Getting to the north side of Skyrim, the frozen glaciers and chasms, ice in the water, snow...and then I look back, towards the mountain and I see a dragon fly past in the distance, roaring and flying past.
 
Amazing.

My companion head-shotted a bandit with an arrow.

Giants were attacking an orc village. Dragon swooped in. Three way battle of insanity: village vs. dragon vs. giants.

Giants were attacking an orc village. Dragon swooped in. Three way battle of insanity: village vs. dragon vs. giants.

@AhmadMetallic said:

@Three0neFive said:

Trekking from Whiterun to the Eldergleam Sanctuary on foot ('cuz that's how I do) with Maurice, I came across a few bandit hideouts, numerous wild beasts and a full-blown dungeon. I conquered them all, all the while ensuring the survival of my well-intentioned hitchhiker. When we finally got to the sanctuary a few hours later he had but a sliver of health left, but we could finally rest. Game of the year, all years.

Escort missions FTW! Wait what.

I haven't seen any escort missions yet (25 hours in), but you can have someone follow you if want to. I've got a dog and a wood elf from Riverwood following me. I've pimped the elf out to wear heavy armor, and he has a really nice dagger that I gave him.

I once found a cabin in the forest, near Riverwood while taking an evening stroll. I thought it was the home of some dude who wasn't there, so I picked the lock and entered the cabin to see if he had some loot. Upon entering, a bandit came up from the basement and attacked me. I swiftly shot him down with my Falmer bow. After looting the corpse and finding nothing of value in the cabin I turned to the door. As I was about to leave the cabin, I noticed that someone had posted a notice on the door. It was firmly placed with a dagger. It mentioned something about a "treasure room". I searched through all of the cabin for some hidden door or hatch, and couldn't find one. Just as I was about to give up, I found a button hidden by a shelf. After I pressed it, the inconspicuous bookshelf started to rotate, and a passage was revealed! Inside, there were numerous bandits and several rooms of treasure.

Best moment so far was in a heavily-trapped dungeon. I sniped a crouching bandit in the back of the head and he faceplanted into the trigger of a boulder trap which instantly killed two of his buddies. Gratification!

So far, coolest moment for me was when I was fighting a Giant. I had nearly killed him then suddenly found myself stuck against a wall of rock, out of stamina, out of magic. Then out of nowhere a sabertooth attacked the Giant and distracted it long enough for me to back away. I finished off the Giant and then decided to let the cat live for helping me... I ran like hell from it because it wasn't so friendly.

However, it was at that same time that my follower vanished and has been a problem since. She just vanished. Now I can't get a new follower because I haven't dismissed the first one. She isn't in my house or where I first found her. So I'm ranging back and forth in the area I lost her hoping she turns up but so far no luck.

*edit*

I found her. She was standing in the middle of an open field as if I told her to wait there (which I didn't). Whatever, time to dismiss her.

This is minor but I really liked it. 
 
I was just sitting in one of the lumber mills doing the sprint shout and then all of a sudden a courier showed up. The courier had a letter from a guy who wanted to see me because I had been making quite the ruckus showing off the fact that I was dragonborn to everyone in this tiny little town. I had no intention of this even happening but it was a cool little thing that I enjoyed. I also got off my horse once and then it was flung sky high, only to land next to me dead about 15 seconds later. That was definitely a bug but it was still pretty funny. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=pA8R52b-1z0#t=1685s

This is the best moment I've seen in a video game, period. I'm still laughing.

I think my coolest moment so far is when a dragon attacked in the courtyard of the mages school, I'm a pure mags sending steams of fire at this frost dragon when the rest of the mages join in, so we are all in a circle around this dragon roasting it, needless to say it didn't last long

@fishmicmuffin said:

This is minor but I really liked it. I was just sitting in one of the lumber mills doing the sprint shout and then all of a sudden a courier showed up. The courier had a letter from a guy who wanted to see me because I had been making quite the ruckus showing off the fact that I was dragonborn to everyone in this tiny little town. I had no intention of this even happening but it was a cool little thing that I enjoyed. I also got off my horse once and then it was flung sky high, only to land next to me dead about 15 seconds later. That was definitely a bug but it was still pretty funny.

I had a guard ask me to stop shouting in town because I was making everyone nervous.

@Pinworm45: Epic horse. Mine sucks, always getting eaten by bears leaving me to walk

A dark brotherhood assassin randomly coming after me, then reading a note that said someone wanted me dead.

I was checking out a some random roads and came upon 7 imperial soldiers walking down the road, when I approached them they rudely threatened me to go on my way. I walked pssed them a bit further up the road and saw a group of rebel soldiers with a camp off to the side a walked up behind a roch to wait and see what happened, sure enough when the imperials passed the rebels a huge battle broke out that lasted about 3 minutes. I never got involved and when it was over a loan rebel stood with barely any health, I walked down to the slaughter and looted all the corpses the whole time she was trying to scare me off and telling me back away but I let her live and took my loot.

Another time just outside whiterun I hit a random dragon encounter while fighting some bandits, it flew down and immediatly all my foes joined me in the fight against it. Even the watchtower guards came down and it felt like a real war or something about 10 guys and me fighting this dragon arrows flying through the air. The AI is great best Ive seen in a game like this all the random events feel like they could be scripted moments.

After exploring the souther area of Skyrim I began scaling the down the western edge of The Throat of the World. At a 50 degree angle. Without a path in sight. In a full raging blizzard. I was surprised I reached Riverwood without a scratch.

I also fought a werewolf in a hidden grotto. He stood with a red moon behind him. Amazing.

That also reminds me, I saw more than one moon at night :O

I snuck up on up a sleeping dragon and one shot it with my daggers. It was pretty bad ass.

So much awesome stuff in this game so far - I am still amazed that the games does not take up more that a bit over 5 gigs...

My horse is freekin' Chuck Norris reincarnated - it takes on dragons, mammoths, giants, spiders, bandits, imperials etc. Sometimes I spend more time fighting my war out of some brawl started by this insane pony of mine, than I do questing!

A cool moment was while roaming around in the forests - I saw this hut - and I kinda choked up a bit. No idea what happened, but I guess this husband and wife was attacked by a dragon - one of then kneeling over the other - was a rare moment where i just stood there, looking at it - thinking about how god damn awesome a game this is...

.... 8-10 seconds later my horse had attacked a giant spider behind the house..... DAMN YOU HORSE!

so far i've killed 3 dragons, 2 giants, and this flying magic dude with 2 staffs and a doctor doom mask... thats all i can think of right now

Well, I am not far in due to life interfering (Ugh!) but one of my well... funniest moments was after I had bought a horse and was riding around Whiterun. I was so distracted by staring at a sky of full moon, stars and aurora borealis and I did not notice a wolf sneaking up until I heard its realistic growl. It was then that I jumped out of my seat, heart beating, and then used my BA firespell to kill it. Kind of embarrassing but shows the awesomeness of the game.

I also was amazed when I snuck into the Battle-born house in Whiterun, as a part of a quest (no spoiler!) and there was a child sitting on a bench, just watching me sneak and steal and did not say a word. And I was detected the whole time... awesome!!

So I was at this Inn waiting around so I could steal a staff for a guy so he could pretend to be a mage so that people wouldn't hassle him. Then I notice this cloaked guy drinking on his own, so naturally I talk to him. He challenges me to a drinking contest, offering a staff as a reward. Not one to pussy out I agree, the he says we'll be drinking his 'special' brew, though a little apprehensive I proceed to down 3 tankards. All seemed well, until I blacked out.

I wake up the next day with a priestess screaming in my ear. Apparently I barged into the temple last night, shouted something about marrying a goat and then trashed the place. So I gave her some gold to cover the damage, turns out though that this temple is on the complete opposite side of the map to the town where I started and I've never even been here before, I have no clue how I got there or what I did last night and my drinking buddy went off to some other town in the middle of nowhere and now I have to go look for him.

And thats just a random sidequest...f**king epic!

@Akvavit: I found that, was pretty moving. There is a note in the house talking about the possible location of a dragon if you follow it you will find one.

1.The moment when I realized that this game has random dragons.
2.Was walking through the mountains, suddenly I see 4 bandits in soldier armor next to 4 dead naked bodies. They said that they are imperials and demand a 100 gold fee. Knowing I had little chance fighting against 4 of them, I paid them and walked away frustrated. I walked for a while and suddenly a dragon attacked, I was far too low leveled to kill him by myself. Not knowing what to do, I suddenly remembered the bandits.I sprinted back to their location and they helped me kill the dragon.
3.I was walking in Whiterun when suddenly the skeleton of the first dragon you fight near the tower appeard above me and fell down. Awesome.
4.Using the floor trap breathing fire to defeat a giant spider in the depths. Never felt so clever in my life.
5.I had a quest to retrieve a magic sword from a cat dude who wanted to give it to a forest lady who then killed the cat duded and wanted to kill me as well. She was too powerful for me to handle. I just sprinted to the cat dude's dead body, took the sword and never came back.

New coolest thing is I found a bug in my game which turns random textures light purple.

Oh Bethesda, your games are broken but I love them anyway.

I had a drinking contest with a guy called Sam, It was definutly the funniest thing I have done so far. I suggest that everyone else accept his challange.

@SpacePenguin: Dude I know right? I totally thought I'd won something, and then...well, no spoilers, but you know. Man, that was fucked up.

There was an archer trying to get me from really far away on narrow bridge over a waterfall approaching a river. I whipped out my bow and in about 3 well placed shots I saw his limp body topple off the bridge and plunge into the river far below. It was perfect.

Was on my way to another quest and stumbled upon a small house. Looked like just about every other house but sat in the middle of the woods. Meh, I'll check it out. I pick the lock then notice a bandit downstairs. That's weird I thought, a bandit inside of a house? I go ahead and sneak/backstab him for a 1-shot kill and search around the place noticing nothing of any value. This seemed super weird, and I just blew it off as a place that prolly had to do with a questline. As I head out, I notice a small button behind a dresser. I push it and a secret door opens to a dungeon below. Turned out to be a bandit cave and after 30 minutes of sneak sniping my way through bad guys I find the ringleader asleep in her bed. The space is crampt and she kills my light-armor khajit with her flame ax. Next load I do a crit backstab while she sleeps and use my shouts to whiddle her down as I keep my distance, weaving and striking with my daggers when she overswings. I eventually take her down and find not only a treasure chest, but a whole mess of gold sitting in an ACTUAL PILE in the room next door. I smile, remembering that I'm a thief and felt for the first time in years that I was actually roleplaying in a video game.

I'm pretty amazed with this game. I expected quite a bit, but I'm really enjoying the combat/exploration this time around. Altogether the game feels much more fleshed out than Oblivion, and while the outside areas don't have much variety I'm really pleased with the dungeon design and combat. Excellent, much improved game.

@snide: I stumbled across that house last night, Dave. It's awesome.

My funniest moment was when I was talking to the Jarl of Winterhold out in the street, and as soon as we finished, a dragon landed in the street right next to us. He charged it with his bare fists. I'm terrified of that man now.

I'm still really early in the game, but I had an awesome fight with a giant in the woods. I tried taking one on a couple of times previously, but they'd killed me in a single hit each time. Walking through a wood I noticed one on his own and decided to take it on. I was only level 6 or so at this point so stuck to my arrows and kept my distance. It took a good 5 minutes of circling round and firing arrows while he swang his club around, but when he finally dropped to one knee for me to finish him off with my warhammer, it felt awesome. Especially when I looked back and saw how much ground we'd covered during the fight. We were miles away from where we had started.

While not a unique experience, exploring some of the locations has been pretty amazing too. There's a particular sanctuary to the right of the map that's pretty incredible. Got sent there on a side mission.

Only just switched it off to go to bed... But feel like loading it back up.

So there I was trotting along the road to Riften, atop my noble stallion (who I have called Bruce), when a dragon flies above. Instantly it starts to rain, and I give chase towards an old watchtower on the side of the road. As I near it, the rain intensifies and I see lightning flashes in the distance. As I battle the dragon atop the tower, I also get the pleasure of the skyrim theme song blasting in my ears (1st time that I had heard that music ingame). The dragon and I clash for a good couple of minutes, rain pouring down, lightning screaming overhead with monks chanting ridiculously epic music. Finally I do enough damage to make the dragon unable to keep its balance, and it crashes down into the valley below. Seeing my chance for the killing blow, I leap off the top of the tower, landing on top of the dragon, and plunge my greatsword into its neck.
 
After absorbing the dragons' soul, I then proceed to casually clamber back atop Bruce, and continue on my merry way to Riften.

Only sort of epic thing I've seen so far was on a quest for the Companions to prove yourself and join their ranks.

Other than that, I just find it incredibly satisfying to sneak up behind an unsuspecting enemy and kill them with a single arrow. I'll find it even more satisfying if I can get in close and gut them with my swords, though, so I'm kind of hoping that will be a viable thing once I level up more.

Checking out a cave for Solitude's jarl when I notice two skeletons waiting outside the entrance. I sneak around for a clear shot with my bow and nail one in the head. As its partner ran at me I hear a loud crash from behind me. A dragon had landed and was breathing fire into the cave's entrance torching the skeleton and almost me as well. I took out my sword and equipped my best spell only to have the dragon go limp, burn up, and die.

I absorbed the soul, looted the dragon's body, and prepared to enter the cave to start my quest when I hear another roar. I look above and yet another dragon is circling in the night sky. I whip out my orc bow and begin lobbing a few errant arrows in hopes of buffeting the dragon some assuming it would land and begin another battle. But instead the dragon swooped low, just as I was reloading my bow, covered me in ice, and flew off not to be seen again.

Oh the cave? Full of necromancers trying to summon a god, no biggie.

I was doing the Dark Brotherhood quest and murdered someone who is of relatively high status in the town of Markarth. There are a lot of guards in Markarth for some reason (around 20) so they were all chasing after me with their swords and bows. For some reason once I left the town, a guard approached me with the lowly fine of only 40 Gold. I paid the fine and was taken back into the city, this time no longer being a wanted man.

When I left the city, my horse must have hit one of the guards or something because there was a clump of around 10 or so guards firing arrows at my horse from the city gate and the horse was also being hit by a circle of guards around him. I have no idea how my horse was managing to stay alive with all of this going on but, it did so I managed to get back on the horse and ride out of Markarth.

The other time was when I was making my way through The College of Winterhold' s questline (essentially the Mages Guild) and some pretty serious shit was already going on with a giant artefact in the middle of the building. But when I was asked to leave and tend to the town of Winterhold, a Dragon attacked. It was a randomly generated one and it just seemed so ridiculous on top of everything that was already happening in that area.

@Atlas said:

New coolest thing is I found a bug in my game which turns random textures light purple.

Oh Bethesda, your games are broken but I love them anyway.

I had that with the tree leaves textures and I was amazed how beautiful the area looked from further away.

Might not even realize that it was a bug if I hadn't seen the area before.

I just played 'Tag' and 'Hide & Go-Seek' with a couple of kids who had watched their uncle get beheaded the day before. That shit was surreal.

I have had a couple awesome moments so far. First was when I walked into town and seen a dog walking on the bottom side of a bridge. Second was in the champions quest mentioned earlier. Third was when I realised how much voice work/ work in general must have gone into this game. Fourth, whenever I'm in most dungeons I usually end up standing and shouting at the TV "I know there is something around that corner... I know it! Don't fuck with me, game, just get it over with *skeleton appears and I jump* fuck this game!" I think skyrim is the only game I get engrossed enough in to make me jump.

Dragon fighting mammoth, then I landed the final blow on the mammoth with a glass arrow right before the dragon hit it. Mammoth flew into the air a couple hundred feet.

While walking to Whiterun in the dead of night from a nearby dungeon, I saw a faint-glow that was moving along the roads a few hundred yards from where I stood. So I ran to get a closer look and saw the faint outline of a ghost on what appeared to be a ghost horse. Running up to him, attempting to catch him as he was too running, I noticed that he was without a head. He lead me on a 10 minute chase across the plains until he disappeared, literally, at a camp that was full of very angry skeletons. I was unable to catch up to him to attack/talk to him, but just knowing that somewhere in this game there roams a headless horsemen, ghost-man and that I encountered and then lost track of him is very exciting to me.

@Fjordson: Was going to say the same thing and completely agree!

I thought the quest involving a man pretending to be a spooky ghost was pretty great.

I was wondering the countryside just outside of Whiterun, trying to find a mammoth to hunt so as to retrieve its tusk. While looking for one of these beasts I stumbled upon a bit of ruins with three skeletons walking around them. I manage to kill one of them, thinking the other two hadn't seen me, but sure enough I turn around and they're chasing after me. I'm too weak to take them both on, so turn back around and start running for it and whaddaya know, there's a mammoth. It starts running toward me, and swings its massive tusks when it gets near. So now I'm on the run from it as well. As I'm running I quickly turn around to see if they were still on me, and as soon as I do the mammoth bulldozes the two skeletons and their bones fly in all directions, and the mammoth stands there basking on top of their remains. Turns out it wasn't chasing me at all, it just really, really didn't like those skeletons.

To thank him from saving me from certain annihilation, I let him live and went off to search for another mammoth.

Doesn't seem all that great, but everything happened so suddenly, yet so fluidly that it was really intense, and beyond what I expected Bethesda to accomplish in terms of interaction between different creatures/NPCs and the player.

I was investigating some bandit cave I found and got to the final area. I killed two minion bandits, but was left with a rather tough bandit chieftain. Backtracking while shooting rather ineffective fireballs, I was just about almost dead when he walked into his own trap, which was a swinging mammoth head. Needless to say, I won that encounter.

Only a few hours into the game, I was trekking across a mountain, when I saw a Dragon-looking icon on the map. I thought, "Oh man, I'm only level 4. I definitely shouldn't take on a dragon..." when I hear it. The terrible sound of dragon wings spreading and beating against the air around me. It was about this time I realized I had quick saved about 10 seconds before... So I decided to take him on.

I was at the top of a huge peak, with very little around me to stand on without falling to my death. I used the strategy of hiding behind the peak while he hovered, and hit him with my Ember Bow until he would land, then hit him with my sick Axe thing (the names of these things are too insane to memorize). I only died 2 times, until I had bested him. Went from barely level 4 to almost level 6. It took me a moment to realize I hadn't taken a breath in about a minute, and I was sweating.

This game is amazing.

This has easily become one of my favorite threads on Giantbomb. So many great stories from a great game.

Coolest thing I can think of off the top of my head was when I killed a dragon as a werewolf. That was pretty awesome.

I was talking to the Blades guy at Sky Haven Temple (Emb-something, I forget) and all of a sudden, I hear a giant thud behind me. I think "what the fuck is that?" and turn around to see dragon sitting there looking directly at me.

Just had a really cool moment.

I've been doing so much side stuff that I only just got to the stage in the main quest where dragons are roaming the world. Had my first random encounter with one and it was awesome. Was roaming the tundra outside of Whiterun and happened upon a group of bandits. We started fighting, but after maybe 15-20 seconds of fighting these dudes I hear a massive roar, and all of a sudden a dragon swoops down and grabs one of the bandits in its mouth and starts circling where we are (was sort of like in the gameplay demo everyone's seen where the dragon grabs the giant). The bandits started yelling and whatnot and instantly turned on the dragon, and we ended up taking it down together. Was an epic fight, last for at least 5 minutes.

Of course once he was down they remembered who I was and I had to own them. But I appreciated their help :P

I love this game.

I was in a cave being rushed by 8 or so redgaurd in arab style attire and weilding curved sabres. I sprinted out of a narrow passage way and into a larger room. They came at me one after another i managed to strike them down with my bow just before they could strike me their momentum carrying them forward to my feet until a pile of bodies was formed.