I finally bit the bullet and pre ordered this the day before release. I really wasn't sure about it at all as I bought the collectors version of Oblivion (it's prequel) and really did not get on at all with it. Mainly I think, due to the fact I was more of a fan of the Neverwinter Nights RPG style RPGs. Since then I've played Fable II & III, along with the Witcher 2 (which is actually a cross between Oblivion and Skyrim now I think about it).
The combat, which is what put me off Oblivion, is still not quite right, but at least it feels like you're actually fighting something now. I've just spent about 2.5 hours running around, not doing any quests at all. This game is huge, immense, enourmous, etc. You can literally wander around for hours without doing any quests. I've been stealing crops and selling them back to the farmers
Also, collecting butterflies, bugs and flowers. I assume they will all be used for alchemy at some point, or a quest. Maybe
Still it's fun. Although it's got bugs. I just got locked in a conversation and the tab key stopped working ingame, so I had to quit and hadn't saved it for 30 minutes, so that sucked
I can't even give it a rating yet as I've not even come close to starting it properly, but so far it is promising