I like to play in 3rd person [less sudden death]. In Oblivion/Morrowind I had full mouse control in all movement. In Skyrim I have to be in combat to move the PC. Otherwise it just spins around the PC in what should be walking mode, plus instead of backing up, the PC just does an instant 180. I assume the built in control system has been designed differently. Is there a way to gain full control as it was in previous games?

Just turn off the kill moves maybe(they annoy me so much I can't stand them regardless of the sudden death issue), so you can play in first person? Unless you prefer third person - mind boggling to me but to each his own.

On PC there are multiple mods that remove them in various ways.

Only modded versions of Skyrim make character to perform 180 degree turn when you press "Backwards" button. In vanilla Skyrim your character always backs up when you push "backwards" button.

I am brand new to TES on pc, and I find the mouse control of the character to be seriously lacking. It really does nothing but help the character turn and move the camera. What's up with that? I have one hand on the mouse and the other hand on the keyboard, it feels very clumsy to me. I've had people tell me I'll get used to it, but I really really do not like it. I had planned on playing with a controller until I found out I couldn't screenshot with one. I hate trackballs, but think even one of those d@mn things would work better than the mouse. It wouldn't do any more than the mouse, but would be easier than moving the mouse all over. Well, probably not, but it has to be able to be better....

I guess I will get used to it, but still don't like it.

Have tried turning the sencity level of your mouse un in game?

Or if your camera turn softly then it might be caused by game lag.

Ya sure you're not running a mod which alters mouse/movement behavior? I've been playing on PC since day 1, and in 3rd person mode the mouse *always* dictates movement direction, as long as I'm moving and also not using the "animcam" console command or something.

As Remos said... you *have* to be running a mod in order to make the character pull a 180 and face the camera while moving in reverse. I know of mods which will induce such behavior, but the vanilla game will *not* behave this way. Ever.

Edit: Maybe you installed an animation mod, didn't like it, then got rid of it but it didn't 100% uninstall for whatever reason. Look to your ..\steamapps\common\skyrim\data\meshes\actors\character\animations\ folder. If it even exists. If it does, and has a bunch of .hkx files in its subdirectories, then there's your problem. Or at least part of it.

I've heard there's a mod on Nexus that returns the way Oblivion allowed you to maneuver the camera similar to Oblivion. Never tried it myself though.

A mod that makes Oblivion behave like... Oblivion? Okay...

BTW, sorry for being a jerk to you the other day. It was uncalled for.