Oblivion was lacking in atmosphere and Skyrim really needs to improve on this.

An example would be Blackwood; I was expecting a dark foreboding place with the sky completely blotted out by tangled trees and vines; I was expecting knee deep water that possibly slowed the player down and steam rising from bubbling marshes that reduced visibility; I was expecting lots of sound effects of creatures in the distance and insects.

What I got was an area that looked like the rest of the landscape but with different fauna.

I liked the Plains and Great Forest and The West Wield and those places where the style suited it. I understand the lack of trees etc as there are mods that add trees and does cause some strain on the system, so that was a technical issue.

I'm really tired, so I guess I'll just say I want the world to feel lonely, mysterious, and ancient like Morrowind's did. :shrug:

YES. I believe that Skyrim will fix the "the snow falling when I'm facing this way turns with me and is the same falling snow as before" problem, which annoyed me.
But on the actual topic, I agree completely that a better atmosphere is needed. Like dead trees when at the top of a mountain, things like that.

This is why they created the Shivering Isles... were you not entertained? It was practically next-gen graphics Morrowind with slightly less crazy people.

Oblivion was pretty good in atmosphere with the gates bliviongate:
Morrowind, yeh it had pretty good atmosphere, but it was the same stuff city to city, the only ones that were any different were ones in largely different regions, with Oblivion every town had a different style, I did like the sandstorm thing in Morrowind though