Skyrim

OKAY
Day one:

GENERAL:
Made a male Imperial
The customisation options are cool, and you can finally make a character who doesn't look like he's from, well, Oblivion.
The most immediate improvement over Oblivion is, of course, the graphics. However, the shadows are extremely pixelated, and you can see grids on the ground and even people's faces occasionally. In spite of this, what you'll be looking at 75% of the time, your weapons/magic hands, look extremely good. But the weapons in Oblivion still look amazing, so I guess it doesn't matter so much. Also, YOU CAN'T SEE YOUR BODY IN FIRST PERSON. But it wasn't in Deus Ex, so I guess I can't expect it in a Bethesda game. OH, and you can FUCKING MELT SNOW WITH A FIRE SPELL.
The voice acting is better the Oblivion, but there is at least one voice you will hear FUCKING EVERYWHERE. I noticed a lot of voice actors from Jade Empire, including fucking SILK FOX. Points for Bethesda. Oh, but I keep hearing "fast" pronounced as "FOST". Oh, and I found a small brigade of Fenrises (fenrii?) transporting a prisoner. I regretfully killed him, thrice.
The third-person kill animations are startling, in a bad way.

Spoiler:

Oh, and Bethesda decided to add children. Anyone who's played Fallout 3 or New Vegas knows that, no matter how annoying and retarded they are, you cannot kill them. You can slaughter an entire town and still have children walking around. Fuck that.
The general situation in Whiterun is "MY FAMILY IS BETTER THAN YOUR FAMILY", which you can, thankfully, avoid.
Birthsigns are replaced by birthstones, where you walk up to them and get a bonus. It's all right.

GAMEPLAY:
I tried a lot of things, combat-wise.
Sword + sword is unwieldy and feels stupid. You generally end up only swinging one unless you do that stupid dual slash.
Sword + shield is useless, as the shield generally ends up ignored.
Shield + shield isn't even an option.
Sword + torch is pretty bad, as you swing the torch, you need to block with it, then press the sword button.
Shield + spell is just retarded.
Spell + torch is EXTREMELY retarded.
Two-handers are for retards.

Spell + spell is great. If you don't purchase the perk to combine them into a huge blast, you just fire them at the same time.
Sword + spell is the best, inarguably. You can use a fire spell as they get close, then hack into them.

The combat actually feels good and has weight, unlike Oblivion. Basically, the entire game is a million times better than Oblivion.

My most-used skills are:
Heavy armour
One-handed
Destruction
Lockpicking
Smithing
Speech (which encompasses speechcraft + mercantile from Oblivion)

Smithing is really easy and useful. You can sharpen a sword to make it deal more damage, or reinforce your armour to make it more protective. Ingots are found on loads of dead things. Leather is made from animal pelts and whatnot. I suggest improving everything you plan on using. One perk makes it so you can improve things even further.
Alchemy is still shit.
Enchanting is odd. To find out how to make a certain enchantment, you need to destroy something with the enchantment. Then you need the soul gems, etc.

STATS:
Fenris sightings: 3
Dragons slain: 2
Level: 8

Spoiler:

I look like shit.
I hate my helmet.

I died on my first enemy encounter

But yeah, the game is incredible

Dat first dungeon

fapfapfapfapfapfap

THE MUSIC
its morrowinds music!
EXACTLY THE SAME

Jumping doesnt drain stamina wut?

Getting flung into orbit by giants is funny as fuck

Day two:

Someone called the Dark Brotherhood on me. Joy. Maybe it was because I killed that walrus. Goo goo g'etc.
Noticed some familiar voices. Thought I heard Pete (Disney), Samos the Sage, Bartrand, The Boss(!) and Sean Devlin. That last one might just be me thinking all Irish people sound the same, though.
Drank some guy in Riften under the goddamn table and ended up on the opposite corner of the fucking map. Jesus Christ. On that note, Markarth fucking sucks.

Spoiler:

Found retarded glitch:

I could still swim in the nonexistent water.

Dragons slain: 5
Fenrii found: 3
Level: 16
Game freezes: 1
Factions joined: 4
GamerScore: 125
TrueAchievement points: 349

Thieves guild is in riften

OKAY


Day three:
Okay, I'm going to make this simple and throw it into categories, all thrown into spoiler tags. Everything I've done so far.
Also, the College of Winterhold is a fucking dragon magnet.


Main plot:

Spoiler:

Companions:

Spoiler:

Stormcloaks:

Spoiler:

College of Winterhold:

Spoiler:

Thieves' Guild:

Spoiler:

Dark Brotherhood:

Spoiler:

Misc. other highlights:

Spoiler:

Dragons: 8
Fenrii: 6
Level: 21
Freezes: 2
Factions: 5
GamerScore: 175
TA: 629

The way the Dark Brotherhood questline begins is so cool

Impressions so far:

+ ENVIROMENTS I cannot begin to say how amazing they are
+ WILDLIFE might not seem like much to some people but I love all the wildlife and variety of creatures about, really helps with immersion and shit
+ VOICE ACTING still isn't amazing but it's much better than Oblivion
+ CHARACTERS they look pretty good and I find they're all more I AM SO-GAY than Oblivion's (they were all I AM SO-GAY in Oblivion but you know what I mean)
+ QUESTS are super interesting
+ MUSIC love it
+ NO WEAPON/ARMOUR DECAYING thank you bethesda thank you thank you
+ SKILLS AND WHATNOT love the whole perks/astronomy thing
+ FENRIS need I say more
- BUGS so many fucking bugs
- COMBAT kind of sucks how they force you into playing a shield and sword wielding dude wearing heavy armour, cause otherwise you can't deal any damage or take any hits
- ATHLETICS/ACROBATICS/SWIMMING ARE NOT SKILLS what the fuck bethesda

I'm yet to play this on an HD TV or while connected to XBL so I can't get any patches yet, but it still looks beautiful.

There's a few places (Nilheim and High Hrothgar that I've tried so far) where you can try and run non-stop down the mountain without dying from fall damage. Pretty fun.

But about the actual game.

Main Quest:

Spoiler:

Companion:

Spoiler:

Weaponry:

Spoiler:

Loot:

Spoiler:

Dragons: 2
Dragons Outside of Main Story Missions: 0
Freezes: 0
Almost-Freezes: 3
Factions Joined: 0 (Although I don't know if the Forsworn consider me an honorary member now or something)
Number one cause of death: Fall damage
Favourite cause of death: Being catapulted four score acres by a giant's punch.
Favourite glitch: Putting a bucket on a child's head that caused him to be catapulted out of the door and into the street.
Least favourite glitch: Invincible, OHKO-ing mudcrab. Seriously, what.


tl;dr: most things are more special coming from the mouth than the hand, i guess magic is one of them

PS: green, i don't think fire spells melt snow, it just puts that weird black scorch mark over them, if you use it on rocks it leaves the same pattern.

Day four:
Encountered the worst glitch ever. I killed a guy in Markarth for the Brotherhood, and I was spotted. So, the guards are like "stop bro!!!" and try to arrest me. They won't accept guild bribes and there's no "pay fine" option. So, I elect to go to jail. After he rants about how great Cidnha Mine is, he tells me to stop, as I've violated the law. This happens with every guard, every time I try to go to jail. I can't continue the Stormcloaks questline because of it.

Finished Dark Brotherhood. Best questline ever. Even better than Oblivion's. JOIN THEM FAGS
Oh, and a dragon killed one of the assassination targets. It was pretty funny.

Spoiler:

Also, I HATE the Night Mother.

Finished Companions. It was okay.

Spoiler:

I'm now the Thane of Whiterun TWICE. Or DOUBLE THANE

Continued main quest. Eh. I gave the wood elf my entire inventory when he said "only what you can't live without!!!", then I proceeded to kill a dragon with my bare hands. I shit you not.

Dragons: 12
Fenrii: 15
Level: 25
Freezes: 3
Factions: 5
GamerScore: 310
TA: 1,094
For some reason, it says I don't have Diplomatic Immunity, but I fucking do.

TA doesn't recognise that I've ever played Skyrim. Think I need to get on XBL.

I find it amusing that everyone is having problems with bugs. The only bugs I've found (besides minor texture pop-in) were one of the Graybeards dancing when I was talking to him, and a goat falling out of the sky (which were both hilarious)

I've noticed a few texture issues and freezes lasting a couple of seconds, but no major bugs. Dancing Greybeard happened to me too. Apart from that and basket-propelled child, nothing.

Oh, also, the air distortion around the top of the fire staff looks awesome.

Day five:


Mostly did side quests. Here's the basics:
Got White Phial; it was broken
Helped Sheogorath (the Champion of Cyrodiil) and got Wabbajack
Killed Ptolema
Killed a lighthouse, which my notes call a "nighthouse"
Dueled a wizard
Joined a bard college
Assembled an amulet
Forced the Jarl of Solitude to comment on my outfit

Shit happened:
Got ebony armour/helmet
Summoned Lucien for the first time. Apparently, he grew up in Skyrim, and he comments on towns and such
Shadowmere was killed by Forsworn
Still hate Markarth

Did shit for College:
DWARVES
Now I have to go to the Labyrinthian

Spoiler:

Dragons: 13
Fenrii: 17
Level: 29
Freezes: 3
Factions: 6
GamerScore: 370
TA: 1,407

The Labyrinthian is my favourite place so far.

Oh, and while attempting to walk from Solitude to Riften, I met a couple of bandits, the last survivor of them uttering the best last words ever before he was cut down in battle:

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

Day six:



Got Mehrunes' Razor (above)
Full ebony armour set
Finished College of Winterhold
Got the White Phial
Met Greybeard leader
Played TAG (GOTYAY)
Met Boti, who is assmad as fuck
Did not look a gift horse in the mouth
Tried to kill the Greybeards, got slaughtered
Still hate Markarth
Met some orcs who want me to get them some gloves

NEWS OF THE DAY:
Shadowmere is ALIVE SOMEHOW

Also, I ground up five levels in ~an hour.
HERE'S HOW
Get an illusion and an alteration spell of Adept level or higher
CAST THE SHIT OUT OF IT
There's also an alteration spell that subtracts health and adds to magicka, so maybe combine that with a restoration spell

The best place/spells to use are Windhelm market, where the stalls are, and telekinesis. Just pick shit up and hold it for a while.

Dragons: 16
Fenrii: 17
Level: 36
Freezes: 3
Factions: 6
Full shouts: 2
GamerScore: 470
TA: 1,828

>get pickpocket training
>pickpocket the person who trained you to get your gold back
>repeat

you are now infinity pickpockets

Day seven:


Mostly did Daedric quests. They're rather fun; I'd recommend them to hell
Got:
Azura's Star
Dawnbreaker
Skull of Corruption
FULL DAEDRIC ARMOUR SET
Daedric sword

I'm afraid of heights
And drugs
And men

Dragons: 21
Fenrii: 18
Level: 40
Freezes: 4
Factions: 6
Full shouts: 2
Daedric artefacts: 7
GamerScore: 520
TA: 1,779

Well, I have officially decided to stop playing until I get a patch.

Final pre-patch scores:
Dragons: 21
Fenrii: 18
Level: 41
Freezes: 4
Factions: 6
Full shouts: 2
Artefacts: 7
GamerScore: 560
TA: 1,784

Is it me, or is the Dark Brotherhood armor kinda gay?

It's always been gay.
The robes are cool, though.