Bethesda
Dragons don't like you
With games like Morrowind, Oblivion, and Fallout 3 (among others) under their belt, Bethesda could easily have rested on their laurels as the masters of the open-world role-playing game (RPG). They could have just updated the graphics engine and given us something similar to Oblivion, and we probably still would have eaten it up.
Thankfully, they didn't.
Skyrim is by far the most staggering RPG I've ever played, and it's not simply down to a matter of world size. While the game world is roughly the same as that of Oblivion, everything feels a lot more packed now, and content is definitely not lacking.
It's breathtaking how much thought the developers put in this game, be it in the main quest storyline (which I haven't finished), or the other faction quests and miscellaneous tasks you can run for ordinary citizens.
Simply put, you could lose yourself in a world like Skyrim for days without even realizing it, and that is the greatest compliment that you could give the developers Bethesda. You don't even need to go questing, you can simply just walk around and explore and discover Skyrim's nooks and crannies for hours, and you'll still find dungeons to loot, adversaries to kill, and the occasional villager to save.
Oh, and there are dragons. Dozens and dozens of dragons.
There's nothing quite like coming face to face with your first fire-breathing, as the first time is a truly epic experience that will make you scramble to figure out how to kill it. Unfortunately, killing them does eventually begin to be routine (and rather easy), but they're still a better distraction than the damned Oblivion gates in the last installment of The Elder Scrolls.
Graphically, you can't even compare Skyrim to Oblivion or Fallout 3. The textures are much improved, and the character faces and animations are much better than before. The landscape is also quite beautiful, with snowy mountain ranges and some lush greenery available around different parts of Skyrim. Some of the most memorable scenery can actually found deep within some caves, where lush fauna can grow while protected from the cold harsh outdoors.
