Does anyone know if you can map abilities and items to the d pad, similar to Oblivion? All I have seen is the favorites menu, but in the video demonstration he occasionally switched spells without pulling up favorites.

Yes it is a menu that pops up when you press the dpad during the game and you can put all your favorites there for quick use

I think you can fill this list with as many favorites as you want, but my advice would be keep it to 3 or 4 just so it doesn't turn into a slightly smaller inventory screen

Yeah you can put as many as you want but dont put to much because it will get cluttered fast

So there is no mapping abilities to D Pad Up, Down, Left, Right? Just favorites?

Does anyone know how to view the front of the player character using the gamepad?

You just have to stand still in 3rd person and pan the camera to the front of you to check yourself out

No it is one little menu that you bring up and it pauses the game when you do it and it is really fast and useful