Hand to hand isn't useless as some suggest. First not only does it hurt you ,it fatigues you also. I loved using hand to hand,and roleplaying a monk etc.
Those that say it's useless or won't miss it,or dont'/won't use it let me ask you this: What if it was done properly: Kicks,sweeps,counters,grabs,throws,neck-breaks,and so on and so forth,many things. Then add who it would work well with other skills as in magic,shouts,stealth etc.If it had claws,knuckles etc-we could add poison. If hand to hand got the attention it deserved and was done properly,it would porbably be the best skill in the game,and the most fun. You can be way more dexterous with your hands/body than you can holding a weapon.
It just wasn't given enough attention in morrowind and oblivion,though i still used it. I bet people don't call hand to hand useless when you use it being a werewolf.
Like i've said ,if this skill was given proper attention with more moves,claws,knuckles etc,it would be the best ( or one of the best ) skills in the game,and most fun.

I'm going to miss it has a fully fledged skill. They ( bethesda ) have missed a trick here,not giving this skill what it deserves.

I will add though: I t would probably be hard for bethesda to do all those extra animations in first person. As in : Sweeps ,kicks ,throws and many more. It can be alot of hard work to do those things in first person and get it right on screen.It would look so sweet though being able to do all that,and not to mention what finishers would look like with unarmed.

Hand to hand is awsums though Bear punching ftw

Think about it,blocking an axe with your arms....all thats gonna happen is your arms getting chopped off or get a really big gash,unless you wore bracers.

Horrible range,correct me if Im wrong but you get more range with a dagger,and not to mention punching a Dragon from the sky wouldnt make sense unless it had an animation of you literally jumping on it,hanging for dear life as you furiously poke your finger in its eye xDDD That would be funny.

And how exactly would you fight a bear with nothing but hands? I mean I know this isn't real life but.....you get the point ;P

But lets say if it was a full blown fighting mechanic,how do you think it would work? Would perks be different fighting styles? Hapkido? Mui Thai? Wrestling? Boxing?

Perk that allows a Haymaker that stuns someone for 10secs.....
Weighted Blows,that would allow each punch to stagger the enemy or give a certain chance to stagger?
Fist of the North Star? People would just instantly explode? LOL

It would of been cool to snap peoples necks or other things though but....when you bring some arrows,a fire spell,and a warhammer into the fight,hand to hand pretty much becomes obsolete.

Atleast,thats my opinion.

I'm sure all of the devs gathered all of the skills together and picked the best skills that fit best in the game. IMO they cut what wouldn't fit the most...all of the skills that were left out are still good along with other stuff cut but I trust that they did what was best for completing the game and I am stoked on what I seen so far. Besides, H2H is still in the game and requires PC reflexes instead of skill.

Maybe they could tie it to stamina? Like say x amount of stamina = so and so amount of skill, capping at a relevant number.

Blocking with H2H in Oblivion was much more like "protecting your head from the hits":) Real blocking with H2H should much more look like "grabbing the arm of the attacker before he could hit you and wrest that axe from his hands".

We've taken a major step back by removing localised damage.

Which TES game featured localised damage?

A better question would be "Which Bethesda game featured localized damage ?" to which the answer would be Fallout 3.

Well, in theory hand to hand is something like the marshal arts of the kajiit, and its sort of the equivalent of judo, or karate. In morrowind you also had a skill called unarmored, to complement hand to hand. So thats the reasoning in theory, even though it isn't pulled off on screen. The main reason people complain about missing skills, is that it decreases the actual gameplay value, it gets rid of a specific option that actually increases replay value, as well as role playing value. Thats why people love morrowind so much, I mean, I love morrowind and everything, but it was a pretty broken game, it was the world that excelled, but the thing that drew peoples hearts apart from the world, was its freedom, people loved levitating, to kill everyone, 27 different skills, including hundreds of play styles and combinations, spears, crossbows, hand to hand, unarmored, medium armor, greaves, pauldrons. Also a big part of the morrowind experience was exploiting the world, it had so many glitches, a big part of gameplay to exploit it, which is actually pretty funny one you think about it. Anyway people want more freedom, not less, and when the devs take away some of that, thats where the most intense complaining occurs.

Im not saying that skyrim should be a broken game with hundreds of exploits, thats not something you should try to pull off intentionally, I just mean that each of those skills, styles take away from the gameply. Though I hope we will have dlc. Like spears, they didn't have time to do them in the original, so, I mean, dlc is additional content after the game is over. Im sure it would appeal to a great number of people if they had a spear dlc, or as a part of it.