Like all Bethesda titles, Skyrim is a game with two faces. Sometimes it's a game with unparalleled depth and immersiveness. Tugging on one tiny, seemingly insignificant string can uncover a gigantic tangle of quests and adventures. But other times it's a game where your entire head disappears, mammoths fall from the sky, or NPCs don't react when you put a bucket on their head. 
 
I'm absolutely enamored with Skyrim at the moment, but it struck me during one of my methodical dungeon dives last night that many gamers, myself included, are inclined to give Bethesda games a pass for their high level of "jankiness." In a dungeon I hit a bandit in the face with an arrow, and he decided the correct response would be to stand up and go stare at a wall. 
 
In a strange way, Skyrim's bugs and the holes in its simulation can actually be endearing. You know you're playing a Bethesda game when you can harvest butterfly wings, and distill them into no less than 15 different potions, but you can also put a bucket on a shopkeeper's head and then rob him blind. When you can marry over 60 unique NPCs, but you can also get into a bar fight with someone and then have a completely normal conversation with them just seconds later. 
 
In the back of my mind I know these bugs and this silliness should bother me more, but what can I say? Adventure awaits! I've got dragons to slay. 
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