From my playtime in skyrim, I enjoyed everything present in the game a great deal (Though the interface for the PC really did need to be tweaked a little.) The action, graphics, story, and music were all great, the gameplay smooth and very rewarding. But I finished it. I did all the major faction quests, the main quests, got married, explored the entire map, and played every major playstyle... On one character. I don't really feel that that's right that it's so easy to be a perfect generalist in skyrim, but that's not really the core of what I'm getting at.
I did all that, all of it, before december. And just to see if I missed anything, I did it all a second time on a new character just now, looking for things I'd missed. From what's present in Skyrim, I love the game, but it's what's missing that makes me feel bad about it. There are a lot fewer skills in the game, that in my opinion, make it a lot harder for an RPG fan to make a character with the specializations they want to. There's far, far less in the way of character customization, (Character abilities, skills, etc. Not appearance wise.) and enchantment has been severely reduced. Not in effectiveness, but in player control. And spellmaking is completely gone. Moreover, with a couple hours of work, my heavy armor orc fighter can also become a thief/assassin extraordinaire that would make the dark brotherhood as green as I am, just with envy. while I feel that any character should be able to pursue any skills, it also feels like it's too rewarding to be a jack of all trades.
The side quests, and factions. I love them, I really do. They're well thought out, and well executed. Unfortunately no faction line has taken me more than two hours of 'normal' gaming to complete absolutely. (As opposed to powergaming through the objectives)
I love what's present in Skyrim. I really, really do. But there's so little to it that I'm done already. Twice. That was practically impossible in morrowind without a great deal of time invested, and even oblivion was more difficult to ''max out'' as a game. I'm not trying to say the older games were better. The improvements that have been made are undeniably a great boon to the series, with a level of action playability that really satisfies. But all the things that have been removed make this barely feel like an Elder Scrolls game anymore.
I for one can't wait to see if we can have the creation kit bring back some of the diversity and specialization present in some of the previous games, and definitely eagerly awaiting mroe content so that I have something else to play through.