I may have been a little premature in my bountiful praise for Oblivion. As highlighted by Ctrl-Alt-Del, the AI for your allies is pretty wonky.
Scenario 1: I’m leading a couple of characters to my next quest location. We’re all on horseback, it’s great. Off in the distance I spy a wolf. Being an assassin, my first response is to dismount and sneak within shooting distance. Martin, though, his first response is to dismount and charge the wolf. Now, Martin is much stronger than me, no doubt designed to help less experienced players. So, I can risk shooting Martin in the back, or just let him kill the damned wolf. Still, I’m trying to gain XP, right? How am I supposed to do that if the computer kills everything for me?
Scenario 2: Same quest, leading characters to the next quest location via horse. Hearing the gentle clip-clop of my allies, I’m virtually certain their behind me. After a minute or two I spy an imp. I dismount and kill him. Notice anything strange? That’s right, no AI buddies tried to kill the imp first. So, I turn around and, sure enough, my companions are nowhere to be seen. I backtrack to a wooden bridge. One of my buddies is lodged within the bridge, his horse frozen in a freakish merry-go-round pose. The other guy is gone completely. It was about that time I decided to insta-travel, and I think I might just do that more often if I have to play escort.
Scenario 3: This is the one that really kills me. Seriously, it actually killed my character. Martin and I have just killed off a roguish bandit. Job well done, we walk back to our horses. Now, by mistake, I mount Martin’s horse. Naturally this pisses him off. Instead of asking me–his friend mind you–to get off his horse, he decides to effing smite me. Realizing my mistake, I get off his horse pronto. Does that appease Martin, my plot-centric character/friend? Nope, he just carries on slaying me. I don’t even fight back. I tried to talk to him. No go. So, he just kills me. And now I begin to remember the old paranoia of having to save constantly or be ruined by a fucking glitch.
I’m still going to keep playing it though.