I've played Oblivion for hundreds of hours, probably thousands. I play to this day and I pre-ordered it. However, in the game there are points of interest that I still haven't been to, spots in the wilderness that I never found, caves or dungeons that I never explored.

Granted, there are large expanses of the same terrain. I tend to just run past everything because the last 3 minutes of countryside looks exactly like the next 3. Likewise, many of the caves and dungeons are nearly indistinguishable from one another. If you've seen the 10 most unique places, you've seen them all.

But, this is one facet of Skyrim that I have high hopes for. I get the feeling that the developers were a little more creative in their terrain and level design. Perhaps Skyrim, unlike Oblivion, will entice me to explore just a few more caves, dungeons, and fallen trees. After all, it's the feeling of "Oohh, nice, I don't think I've seen this before" that keeps me playing, not the feeling of "Ah yes, one of these again."

So, here's hoping.

Also, cmon Thursday night.

OB's ''blank'' terrain was generated wasn't it? I hear everything in Skyrim is hand crafted, so if a rock is there, someone purposely put it there....i think they learned from OB

I agree. After wandering my way through 15 Ayleid Ruins in OB, I tended to skip the next ones I saw. They were all extremely repetetive and annoying. I just most my time doing the quests outside, only venturing inside dungeons when a quest called for it.

I just hope the uniqueness is spread out in Skyrim. I don't want to be bored with exploration several days into the game. I want to come back to the game in several months, and happen across something I've never seen before.

Now c'mon Friday morning! (Can't make midnight )

With over 150 dungeons, I believe, and the fact that they said themselves that only one person designed all of Oblivions dungeons; 8 designers took place in crafting Skyrim's dungeon raids. That alone is good enough to hear for me, plus with the addition of the radiant AI quests - the lifespan of the game can only get larger and old dungeons will soon be renewed and feel fresh regardless.