So far from what i've seen, i have a few complaints about the game itself:

1:I agree with razorfist about the lock system which is from fallout.I liked oblivions lock system better than skyrims random chance at low level, and instantly open at max skill.
2:Lack of monsters:I really wish there was faster respawn.Its so aggravating that it takes so long for monsters and treasures to respawn in dungeons.
3:Lack of class:Also agree with razorfist on this.It would have been nice to have your own class and be a built thief who is good at sneaking and good at daggers lockpicking and stealing.
There isn't as many enemies in dungeons i think, and nowhere near as many dungeons.
Pros:

I like the new leveling system.I think its cool you can get special abilities mastered for archery and other stuff
I like that there are more enchanting tables, instead of having to go to the mages guild just to enchant something.
The ability to cook skooma is really cool.I've been wanting to become a skooma dealer, as well as being able to make other stuff with it.
Leather armor crafting is also really sweet and i like it, as well as the table and being able to sharpen weapons.
I like the voice actors more than in oblivion, so thats another positive
Finally being able to hunt dragons is cool.
Having a better difficulty rating than oblivion, because oblivion was far too easy, and skyrim balances it out way more.

I'l get into a further review soon.

Bump

Oh, go on then :D

I am by no means a supporter of this game, and I continue to regard it a strong contender for 'Most Overrated Game Ever Made', but overrated does not necessarily mean 'Bad'. Basically, I thought it was okay, good in the ways that these games usually are (exploration, freedom to go and do what you want), and bad in the ways that these games usually are (RPG elements are terrible, storytelling and characters is laughably bland, none of your actions really have any weight outside of the people you directly deal with in each circumstance etc etc). I feel that whilst it technically superior (graphics, sound, smoothness of running etc etc) to the other Scrolls games and Fallout 3, it isn't really better than any of them. And New Vegas just kicks its ass in all the ways that matter to me (i.e the RPG, characters and story).

But to address your points specifically:

1) The locking system doesn't really matter to me. I can't stand thief characters, but this is the kind of game that really punishes you for not being a Jack of all Trades (i.e the game insists you be able to cast spells in the intro, so you can't be a pure warrior, and there are so many locked chests and doors that you'd be a fool not to do at least a little lockpicking - some dungeons require it). As to the system itself, it neither annoys me, nor does it encourage me to want to do it. I freely admit though, that this is one area that I am not qualified to talk about, as I really despise sneaking, lockpicking etc.

2) I really don't understand your second point. The game is absolutely huge, so how can it possibly be an issue that the monsters don't respawn quickly? Just go somewhere else! Why would you want to stay in the same dungeon, clearing it out over and over again? As to the infrequency of monsters on the world map, that is a design choice that I support. There are plenty of dungeons, and if you swamp people with dangerous monsters everywhere you go on the map, it just discourages people from exploring - which is one of the primary joys of the game. I don't think I've seen anyone else complain that there aren't enough dungeons! How many do you want?! And as for the monster count being lower in dungeons, well I can't imagine you have any proof of that, nor would it matter. There are plenty of enemies in the dungeons (but still very little variety in the enemies, which is a much greater concern to me).

3) I too miss that there is no distinct classes - I hate the way that your character can just be the greatest person ever - at everything. It makes it harder to really connect with a character, if they are just an above average all rounder. Sure, you can restrict yourself to certain styles, but you'll max them eventually, and despite the various perks, you really can't customise to be good in particular areas - you're just good at all of them, and they are very generalized i.e do more damage, take less damage etc).

To your pros and cons:

The levelling system:
Well, I didn't like it at all. Being level 23 in One Handed for example seemed to make no difference at all to being level 22, despite all the Nordic singing when it happens. Being 17 in Lockpicking as opposed to 16, or 98 in Block as opposed to 97 etc etc etc. The only difference they seem to make is whether you can afford one of the perks. And as I've mentioned before, the perks are incredibly boring for the most part. The ones in Fallout 3 and New Vegas are far superior. They have descriptions of why you are better, a few jokes, a cartoon of Fallout Kid in an appropriate costume practicing his new powers, and generally do more interesting things - the ones in Skyrim are just 'You do 20% more damage' etc Yawn.

Can't really speak about the enchanting. My characters never bother with all of that business. The game is easy enough without enchanting and upgrading weapons and armour. Just seemed like needless bother (but I don't consider this a negative thing, and I have no issue with it - I just don't use it myself).

Skooma... cooking.... meh.

Crafting, sharpening... meh.

The voice acting... hmm. I found it rather flat to be honest, for the most part. The Arnie impressions that the Nords do is funny, I suppose. But most of the actors put no feeling into their lines. I admit that few of them are as scenery chewingly bad as some of the Oblivion actors, but I'm sure that some of them are in Skyrim too. An unusual rarity was that I liked Ali Hillis' work in this game (as lots and lots of characters). I usually find her very stilted and wooden, but she seems to relax a bit more here, and her characters are pretty good. The voice actors for the main characters in the Main Quest are poor though, like they really don't want to be there. Adam Baldwin in the exception, and his work throughout the game is excellent.

Hunting dragons *sucks*. I'm sorry - it does. The first time, it is pretty cool, and I like that at least this once, there is a monster that is really, really big (something I feel the games usually lack is enemies that aren't roughly man sized). But as welcome a sight as they, giants and mammoths are, that's only 3 monsters (as all Dragons are functionally the same). And Dragons... ugh, are just pests. They are so easy to kill, and their attack patterns so small and easy to dodge and survive. Whenever they appear, I sigh in frustration, because I know I have to take care of it and it will be annoying (not hard as its all but impossible to die to dragons unless you stroll up to their front), but they take a while to pin down and chip all the HPs off. Its ironic that dragons became the thing I hated the most about the game, because they just bore me to tears.

And the difficulty rating - I think you're very firmly in the minority if you think Skyrim is harder than Oblivion. Oblivion had that crazy system where the monsters got much stronger as you levelled up. So if you didn't make your characters into a 'best he can be' fighting character (i.e take full advantage of the variable +1 to +5 for stats you've been training) at each level up, then the game gets so much harder later on, that a sizable number of players just leave their characters at level 1 forever, only upgrading their weapons and armour. Skyrim in contrast is so much easier.

But there we are anyway. Basically, I felt the game was dumbed down, had boring quest and characters, flat locations, wasted story opportunities (The Thalmor are 100% more interesting than everything else this game dwells on, yet they are barely in the game), the combat was still floaty and unconvincing, it was too easy making upgrading weapons and armour pointless, there was nothing worth buying so my character never spent any Gold, and it still offers no real reason to drink, eat or sleep (so my character never did, making him some kind of eternally wakeful, immortal).

Which may make it sound like I hated it. But I didn't - it was okay, as an exploration, dungeon crawler, time waster. But that's all it was, and I never became invested in any of the plot beats or characters. I didn't exactly enjoy my time with the game, but I didn't not enjoy it either. Its simply a game that I have played.

But oblivion was easier, and the difficulty curve was terrible.All you needed to do to win on the easiest difficulty, is level up the stats you use the most as a thief/warrior/mage, and use chameleon potions and invisibility spell as a mage.You just spew out an endless army of summoned monsters and wait around invisible, and you win.It really is that easy.In skyrim for an example, you have tougher enemies like giants and mammoths who take a little practice to kill.I can kill mammoths easily now and giants with a few hits with my arrows.If this were oblivion, everything would have died with 2 or 3 hits of my sword.

Dragons:Dragons are very important though.You need dragon souls to use shouts, and the dragon scales make the best light armor in the game.

Here is something new to add:The game is far too bright when you turn into a vampire.I can't see shit, let alone shoot an arrow from the auriel's bow, because its so bright out that i can't see the sun.Its just a pure whitene glare that prevents me from seeing anything.I'd rather have the oblivion thing where if you go out in the sun, you get burned than this shit, because the game is virtually unplayable when its so damned bright, you can't see where you are shooting, let alone what you are shooting at, and at night, you can't see anything either.

Oblivion gave no warning about what it was doing, and you only have to look at the Tropes pages to see how infamous the game was for this. People just played how they wanted, levelling up whenever the bar was full, and didn't min/max. Because its too much bother to do something like that - who wants to wait around every time you have a level up opportunity, using certain skills over and over and over again, so they will be able to put +5 in the relevant stat? If these were hardcore games, then it would be different - but that's not why people play games like Elder Scrolls or Fallout. They play for the casual exploration and such. Oblivion punished you hard for not min/maxing because the monsters changed into their more powerful forms, and got better stats and abilities. And they did so at a much faster pace than your character, unless you were being very careful about you allocated your points.

The monsters you mentioned from Skyrim are neutral - they don't attack you unless you attack them. And by simply perching on a nearby rock and using spells or arrows etc, there is *nothing* they can do. I just can't see how anyone would term the game hard. I was walking about the whole game with robes and basic bracers and boots. I had assumed that as a mage, I would be quite fragile, yet the game mechanics only offer Health, Stamina and Mana. I upped my Mana a lot obviously, but I didn't want Stamina at all (because I wasn't using weapons at all - I didn't kill anyone with an actual weapon for my first 50 or so hours, I only used Spells), so I still had lots and lots of Health.

You talk about summoned monsters, but its exactly the same in Skyrim. I ran a full magic using character on my first playthrough. By Summoning familiars and later Atronachs, you can divert all enemy attention (Dragons fixate on them until they die, when you just cast a new one, because the spell is so cheap). Meanwhile, you are sitting back unleashing deadly volleys of fireballs or whatever, and paralysing anything that does get through. Its great fun at first, but it gets incredibly old when you realise that it works against basically every enemy in the whole game!

The game simply gave no incentive to get involved. Why buy weapons and armour when my totally un-upgraded stuff is doing fine? Why buy potions and food when I never need to use either, because of my magic? Being a mage, I obviously did the Mages Questline first, and it ended up giving me the best set of robes and the best Face Mask that I ever found - and that was 10 hours in! Takes all the fun out of exploring and looting when equipment you got so early on, turns out to be better than anything you subsequently find, and its hard to care about getting Gold when all I ever spent it on (literally) was more Spell Books, of which there are very few, and it takes ages to get the higher end ones.

And don't talk to me about Dragons! What a waste of time - I used the Slow Time shout all the way through the game, and it was so good, I didn't need to use anything else. And I only used that because I was desperate to do something other than my Atronach, paralyse, Firebolt scam.

In Oblivion, I at least liked the setting, and I enjoyed rambling about the countryside, visiting the towns and I really liked the Cult of the Mythic Dawn angle of the main quest. Oblivion's downfall was that awful decision to make you do 9 or so Daedra realms back to back, and making them all basically the same, with no quests or NPCs or anything. Skyrim's main plot meanwhile doesn't have anything like that, but neither is it ever - ever - interesting at all. The Civil War plotline is (potentially at least) much more interesting, yet the execution of it is appalling. Raiding a series of generic forts, finding endlessly respawning basic soldiers, before leading a siege on the enemy city with about 8 soldiers... Yeah, great sense of scale there... not!

I just couldn't believe how unengaging it all was. The storytelling and characterization were uniformly hopeless. Not that I expect much better from bethesa, seeing as how Fallout 3 and Oblivion were similarly lacking in interesting quests and characters. It just kills me that things I actually do find interesting (the whole Thalmor/Aldmerri Dominion thing and that cool Falmer city called... Blackreach, is it?) That stuff had potential, but then nothing is done with it. Blackreach looks ace, and the Falmer are my favourite baddies, but there are no major quests down there, and no NPCs of note. You take a flying visit when you're gettng the Elder Scroll (I think- I'm pretty sure I remember going there for something anyway), but most of the city has no relevance to anything. And that's a real shame.

The first time i fought an ancient vampire and was too low level, i got owned repeatedly, so yeah, its a little harder than oblivion.I do wish tough that there was more variation of enemies in 1 dungeon.

As for the reason why i have faster respawning enemies and ores and stuff.That is quite easy to explain.I don't know if i have explored all the dungeons, but there are a lot less dungeons than in oblivion, and the spawn time for all of em is quite long.
As for stats:i'm also kind of annoyed i can't max all the stats i want, because the game wants me to play a certain way.I think i probably won't replay it. much, except to become a werewolf.

At least you can become a werewolf in skyrim.

Some of the best bits:Vampire lord class is very fun, and that counts for a lot vrykolas.What did you think of the vampire lord class?
The class actually looks really cool, and the abilities are quite fun too.

Being low level relative to the enemy you are fighting will get you killed in most games.

There is literally no chance whatsoever that you will clear even a fifth of the dungeons, before enemies start respawning in some of them. I may not like this game very much, but saying it doesn't have enough dungeons and enemies is absurd. There is no practical difference between Skyrim and any of these types of games in that regard. New Vegas probably has the fewest total dungeons and smallest map, but you're never stuck for somewhere new to go or someone to fight. Because its still absolutely huge.

I didn't bother with the Werewolf or Vampire classes - they didn't interest me in the slightest (and I'm fairly sure you can't be a Vampire Lord, without one of the DLC packs, and I didn't like the game nearly enough to spend more money buying DLC). I did become a Werewolf very briefly in the Companions questline, but I got rid of it as soon as possible. I just don't care about things like that. I'm not saying its a bad thing that they are in the game - if people want to do it, then more power to them. But it does nothing for me.

I would have preferred something to make you a Paladin. I would have liked to have been able to become a Vigilant of Stendar for example. I would have liked quests for the Gods in general. There's only about 3 quests that have anything to do with the Gods, whereas the Daedra Lords all get a mission of their own (and their quests are almost certainly my favourite ones in the whole game).

Basically, to win me over, this game needed to:
1) Let me join the Vigil of Stendar.
2) Junk the whole Dragonborn end of the world plotline, as its dull as dishwater.
3) Make the Thalmor/Imperial/Stormcloak storyline into the main story, and give it better quests than those awful Fort sieges.
4) Do more with important characters and factions- you meet Elenwen who commands the Thalmor in Skyrim for example, then nothing comes of it. She can have a small cameo appearance at the War Summit, but that's an optional mission anyway. Same with the forsworn - they get their own look, a bit of story, but other than that, there are just monsters that you can't interact with, and have hardly any proper quests associated with them
5) Make the settlements more interesting - some of them like Markarth, Riften, Whiterun and Windhelm look interesting, but actually have very little to do in them (other than containing quests for various guilds and Daedra etc, you can't really interact with most of the cities important characters in any meaningful way - just get told to find random amulets or hunt bandits etc.) Others like Dawnstar and Falkreath etc are extremely small, and tend to have one thing that is going on (Vampire attacks, strange nightmares etc), and once you do that, there's really nothing else to do there.

These are just a few things. Basically I feel the same way as I usually do about Bethesda games. They make a decent setting, suggest a few promising story threads, and then completely fail to make good on any of it. A couple of short, boring quests, utterly flat and drearily written characters, and just an enormous sense of frustration over such massive potential squandered. Rambling about, looting and levelling is fine, but I tire of that and I want a little more depth. New Vegas has it in spades, because Oblivion are much better writers with a much better feel for RPGs, whereas Bethesda games are all surface and no feeling.

Fallout series and elder scroll series is about sand box exploration.I personally didn't care about the story in oblivion whatsoever.I did like some stuff from daggerfall which made the game a whole heck of a lot more enjoyable.
The books do add depth to worlds, because books tell about their worlds in detail, but most of the books in oblivion sucked.

And the actual vampire class isn't too fun, but the vampire lord is more fun, because it has a perk system you can level up, and gains special abilities, same as a werewolf.These special perks make werewolf and vampire lord worth using.
Issues:I'm actually very annoyed with the thieves guild huh glitch.The glitch happens if you let the leader of the thieves guild go in first and wait by the hand cart or cart pulled by horse, and then he goes:Huh? and if you go towards the thieves guild he is supposed to introduce you to, they become hostile.

Something to remember next time you buy an elder scrolls game vrykolas:Wait until you get a special edition with all 3 expansions, otherwise you have to pay for them each separately.I only bought em to try them out, and i suppose skyrim has its advantages over oblivion in some manners.

I rarely bother with DLC anyway (in any games), as they are usually just short cash-ins that should have been in the game already. If I like a game enough to want to buy its DLC, then I'll do so without complaint. I didn't refuse to buy the DLC for Skyrim because it was too expensive, I didn't buy it because I don't care about Skyrim enough to want more content.

The whole 'These games are about sandbox exploration' thing is something I used to agree with, until New Vegas showed me how it could be that and still be a great RPG experience with good story, quests and characters. Its too easy to let Bethesda off the hook for their shoddy writing and slapdash quests. Basically, they are great at making big worlds with lots of stuff, but they are terrible at making that stuff have any but the most surface level depth. After New Vegas, I can't go back to the kind of shallow experience that Skyrim gives. I need more depth and investment in the world so I can actually care about what I'm doing.

The in game books are useless, because they don't feel like they are anything to do with anything. They rarely ever feel like something that has any relevance at all to the world. Most of it is just completely pointless, and I can't understand why they waste their time on it, when they could be beefing up the actual characters and quests instead. They take you out of the game experience completely, like if you went to the movies and the film was 2 hours of text that you had to read, instead of being an actual movie. The radio in Fallout is a much better source of world building information, and you can experience it as you travel. Obviously they couldn't do that in the Scrolls games, but the books are not the answer either. And don't start with the 'the books in Oblivion sucked' - they suck in both games.

And I maintain that the perk system in Skyrim is utterly boring, so the thought of having another one with the Vampire Lord class does not fill me with joy.

I agree that dlc is a cop out at times, but that is why i don't buy that bullshit, and wait till the full version is out.

Books:Some books are interesting, but the majority aren't all that interesting.I think that books could be used to pass on the surroundings of the world, because the radio in fallout is too modern.
Modding:I think modding helps make the game more enjoyable, because a lot of things really take out the desire to play.In oblivion, i had desire to really play quests, but so far i'm not excited with any of the quests.I have done a lot of quests for the vampire lords, and gained a few decent pieces of gear, like the ring of beast, which increases my total hp by 100 and increases the power of my claw attack by 20.Or the ring of erudite which increases mana regen by 75% or something obscene like that.I'm a little disappointed, cause you would think the gear had more to do with vampire lords than just that.To me, the ring of erudite isn't even special, like that skeleton key in oblivion which is actually a unique item that opens doors and cannot break.I also haven't made any spells yet, so i figure it can't be done.I think it was vastly overpowered in oblivion that you could create spells that have infinite power and destroy everyone instantly.

What i don't like about skyrim so far, is i can't master 1 perk i want.I have to use points used to level up from leveling up perks i don't want.Right now, i am leveling archery and sneaking up.I'm a light armored ranger type assassin.I like stealth and stealth related games, so to me, that is why i do it vrykolas.I'm not sure what your kind of game is.I haven't really played much new vegas yet, so i can't really argue about fallout new vegas.I'l eventually get to the review.

The world of skyrim feels a little smaller than oblivion, and more compact with dungeons.I remember the map being slightly bigger in oblivion, with lots more empty areas where dungeons could fit.I also haven't seen much variation at all either.There are dungeons and towers and thats it, and most of the time in dungeons, i either fight undeads, bears or vampires.In daggerfall you could encounter at least 3 or 4 different type of creatures in 1 dungeon, and at harder difficulty, you would get killed because you hadn't upgraded your weapon.

What i would like:I think fallout 3 had more variation in difficulty, because if you went early into downtown dc, you would be brutally murdered by super mutants.Same goes for behemoths and death claws.I haven't had to reload my previous save much at all, and this is very disappointing.I think having a zone area where enemies are tougher and having a warning about how tough those enemies are would be nice, because there would be more fear and adventurous feel to the game, instead of plowing through enemies easily.

Apparently Skyrim is either around the same size or slightly smaller, but the rugged terrain makes it seem comparable in size (because getting around is often very difficult due to sheer cliffs etc). I tend to stick to roads anyway in both games, striking off the path whenever I see something interesting. Blundering about off the paths rarely does much good, as any time you might save taking a shortcut usually only ends up with you running into cliffs or sheer drops or whatever.

Like I said, I found the perks really boring, and that didn't interest me in the way that the Fallout ones do. Plus there usually wasn't any great choice - there would be a few that I wanted, and some I didn't care about. So I never felt like I was having to make any hard choices on what to pick. A lot of the spell perks are extremely high level also, meaning that I had to wait so long to get them, that I didn't really need them anymore by the time they finally became available.

My type of game is most definitely not stealth! I like to get up close and personal, and even in games like Fallout, I usually go full combat. Even in shooters, I usually always gravitate towards shotguns and whatever close combat the game allows (I'm always a Vanguard in Mass Effect for example). I do like mages and psychic powers etc in games too though, so I sometimes run full mages in some games (I'm usually a damage dealing kind of mage, though I do like summoning raising as well, if the game does it well). The rare occasions when I play as evil characters, I usually make them into some kind of sorceror. I like to be dynamic, leaping into danger and making things happen. Sneaking about and sniping and all that jazz is not enjoyable at all for me.

Fallout 3 was a little annoying in that you often got no real warning at all about tough areas (because in Bethesda games, NPCs rarely acknowledge that anywhere or anyone exists outside of their immediate area or the focus of the quest they give you). New Vegas has a much more interconnected world, and it feels more like a proper world, rather than a series of generally isolated dungeons and towns. NPCs in the towns and the DJs on the radio will warn you of nearby dangers, and the game doesn't just throw the elite enemies at you out of nowhere. If you head into a really dangerous area, it won't be become you had no warning. And the game makes sure you understand this by putting an extreme example at the start (when the townsfolk say not to go North, they aren't kidding!)

And yeah, the quests in Skyrim suck. Its particularly annoying that all you get for completely a quest usually is little drum roll, and maybe a magic weapon you'll never use or some other piece of junk. Some don't even have that. You don't get Exp or anything like that, because of how the system works, and the items you get are rarely ever worth the time and effort you went through. And sometimes its just Gold - like you honestly need any more of that!

Apparently Skyrim is either around the same size or slightly smaller, but the rugged terrain makes it seem comparable in size (because getting around is often very difficult due to sheer cliffs etc). I tend to stick to roads anyway in both games, striking off the path whenever I see something interesting. Blundering about off the paths rarely does much good, as any time you might save taking a shortcut usually only ends up with you running into cliffs or sheer drops or whatever.

Like I said, I found the perks really boring, and that didn't interest me in the way that the Fallout ones do. Plus there usually wasn't any great choice - there would be a few that I wanted, and some I didn't care about. So I never felt like I was having to make any hard choices on what to pick. A lot of the spell perks are extremely high level also, meaning that I had to wait so long to get them, that I didn't really need them anymore by the time they finally became available.

I reached level 33, and i'm not all that impressed with the perks either, because i can't efficiently build the class i want.

My type of game is most definitely not stealth! I like to get up close and personal, and even in games like Fallout, I usually go full combat. Even in shooters, I usually always gravitate towards shotguns and whatever close combat the game allows (I'm always a Vanguard in Mass Effect for example). I do like mages and psychic powers etc in games too though, so I sometimes run full mages in some games (I'm usually a damage dealing kind of mage, though I do like summoning raising as well, if the game does it well). The rare occasions when I play as evil characters, I usually make them into some kind of sorceror. I like to be dynamic, leaping into danger and making things happen. Sneaking about and sniping and all that jazz is not enjoyable at all for me.

Fallout 3 was a little annoying in that you often got no real warning at all about tough areas (because in Bethesda games, NPCs rarely acknowledge that anywhere or anyone exists outside of their immediate area or the focus of the quest they give you). New Vegas has a much more interconnected world, and it feels more like a proper world, rather than a series of generally isolated dungeons and towns. NPCs in the towns and the DJs on the radio will warn you of nearby dangers, and the game doesn't just throw the elite enemies at you out of nowhere. If you head into a really dangerous area, it won't be become you had no warning. And the game makes sure you understand this by putting an extreme example at the start (when the townsfolk say not to go North, they aren't kidding!)

I used a sniper character actually.I tend to use shotguns a lot as well, but that is because how much of a powerhouse it is.Sniper rifles are good because you can kill enemies before they see you, like super mutants.This is especially needed in some areas around downtown dc ruins, because there is an area with a super mutant with a rocket launcher around several areas.I don't actually like mini guns though, because it misses too often and wastes a ton of bullets.There is even a really good rifle you can get which is better than any other rifle most likely except the lincoln repeater.This rifle is in the republic of dave in the safe.This is also helpful against death claws.I use most of the time though, machine guns like chinese assault rifles, or some sort of automatic, because in close range, rifles are at a disadvantage.The real advantage comes from being really far away and getting a hit on an enemy.Shotguns are good at really close range for blowing the arm off of your enemy.Super mutants usually do a ton of damage to you with their stupid mini guns before you get them to drop their gun.I usually try to aim for the head.

And yeah, the quests in Skyrim suck. Its particularly annoying that all you get for completely a quest usually is little drum roll, and maybe a magic weapon you'll never use or some other piece of junk. Some don't even have that. You don't get Exp or anything like that, because of how the system works, and the items you get are rarely ever worth the time and effort you went through. And sometimes its just Gold - like you honestly need any more of that!

I actually don't get that many good items so far at all.I just joined the stormcloaks and got a full suit of crappy leather that is inferior to my elven armor.
I seriously doubt they will beat my scale bracer or legendary quality elven guilded breastplate of 180 defense.

I was a Mage with my first character, so I obviously went to do the Mage's Guild quest basically immediately. I asked around at the start, heard about Winterhold and trekked all the way up there to learn me some spells. The Quests were incredibly easy, with only the final Liche posing any kind of trouble (I was like 6 hours in so...), but I prevailed and completed the Mage's Guild questline.

And in so doing, I got a free house (in the Archmages's Quarters), so I had a free bed, free chests to store stuff etc etc. I got the best set of robes I found in over 80 hours of play (again, just 6 hours in). And the face mask from the Liche was by far the best one of all the Liches I beat over the course of the game (its replenishes Mana 100% quicker or spells are 100% less to cast - I forget now, but it was something like that, and it was miles better than anything else I ever found).

So that took a great deal of the fun out of looting, after that. And considering that I didn't use weapons at all (I did all my damage with spells and Summoned Atronachs), I wasn't getting a great deal out of looting. The first time I did use a weapon was when I got Mehrunes Dagon's Razor - which was so amazing, that it was better than anything else I subsequently found. Because a) its a dagger, so it doesn't weigh much, b) its strikes quickly, again because its a dagger and c) has an instant kill chance that works against everything apart from Alduin and maybe some of the more powerful Dragons - but it does work on lesser Dragons, Liches, Draugyr Death Overlords and everything in between. And the best part - it doesn't have a magic meter, so it can't run out, and need to be refuelled - it has that effect on all the time and it never runs out.

And I got it after like 8 hours, because I was playing an evil mage, and priortized the Daedra missions, and did this one quickly, because it had ties to the Mythic Dawn Cult from Oblivion, and I really enjoyed that part of Oblivion's story.