Skyrim adds mounted combat

 @SythisTaru

 That kind of depends on what you're looking for in terms of "more". Sure there are more random activities, perks, sidequests, ect... in skyrim but the underlying depth behind the vast majority of the games lore, factions and questlines aren't nearly up to par by comparison to it's predecessors.

 @supertom221

 I absolutely love Skyrim.I played like 100 hours without even doing the main story and still didn't see that secret underground world or alot of stuff.I also never completed the Oblivion main story and never even came close to seeing doing everything.Now I want to go back to Oblivion and play that.I can always come back to Skyrim.

 @Iridescent406 No-one's forcing you to like it, but Skyrim is verging on being a technical masterpiece, thanks to all sorts of choices, including the sound and even the gross shadows putt me off when I enter caves etc.

I learnt not to worry about endings too much after FO3/NV as it's the journey that's more fun, no different in Skyrim, and it took me over 40hrs before I felt a bit overpowered, and that may not be ideal in a long game, but at least I do have the option of point and click install via steam to greatly enhance my combat experience.

As for consoles, well, what can I say, why buy a franchise famous for PC modding on console, and it's not like vanilla Skyrim is very demanding, almost any recent PC/laptop can play it.

Another thing, it might be the case that I agree with some of the objections you or others raise about the game, but after playing it for over 150hrs, I've experienced the work bethesda's put into this game, and whilst I do want any number of improvements, given that this game had to also function on a console is impressive.

Technically, this is a major overhaul of Oblivion as well, but virtually every criteria.....so does that make it perfect, no, but it's one of the great games, and given the console climate, we're lucky to get it, and we;ll be even luckier when the best mods start to appear.

 @Kookooburra I think something like L.A. Noire would come a lot closer to "Voice acting is one of the best", but that's mostly because "brilliant" lines like "They have curved swords: Curved. Swords" from Skyrim are delivered so lazily that I feel like there is absolutely no energy coming from the cast of the game. As far as the mod thing goes, what if I'm a console gamer? Besides that, I shouldn't have to fix a game that was suppose to be fine on release day; that was Bethesda's job, and they were being paid to ensure this job was accomplished. And by your logic, I could just download a texture pack for GTA IV and REALLY make it better looking than Skyrim, even though I'd say they are on the same wavelength already.

 @Iridescent406 

GTA, hahhahaa, don't LIE thru your teeth.

Voice acting is one of the best in any game dummy.

U can dl difficulty enhancing mods

 @Iridescent406 You can't disregard the fact that it isn't Bethesda's choice to push their game back, yes Bethesda Softworks were both the dev and publisher, but i'm willing to bet Todd Howard and his team (the devs) had nothing to do with publishing the game, most likely a different sect within the company, and as such is something that is out of their hands. I have seen games that seem to excel more on the PS3 than the Xbox and all I can say is kudos, i'm not a programmer and don't know the intricacies surrounding it, my knowledge of Cell mainly comes from information I've dug up surrounding processors to build my own PC, gaming websites such as this, and friends who are going to college for related material. I try to avoid subjective topics when having a discussion. I avoided your statement about the gameplay being terrible because there is no objective stance saying what is and isn't "good". It comes down to opinions at that point, and perhaps it was an illegitimate point to put up in my initial post. As far as point four is concerned, what I was trying to say was that because Arena did define it's genre as a Western RPG, and Skyrim being the latest in the Elder Scrolls franchise, the soul of The Elder Scrolls, what makes the game Elder Scrolls, still exists despite the new implementations. If you look over at Elder Scrolls online you'll see a perfect example of a game that is what it says it is only in name, no part of this "soul" exists in that game. and i am only basing that off of what we've seen in GameInformer, and a Kotaku article on the subject. so take that for what it's worth. 

 @Neomaniac15 I don't think that Bethesda should be defended in regards to what the PS3 does as a system. If I'm not mistaken, many developers have made superior versions of certain games on the PS3 as opposed to what they've made on the Xbox 360, with a recent example being Dragon's Dogma, which from what I've heard, is absolutely horrendous as far as performance goes on the 360, and manages to be much more stable on the PS3. Bethesda could have easily pushed this games launch date back, if only to fix problems on the PS3 version, and I don't think it was out of their ability, considering that they were both the publisher and developer of Skyrim.

 @Neomaniac15 For example, you say that the combat of Skyrim is the best of the series. While this is debatable, you kind of avoided me saying that it's still terrible. Also, for number 4, my last statement didn't really mean anything to you, unless you were saying something about The Elder Scrolls being definitive as a positive on Skyrim's mark; it might be a household name at this point, but that doesn't automatically do it any justice. It felt like you were more trying to prove me wrong then prove that Skyrim is a legitimately good game. Bethesda is definitely at fault for not being able to program properly on the PS3. I say this because with knowledge of the game being literally unplayable on the system, they still charged full price for it at launch and even had the indecency to start working on DLC for the game before actually fixing it for a large number of users in the first place.

 @Iridescent406 That is to say, Cell is made for super computing. it, much like Blu-Ray was new and cutting edge at the time and Sony just decided to stick it in there without really understanding what they were doing. Do you remember the Folding@Home initiative? How about the famous "PS3 used to research Black Holes" article? The PS3 is capable of folding proteins and super computing black holes because of the design of it's processor. 

 @Iridescent406 If you would clarify what you mean by: manipulating certain aspects of the game so they match your liking, i would be happy to offer a different, perhaps better explanation of what i'm trying to get across. i don't mind the discussion at all and you're certainly entitled to your opinion and i would be a fool to become upset by it. so long as it remains civil of course. 

 @Iridescent406 not at all, you're actually talking to a guy who only used to have a PS3 and played both Oblivion and Fallout 3 on it. Fallout's performance on the PS3 was downright despicable, but you still can't blame Bethesda for it. The Cell processor contained within the PS3 makes coding and developing a complete chore. Where coding for a PC, 360, PS2, or any other console, it's mainly like fitting the round peg in the round hole. line it up right and you've got it. coding for the PS3 is more like fitting a deformed peg in the round hole, it's a pain in the ass and sometimes it just doesn't go in right. please note, i'm not some dumbass fanboy who thinks the PS3 sucks, it does amazing things and games like Uncharted, MGS4, and inFAMOUS are proof of that. What i'm saying is that the technology isn't suited for gaming, so when you have a dev who's got a multi-platform game to push out by a deadline, the game's performance on the PS3 traditionally takes a dive. and it definitely sucks and Sony has said they will not make that mistake again. Fingers crossed on that one. 

 @Neomaniac15 I will argue this point though: I wasn't exactly expecting technical perfection from Skyrim, but the PS3 performance of the game is down-right unacceptable. I don't think it's wrong of me to actually want to be able to play a game that I bought for 60 bucks, is it? 

 @Neomaniac15 That was a nice response, although I could probably counter argument again, but I don't want to sound like an asshole. Most of the points that you've made make it seem like your manipulating certain aspects of the game so that they match your liking, which is something that I can't really get behind.

 @Iridescent406 1. The story of the Elder Scrolls does NOT come from it's main story, though it does play a part. The story is all around you, building from your experiences in the world as a player. A note that you find on someone's corpse, a mention of an event, a discovery made by a character. all of these things come together to present the story and lore of the Elder Scrolls. Skyrim by itself does not and cannot contain the full breadth of The Elder Scrolls story and lore. 2. This game has had the best combat so far, Oblivion was relegated to "go in, swing sword lots, kill thing, loot, repeat" one does not simply charge at a Dragon Priest unless they're a scrub who plays on Very Easy 3. the removal of the class system was best for how the Elder Scrolls wants you to play. Be what you want to be. Classes confined you to a certain style of play, a style of play that you maybe didn't want if you didn't entirely understand what it was those skills made you play like. now, I can sneak around with my bow, accidently get seen, conjure some dremora, take out some swords, and finish the job. You're still building a character, the RPG feel has not been lost here. 4. Mate, Elder Scrolls Arena defined the Western RPG. It was the first of it's kind and all RPG's that have come after it borrow from it's general concept. note, i did not say Skyrim, but Elder Scrolls. 5. glad you think so. 

you can't blame the game for being buggy, if they went and tried to fix every little thing we'd still be waiting for Morrowind. I'm sorry to hear that you do not like the game. I suppose ultimately it is futile to try to convince you that the game is just as good if not better than it's predecessors. It seems to me that your main concerns are the game's new implementations and it's leave of traditional RPG gameplay. I believe that Skyrim is a perfect blend of new ideas and old school values. But that's just me, and if it's something you don't enjoy that's the way it is. 

@LilBigRandom @Entropy730 That's actually right, in my opinion. Skyrim is way too streamlined to even touch what Daggerfall, Morrowind, and Oblivion have accomplished as RPG's. As a beginner to the series, Skyrim might be a good game, but I feel like after one plays older games in the series, it's pretty evident how half-assed Skyrim is.