and they come out of the mud suddfenly

Have fun!

I on the other hand have downloaded Daggerfall and I suspect that I will have as much fun with it as you will with Skyrim. I could be wrong though. I will most likely pick up Skryrim when I buy a new computer. By then it will be a cheap GOTY edition and there will be a nice mod that improves the gameplay a lot. Let's hope the game is as mod friendly as its predecessors.

From what I've read about the game and from my impression with the other games there have been some improvement and some of the opposite:

Good:
More realistic graphics. (But simpler graphics like in Daggerfall is nice too, because you can use your imagination instead.)
New game mechanic ideas. It will be interesting to see how they play out.
It is set in Skyrim.


Bad:
Everything voice acted. Ouch. Go back to text mixed with voice acting. Most other developers would probably get slaughtered by most of the professional game journalists by this but I think Bethesda could actually get away with it. If they did they could set a precedent that other RPG game developers could follow up on.
Dumbing down in general.
Removal of the things that flesh out your character like stats. The idea that your character should just be defined by your actions might be good for the attention deficit disorder crowd but it is bad for the rest of us.
Hand holding.
The world revolves around you like in Oblivion. While this is true in Morrowind and all other games also it doesn't help to rub it in your face and stuff it up your nose.
The story doesn't seem very interesting but let's hope it is.

The majority of "journalists" and gamers loved Oblivion and the travesty known as Fallout 3, both of which I consider downright awful, so if Skyrim is anything like them, I think I know why Smannesman is reluctant to sing its praises.

I'd really like to know what games people are playing if Oblivion was "awful". Flawed? Okay. Awful? Gimme a break.

Frankly put, then why you or Smannesman are even interested in Skyrim? You both would know by now that this game probably won't be for you, yet you bother to reply in a Skyrim thread or even play the game....

@Sargon
- Game being dumbed down? Fail to see that gameplay has developed since Morrowind, automatically dismissing any new approach, regardless if it plays out better or worse.
- "The idea that your character should just be defined by your actions might be good for the attention deficit disorder crowd but it is bad for the rest of us."
Wow. Not sure where I should start here.... First, char defined by your actions was a trademark of TES since long ago. One might regret the removal of stats, but that is far from making or breaking a RPG game. And for the "a d d" crowd - thanks, I'll tell my doc on my next check.
- Hand holding? Really? We're talking TES and open world here. If you pin this on a little pointer on your map, there's probably a mod incoming within 1 month to change that.
- The world revolves around you like in Oblivion. While this is true in Morrowind and all other games also it doesn't help to rub it in your face and stuff it up your nose.
Nothing to say here as you answered it yourself - just strange that this is brought up as a negative against Bethesda, while hardly (if ever) seen mentioned on all other games.
- The story doesn't seem very interesting but let's hope it is.
Really? There was nothing known about the story up to now, except that it revolves around dragons and their powers / powerwords. Yet you can judge it....

Forget it. Some guys are so inclined to dismiss everything coming from Bethesda, there's really no arguing.
.... and yes, I know I just failed there.

34% DONE UNLOCKING FILES FOR LIKE 10 MINUTES OMG I AM DYIIINNNGGGGG

I just found The Lusty Argonian Maid V2. My life is now complete :P

Step 1.) Put a barrel/basket/bucket on the heads of everyone in a shop

Step 2.) ??????

Step 3.) Profit!

Fill in number 2 yourself. =P

Keep people like me updated on the game. I can't afford it right now, so I like details or stories of exploits.

Played a couple hours. Game looks pretty amazing design wise, though if you're picky the textures and such won't win any awards. Presentation seems a lot better though, very nice voice acting so far and very detailed.

Gameplay is pretty much standard TES. The dual-wielding thing seems ace so far though, I must say. I have magic on my left hand and a sword on my right and my sneaky spellsword dominates. The perk system is VERY good and really makes you feel like you're developing a character when you level and choosing a path.

Didn't really do enough story or quests to comment, I just explored the first town and then killed some nearby bandits. It's all very ace so far though, and it feels much better than Oblivion already.

The ini file has a lot of goodies. You can turn off quest markers, the compass and other things. You can boost mouse speed past the max in-game, which I had to do. You can turn on some enhanced shadow options not in the menus for whatever reason. It's all good stuff.

The main thing I have seen people complain about is the UI, but honestly it's mostly fine for me. It IS very keyboard focused rather than mouse, but it uses standard WASD and is very quick to use. The only menu I thought was clunky was the level-up menu.

has this been posted yet?

this guy wanted to have a baby for this release and called it "Dovakhiin", but his wife was against that "fun".

So he decided to do a case mod instead and this one looks really cool:

http://www.overclock.net/t/1164671/completed-dovahkiin-dragonborn#post_15641434

I caved and bought this today. Local release isn't until December 8, so naturally, it's not releasing on Steam till then either. But someone fucked up, and it's playable directly from the TESV.exe =) It's only the launcher file that won't load.

Because Morrowind was rather good and I absolutely loved Daggerfall?...
No need to be rude.

Really? If the vanilla game is actually "Steam-Free" that's pretty awesome! If this doesn't get "fixed" (¬_¬) with the patches, maybe I'll buy it after all.

Edit: Though I guess the patches will be handed-out with Steam anyway, which means I won't be getting any patches if I'm not using it. Not sure how to feel about that.