Polaris

Disclaimer: 12 hours in, so I'm by no means an expert on Skyrim. Might be harder later on, for example. IDK.So far I like it. It definitely seems to be a trade off... you take more damage, but you do more damage too.My take, with what I know and have experienced so far:Taking more damage can be mitigated by the crafting professions easily, at least in vanilla Skyrim. Pretty self explanatory, just craft good armor, throw some nice enchantments on it, gulp some good potions even. More than makes up for the armor loss from no shield IMO.Dishing out more damage: here is where dual wield really shines, I'd say. Dual Flurry and Dual Savagery combined with Armsman makes for some really nice +dmg overall. And then you have the weapon specific perks, Hack and Slash for war axes, Bone Breaker for maces, and Bladesman for swords. My personal take on those 3 is that Bone Breaker is the best by a mile. 75% ignore armor is pretty insane combined with the above perks.EDIT: in terms of aesthetics and gameplay, I guess it is personal preference. I like to bash faces in with dual wield more than sword + shield gameplay, and I like the animation better.

Yeah I know, already done to death elsewhere on the internets. But always like new opinions. I have BF3, no MW3 yet. Haven't even installed BF3 because of Skyrim addiction. But I've played BFBC2 and MW2 before.With BFBC2 it was more squad oriented, lone wolves would get cut down pretty quick unless they had some sort of backup. Although I had moments where I would get into the zone and go on a solo rampage.MW2 was more about everyone just doing their own thing, mini encounters 1v1 instead of working together with team mates to take an objective.So can I assume that the above is still true for BF3 and MW3, or have there been some changes?Also, subjective opinion: which do you like best, for those who have played both?

I'm experimenting with dual wield ATM so 2 one handed weaps and a trusty bow are about it. Fits my playstyle. I like to sneak attack with the bow if possible (cleared a bandit lair last night by picking 'em off one by one, very fun). Then if I'm discovered or ambushed I bust out the dual wield and go berserker style with shouts.

I love these threads.Windows 7 64 bitCore i7 860 @ 2.93GHz8GB RAMRadeon 6870 1GB x2 in CrossFire1TB hard drive

I actually envy the people who will buy Skyrim for PC a year or even two years from now. Us "early adopters" will probably get bored with the game before the really good mods are ever created. I remember dusting off Oblivion about 2 years after it was released and then being stunned at the amount and quality of mods available for the PC version when I went to go look for some.

Count me one of those people... heard of radiant AI in Oblivion but I wasn't aware Skyrim has "radiant quests". Procedurally generated randomized quests? BRB Google.

A side quests guide, maybe? The bigger quest chains are easy enough to start and figure out, by design, but I would think a list of side quests would be helpful. Not an extensive guide, mind you - something along the lines of..Quest nameStarted by: NPC name (if applicable), locationDescription of quest (a short summary):Maybe a longer walkthrough if the quest is complicated enough.Illustrative pictures would be nice although obviously time consuming.