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.

I used Balanced Magic for quite a while but the lack of Dragonborn support and a few mechanics I really didn't like put me off it. Now I just use Empowered Magic, which I haven't really found a single major fault with. I tend to prefer a compact vanilla-style magic overhaul to ones like Apocalypse that add a ton of new stuff just because I'd be wasting scripts on spells I'd never use with the latter. I'm perfectly happy with Skyrim's vanilla magic system for the most part, I just think it needs the serious rebalancing that magic mods often provide to make it viable.

The Illusion list of spells looks very interesting and will definitely vary up my character's play style. Most of the time I either go three ways to dispatch my enemies:

1) There's a large group close together that will make backstabbing close to impossible, so I send in a frenzy spells and get all of them to kill each other, then I either cast Invisibility and then slit up the remaining enemy, or just shoot them from afar with my Bound Bow.

2) Slit them up with my Shrouded Gloves and Mehrunes' Razor

3) Shoot them from afar with my Bound Bow.

If I get spotted I cast Pacify on them, then run up behind them and slit their throat, but I'm only at level 32 so you can imagine this routine will get rather dull by the time I hit 60.

If Maven Black-Briar wasn't an essential character she would've seen a violent death from practically all of my characters.

I was referring to Nocturnal there but yes, being able to brutally murder Maven would have been a very satisfying experience.

I've had an ongoing argument with my fiancee that given the right game, anyone can get addicted to playing. I told her she could never have a valid argument without at least trying a game...and since Skyrim was one of the most addictive games I've ever played I told her to at least create a character and give a few quests an honest shot.

Well, I was right. And sometimes being right backfires. She's obsessed with this game now and I even though she can't make fun of me playing games anymore...I'm not sure I'll ever get to play them again...

I tried Empowered Magic but it was conflicting with another mod I had going and causing my game to crash, even when I turned off every other mod.

Alright this one is pretty awesome, I bought an Illusion spell called Bend in Darkness (or something of that nature) and it basically turns me into Corvo from Dishonored with the blink skill. It's only an adept Illusion spell and teleports me behind my target, turns on my invisibility, and lets me easily use my Shrouded Gloves/Mehrunes razor combo to slice up anybody I use it on.