Oblivion is by far the weakest TES game the best part of the series is the sense of exploration and discovery, being immersed in a fantasy world. Oblivion's world was generic and samey so had to relie on other factors, all of which are TES series' weak points and many were actually at their worst in oblivion (Level scaling meaning that the game was easier if you didn't level, leveling had to be planned out in advanced or you ended up with a gimpped char but was dumbed down at the same time, magic was watered down etc). That is how someone can hate Oblivion as you have probably been told countless times.

Skyrim on the other hand does virtually everything better than Oblivion with a varied interesting world (there is a lot of visual and textural veriaty) with tonnes of dynamic content that makes the world feel more alive, art direction is miles better, combat is far better, the leveling system is far more intuative and more forgiving while still offering some depth (skill trees could have been better tho), there are more quests, main quest is better exicuted, level scaling is handled much better and much more. The only real flaw is the god damn tutorial/intro I can't belive they managed to make a worse one than Oblivion but they did it's god damn long and unskipable just because I forgot to make a hard save just before the character creation I had to walk away for like 5 minutes when starting a new char and there is still like 10 minutes of hand holding after that, can't wait for a mod to fix that shit. Oh and the dungeon design while 10x better than Oblivion is still a tad linear and the puzzles repetitive but the Dwemer ruins make up for it.

Well it would be much easier if you just said what you didn't like in Oblivion and Fallout New Vegas. Then we could tell you if these problems have changed or not.

It's muuuuuuch better. Haven't you seen any videos ?

3rd person was horrible in Oblivion and Fallout because the animations were just so incredibly stiff. Looked like a totally broken mode back then

Seriously matey, if you didnt like Oblivion or NV then the simple and obvious answer is No. This game plays exactly the same as those two so if you didnt like them then i cant see how you could possibly like this.

It's not just the animations. It's the actual 3rd person gameplay. If you tell me the 3rd person gameplay is as smooth and fluid as Demon's Souls then I might just give it a go. No I haven't seen many videos of 3rd person play, but what little I have seen is unconvincing.

I hated Oblivion, I didn't like Fallout New Vegas, I loved Fallout 3, and I think I'm going to love Skyrim too.

So yeah, I'm in the same boat as you, a very weird one.

I'm in the same boat. I'm really looking for some epic game to play for Christmas because I won't have the time to play anything of that size until semester break in late february. I didn't like Oblivion either.

Here's my list of complaints (I put a "fixed" behind the things I know they worked on):

Technically: Pop-ups (fixed), animations (fixed to some degree), dialogue.

Atmosphere: (see above), generic world (fixed?), generic dungeons, pretty empty overworld.

Gameplay: Leveling, no real sense of progression for the game was getting easier if you were on a low level, simply being thrown into the world (I like freedom but I want the world to be somewhat broken up into easy and hard regions)

Other: The german voice acting was horrible and the translation was mindblowingly bad. A small potion was called "Schwacher Tr. d. Le. En. Rückgew." (and that was one of the easier ones) and they called the healing spell "fireball"...

I feel like they fixed most of the bad things but I don't have the time to put more than 1 hour a day into the game, not even during Christmas. I'm afraid the game will be too "hardcore" for me for that was what mainly kept me from liking Oblivion.

Anyone who felt the same about Oblivion but likes Skyrim?

I found that most people who are liking skyrim but didnt like oblivion are people who hardly played oblivion. The games are very similar in certain ways but completely different in others.

The main story line is genuinely interesting this time round, which is one of the few things i disliked about oblivion. The game is more likeable and accessible than oblivion was, theres no recurring dungeons, funny animations or wacky 3rd person view. That being said the 3rd person view is stil not up to scratch with games like demon souls. The combat which is a big part of the game is stil a bit lofty, no real feedback given to the player.

The general structure of the game is exactly the same as oblivion, in terms of the world, the quests, the exploration etc.

I have not played Skyrim but if I may, I will suggest you play Deus Ex. You will not regret it. Strong rpg elements and the action doesn't let the team down.

Not the answer you were looking for, just a suggestion but it is definitely one of the best games I have played for a long while......since Mass Effect 2 that is.

Even if you didnt like Oblivion I would definitly try Skyrim. I didnt like Oblivion myself, but damn, Skyrim is an awesome game. Its streamline with much better NPC interaction and character development. I did like Fallout 3 and New Vegas though. Rent it because its not necessarily true that if you didnt like Oblivion you will not like Skyrim.