Wow you all really dislike this game? This is by far one of the best games I have played in a long time.
I absolutely love the combat. It is challenging and rewarding. Sure at low skill levels early on it is hard but as you level up and fight more you start to 'get' it and it becomes intuitive. I go out of my way looking for a fight. Need to clean the blood of my sword and sharpen it? Then sit at a grinder and do the work. Or pay the blacksmith to do it for you instantly. Need potions? Create them your self and do the work or buy the potion from a shop.
Need to save? Rent a room to sleep if away from home. It costs $2 for the night and you can haggle that down if you have the skill for it. Don't want to spend any money to sleep and save? Go to your home. Sleep in your bed. Out and about? Find a camp site and sleep on the ground, for ..free. Game saves after any major plot point automatically too. Cut scenes are not overly long except for the one with the priest and our night on the town but then that was enjoyable to watch. The cut scenes help tell the story and are done very well. Don't want to fight at all? Become a bard and fighting will be extremely limited. You level by doing. Its a system used in past games and works well. The skills that you can unlock are a mouse quick away as long as your level in that skill is high enough.
The game is beautiful and runs beautifully for me and I'm playing it with ultra settings @ 2K.
The game is challenging and rewarding and provides a sense of accomplishment. I love TW3 and Skyrim but this game really makes me feel like I'm living in this world. Its refreshing.
Bugs are minimal with only one that was a pain but easily worked around for me. That bug is the dreaded: can't walk through doors bug and it happens rarely. When it does I know exactly what to do to get through the door. Problem solved but I'm sure the DEVs will fix it later.
Honestly sounds like this is not the right game for many of you, but there are plenty of us gamers that absolutely love it.