I think it's just fine. I probably played for about an hour or so before I realized all those stats were gone. And I wasn't disappointed either. Sure, it svcks that Speed is gone. Now I can't run 100 MPH while high on Skooma. But it also means I won't get left in the dust by NPCs if I don't get +5 in 3 stats when I level up (which is just ridiculous when you remember that you're supposed to be a hero foretold by the Elder Scrolls, as well as being Dragonborn in Skyrim. That's a double wammy of power). I think the perk trees make up for the missing stats.
I also like the changes to alchemy, and the addition of cooking and crafting. I feel that Skyrim is overall better than Oblivion.

You say oversimplify.
I say getting rid of useless, annoying game mechanics.

^ Yep this. The nuance of complexity is missing. There is an empty space that is not being filled by things like those older games used to do. It also feels like i'm being forced to ride my bike with the stabilisers on, even though they already taught me how awesome it is to ride with them off. Its just not svcking me in as much as the older games.

I still like it.. I just want to like it more.

Since daggerfall they have been stripping things out of the series and not giving us anything back.

Finally in skyrim they add stuff two it. We can dual wield hand system that even effects magic and we get perks every level. The perks add a ton of options every level.

I don't mind when they take stuff out if they put new stuff in to keep the system interesting.

While I was disappointed in losing some things, including item degradation which, at least, gave me something to sink money into, the one thing I really miss that they removed maybe to make the game simpler is unarmed and unarmored. I don't try to play as some ninja person, but I must be missing something here. My char is a Khajiit with an unarmed attack (using her claws). Using it doesn't feel at all like one hand weaps, which I guess is where it falls now.

I sometimes wonder who all the Daggerfall players were who got so upset about a wide variety of specific skills.

This.

*Opens inventory, clicks on repair hammer, then clicks on two-handed sword to repair* Yeah, what a brilliant mechanic... oh, how I miss that "ding, ding" sound...

Well, that's the reason why I didn't prepurchase the game, and waiting before I buy it on PC.

Ah well, Bethesda will probably get back on track with the Black Marsh... Or Valenwood... Or Elsweyr.

I share your sentiments OP.

I want to like Skyrim, I really do. But there are some plain bad design decisions. No 3rd person kill cam toggle, no HDR toggle, extremely clunky gameplay. Play Fallout 3 then this.. look at how smooth and solid Fallout 3 plays. For all the praise they gave the new conversation system... it still feels very rigid. Even FNV dialogue had a better feel to it.. there are no subtitles meaning you have to listen to everything NPC's say... not so bad the first time... but bad when you hear the same crap of the shopkeeper you regularly visit. We are definatly not free to walk around like they promised. There are hundreds of symbols on the compass with no clue as to what they mean.

Morrowind had a f*** load of conversation subjects, and the fact that we had to read quinda helped for objectives (because they were highlighted and we could click on them).

I think to many people requested a Fallout 3 TES...and a scraqed liscence...other than than the lore.

A bit yes , I just started playing last night and I noticed it. So far I haven't seen as many variations of clothing as previous games. Only saw "clothes" and that's it. No "blue trimmed sude outfit" or "blue and green shirt" just "clothes". I also just relised on how much I will miss acrobatics. I spent a long time training for it, and was very proud when I could do cool acrobatic stunts and longer jumps. No item degradation is also a bummer, now that smithing is just for creating and not fixing. I hated Fallout's repairing-but it fit because it's a wasteland. Oblivion's was nice. I didn't love doing it, it just gave more depth to the game.

Another thing that I was a bit suprised by is that some non-important npcs are unable to engage in a conversation. When you try to talk to them they just say some repeating thing as they walk by Another thing is the degradation of hand to hand. There are only 2 attacks - no sideways, backwards, or sneak attack. But the biggest disappointment... is character creation You cannot select age, fine tune noses, individually choose eye color combinations (blind or dif colored), etc. The hair options are also very limited Nor are the hair styles named, though it doesn't really matter.You also cannot select length of hair. It's is now very difficult to make a character resembling myself.

Don't get me wrong, I love the game so far. The AI is amazing as for what I've seen. The combat is good, though I'm still getting a feel for it. Graphics and landscape are great, as are the many additions they've added. Perhaps I will change my mind the more I play however, as long as I can make a roof jumping theif I'll be okay.

They way I see it, they replaced tedious things with fun things, and they spent more time on making the game interiors and exteriors more exciting to view and plunder. The world feels like it could be real, given the right amount of imagination.
And anyways, these are reasons why you play on PC and wait for mods to change things (or make your own gd mods, gdit!).

If you are playing on PC, you will be able to mod it, once enough mods are made.

Agreed, i want the old skills and stats back. And also optional classes for starting. As at the moment you can be master at every possible skill in game and become invincible.

I really miss the equipment degradation. And the smithing is pretty lame. All you do is press a button and watch a crumby animation. It's nothing more than a vending machine simulation. Wish it was a bit more involved (a la Minecraft.) I got a glimpse of a character splitting logs in pre-release gameplay footage and I was really excited. I thought we'd be splitting logs to burn for cooking food and smelting ore, etc. And I was hoping that the log-splitting itself would be more involved than the simple button-press followed by animation. But no. Anymore, games are just long cut-scenes that prompt you to press "X" here or "A" there.

Edit: These minor complaints aside, I have to say that I love this game. Definitely the best game I've played all year.

This.

I have 9 hours played so far, and in all that time, didn't feel like the game was missing anything.

I'm loving the game, but came in knowing it was neutered.

So yeah ... way dumbed-down, in a bad way, but I still like it.

Mods will hopefully add some more depth ... Call of Duty references are aptly applied IMO.

Honestly, when haven't games been long cut-scenes that prompt you to push buttons? Did we used to not push buttons? When did we invent virtual reality simulators, AND WHERE CAN I GET ONE!?
Would you rather have a really complex crafting system involving you stamping your name into the pommel of a sword, or would you rather have an extra couple hours of quests and story? I'm pretty sure those kinds of tradeoffs come up for discussion in Bethesda's developer meetings. Time to make a really complex system that few players will appreciate vs time to add stuff to the game that most if not all players will appreciate. I like the idea of a more in depth crafting system, and have wanted one since morrowind, but I would also rather have more interesting, scripted quests to do in the game.

Here's the Oblivion items menu:

http://sidemission.c...livion_menu.jpg

Notice how you can, at a glance, see all the particulars for several items simultaneously, similar in some respects to a Windows Explorer interface. You can of course sort the items by name, value, damage, etc. This is a very useful interface that's user friendly.

Now Skyrim:

(I couldn't find an image, so here's a video)
http://www.youtube.c...h?v=pz1CHKvjrvQ

Now you can only see names, and they can't be sorted at all. Oh yes, and you can see the stats of one item at a time. Woop.

Tell me this isn't oversimplification.

I'm looking at an option to turn on both general subtitles and dialogue subtitles right now. There, one problem solved. I can't understand what half the compass symbols mean either, but I try to not even look at it.

(links are broken)

Exactly. They've added smithing and mining too!

Add me to that list. Putting all that stuff in was pretty much a waste of Bethesda's limited resources as far as I'm concerned

And the Morrowind Item menu (Which I think is way better... I kinda didn't like the Oblivion Item menu...if we have a million items, it's a pain...but not in Morrowind.)

http://pcmedia.ign.com/pc/image/morrowind_051502_008.jpg

I like it better than the past TES games. I kinda miss acrobatics, but not too much, and most of the stuff they got rid of was unnecessary. The combat actually works this time, and everything is just...better.

When i started playing oblivion, i chose the major skills that i THOUGHT i was going to use, then when i actually got in game, i would find out that i preffered a totally different playstyle. I like what they have done as it means that people can put the perks on what they use the most.