Gotta say I loved the forest up north. The fact that parts of it is so dense that even riding a horse is hard is fantastic. It makes makes me belive that some skills might be very area dependent when it comes to how usefull they are. Heavy mounted cavalry is gonna be completely useless in the northern forest, but very effective on the plains of the southern dessert.
The combination of new low foliage and the new ground algorithm makes for some great atmospheric forests. Just don't put down anything you want to find again without going into the video settings.