Looks near identical of the hyped Oblivion screenshots. Not too impressed by that. Forests, water and plants - big deal, been there, seen it. Textures look completely recycled as well (notice the ferns and flowers in the foreground).
Screenshots probably won't do this game justice because it seems the main improvements have to do with physics and lighting.
Random Dragons roaming the world sounds like the coolest feature I've seen so far. I wonder if fighting them will get monotonous after a while though (Cliff Racers anyone?).
Skyrim is sounding more and more like "Oblivion 2", not TES: 5. In other words, it seems like they are approaching it to "fix" Oblivion, not to really innovate anything. This is evidenced by the things they've said: "more diverse landscapes this time, instead of just forests!", "you can walk away from dialog this time", "real Radiant AI", "better leveled lists", etc.
All of these arguments have been charged against Oblivion, not the series as a whole. I would love if they started commenting on how they would improve TES while looking equally at Daggerfall, Morrowind, and Oblivion, not just Oblivion alone.
If I didn't know that screenshot was from Skyrim, I'd have said it was from Oblivion (or possibly a new expansion). Those rocks look
exactly like the rocks in Oblivion
I'd also agree on your other points, but gameplay wise, I think fixing the level scaling, dialogue landscape and AI is a fairly major step in the right direction from Oblivion. If they actually do fix them instead of just changing them to something equally annoying or even worse remains to be seen, though
The most major gripe I had with Oblivion compared to Morrowind was the quality of the writing and the world building in general. Morrowind actually feels like a plausible world, with very real political intrigue and historical uncertainties that you actually have to manoeuvre in and learn about during the main quest. Oblivion, on the other hand just feels like a backdrop for 'teh epic quest!!1' the player is embarking on with everyone is just there to acknowledge your progress. In essence, Oblivions world revolves around the player, while Morrowinds does not, at least that's the feeling I got.
That's also the biggest worry for Skyrim for me, I always appreciate a well crafted world, almost no matter how broken the gameplay mechanics are. As long as I can enjoy exploring the world I can put up with pretty much everything.
Also, I can't help but think that those dragons (actually wyverns anyway, no front legs) looked kind of silly flying with those tiny wings of theirs.
I totally agree, proper flight needs
large wings, otherwise it'll just look silly. It doesn't help either that it's beating its wings forward, making it look like it's supposed to go backwards.