Poll: Oblivion Was Better

[ClockworkUniverse]

Morrowind was pretty but the gameplay itself was a little nonsensical. For some reason it didn't track hits based on whether or not you actually hit the target, but rather by rolling for attack like a DnD-esque RPG. Why would you ever do that for an action-RPG, especially one where you mostly play in a first person perspective?

The first two TES games were the sort of early 3D where it was TECHNICALLY 3D but hitboxes and stuff were very vague, so I guess it kind of worked there, and Morrowind was them not realizing that when you reached a more physics-based level of engine, you had to change some things. Still stupid, but the reason behind the stupidity is pretty interesting.

Anyway, on topic. I feel like Morrowind is a better setting, and Skyrim is better technically, with Oblivion just kind of being a transitory phase between the two. They're all damn good games, though. I actually have a rule (or rather, a pair of rules) for this series:

Every Elder Scrolls game is the best Elder Scrolls game.

Every Elder Scrolls game is also the worst Elder Scrolls game.

 

[WeepingAngels]

My favorite is the one I am playing at the time. Since I am not currently playing either one, they are tied.

 

[Benpasko]

Skyrim was completely unengaging. The world was boring and grey, the enemies were boring and grey. Even the DRAGONS were boring to look at and fight. Remember in Morrowind when you first step outside and you're walking through what looks like an alien planet? Or in Oblivion, when you could stumble across an underground haunted fortress full of ghosts and imps? It's flavor, and Skyrim had none of that. It was all 'go here, fight some vikings, loot their corpses'. The game never surprised or amazed me, it was all filler.

 

[absulute]

Yeah, they're pretty much the same, I guess.

 

[SadisticBrownie]

Skyrim was by far the better game, but due to immense amounts of nostalgia I picked Oblivion. I played it when I was 14 and it was my first truly open world RPG and I loved it. A broken, clunky mess it may be, but I love it.

 

[evenest]

I had the problem of thinking that I shouldn't start Skyrim until I finish Oblivion, and I couldn't start Oblivion until I finished Morrowind.

The problem was, I was enjoying the world of Morrowind so much, that I spend the better part of six years just wandering and meeting as many people as I could and reading as much as I could that I didn't want it to end.

When Skyrim was about two months away, I hurried up and completed Morrowind and started in on Oblivion. The Oblivion play-through was done with the aim of just getting through the main story-line.

This rushed sense of need may be a mitigating factor in why I didn't really enjoy the game all that much. Every time that I had to enter an Oblivion Gate (after the third one) and realized that it differed from the previous one only in the layout, I began to loathe having to enter them. While the graphics were an improvement on the previous Elder Scrolls iteration, that wasn't enough to capture a place in my heart. It just seemed a hollow game.

 

[Dragonbums]

In my opinion the landscape and the region have something to do with it.
I actually LIKED Oblivion's leveling system.
It made you think real hard about what you wanted your character to be.
Case in point. I specialize in stealth and the short sword, yet if I wanted to I can max out every skill set.
It's hella lame.

I think a region like Elsewyr would be IMMENSELY interesting.

The Moons To Elsyr mod was the best thing I ever got, and considering the amount of variety in landscape and people hinted at to live there, as well as the diverse culture could be very interesting.

Case in point, I honestly think one of the reasons why I think Morrowind was more interesting is because it featured a region that was predominately elven.
It's more fascinating to us because we can't really relate to a species that isn't us.
They Imperials and the Nords are basically us. And with familiarity there is recognition and in a way blandness.
However with elves, anything can go.
Same with the Khajiit and the Argonians.
I want to know more about them.
How they view themselves.
Not how the other races (whom have a negative bias towards them.) view them as.

 

[Dragonbums]

cyrodiil should have been a lush tropical jungle, BUT NOPE it's just another generically European setting.

That's because- If I'm not mistaking
Elsewyr and Black Marsh are supposed to be the tropical/diverse climate regions.

 

[Something Amyss]

I really didn't like Oblivion. I wouldn't have touched Skyrim based on that, but I got it free in my new Xbox 360 package. My girlfriend tried it and effectively got me into it. I'm considering rebuying it for the PC so I can dick around with mods.

I'll say a game I like is better than one I don't.

 

[LetalisK]

I think Skyrim is superior to Oblivion in every way except one: story. I've yet to finish it, but while I enjoy Skyrim it just feels like Oblivion had the better main and side stories. While it's a pretty important aspect, I feel Skyrim does a good enough job for me to place it above Oblivion. On a side note, I use Skyrim's combat music in my personal gaming music playlist for other games. Particularly the boss battle music resonates with me.

 

[soul_rune1984]

I love both games but, Oblivion is my favorite of the two just for the Shivering Isles. Sheogoraths realm is such a beautiful place, I had spent more time in that realm than I did in Cyrodill. I also love Hermaeus Moras realm as well, but not as much as the Isles.

 

[rayen020]

The elder scrolls are getting worse as time goes on. They are still great games but as Bethesda moves toward mainstream their formula gets diluted and a little less unique. I played morrowind right up until oblivion came out played oblivion for 2 hours then started another mage run in morrowind. Each game has its strong points which will attract different players and govern different favorites but for me the height was Morrowind and each game since has been a on a slight decline.

 

[BlackFlyme]

-The hardest puzzle in Morrowind was a pillar that told you to "breathe deep of the water" and you had to go drown yourself.

There were a few things that were really hidden away, but they weren't puzzles, just rewards for exploring. One example I can remember was a woman stuck on a ledge in one of the underground strongholds. She couldn't call out to you or anything, to find her you'd have to levitate along the ceiling.

Though there was a tomb I found that had a labyrinth within it. That I simply levitated over.

-NPC directions were also abysmally shit, and oftentimes outright wrong, causing many people to spend upwards of an hour looking for a place that turned out to be 10 feet away. the copy-pasta terrain, and massive amounts of fog, didn't help either.

It's fine in some areas, like near Balmora, where everything is right next to the road, but areas like Molag Amur were so incredibly craggy and occasionally devoid of paths that finding the wrong dungeon could be considered a small miracle. This was often made worse by the near constant dust storms that plagued half the island.

Sometimes the only way to actually find things was to hope you'd see the door symbol on your mini-map.

The worst directions I remember was being told to find a dungeon on an island in the western Sheogorad region. Which is entirely made up of islands.

-Why would you need to kill anyone though?

Aside from Vivec having the second Wraithguard, which is somewhat buggy, and Divayth Fyr having the only daedric pauldrons outside of any add-ons, I can't recall any reason to kill any main characters.

 

[Tom_green_day]

I couldn't get into Oblivion or Morrowind, so I'll say I preferred Skyrim. Maybe I'm just... whaddya call them... 'casual'.
Actually, I really hated Oblivion, it's after Battlefield 3 on my least favourite games ever list. For its time, however, I'm sure it was really great- I just played it in 2011 before Skyrim came out.
However without Oblivion there would be no 'Oblivion with guns' (Fallout 3) and the greatest game ever made ever would be missing from the face of a world. We'd still be in a horrid world, holding africans as slaves and not letting women vote. Or maybe I just can't really remember a time before the bombs fell.
OT: Wow I got sidetracked.

 

[Dr.Awkward]

In the end, TES just has an identity crisis on its hands.

Want to have a good story and likeable characters, and broken yet deeply consequential gameplay? Morrowind is your choice.

Don't care about weaker story arcs (yet better-written guilds) with dumber and nonsensical characters, or a backwards leveling system? Are you for tougher AI that somewhat levels with you, more generic locales, and better combat? Are you both into LOTR and anime, and wonder how they would mix? Try Oblivion.

Want even better melee combat, good skill handling, and sensible levelling? Wish you could make physical objects of superior qualies then anything else made? Want sensible exploration that doesn't always feel the same? Unmoved by how shallow the ability/story/character pool is, as long as you can dive into it? Check out Skyrim.

Don't care about graphics, but want a story that in general took genius to explain how it all happens, and just want to downright explore? Did the other places run out too early, or felt too small? Do you wish you didn't have to mod in nudity? Daggerfall is right up your alley.

Wish all the people and companions weren't NPCs? You might like TESO then.

It just can't keep consistent. At this point, VI is going to be impossible to make with all the demands of the players from the last four - Five once TESO comes out - games. There are two options I can see that might solve all the problems:

1. Four separate, smaller, specialized games - One for melee, one for magic, one for the shady types, and finally one who wants to be a weak peasant who has to make his or her fame some other way.

2. Bring in multiple studios for VI to do specific parts of the game Bethesda seems to falter on. Some other professional studios would just love to work with Beth on making the game. (i.e. Obsidian wants to write the story for for a TES or Fallout game. GET THE HINT BETHESDA!)

In the end, the "required scope" for TES's next releases is astronomical and just can't be done in one game or by one studio anymore, and Beth just needs to admit that is where it's gone.

 

[Mobax]

I mean, let's be honest; Morrowind was the best one.

Exactly. Morrowind was the deepest game, of the 3 I have played, it's world was much more immersive. I don't just say that Morrowind was best out of some nostalgic love of the first Elder Scrolls game I played, because I played Morrowind in 2011 in the months leading up to Skyrim's release. I made a brand new character, and I played through most of the Thieves Guild, many random quests and the entire MQ. Granted it took me a couples hours to get re-acquainted with the combat hit or miss system. But the immersion was still there, I felt more connected to that game world then either Skyrim or Oblivion allowed.

That being said, I very much enjoyed both games, I feel Skyrim is better then Oblivion for a few reasons. The AI is much better, although it does have some bugs. I greatly prefer the magic system in Skyrim. The perks in Skyrim are something I really appreciated, they made becoming an assassin much more rewarding in terms of player experience. In both Morrowind and Oblivion I had created skilled assassins. But Skyrim's perks which allowed me to slash throats for a lethal finish and even stronger npc's was something I really felt rewarded my skill.

I feel that if you could take Skyrim's mechanics, perks, etc and add in the depth of world from Morrowind, that would be a game I would dream to play.

 

[AngelOfBlueRoses]

The Elder Scrolls games seem to be turning into a new Final Fantasy or D&D insomuch that you'll always consider your first game (or edition, in D&D's case) the best, and everything else in the series will always fall short.

Anyway, I think Skyrim is better. Oblivion had much more imaginative side quests, but Skyrim beat it in nearly every other way. The fact that they don't recycle the same dungeon over and over again is what really appealed to me.

Maybe, but nostalgia doesn't hold up with me. I'm not a sentimental person. I used to hold KOTOR in the highest esteem as one of the best games you could play. KOTOR II, on the other hand, provoked nothing but utter rage from me. Now I find KOTOR merely decent, where as the second is vastly superior. My first Final Fantasies were 12, 10, and then 6. 12 had an alright setting, but it wasn't that great of a game and I eventually stopped playing it, convinced that FF was a series not worth looking into much. I got 10 cheaply for like two dollars, so why not play it? Urgh. It was even worse. And 6 was good, but also something I didn't like. Nine came after that, and is, to this day, the only game I like out of the series.

I don't like nostalgia. It colors your judgment. I'm a hedonist, not a sentimentalist. It's only ever the moment that matters to me and the -only- game I'll actually put on a pair of rose-tinted glasses for is World of Warcraft, but only because it had such a deep effect on me socially. No other game can say that, so no other game can get that freebie pass from me.

 

[triggrhappy94]

I was wondering when people would start saying stuff like this.
Honestly. Oblivion had more depth in the missions, but a worse GUI.
Skyrim has way better graphics.

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

With no mods on either, Skyrim is a better game. Even removing graphics and age differences, the levelling system in Oblivion was a damn mess. Its dungeons were also horribly repetitive. It was also extremely filled with fetch quests.

And the fact that conversations in Skyrim don't freeze the outside world and go into the NPC awkwardly staring at you kicking things into Skyrim's favour.

 

[Strelok]

I mean, let's be honest; Morrowind was the best one.

I don't believe that it is possible for me to agree more. Out of the choices though, I enjoy Skyrim much more than I did Oblivion.