In Oblivion and Morrowind both Axes and Maces were useless.

Most all magical weapons you found were swords, and axes and maces were realy heavy. So it only made sense to use a sword. Hardly any NPCs ever used them or dropped them. So they were practically useless. All the best weapons were swords.

How do you think they will handle Axes and Maces in Skyrim, or will we be forced to use Swords again?

Personally, its a bit irrelevant to me, since I invariably play Stealth or Magic based characters

But, as an observation, I think its reasonable to assume that they'll make much more of an effort with axes and maces this time around.... it is based in the Land of the Nords after all.

Seeing as Skyrim is obviously more Nordic-influenced than previous games, I can definitely see Axes being used much more. Not so sure about maces. Swords, however, will still likely be the most common type of weapon in the game. It's just an effect of playing a fantasy game. When people think of fantasy, the term Sword and Sorcery is used quite often. I think that swords are more common, simply because it's a fantasy game, and because the audience will be more familiar with them.

That being said, I would love to see more even weapon distribution. I haven't played heavily with a Blunt/Axe user in any of the Elder Scrolls games yet, and I would like to have an excuse to do so.

Don't forget the weapon specific perks. I don't know about the axes but Todd has mentioned that specialising in Mace will open up a perk that allows the mace to bypass armour checks. So there is deffinitely more focus on the strengths of each weapon. Meaning that using different weapons will matter and more importantly that each weapon type should have its own unique strengths.

What I particularly like about the system he has described is that you need to use the weapon type itself to unlock those perks so specialising in a weapon type really pays off.

Maces will have a perk that bypasses armor. Sounds pretty damn useful to me. And the good thing is I'll be using one-handed weapons, so maces and axes are weapons I can use effectively. In previous games I always went with bladed weapons and left axes and maces behind, now I'm not forced to by picking a sword.

The axe perk causes continual bleeding damage.

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2011/01/24/skyrim-building-better-combat.aspx

Axes : bleeding over time

Maces : ignore portion of armour

Swords : greater chance of critical hit

Just what I like to see, choices that may actually matter.

I think you will still see swords and daggers dominate but axes and maces will be given better treatment this time around, just to show case the perk system.

Weapons have now special effects. Maces ignores armor, axes make your opponent bleed and eventually die and swords have high base damage. Bethesda has obviosly looked this problem through and they've made a solution. BETH ROCKS!

In the home of the Nords I think axes will be represented much better. And weapon specific perks will give more incentive to use different weapon types.

I like to think I'll be using dual axes and a bow this time round if spears aren't in, in morrowind i used whatever i liked the look of, and in oblivion i was keen on using a mace/2h axe but i dont like how high they go when sheathed, if they had been lower than i wouldve.