'Tis an improvement over Oblivion, which is good enough for me

I think people are confusing "staggering" with "reacting". They are not the same.

A reaction is simply an enemy acknowledging a blow, by twitching his shoulder, grunting, twisting a little bit, before swinging at you. It's not a full-fledged stagger, where the enemy stumbles and delays his attack.

Yes, it is improved, but still look like [censored].

Is that so hard to make a good combat system?

And what you guys mean TES is not about combat? i spent 60% of my time killing things in Oblivion, how cant it be about combat?

what it is about? picking flowers? talking to NPC? explore the wolrd? its about EVERYTHING, and if something is not good it ruins the whole experience.

Please Bethesda hire someone to help you with ANIMATIONS and COMBAT SYSTEM, PLEASE!!! everything else is soberb...

What? You expect them to change Skyrim's combat system NOW?

U guys are expecting way to much from a game stop complaining

Course not, in the next one....thought that was obvious....

Nothing's obvious on the internet, my friend. Nothing is obvious.

Guess youre right : /

I think it's fine

for some one like my self who mainly plays stealth characters, combat is not a major concern for me.... because there usually is no combat

Too much? Why?

the combat system wont bother me and how do we know its not fake footage or something "its leaked" not released and how would somebody even get the game already and release the footage??? im sure it would be better than the link you gave

let me see if i got this right: youre saying the leaked footage might be a fake? hahahahahahahaha

You guys need to take down the tone a notch, it's just a game . The combat we have seen may be disappointing, I know I was disappointed, but we still haven't experienced the game first hand. Only a 10 day wait for the reviews .

But not entirely, there are those of us who are third person folks. More than you think. In any event seems fine to me.

I really wasnt expecting much of the combat system, waht really pisses me off is this: they always talk about immerson and how its a big deal to them, and always overlook somethings there are really immersion breakers. I mean, do i really want to get marry in a game or i want to see fluid and good animations (before someone say "what r you talking about i suggest have a closer look at the leaked footage, decaptation scene)? what is more important?
You know, things like being able to set a campfire, or see your equipment on you char (not just the weapon youre using at the time), or horse combat (please dont tell me it doesnt fit in the game), locational damage, all those things they have overloked are a big immersion break....

P.S: have you guys noticed the awkward movement to stand position (erect) always after the player make an animation kill? watch the Demo and take a look at him getting off the horse, or the assassin kill in the G4TV footage, or just after the player got down by the dragon blow in the leaked footage, how he gets up really fast and stand still for a few seconds ...its just awkward!

Combat is HUGE in TES, there is no denying it. Wether you yourself aren't fond of it is entirely irrelevant in the grand scheme of this subject. I bet a huge majority of players have been and will be fighting things, pretty much most of the time. So to say TES has never been about combat would have to be rephrased to: For me, TES has never been about combat.

I for one am satisfied with the current look of things regarding combat, but then I also was positive about OB combat, which, let's be honest, left ALLOT to be desired. If I want to be a battle axe wielding crazy, I would really like to see my opponent's react properly to a crazy battle axe to the head. Same goes for one bad ass destruction sorcerer, I would really like to visually melt my opponents face off, with appropriate animations to complement it.

The combat looks fine. The guy playing svcked though. Most combat in modern games svcks.

I don't have to play Dark Souls to know that it svcks. Watching a playthrough is more than enough to form an opnion. And my being called a really devoted fan is a compliment. Oh and Skyrims combat looks badass.

combat has always svcked in elder scrolls games. Oblivions combat was awful. I don't expect the combat engine to be too much different

I think the combat looked fine...it's looks like a step up from OB. I am not a FPS person and really dislike action games so I will not be complaining about combat in Skyrim. I'm perfectly fine with it and I haven't even played the game yet.

The combat looked fine. The only complaint anyone really could make is that enemies are sometimes not responsive enough when hit with a melee attack. This time around it looked a lot more fast paced than Oblivion, quite a significant improvement. This article is not only an overreaction, but also fails to compare other elements of combat such as magic. The magic combat looks fantastic, better than just about any other RPG in existence.

My favorite game of all time is Morrowind, and that game didn't have that great of combat, yet as a game it still (in my humble opinion) is superior to anything that comes out today. There is so much more to TES than just melee combat.

I'm seeing that most people are worried about combat ANIMATIONS and mostly just that, most people are seemingly not realizing that animations are only PART of the combat, and I think some people dont think about the difficulty of applying locational physics to first person games, and also how would it look if a mudcrab recoiled, figuring things like that out for creatures that are fantastical is also difficult, and draws the game devs attention away from the rest of this truly MASSIVE world.]

While I disagree with those who say combat is not a major part of TES, as it very much is, combat is not the main priority, as with worlds that Bethesda creates, believability and realism are things that they accel in and those 2 things are very difficult in a fantastical world. I myself would love the combat system to be more realistic and fluid but with the other things this game is going to present to us I think the small animation detail can be overlooked as the rest of the combat looks great and technical.

Not reacting to every attack is a means to avoid the infinite-air-juggling found only in unbalanced fighting games.

I thought the combat looked way too easy.

People have pointed out that the player is lousy, which makes it even more disappointing that he killed off one imperial soldier after another with a few slashes, and even a bear, albeit with the help of a companion.

Todd Howard said the dragons make the game hard and from the looks of the intro I believe it, but I was hoping everything else would be more challenging than in Oblivion too. I think it's much more satisfying when you start out struggling against even mudcrabs and really work your way up like in Morrowind.

Also, while the animation is much better than in previous games, I still find it too stationary. Sometimes an enemy just stands there as the player slashes them.