Great article Ian. I myself am in the middle of Skyrim addiction (about 30 hours), but have taken a few hours off to experience Deus Ex on a new video card.

I find myself enthralled with the Elder Scrolls and Fallout storylines on about an equal level. With Fallout 3, I really didn’t care about finding my father, but I was interested in what was happening to the world and the people in the world. With Skyrim I’m more at ease in the environment, but I’m curious to see what my role will in that world towards the end of the game. I’ve heard that the different guilds don’t really affect the story that much besides weapons and stats.

Either way, I’m to meet a fellow Bethesda fan who isn’t blinded by what can be some hard-to-swallow production blunders. My three all-time favorite games are Fallout 3, Skyrim and Read Dead Redemption and all three for the same reason: the world. I loved losing my connection to the real world in these fantasy environments.

I purchased FO3: New Vegas for my PC, but I trying to play through some more recent titles before I become absorbed in another Bethesda title.

I love Skyrim, but it is way too easy.

I’ve read the Internet, and discovered that when it comes to Skyrim, people complain of being high level, yet getting beaten up by giants, dragon priests etc. I am having another problem. I am level 29 now, but ever since around level 22, I had nothing left to fight that possesses any challenge at all. This makes me no longer want to explore and do quests, because even if I do get better items or level my skills a few more points – it really does me no good, since nothing can stand up to me anyway. When I was 24 I took on 2 giants and their mammoth (just to see what’ll happen) and they never even got to hit me before expiring. I’ve also completed the main quest (the boss fight was incredibly underwhelming) and now I really don’t know what else to do.

Any recommendations for some hidden, incredibly powerful enemies, which to hunt?

P.S. – I never used any companions, just my summoned daedra.

I also enjoy Skyrim a lot. But it is in no way perfect and sometimes even incredibly sloppy and buggy. After playing for 100 hours or so I lost my interest for a while and played a few other games. But now I am back in and invested another 50 hours.

I own Fallout New Vegas too and did not like that game at all. Even though I very much prefer scifi to fantasy settings. For me Fallout 3 was a much better experience. I played it three times from beginning to end. And might even play it a fourth time. Fallout New Vegas will never see me again.

I’ve found the “This world is boring” thing to always be an issue in TES games. Daggerfall, Morrowind, Oblivion, they all are fun to wander around in, but they always feel both big and unfocused, and that gets boring to me. Yes, they have plots, but the plots always seemed sort of underwhelming to me. I too was more drawn to Fallout 3′s plot (the original, I mean. I haven’t played New Vegas.), mostly because it felt tighter and more coherent, while still offering me the opportunity to wander about doing this or that gig.

I guess what I’ve found with Elder Scrolls games is that, as mentioned above, they always seem to be more about “OMG! Isn’t it COOL what a huge SANDBOX we have?!” And to be honest, I have come to the conclusion that “sandbox” games bore me after a while. Usually, this is because they try to let you do so much, but none of it with a ton of depth. Or to the extent that there’s “depth,” I just don’t CARE about any of it.

Some games handle the “sandbox” element better than others, of course, and I tend to think that Elder Scrolls games do it better. At least all the “stuff” I can do is stuff that I find somewhat entertaining and which sort of matters to me. By contrast, GTAIV let you do all kinds of things like…take your annoying cousin to eat burgers…or…shoot pigeons…or…go on dates so that your controller can vibrate. Or just drive around carjacking people while fighting against the crappy controls more than the cops. Swell.

I’ve come to realize that I like a more focused game. Fallout 3 let you wander, but the core game itself was always pretty compelling. I’ve never really felt that with Elder Scrolls games.

I’m sorry to break it to you, but obsidian barely did anything. Bethesda just did skyrim on a newer engine, therefore beefing graphics and creating a huge gap in visual quality.new vegas was going to stay 2D, so bethesda bought split game rights and even though obsidian developed it, bethesda guided their hand through the whole thing and even gave them the graphics and mechanics engine. Its still a bethesda game. Not for those who knew, please dont jump me because this is “old soil”, I intended it for those who didnt know.

And it’s not fallout 3: new vegas. They’re two seperate titles in a series. Note that it does geel like a huge conversion mod, its not.