I'll be vouching for DW till CK comes out and I can mod ebony blade to be upgradeable via smithing.

When they first came up with the equipping to hands idea, it was all about dual casting, two spells, and not letting you do the Oblivion thing with sword, shield, and spell at the same time. Two weapons wasn't the priority, though obviously they had to put that in with this system. So, yeah, maybe a bit tacked on, maybe they put balance before realism to a degree, but I would take what we have any day over a 'dual wielding skill' that you get in so many games. Couple of perks, job done, everything else is down to skill with the individual weapons.

Someone above said you can parry attacks. Is this true?

No, you cannot parry attacks.

You've been called out, so... How is it that you "parry?"

A warhammer, I can agree with. But there's no reason why I can't block normal attacks from one handed weapons, daggers, or the guy in the ratway who tries to punch you to death. I would settle or a weight limit to the enemie's weapon, and if above the limit blocking whilst duel wielding is no longer effective.

Anyone remember Tod Howard saying you could be like Gandalf in the Skyrim demo at E3?

Turns out sheathing a staff when it's in your left hand just means it disappears. You would have thought they would have used it as a walking stick in the animations.

that book is an in-game book. So of course he has not seen movies

I agree. It was obviously a quickly thrown together gimmick. This is how I would fix it:

Right hand attacks normally.
Left hand is used for blocking (no regular attacks).
Power attack uses both hands.

That way, you have your offense and defense, just like two-handed, and you also have nice burst damage with a power attack, like two-handed.

But then it doesn't make much sense gameplay-wise. It's just a slightly better two-handed style(because you have one more equipment piece to enchant).

I agree, I could have waited longer too, especially if things that seem like they should be there were actually there. But unfortunaly Christmas wasn't going to wait a few more months so they had to get the game out.