Well, I can safely say that this is the longest a game has ever held my attention with interesting, new content (with the possible exception of Baldur's Gate II, but I don't really remember how long that actually was, only that it was long), and I gotta say, it was magnificent. I didn't even manage to get through all of the questlines, although I feel like doing any more would've been boring (character functionally maxed and once you've hit level 50 or so, the remaining content is just variations on a theme).

My only two complaints are probably the standard ones, i.e. if you are able to kill the dark brotherhood, there is ABSOLUTELY NO REASON you shouldn't be able to kill the Thieves Guild / Maven Blackbriar, and kill the blades. Otherwise I consider Skyrim to be an unmitigated success, and well worth my purchase.

Anyways, I really wish they'd included a more definitive end to the game. It's unfortunate that it just dumps you back out into the world like that with nary a minor cutscene or series of stills with accompanying voiceover. I guess its perfect for people who raced through the main quest (its really quite good!), but I suspect most people are like me and leave the main quest until the end (at which point, if you're a completionist like me, you are one hitting enemies on master difficulty and have become functionally invulnerable), and I felt like something a little more significant would've been nice. The in game cutscene is a good start, but I would've preferred more.

Anyways, that's what I thought. Happy skyriming.

I went through as a stealth archer, but now I'm so powerful--sneak 100, archery 80--that I'm starting to use destruction magic on everyone who isn't too powerful, to the point that they require my bow. It's working well for me, and should allow me to continue leveling up after the main questlines have been finished.

As of right now, I don't think I'm going to quit Skyrim until I've S ranked it, which I believe is something I've never done with a retail title. It will make the inevitable DLC somewhat bittersweet.

If you haven't already definitely do the mage guild quest; and the daedric quests from sanguine (a night to remember) and sheogorath (the mind of madness). Also be sure to check out the smuggler's cove near solitude - it has ships in a foggy cave like the goonies.

I hit 72 and sort of got stuck with levelling. Its theoretically possible to get to around 80 but I don't think I can with the build I made... So I started an new character to go through the Mages guild quest and hunt down all the Daedric quests. Using a new build once you hit a high enough level you get bored is definitely the way to go especially considering how different an experience you can have with a different build and just heading in a completely different direction to last time.

@Neeshka said:

If you haven't already definitely do the mage guild quest; and the daedric quests from sanguine (a night to remember) and sheogorath (the mind of madness). Also be sure to check out the smuggler's cove near solitude - it has ships in a foggy cave like the goonies.

The "A Night to Remember" quest made me sad. I accidentally skipped several sections of the quest by picking up a random item that turned out to be a quest item from much later. Because of that, the story of the quest didn't make any sense to me. :(

I finished the main quest at the exact 100 hour mark. I'm so OP it's ridiculous- despite being light I have well over 500 armour and my bow does 350 damage or something daft (also leeches 20 and freezes 25) from sneak attacks, which nearly always are successful as I have 150 sneak or something with enchantments. I'm also resistant to fire and ice.

I've only met two dragon priests, but I took the second one out in two shots. :P

Hmm, according to Steam I have played 82 hours, I'm currently level 26 and I have 32% achievements unlocked. I'm pretty sure I'm going to run over 90.5 hours. I don't have many complaints since it's what I expected. Oblivion was my most played game outside of WoW in recent years. There are bugs a-plenty, but nothing crippling so far. I'm used to that with Bethesda games. Besides, it is possible to love a game and recognize its many flaws. I had that type of relationship with Mass Effect 1. So many problems but, God help me, I love it so.

I think my favorite feature is the companions. I had companions in Fallout 3 and even via mods, Oblivion. I think they come together better in Skyrim than in any previous iteration. As long as you don't accidentally kill them (and I've reloaded a save a few times because of this) Lydia has saved my butt more than once. Plus, she can carry a whole lot and for someone who hates to leave any treasure behind that's a significant bonus. I guess if I had to quibble about something it's that the companions don't chat enough. I really loved the banter between the characters in Dragon Age Origins and I would have liked something like that. I know that since it's usually just me and her roaming the countryside, that type of interplay isn't possible. However, some more comments from her occasionally or maybe just a random story would be nice. "Oh there's a cave, I wonder what's in there." and "...sigh..." aren't really enough for me.

Either way, I'm pressing on. I really should go find that thing the Grey Wardens, I mean Greybeards want.

Well, I accidentally deleted my first character of 35 hours and was so angry at myself that I couldn't play it for a solid month. Slowly, I got back into it and now I've got a character I've played for ~25 hours. So I've only got 60 hours under my belt and haven't gotten that far at all.

I want one with high enchanting, smithing, one-handed, light armor, and destruction magic skills.

Also, I suggest finishing the main quest rather early; you get some really handy shouts from it.

This thread made me think, is there a way to check time played in game on console versions? I have sort of lost track on my current character since a large chunk of my time with the game was on a poor 2h sword man I tossed in the garbage.

@Zenaxzd: If you go to the load game screen instead of just selecting Continue from the main screen you should be able to see the game's clock for each save file. At least that's how the PC version displays it, I know sometimes Xbox and PS3 games use system interfaces for loading and saving.

@GS_Dan said:

I finished the main quest at the exact 100 hour mark. I'm so OP it's ridiculous- despite being light I have well over 500 armour and my bow does 350 damage or something daft (also leeches 20 and freezes 25) from sneak attacks, which nearly always are successful as I have 150 sneak or something with enchantments. I'm also resistant to fire and ice.

I've only met two dragon priests, but I took the second one out in two shots. :P

Haha, yeah, the scaling in Skyrim is pretty terrible. There was a point in the game where I couldn't do ANYTHING playing on Adept through absolutely no fault of my own. I had focused on a good mix of skills (the same ones that would later prove astronomically overpowered), and had to resort to abusing level geometry to win fights. Maybe 10 hours of play later, the game was far too easy on master. At the time I put the game down (I don't think I would buy any expansion packs) I had in the region of 2100 armor, and hit for just a little shy of 400 damage with my daedric sword. When blocking, I am functionally invincible (even with stamina full depleted, I regenerated health faster than a pair of draugr deathlords could drain it).

Skyrim is a blast, but there is no way to hit all of the content in the game (probably not even half of it) without reaching a point where you are now sufficiently powerful that you have taken combat and the character building aspect (the most important one) out of the game.

It was an easy 10/10 A+++ all the same though. I'm just sorry it didn't finish with more of a bang. Just dumping you back into the world you'd basically made your beyotch already was anticlimactic.

@MikeyA: Yup. I quite enjoyed becoming essentially superpowered, as in the early game as a thief I was consistently being outmatched. The satisfaction of decimating enemies before they even see you is great.

@SpaceInsomniac: I did the exact same thing, "A Night to Remember" was complete non-sense to me, but Sanguine seems like a dope guy to hang with.

I'm at 87 hours and I have done barely anything in this game. I like wandering around, stumbling across places. Spending hours going through a dungeon stealthing everyone.

@Zenaxzd said:

@ChaosDent said:

@Zenaxzd: If you go to the load game screen instead of just selecting Continue from the main screen you should be able to see the game's clock for each save file. At least that's how the PC version displays it, I know sometimes Xbox and PS3 games use system interfaces for loading and saving.

Ah only on the main menu then? That would explain it as I usually do just select continue. Cool.

When you go to save in the pause menu, you can see the amount of time played on each save file. If you deleted all the saves of your two handed weapon character, then there is no way to know how many hours you played with him.

I played Skyrim for 154 hours and got the S-Rank.

It's quite good, by the way.

Over 300 hours, about 5 characters.  
 
A psychopathic wood elf in Daedric armor with a giant axe who loves the Empire and is Listener of the Dark Brotherhood.  
A pretty Khajiit conjurer with the kleptomaniacal traits of her people. 
 An Orc who refuses to conform to the ideals of his people and will instead make a living in the shadows and grow old (he already has grey hair). 
A high elf pacifist who follows the Way of the Voice. 
A super-stereotypical Nord who sides with the Stormcloaks, fights alongside the Companions and hunts dragons.
 
It may be the best game ever, but after doing all that. -- and playing the Amalur demo -- I'm ready to visit another world for a little bit. Also after playing the Amalur demo, I am reminded of how far from being Skyrim even good games are -- like half the skills and the world is made of (admittedly big) corridors. And we complain that we can't perform every possible quest that could involve the Thieves Guild. I doubt Amalur will even have guilds.

Everyday I'm tempted to jump back in and start a 4th character. But then I see Rage sitting there untouched.

225 hours. Seems like a lot! I made two characters because I don't like the disconnect between the quests. Never made it very far in the main quest, so maybe I'll go back to it.

Over 300 hours, about 5 characters.   A psychopathic wood elf in Daedric armor with a giant axe who loves the Empire and is Listener of the Dark Brotherhood.  A pretty Khajiit conjurer with the kleptomaniacal traits of her people.  An Orc who refuses to conform to the ideals of his people and will instead make a living in the shadows and grow old (he already has grey hair). A high elf pacifist who follows the Way of the Voice. A super-stereotypical Nord who sides with the Stormcloaks, fights alongside the Companions and hunts dragons. It may be the best game ever, but after doing all that. -- and playing the Amalur demo -- I'm ready to visit another world for a little bit. Also after playing the Amalur demo, I am reminded of how far from being Skyrim even good games are -- like half the skills and the world is made of (admittedly big) corridors. And we complain that we can't perform every possible quest that could involve the Thieves Guild. I doubt Amalur will even have guilds.

I've played 70 odd hours on my mage and I am going to start another character as a pure stealth (the little bit of stealth i got into during my mage time seemed like a lot of fun).... At least that's the plan after I play some other games I have. Maybe in a few months or when I can justify spending money on the pc version.