I went ahead and played through Oblivion's early game for a while. Got a little bored with Skyrim and was wondering how far I could crank up Oblivion's settings before I started dropping my FPS.
It's kind of hard to see why Bethesda dropped so many good things. I don't want to orgasm over Oblivion here, I know it was a game with a lot of its own flaws, but...
1. The inventory. Oblivion's inventory is absolutely superb. It's responsive, simple, and informational. I love it.
2. Character generation. There's just so many more options to tweak your character. I admit that I'm ignoring the fact that faces in Oblivion look hideous (although I prefer Oblivion's Argonians, to be perfectly honest.), but you've got more options with just as nice of an interface as Skyrim's. Too lazy to go through all the settings but don't want to use a preset? There's a handy Randomize button! Just spam it and then tweak the result!
3. Intro. I don't know about you, but an epic movie intro voiced by Captain Picard is way more fun to watch than a lengthy cart ride where you listen to a horse thief and stormcloak whine about the headman's block.
4. Stats & Classes. I like stats. I think they add a lot to the game, honestly. This isn't a point that I go out and state exactly why I "must haz stats", but I feel like Skyrim really lost a lot in simplifying character development. I feel much less attached to my Skyrim characters. Unfortunately Oblivion's implementation of scaling really screwed it over, so both of my favorite TES games disappointed me here
5. Etc: I like Oblivion's ragdolls. I like how when I swing my sword at a specific area on a dead body, that specific area is hit. Do that on Skyrim and you'll hit the same spots on the body regardless of where you were aiming. I like the fact that I can pick up and move nearly everything in Oblivion. I like how the world is full of vibrant colors. Skyrim is desaturated and grey. I like the Arena, I like the quests, I like how caves, as generic as they are, will be filled with something other than Draugr. I like Oblivion's ghosts, zombies, and undead more. I like the Shivering Isles more than I like the Dawnguard areas and questline. I could go on.
Of course I'm just picking out things Oblivion does better. There's heaps I enjoy more about Skyrim; I like Skyrim's combat, controls, perks, scaling, spellcasting, etc. It's just a little disheartening to see how many times they took a step backwards. There's a lot missing in Skyrim and I don't know if mods will ever fill that void.
I guess this is what people who grew up on Morrowind feel like when they see Oblivion or Skyrim.
/endrant