To me Skyrim feels more alive, the graphics are well done (you can see that alot of work went here) and the music is great. It's huge and atmospheryc system really show off here.

But ppl that got Oblivion 1-2 years after it came out may feel that skyrim feels empty but that's because of all the amazing mods the community made, give it the same time (or less) and i believe skyrim will pommel oblivion to the ground.

My complaints with skyrim is the magic system, it's alot better than olivion but it feels unfinished, lacks in spells, there's no combo with different spells (for ex. a fire and an ice spell to create a scolding fog), companions are useful but bland, marriage system is dumb (where's the romance?).

I can hardly wait to see what the community will make of this game when the kit comes out, there where some truely amazing mods in oblivion and i have a feeling this game will get a bigger boost than oblivion could.

I don't know what bugs you're experiencing in Skyrim, but as someone who's played both of the last two Elder Scrolls games at launch day, my experience is that Skyrim IS 3000% more bug-free than either of those games were at launch. Heck, I can run Morrowind with all the community patch mods and still see more bugs in a few hours than I've seen in the 60+ hours I've put into Skyrim so far.

In fact, I've experienced exactly ONE bug with Skyrim - the Enchanting Table locked up on me when I was trying to rename something. That's it.

It makes sense Skyrim is larger, I was under the impression from an interview I read with Todd Howard that Skyrim was designed to be filled with more content and detail rather then bigger with less (like Oblivion). I could have confused the smaller number of cities with a smaller map though.

I favor the game landscape of Skyrim over Oblivion's overworld.

With global mods like FCOM,OOO,MMM Oblivon still have best TES World.

Not sure about Vanilla

I agree.

Also, people need to distinguish between bugs in the game design and mechanics VS bugs that result from various hardware configurations of PCs. I'm not saying there aren't issues that need to be addressed in Skyrim. However, it is impossible to account for all the different driver / hardware / software configurations when designing a game... Especially as huge as Skyrim. I frankly don't know how Bethesda put out the game in as good of a condition as Skyrim was released in. There are bugs and tweaks needed, but in my 60+ hours now I have yet to see one game breaking bug.... I've crashed to desktop three times and had the game freeze on me once.

This. Especially if you would include Fallout 3. That game was a disaster at launch as well. Skyrim produces very little bugs for me.

This ^^

Oblivion felt like candyland with all the rainbow colors.

Skyrim is dark, grayed out world befitting the times

SKyrim hands down..........(Oblivion beggers- thank you kind sir- cracked me up everytime)

I play on the console so no mods here.
Oblivion was the same green forests over and over.
Caves were the same. Forts were the same. Oblivion gates omg noo...
Basically Oblivion=repetitive.

Skyrim so far every cave has surprised me how different they are. Really just go find em.

I've personally encountered quite a few, most of them being graphical, but they are no where near as numerous as the ones in Oblivion or especially Morrowind at launch. They're still there, and by god I want to punch something every time the game crashes on me, but over all it's be a relatively less hassled experience so far than the past two titles. It does seems that they do get better with each new release.

As for which world is better, I prefer the grittiness of Skyrim's landscape over the plain generic fantasy motif Oblivion was going for. Especially since after reading the first Pocket Guide I was really psyched to see how they would adapt the jungle/sub-tropical terrain of Cyrodiil. Then what do I get when the game is finally released? Something that looks like it was cut and pasted from every medieval fantasy novel to date. Was a really big let down after coming from the practically alien landscape of Morrowind.

Hrm... LotR clone or handcrafted Nordic masterpiece... Tough one.

I prefer Oblivion's geographic location, but Skyrim is clearly far superior in terms of production value and general detail. It is too bad Skyrim is all snow and little warm location. There are just not enough diversity. I want to see more lush environments, marshes, stuff like that. It doesn't make too much sense with setting, but for gameplay reason I think it is important. Also when its not fill with snow, the landscape look to similar to Captial wasteland. Just go outside of Whiterun and you will get that feeling.

I think Cyrodiil has the edge for me: apart from the fact that it's more "green and pleasant", it's just the overall vibe, I suppose. Perhaps it's a matter of familiarity, and perhaps it's also that some of the more annoying and/or bland elements had been banished from my game long ago thanks to Unique Landscapes and FCOM.

Though I think one fairly mundane thing that would improve my experience of wandering around Skyrim would be a proper map: the 3D vista is all clever and everything, but actually as a map it's almost entirely useless. If I could actually see where the roads went in just a basic 2D view so I felt I could reasonably plan my route, I'd probably get on with enjoying the view and the ambience instead of spending half my time wondering where the hell I'm going...

Too often in a game, technology marches forward and you get more of what was already done before but with more normal mapping... Skyrim is not that game. They added new technology and applied it in a way that is beautiful. The biomes are varied and immersive, the trees are worlds better, the little rivers and rivulets of water are astonishingly well done, the dungeons are actually worth exploring now because many of them have neat things to see or do in them (though the lack of unique loot is still a little annoying).

Personally, my only criticism against the world-designers/artists.... They went too far with the desaturating color spaces. There are a wealth of beautiful colors, which all vanish once it gets to be about 9am or in most dungeons because the game turns almost black and white. I "get" that the were aiming for the color spaces to evoke the cold and starkness of Skyrim. I just think they went too far.

Oh yeah, that: I think it's part of the reason I still lean towards the relative cosiness of Cyrodiil. I'd probably be a bit more enthralled with Skyrim if there was a bit more colour to it.

The water does look fantastic, though.

Quest bugs are plagued in this game, like I have said in another post, if it isn't a random CTD or freezing, it running into a quest which can't be completed or has to be reloaded because something bizarre happened. Graphical glitches are a distraction when playing. Items floating upwards into the sky. I don't remember these issues with Oblivion, at least to this level. Perhaps I am just more self aware then you are. It is not because I am trying to find fault either, there just obvious and stick out like a sore thumb.

skyrim was my first tes game and the only single player rpg i played over 50 hours and I enjoyed it. I bought oblivion for $5 on teh steam sale last week and after playing it for an hour, lost interest. Skyrim's graphics, movement animation, and simpler mechanics are much better than oblivion though I'm pretty sure if I play oblivion a little longer I will come to appreciate it but the fighting and graphics are killing it for me. I didn't think skyrim's graphics were anything special until I played oblivion and then I realized why people were saying skyrim looks great.