Which is bigger...Skyrim or Oblivion?

[Ruzinus]

Oblivion has the bigger cities... Skyrim has... well that's already been covered in this topic.

Oblivion GOTY will ultimately have a bit more to do and some more going for it, because Shivering Isles, but...

ignore all that. If you want a game to get into Elder Scrolls with, go with Skyrim. Both games have wonderful and awesome worlds to explore. However, Oblivion has this terrible level up system that you basically have to fight with and figure out how to trick before you can just enjoy the damn game world. In a lot of games that level up system would have just flat out ruined the thing entirely, but the stuff behind that in Oblivion was awesome enough to make it worth it. But in Skyrim the level up stuff just works, and you should be able to just go ahead and enjoy the world on your first character. Play Skyrim first. If you enjoy it, then later go back to Oblivion and just do some research on dealing with it's leveling beforehand.

On the other other hand, Oblivion is a lot cheaper, and if you have the patience to learn an annoying leveling system before you can really enjoy the game behind it then I guess why not?

 

[jollybarracuda]

I think Oblivion has more content, but much of that is repeated. Skyrim has much, much more diversity in what it offers in terms of city, cave, and temple design. And as far as map-size goes, I could have sworn Bethesda claimed it was only marginally larger than Oblivion. Still, a pretty hefty sized world.

captcha: heads up.

Wait wha-*shot*

 

[Amaror]

Oblivion has the bigger cities... Skyrim has... well that's already been covered in this topic.

Oblivion GOTY will ultimately have a bit more to do and some more going for it, because Shivering Isles, but...

ignore all that. If you want a game to get into Elder Scrolls with, go with Skyrim. Both games have wonderful and awesome worlds to explore. However, Oblivion has this terrible level up system that you basically have to fight with and figure out how to trick before you can just enjoy the damn game world. In a lot of games that level up system would have just flat out ruined the thing entirely, but the stuff behind that in Oblivion was awesome enough to make it worth it. But in Skyrim the level up stuff just works, and you should be able to just go ahead and enjoy the world on your first character. Play Skyrim first. If you enjoy it, then later go back to Oblivion and just do some research on dealing with it's leveling beforehand.

On the other other hand, Oblivion is a lot cheaper, and if you have the patience to learn an annoying leveling system before you can really enjoy the game behind it then I guess why not?

Really?
I never had problems with the levelling system in Oblivion. Maybe because i just went for a straight up fighting character with a bit repairing.
So i was always as powerfull as the enemies. i guess when you had main abilities like speech or something it is incredibly hard.

 

[Nightmonger]

Oblivion is bigger it has 8 letters Skyrim only has 6

(captcha sour grapes... I hate both captcha and sour grapes)

 

[JasonKaotic]

Of those two, Skyrim by far in terms of what's in it. Cyrodiil is a bit bigger, but has less in it. But seeing as other people have talked about it here, I feel the need to mention that Daggerfall's world is twice the size of England. As in, it would take you twice as long to walk from one side of Daggerfall's world to the other as it would to walk from one end of England to the other. Yeah.

 

[bullet_sandw1ch]

If you're going to exclude copy/paste dungeons, then Skyrim is bigger...

But if you're going to include DLC, then maybe Oblivion...

I don't even know anymore. =/ But I like to think it's Skyrim.

In terms of the entire series, Daggerfall wins hands down.

didnt the original elder scrolls have the largest world? it was ALL of tamriel, after all.

 

[Ruzinus]

Oblivion has the bigger cities... Skyrim has... well that's already been covered in this topic.

Oblivion GOTY will ultimately have a bit more to do and some more going for it, because Shivering Isles, but...

ignore all that. If you want a game to get into Elder Scrolls with, go with Skyrim. Both games have wonderful and awesome worlds to explore. However, Oblivion has this terrible level up system that you basically have to fight with and figure out how to trick before you can just enjoy the damn game world. In a lot of games that level up system would have just flat out ruined the thing entirely, but the stuff behind that in Oblivion was awesome enough to make it worth it. But in Skyrim the level up stuff just works, and you should be able to just go ahead and enjoy the world on your first character. Play Skyrim first. If you enjoy it, then later go back to Oblivion and just do some research on dealing with it's leveling beforehand.

On the other other hand, Oblivion is a lot cheaper, and if you have the patience to learn an annoying leveling system before you can really enjoy the game behind it then I guess why not?

Really?
I never had problems with the levelling system in Oblivion. Maybe because i just went for a straight up fighting character with a bit repairing.
So i was always as powerfull as the enemies. i guess when you had main abilities like speech or something it is incredibly hard.

I've watched a lot of people try to get into it and just choose main skills that leave them getting level ups where they only get like 1-2 points for their level ups, which will quickly make things out level you. I always try to convince those people to turn the difficulty down instead of quit, but no one ever seems willing to do that.

 

[Ruzinus]

If you're going to exclude copy/paste dungeons, then Skyrim is bigger...

But if you're going to include DLC, then maybe Oblivion...

I don't even know anymore. =/ But I like to think it's Skyrim.

In terms of the entire series, Daggerfall wins hands down.

didnt the original elder scrolls have the largest world? it was ALL of tamriel, after all.

Lorewise, yes. But Daggerfall was MUCH bigger than it in terms of actual ingame space. It's still the second biggest but... all of that space within Arena and Daggerfall is randomly generated, and it just tends to be junk.

 

[unoleian]

If you're going to exclude copy/paste dungeons, then Skyrim is bigger...

But if you're going to include DLC, then maybe Oblivion...

I don't even know anymore. =/ But I like to think it's Skyrim.

In terms of the entire series, Daggerfall wins hands down.

didnt the original elder scrolls have the largest world? it was ALL of tamriel, after all.

It had the whole continent, yes, but at a much, MUCH smaller scale than Daggerfall. Daggerfall's map is so large, it's measurable in distance to not-so-small, real-world countries. Not many games get that distinction, at all. Even many modern "massive" maps in MMOs and such like that have nothing on the map in Daggerfall.

ed- other guy above posted same answer while I was writing this one...

 

[Rikomag132]

According to the Elder Scrolls Wiki, both Skyrim and Oblivion have about 41 square kilometres of land (16 square miles). Morrowind had 16 km[sup]2[/sup] and Daggerfall had 161600 km[sup]2[/sup], for comparison. The different areas aren't exactly in scale between all the games, as you can see.

Oblivion's world did feel more empty, though. Especially around the edges of the map. And Skyrim has the mountains always blocking your way.

Am I misunderstanding you or are you saying that Daggerfall is 161600 SQUARE KILOMETERS? As in 4 times tHe size of Denmark?

 

[Irridium]

According to the Elder Scrolls Wiki, both Skyrim and Oblivion have about 41 square kilometres of land (16 square miles). Morrowind had 16 km[sup]2[/sup] and Daggerfall had 161600 km[sup]2[/sup], for comparison. The different areas aren't exactly in scale between all the games, as you can see.

Oblivion's world did feel more empty, though. Especially around the edges of the map. And Skyrim has the mountains always blocking your way.

Am I misunderstanding you or are you saying that Daggerfall is 161600 SQUARE KILOMETERS? As in 4 times tHe size of Denmark?

Bigger, actually. Bethesda claims the size is about double that of Great Britain. About 487,000 square kilometers.

There's also 15,000 or so towns, cities, villages, and dungeons for the player's character to explore, and around 750,000+ NPC's. Dis game be BIG. Though it did make heavy use of procedural generation, making things seem a bit same-y.

 

[Rooster Cogburn]

Size doesn't mean crap if you don't do anything with it.

Oblivion has more dungeons, more cities, bigger landmass, and more NPC's.

However, they're all rather bland and uninteresting. Skyrim has less of those things, but they're far more fleshed out. If you're looking for the better game, get Skyrim. After playing it... Oblivion just doesn't compare.

Word. Anyone who played Morrowind knows what you mean. Better to ask how big it feels. Remember how many people were convinced Morrowind was larger?

apparently skyrim is fractionally larger but oblivion is infinitely more moddable than skyrim. you'll never see the detailed and huge quest mods that you saw with oblivion

Holy shit, is that true? You had better say that's not true! lol Do you know where I can find some 'deets' or is that just the buzz?

 

[Irridium]

Size doesn't mean crap if you don't do anything with it.

Oblivion has more dungeons, more cities, bigger landmass, and more NPC's.

However, they're all rather bland and uninteresting. Skyrim has less of those things, but they're far more fleshed out. If you're looking for the better game, get Skyrim. After playing it... Oblivion just doesn't compare.

Word. Anyone who played Morrowind knows what you mean. Better to ask how big it feels. Remember how many people were convinced Morrowind was larger?

apparently skyrim is fractionally larger but oblivion is infinitely more moddable than skyrim. you'll never see the detailed and huge quest mods that you saw with oblivion

Holy shit, is that true? You had better say that's not true! lol Do you know where I can find some 'deets' or is that just the buzz?

That's because Skyrim is still relatively new and we just don't have big quest mods yet. Those things take time to build. And rely on tools developed by the mod community that Skyrim doesn't have yet.

Besides, there may not be many, but there's quite [http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/12024] a [http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/9782] few [http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/12369] already [http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/15862] available [http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/11981].

Plus, Skyrim is already full of great, interesting quests. Unlike Oblivion, it doesn't need a lot of mods to add a bunch of new quests. I'd consider that a good thing.

 

[Rooster Cogburn]

That's because Skyrim is still relatively new and we just don't have big quest mods yet. Those things take time to build. And rely on tools developed by the mod community that Skyrim doesn't have yet.

Besides, there may not be many, but there's quite [http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/12024] a [http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/9782] few [http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/12369] already [http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/15862] available [http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/11981].

Plus, Skyrim is already full of great, interesting quests. Unlike Oblivion, it doesn't need a lot of mods to add a bunch of new quests. I'd consider that a good thing.

Well I'm impressed.

Those look great. Even if I can't beat everything in Skyrim, I am very interested in what the community is cooking up. Now all I need is a decent computer. I'll get one eventually but it's hard to wait. These are very dark times indeed.

EDIT: I'm playing on Xbox at the moment.

 

[kouriichi]

They are really the same size in game, but Skyrim used its area better. Oblivion feels like a giant flat plain in my opinion. But because there are mountains in the center of Skyrim, it makes the journey by foot slightly longer no matter where your going. The areas are also far more diverse. You have big plains, snowy forests, bubbling hotsprings.... It just all around feels more alive.

And the random event travelers really help too. It makes things a lot more interesting when going by roads.

 

[gim73]

As far as gameplay, Oblivion was kinda crippled by it's scaled loot and enemies system. There were many broken aspects to it that punished you for actually leveling. In many ways, your major and minor skills should have been the skills you expected to NEVER use. A wise man would set them so that he could control his level up points. 10 skill ups in a single skill gives you a times five multiplier. Endurance bonuses are not retroactive so always max out endurance first. Trainers will train you five times per level. In so many ways, playing a min/max game is just so much less FUN than playing with the same system in morrowind.

Here was my alternative: don't level up and just play through the entire game at level 2 (minimum required for azura's daedric quest so you can complete the main storyline). Level up individual skills all you want, but just make sure those skills are not leveling your character. Sure, the loot is crap, but at least you never have to deal with spider daedra or packs of spriggans.

 

[Wayneguard]

All I can say is that Red Mountain felt much larger (and far more dangerous) than the Throat of the World, the supposed largest mountain in Tamriel.

OT: I'd call it about even between Oblivion and Skyrim as far as size is concerned. That's ignoring expansions as Shivering Isles obviously puts Oblivion over the top.

 

[darlarosa]

Wait which felt bigger or which is technically bigger?

To me Skyrim felt huge. I constantly felt like I was traveling. With Oblivion I kind of felt like I was running in circles. For some reason I just enjoy traveling more in Skyrim.

 

[endtherapture]

Wait which felt bigger or which is technically bigger?

To me Skyrim felt huge. I constantly felt like I was traveling. With Oblivion I kind of felt like I was running in circles. For some reason I just enjoy traveling more in Skyrim.

In Oblivion I constantly felt I was on a lonely quest to the most remote areas of Tamriel, which had it's own charm.

In Skyrim I never feel more than 5 minutes away from civilisation which is weird.

 

[Bvenged]

As others ahve said before me, Daggerfall; followed by Arena, Oblivion, Skyrim and then Morrowind. Not many people care about Redguard or Battlespire because they were very linear, like a playable storybook.

Officially, Oblivion has the larger overworld of the two games you're in question about, but only by a few KM's.

In terms of game content, Skyrim has nearly twice as many dungeons, all of which were hand-made, in comparison to the dungeons in TESIV (whose dungeons were crafted using a repetitive dungeon generator). Skyrim also delivers more than twice as many quests, equipment, building designs, something like 10 times as many voice actors, thousands of more lines of conversation, much more city architecture types, many more mob types, more intricate AI programming...