Indeed, Skyrim has the better art style, but by far inferior technology. We don't have to have one or the other. The LOD tricks are also far less obvious in motion, the landscape fades in just a little faster than you can get close enough to notice (At least, without mods).

On average,
things look pretty lame?

No, they look just fine. Not amazing. Not spectacular.
Certainly not awful.

Yeah, you can think that if you want. I'm never going to be, because some things do look awful.
http://www.tesnexus.com/imageshare/images/520246-1298584608.jpg looks awful. The combination of the horrible lighting and really low-res textures without depth is just awful, simply awful. Probably the worst looking thing I've seen in a new game for a long long long time.

On average, things look OK. Fine is a bit too much.
A few things look spectacular and a some things look pretty bad and a few things absolutely awful though.
But from a graphics grade from 0-100, taking everything to account, I'd give it a 40.

I don't know whether i've asked you this, but
What could have caused those problems?
Was it an xbox thing?
How would you fix them?
Are they fixable in the short run?

What do you mean by "those problems"? What I think look bad in the screenshot? Or why I think it looks OK in general?

Lighting wise

Lighting wise, all it is missing is ambient occlusion. The shadows are correct. The dark areas wouldn't be pitch black because of the sun reflecting off of the snow.

As for textures, wait for the PC version.

Doesn't look spectacular to me. Oblivion looked spectacular because it came on the wave of new hardware. Skyrim looks decent which is fine for a game made in 2011 for consoles made in 2005.

Ok, here's what I think about the lighting with this screenshot: http://www.tesnexus.com/imageshare/images/520246-1298584608.jpg

1. There's really huge over-blooming on everything bright. The snow, the horns, his skin. The over-blooming is so big it makes things saturated. This looks really really bad and very unrealistic imo.

2. The lighting-transition from over-bloomed to not over-bloomed is so strong and big that it looks weird and unrealistic.

It reminds me a lot of Oblivion's HDR. Together, I think it looks awful in terms of lighting.
I'm not sure what kind of lighting features Skyrim has, but I think it's a HDR-related issue (what I mentioned above). That would explain the bright areas being much too bright and becoming saturated and the big transitition.

The reason of this could in turn be either related directly to:
1) poor/bad lighting code, or...
2) wrong (too strong) HDR settings, or...
3) a combination of both.

Lighting SHOULDN'T look so strong in the picture. I think it NEEDS to be toned down. Since the lighting look really nice in other screens (Fall forest screen!), my guess it's related to wrong (as in too strong) HDR settings.
Changing these settings is really easy, and can probably be done through the weather or through an ini. like in Oblivion (which, btw, is bugged in Oblivion so it doesn't work; you can only tweak exterior HDR through the weather in OB).

What do you mean by "too strong?" Because I have noticed that people who try to paint 3-D illusions and fail miserably at it do so because they fail to SEE the huge contrast between shadowed area and area in the sun. When you're driving a sunny day, consider the difference between the color of grass in the shade and the color of grass in the light. It's a big difference.

Or is that not what you're talking about?

The "too strong" transititon happens because of reason 1. Look at his bright skin vs not bright skin. It should NEVER looks like that. The over-bloomed and saturated "aura-glow" is the cause of this, as you probably can see.
This is also not a sunny day we're talking about. If you look at the trailer, it's more of an overcast/cloudy/snowy day.

Things do shine in real-life as well, obviously, yes! But it never looks like that. The HDR (I think) is way too strong in that picture. Way way too strong.

Does anyone remeber this? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwmAIfL_yoo

or... wait for it... this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmLzNbPXMDg

now, THAT would have been spectacular. (consider it has been done real time 3 or 4 years ago). Skyrim's graphics (so far) look nice, but I wouldn't say spectacular, especially not with today's standards. But that's about PC.
It DOES look spectacular on consoles though (imo).

I don't think I can comment on Skyrim graphics too much at this point in time. It is still too early and I'd need to see some more gameplay footage from a version that is polished up and closer to being a finished product. The game will definitely look graphically different from console to PC based on the hardware available for the different types of platforms. I'm a console gamer (most recently PS3) on an HDTV. So, I can only give my experience with consoles. This game, to me, looks so much better than Oblivion. That being said, I am playing Oblivion again while I wait for 11.11.11 and I have to say, it's still quite enjoyable. I've changed some of the colour settings on my HDTV and it's improved the experience (at least colour-wise). Remember that everyone's eyes see things slightly differently so you sometimes need to tweak your settings according to your visual preferences. I prefer a softer, warm glow. Some people like things brighter. Some people like more reds, some more blues. It really depends on your preference. Tweaking TV Video settings is not going to make a difference to the games graphics, obviously, but I still think it does make a difference to how the game looks on whatever monitor you are using.

There are things from the Skyrim trailer (i.e. shadows being cast on the main char. when he's hunting in the forest and the sun is shining through the leaves of the trees) that look a lot better than the shadows in Oblivion. I can see a whole bunch of small details (char. movements, detail on armour/creatures, spell effects, etc.) that have been added or improved on and it's those small details taken altogether as a whole that make me feel like Skyrim is a definite improvement, graphically, over Oblivion.

Now, the reason I didn't really want to comment on how good/bad the graphics in Skyrim are is because (sorry folks) there are "holes" in the trailer. There are moments when it looks like some of the trailer footage was not finished or polished. There are also moments where it does, so it makes me wonder if those bits that are unpolished will look better in the final product. I really can't say so I'll just have to wait a bit and see.

Regardless, as far as game trailers go, combined with the improvements and the music and the Max Von Sydow narration, this edition of TES series is shaping up to be truly epic, IMHO.

37 people must die

Yes, I think it looks amazing and I'm very excited about being in that world. I hope we get to see more of its splendor soon.

some people seem to hate the look of skyrim. not to mention the fact they are comparing it to the graphics of linear games and plus remember lads the trailer was filmed on a 360 not to mention there are still many months to go meaning lots of time for graphics changes and better rendering. that being said considering the open world type of game it is and how far along it is its graphics are pretty amazing. but its graphics will likely be nothing compared to all the new mechanics and ai systems being introduced

Wow, a 5th of the forum doesn't think Skyrim looks good.

No, a 5th of the forum doesn't think Skyrim looks spectacular. There's a difference.

I sure hope it's more interactive than just a spectacle.

That's a no from me, but it's definitely satisfying. Art direction is infinitely more important than technical graphics, and we haven't seen a lot of art direction.

I would have settled for Oblivions graphics.
Its not the best out there, but its an open world. And the gameplay more than makes for any negatives of its graphics.
Even with that considered, I still think they are good.

Nowhere near spectacular. It's okay, yeah, and a definite step up from Oblivion/Fallout 3, but you can still notice a lot of flaws in the graphics (uncanny valley faces, stiff animations). The art style seems better than Oblivion and Fallout 3, but that's not saying much.

yes i think the graphics are amazingly good, i live the shadows especially and the blood effects look nice, a little more blood than oblivion from what i could tell which i am not apposed of

It certainly looks better than FO3, but nothing amazing. I voted yes, however. Besides, I don't really care about graphics. It's all about gameplay for me. It could have Morrowind's quality of graphics but as long as the game's fun I'd be peachy keen.

I can't believe how vast the margin is!

Standards must be low due to hype.