So 110 hours into the game, I decided, "hey, it's time to play this main quest thingy some more." Heh. So off I run into the main oblivion gate to go get some big, powerful sigil stone, and what do I find out? I have a time limit! I hate nothing more than time limits in video games. It's the only time I ever feel pressured to actually DO anything. I like to smell the roses and go find stuff, so giving me a time limit really bugs me. But whatever. So the I realize that I'm basically in a maze! A maze, with a time limit! How mean is that? Fine, so I solve the maze like I solve a lot of issues in Oblivion -- I cheat. I climb to the top of a very high tower, and I jump over the gate that's blocking my way. :: snickers :: Hurt like hell when I hit the ground, but nothing a handful of potions can't cure, right?
Now I'm being chased up this large tower, at the top of which there's a sigil stone. I get to the top, and there's a bunch of rather difficult people I'm supposed to beat. Do I beat them? No! I only have two minutes left before I have to start the whole mess over again, and there's no way I can beat all of them in two minutes. So I run to the top of the stairs and steal the sigil stone. Problem solved -- guys die automatically as the gate closes. Yay, cheated again.
So the gate is solved, and I have to go into another gate to go beat up a bad guy. Great, fine. I get to the bad guy, and have a really tough battle in which I actually came out on top against my personal expectations. :-P Back to the real world, I now have to go take my whiny emprorer wannabe and coronate him. Run into trouble -- Dagon shows up. 18 stories high and ready to destroy the world.
Do I fight him?
No.
Do I fight and of his swarming minions?
No.
What do I do?
Run the whiny emporer into a building so that he can kill himself, thereby saving the world.
It was the most chicken-shit ending to the main quest I could have possibly imagined. Granted, I was somewhat relieved that I didn't have to destroy the 18-story high monster in front of me. But at the same time, I felt rather let-down. I go thru all this work, expecting to have the big boss battle. And instead I'm an errand-boy. Hell, you'd think the emporer can find his own damned way into the temple! But no, I have to hold his hand. Rawr.
So now I'm just going thru and completing any quests I can find. My current personal goal is to have 100 stats in everything. Then I'll be happy, and can start the whole game over as a mage of some sort instead of a head-bashing warrior-type thing.
I don't count what you did in that timed gate as cheating. I say that's legit.
Also, did you notice that that giant siege machine can be 'activated' when it's outside of the gate? I tried for like an hour to see if I can drive it, but wasn't able to. Alas.
When you "activate" it, it drops a sigil stone that you can actually use (instead of the giant one to open the portal to Paradise).