The Elder Scrolls

[Fei Mao]

I've played Oblivion and Skyrim, I love the music in these series especially Oblivions over-world themes its beautiful IMO.

Probably the only thing I didn't like in Oblivion is the level scaling at a high level the guards and some enemies take a long time to kill and if you try to slaughter guards you're going to die badly since they always at higher levels than you. (Skyrim didn't have scaling I think)

I did like the customize magic good times were had with a customized amplify magic and drain stamina + damage over time. It was funny seeing people lie on the ground dying.

Edited January 2, 2013 by Generic Operator

[Gone2Ground]

i've never played morrowind but i've heard it's better than the ones that come next because of just how fucking open in like literally every aspect it is.

I shall repeat:

The main quest itself tells you to bugger off and do something else. Pity about the number-crunching combat that causes misses even if it looks like you hit/horribly unbalanced magic that never works to start with and is overpowered from there on/lack of a reason to NOT steal everything you see that isn't nailed down or on fire (Even then, MODS). If you want to get the most out of Morrowind, you really need to look at the modding community: if you have a problem with the game, they have fixed it for you.

No. Exceptions.

[Klokinator]

The only thing I dislike about Skyrim, is that the developers made a great sandbox game, very immersive (The music was perfect when it occurred, the dragons felt very intimidating when you first fight them, the whole FEEL was great for the first part of the game.), and the story is fan-fucking-tastic, but the game is RIDDLED with bugs. And I mean in the hundreds range or higher. The levels get really boring once you get to a certain part (The beginning is still fun everytime in my opinion because the scaling in the beginning is great and you can play differently each time.) and eventually the fights become a ho-hum snoozefest.

However, Skyrim has the best mods of the series and this is why it's my favorite of all of them. I have 200 or so mods installed on my skyrim right now, and by far the best ones are those that increase difficulty.

"Better AI" is probably the most important mod I've installed, as it changes not only humanoid enemy behavior, but animal behavior as well, making wolves utterly terrifying to fight at the first levels. I actually get chills now when I hear a wolf howl and I'm in the early game, because those fuckers come in varied packs of 3-8 and when it's a big pack they can destroy you before you get a single shot off.

Another awesome example is the "Sexy Cities" series of mods. They make the cities feel more real, more colorful, more lifelike, and they improve them in every possible way. Adding trees in whiterun, something like that is so simple yet improves the way I look at the game dramatically. "Better Females/Males", "Apachii Skyhair", and other mods of this sort make the characters of skyrim look GOOD, not like ugly rendered 3D blobs of congealed disgust. I hate the original models so much now that I've seen what modders have done to improve the game, it's among the other reasons that you HAVE to get skyrim on a good PC to enjoy it to the fullest. Without mods, skyrim is mediocre at best, no joke, and I'm a hardcore fan.

If the developers took more time to make their games less buggy, more immersive, and even a little smaller, I think people would enjoy the games a lot more than they do now.

[Gone2Ground]

If the developers took more time to make their games less buggy

It's Bethesda

The games will always be buggier than any other AAA-list game on the market. ALWAYS.

[BrightBow]

You should have seen the German version. Nothing says "Quality Localization" like the basic heal spell being called "Fireball" (or "Feuerball" for that matter). And for actual glitches, the game was incapable of saving changes in the control settings. Few things drive me mad like publishers taking their customers for granted like this.

Also, while my own opinion of Oblivion couldn't be much lower, Morrowind has it's own issues.

I would say that the biggest one has to be, that the main quest is insanely dull and tedious. Usually I don't even bother with it. I think I even completed it only once.

[Integrity]

I would say that the biggest one has to be, that the main quest is insanely dull and tedious. Usually I don't even bother with it. I think I even completed it only once.

You DID? Fuck me, I never made it through the Prophecies stuff.

[BrightBow]

You DID? Fuck me, I never made it through the Prophecies stuff.

Call yourself lucky then. Especially if you didn't reach the whole "Convince the three houses and all the tribes to support you" thing.

And all of this, just to get a plot coupon from Vivec. There is no payoff whatsoever. *Sigh*

At least facing Dagoth Ur was kinda funny since he was incapable of even damaging me, being a Bretone wearing that one 60& magic resistance armor.

Honestly, the main quest is so unbelievable dull, it's probably impossible to get to the end without being overpowered since no one can get through all of this without doing all the more interesting stuff. Or at least not having better equipment then the Ring you get as a reward for the main quest, witch has a permanent endurance regeneration effect. So even at the end, it feels just like a complete waste of time.

Edited January 3, 2013 by BrightBow

[grandjackal]

Suppose I should kinda respond to some things said here.

-I have the PS3 version of Skyrim, and I never found myself assaulted by the various bugs and glitches to the point of frustration. They popped up a couple times, but I just save often anyways so nothing a reset couldn't fix. It's not like I ran into a system-exploding problem, o I enjoyed it even though I'm apparently playing the terrible version.

I'm a bit pissed about no Dawnguard though...

-The enemies in Skyrim do scale, just it might not be as blatant as it is in Oblivion (far as I know). Like instead of just seeing bandits but with crazier stats and armor etc, they just throw higher class levels of enemy types at you, something that is very obvious when just running into bandit camps or draugr tombs. I had no problem with this in Skyrim, I doubt I'll have it with Oblivion. Besides, any good thief knows better than to pick stupid fights anyways.

-Skyrim did have some copy-paste dungeons in the sense that the templates were not extremely varied, but were still welll designed so that each one felt like it had a story and history to it. They were similar, but they never got boring or ran together to me, so they kept being fun. Don't know if Oblivion does the same, but I'm willing to give it an honest try.

Of course, I probably won't be able to for a while...But I'm definitely thinking of giving Oblivion a shot.

As for Morrowind, not exactly a fan of hearing that accuracy outside of the manual dexterity involved is a thing. Not only does it not make sense as it's a first person mode so you already can just miss physically, but missing anyways on top of that just sounds like it drags out a fight needlessly. As for the main quest being boring...In fairness, that might be a series legacy. Skyrim's main quest is pretty boring too. I'm pretty sure that 40% of them involve you listening to old men jabber their jaws. Also, fuck the entire waste of time that was the "peace talks". Doesn't take a wizard to know that would have went nowhere.

[Duff Ostrich]

Morrowind was pretty incredible when it came out, but advances in game design make it very hard to stomach, and to a lesser extent this applies to Oblivion as well. I think both games have better music than Skyrim, but its a very minor point next to how much better it plays.

There's something to be said for Skyrim being too streamlined in a few places. I for one always enjoyed making a custom class for my character, and the lessened complexity/breadth of weapons and magic was not always to the benefit to the game. Still, Skyrim is a superior experience most of the time, and I've had a lot of fun with it.

[Gone2Ground]

Honestly, the main quest is so unbelievable dull, it's probably impossible to get to the end without being overpowered since no one can get through all of this without doing all the more interesting stuff. Or at least not having better equipment then the Ring you get as a reward for the main quest, witch has a permanent endurance regeneration effect. So even at the end, it feels just like a complete waste of time.

If you are playing the main quest for Morrowind, you are doing something wrong.

For realz.

[Integrity]

I think both games have better music than Skyrim, but its a very minor point next to how much better it plays.

Skyrim has several of the Morrowind musics redone in its lineup. I can still remember standing in some alchemist's house and hearing one of the Morrowind exploration themes and going :3

man that was a happy feeling

[BrightBow]

How is Skrimir compared to Oblivion anyway? Do they still scale everything according to level?

Sorry for the trouble but it's a bit difficult to look up, because reviewers ignore the issue just like they did with Oblivion.

[Narga_Rocks]

As for Morrowind, not exactly a fan of hearing that accuracy outside of the manual dexterity involved is a thing. Not only does it not make sense as it's a first person mode so you already can just miss physically, but missing anyways on top of that just sounds like it drags out a fight needlessly. As for the main quest being boring...In fairness, that might be a series legacy. Skyrim's main quest is pretty boring too. I'm pretty sure that 40% of them involve you listening to old men jabber their jaws. Also, fuck the entire waste of time that was the "peace talks". Doesn't take a wizard to know that would have went nowhere.

Personally, although missing is a bit annoying at the beginning of the game when you and the enemy miss half the time, it was awesome later in the game. If you build up your agility and your weapon skill enough you rarely get hit and you still hit lots. The MOST annoying part of this missing thing is using up arrows early on. Trying to level your bow ability is a pain when it only raises your skill (I believe) on succesful hits and you miss 70% of your shots. If you want to use a bow, start with it as a major skill on a race that has a bonus so that you hit well with it early on.

Edited January 5, 2013 by Narga_Rocks

[Greyfox]

How is Skrimir compared to Oblivion anyway? Do they still scale everything according to level?

Sorry for the trouble but it's a bit difficult to look up, because reviewers ignore the issue just like they did with Oblivion.

It's a bit complicated, but the dungeons are not scaled to your level (sort of).

This link can explain it better than I: http://www.uesp.net/...cts_of_Leveling

Comparing the games themselves, Oblivion has attributes (Agility, Endurance, Intelligence, Luck, Personality, Speed, Strength, and Willpower) that you can increase when you level up and when creating your character. When you level up in Skyrim, you can choose to increase 1 of 3 stats (Health, Magic, and Stamina) and a perk (like in fallout).

I personally think Skyrim is a superb game, but Oblivion has more depth and complexity when it comes to character building. I also liked the story of Oblivion more maybe because Sean Bean voices one of the characters

Edited January 5, 2013 by Greyfox

[BrightBow]

Thank you for the help. It sounds pretty much like Morrowind handled it, which is good in my book.

[Gone2Ground]

Be prepared to mod a lot if you get it.

[Aura Wolf]

How is Hand-To-Hand combat in Morrowind compared to Oblivion's, if anyone has tried it?

I'm thinking of giving Morrowind a second try (First try was...five or six years ago?), but I'm not sure what to play as.

[Gone2Ground]

How is Hand-To-Hand combat in Morrowind compared to Oblivion's, if anyone has tried it?

I'm thinking of giving Morrowind a second try (First try was...five or six years ago?), but I'm not sure what to play as.

It's got the mmo-y type feel. Even if you hit the hitbox, it has to do calculations to see if you 'hit'. Best is probably to do either Redguard full combat in light armor, or some kind of stealth build because stealth crits are broken. Magic is only for those who feel comfortable grinding.

[Aura Wolf]

It's got the mmo-y type feel. Even if you hit the hitbox, it has to do calculations to see if you 'hit'. Best is probably to do either Redguard full combat in light armor, or some kind of stealth build because stealth crits are broken. Magic is only for those who feel comfortable grinding.

Ah, I see. I'll go with a stealth build then because an assassin-like style appeals to me.

I probably won't do magic if that is the case.

[BrightBow]

How is Hand-To-Hand combat in Morrowind compared to Oblivion's, if anyone has tried it?

I'm thinking of giving Morrowind a second try (First try was...five or six years ago?), but I'm not sure what to play as.

Well, I haven't tried it in Oblivion but I can say that the Morrwind version it a bit tricky to use.

Melee combat drains the targets endurance. As the value falls, all their abilities go down the drain until the endurance value goes into negative numbers making them fall completely immobilizes them until the value regenerates back into positives. Once an enemy is immobilized like that, melee attacks will do damage to health instead. They don't stay down for long but bince you can immediately knock them down again when they get back up and, endurance drained enemies are pretty much helpless.

The problem is that attacks in Morrowind actually miss. Since those misses give the target time to regenerate their endurance, you will be unable to do anything with your melee skills until you spend a fortune on a trainer to hit enemies reliable. Well, or you could spend an hour or so trying to beat up a Skrib or a Kwarma Scout or something like that.

Also, melee hits take ages to kill downed opponents, so once you knocked someone to the floor, you should switch to another weapon to finish them off. There are hotkeys to switch to different weapons in the PC version so it's not much of a hassle there. But if the console versions don't have that, it could be quite tedious there.

And it's probably very inefficient against groups, since it's a rather slow way to kill enemies. The beauty in melee combat lies in the ability to drain enemies until they can't do anything but it can't quickly reduce the numbers of enemy combatants.

Edited January 22, 2013 by BrightBow

[Gone2Ground]

Uh, that's just hand-to-hand not all melee. Unless that's what he means...?

OH, and put points into alchemy so your healing potions and poisons are more effective.

Edited January 22, 2013 by Gone2Ground

[BrightBow]

Uh, that's just hand-to-hand not all melee. Unless that's what he means...?

OH, and put points into alchemy so your healing potions and poisons are more effective.

Yes, that's exactly what I meant. Sorry. It's just that the German version calls the skill "Nahkampf" which translates into "melee".

Edited January 22, 2013 by BrightBow

[Esau of Isaac]

Yes, that's exactly what I meant. Sorry. It's just that the German version calls the skill "Nahkampf" which translates into "melee".

Oh. In English the word melee usually just refers to any form of close combat, with the suggestion of a large fight. I guess in the past it was more about fist combat as you're using it, judging by the dictionary entries I'm seeing, but I've rarely seen it used in that way. It's probably because the exposure to the word today by most English speakers is through entertainment that simply treats it as meaning close combat.

Anyways, I want to go back and play the whole series to get a grasp on the entire lore, but the idea of playing absolutely everything to do so unnerves me. I'll probably use delicious console cheats to power through everything.

[BrightBow]

Anyways, I want to go back and play the whole series to get a grasp on the entire lore, but the idea of playing absolutely everything to do so unnerves me. I'll probably use delicious console cheats to power through everything.

Honestly, I found the hardest part to get the games running in the first place. I eventually got Daggerfall to run but the game ran incredibly slow. Considering that DOS software doesn't actually toggle their speed and that my Laptop should naturally be immensely more powerful then whatever was available at the time, I still don't actually know how to approach this problem.

Edited January 22, 2013 by BrightBow