Oblivion had the old school 3 buttons combat system - you had a button to block, another for melee (Hold for power attack) and another for magic.
Skyrim has 2 buttons - left hand and right hand allowing a more intuitive control and has a different type of balancing.

Do you think the new system is a step forward as a more balanced and fun way to combat or was the old system a tried and true system that gave more freedom and options during combat?

it's a tricky question to answer since none of us played the game but we can share our thought according to the impressions we got thus far, at least for the fun of arguing and trolling.

That is a really biased poll you have there.

My opinion on this is that spell caster combat looks to have improved drastically, archery got rebalanced rather than changed and melee combat seems untouched bar the block mechanics.

Considering that the combat system has to be felt to really determine if it's a step up or back, this poll (which is already stupidly biased) is pointless.

I removed the "poll" - one choice is not a poll is it?

Why the biased poll? :confused:

At any rate, imo Skyrim's combat seems to be dramatically better

No sword, shield and spell, with no drawbacks, no choices to be made, any more. Sounds better already.

I'm really looking forward to trying out the new combat. I especially like that you'll have to be more tactical about wielding spells, seeing as you can't just use one whenever while equipping your sword and shield or suchlike.

Combat is something I never enjoyed in TES - don't take me wrong I play action game on occasion I like combat in general... When it's fun. But in TES is was always akin to a wood chopping to me... From what I've seen at last the magic part is improved, we actually got the "flamethrower" kind of spell that we can use instead of massing the button at regular intervals... But how much it has improved remains to be seen

Even though Skyrim has 2 buttons, it does a lot more with those buttons forcing the player to make a choice rather than to have it all.

its still really got 3 buttons as the third is holding down L&R together to make a more powerful attack!
from all i have seen and read, combat is wayyyyyy better in Skyrim than Oblivion, even thought i thought the combat in Oblivion was great, Skyrims seems far improved!

Er, that's better.

It means you cant "have it all" you need to think about what you want, block, melee, or magic since you can only have two of the three.

This is an example of skyrim being "dumbed up" from oblivion i.e harder

http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1228049-a-step-forward-or-backwards/