I made it through maybe 2 hours in Oblivion.

The main story in Oblivion was throw-away. It was the guild story lines which made it great. I remember the Dark Brotherhood in particular was fantastic.

The Dark Brotherhood line was the best part of Oblivion by far..

The dungeons in Skyrim are absolutely amazing. I think I was in that one pictured last night, I was stunned when I got to that spot (after already spending like 20 minutes in some caverns).

I have a stupid question. How do you use your race's special power? I started a new elf character last night to be a pure mage. I could not figure out how to use the power to regenerate magicka faster. I went to the power and tried to equip it in my left trigger, but nothing happened when I held down the left trigger.

Something like that probably is active all the time. My dark elf has their power selectable/usable out of the magic menu.

Is there a way to quickly switch between one spell to another? For example I would like to switch from flames to healing.???

Set them both as favorites?

I just barely started this game on Sunday night but it's very enjoyable. I love these games, I just relax and wander around doing whatever. Inevitably, I never finish because my dude gets too powerful and I get bored -- but I always have fun and get my money's worth.

As for the racial powers, some of them are shouts. You can figure out what's what by going through the categories. A "power" uses the shout button, and an "active" effect is passive.

It is supposed to be a 60 second boost where you get 1/4 of your magika replenished every second. So, you are supposed to "use" it.

Yeah, mine gets equipped/used like any other magic.

Does anyone know how many total quests there are? I googled and all I can find is "it has infinite quests".

I keep seeing this opinion, but to me, they're VERY similar and if you like or hate one, I don't see why you wouldn't have the same opinion of the other.

The Radiant Quest system means there is an unlimited # of quests. The game will keep generating fetch quests even after you finish story lines. I don't know how many pre-determined quests there are. A ton, I know that much.

a small thing, but I love how the dungeons curve back around to the entrance, no backtracking to leave.

Does it only generate quests after you finish the main storyline? I keep wondering if the sidequests I'm encountering were built in or if they're an infinite quest.

One of the biggest things I hate about most dungeon games.

That I don't know. The way I read it made it seem like quest givers from story lines will start giving the random quests after you finish up their main plots. I don't know how it affects random quests given by people in towns or if you're able to tell which is which.

I read that random quests will be generated based on the progress of the game, I'm guessing that means for the different factions as well.

Oh, and I guess the game keeps track of what dungeons you've cleared and will steer you towards new areas with the random quests. That was pretty cool to read.

Yeah it's nice that on your map, when you hover over a dungeon, it says if it's been cleared.

I think the randomly generated quests are the bounties, treasure hunts, and the like. I noticed that those quest givers have generic dialogue when giving you a new mission, with the (very simple) details provided on a note.

My biggest disappointment with Oblivion stemmed from finishing the guild story lines. Once I finished the Fighter's Guild it was kinda lame. Here I am, the leader of a faction and I have nothing to do but check a chest once a month. Supposedly Skyline allows you to actually do stuff within the faction once you become the leader (like continue getting contracts in the Dark Brotherhood).

Ah, maybe these missions I'm getting from couriers are the infinite ones then.