opposite happened with me i just gave up on how **** oblivion was after 7 hours and i've played 400 hours of skyrim

it had nothing to do with the world
but it was the feel of the game that made it so empty for me
the melea combat was repetitive didnt work properly and had obvious thing which were just plain better then their counterparts (swords swung faster and did more damage then axes, you couldnt block if both hands had a weapon or non shield item equiped, duel wielding didnt actualy make you attack any faster or deal more damage except with the charged strikes)
then there were the spells which were pathetic and useless and it didnt allow you to make new ones
the enchanting was INCREDIBLY limmited
the cities were empty (even whiterun the "trading capitol" of skyrim had about 8 people in the (the smallest city in oblivion was a good 2ce the size of the largest in skyrim)
the hotkey system was a stupid piece of crap that forced you to pause the game every time you wanted to change weapons
the leveling system was just moronic (i kind of liked the idea of perks but they did it just plain wrong with 9/10 perks being "do more damage" they could have made interesting game manipulating things but they didnt + the removal of attributes was just a dumb move imo)
then you get to the immersion
im the ******* dragonborn i have killed loads of dragons i have become the leader of the college of winterhold and the companions
no one ...absolutly no one
makes any acknoledgment that im famous
they just walk around and talk to me like im some slightly weird looking avarage joe villager
in oblivion and morrowind because of their fame/infamy systems when you got later game people started actualy reacting to the fact you were world famous and would actualy treet you differently depending on how they viewed you
skyrim doesnt have that
it has no morality system which in most games would be a good thing but in a game like skyrim isnt
it has no npc personality system meaning npcs are flat posts of cardboard
basicaly the game justdidnt work for me

I agree, and Morrowind was even better than Oblivion. The Elder Scrolls games are declining in quality and replayability in my opinion.

i would put oblivion as better then morrowind
morrowind had a more in depth world and a wider variety of gear and skills
but it was very cluncky
that combined with combat mechanics that dont really work in a game like that and other mechanics which were either broken or pointless made it kind of difficult but not because it was hard just because it was well....difficult

Yeah, the combat was ******* atrocious, but I liked it better as an RPG since it was, well, a lot more of a role playing experience. I do love combat in games however, so Oblivion won a lot of points for fixing the ****** combat. I basically want a polished TES game with Morrowind's extensiveness and Oblivion's better combat.

yeah
perfect game imo
daggerfalls world
skyrims engine ranged combat and crafting (with some fixes so its not so broken)
oblivions spells spellmaking enchanting and hotkey system (skyrims was ******* loathworthy forcing you to pause whenever you wanted to switch weapon)
ESO melea combat (i got into the beta so i tried it out its the only thing about it which is better)
morrowind creature world and equipment diversity
if you can get a personality system like dragon age:origins in there
some form of morality system similiar to oblivions but not the same (so not a morality system as such but a renown system like you can be a real asshole but if every asshole thing you do is behind closed doors people only hear about the good things so think your a hero or vice versa)
if someone could make that game without it being 2 TB in size and costing £300 i would give them fellatio

Oh god, ESO's melee combat is ******* terrible. At least in Skyrim and Oblivion you actually feel like you're hitting something when you attack. ESO just feels like you're swinging your axe through the air and the enemy gets hurt.

It bothered me so much I couldnt even get past the first area after the tutorial.

i meant the way the handled the controls not the feel of it
when it comes to feel your right you may as well be swinging at a strand of string for all it connects
but the way they handled controls was better then skyrims (it still allowed duel wielders to block for a start) and it did improve on oblivions (it allowed duel wielding)

Spell creation is best feature.

Damn straight. Fortify Lockpicking by 100% for two seconds....I loved that spell.

I've heard before that Oblivion is in fact better.

Unfortunately I played skyrim and that's what got me into Oblivion.

Having used the more user-friendly, simplified interfaces and skills I'm finding Oblivion very difficult to get into.

Any tips on how to make the most of an assassin mage In Oblivion?

never really played that so i cant help you
i can tell you to either rush nocturnals shrine quest or go heavily into alteration an illusion though
alteration gives you the unlock spells making it easy to get in anywhere and illusion gives you chameleon which makes you partialy invisable yet still able to do actions
as for nocturnals shrine quest it gives you the skeleton key which is a lockpick which never breaks
as for damaging spells
fire does most damage but has most things resistant and has no other effect
frost does least but reduces stamina so it can cause enemys to collapse if hit enough
lightning costs more magicka but has a chance to paralyse
pure magic damage has almost nothing resistant to it but costs the most magika so its a 1 spell fits all type thing
drain health only drains the health while the effect is up after it ends they heal for the amount drains
this allows you to kind of cheat the arly game by making a drain 50-100 health spell which lasts 1 second because its such a short time anything higher then that amount of health will be unafected by the spell but it will one shot weaker enemys and be really low cost
last thing
making spells that buff you is pointless unless its pure strength or weapon skill because anything else is not worth the mana cost unless you want to micromanage your mercentile or speachcraft skills which i find takes some fun out the game

I actually agree with you. I really enjoyed oblivion. especially the game-breaking acrobatics skill. I'm not even kidding. Acrobatics was my favorite skill.

Same here.
I got it to 100 while doing the quests for that damn paranoid elf in Skingrad for several days straight. At the time, I had no idea that I could just ignore his "targets" and make up the answers the next time I met him, so I just hung around jumping my ass off and parkouring up the walls.

I modded skyrim, so I could have Morrowind style acrobatics