Ok I'm going to start this off by stating facts. Oblivion is much bigger than Fallout 3. Having that said, Fallout felt bigger for a couple of reasons.

-The first and most important reason is the "amount of time spent in an area". In Fallout 3 there was a town called megaton. In megaton there was stuff to do and interesting people to meet, these people often gave quest for you to do and kept you busy. On top of that near megaton there was a school that was not a quest but felt like one. Also there was a supermarket to explore. So the point is, in just that small area around megaton you spend hours playing without really venturing too far. So when you start to really explore the world it seems bigger because you spend a lot of time in each location. So how it differs from Oblivion is the dungeons in Oblivion are very straight forward and dont really keep you there for long. Along with other locations. So I believe in Skyrim areas will be packed with content keeping you in a small area for longer.

- Another reason is "more unique/interesting locations". So both Pete Hines and Todd Howard has stated that Skyrim has more content than Oblivion. So From what we saw in the gameplay videos the locations looked very interesting. In riverwood people are doing there daily jobs, kids playing with the dogs, interesting conversations. The same could be said with the dungeons, in Bleak Falls Barrow you could just see the level of detail from opened roofs that brings in snow, to overgrown vines and plants, to waterstreams and waterfalls forming, to puzzles and then some. Just that one dungeon seems really interesting. I doubt bethesda would stop there.

- The last reason I can think of is "more content". Now I'm not sure what this means but I know that Skyrim will definately not feel as empty as Oblivion.

So with that said tell me if you agree or disagree.

Agree, I think the main point is the content. Plus I read Skyrim is 15.4 miles, Oblivion was 16 miles. They are pretty much the same size as is. The world is just going to be populated better with things to do, places to see, and folks to talk to.

agreed- I just made a thread about the instances and such that will take place in every path you'll take in Skyrim.

Personally I'd rather areas not be "packed". I'd rather have locations spread out further, which feels far more natural. Having a lot of things close together certainly won't make the world "much, much bigger".

Well they already stated the Skyrim game world is simply far far bigger than Fallout 3, and about the same size with way more content than Oblivion.

It's going to depend how you play I think. If one embraces all aspects of game play(mining, smithing, cooking, leatherworking, woodcutting, farming, fishing, curing, buying homes, horses, companions) and participates/explores all that each area has to offer then yes it will.

However if you closely follow the main and side questlines and little else then you'll not get much. Expect many story gamers to proclaim getting 30-50 hr playthroughs.

I'm expecting 300-500hrs per character and probably 5 or more characters. Then I start modding my game and...damn this game is going to last like 10 yrs.

I'm a little warry mountain trails will remind me slightly of FO3's subway system, and going up mountains in generall will probably be a railroad single trail fest, I'm sure going down any which direction I so choose will make up for it. Just kinda hope there's a perk that allows thieves to roll fall instead of taking it like a boss and land without even bending your knees. Works fine for knights with oogles of health, but the speedy little theif needs a way to survive those kinda fun falls I always try to find darn it all.

I agree. In Oblivion the average town seemed to have about two or three actual quests in each town to do. Not counting guilds and house quests... but really I think Bravil has only 3. Hell one character in one town gives you huge multi stage quests in fallout 3. Keeps you busy for hours and adds a lot of depth. Not to mention all the other characters, plus the quests just seem to have more meaning to them on average, which makes you feel like your doing something a little more important.

I'm playing fallout new vegas and so far it seems to have a ton of content. Companions come with their own quest lines which have some depth too. So based on the direction Bethesda games have taken since Oblivion and what they are telling us, it's pretty obvious Skyrim will be bigger in the broad sense of the word. Way too many people are hung up on physical size of the map. Based on 3D topology Skyrim has more actual surface then Cyrodiil due to all the mountains.

Plus Oblivion had basically about 5 dungeon templates. Skyrim has 150 or something like that, all unique. That to me will certainly make Skyrim feel bigger for sure, and BE bigger in terms of actual explorable space IMO. There are so many basically useless caves and forts is Oblivion that I have no desire to explore because I know there is nothing new to see... whatsoever. Oh sure you might find some unique loot that is still worse than what you can enchant yourself once in a while, but it's not worth spending an hour clearing out a dungeon to maybe find something of interest, that 99% of the time is useless crap.

That said I'm stoked for Skyrim. Sure a huge world is nice but Gothic 2 was big but I uninstalled it because frankly the quests were broken and it crashed all the time. So what good is size if your not having any fun while you there?