wasn't the case in oblivion. sometimes maybe. but often someone asked you just to bring, deliver the book you still can sell them and get some gold so your house look good. most of those books are boring (were in oblivion and morrowind) but still they were fun to collect and put them on shelf. so? still annoying.

because you have not a problem with that part of the game, because you like to read ever single book there is...
doesnt mean everyone thinks like you. and it can be quite annoying when you have to click hundreds of times just to take a book and put into your inventory when ONE single button would do the trick. (one button to take it and put it in your inventory and another one to read it from the shelf)

complaint is valid cause it was his complaint not yours.

well the funny thing is i had the most fun playing mediocer games, the problem with high rating gamers by proffesional reviewers is that mostly the puplishers pay review sites with advertising so can you take a review serisly if there is an ad of the game on that site. But back to the review from that guy he stated bad thing about what great is about open world rpg its like saying the bad thing about cod is that you have to kill people or mario because its a platform game. Its an open world rpg morrowind had something like that as well but still people praise that.

The only reason books from shelves (not from baskets/sacks...) are read on interaction is that you can read them in someone's home without taking/stealing them. "Oh, what a nice tome you've got! Can I have a look? Wow, just reading the first page printed in a font so large a baby would be insulted I feel an increase in my archery skill. Thanks, you can keep the book."

BTW, what % of books in Skyrim are copy/paste back from Oblivion and Morrowind?

No TES game is complete without "The Lusty Argonian Maid".

I wish i could learn like that as well :)

It's much easier to read them outside the game than in. Only time I bother to read a book in game is if it has something to do with a quest.

[url=http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Skyrim:_Books]http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Skyrim:_Books[/url]

well to be honest i still have them in my inv to read it another time.

Off topic Does anyone if dragon scales and bones are useful for something? They are worth something but they are heavy.

I heard you can craft them into armor at 100 in armor making or whatever the stat is.

I freely admit, I'm a fanboy of Bethesdas TES work. Still I welcome each and every constructive criticism. And yes, there are several points where Skyrim is lacking, like the mentioned interface / UI or the difficult to navigate skilltree.

However, I can't take a guy serious, who not only fails to mention even 1 positive aspect in his review, but also spreads so obvious misinformation / claims, like "a lame RPG on rails".
More of it, especially the leveled enemies was time and time again one of the biggest complains in Oblivion. Now Skyrim is being bashed for being "walled off by difficulty with almost no dynamic progression" (which isn't true either). Someone please come up with a solution on how exactly Bethesda should be doing it the next time?

Don't like a game? Ok. Pointing out negative aspects? Ok. Not being constructive? Fail and in most cases, trolling.

I assumed they were important, so I bought a house ASAP to store them in.

That's good to know.

I take it from the lack of response that Skyrim dual-wielding doesn't offer any significant advantage over Oblivion combat casting? I played a bit more with my buddy, and I've found the inability to block while holding a spell or second weapon in the offhand to be VERY frustrating. Maybe it's just the way I play: I'm most often a defensive player that hates potion popping, spam healing, etc. Obviously, the game mechanics are meant to force specialization, but is that a good thing in a TES game? This isn't Dragon Age; Skyrim isn't a party-based game. Anyway, frustration vented. Still keeping an open mind about the game.

Question: Does the "favorite an item" feature help with this issue? I haven't played around with it much. What's the switch time/animation/etc like during combat? Is it viable to quickly switch to nothing in the offhand, allowing you block with your one-handed weapon, and quickly ready a spell in the offhand when you want to cast, switching back and forth as needed?

(Just a sidenote: If that seems like a question that I could easily answer by playing, recall that I myself don't have the game at present and have only played a friend's copy twice for very short periods of time.)

Well like I already said, the dual-wield thing forces you to make sacrifices depending on your playstyle. If you want sword and shield then you can't quickly cast magic. If you want dual-wield then you can't quickly block. I think specialization is good, no matter the style of RPG, so for me it's a plus.

As for the benefits of this system, I would say dual weapon wielding and spell combos would be the obvious ones. Pure mages can have healing in one hand and offense in the other, then combine offensive spells to create bigger effects. Beyond the different combos and such though I think it's more different than improved really. It forces you to play a role, to make a choice and sacrifice something else. If you like blocking then my suggestion would be to play a style that allows it. I like being all offense, spell in one hand and sword in the other. Skyrim improves on all TES games that came before in actually making you play a role, not a god.

You mark items, spells, powers or whatever else as "favorites" which are then brought up on a simple menu at the press of a key. When you press the key time stops, allowing you to quickly change weapons or spells to suit the situation. So if you really wanted to block and also cast a lot of magic for instance then you could have a shield and offensive spell on favorites, use the shield most of the time, then quickly swap to magic for an attack and swap back. Without even using the favorites menu you can of course assign weapons and spells to the number keys, so you could press "2" to swap to a fireball, attack, then press "1" to bring back your shield, or whichever combo you like.

well, my 2 cents after having pumped 13 straight hours in the game,

Basically, i'm just having fun. it's kept me involved in the story so far and the quests and dungeons vary to my taste..The only bug or glitch that i have seen is a mammoth sky rocket about 100 feet straight up in the air after recieving the business end of a giant's club..I actually laughed my ass off when i seen that..Game Breaking? hell no...Entertaining? Extremely..can't wait until i get off work tomm so i can put in a couple more hours...

Truely a gem of a game

Having fun.

But for the first time I kind of understand the Morrowind crowds whining about how Oblivion was dumbed down and didn't have this and didn't have that.

Dammit, I miss acrobatics.

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edit. So anything giants kill flies 100 feet straight up. Thought it was just me.