GameBanshee Forums

Steam updated. Now I can't play the game. Just get opening screen with Bethesda on it, followed by the screen with the silver dragon logo - then... nothing. It just sits there. Hitting Cntrl/Alt/Del produces flickering. Sometimes it resolves into the Task Manager, sometimes it doesn't and I have to switch off at the box and restart the comp.
Any ideas?
I suppose I ought to ask the Steam site, but I'm not too keen on going back there! I didn't intend to go there in the first place, cos i was playing quite happily - if slowly - in offline mode. I forgot to make sure my modem was off before I switched on the comp, and whammee - update. Of course I didn't HAvE to update - but I thought it might speed up the game... Gah!

Ouch, just looked around for you and found this solution for the problem, seems to be quite common:
why won't skyrim work on my pc!??! - Major League Gaming Forums

Thanks, dragon wench! I'll try that, even though I really don't trust steam any more...

I suppose I should have looked myself before shouting...

Sigh... did that. Verified fine, but still doesn't work...

Bugger, I was hoping that would do the trick for you

Honestly, I really do not understand why gaming companies do this sort of thing. When will they finally understand that this type of behaviour actually encourages piracy rather than the reverse?

I'm obviously not condoning the theft of PC games here, just bashing my head against the wall at the absurdity of it. *sigh*

Meh. I know what you mean, dragon wench! I don't condone piracy in any shape or form, for any reason whatsoever, but when a company can't be bothered to make sure a game plays properly right from the beginning, they don't deserve our loyalty.
The Elder Scrolls has always been a very addictive series - which is why we put up with this sort of thing - but we really shouldn't let 'em get away with issuing games that don't function just because they feel they have to hit a deadline. I'd far rather they didn't give a date for issue until they were as near certain as they could be that they have a fully functioning game.
Surely, a good reputation is far more likely to result in in loyal, enthusiastic gamers who will recommend their games to others, thus bringing them more sales and higher profit margins?!

Decided to try that 'Verify Game Cache' again, even though it downloaded (or whatever) fine before, but didn't alter anything. This time, it seems to have worked! I have a game! Dunno if it will last, but hey! I got a couple hours playtime (including a freeze and reboot). I'll give it another go tomorrow.

There were some issues with the 1.2 patch for some people. With 1.3 out it appears to have been fixed (hopefully).

Does that upload automatically?

Through Steam I believe it does. In fact, I just got a pop up that "Steam has finished downloading Skyrim". I haven't even opened Steam it's just open on my tool bar.

Bear in mind, you can remove this feature of steam by right-clicking on the game, selecting ''properties", then "updates," and changing the "always keep this game up to date" option.