Aside from the obvious exceptions like the Adoring Fan or Hackdirt brethren, I actually had no problem in general with Oblivion's faces. Primo Antonius, Baurus and Falanu Hlaalu in particular stood out as being very well-done, while others like Ysabel Andronicus were appropriately aged and ugly. There were oddities, certainly, like the green lips on redguards, but on the whole I was satisfied with the chargen system they set up.

My only problem is how rounded things can end up looking... I dunno but Skyrim's ice sheets for example seem too weathered... but it's a minor thing.

oblivions faces were pretty disgustingly ugly and sameish across the board, no real distinction between races apart from skin colour. i like skyrims best, really love the high cheekbones and pronounced brows on the elven races. and they finally made bosmer cool, too

morrowinds were good also, pretty much the same artistic direction just with blocky models and annoying looking wood elves

The only real beef I have against Oblivion's faces is that some of the Orcs looked way too much like Shrek. Otherwise, I'm cool with them. They're not amazingly wonderful, but they're not disgustingly horrible. To me, at least.

It's strange really, I didn't mind Oblivion's Elven races. When I first saw Skyrim's Elves, I thought they looked too alien for me—as in really triangular heads and big, slanted elliptical eyes, some of which were even pure black. After seeing them in-game for a while, I now absolutely love them. They look much more Elven than alien to me now. I don't hate Oblivion's Elves, but I like Skyrim's a lot better. Bosmer are a lot more sophisticated, and not the comic relief race as they were in Morrowind and Oblivion. Not sure how I feel about that, though. I actually kinda miss guys like Glarthir, Tarhiel, and Bolwing.

I also like how Skyrim's Imperials are slightly more Italian/Mediterranean in appearance, the Bretons are more European, the Nords are more Scandinavian. For the most part, it's subtle, and I can't really tell which is which unless they're right next to each other, but it's there if you look hard enough.

This is true. Advances in graphics technology have certainly made it easier for the artists and designers. You can really see the attention to detail and the extra work put into Skyrim's characters, and what a difference it makes!