THIS. Duke Nukem Forever's been the butt of every gaming joke for more than half a decade.

They said they were already working on the horses, it's just if they don't turn out better than they were in Oblivion then they'll be cut.

So even though there is one in the trailer don't be surprised if they don't end up in the game. (Though to be honest, I don't think it's going to be difficult for them to implement mounts better than they did in Oblivion)

It might be too optimistic of me, but I assume the fixed 11/11/11 release date is one that'll leave them with some spare time after they realistically expect to finish development. As was posted above, that particular date is a very desirable one for a number of reasons; I suspect it's later than necessary rather than earlier. If their only consideration was to release when it's done, they might be looking at an August 2011 release, for all we know.

Um there were plenty of http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1147719-tes-v-ideas-and-suggestions-188/page__st__140. 188+ of them in fact. Dating back, I'm sure, to just after Oblivion was released.

they aren't 100% done yet. todd said they were still adding stuff and if they had enough time left over they'd add in the things that loads of people have been crying for on these forums, (that was his response to being asked about spears)

No im sooooo happy that they announced it then..... They announce it at 100% but are adding other things and still have a year of production left.... They worked for 4 years on this game.... Thats why im quite sure it will be very good...

Although I don't agree with the OP did it seem that after all these years of idea/suggestion threads etc...that others have mentioned that Todd seemed ambivilent (sp?) about Spears? I mean, was the podcast the first time ever that Spears has been mentioned? I'm sure all of those years of suggestions mentioned them at some point. But I would be suprised to see them in Skyrim even though they seem a perfect match for the setting.

On the other hand, I'm sure all the suggestions/ideas about level scaling, guards with x-ray eyes, and other issues have been heard by the Devs and worked on. I don't think the game is almost 100% complete, but they are probably pretty far along. I don't know if any TES game handled their release strategy any different. And suggestions or ideas now I find hard to believe will have any influence on the game unless it is quite minor. The other suggestion threads over the years are another story.

They could've just announced it as a Q1 2011 (fiscal year) release. This would have given the dev team the flexibility to release the game when its finished and secure maximum profits. Instead the suits in the marketing department have put the devs under artificial pressure by insisting it gets released on a 'cool' sounding day. Truth be known, we don't know what stage of development Skyrim currently sits at, 75%, 80%? If they hit a snag along the way, they're screwed because they've been forced to set the exact date of release too early. It's a bonkers release stratagem, and nothing good is going to come from it.

They are basically 100% done.... Their just adding small things in and tweaking right now....

Then again, they have been using the fan feedback of oblivion and fallout 3 for 5 years now. Anyway, Devs don't usually release things form the game unless they are sure that it will be in the game. The type of feedback the fans could give on the level you desire would require a beta or something like it, where the Devs could get the opinion of diehard fans without giving people who aren;t immediatly familar with the game the wrong impression.

In the trailer you do see a horse it is in the same area you see the windmill just to the left of the entrance.

It is valuable feedback when they are 'Gameplay' suggestions. This has no bearing on what province the game takes place in.

What about Duel Weild? This was suggested when I was a Morrowind poster back in the day, and only now after god know how many years they have decided to add it in. so suggestions that are made can be implemented, you will just never really know if its your suggestion that put the idea forward or the developers already had this in mind anyway.

I don't want to sound that insulting, but did you take a second to think about what you were about to post before starting to type? What makes you think the marketing department decided completely on their own when development would be completed? This is a company, not a bunch of grade 1 schoolchildren. This wasn't a random decision without thought to the consequences. If there was legitimate chance that the game couldn't be finished by 11 / 11 they would never have released the date. Before a release date is announced Beth would have looked carefully over the development schedule and potential problems. They wouldn't choose a date that could easily not turn out to be feasible. Marketing doesn't just sit around in their chairs combining numbers in cool looking arrangements. They work out a detailed schedule regarding publicity and release dates. This is done with information from other departments. You should give Beth a little more credit...

Trust me, they didn't listen to any of the suggestions people had for Oblivion, which was announced 2 years before release. And they seem to have ignored most of the suggestions or requests made before Skyrim was announced, either before or after the release of Oblivion. So, business as usual really. Announcement/Release timeline has nothing to do with it.

11.11.11 is less than 8 months away?

The game is obviously atleast 90%.
the 10 last % is mere polishing like water that is crap, they will redo it (i hope) like the obvious low res gfx that works well in the "en passant" like in the trailer but will probably not feel that great on 1080P and ++ resolution.
The video look awesome on my xperia X10 (as long i don t pause it, then poor grafics start showing like the dragons on the battle, kind of lightening(for todays PC standart)), it looks good on my poor 22" monitor, but probably feel MEH like on a 2560x1600 or even a 1900X1200 monitor. I dont care much about gfx anyway i prefer a less lame than Oblivion gameplay, tale, feeling, athmosphere, at least Beth seem to have stricken true on these departments.

What they are working on now is probably:
Missions and dungeons of all kind,
Few stuff like horse or whatever,
Polishing the gfx i hope,
Some minor balance issues with the (blearght) perks.
And if it s Croms will, better grafic for PC users as Todd anounced.
And obviously bug hunting and correcting, this take aloooot of efforts, especially with new (even if not new tech) engine. (unless the gameplay video is an underuse of the engine, but Todd sayd it was recent footage)
I doubt that they will add anything important at this point of the game lacking merely 4 to 5 month before release.

I'm thrilled that they didn't announce it until they did. They announced Oblivion when they started to work on it. And any piece of information was picked up, dissected down to the individual nerve fibers, reassembled, and taken out of context. The devs would comment on the game as it was at that second in time, whatever version of the alpha or beta build it might have been. Then people would rant and rave about how they ruined life in this sector of the galaxy because they didn't implement feature x/y/z the way the poster thought is should be, only to rant louder later because feature x/y/z didn't work and was taken out of the finished build of the game.

By this point, if they mention feature x/y/z is in the game, the chances are very good that it is. Notice they aren't confirming things like horses. If they can't make the horses work out the way they want, then they won't be in. No ranting about OMG THEY SAID THERE WOULD BE HORSES!!!!!!

There were more than a hundred threads about what was wanted in TES5. I don't think dual-wielding, fast travel, no fast travel, spears, more armor, different armor, less armor, more weapons, different weapons, fewer weapons, player houses, capes, cloaks, bigger dungeons, better dungeons, etc. depend very much on where the game is going to take place.