I'm not gonna compare an Elderscrolls game to any other game, because that'd be unrealistic(because of the game engines and simply because they're "old"), but there are things I hope Skyrim will have put some extra attention to that lacked from their latest games(most likely because of the limited game engines that were used.
Anyway, a game that I really consider "high quality", and that made me really think that the devs had thought about and worked out "all those little things", is Red Dead Redemption, yea it's basically GTA in the Western and it's not a RPG, but it was far from just a western shooter.
What I wish this new game engine allows for Skyrim is animations keeping the same high quality as in Red dead, both for the player character and the NPCs, the death animations were superb, even better than in the COD games IMO, if you'd fall down a steep hill your character would roll up to a ball trying to protect himself, he moved differently weather he was walking uphill or downhill or in stairs etc, there were a lot of variations in the animations and it really added to the game, it felt very "smooth". There were also so many other things and small details I liked, if it rained and you looked up the screen would get dotted with water, if you killed an animal and took the fur/pelt there was a great in real time cutscene of the player squatting over the animal skinning it, with blood splatter, and then the animal was left without a skin, if people burned they'd get replaced temporarily with a "scorched" texture no matter what you were wearing, you coud tie ppl up, carry them, cut them lose again, throw a axe that stuck in their legs, area located damage, shoot a guy in both knees and he couldnt walk, shoot one he limped etc. The mount moved great, you could get up on it from different positions, if you held an axe and looked down while riding your horse you could just bury the axe in the horses head and it'd die and you'd crash(yea why would you do that, but hey you could) You could get drunk and the animation was hilarious. etc etc.
I realize that you cant have "everything" in a big complex game like an elderscrolls game it'd take forever to make "perfect", but the developers for red dead reallly took their time to polish and add all these small things that similair games never bother with, and I think it really added to the game, my first thought was that "they should just take this game engine and make their own fantasy RPG", they could just have expanded some areas and it'd would have been a real rpg, there already were leveling in the activities and it had main and subquests(aswell as randomly generated ones).

Fallout 3 basically used the same game engine as Oblivion so I didnt expect it to be that more advanced, still it was a great improvement, I especially liked that there were mutilation and that you could blow up entire bodies and still loot them, maybe not as relevant in Skyrim but I'm sure it'd make explosive spells a lot more fun and realistic, and dismemberment is actually expected when using axes and heavy claymores or sharp katanas, it really needs to be in.

I feel that I will get flamed somehow, but this is all whishful thinking and I just hope that some stuff from these more recent games will influenced the devs that hopefully played them, and that Skyrim will have the same "high quality" in more than just the old traditional areas, it'd really make the game potentially the best one ever made as I see it.
Who knows what the new ceation engine allows, hopefully it'll be a lot easier to work with, I mean game embryo didnt even allow climbing ladders.

I know Skyrim will be great nonetheless and I'll play it more than any other game most likely, and I hope that Red Dead has been played by someone because I know we'll have Mage duels in the streets, not the most important feature from red dead imo(the dueling) but it was fun and cool an hopefully that's where they got it from.

I liked the AI RDR used for wolves(They would circle you and the ones in the rear would attack.If they were hurt enough they would flee and regroup) and the cougars (did not attack right away tried to get behind you and use a sneak attack)

I also liked how the stagecoach would drop you off anywhere on the road you wanted in RDR.

The wild life part of the game was very decent, and yea, I wish Skyrim has a transport like the stagecoach, but like something more fitting, like a mammoth taxi (jk) or a ship to get you around the coastal settlements and the once up the rivers, and that you can just ride a long in real time or "nap"(skip the travel) like in red dead if you want to, it was also fun that if you decided to just sit by and enjoy the ride anything could happen along the way and you often jumped out of the stage coach guns blazing and got sidetracked.

Now what this game needs is better "Cut-scenes". And by Cut-scenes, I mean the TES version where you view whatevers happening in first/third person while in control of your view. In Oblivion, no matter the scene, it always felt fake to me, excluding Martins Sacrifice. Likewise, if you can move around during these scenes, you miss whats happening, and it feels sloppy.
What is needed is a balance, maybe automated movement to put you in the correct place.

I actually like cutscenes(I know some dont) I never skip a cutscene even if it's just a talking to some random npc cutscene, I like just seeing my character not being totally dependent on what I do for once, even if he just stands there listening, and yea, sometimes I think it is better to just stand and watch a scene without being able to move, because then you most likely miss something before you realize what's going on.

I hope they took some pointers from Risen. Despite its flaws, that game did more right than most other open world RPG's these days.

Red Dead Redemption his the pinnacle of game animation, especially animals. Bethesda could sure learn a thing or two.

yea i think you guys are right.red dead and GTA4 had brilliant animations.and red dead redeptions game world is 28sqm while oblivions is just 16sqm :ninja:

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh Ninja'd!

I was going to bring up the worldsize point :flame:

Red Dead and GTA IV's physics ( rolling down hills ) comes from the Euphoria engine which, unfortunately, is almost exclusive to LucasArts and Rockstar at the moment, although available to other publishers at a very high price from what I hear.

horse animations from RDR are top notch, i hope they get it this time

I'm actually curious to see how Rockstar would handle an RPG. Doubt it will happen, and if it did it would obviously be shallow, but the gameplay would be out of this world. Although it's not as if TES isn't being streamlined.

I could make a list! So I will:

Fable 2:
Having your character change appearance during the course of the game stretches out the fun of creating your character over the entire playtime rather than just the very beginning.
Having npc's react to what you're wearing, and giving a wide selection and customization options fit's into the above and makes the npc's seem aware of their surroundings
Having an animal (or otherwise) companion that's useful both in and out of combat and with a personality lets the player care about them far more than an emotionless drone that follows you around (Fallout 3)

Far Cry 2:
Having a companion like npc be available to rescue you gives the player an extra life while simultaneously keeping them immersed in the game world
Making the user interface as transparent and in game as possible keeps the player more engaged in the fun parts of the game, copy this, not Apple
Having extra strategic options that work with readily available parts of the environment can give players more options during combat (starting a fire in the grass)

Demon Souls:
Having the game be incredibly punishing can at times still be fun *cough, dragon fights* as long as you make it obvious to the player why they failed.

Assassin's Creed 2/Brotherhood:
Climbing is such an awesome mechanic that entire games can pretty much be built around a well implemented version of such
"Creating your own guild" can be incredibly satisfying as a way of levelling things up even more and using them as back up.
It is now possible to render over a hundred interactive characters in a single scene, creating more interesting cities and more impressive battles

Red Dead Redemption:
Having npc's that are not honest with you can actually be a really great mechanic (people that try to steal your horse)
Instant kill enemies are not necessarily a bad thing and can be really memorable as long as they are very rare (mountain lions)
You don't necessarily have to pack every last corner of your world with content for it to be a large, satisfying game (spent 50 hours beating it/twice the game world size of Oblivion)
Having a highly valuable thing that it's possible for the player to lose can be great gameplay (the highest level horse in the game)

Two World's 2:
Players like sailing (and the 360/PS3 can handle 3d water, doy)
Player's like doing constructive things once in a while rather than always killing everything in sight (the build your own town mode)

Just Cause 2:
Smaller, less successful studios can afford to make their games look better on the pc and run smooth as silk at the same time