up?