i come from an fps background, i bought fo3 on an impulse when i went in for gears 2. the trailer was impressive and the cashier said he'd been playing nonstop. anyway i took it home and gears campaign later i fired it up without a clue what an rpg was. after average graphics and a bunch of numbers i emerged from the vault to a breath taking view over the wasteland i would live in and love for the next two years. this was replaced with new vegas with its improved gameplay and inexcusable glitches which has never quite captured my heart the way dc did. i love post apocolyptia not hugely sold on fantasy, and never played elder scrolls before. but youtube gameplay looks pretty good.
so would i like it? i'm not after spoilers, but wondering how it compares to what i know. how do you level? is there a SPECIAL equivalent? sneak attack criticals? hardcoe mode? i love the idea of melee and bows, less so inexplicable magic. is that viable?

I don't think there's a SPECIAL equivalent. There's a pretty complex advancement system via perks/constellation that's pretty much the F3 system on steroids. You don't get to directly manage numbers here, but you get to choose whether to fortify your health, mana or stamina each time you level.

Other than that, this is pretty much fallout 3 with prettier graphics on a fantasy setting.

There are no guns in Skyrim, never will be.
Anyway, if you like the idea of an open world game where you can go wherever you want and do whatever you please then this might interest you. If you like medieval type fantasy games with lots of magic...and dragons, then this is definitely for you.

Leveling is a bit similar to Fallout IIRC
There are perks when you level up
No hardcoe mode as far as I am aware.

It has some minor elements from Fallout but nothing as complex as the lvling tree is in fallout or the direct control of where u want to lay ur killing blows/crippling hits on opponents unfortunantly. However this is a pretty good game and i would say if ur not sure to at least rent it first and give it a go.

even though this is high fantasy, its still has same basic principles. to put it simply, you will feel at home playing skyrim if you enjoyed fallout, not only that, but this does everything better. the improvements are amazing, everything comes together to create an awesome game. a must buy

The best way to figure out of you'd like it cheaply is to play Oblivion first.

If you liked fallout you will like this. Skyrim is my first TES game and I like it alot, and I've played FO3 and FNV. So I would say get it, you won't be disappointed.

how does sneak combat work? in fallout it was all about the sneak crit with x4 dam. how do they do it here?