Karasuman

I wholeheartedly agree with this. While I can't say I've endorsed every single mod I've liked in my TES games, I have endorsed the majority of them. There are some mods which have enhanced my experience with the games so much that not endorsing them would have been a disservice to the modder;

For what you'd pay for Oblivion, which is 15 or 20 bucks, sometimes $5 on Steam, it's definitely worth it. Oblivion has a huge, advanced base of mods, many of which can turn it into one of the best games you will ever play.

If anyone is shocked or in any way surprised by this, you must have had your head in the sand for the last several years. I'm surprised it took Zenimax/Beth this long. The MMO market is becoming saturated. If they're going to do this, they need to put some serious thought and creativity into it. I'm heavily looking forward to the release of GW2 because it's completely different from WoW/Rift/ToR, which are all basically the same. I'm really hoping that the TES MMO does something different as well instead of being another WoW clone.

We're not talking about what you do with the software. There are all sorts of laws and copyrights and so forth in place so that people such as hackers can't misuse software, and if they do misuse it, they can be penalized for it. That's prevalent in software no matter the platform. There's a difference between software and hardware. I'm talking about hardware. You can be sued and possibly arrested for changing the hardware in your own PS3 or XBox, a tangible device you paid for. Do you think HP is going to sue you if you put a better processor in one of their PCs that you bought?

A better and more accurate analogy is you buying a car, let's say a Ford, and then Ford gets pissed off and sends the police to your house to arrest you when you put a bigger engine and other performance parts in that car. This is exactly what Sony and Microsoft are doing to their users, and it's complete and utter BS that they're allowed to do it. Spot on.

Good post. This is why even if someone does or does not like Skyrim, Bethesda is still smart for continuing to allow its games to be modded on the PC. Morrowind was released 10 years ago primarily as a PC game and it's *still* showing it has untapped potential. With the right mods, it looks absolutely stunning even by today's standards, but only on a PC. A console will never make it look anywhere near as good. On a console, once a game is out, that's it. You're not going to see any major improvements to the way it looks or plays. What you get is what you get, and you'll never see what that game could actually do if it was on a more sophisticated and upgradeable platform. That's the main reason I like the PC for games so much, because I really enjoy watching a good game grow into something even more spectacular once modders have had some time to work with it.

Lol I completely agree.

I agree that Skyrim does do some things right for sure. I just felt that it was a bit lacking in the creativity department as compared to some of Bethesda's other games, i.e. Fallout and Morrowind. Also, I wasn't aware that Dark Souls is being released for the PC, but now that you've mentioned it, I'm pretty stoked about it. I keep hearing how awesome (and tough) that game is, and it does look intriguing.

American conservative hypocrisy at work. Expressive sexuality is deviant. Violence, war and death? Those are ok. This kind of nonsense is just one reason why conservatives are taking ever-increasing heat and scrutiny here in the states.

Yes, but then those new consoles will still be behind the PC's we'll have then. Therein is my problem with consoles. It is very true what you say, that they aren't going anywhere, but my main issue with them is that they will always be anywhere from slightly to quite a bit behind a concurrent PC, and so most games from here on will not realize their full potential because they're going to be written for an inferior piece of technology. Consoles are great if all you want to do is make money (which of course that's all anyone really wants), but they're also restrictive from a creativity standpoint. I realize no one in business cares about creativity vs the bottom line these days (Bethesda made that clear with Skyrm), and that's unfortunate, because regardless of how many dollars are being made, it contributes to a never-ending downward spiral in the quality of the games themselves.

A GTX460 can be found for $129 on Newegg as well as other sites, and the 460 can run Skyrim perfectly. The 560's are only $20 more.

Richter Belmont

From someone who has sunk hundreds of hours and countless characters into Morrowind and Oblivion, my opinion is that Skyrim is not as good as the reviews would have you believe. It is not in the same league of variety, creativity or complexity as Morrowind, and lacks the vividness and lush environments of Oblivion, I see some people saying Skyrim is a simplified Oblivion with better graphics. I definitely agree with the simplified part, but I think that saying Skyrim has "better" graphics than Oblivion is a very questionable statement. Both games were made for the same console(s). Oblivion's shadows are better and less jagged, for instance, and the game itself has more varied environments than Skyrim. In other words, Oblivion, for its time, was way ahead of the curve graphically relative to what you have with Skyrim now. Frankly, I'd rather look at Oblivion anyday over Skyrim. If you like attributes, character speed variance, lots of different skills, Daedra, enchantment choices, spell variety, in-game graphical settings, and a useable UI, then Skyrim says "piss on you," because you won't get any of those. Ok, I take that back. There's a few Daedra here and there. Mostly the ones you summon. Being such a fan of the previous games, Skyrim was a let-down and a waste of $60 for me, and it sits on the shelf doing nothing. However, taste may vary. It's a reasonably good game if you haven't played the others, but in my opinion, Skyrim left too much potential on the table because it was made primarily for a couple of 5-year old consoles instead of utilizing current technology.

And that's perfectly ok, encouraged even. It's differing tastes and points of view that make the world go 'round. I'm glad you (and others) enjoy Skyrim. I really did want to like it, but it was just missing too many things I enjoyed from the previous games for it to hold my interest for long.

Looking at this thread now, it's kind of humorous. Two or three days after Skyrim was released, I had called it Oblivion with a bunch of snow and dragons. And it really is. That's all I've ever seen Skyrim as: A brain-damaged Oblivion with its winter mittens on. Bethesda pulled a fast one with Skyrim. All there is to it. That's not even to say Skyrim is horrible as games go. It can be fun near the beginning, but it's not to be taken seriously as a separate TES game.

I had said something just like this in the Skyrim forum earlier. I completely agree. Skyrim was not the best choice of locales for a TES game. Not only is it a bit bland and pretty much all snow and mountains, but we already had Solstheim in Morrowind, and Skyrim to me just feels like a bigger version of that. Before Beth announced that Skyrim was the locale for the newest game, I had hoped they'd make the location one which we'd not seen before, such as Summerset or Akavir. I already feel like I've seen Skyrim, just on a smaller scale in TES3, and how much snow and mountains do you really need to see before it's no longer interesting?

When I look at TES or PES, I don't even look at the Hot Files. I simply go to the categories section and have the site show me the files in descending order by date. All of the files that are new in that category will still show up, If I see a mod I don't like, I can scroll past it. It takes all of two seconds to move past ones I don't want. I'm not sure more filtration is needed, though if the moderators choose to add extra features, kudos to them. As a sidenote, I'd like to mention that I don't particularly mind scrolling past a few mods I don't like to see ones I do. I feel that even the authors of the mods I don't like have still put a lot of work into their mods and I still appreciate their contribution to the community, even if it's something I don't want. I might not like what they made, but I'm not going to directly confront or deride them for making it. This is just my personal take on the matter, nothing more.

I disagree that Skyrim is better in every way. I have and could again list the various ways Oblivion is better, or at the very least, deeper. Without getting too encumbered by detail, Oblivion's magic system, enchantment system, and character creation/development systems are deeper and more complex. Deeper to me in an RPG translates to better, but it may not for everyone. As green as Oblivion was in many areas graphically, it still has more varied areas than Skyrim, which is white, white and more white. I don't think Skyrim was a very good location to use for an entry in the series because of the sameness of pretty much every area outside of dungeons. It's a bunch of snow and mountains. Oblivion's PC UI, while not great, was better than Skyrim's craptacular ported UI. Oblivion had Acrobatics and Speed attributes, which helped make characters feel more varied and specialized. This is one of a few reasons why characters in Skyrim seem the same as the last one you created after a certain point. If we're taking both games in vanilla form, the only thing Skyrim does better than Oblivion, in my opinion, is dual-wield, dungeons, and a few extra voice actors. People mention the "perks" in Skyrim, while conveniently forgetting that Oblivion had those too, they were simply set up in a different way. Every 25 points gained in any skill earns you a perk for that skill. Don't get me wrong, I am not white-knighting for Oblivion. It certainly had its flaws in vanilla form, and I maintain that Morrowind graphically updated is better than both of them, but the assertion that Skyrim is better than Oblivion in every way is, honestly, a ridiculous statement that takes all of 5 minutes to debunk.

@Psx - A compelling point that I'd not thought of before, and one that is tough to argue against.

Correct, the Overhaul will update Bloodmoon and Tribunal as well.

Hey there. Just chiming in with some info. 1. If you're looking to fire up Morrowind, one of the first things you'll want to do to bring it up to date is get Morrowind Graphics Extender. This program greatly enhances Morrowind's stock graphics engine. It gives Morrowind shader model 3.0 water and effects, and MGE also greatly extends Morrowind's view distance range. It comes with many other enhancement options as well. Make sure to follow the install and set-up instructions exactly as they are written. MGE can be finicky if it's not done right. This program is absolutely essential for an updated Morrowind. 2. If you want the updating process to be as simple as possible, you could grab Morrowind Overhaul which includes MGE as well as updated texture packs which will bring most of the in-game textures up to speed. This is not my preferred method mostly because I'm picky and I like things to look exactly how I want them, but if you're not super-savvy with the folder and file structures of the game and so forth, then Overhaul is the way to go. 3. Other texture packs worth looking into are ATAP and Connary's textures. Connary's are my personal favorites and some of the best textures ever made for the game. Connary has since, for whatever reason, taken his textures down from most of the major gaming sites, but the site below has a link to both of his texture packs if you're so inclined to try them out: http://btb2.free.fr/morrowind.html 4. Better Bodies (mod). This is included with Morrowind Overhaul. If you choose not to go the Overhaul route, grab this. 5. Better Heads OR Changing faces, but not both. I personally prefer Changing faces, but both are good and will greatly increase the variety of faces you will see on NPC's in the game. I believe Better Heads is included with Overhaul. 6. Better Clothes - Also included in Overhaul. Updates the in-game clothing to fit Better Bodies. 7. Darknut's Creature Textures - Included in Overhaul. Does what you'd expect, and increases the texture quality on the in-game monsters. 8. Darknut's Weapon Textures - Included in Overhaul. Updates weapon textures. 9. Tamriel Rebuilt 1 & 2. Sure, you can play the game without these, but I (and many others) consider TR to be essential. If you're not sure what they are, these are two large mods that add the surrounding landmass around the Island of Vvardenfell (the main big island your character runs around in for most of the game). These mods together almost double the size of the landmass of the game and they are expertly and painstakingly well-made by a large group of like-minded modders, and they pay strict attention to the lore of the Morrowind universe to ensure a seamless experience. They blend in so well with the main game that you'd never know they were player-made if no one told you. Amazing mods. 10. Morrowind Code Patch - This handy little program is basically essential, especially if you have TR 1 & 2. It comes with a whole host of little bug fixes that can be independently enabled or disabled at will. It also enables the ability to increase the amount of world map that can be displayed, which you will want if you have Tamriel Rebuilt since they add so much land to the game. 11. On the Rocks! - Included in Overhaul. This is a texture replacer that covers all (or most) of the rocks in the game with much higher resolutions and gives them bump-mapping so that they reflect light realistically. If you don't go the Overhaul route, this replacer is a must. 12. Signy Signposts - This replaces the in-game scribbled signs with higher res versions complete with actual legible writing. Another must. There is a version of this mod that covers all the signs in Tamriel Rebuilt as well. Make sure to get both the vvardenfell and TR editions. 13. Vality's Grass Mod - Included in Overhaul. Adds grass to the game that sways in the wind. It works through MGE, so make sure to follow the instructions for setting it up. 14. Vality's Bitter Coast add-on - Makes Bitter Coast look amazing. It's essential in my game but taste may vary. I find it to be one of the most beautiful mods in existence. 15. Vality's Ascadian Isles add-on - Makes the Ascadian Isles region look much more dense and lush, with better resolutions for most of the plants, trees, and roads in the region. Again, essential to me, but not essential in a technical sense. 16. Animal Behavior - This makes monster behavior more realistic by making some creatures less aggressive. This mod also solves the dreaded constant Cliff Racer attacks by making it so that they don't attack you unless you attack them first. Trust me, you want this mod. 17. Windows Glow - Updates the window texture resolutions and makes them glow with candle light at night. Essential imo. It's included with Overhaul. 18. Abot's Water Life - Adds a whole slew of sea creatures such as several different kinds of fish, sharks, etc to the water and as a result the seas and lakes feel much more alive. This is an incredible mod. 19. Carnithus' Armamentarium - Adds a shop with a huge amount of very well-done armor designs to the Molag Amur region. Many of the good armor mods that have come out over the last half a decade have been based on the designs in this mod. 20. Art of War Museum - Adds a shop to the Museum of Artifacts in Mournhold that sells a large variety of very well-made weapons, armor, and tapestries. 21. Texture Fix 2.0 - There is a version of this for both the original game landmasses as well as Tamriel Rebuilt. It fixes a lot of the noticeable seams you get once you start installing updated textures as a result of Morrowind's inability to seamlessly merge more than two land textures at the same time. You will want this fix. It's included in Overhaul. 22. Nangsid's Rugs and Tapestries - Updates rugs & taps to higher resolution, with many of them being unique designs made by the author. This mod is understated, and you wouldn't think it would add so much to the game, but it does. This mod makes interiors look so much better and I couldn't imagine playing without it at this point. Other mods worth strong consideration - Jeremey's Knight Shop, Balmora Expansion, Louis Beauty Shop, Qarl's Gothic Attire, Rideable Guars, StarWarsGuy's Better Nightsky (included in Overhaul), Better Rain, Castle Hestatur (amazing), Vurt's Grazelands Trees, Vurt's West Gash Overhaul, Vurt's Solstheim Trees, Vurt's Solstheim Groundcover, Aleanne's Clothing mods, Korana's clothing mods, Vagabond Angel's various weapon and armor mods, and many more. There are many, many good mods for this game I haven't mentioned, so I suggest taking a look at the lists of them on this site and Planet Elder Scrolls and look for things that you think might suit your own taste. As far as the fundamental differences between Morrowind and Skyrim's gameplay: Morrowind is considered by many to be a considerably more difficult game for people who are just beginning. Morrowind does not include quest markers or instant fast travel, though quest-givers will give you directions as to where you need to go to complete the quests. You will be hoofing it a lot, especially early on. There are modes of travel within the game in most towns and cities, such as boats and Silt Striders. Some consider Morrowind's lack of insta-travel a plus. Morrowind's landscape, creatures, and lore are so unique that you'll be so lost exploring all of it that you won't even care that you're having to run everywhere. You'll find something new and interesting around every turn. Combat is one area where you're going to notice a difference between the games. Morrowind's combat engine is 10 years old, and it shows. This isn't a major issue for some, because you'll be doing so much other stuff besides just combat that fighting only plays a part of the whole. But it's still definitely noticeable. However, Morrowind's character creation, armor, magic and enchantment systems are in fact deeper than Skyrim's. You can make your own spells and enchantments in Morrowind instead of having them all pre-selected for you. There are more armor slots in Morrowind, such as pauldron slots, and your weapons and armor degrade as you're hit in combat. No one is an essential NPC in Morrowind. You can kill anybody at any time and once they're dead, they're dead. You can actually render certain quests un-doable (including the main quest) by killing certain NPC's. Be careful who you stab. In summary, Morrowind leaves you to find almost everything out on your own. It gives you a short 5-minute tutorial on the basics and then sets you loose to do whatever. The freedom and non-linear nature of it can almost be over-whelming at first, but once you get the fundamentals down, it's ridiculously addictive (imo). The whole thing just has a certain feel to it that I've never seen duplicated in any other game. Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim are all great games, but I think if you give Morrowind a chance, you'll become a fan of it. If you have any questions about how to install certain mods and you can't find the answer in the readme's or online, just post them here and I'll do what I can to answer them. Hope this info helps you. Happy hunting.

Not to you, maybe. Honestly Skyrim's not terrible in my opinion, but it wasn't amazing by any stretch. 10 or 15 hours into it and I was like "Yeah thanks, but no thanks."

Oblivion was better at masking a lot of what it did wrong with the things it did right. People can say what they will about Oblivion, but it did a better job of balancing its complexities with its more simplistic concepts than Skyrim does. Skyrim's answer for everything is "let's just take it out." They ended up taking so much stuff out that what they ended up with was a game that is immensely enjoyable at first, but quickly loses its staying power and is ultimately inferior to its predecessors in replay value. I had said this awhile back, but both Morrowind and Oblivion were revolutionary titles for their time, for one reason or another. Skyrim doesn't feel revolutionary in any way. There's nothing in it that's really ground-breaking, nothing that makes you go "oh wow, that's new!" Not even graphically. No matter how much someone may not like Oblivion, they'd at least have to admit that Oblivion was one hell of a good looking game compared to most of its competition at the time. My Morrowind game with some good tweaks and a few visual mods rivals (and in some areas exceeds) the graphics in Skyrim. Bear in mind this is all just one man's opinion, nothing more.

That right there is the main reason I quit playing it after about 5 days of its release. I agree with many of the other points, but No. 2 was the thing that killed the game for me.

It's called depth. Skyrim tries to be simultaneously deep and simple at the same time. It nails the latter but not the former. Many of its additions are superficial and simply don't manage to cover up what has been stripped away. What you're left with is a game that, while big, doesn't have the replayability factor of the earlier titles for a few reasons which aren't necessary to get into. If you're bored with the game you probably already know what they are.