I bought skyrim back in December and I am still playing it. It is definitely one of my favorites, but it is certainly not without its flaws. I must have been lucky or something because I do not think I ever encountered as many glitches while playing Oblivion as I have on Skyrim.
I really enjoy the ability to equip weapons or spells in either hand, but I wish they had kept spell creation and that they had not consolidated the schools of magic. Mysticism for example is gone, absorbed into the other schools. Of course the same sort of criticism could be leveled against Oblivion for having a more simplfied magic system than Morrowind.
I do feel the environment is certainly an improvement over the rather drab landscape of Oblivion. The attention to detail is really astounding. Still the most interesting of the series in terms of environment was probably Morrowind.
It is too early to really compare Skyrim to Oblivion in terms of its expansion content, but I can say while Dawnguard is a step above most of the DLC on Oblivion, it does not come anywhere close to the size and qaulity of The Shivering Isles. I hope see dlc for Skyrim on the same level as The Shivering Isles in the near future.
Both games are relatively easy. Perhaps one point of criticism that could be leveled at both was how relatively easy it was to max out in terms of gear. My memory is admittedly foggy when it comes to my item progression in Oblivion, but I do remember it was relatively easy to get really strong weapons and armor even early on. Mehrunes Razor, a dagger that can instantly kill, comes to mind. In Skyrim all anyone had to do was get to lv90 in blacksmithing and make daedric armor and weapons maybe throw on an enchantment and you had the best stuff in the game. I feel it should be more difficult than that.
The biggest disappointment I see with Skyrim is the main quest line. I simply did not feel that the story was all that interesting or as epic as that of Oblivion's. It felt short and very anticlimatic. I would also have to say that I did not like the blades very much either. They acted like jerks at the end. Needless to say we certainly parted ways.
In conclusion, Skyrim has an interesting environment, and the gameplay is fun. But it is plagued with glitches on a level I rarely encounter in a video game. The main quest line is less than satisfying, and even on the highest difficulty level I still find it to be less challanging than most rpgs I have played. All I am saying is that I watched my horse stomp a elder dragon to death yesterday. Something seems wrong here. Skyrim takes a step forward for the series in some aspects, but a step backwards in others.
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