I think if this game put more effort into the diversity of dungeons (instead of every single keep and every single catacomb looking exactly the same) this would be the best game ever. There are some other issues, like the characters being one-dimensional, bad voice acting, and maybe a lack of variety among the upper-tier enemies, but like Po said above, those don't really take away from the experience.

Bethesda are really the only game developer who can get away with such glaring flaws in their games and still get top scores for everyone.

****ing scary spiders.

The key is the open world bit. Morrowind, Oblivion, Fallout 3 and Skyrim all have huge problems that are completely forgiveable because of the freedom they offer.

The problem is they focus too much on making large worlds that they never fix any of the problems that seem to just follow every game. The same problems crop up in every game, samey environments and too few voice actors, I seriously lost track of the characters that were all voiced by the same three people, without so much as a change in their delivery. They're all small problems and they don't stop me from playing and enjoying a Bethesda game, I just wish they would actually address them or attempt to fix or improve them.

They're clearly capable of it as they made Morrowind, Shivering Isles and most recently the Dark Brotherhood questline in Skyrim, but I just don't think good plots and characterisation are that high on Bethesda's list. They know where the selling points of their games are and they focus on those rather than secondary considerations like more interesting questlines that don't just serve as glorified dungeon crawls. If there's one thing I really wished they'd added it would be choice. There were plenty of moments playing Skyrim (particularly in the Dark Brotherhood and Thieves Guild) where I wanted the option to give the middle finger to certain people and go a different way.

So I bought the Legendary Edition on Steam last week and have been playing it along with a couple of mods and I'm just curious as to what other mods the PC players on this forum have used.

Right now I'm running

SkyUI
Superior Lore-Friendly Hair
Enhanced Enemy AI
Immersive Armors
Helgen Reborn (haven't actually started this quest yet)
A Quality World Map
Climates of Tamriel
Inconsequential NPCS
Immersive Weapons
Unofficial Skyrim Patch
Cloaks of Skyrim
Enhanced Blood Textures
Skyrim HD-2k Textures
Water Redux
Static Mesh Improvement Mod
Skyrim Flora Overhaul
Enhanced Night
Wet and Cold
Bandolier
Foot prints
Better Dynamic Snow
Realistic Lighting Overhaul
Guard Dialogue Overhaul
Run For Your Lives
Sneak Tools
Stealth Skills Rebalanced

Looking at the mods you already have here's the ones I'd recommend:

Achieve That!
Dual Sheath Redux
Immersive Settlements (not sure how compatible it is with Inconsequential NPCs yet as I haven't tried them side by side)
Lock Overhaul
Unique Uniques

And I'd give you a list of cosmetic mods for characters but I change mine so often that I wouldn't know where to start.

Thanks, those look pretty cool and will definitely be nice when I inevitably get bored of playing a ninja and create a new character.

I'm personally a big fan of Apocalypse Spell Package at Skyrim Nexus - Skyrim mods and community. I always thought pool of spells available (particularly in the Alteration and Conjuration schools) in the vanilla was rather shallow, but this mod adds 180+ spells into the game, and is hands-down the most balanced magic mod I've used (no instakill god spells, etc.). It definitely makes playing a mage more interesting and opens up multiple avenues of creativity, but there's plenty that can be used for pretty much any kind of character, including a buttload of useful Illusion spells for that sneak character you've got going.