I haven’t had as much time to put into it as some of you folks (damn you) but I’m digging it so far.
Bad (and less-than-my-god-thats-good) points first:
Character generation. I’ve restarted a few times, to try to settle on something to invest long-term in (this game’s going to have one helluva long term) the development of. I am really getting tired of the ten minutes through the ship and census office by about the third time.
Also, unless my memory is over-romanticizing Daggerfall, the process actually took a couple steps backwards in flexibility–in the previous title you could pick and choose flaws and bonuses of all sorts of types and impact level–which Morrowind collapses all into the thirteen fixed birth signs, which is a shame. Originally I wanted to recreate my fellow from Daggerfall, the apostate cursed priest who only regenerated magicka, and absorbed spells, during nighttime–but slowly took damage when outside in sunlight, and couldn’t regen magicka at all. No such luck. But I’ll cope.
Safedisc. Yeah, it’s worth the mild amount of time to get a safedisc-removed patch, as every bit of performance increase is a good thing. There’s even a note in the box warning users that safedisc may very well hose their performance in an absurdly large range of configurations. If Bethesda has brains, the thing will be removed in an official patch; should never have been there in the first place, but I very much doubt the actual developers had a say in that decision.
And…hmm. I think that Unarmed should knock people out for longer than two seconds, though that may be a skill-level issue. Also, I want a blackjack-type weapon, to KO rich nobles in one stealthy smack, a la Thief.
The good. Oh, the good. Sweet beautiful big immersive good.
I find myself just jogging about (gotta job, for skill increase) admiring the scenery. In the initial little village, I went to the top of the lighthouse to spy out a certain npc’s stash (to be part of the violent oppression inherent in the system), and completely forgot to keep track of him to instead watch the sunset and the stars come out. Nice. Very very nice.
Most amusing moment came in joining the Thieve’s Guild, I’m supposed to get a key off of someone. My sneak obviously needs some exercise and training, as my pickpocketing is seen. The noble–all alone in his manor–goes insane with rage and comes after me with bare hands. Clearly, he REALLY sucks, since only about one in fifteen swings actually lands–and I’m still level one, with an armor rating with a grand total of 1, although my birth sign is The Thief. (I’ve desperately got to train my Unarmored skill higher up–I’m hoping in the long-term it was worth taking). So I ready my dukes, and pummel him unconscious. Problem is, he keeps getting up again (thus the complaint about knockout not lasting nearly long enough). This goes on for almost fifteen minutes, until I get sick of his persistence, switch to short sword, and gut him. (Then I reloaded from the last savegame, because I really don’t want to kill the fellow, just liberate the key.)
Good game. It’s going to consume entire weekends, I can tell.