Nothing on X360 should graphically wow you by now, to be honest. All current gen consoles are by now being used at their max, so most games have about the same graphical quality. The graphics have me amazed, but on PC.

So I just watched that friend of mine battle a dragon, and I am again disappointed.

First, the dragon landed facing away from him. It did not turn around, and he hit it around ten times with a warhammer before it decided to launch into flight. At this point, it had around fifty percent health. He then hid while the dragon circled around. After it landed, he pelted the dragon with arrows from his hiding spot behind a rock. The dragon did nothing, simply stood in place, until it was killed by continuous fire of arrows. Didn't move in the direction of the shots, didn't take to the air for increased visual range and mobility. Just sat there and died.

Now, I know that dragons aren't supposed to be uber-bosses in this game, but they are supposed to be intelligent and challenging. Can't say the fight was exciting to an onlooker, and had it been me playing, I doubt the fight would have seemed rewarding.

Again, not outright condemning the game as a whole, have only played/watched a small portion of it.

I can't even play Skyrim now without it crashing every few minutes to a black screen and then the only thing I can do is hard reset and restart the computer. Gah I think I will wait until they patch that issue up. Hope they get onto it soon

The two-hand system provides immeasurable tactical options. I can't even begin to tell you honestly. For my character type, a spellsword, it is almost a revelation. Spell in one hand, short sword in the other, going to town. Light enemies up as they close in on you and then pounce with a stamina leap. Heal with your left hand while you attack with your right, negating damage. Etc. etc.

No, you cannot block with a weapon or spell in each hand. The style of play you choose has negatives, that's what makes it fun IMO.

Game looks amazing on PC. Can't speak to the Xbox version. Pretty much every forum post I have read says the game looks amazing though, so you're in the minority either way.

The map is kind of a bummer. It is neat how it's the real game world zoomed out, but it lacks fine details. Also it doesn't uncover areas as you explore, which I loved in Morrowind and missed in Oblivion. The various icons are nice though and if you're looking for a fort it's easy to only scan for forts.

The UI I have talked a lot about. Once you get used to it I think it's a really great UI.

That's typical Bethesda jank, honestly. The game will do that kind of thing from time to time, just like every Bethesda game before it did. If that's a deal-breaker for you well... there it is I guess.

I think you're over-thinking it, to be honest. It's a typical Bethesda RPG. There are improvements of course, and it's much better than Oblivion, but overall you either like their games or you don't. If you're worried it's another Oblivion then I can assure you it's not, just buy the dang thing. If you're iffy on their RPGs in the first place and are wondering if those one transcends... well... probably not, honestly.

Fascinating... No matter what you do in the face editor an imperial woman character still looks like a drunk whore. It's possible to tone it down the whore part, but... eh... A least the armour looks smart.

Is there an option to see all the skill trees at once? Or at least one, but fully? That Final Fantasy 13-style menu is scary. Well, most menus are scary there but that one involves planning.

What (useful) tactics does the new system allow for that aren't possible in Oblivion?

Oblivion allows for combat casting: I played a spellsword build (custom mageblade) and could cast any spell on the fly without sacrificing the ability to block (excepting the brief period of vulnerability while actually casting the spell, of course). It's an aspect of the game actually better than Morrowind. Hells, I play Morrowind with the Morrowind Code Patch option for Oblivion-style casting enabled.

I suspect... that you're probably right, about me overthinking the purchase and in that assessment of the game. To be honest, I'd likely have purchased the game and given it the benefit of the doubt if not for Steam. If I find a *verified* crack that bypasses Steam completely, including install time, I might buy the game. Not running Steam under any circumstances (been there, done that, not doing it again), and I've got to be damn sure of the crack after my experiences with New Vegas (I purchased the game after finding a crack with good feedback a few weeks after release; as you can guess, it didn't work). I suppose I could buy it on the Xbox, but then -> inferior graphics, no mods, no console, etc.

Anyways, I just watched a bit of werewolf gameplay. Impressed with the system (kill and eat to maintain wolf form), look, and dialogue. Seems like there are two sides in the associated questline, too. Good stuff. I am disappointed, however, that transforming into beast form locks the view to third-person perspective.

And a question: I might have missed it, but have you discussed difficulty and level scaling? My friend says its rather easy on default settings, but I'm not sure how far into the story he's played. Insight?

Two mods that might help:

Detailed Faces
No More Blocky Faces

Not sure if it's what you are looking for as I haven't played it myself yet.

i didnt know it locks n third person in beast mode since i always am in that mode lol

Finally. In Skyrim people notice your gender and (if present) nakedness. Also race.
And instead of telepathic guards we get creepy "I know what you did" notes and shopkeepers hiring tough as nails thugs because you nicked ten coins.

FFS, why the hell are the TG and DB so far away from the start location?

Is that why those 3 hired pricks ganked me outside bleakfalls.... sunnova *****

You can find Contract note on the bodies. With the signature of the bastard who sent them. BTW, those thugs seem to suck in rivers, especially if the current it strong.

Apparently you can catch salmon with bare hands while swimming. Beast race not required.

not just salmon, go under the bridge thing at dragonsreach, theres a few fish there iirc

I'm playing on one notch up, "expert" I think it is called (below "master"). It is hard, especially when you go somewhere you shouldn't. Unlike Oblivion there is no constant level scaling, saber cats will always be tough until you level up and they are always in the world in certain areas. I had a dragon drop down out of nowhere right when I quicksaved once and it literally took me like 10 tries to beat him, and it took all my healing and buffing potions.

The game is not a cake-walk on expert, at all.

It can be challengig even on normal difficulty. I was going up the mountain to High Hrothgar when an ice troll came barreling down the path.

He could kill me in three hits, so I had to pull out pretty much every trick in the book to down him.

The regular wayside wolves and bandits though are just a small nice break from all the tiresome walking, just like Oblivion.

Oh and graphics not good? Go up the mountain to High Hrothgar and look around you.

By the way, can anybody enlighten as to the general way of figuring out the claw door puzzles?