"You can use fast travel to revisit places you have visited earlier."
"Skyrim is approximately as big as Oblivion."
"Five big cities and more than 130 dungeons."
"Low-Fantasy" (Meaning the game does not look as vibrant, vivid and weird as Morrowind did, more like Oblivion) -> "Oblivion was for sure not over-the-top in terms of its style, but Skyrim should be considered low fantasy even more than its predecessor. Much of the locations look realistic, and could easily exist in our own world."
"The overarching narrative of the Dragons is less prominent than the Oblivion Gates were in Oblivion, which does not give you the feeling that you are doing 'useless' quests when you lay aside the Main Quest."
"Dragons are not rare."
"Dungeons will be locked at their level once you have been there."
"Even in third person, animations look really good. There has been a lot of progress since Oblivion."
"You can read in-game books in 3-D."
"Every item has a 3D-preview in the Flash based inventory, which you can twist, turn, rotate, etc. Sometimes you will solve puzzles by anolyzing these 3D-previews. Not only armor and weapons can be explored in great detail, also small rings and herbs can be investigated from all possible angles. Every single item in the game can be previewed in the inventory screen." "
"The Dark Brotherhood is back."
"Active blocking."
"More traps and puzzles."
"Main Story is approximately 20 hours."
The article also describes how the game starts:
Spoiler Warning
There's also an interview with Todd Howard in the article. These are the highlights of that interview:
"There are special animations for sneak kills with daggers." (The way it is written in Dutch does not imply that there are no special animations for other weapons btw...)
"We primarily look at how we can improve facial expressions and animations, graphics-wise."
"The game won't support Kinect. It takes too much memory."
"It is not yet possible to combine forms of magic. It is difficult. Frost magic makes an enemy move slower, and fire does damage over time, and the fire remains on the ground for additional damage. If we would allow the player to use fire magic in one hand, and frost magic in the other, it becomes much more complex. Maybe we will implement this though, but for the time being, 'No'."
"Someone modded Oblivion by changing the physics of shooting an arrow. It made you shoot slower and you almost had to remain stationary to shoot, which increased the arrow's impact. We liked this mod so much, that we implemented it in Skyrim by default."
#2 A Dragon looms over the sky atop of what looks like the roof of a ruin.
#3 In a snowy cave, a warrior with a big two handed sword on his back approaches a Ghoul that wields an two handed axe (it might even be a two handed spear, because I only see the stick itself, and not the sharp metal. It's impossible to see because the ghoul is really small and the screenshot is quite low-res.)
#4 A warrior wearing a shield and a sleeveless vest walks through a city that looks like a pastiche of Bruma and Thirsk. He approaches a man who is walking his dog. A young woman is on her front porch, leaning with her hands on the wooden surroundings. On the left side, there's a smith, which is indicated by a metal Smith sign (the sign is metal, not wooden as in Oblivion).
#5 An archer approaches his prey, seems like a deer. The leaves are yellow, like it's autumn. It's my favorite screenshot, because it is so different than the forests in Oblivion. The trees are white with brown spots. There are also trees lying on the ground in the lower right corner.
#6 Three skeletons prepare to attack inside a cave. They all wield two handed axes. Their eyes are blue. One wears a helmet. Their armor is rendered impressively. Their bone structure is really detailed.
#7 This one is weird. It seems like Thu'um, the shouting power effect. The background is faded, and there are three white frightening dragon carcasses flying around the picture. If you've seen Lost, think Smokey, but then white, and with a dragon carcass.
#8 Someone casts a spell that looks like its "Holy," (like in World of Warcraft) really bright. Two white wolves stare at the main character. He has a mace equipped in his right hand. The veins are visible in the arm of the caster.
#9 Looks like a cinematic shot, maybe even a V.A.T.S. shot, from a warrior slashing his sword, and killing a NPC. The NPC falls backwards, and there are a lot of blood spatters in the sky. Just as the previous screenshot, it is taken in a tundra-like environment.