Maybe Skyrim isn't as alien as Morrowind was, but it can be argued that the nordic style has not been used in many rpg's, at least lately. And to be fair, it's not like they said lets make a nordic game and make stuff up on the fly, this province has been around for at least 15 years or so, they just chose to draw on it.
Except the Province was elaborated on before, and they've basically just taken the names of towns and decided to say fuck the lore, we want awesome, far future, no tech development, no logical growth, cities the size of towns. Towns are 3 huts for the quest givers, an inn and a shop.
You know what I was thinking when I saw and Dragons, and I saw Skyrim, Hey Skyrim it's that place the Akavir generally start their invasions from, hey, didn't that Akaviri tiger dude recently become a Dragon. Maybe that's where their going with it. BUT NO, SKYRIM, NORDS, LAWLESS NORDS WHO SHOUT AT THINGS IN THE DRAGONS TONGUE. The thing about the lore previously was the Skyrim was the second most civilized nation of man after Cyrodil. With more complex politics than EVEN MORROWIND. The dynamics of the holds could have been interesting to play out, but nope, you can be Thane of every Jarldom, and a head of every major faction who isn't the empire in star wars, and a champion of all the daedra, and a leader of the rebellion. It just erks on me, where the hell is the Bethesda of Morrowind who wasn't above putting in game mythos above the petty power fantasies of its players. I mean come on, Morrowind made you figurative Jesus, and somehow it's worse for the players to make them have to be excluded from something, doesn't test well.
You could also argue that it isn't as story driven as say the witcher 2, but that isn't the intent of the game, it is more an open sandbox where you can go where you want. The writing is not bad by any means, I think it does a great job of the making the world feel interesting.
Yes it is, it's terrible writing, it's indulgent, the questlines are entirely too rushed, I've done what, 5 missions for these people, and suddenly I'm a member of your inner circle, and you're going to force me to become a werewolf to continue your questline.
And don't even get me started on the thieves guild.
Any game can be pulled apart if you are looking hard enough, but even if it has bumps and warts it is that good that you can lose yourself in it's world then it has done it's job.
The thing was, when I was playing skyrim, I was often thinking of how, "This was done so much better in X" and it pulled me from the experience.
I have no idea how you completed all the guild and storyline quests in 28 hours….I have spent at least twice to three times as much. Maybe you need to wander off and find some quests that are off the beaten path and look around. I have no idea, just that it was not like that when I played it. Also, to the poster who mentioned that it was like mole hills instead of mountains….what rpg are you playing with larger mountains….I thought they did really well with it, in a game setting.
It's really hard to do mountain sized scale in a game that takes place in 18 square miles. The mountains in game while they are decently done, are just not large enough. The tallest mountain in game is just scant amounts larger than the highest point in Oblivion.
Also why should I change my playstyle to adapt to squalid conditions, when I can simply demand better or go back to playing other games.
Also the answer to playing it fast, is going to each location you get via fast travel, travel as quickly as possible via a sprinting horse from the nearest fast travel marker you have. And I did what I'd call an exorbitant amount of wandering I'd say, simply to find the meridia quest without a guide.