Recently, I stumbled upon a game called Chivalry: Medieval Warfare with combat that is exactly what I'd like to see from future TES games. Blows are immensely weighty, and every weapon feels drastically different. Kicks and other bashes are implemented very well and add to the flow of battle. Most importantly, opponents react to successful attacks and locational damage is critical to strategic battles.
Adding this sort of challenging combat to a TES game would make every encounter tense and exciting. Quick slashes, power-attacks, thrusts, crouching and jump attacks, bashes and kicks, and separate animations for every weapon are just a handful of things this kickstarter game does better than Skyrim. If TES: VI can one-up Chivalry in melee combat, TES's biggest gameplay flaw will have been entirely overcome.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4-1JdkCuuk