Anyway, in Issue 181 (December, 2005) there is a 4-page article on OBLIVION. My chin nearly dropped to the floor when I read some of the things that this game will feature. (I tried finding an online link to the article to no avail. )
Anyway, the Radial AI that controls the NPC characters is going to be a revolutionary addition. Within the game, each of these characters will have to deal with everyday events and circumstances. For example:
They will get hungry. Once they need to eat they'll have to figure out what they want to eat and how to go about getting it. If there's food in their pantry, they may just go fix something to eat from there. If the pantry is empty, they may decide, based on their resources (money vs. skills) whether to go to market to buy something, OR head out into the wild and kill something and then prepare it for food.
So, knowing this, if [YOU] want to spend some time looking around a particular residence, you might empty out their pantry and then wait around for them to get hungry and leave the house. This then will keep them occupied for a while and give [YOU] plenty of time to gather whatever you may want to take from their premises.
In another example, a woman may want to sit down to read. But, her dog may be agitated and barking causing her to be distracted. Silencing the dog will depend on her skills/abilities and class. If she's a mage, she may simply cast a 'silence' spell on the dog and then continue with her reading. OR, if she wants to send the dog outside, she may cast some kind of 'pain' spell sending the dog off to lick its wounds.
AND, each of these NPCs will interact with all the others!
If you're not drooling over the possibilities that all of this entails, then you just don't understand the game.
Additionally, the entire combat system has been overhauled since Morrowind. It's going to actually look like combat with hits, misses, and damage assessed based on actual hits, misses and damage! Isn't that cool!? And, a block will actually be a block.
Bethesda has been using a professional team of testers for OBLIVION since very early in development. So, while OBLIVION may not be perfect when released, it should be as near perfect as any game that's been released and definitely one of the best released by Bethesda.
Hope you have your drool cup handy.
