Housing....Oblivion did it better.

[Paragon Fury]

While I think that Skyrim is in every way pretty much just awesome, there is one thing I miss from Oblivion; the great player housing.

Oblivion housing, both in-game and DLC was fairly large and varied. From the awesome Wizard's Tower to the Dark Grotto, the hobo shack in the Imperial City to the manors cabins elsewhere, it was really quite awesome. It had things to suit every alignment and theme, and they all looked pretty varied.

Skyrim on the other hand, doesn't really have anything impressive in the base game. Even the cheapest and lowliest house in a manor, and the only one with any real variation is the Markarth house. The faction housing is equally disappointing, with the College Archmage quarters being the only one of real note.

Hearthfires seems like it could've been the clincher, but its kind of "meh". While the features it added were nice, the 3 houses are just very bland and dull, and they all wind up looking the same and becoming huge manors, and the customization is a bit stifling in it's restrictions.

When it comes to mods...well, they're both great. But Skyrim seems to have this issue where the house might be thematically nice but is missing things, or the house some ridiculous completely overblown and kind of ill-fitting to the story with very few in-between.

[Belanos]

Personally I don't care. Housing, other than your first one, is just eye candy anyway. In Oblivion, I never bothered with anything other than the Imperial shack. I even uninstalled the Wizard's Tower at one point, as I didn't see the need for it. As long as I have one base of operations, that's good enough for me. My Whiterun home suits me just fine. I have everything I need there and it's very central. The only reason I might buy more than that would be so I could adopt a couple of kids.

[kdodds]

Personally, although I liked the themed houses of Oblivion (which was a DLC, iirc, for the main ones of which you're speaking), I have to disagree. Skyrim has more varied households in more varied holds with much different flavors in decor. Yes, sure, they have the same accoutrements, for the most part, but the city themes are much different. Honeyside is way different than Breezehome is way different than Proudspire Manor. And, like Oblivion, with Hearthfire you get the outside-the-cities homes that you can customize to your liking, granted the themes are the same in all three and that could have been better implemented. All in all, though, Skyrim offers more options and opportunities.