A solid hack and slash adventure game, but rpg it is not.
Graphics : Beatiful graphics, I especially like the really long line of sight. Sit on top of a mountain and you can see forever. On my system (Abit KV8, AMD 64 3200+, Geforce 6800 GT, 1 gig 400DDR ram) the game runs fine on high. While you don't need a $5000 dollar computer to run it, don't expect to be able to run it on a $500 Emachine.
Radiant AI : Ah yes, the most overhyped thing about this game. Especially in the E3 video. NPC's have set schedules, shops open and close, the only thing the radiant AI does that different from the norm is that instead of say, eating at home, they might eat a tavern. That's it. When it comes down to fighting the radiant AI, is well, not to radiant. Monsters constantly getting stuck, NPC's fighting for you constantly run in front of your swings/arrows/fireballs then yell at you for hitting them. Guards have some sort of psychic ability and can appear out of nowhere (fixed with a mod but still) Plain and simple, the AI really did not live up to it's expectations. You will never have an NPC invite you upstairs and I have yet to see an NPC drink a potion.
Skills : Daggerfall had tons of skills, then they got rid of most in Morrowind and by Oblivion, the skills are so mainstreamed its insulting. You have three weapon choices, Blunt, Blade, Hand to Hand. Their are axes in the game but guess what skill set they fall under..... BLUNT?!?! Wow, I guess the axes in Oblvion are really dull. The mine games, while interesting pretty much makes the skills associated with them useless. Speachcraft is completely and totally useless. Security is pretty much useless also, especially later in the game. You can have a security of one and pick the hardest lock.
Level scaling/loot : Totally against this, totally hate this, and if they ever do it again, I will totally never buy another TES game again. The whole point of RPG's is to level up to get stronger to move on to a tougher area. But when you can beat the game and every quest without leveling up once well..... Also, while the game is huge with lots of areas to explore, its pointless due to the fact that no matter where you go or what you do, you will never find a dungeon too hard. Loot is pretty crappy till you get higher up in levels then you have godly equipment dropping off of every other mob.
Factions : Their is basically four main factions to join, Fighters Guild, Mages Guild, Thieves Guild, and Dark Brotherhood. Out of them all the Dark Brotherhood had the most originaly, well thought out, and FUN missions of the four. Oh, and don't worry if your a pure warrior. My pure no casting warrior was the arch mage of the mages guild by lvl 10. Yeah, makes a lot of sense doesn't it? Also each faction comes with its own counter faction (Blackwood Co vs Fighters Guild, Necromancers vs Mages Guild, and Theives Guild vs Imperial Legion) You can't join of these factions so it makes the replayability factor 0.
Combat, Magic, and Stealth : Combat is actually fun now, theres swing, power attacks, knockdown attacks, disarm attacks. A HUGE step forward from Morrowind with click click click click. Magic is also revamped, I really hated having to switch out weapons and go through a whole process just to cast a spell. Now its a simple click away. Then there is Stealth, If they would of improved any more on stealth it would rival the Thief series. Its that good. Of course with the leveled loot, there really isn't anything to steel (or nothing to really steal for that matter.)
Journal : Okay, one thing I hated about morrowing was its archaic undescripitve journal. They just went a little too far with the map compass deal. You have a quest, an arrow shows you step by step where to go. No challenenge whatsoever in this aspect. They need to find a medium between the two extremes.
If they would of kept everything in Morrowind except, the combat, magic, stealth, graphics, and found a decent medium for the journal. This game would be 20X better than what it is now.