Well, well, where to begin with :
For starters, what bugs me the most is the overrating. All the "straight A's" from the game press, all the hype, all the not so very bright people claiming it to be "the best rpg ever", "the best game ever". If it was to be taken for what it is ( i.e : a pretty shallow game that appeals to a certain crowd) probably I and all the (many)people that disliked the game would just pass it over, probably just forget about it. But when you look upon this mediocre game in the spectrum of al the hype that was built around it, it looks even more mediocre. Stupendously mediocre. That's where the negativity comes from.
It's a game that failed on all levels, except perhaps, being sucessfull in being a very acessible and casual game, and being sucessfull.
* The art direction : We will all agree that Oblivion was mediocre in this aspect. A generic "Disneyland" style looking fantasyland number .265835 with poorly executed scene and asset building . In case nobody has noticed the game made use of about 1 city design, 3 dungeons and 1 forest, repeated ad nauseam. Travelling the lands of Cyrodill felt like one of those old cartoons where the background is a tube roll with 3 pictures ( representing the same place with slight variation) rolling in movement.
The soundtrack was also a generic romp presented by Jeremy "Boring" Souless.
* "Radiant" A.I : What was to be supposedly the "future of games", thanks to all the lies from the developers and hype from the press, turned out to be a joke :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ATh4y4XRjA&feature=related
* The Game Design : Stupid level scaling, the removal of any consequence, choice and proper roleplaying ( By this I don't mean LARPING), Hand holding and all sorts of poor, poor design choices. The only thing remotely *good* about the game design is that a chimpanze with a head injury could sucessfully play the game, enjoy it, and finish it. But that unfortunatelly left a gap regarding content that people without ADD could enjoy.
The only quests remotely interesting and with remotely any depth are the dark brotherhood ones, and they only look good in comparison to the forgetable ones contaned in this game. When you put them against anything Troika or Black Isle did, you will see they are poor and weak.
* THE *RETARDED* TREND :
All the praise, all the hype...I'm afraid more games will follow Bethesda horrible formula for sucess ( wich remotes to something like "The dumber, the more casual, and the more simple a game is, the better). The developers of the game consider themselves visionaries and geniuses. A joke in itself.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8tMPOeTcYw
Does this man looks like a genius to you?
From what I played ( little but enough) saw and read about the game, this is the basic. There are reviews ( honest reviews, not the general gaming press sucking and claiming this to be a perfect game) all around the web that point out how much the game sucks in a better more ellaborate way. They are worth a read merely for the humour value, if not for just the information.