Skyrim is kind of like Fallout New Vegas was in comparrison to Fallout 3, Bigger, better, but won't run very well at all.

Bugs are stopping me at what seems like every turn. Luckily with 14 years you know about alot of them, but still it breaks the immersion to have to open console all the time. Makes me kind of wish it would be more like FO/NV and just crash for good.

This was going to be the game that drew me away from STEAM i thought.. no such luck.. stuck with STEAM still.

For whatever reason (probably an oversight), GOG galaxy/installer will install all optional languages instead of just a selected language like on Steam, see:
https://www.gog.com/forum/elder_scrolls_series/you_can_free_up_to_12gb_in_your_skyrim_installation
You can delete all languages you don't need, saving 12GB. When only 1 audio language is installed, Steam and GOG will be the same size.

I would say it's more about your computer as Skyrim is a lot more stable than F3 and NV combined when it comes to stability (especially the SE version over LE), and you can also install USSEP to quench a lot of bugs.

The Steam version and the GOG version is basically the same version, not enough to explain those stability issues. If it was, a lot of other people would complain as well, and so far it has been pretty quiet.

According to the launcher, I've been playing for 37 hours by now. So far, I only encountered one bug:

I can't get my a Level 100 Skill to Legendary if/when a controller is enabled. I had to deactivate the controller in the main menu and do it per keyboard. Pickpocket, for the curious, I'm using an XOne controller.

According to the ingame menu, I'm supposed to hit Y, but when I do nothing happens. But at least there's a work-around.

Everything else has been fine and stable so far.

I have owned the Steam version since the day of release (I started with the elder scrolls series early on), steam isn't nearly as buggy for me, same game, same computer, different experiences completely. Fall out 3 runs great, fallout NV always ran terribly, it had that terrible casino wheel crash bug (that ended so so many playthrough attempts for me).

But alas, I can play the steam version without getting all the bugs, it isn't about the machine I am using today or anything else, they do indeed run differently, try it and see for yourself.

I tried playing through on the gog release and I got as far as the backside of the soul cairn before it became completely bugged. It started with Duhnevihr not giving me credit for learning the first word to his shout and then the VL form reversion bug, pretty messed up. Steam doesn't do all that to me.

I personally am always looking for the games I actually play without Steam, was a great thought, just didn't work out for me.

I still think the original release on Steam is the best version personally. (Most people can't say that because they don't own it)

Late to this, but the same bug exists in the Steam version. You do have to use the keyboard, but there's no need to disable the controller. Just use spacebar instead of Y.

Just being curious: Assuming that the base game from Bethesda is the same for GOG and Steam, is it possible that the GOG Skyrim problems reported here which are said to not exist for Steam Skyrim have to do with Galaxy (or with the Galaxy-Skyrim integration)?
Has anyone checked if these problems exist when playing the direct download version of Skyrim?

SSE Engine Fixes coupled with USSEP will rectify that dilemma allowing you to have both.

My version of Anniverdsary won't go full screen and won't let me edit settings. The graphics settings just aren't there. Awful compared to the Steam version.

Thanks for the FuD. Go back to steam then.

You don't change graphics settings from inside the game.
Run SkyrimSELauncher.exe
Choose Options.
Untick Windowed Mode.
See attached Pics.

I have 57 mods installed on the Gog AE version of Skyrim. Played a character all the way through the main quest, civil war, college of Winterhold, Dawnguard, and numerous side quests. Never had any issues.

Not getting those problems...this is my second play through with the gog version...Using Vortex with over 100+ mods. The only bugs I've run into are bugs with these mods. The only mods that won't run are basically Animation mods that need DAR, otherwise it's as stable as the Steam version.

But its no longer steam's exclusive cash-cow. How unfair. *snark*