Good. Your gaming life will suddenly get a lot more enjoyable and a lot less stressful. More people should realize this.

Only got it recently (on Xbox 360 as well, so no mods) but I'm loving Skyrim so far.

Last night I finished clearing out a ruined fortress full of necromancers. I emerge back into the great outdoors to discover a dragon laying into a giant! Thought I'd be cunning and wait for the giant to weaken the dragon a bit, but they spotted me and both attacked me at once. The giant caught me with an upwards swing of his club that batted me right up into the sky. Died but it was worth it!

"I've met several enemies that I had to flee and then come back with better resources and better tactics."

^ That!

The quintessence of a good cRPG (whether it is a cRPG, an aRPG or a pure mindless hack & slash ).

Also,

"I played and loved FO and FO2, Planescape, Arcanum, Deus Ex... yada yada yada. Yes they are classics and I love them. [...] It turns out I can like Skyrim and still think Arcanum is the best game ever"

My favourite cRPGs are the Infinity Engine ones (BG, IWD, PS: T) plus NWN, plus Arcanum plus Fallouts plus DD plus DA plus (sorry can't stop writing!) Drakensang. For me they're the best I've played but no way that means I can't have fun with TES (for the exploration), FO3 (ditto) or Diablo II (for the tenonditis ha!).

I'm happy to see a fellow gamer having fun with games again. That's what they're supposed to do, make us happy! ;-) I liked your post very much - thank you!

And i also like a number of many others (with M&M7 still being one of my all time favorites). I still think that Morrowind is the best in the series, but i also came to like Oblivion (it has some nice quests here and there, plus the insanity that was Shivering Isles, plus the Mehrune's Razor quest from the DLC), Fallout 3 and Skyrim.

I found Skyrim to be actually fun if you role-play the damn thing. Finished with an Imperial to insane levels and joined the Legion. Replaying with a Nord that will join the Nords, of course. And i definitely love the crafting/enchanting system in Skyrim. Definitely the best in the series.

Well said. I was born in the late 90s, and was not in turn able to experience a lot of great games in their prime-time. But after finding gog, I have gone back and played awesome games I had never seen before, like Baldur's Gate 1, which came out the same year as me. :P
Might adn Magic is one of my favorite franchises ever, but I also love Skyrim, Just Cause 2, and Legend of Zelda.

-- I love my older brothers, if it weren't for them, I would not have played any old classics.

Yeah, I love Skyrim. I haven't completed the main quest yet, mostly because my save got corrupted so I had to start over, and I like to concentrate on sidequests and collecting daedric artifacts etc. I like Morrowind, I just find it hard to get into after playing Skyrim, where the combat system is more hack and slashy.

I got it on XBOX and was bored before the tutorial ended. I'll have to give it another go eventually.

That's an honorable confession. I used to be kind of an elitist jerk too... and then I grew up. :)

If you want some suggestions on how to make Skyrim even more enjoyable without radically changing the gameplay send me a PM.

A lot of hours went into Skyrim. Still haven't beat it yet.
Something about picking up a stick and just walking the world makes for an awesome game.