You all seem to hold Morrowind in high esteem, maybe I should check it out. Then again it's so old...
Oblivion being my first non FF, non WoW RPG, I was really excited to try what was hailed as a very immersive game(i had a boss who loved morrowind back in the day, but i never took the bait)
A few things that grind my gears after 6 mos:
The Faces: At first I though "great! i can fully customize my face! It'll look just like I want it to!" then i acutally tried to make a realistic face. I can't figure out how the faces can be so realistic and yet still look so strange and unnatural.
So I downloaded a custom elf race. Anime chicks with pointy ears are always fun to look at so why not
The Bodies: Both male and female were way too muscular for someone who just got out of prison and is, for instance, a mage
So I downloaded HGEC. A bit too Pamela Anderson but what the heck, why not.
The Gear: 2 handed swords are pointless and shields are a joke. Even from lv 1, things would stagger my block. Since you can't really train block other than fighting real enemies and you will probably die from it, Istopped blocking and chose the stick and move fighting method, which means I can never use a shield because all the enemies just get better and better at staggering me. As another slap, why would I need armor if I never get hit? Why even have a melee weapon if I can just run around a tree and cast spells? Don't even get me started on bows.
So I downloaded multitudes of armor and weapon mods, as well as an archery mod.
The Combat: Call me a noob or whatever but this game is stupid hard with stock armor and weapons. I understand realistic, life-or-death battle but at later levels it would be nice not to have to run away to heal after two hits(see aforementioned armor and shiled gripe) meanwhile I'm hacking away at an enemy with my weapon only to see his health drop like, a pixel each time. Then we have the suicidal companions who are doing the electric boogaloo in and out of my line of attack. What really gets me is on quests where I'm supposed to try to keep them alive, and I end up killing them myself. Why would you move so that I heal the bad guy instead of you?!
So I got overpowered Weapons, Armor and Advanced magecraft for that ever convenient health regen enchantment. And I gave up on ever being able to see the positive ending of the "Save the NPC" quests.
Vague Quests: I don't mind searching out a quest objective, but could you at least point me in the right direction? I hate just following the green arrow but it seems the only way to finish certain quests.
So now I'm rocking a cute anime elf with a smokin hot body, super cool weapons and armor enchanted with overpowered spells, fast travelling across the expansive(to me at least, I never saw morrowind) world just to find the green arrow and enjoy this game. All in all I feel like I'm missing the point of this kind of immersive RPG.
I wanna be Danny Zuko, gradually realizing his talents and purpose throughout the story. Instead I feel like Eugene, getting crapped on by every guard, necromancer and mudcrab with a short sweet bit at the end where I get to hit Coach Dagon with a pie, but in the end it doesn't matter because after that I still get the crap beat outta me by everyone.
That's my meta gripe. Sorry for the grease reference, it ws the best I could do at this time of night.