So many hours spent on this game and I regret none of it.
I spent hours just running around the landscapes, exploring crypts, lakes, mountain sides, hunting deer, giants, nirnroot and the occasional wayward traveler. The game was even more gorgeous at night, with the auroras lighting up the sky and the two moons making it all the more alien.
There are so many ways to play; in my first play through I remained completely neutral in the civil war before finishing the main quest. With my next character, I sided with the Empire, which change a few portions of the main quest to reflect that decision.
You can choose to be a ninja in the dark, sniping your enemies from afar, or a juggernaut who simply beats everything to death with a sledge hammer, or a mage who kills it with fire. Or you can be all of those and do whatever picks your fancy on that day.
But the bugs. Oh dear, the bugs. They were everywhere; some where amusing such as the flying mammoths and lock-limbed dragons while others prevented you from finishing quests, such as one that stuffs up a objective, so I cannot complete the College quests due to glitches. If you don't have LIVE, like me, then you are plum out of luck.
The main side quests…while fun, did leave a lot to be desired, especially the Dark Brotherhood and Thieves Guild. I loved how sneaky and ninja you were in Oblivion with the Brotherhood, such as poisoning the bandit Chief without getting seen meant long minutes of skulking in shadows and sneaking past guards, while in Skyrim it was moreso just crashing in there and killing everything, making it seem more cutthroat and brutish, not at all like an assassin. I couldn't really take the Thieves Guild seriously either, as they all seemed to be kissing Marven's backside throughout the game, causing me to try and shoot her in the face in rage after I got fed up with it. However, she was an essential NPC, and even after I became Guild Master I couldn't kill the self-righteous witch. :| (Though it was hilarious when she threatened to sic the Brotherhood on me, when I was the Listener)
I also found was that no one really cared about your race; even if you were Argonian or a Khajiit (which are banned from entering cities) you could just walk right in and become a Thane. Even being a High Elf had no real impact, apart from the occasion NPC remarking it in passing.
While those three aspects (the first especially) REALLY ruined some of my gaming experience, they didn't destroy the whole game, as the enhanced graphics, beauty, fun and replay-ableness of Skyrim made up for that fact.
It's not perfect, but then what is- You'll spend many hours on this game.