Since Microsoft began allowing installs on the Xbox 360, you may have gained the habit of making that your first step before starting to play any new title. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim hits stores today, and while it may be tempting to hit the Install button, you might be better served by waiting -- at least for now.
A post from Bethesda staff on the company's forums suggests that your game might look better without the install, due to the way it handles dynamic streaming of the textures.
"We've seen a few reports of certain textures temporarily scaling down on the Xbox 360, and not scaling back up," the post reads. "We have verified that this issue does not occur when playing off the disc and when the game is fully cached (not installed)." The post goes on to state that a title update is coming to fix the problem for those who install the game.
Having tested the differences, the game does seem to look better when running off the disc, but it also increases load times. Until the title update hits, you may have to choose which feature is more important to you. Speaking personally, my own review sessions were performed almost entirely with the game installed, and that clearly didn't make me think worse of it.