Decent game, but marred by a few major flaws and dumbed down compared to previous installments. Overated.
Here are my reasons.
Graphics: Sure it looks pretty, but its not very consistant. Textures in the background are very low resolution and breaks the immersion. Pop up is frequent and nasty looking, (especially while on horseback) all NPC's are ugly. Limited armor designs
Sound: Best thing here, no complaints. Good voice acting although they needed to use a more varied cast and if they did I would have awarded it full marks.
Gameplay: Severly dumbed down from the rest of the series and catering to the console casual market. Physics system is nice but flawed. For instance if you hit an opponent with your sword, it does not matter if you hit their head or their finger it will do the same damage.
But my main critisism of the gameplay systems is the horrid desicion of the developers to implement a "scaling" system in regards to loot and creature power. Essentially this means the game world levels with you, so eventually you will just see all the same monsters where ever you go and all the same loot. Whats the point in having 200 dungeons in the world, when all you will ever see is the same old opponents and loot? Very dissapointing.
Out of all the versions available the PC version is the best simple by the virtue that these flaws have been fixed with modding. I cant see how the Xbox version is scored higher than the PS3, which boasts better load times, more content on release and superior graphics. Come on gamespot get with the play and stop being so biased....
Story is generic and boring. Some of the side quests are nice however, in particular the Dark brotherhood quests.
Value: At first you will think this game is awesome, but you will soon realise that its a sweet with a very bitter centre. Soon the game will grind to a halt as you combat the same monsters and recieve the same loot. You will tire of bandits which previously wore simple garments all wielding the best items you can get in the game. I mean come on whats the point of exploration when you know what you are going to get?
Its a decent game but its also a very Overated game, on the consoles that could have been so much more.....