Skyrim V Oblivion

[abaris]

 

In many ways it feels more like an action game disguised as an RPG. Something about it just doesn't 'click'. (But I'm sure plenty of people feel that way about Oblivion.)

 

 

Yeah, that my feelings too. But truth to tell, I had the same feeling about Oblivion and if I take off my rose tinted shades of nostalgia, Morrowind didn't have much in the roleplaying department either. The reason why I felt differently about Morrowind was the novelty of the whole concept back then.

 

I think, it boils down to this: I'm a huge fan of the open world concept, but I don't like the open end concept. Opend ended invites developers to be lazy when it comes to storytelling. The result is an endless stream of so called quests being pretty much the same over and over. It also makes it near impossible to give the player a sense of real importance, since the rightfully assume that a godlike figure wouldn't fit in with venturing into the nearest cave.

 

The whole Elder Scroll series suffered under these conditions.

[Jakeo]

Vanilla Skyrim > Vanilla Oblivion

Modded (5+ years of mods) Oblivion > Vanilla Skyrim

Modded (5+ years of mods) Oblivion > Non CK modded Skyrim

 

5 years from now, Skyrim modded will blow Oblivion out the water..

 

 

If you have seen the upcoming Oblivion Modification (or rather, new game) Andoran: Prologue, you will wonder if it is Skyrim or Oblivion.

I will be setting aside Skyrim to play this one, as it not only looks better than Skyrim to me (more appealing I suppose) and the story sounds fascinating not to mention a whole slew of new graphical advances, gameplay mechanics and more...

 

Mods truly unlock the true potential of TES games.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoTFPoAjTq4&feature=player_embedded

[abaris]

 

If you have seen the upcoming Oblivion Modification (or rather, new game) Andoran: Prologue, you will wonder if it is Skyrim or Oblivion.

I will be setting aside Skyrim to play this one, as it not only looks better than Skyrim to me (more appealing I suppose) and the story sounds fascinating not to mention a whole slew of new graphical advances, gameplay mechanics and more...

 

 

I guess I will follow your lead.

[Stormcrown]

Rage removed. I am considering a posting restriction. You need to go take a nap. -myrmaad

[Jakeo]

Hmm. Suffering from a rather bad case of the 'I can't stand other people having an opinion different to mine'?

 

Don't remember anyone mentioning anything about intelligence, although that is something that is not stimulated by Skyrim =)

 

Really, yelling and screaming never sold anyone's problems. I never once said Skyrim was a bad game, and I'm not saying Oblivion is without its flaws either. However, I expect more POLISH from game publishers in this day and age. It's okay to have a few bugs or glitches, but with the numerous issues I have with the game, I can honestly say Oblivion caused me less grief. Skyrim is amazing most of the time, it isn't a broken game. The main quest is a grand adventure but aside from that, the other stories are dull and unimaginative for the most part. A huge lack of humour and fun, enjoyable quests - as well as a lack of intelligent, challenging puzzles instead of randomly rotating pillars to open a door with a lever. Map markers with little to no RP description of how to get somewhere - I prefer to be given directions and find my own way without the need of an arrow or marker. Much more rewarding. There's plenty more but I don't really care to whine about it, I wanted to just make those few gripes of mine known...

 

Anyway, I think I'll wait till the Modders fix this game before I pick it up again. Oblivion is a refuge for us until that time. Andoran is set to be an epic adventure...

[abaris]

How about simply not dropping into threads you don't like? It's much easier on your caps lock, the *censored* function and possibly your nerves. Last time I checked, this isn't the "Prawda" where only the latest successes are allowed to be celebrated.

[Stormcrown]

Sorry no contest it's not in the same class as Oblivion. the graphic's as in dragon age look like as if they are from Duke Nuken 10 years ago.

It's all just shades of grey not vibrant and alive as in Oblivion. The people in it move to stiffly and most of the men look the same the ladies

are not very nice to look as the amount of mods trying to get them to look better agrees. I know Oblivion as them as well but in the

main the ladies in game look ok without them. Also in takes to long to move about the world map or open a door.

Am running Skyrim on PC spec all 5.9. The game was a present so cost me nothing am glad to say.

The price of a brand new Skyrim game is now between £22/25 this says it all

 

 

Hmm. Suffering from a rather bad case of the 'I can't stand other people having an opinion different to mine'?

 

Don't remember anyone mentioning anything about intelligence, although that is something that is not stimulated by Skyrim =)

 

Really, yelling and screaming never sold anyone's problems. I never once said Skyrim was a bad game, and I'm not saying Oblivion is without its flaws either. However, I expect more POLISH from game publishers in this day and age. It's okay to have a few bugs or glitches, but with the numerous issues I have with the game, I can honestly say Oblivion caused me less grief. Skyrim is amazing most of the time, it isn't a broken game. The main quest is a grand adventure but aside from that, the other stories are dull and unimaginative for the most part. A huge lack of humour and fun, enjoyable quests - as well as a lack of intelligent, challenging puzzles instead of randomly rotating pillars to open a door with a lever. Map markers with little to no RP description of how to get somewhere - I prefer to be given directions and find my own way without the need of an arrow or marker. Much more rewarding. There's plenty more but I don't really care to whine about it, I wanted to just make those few gripes of mine known...

 

Anyway, I think I'll wait till the Modders fix this game before I pick it up again. Oblivion is a refuge for us until that time. Andoran is set to be an epic adventure...

 

My post was a reply to the OP's message. What you are saying is much more constructive and intelligent.

 

 

How about simply not dropping into threads you don't like? It's much easier on your caps lock, the *censored* function and possibly your nerves. Last time I checked, this isn't the "Prawda" where only the latest successes are allowed to be celebrated.

It'd be a nice world if I could do that. But a thread like this one appears every day. As I said to the above quote, the OP's message was not as intelligent and thoughtful as yours.

 

-

 

A lot of people like you two are putting yourselves in the category I am raging at. You are not. While you dislike large amounts of Skyrim, you acknowledge the parts people enjoy. The OP..well..read the post. I don't need to explain it and pick it apart sentence by sentence.

 

I've been very active on this board since September, and every day I come here seeing some irrational post about how GREAT Oblivion is, and how terrible, absolutely horrible, Skyrim is. No-contest, as this OP puts it nicely.

 

They come in here (this board) and post threads that are annoying to me. To them, I am doing the same to their threads.

Edited December 22, 2011 by Stormcrown

[abaris]

 

It'd be a nice world if I could do that. But a thread like this one appears every day. As I said to the above quote, the OP's message was not as intelligent and thoughtful as yours.

 

 

So, don't go there. Period.

 

If I see a thread title where I expect little in ways of enlightenment, I take the liberty to not read what's inside. And that goes for both sides of the spectrum, be it a big fat "sucks" or some obvious hymn to a product as if it was the second coming.

[Y05H1]

Quests, guilds most importantly; Oblivion > Skyrim (I am still livid pissed at the so called 'Thieves Guild' in Skyrim.)

 

Virtually everything else; Oblivion < Skyrim

 

That's my opinion in a nutshell.

[NAPALM13092]

Skyrim surpasses Oblivion in most aspects, most.

 

Skyrim

 

-The world is absolutely jaw dropping. Every single mountain pass, ruin, road, river, waterfall is not only beautiful to look at but seems to be logically placed. Like it should belong there and is not just 'random chunk of scenery #1,758'. Oblivion on the other hand was simply a large river basin filled with nothing but randomly generated forest. There was no sense of adventure or exploration, it was simply a giant canvas for the game to take place in rather than a character in itself.

 

-Every single dungeon has a reason for being there. Whether it be directly tired to a quest or not they all have a story that goes along with them. Whether it be directly from NPC's and journals or a more subtle implied narrative from the set pieces and mobs. Oblivion had a mind numbing number of dungeons but they are all just prefab rooms slapped together with a random enemy list tossed in. No rhyme or reason for any of them to be there other than "Look we have 300 something dungeons!".

 

-Combat goes without saying. It feels much more intense and visceral and at the same time much more tactical. You can really sit there and think about the spells and weapons you will assign to each hand to better tackle a certain opponent. In Oblivion you would just alternate a clunky block and swing combat or backpedal like a Kenyan while you pump rapid fire arrows or lack luster fireballs into targets.

 

-While Skyrim is certainly no Crysis it still looks lightyears ahead of Oblivion when it comes to visuals. The artistic design of the races, weaponry, armor, architecture, etc. seems much more original and authentic compared to the bloated characters, boring copy pasted stone castles, and almost cardboard look of the armaments of Oblivion. The animations and effects in Skyrim are also a vast improvement. Certainly not the best in the industry but the majestic soaring of the dragons, fast and violent combat, and feeling of real power behind the spells and shouts beats the clunky animations and unimpressive spell effects in Oblivion.

 

Oblivion

 

-Magic, while less impressive visually, had much more variety. Before even getting into spell crafting you had hundreds of spells with dozens upon dozens of effects to choose from. You could summon minions from a virtual warehouse full of strange and frightening Daedra and undead, bombard your enemy with dozens of debilitating effects to turn them into a wet sock before you even start throwing fireballs, and craft your own crazy combos to hurl downrange.

 

-Oblivion felt much more populated. I know Skyrim isn't suppose to have the population Cyrodiil does but it still feels too empty. In Skyrim 90% of houses and npcs are tied to some quest and thus are marked essential or require keys to enter. There is no fluff population that serves no purpose other than being casualties, robbery marks, and ambient characters. In Oblivion there were a lot of NPC's of no importance that one could mess around with but Skyrim is sadly very restrictive in who the player can interact with. Oblivion also had many more buildings and additional cells for the player to interact with. While the sewers under the Imperial City only played a part in 2 quest in small portions you still had this massive system of tunnels connected to multiple locations for the player to make their own fun with. In Skyrim if it did not serve some super important function in a quest they didn't bother. There were no sewers, castle dungeons, and non essential residential homes for your assassin or thief to utilize.

 

-Lighting and shadows were much better in Oblivion. Dungeons with non sentient lifeforms in them or were abandoned for thousands of years didn't have magic ever burning candles in them. Rooms had clearly identifiable dark corners and shadows to hide in. Torches, night eye, and light spells were actually useful. Lastly, somehow the shadows were much better in Oblivion visually. I am no expert and do not know why, but even on Ultra the shadows in Skyrim look like they are made of legos and do not transition smoothly with the sun but rather seems to "tick" across the scene every ingame hour.

 

-Quest are kinda toss up. I think the way they are presented and the narrative of them are much better in Skyrim but the guilds are simply too short and lack any serious depth like they had in Oblivion.

 

 

 

Long story short. If Skyrim had the variety and flexibility of Oblivion's magic, the ambient fluff population along with the size of Oblivion's cities, the lighting and shadows of Oblivion, and the more robust guilds of Oblivion on top of all the features it improved on we would have a rock solid game.... or they could just make a Morrowind remake....

Edited December 22, 2011 by NAPALM13092