Which is bigger...Skyrim or Oblivion?

[Loonyyy]

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?

I'm the guy it ruined it for. Playing it on the harder difficulties whilst trying to use Sneak, Archery, Long Blade (Was there even short blade in Oblivion? Meh), Destruction, Restoration, and Light Armour? No fun at all. I had to turn the difficulty right down at around midgame mark to keep going. I gave up almost immediately after. If only they'd tell you to focus your character!

 

[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.

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.

I disliked Oblivion in part because Tameriel felt so empty to me for some reason. It could be nice at times, but I dunno the world felt so static.The thing about Skyrim is that even when you are on the road you can run into a farm, mill, or people actually traveling in a more...I suppose realistic manner. It constantly feels like you're moving and encountering things and people. You are kind of 5 minutes from civilization

That's weird though for me.

Cyrodiil was the cosmopolitan heartland of the Empire and it felt really empty and desolate, a land in decline with all of civilisation existing around cities.

Skyrim, as the desolate barren northern land should've at least felt more empty instead of really busy.

Both games have a weird atmosphere.

Well I think in part thats just do to the technological shift. Oblivion has good graphics, but very little is visually striking. You can easily walk around for what feels like forever not encountering anything but the occasional monster. Oblivion never quiet felt...real. It did not have the subtle little things to make it feel truly alive. Skyrim did. Correct me if I'm remembering correctly but Oblivion felt oddly dead because you did not see bugs, animal encounters were somewhat...forced at times instead of feeling like a natural element of the environment. While characters aren't quite developed they tend to, as I said, move around. Skyrim has these cities and villages spaced across vast distances, but due to the ever changing enviroment, graphics, and traveling people, it never feels as static as Cyrodil. It's just a result of the technological advancements.

In terms of narratively that Skyrim should have felt more empty, I highly disagree. If we look to comparative cultures in Earth history we can see that even in cold climates populations grew. Skyrim is not barren so much as it's just mountanous and cold. People, animals, and beasts adjust as best they can to that environment. Skyrim has a large enough population where a civil war is politically relevant in terms of the whole empire, and each city has the right amount of people to keep functioning. Factor in people who traveled there and are not nord, you have a nice size population. I think Skyrim would be significantly less interesting if it was more empty. Besides it's just bad practice to decide because Cyrodil was technologically limited we need to make Skyrim's world less populated so players remember that Cyrodil seemed large.