Oblivion WAS THE BEST. I know this is about half a year-ish late... but...
mai proff:
1. The game gets harder as you level up naturally - almost entirely scaling. This may pose an issue for certain non-combat characters; however, the majority will benefit from this. In Skyrim, it might shove a level 4 archer into the path of a cave bear.
2. There is no perk system. You pick the 7 Major Skills, and you have a full 100% chance to become fully specialized and mastered in any of those skills. In Skyrim, the perk system can seriously limit some people to only mastering 3 skills. It is a pathetic system that is a giant middle finger to non-combat (thief) characters wishing to master Pickpocket / Speech / Lockpicking while still being somewhat capable in combat. Other characters, such as mages who need many perks in certain skills, get screwed over terrible. Your best option for perks is to get lvl 80 from 100 in all skills but that is TERRIBLY non-RP. Most have 40-50. Even then, limited. 7 skills will let you choose and master what you WANT to.
3. Argonians look better and less awkward in Oblivion. Argonians lost their poison resistance in Skyrim totally ruining them RP-wise, while gaining some stupid steroid health regen power.
4. It isn't a frozen wasteland
5. The Thieves guild is 10,000x better in oblivion. Really... the Thieves guild quests in Skyrim involve way too much killing, it is an unorganized guild itself, and you have some pathetic tasks. True thiefs do what they do in Oblivion.
6. Imperials go from odd to freaking weird in racial bonuses. Doesn't even have speech anymore. Totally messed up.
7. Dark elves lost their racial bonuses in (archery / marksman) and (one hand / blade). Freaking Imperials are the new spellswords.
8. Smithing and Enchanting are way too powerful in Skyrim. They just feel required to me for melee characters... makes me annoyed, considering the perks system will make this extremely annoying wasting some of your 40-50 limiting perks.
9. The main quest is ridiculously ranger-friendly due to dragons. Some of the guides for Skyrim will even tell you that your melee character "really needs" to have archery back up. Add on archery perks to waste even more of your limiting melee perks (because archery is just ridiculous weak at low perk levels).
10. This might not really count, but Oblivion had a metascore of 96 before it was changed, since Skyrim was sitting at a 94 before both became 94.
11. More stuff respawns than in Skyrim. Once you clear out too much in Skyrim, not enough will come back.
12. Finally, Oblivion feels much more "playable" (no idea how to say this) than Morrowind. Morrowind was just magoo, great story in the main quest and everything... but the combat and all was... magoo. Old games, I could not stand the controls or anything about them.
What does this leave you with? Well, you can melee dragons but it requires an open space for them to land and it gets really annoying at times trying that.
Assassins are much better in Skyrim... the Dark Brotherhood is much better, and they have a bit of power in their ambushes for once.
And then magic users, though limited to 3-4 magic skills due to annoying perk system, are all-around not screwed over by Skyrim much at all.
Right now I am playing Skyrim just because assassins are sort of fun... maybe unrealistic and a bit too easy to one shot a mammoth with a butter knife, but whatever. Been trying my hardest to play the "pure" (ish) thief but I will either suffer combat durastically or some of my thief skills.
Is anyone else extremely disappointed in Skyrim?
I thought Skyrim was great. But so was Oblivion. I agree with u that the darkbrotherhood was better in Skyrim and that the thieves guild was better in Oblivion. However, many people hated how monster leveling system in Oblivion because even if they had Daedric amor, they still felt as if they were not powerful enough. I see what you mean with new characters fighting cave bears in Skyrim, but in Oblivion these odds are even worse. It may not be as bad for lower lvl players, but it is extremely hard for high-lvl players. Im not gonna offer a walll of text so ill start a new paragraph.
Morrowind had a positively GREAT story. I loved the story for Morrowind, but the graphics were horrible. I cant even play Morrowind now seeing as i have Oblivion and Skyrim. Oblivion's graphics improved the overall series graphics by a LOT. Even so, Skyrim's graphics were much better. I can still play Oblivion, but i dont find as much graphics enjoyment as in Skyrim. Oblivion's smithing system was [crap]. If you use a weapon too much it starts to break? This may be more like real life but do you remember the Tiber Septim's grave quest? Where you have to go find his armor? There are shades EVERYWHERE and many of my weapons were around 30 durability. This is not good. I just barely made it out alive to repair my weapons.
In Skyrim, the smithing system may take up perk points but it truly helps you out. Many melee fighters dont like the idea of having to repair your weapons every 3 fights and buy repair hammers in Oblivion. In Skyrim, this problems doesnt happen. And you can get armor without having to pay the who-knows-how-much price for you to buy the weapons and armor that are Daedric. In Skyrim, you may have to pay a price for the materials to make the armor and weapons, but you save a lot of coins. And you get the chance to get better armor as you level and become more mature in the game. In Oblivion, you must either find the things you want or raise the coins to buy it. And let me tell ya, raising up coins in Oblivion takes a good while.
Skyrim's quest rewards are better. You can get armor, weapons, and coins. A quick way to get rich. I currently own a house in almost every town in Skyrim. In Oblivion, I only own ONE house and im lvl 30 something.
Let's talk about the stories of each game. Morrowind's story was great but i think it lands in 3rd place. Oblivion's story slowly played out and you discover hints to the end as it goes on. I think Oblivion deserves to be in 1st for this category. Skyrim is in 2nd because, although the story was great, it wasn't as good as many gamers had hoped. When you see the first dragon being risen from the ground, if you have subtitles, you will already know the dragon reviving the other was Alduin. And THAT kinda killed the plot. Oblivion had the best story in my opinion.
Now let's talk gameplay. Morrowind's gameplay wasn't too great, taking into consideration the way people walk and the idea of a big flying bee that takes you from city to city. Oblivion brought a whole new way of gaming with random monsters blasting from walls, monsters having the intelligence to walk AROUND a hill if you are on the other side of it, and an amazing array of quests, from the dark brotherhood to the azura vampire quest. Skyrim, i think we can all agree had very good gameplay. The sword swinging was quick and easy, and many people liked how fast you can go when you sprint, as it is not too fast that you seem to be speeding at the speed of a car, and not too slow that you feel as if your a turtle.
It may be annoying if you have to take out a bow to kill a dragon, but there is another solution; shouts. If you have the shout storm call, you can deal some REAL damage on a dragon. But do not do this if you have a follower as lightning will not discriminate friend from foe. If you let the storm go, you can normally knock the dragon out of the sky. Then my fellow melees, you can kill the dragon while its down (this will go faster if you have a daedric sword with life leach like me :D).
I think ive covered most of the areas you talked about. I know half the forumers will only read this last sentence but hey, who cares? As long as you do. I think Skyrim met many's expectations. There are some bugs with it but did you see Oblivion when it came out? that thing had crazy bugs. And now, who-knows-how-many years later, it works awesomely. Both of these turned out great.
I admit, i am fonder of Skyrim than Oblivion but hey, thats my opinion. Oblivion was SUPER AWESOMELY GOOD. But i think Skyrim was SUPER AWESOMELY GREAT. Both are very good games and are amazing.