This games perfect in size. If I had to hoof any more than I do now, than I'd lose patience and fast travel more.

1. Fewer straight travel routes
2. Slower running speed
3. Distant blur shader and clouds around the mountains
4. More "sections" due to mountains everywhere, Oblivion was practically a big bowl surrounded by mountains.

As a side note, it's not true that every little thing has been handplaced. If you know much about region generating in Oblivion, you can tell the basics of the landscapes are often generated. A lot more is hand edited than in Oblivion though. Fun fact: They said the same about FO3 that everything was handcrafted, but when the GECK was released the modders found the region generating settings still in the region generator.

nvm, misread the title. it actually feels smaller to me, though i'm not sure why...

That is so true. I only fast traveled once because I was tired from a long day at work and didn't want to walk so used FT. But that was the only time I used it. In my other Skyrim game I was using it alot like in Oblivion but now that I see how everything works, I haven't used FT at all except when really tired in Real Life and just wanted to game a bit and not walk.

I think Skyrim is the Perfect size right now for me.

Definitely the variety. Not only was the environment all the same in Oblivion, so were the dungeons and so were the hard-scaled creatures. I turned to mods after one Oblivion playthrough; I was ready to puke if I saw one more [censored] Ayleid ruin or Ogre.

Skyrim has diverse environments, dungeons that were crafted to be unique (like Fallout 3), and a good variety of foes that don't just keep going extinct when you reach a certain level.

I play the game allowing myself only carriage travel as a means of fast-travel, similar to what was only available in Morrowind. In other words, fast travel is only available from and to specific locations. Walking just about everywhere gives you a real scope for the size of Skyrim, especially with all the characters, quests and places you come across. It doesn't seem to end.

The game has its share of glitches, but nothing truly gamebreaking. I love the game.

It's defiantly because of the variation, every square foot of land matters so much more than it did in oblivion.

I have the same in Skyrim with Draugr and all those crypt dungeons. Although some places are more unique, they all use the same tileset and same puzzles. Dragon Claws everywhere, and everywhere those puzzles with Fish/Dragon/Eagle/Fox etc.

Detailed and unique is not the same thing as big and huge. The road from Riften to Solitude is quite short if you walk it.

I have to wonder how people can get this idea.

There is more variety in landscape in Oblivion than Skyrim. Snowy mountains, large bodies of water, wooded regions, lush grasslands, dry grasslands, swamps, etc. And lots of nice finds, carefully placed items and structures.

Maybe this comes from not really looking at Oblivion in any detail. And just buying in to the falsehood of Oblivion not being hand crafted.

True, there are no giant mushrooms in Oblivion (except for Shivering Isles), but then no giant mushrooms in Skyrim either.

Poor Oblivion gets such undeserved criticism.

I'll stick up for Oblivion too. But Skyrim does feel a lot more handcrafted, they even admitted that. The whole of Oblivion's landmass was click click region generator and you have miles of lush forests or snowy mountain peaks, which were then altered a bit and handcrafted in certain areas. I'm not saying there wasn't some generation with Skyrim too, but it feels a hell of a lot more like...things have been thought through.

I feel the opposite actually. I do enjoy the Skyrim world more but I still wish it was bigger. Somehow it feels smaller than Oblivion to me.

...yet I got Oblivion at the midnight release and have played it for 4 years. And yes, it is a huge randomly generated mass of green with no hint of personal touch.

this

i wish this games land mass was even bigger

I admit Skyrim feels much larger at the moment, but that's only because I'm not familiar with it. Once I've been to every city, done most of the quests, and seen the 'big events' I'm sure it'll feel quite small and easy to navigate. In terms of actual journeys though I feel Oblivion seems bigger... mostly because the land is quite repetative though, and seems to take longer to get places because of it. Not sure that's a good thing.
Then again I still believe the difference between Anvil, Leyawin, Bruma and Bravil dwarf ANY variety this game offers.

It's a perception issue. When you're familiar with a game's area, it feels smaller. When you're exploring, it feels vast. It's unfair to compare two things being judged with different evalaution methods. Your memory of Oblivion will never match Skyrim until you have spent as much time playing each.

The problem with Oblivion was that it was a dome shape. While this looked nice from the Imperial City, always being able to see that damn tower meant you always knew where you were. It didn't really give the illusion of space very well.

Bigger is better if its detailed and unique. I think the verticality of the environment makes it seem huge, the overall design of the entire world is amazing, but I will not argue against making it bigger. I am all for that.

topographical variety for one. in OB you could see everything from anywhere and it reminded you how small everything actually was. in skyrim the winding paths, canyons, clouds, and dense forests obscure the horizon and let you deal with the sandbox one section at a time instead of seeing the whole thing all at once.

for me MW still feels bigger than either because i cant instant transmission anywhere, have to actually find things, have unexplored parts of the map obscured, and because the run speed was pathetic. in skyrim youre an olympic sprinter right at the start, know where everything is, can teleport to it instantly, have no concept of direction other than a straight line to your destination, the map paradoxically shows you everything to scale which kind of ruins the illusion of scale yet shows you no information of value.

scale is about much more than physical size. skyrim knows that better than OB, but still not as much as MW.

I find different paths to take longer. Going from whiterun to solitude is rather quick, going from Rorikstead to Whiterun... isn't... (which makes no sense, but I think it feels longer because I can't see my destination for quite some time) nor is Whiterun to Markarth, and I often don't want to walk from Riften to Windhelm due to having to navigate the volcanic tundra.

Also Falkreath hold seems huge to me... it all depends on whether or not there's a shortcut I use, and I very rarely use map fast travel (only if I'm annoyed)