Tycho at Penny Arcade posted his impressions of
ES3: Oblivion as seen at last week's E3.
I'll let his own words dash your hopes for an improvement over
Morrowind's joke of a combat system:
...This
is my exact problem with Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, too. Understand that
we're talking about a game whose prisons, homes, and forests might as
well be real places, for all their visual fidelity. It's better than
you hoped. The stone wall in the first room was so beautiful I thought
I would cry, screenshots of the game are absolutely worthless as a
means of conveying it. I liked Morrowind, as you might recall
- I had a Tiger-Man in there I was quite fond of - but the combat is
philosophically identical in Oblivion, which, you know,
whatever. I doubt it's a problem for most people. What I'd hoped was
for the conflict in Oblivion to make the same kind of leap that Tamriel
itself had - more elaborate means of dodging, special tactics, timed
attacks, parries, ripostes, etcetera. Richness. It's hardly going to
make me leave it on the shelf, but I can see where the experience goes
from here and I'd just like to go with
it.
Can't say I'm surprised. Fanboys still
have another pretty safari simulation to look forward to, I guess. What does
this have to do with Fallout 3? If they can't get it right after two
sequels, we should just start packing our bags right now.