I'm not trying to troll, but all this negativity makes me want to state that I actually have pretty high hopes for Skyrim, and explain the reasons for that.
Character development looks amazing. Firstly, by ditching classes they've fixed one of my biggest peeves with Oblivion: that any discussion of character builds eventually ends with "put only controllable skills for majors". I've never liked that style of play. I play so I can kill stuff, have awesome adventures and feel like a Big Damn Hero. When reading about classes, I wanted an idea of what kind of builds would be balanced in a conventional sense, not what would allow me to grind for days and max my attributes. Additionally, perks allow me to feel like my choices are actually meaningful. Suddenly it matters what skills I choose to focus on early in the game, because while I may still be able to max all my skills eventually, I probably won't be able to make up enough perks to have a flawless godmode character. My character, then, is now a unique individual with strengths and weaknesses, giving me further incentive to start over and try a completely different play style.
Combat looks awesome. I felt like Oblivion was moving in the right direction, as combat felt far more tactical and exciting than Morrowind, but it did eventually become a little repetitive. Bethesda's stated emphasis on making combat in Skyrim a visceral experience has me salivating. I've seen it mentioned that blocks will be more timing-based now, and apparently that's unrealistic, but really? I don't care. Blocking added a level of tactics to Oblivion's combat that Morrowind lacked, and more emphasis on timing will only add to that. Also, magic. Spells are supposed to be more unique and epic, which is great because mage duels in previous titles were pretty lame. I might even consider playing a spellcaster for more than a few hours, this time around.
EDIT: They deleted the reply that went "Another one of these?", and that's sad. It made me lol.
I agree, Skyrim is looking to easliy become my new fav game. I so far have agree with everything they have done, except perhaps the UI, but I don't care as mods will take care of that.
As for the Shield thing, its not realistic that you just can hold your shield up and the enemy attacks you right on the shield either. But in other senarios, like a dragon breathing fire or holding by your head to protect from arrows it does make sense, either way this makes for more exciting combat.