It sounds like they’ve backed away from making this an open world game like Skyrim, and are styling Avowed in a similar fashion to the Outer Worlds. I have mixed feelings about that… I was hoping we’d see a successor to the Elder Scrolls series, just in case Elder Scrolls VI gets stuck in development hell until the heat death of the universe. However, if the Obsidian devs don’t want to do open world, and think the game will be better without that expectation hanging over them, it’s probably best to trust them on that.

You can play as a human or an elf, but not other races

That’s very disappointing honestly. Race rarely matters in these games but it’s just not a grand RPG without having that choice.