Poll: Morrowind Or Oblivion

[jdarksun]

Personally I believe that Morrowind was a better release. Yet, Oblivion is a very close second. It is interesting how many people are on the fence reguarding this issue. Feel free to comment or ignore or whatever...

I don't think people remember what Morrowind was like when it was released anymore. It was glitchy. It crashed a lot. On that front alone, Oblivion is a huge step up - I crashed more in the first unpatched day playing Morrowind than I have in 50 hours of Oblivion.

 

Contrary to the scaling nay-sayers, I've been quite fond of it. It has lessened in effectiveness now that I've optimized my character's skills at lv. 30, but I'm also much more satisfied with my combat achievements than I ever was in (base) Morrowind. My Morrowind thief/fighter, as amusing as she was, simply wasn't challenged from about lv. 6-10 on. Things were downright difficult in Oblivion up through the teens, but overcoming it only added to my sense of accomplishment. It also eased back when I completed what I affectionately call my "Regalia of Evil".

 

The world itself is also vastly, vastly improved.

 

It's not perfect (some geographic inconsistencies, zoning into cities, lack of Levitate / Mark / Recall, fewer factions than in Morrowind, the lack of intra-faction politics). I played Morrowind for more than a hundred hours, so I can't say for certain yet, but so far they both get 9/10 in my book. Honestly, I lean a bit in favor of Oblivion based on combat satisfaction alone.

[petitlu44]

Graphic and fight mecanisms are the only aspects I think Oblivion is better. otherwise :

 

- in depth character

- quests

- loot and donjon discovering

- interaction between guilds (3 or 4 time more different guilds)

- realism of the world (a mob you encounter does not disappear or level with you, bandit and guards never wear ebonic/daedric armor, ...)

- ...

 

Morrowind is FAR FAR better. In fact there is no competition

 

Oblivion is an action game with some poor quests (follow the arrow, and click on the dialog)

[clintonius]

now i think Oblivion is by far much better. Compare the environments in morrowind and oblivion.

morrowind:

-big fields with almost no relief and non realistic mountains that look like heaps of sand.

-'naked' planes with almost no vegetation and a roc or a plant here and there.

-dark,vast desert of ashes that give me depressions because they are in fact all the same over morrowind.

morrowind is a very good game but those statements above realle annoyed me, which is why i only used one area of morrowind which were the fields in the east which i dont remember the name.

Oblivion:

-Mountains(real looking mountains) and hills and valleys with awesome views (check screenshot)

-nice forests with much things to do and varied environments and sorts of vegetation.

-'Happy' sunny and nice forest regions which you wouldnt suspect of being attacked by daedra (which is why i have already forgotten the main quest completely)

Oblivion features more realistic things overall which makes me 'enter' the game very well,instead of morrowind where it was just a flat image in front of me with an arm holdig a sword)

 

The purpose of this poll was not to compare how pretty the two are because Oblivion would win hands down. The purpose was to compare all of the other aspects of the two.

 

For example: Content, Questing, Character Creation, etc.

 

Not to say that these are not good points; its just thats not what the poll is about. Thank you.

[goseki]

i would have to say its too early for me to choose.

 

i only played morrowind for 7 months and i pretty much played it out, well as much as you can with one character. and while i'v played about 50 hours of oblivion most of that has been spent in the great forest. i've done none of the main quests and have been to only three cities.

 

i will say that dispite all the little flaws it is the least buggy first release of an elder scrolls game since arena.

the original journal in morrowind was horible, i had to take my own notes. and although the pushywording of the oblivion journal is annoying it is still light years ahead.

 

and about the leveling... am i crazy or didn't morrowind do the same thing with treasure chests as oblivion does with bandit armour? I mean that in morrowind i never had a problem finding awsome armour. my morrowind house is full of it! too much to even sell. even with bandits in glass greaves killer eguipment still seems harder to find. still not hard to find at all but no worse than morrowind on that front.

 

and also about the leveling system...

it allows the game to be truely free form. if bethesda decided what places have strong enemies and what places have wimp enemies it would be tantamount to deciding where are character goes first, second etc. with the leveling my next character can take a completely different route and still run into a progresively more difficult set of enemies. and yes npcs must level up too or whole towns will be laid waste to level 34 mud crabs :P

 

so at the risk of becoming unpopular i say this...

people who complain that a game is too hard after its only been out for a couple weeks make me laugh. sorry, did you a really long game that poses no chalenge? turn the difficulty down. I'm still on defult setting and, yes its tough, but that forces my character to think of different ways to get around a seeming no win situation. this is what makes it fun for me. not like in morrowind where battle, even on difficult setting, consisted of... walk up to enemy, press attack untill someone dies.

 

anyways... it is still too early to judge which is better. but do we have to. i mean which is better... an apple or an orange?

[Latholas]

now i think Oblivion is by far much better. Compare the environments in morrowind and oblivion.

morrowind:

-big fields with almost no relief and non realistic mountains that look like heaps of sand.

-'naked' planes with almost no vegetation and a roc or a plant here and there.

-dark,vast desert of ashes that give me depressions because they are in fact all the same over morrowind.

morrowind is a very good game but those statements above realle annoyed me, which is why i only used one area of morrowind which were the fields in the east which i dont remember the name.

Oblivion:

-Mountains(real looking mountains) and hills and valleys with awesome views (check screenshot)

-nice forests with much things to do and varied environments and sorts of vegetation.

-'Happy' sunny and nice forest regions which you wouldnt suspect of being attacked by daedra (which is why i have already forgotten the main quest completely)

Oblivion features more realistic things overall which makes me 'enter' the game very well,instead of morrowind where it was just a flat image in front of me with an arm holdig a sword)

 

The purpose of this poll was not to compare how pretty the two are because Oblivion would win hands down. The purpose was to compare all of the other aspects of the two.

 

For example: Content, Questing, Character Creation, etc.

 

Not to say that these are not good points; its just thats not what the poll is about. Thank you.

 

if u didnt fall asleep i was also saying that because of all these things, you really get into the game and not just hit keys and watch a screen...

you want me to discuss that all? ok...

Questing: much better because i now have more than five quests with own history (content) which i didnt even have to move my butt for. People run towards me for quests so much i have to refuse half of them.

its much better because u dont have to seek out quests, they come to you.

character creation is exactly the same, except for the looks.

and by the way petitlu, looting is exactly the same, dungeon discovering is far better because the traps are now something u have to watch out for, not like a door with TRAPPED written in big letters.

And oh yes i still remember ALL of you...what was it? oh yes biting desks and all waiting impaciently for oblivion and now what, all that excitement for nothing and throw it away to play the same game as yesterday yet again because there your already an uberpwner and you can make it but youre too lazy to do the same on oblivion. dont want to explore something new?

[Latholas]

Morrowind by far. Pretty graphics are nice, but don't make up for the lack of character depth. Morrowind was an amazing game. Oblivion is a generic console rpg with some good features. No competition there...

And also i just dont think you can judge that yet...

I stopped playing morrowind once because of the things that were missing that came in oblivion.

Lets see it this way: Oblivion and Morrowind are not comparable because actually the environments, cultures, and such are totally different. Its a whole different game

Oblivion is more medieval (though when i entered Cyrodiil city i immediately thought its architecture looked alot like Minas Tirith in LOTR which is why i run around in it alot)

And Morrowind is more mystic/darker whatever the hell u wanna call it.

They just dont fit to be compared so one is not bad because u like the other...

[ThetaOrionis01]

Please keep this discussion civil - flaming will NOT be tolerated.

 

 

Of the two - for all its flaws, I would have to say Morrowind.

 

Oblivion does not suit my style of playing. I cannot roleplay the character I have created - the game is too limited in its choices and options. I'm not a powerplayer - I don't level up for the sake of it. I level up so that pesky critters become only minor irritations which are easily dispatched and don't interrupt my exploration of the gameworld too much. In Oblivion, due to the level scaling, this is no longer possible. So, I decided to do my best not to level up any further.

 

I don't appreciate being treated like an idiot in a game, and loathe the new journal system. I preferred Morrowind's far less intrusive system. Many aspects of Oblivion feel dumbed down to me, and I don't like that.

 

Some people I'm sure like the voice acting. I don't - I think the range of voices used is far too small. All the Redguard females, for instance, sound alike. What's more, because all dialogue is voiced it feels less immersive to me - when was the last time an NPC addressed you by name? And, I suspect that because of the need to have all dialogue voiced, and the additional resources required for this, there are fewer choices and a much more limited range of conversational topics than if dialogue had been in text form alone. And this leads to immersion breaking - for instance, after breaking the news to an NPC that his son had been killed I got the scripted grieving response, yet immediately afterwards the NPC reverted to one of the inane generic greetings. Why not give this NPC a custom greeting to reflect the situation? I suspect time pressures.

 

Oblivion to me has an unfinished, rushed feel to it. I get the impression that Bethesda were trying to implement too many new features, and did not have the time or resources to do any of them as well as they could have.

 

Take the physics engine, for one... I am certain that some people like having it in the game. I consider it a gimmick - it just doesn't do much for me. Some of the effects - eg an enemy flying through the air when hit by a fireball - look overdone and tacky to me. And, whether it's due to the physics engine (which I suspect is the case) or simply due to poor quality control, there are just too many instances where items hover above the surface they are meant to be sitting on. Items seem to have a new property of being able to distort gravitational fields - pick one item off a table, and all others suddenly move along the vertical axis.

 

The speechcraft minigame is just awful. I suppose it is quicker to implement than to provide a range of dialogue options for the player to choose from.

 

It is a pity, because one can tell that in other areas there has been a lot of attention to detail - the detailing on weapons and items, for instance. Some of the places in the gameworld are breathtakingly stunning - yet elsewhere you encounter flaws which haven't been picked up by quality control.

 

When I closed my first Oblivion gate, I had a feeling of deja vu - it reminded me so much of Ultima IX: Ascension.

In more than one way.

[clintonius]

To Latholas:

 

I didn't mean to critisize and I appologize. I would also like to thank you for elaborating futher on your initial opinion, objectively revealing your thoughts so that others may benefit from them. I mearly wanted to expand beyond the spectacular graphics in Oblivion so that the two games could be objectively compared. I thank you and all the other posters for your feelings on this topic. And remember, your vote counts... no it doesn't... just kidding... not really. :D

[Peregrine]

Morrowind by far. Pretty graphics are nice, but don't make up for the lack of character depth. Morrowind was an amazing game. Oblivion is a generic console rpg with some good features. No competition there...

And also i just dont think you can judge that yet...

 

Of course I can. I've seen enough of the game to know how badly flawed it is in several areas.

 

I stopped playing morrowind once because of the things that were missing that came in oblivion.

 

Like what? Horses?

 

 

Lets see it this way: Oblivion and Morrowind are not comparable because actually the environments, cultures, and such are totally different. Its a whole different game

Oblivion is more medieval (though when i entered Cyrodiil city i immediately thought its architecture looked alot like Minas Tirith in LOTR which is why i run around in it alot)

And Morrowind is more mystic/darker whatever the hell u wanna call it.

They just dont fit to be compared so one is not bad because u like the other...

 

Err, what? Because the storyline is different, I can't compare the games? I said absolutely nothing about the storyline/setting, all my complaints are about the gameplay and lack of depth. The fact that it's a more "medieval" setting has nothing to do with issues like missing weapons, or the "you're a moron, here's exactly what to do" quest guidance.

 

and about the leveling... am i crazy or didn't morrowind do the same thing with treasure chests as oblivion does with bandit armour? I mean that in morrowind i never had a problem finding awsome armour. my morrowind house is full of it! too much to even sell. even with bandits in glass greaves killer eguipment still seems harder to find. still not hard to find at all but no worse than morrowind on that front.

 

Yes, but it did it in a much more reasonable way. The random treasure leveled, but there was still plenty of non-leveled stuff to find. And more importantly, the contents of crates doesn't change how powerful your enemies does, and doesn't produce the same absurd idea as "bandits" wearing insane armor.

 

and also about the leveling system...

it allows the game to be truely free form. if bethesda decided what places have strong enemies and what places have wimp enemies it would be tantamount to deciding where are character goes first, second etc. with the leveling my next character can take a completely different route and still run into a progresively more difficult set of enemies. and yes npcs must level up too or whole towns will be laid waste to level 34 mud crabs :P

 

So? This is realism. If an area is known as a major bandit stronghold, with all caravans needing heavy escort to hold off raids, would you, as an inexperienced fighter, rush off to go see what's out there? You shouldn't have complete freedom in where you go, it's completely unrealistic. Or worse, it's not fun. Where's the sense of accomplishment in finally working hard, getting amazing gear, and finally being able to break into that daedric fortress and take the legendary treasure inside if you could've done it just as easily 5 minutes after character creation? It completely de-values all your efforts in building a character, since you'll never really get to experience the benefits.

 

And besides, any decent game designer could give you plenty of freedom, while still having most areas at static levels. Just look at Morrowind, and how you had plenty of places you could go, but also plenty of opportunity to advance relative to the rest of the world.

 

so at the risk of becoming unpopular i say this...

people who complain that a game is too hard after its only been out for a couple weeks make me laugh. sorry, did you a really long game that poses no chalenge? turn the difficulty down. I'm still on defult setting and, yes its tough, but that forces my character to think of different ways to get around a seeming no win situation. this is what makes it fun for me. not like in morrowind where battle, even on difficult setting, consisted of... walk up to enemy, press attack untill someone dies.

 

Who's complaining that it's too hard? All the complaints about difficulty is that the difficulty makes no sense. It's not that it's too hard to fight that bandit, it's that every bandit in the world is wearing full daedric armor just because you are. Or how a character described as a "poor, inexperienced thug" somehow is an expert swordsman easily capable of killing your high-level character.

[thanateros]

This game basically falls victim to the same problems in Morrowind, except more compounded in that you are faced with having to orient your character MORE like a fighter than in Morrowind. For a thieves guild quest I was on my merry way to Ch....ol and a bandit popped out and started attacking me. 20 arrows sticking out of him he still wasn't dead, shucks. I proceeded to run screaming through the countryside hoping that a guard would get him before he got me. Well, luckily, 3 jumped him and it was a near miss. Albeit it was rather amusing for me to be put in that position, I get immensly frustrated that even my level 2 character can't even handle a road bandit. While at low levels, yes, it does have some sense of realism that I might not be able to win a fight, consider how utterly frustrating it is to run away from every fight that isn't a mudcrap, imp, or wolf. I'm sorry, but this game just doesn't do it for me anymore. I struggled for a little while on the issue of whether or not I could really enjoy this game, but any character I create that isn't a fighter gets dominated, and it only gets worse at higher levels.

 

I too feel the sense that this game was rushed, and now I'll be shelving it until Beth takes the initiative to fix the immense flaws in the skill and leveling design. With a game this big, I agree that certain areas of the map should be off limits to low level characters. Like the high mountains bordering Skyrim; like I could really take a level 1 fighter and take on some burly axe-totin nords. Also consider that Cyrodill borders just about every other province, so the areas around those provinces should reflect a bandit culture representative of the area of the map. There are many ways to create the melting pot sense by figuring out ways to designate which areas will have what threats. Knowing I can't just roam around in the high mountains would give me the passion to make a character that could succeed in that area someday. Oh...and keep the bandits off the road during the daytime, if I choose to make the effort to not use fast travel, I shouldn't be punished for that decision.