It is a great game and adding some sandbox elements, like the hunting, building your mansion and various side quests is a great example of designers implementing some of Skyrim′s concepts into their games in a great manner.
It gives me a little hope for upcoming games like Dragon Age 3 they might do something like this...not too much hope but it is something

Assassin's Creed 3 was in development after Ac2 came out. Before Skyrim came out. Ac3 is it's own thing.

I'm really hoping that R* has learned from Beth in the coming GTA game. A bethesda style game with R*s cinematics and polish would absolutely blow my mind!