doddibot

I'd imagine to get every shout you'd need to join every faction.

Skingrad would probably be a better comparison, just because of the aesthetic similarities.

I was a little sad to see those Dark Brotherhood gloves, actually, because it meant when I create a character to join the Thieves Guild I'll have to be in the Dark Brotherhood too to get that bonus. I like to play one character per faction.

You can't jump while galloping, and when you try to jump your horse waits a split second to change gait to prepare for the jump. It doesn't really feel natural at all. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0Ib8D2XhFs&

Aragorn's sword Narsil is probably just a longsword, or maybe a bastard sword. Gimli's axe is short because he's short :P

Honestly, I find the first battles (below level 10) to be the most visceral and realistic, at least for both a lightly armored thief and an unarmored mage. A blast of fire or a couple well-placed arrows will take down a bandit, but a blow or two from a bandit's battle-axe and I'm dead. Feels much better than any of the level-30 battles, which for a thief consists of either exploiting the bad AI to get endless sneak attacks or having to hit an opponent ~30 times before he'll die, and for a mage usually consists of alternating between throwing a few powerful spells then turning invisible or taking magicka potions, because again the enemies have bajillions of health to get through. Only warriors feel ok at around level 30...

Into the black soul gem of the necromancer who killed you?

Skyrim has taken massive leaps forward in some areas and massive leaps back in others. But I'm going to be uncharacteristically optimistic and say that most of what is good about Skyrim would have been hard to mod and most of what is bad should be easier to mod. For example, in comparison to Oblivion and Morrowind, the spell effects look much better and magic duals feel more visceral with the ability to ward and continue channelling a spell until your run out of magicka. But that came at the cost of a decreased number of spells, no spellmaking, and removing a school of magic. But adding in dozens of new (but balanced) spells is a task most modders are better suited for than creating new animations. Another example: we have pretty decent animations for smelting, forging etc (which would have been hard to mod), but we're lacking a reason to eat, the ability to pay for enchanting or smithing to be done by NPCs on your behalf. But most modders would be better able to create a hunger/cooking system than they would the animations for them. There's also a lot more personality in each dungeon, and the world looks great, but the dungeons and night are far too bright. Bur, playing with lighting values should be a lot easier than creating new models or even textures. I imagine in a year or so, somebody new to Skyrim will be enjoying the game immensely with a host of great mods that add to the realism, balance and fun. In much the same way I enjoyed FNV when I played it earlier this year due to great mods like Project Nevada.

I agree that parrying should be possible, but being able to cover an angle of attack is not the only element involved in a parry. One also needs the strength to deflect the blow away from the body. If you've only got one hand behind each of your swords, you're not going to be as effective at deflecting a blow from a greatsword as you could be had you two hands behind your blade. But you are right that if you did manage to parry with one hand, the other hand would be in a good position to attack (unless your opponent was dual wielding or equipped with a shield).

I'd rather be half-giant than Dragonborn.

Are they actually oversized? Medieval greatswords and claymores were ~120cm and ~140cm long (respectively), in a period when the average human height was only about 160-170cm. Before posting this, I just dropped a greatsword next to a corpse and it looked about right to me.

I thought they did attack you if you spent too long in their house. Or was that Oblivion... NPCs do tend to go on alert when an arrow goes past their head, but not for very long. And nearby NPCs do tend to be alerted to, I think. But you're very right that the alert decay rate is far too rapid.

Presumably you'd talk to whoever runs the stables and spend another 1000 gold on a horse for your companion, and after that point, they have their own horse.

Horses can jump. Not well, but they can. I'd like my horse to be able to TROT. They canter most of the time, can gallop for a while, or slow down to a walk, but no trotting.

Played through the entire game up to level 50 with absolutely no need to ever use a torch, light spell or night eye. Something is wrong.