I felt sort of similar. Though jRPGs are generally more to my tastes.evilneko said:
The landscapes are gorgeous, and if you like that, it's sort of worth randomly loading up with Ren's Beauty Pack and a few other goodies if you like exploring and don't want to pay this months payment for an MMORPG you were playing, but get the same sort of feeling of wonder when exploring. It's actually not that huge of a game, and it certainly made more large with the Shivering Isles expansion pack and Oblivion gates(and the Oblivion realm isn't honestly that large, and mostly just lava). You'll get the very same thing out of it if you like that in an MMORPG. You'll want Ren's Beauty Pack or some other thing to fix the bad face of your character, but otherwise you'll get something very close. The landscapes are some of the most gorgeous in all of video gaming. As well the mythology is fascinating.
On the other hand, for many people, it doesn't satisfy more than that. Many of us don't like first person gaming, and the third person perspective of Oblivion isn't that greatly developed. Furthermore I found myself doing that very exploration a lot and getting more because I really didn't like the NPCs in the game, I like being able to forget those potato faces exist. I honestly wish I knew of a good complete overhaul for NPC faces. Because there's few NPC face designs in the game I like. Maybe Sheogoroth and a few others.
But if I avoid NPCs and just explore, that's very boring. And if I do engage in the quests, I'm reminded of how bad everyone is designed and it makes me feel less excited. There are some kind of cool quests, but nothing truely amazing. I'll admit I did quite enjoy saving Kvatch. Not the NPCs, so much. But storming a castle like that through a secret entrance in the church.
Also, while it's true that there are several quests, there's not near as much to do as people say. There's not nearly as many as people claim. Seriously, just look here.
http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Quests
It's not nearly as impressive as people claim.
Also, the world isn't nearly as big, again, as people claim, it is very easy to go from one end of the map, which says "Turn back. You cannot go any further" or whatever it says, to the other side which tells you the same thing. I've done it several times.
So again, it's mostly nice for exploration. You can get a sense of awe at the mythology and world, and it makes a good sandbox for your character, makes you sort of think "hey, it would be fun to play some form of Dragon Quest or Zelda in this realm", I don't it deserved any kind of "game of the year", though. When you're not being distracted by the badly designed faces. And it can get very boring when you're tired of exploring. There we definitely better games in 2006. I would say it's worth around 10 dollar or maybe a little more. But then again I'm a person who thinks that Chrono Trigger is worth $30 today, and was well worth $60 when it came out.
What's a game that deserves "game of the year", you say? Okami. But that's just my personal taste, I suppose.
Gosh it's a lonely game, even if you do like the NPCs and their faces. It's about as lonely as Final Fantasy XII. Possibly slightly more.
Either way, I don't think that Skyrim can be possibly worse than Oblivion. But I'm glad that there are people who aren't going to hype something just because Elder Scrolls is still easy for people to hype, unlike Final Fantasy which has fallen far, far from grace. If anything, I think that Bethesda is going to be better with time. Or so I hope.
And by doing that, for one, there needs to be more things to do. Their list in Oblivion is not good enough. There are not nearly enough quests in Oblivion. More terrain wouldn't be bad, but that's more optional. What they need is more quests.