I was really stoked when I saw the trailer for Bethesda's latest in the Elder Scrolls franchise: Skyrim. Then I got immediately skeptical. I remember the same two dungeon skins that were rehashed for every dungeon in Oblivion. I remember the awful bugs and beefy specs that Oblivion wanted when I bought the CE on day one for my PC(it was rated "T" for Teen til they had to change it to "M". I am stoked to have that original box). The character animations were really clunky as well as having a pretty terrible combat system.  
 
The setting and story for Oblivion was the game and that speaks highly of how gifted the people at Bethesda that take care of those parts of a game are. Here's to hoping they take a page from the people that made Demons' Souls when revamping combat.  Skyrim is coming out in 2011 and gone should be the days of swinging my sword at a rat 10 times before I kill it. I want to plunge a well timed sword thrust into the belly of a foe and watch him grimace and crumple to the floor this time around. I want a streamlined inventory system that I don't have to download from a user 5 months after the game comes out. I want a game that is polished and closer to 95% free of bugs than 75% free of bugs.  
 
I really doubt that we will see Skyrim on its supposed release date but I will keep my fingers crossed. This time around though, I am waiting to read reviews. New Vegas, Oblivion, and Fallout 3 have shown me that Bethesda is willing to put games out that are wallowing in glitches and frustrating crash/locks. Here's to hoping they fix that. I used to be an unabashed fanboy of the TES series, but this isn't 2002-2007 anymore and I expect more from a AAA developer at this point in time.