This is just one of those incorrect statements that clearly uses no examples, because there are none.
Imagine the people who manned the forts back when they were functioning. "Hey George-- could you go get my helmet for me? it's in the barracks."
"The barracks? Where are they?"
"Well-- just go through that door, down the hall, down the flight of stairs, turn left, turn right, go through the big room and out the door on the left side, up the stairs, turn right, turn left, turn right, across the bridge, through the locked gate, down the hall on the left, turn right, down the stairs, turn right, turn left, up the stairs, through the locked door, down the passage on the left, down the stairs, through the barred gate, down the middle passage, across the bridge, turn right and through the locked door. You can't miss 'em."
This is another. Not seen ruins, waterfalls, villages, ponds, rivers, towers, flagpoles, stairs, roads that aren't on your map, or any of the incredible views? That's strange, as you don't seem like the sort of person who'd use fast travel.
Sorry.... I presumed that the mention of "nothing but flowers and butterflies," coming as it did on the heels of the mention of "creatures pacing back and forth on the roads" would serve to communicate that the point was that the creatures are on the roads INSTEAD OF in the wilderness. I apologize for any lack of clarity on my part.
Whilst occasionally stopping to pray, hunt, drink, or even swear at the player character?
I'm afraid I don't even understand what this means.
In this game, you can walk around and not be blocked by mountains or rivers wherever you went, or an ash storm, which you couldn't do in Morrowind.
I'm reasonably certain that I said nothing at all about Morrowind, either good or bad, so I'm not sure what the point of that response was meant to be.
To clarify-- the "poorly implemented distant objects" of which I wrote are primarily buildings. In Oblivion, enormous buildings suddenly spring into existence in the middle of previously entirely empty valleys. One moment it's a lush, green valley with a hill gently sloping up the other side, and the next-- *BLINK*-- an enormous building suddenly appears right in the middle of it.
And that's with all the view settings cranked all the way up. That is, in my opinion, a fine example of "poorly implemented distant objects."
You appear to disagree with my assessment of some of the failings of Oblivion. That's fine-- I would expect others to disagree. That's the nature of opinions. However, I have no interest in changing your mind and certainly have no interest in getting into a fight over it, so unless you desire further clarification of some of my opinions, I think I'm done here.
Thanks for the response.