Calfurious

1. Most AAA games nowadays need be on as many platforms as possible or have a really nice exclusive deal for a console. The fact of the matter is that AAA games cost a whole lot of money then they used too and companies are trying to make as much profit as possible. 2. Even if Skyrim was made for PC, there's no guarantee that Bethesda would of changed their dungeon or quest layout. They probably made dungeons that linear and 'unrealistic' for gameplay purposes and time constraints. It's also possible they were partly motivated by their own artistic tastes instead of aiming for straight up realism. When it comes to Dwemer, Nordic, and Ayleid ruins, you need to apply a bit of imagination and scale theory. I always figured I was only exploring part of the dungeon/ruined city instead of the entire area. 3. This isn't unique to Skyrim. Oblivion's dungeons were by far worse (I haven't played Morrowind so I don't know how they did it for that game). Here's a couple of reasons why Oblivion's dungeon design was worse then Skyrim's: A) You're in the heartland of Cyrodill, the seat of the Empire's power, yet every fort you run into is occupied by bandits. At least in Skyrim when the civil war questline begins, many of the forts begin getting occupied by militiary forces. But even before then, exploring the forts you could see the dead remains of imperial or stormcloak soldiers who were killed by the bandits/warlocks who took the fort. You could tell that there was a militiary presence in this fort. B) On that note, Oblivion lacked what I like to call "Dungeon storyline". Enemies were just placed in dungeons, caves, and ruins without any thought as to why they were there. Why are their imps in an Ayleid ruin? Why are their goblinls in this fort? Why are their trolls in this fort? In Skyrim, you often could find notes or hear dialogue as to why certain bandit groups or warlocks were located in an area. Why are bandits inside a Nordic ruin? Because their looking for some treasure, need a hideout, or sometimes even both. Why are warlocks in a fort? Because it's located on a road that travelers pass by and they can capture people for experiments. Not only that, but sometimes just simply exploring the ruins can tell you what happened. For example you can see the dead bodies of bandits in a nordic ruin got into a fight with the draugr located in there. C) Oblivion had worse dungeon design. Pretty much all the caves and ruins looked like each other and there very little real variation. In Skyrim every Nordic ruin has different layout as to how it's constructed, there's more personality to them. Oblivion's dungeons looked like they were randomly generated. They weren't, it's just that only one person was completely in charge of Oblivion's dungeon designed as opposed to multiple people like in Skyrim's. 4. Now when it comes to hand holding in quest? I don't really mind that. I don't mind having a quest marker. BUT! I would like it if Skyrim's side quests felt more epic and were longer. I wish the quests had different options as to how I can complete them or more meaningfully alternate endings to them. That's probably my major criticism of Skyri'ms quest design.