So what's your new favorite TES game?

[Johnny the Mule]

They are all fucking shit as are fleshbags who love this pool of sick. Just so you know.

 

[Serious_Business]

Skyrim is fucking sweet. I voted first choice because it eclipses all the other shit games

Fuck yeah man. What up rpg codex!!

 

[Excidium]

Disappointed Skyrim isn't winning. You people are no fun.

 

[mugarod]

First TES for me was Morrowind which was very hyped at the time of release as the return of the best rpg series evar, and since I was fairly new to the genre (first rpgs were Fallout 1 and 2, Planescape, Baldur's Gate 2) I was curious to see a first person rpg which suppose to be a greatest thing evar. Was impressed by graphics for first few hours but then the game became boring to me. The combat wasnt satisfying, monologues were boring, constand loading screens, no choices. It was very different from rpgs that I liked before this and I had hard time keeping interest on playing the game. I gave up after maybe 10-15 hours or so and then finished it years later just so I can say I finished it.
Next I tried Daggerfall since it seemed a lot of people who didnt like Morrowind said that Daggerfall was amazing and that every rpg fan should try it. So sure why not. I got out of first dungeon walked through few cities did few quests and realized its more of the same shit but with crap graphics, everything is even more monotone because its now randomized to infinity and quests and npcs are now even more bland. So I gave up on taht as well without ever going back to it since it seemed like I will have to devote a lot of time to finish something I have no interest in.
Since Arena was basically the same as Daggerfall with less things in it I have never had interest in trying it.
Then there was hype for Oblivion and they promissed improved combat npcs with good stories, amazing world to explore. Same shit as morrowind but now even more boring and everyone seemed to love it which I still cant undestand.

Watched few videos for Skyrim and it looks like prepped up Oblivion and since I didnt enjoy a single TES game I think I am done trying them out.

Also I cant say that I hate TES series I just find them very boring, they might seem fun for first few hours when the world is fresh but once you start seeing mechanics of the game world it becomes shallow somehow.

 

[Bruticis]

Daggerfall, bitches. Game is epic huge and you can spend two days in a dungeon and not finish it (granted, this wasn't always a plus). It's probably nostalgia talking but I spent so much time on that game when it came out. Lot's of nice little touches too, didn't gold even have weight and you could trade it in for bank notes?

 

[CrazyLoon]

I have only played Morrowind and Oblivion, and needless to say, Morrowind is the better one out of the two. What a horrible experience I had with Oblivion. With that being said, Morrowind is still not good game, it's just the best out of the bunch. I'll definitely play Daggerfall some day though.

 

[baronjohn]

Things that are better in Skyrim than Morrowind:

- animation
- special effects
- landscapes, while not better from a 'game perspective', allow for more spectacular screenshots
- FP UI fades out when you have full health/stamina/magicka
- staves are items that channel magic, instead of being blunt weapons
- dual wield

Other than these comparatively minor things, it does everything else worse. The art feels more generic and commercialized, the guilds are shit, the dungeons feel formulaic, gameplay is dumbed down, etc.

So everyone who voted for Skyrim, thanks for being part of the decline.

 

[Conkrete Knight]

Also looking at the artbook from Morrowind is looking at failed opportunities.

Then you run a mod that tries to open up Vivec on *modern* machine and understand the reasons for them being *failed* opportunities.

That was more ment in regards to Oblivion and its bland direction, although Vivec as it was originally envisioned would have been glorious (and laggy).

Also, I had a experience similar to mugarod, bought Morrowind expexting something like Baldurs Gate 2

 

[ChristofferC]

I could never get into Morrowind. Voted Skyrim.

 

[Gregz]

Morrowind, then Daggerfall, then Skyrim.

Morrowind will always be my first love. Daggerfall is a great flawed gem. Skyrim is a fun theme park that has potential to be extensively renovated into something pretty great.

Good post.

 

[Grunker]

Actually, I wouldn't describe dual-wielding as minor. It pretty much single-handedly makes battle-mage viable, something I found tedious to play in Oblivion and my brief touch with Morrowind.

Besides that, can't comment because as I said I don't know much about TES.

 

[Turjan]

I voted for Morrowind. Skyrim looks nice and does a lot things better, but the quests got quite a bit derpier. I'm no Oblivion fan. I find Daggerfall oddly fascinating, but the huge amount of randomly generated content makes for a game challenge that always felt so obviously artificial to me. That's a pity, actually, as Daggerfall has some otherwise cool content in this vast mess of randomness.

Also looking at the artbook from Morrowind is looking at failed opportunities.

Then you run a mod that tries to open up Vivec on *modern* machine and understand the reasons for them being *failed* opportunities.

I made such a mod myself. I had 5 fps or somesuch. The engine is horrible and pretty resistant to processor improvements.

It's kind of funny to think that Morrowind is actually much smaller than the other games. Walking speed is just slower, giving a sense of scale to the world, but the world itself is probably about 1/3 the size of Oblivion or Skyrim.

I don't know about Skyrim, but there was a comparison revealing that Oblivion is only marginally larger than Morrowind in terms of raw landmass area. Now consider the z-axis, water exploration and the fact that average path between two locations is many times longer, while the only tool to measure the size of the world from within the game is path length between locations.

The map style had much to do with it. If you look at the road map, you can see why many paths look much longer than they need to be. But Morrowind depended on the fog to keep the illusion of size, so I don't think a modern game can easily reproduce this particular effect, but has to go the way of increasing the game map size in order to achieve something like this.

 

[DraQ]

Morrowind might be a bit bigger than I say it is there, but the number of actual locations on the map is much smaller. There are fewer random dungeons

Sorry, but you're just wrong.

About 312 different dungeons and dungeon-like locations (abandoned strongholds, daedric shrines, dwemer ruins, caves, mines, velothi towers, tombs, etc.) in Morrowind (not counting shipwrecks), 229 in oblivious (that's with DLC specific locations, no expansions).

No contest here, those numbers are not even close.

Notable outdoor landmarks are also more numerous in Morrowind.
Whatever content you consider apart from VOs, Morrowind has more than failblivion.

there's less distance between locations

In straight line sure - more locations, slightly less area, but in terms of path actually travelled you have to walk or run several times further to get somewhere and since you don't perceive area but you do perceive distance travelled, Morrowind seems much larger than oblivious.
Being able to just levitate, hop over mountain ranges (with help of magic) or climb them (in mundane manner) and go in straight lines is a late-game privilege and only helps reinforce your sense of badassery.

(play with the fog disabled and distant land, and you'll realize this)

That's why my distant land and fog distance are carefully tailored to maintain the illusion.

Part of it is also the quest compass. In Skyrim and Oblivion, you rarely spend time looking around because you always know exactly where to go. In Morrowind, meanwhile, with vague directions you have to figure out how to get to a place yourself, which can take quite a bit of time, but it's always much more rewarding to see the rooftops of a settlement over a ridge as you approach. That exploring that's a fundamental part of gameplay, rather than just an optional one, really helps to sell the size of the world and makes much better use of it, even if ultimately it's not as big as it seems. This is ultimately why I hate quest markers, arrows and so on - the level design and world design should be able to help the player find his or her way, not a bunch of pop-ups; without them there's no reason to make those big, sprawling environments in the first place.[/quote]

Morrowind depended on the fog to keep the illusion of size, so I don't think a modern game can easily reproduce this particular effect, but has to go the way of increasing the game map size in order to achieve something like this.

It's trivial actually - you can depend on terrain barriers limiting the visibility instead.

Plus there are ways to put in both fog and distant detail, for example my Morrowind has fog distance only slightly longer than default, but does draw terrain much further, resulting in outlines of distant features being visible nearly at all times.

Actually, I wouldn't describe dual-wielding as minor. It pretty much single-handedly makes battle-mage viable, something I found tedious to play in Oblivion and my brief touch with Morrowind.

Besides that, can't comment because as I said I don't know much about TES.

Except if you just want to use weapon and spell simultaneously you can already do it in oblivious, so I don't see how dual wielding makes any difference.

Battlemaging or generally using spells was vastly more interesting in Morrowind anyway, because of the way composite spells worked, and about 3s casting animation only helped make the difference between swinging your axe and your fireball.
There is an optional change in MCP that allows you to cast with weapon drawn too (really helps the immersion if you're casting from enchanted weapon or shield).

How is Morrowind generic?

No trees
Brown

I don't know, but here where I live we have green grass, trees and deer, while brown, towering mushrooms, cliffracers and giant arthropods would be considered fairly exotic.

- staves are items that channel magic, instead of being blunt weapons

They could be both in Morrowind.

 

[OSK]

Morrowind.

I actually just beat the main quest yesterday. Despite owning them for years, I never played the expansions so I'll start those next weekend.

 

[JrK]

Skyrim made me realize how great Morrowind is.

 

[hydd]

Morrowind by a long shot. Picked up Skyrim on launch date and have hardly played it since the initial "new game" rush ceased.

Oh, and Oblivion is a goddamn joke.

 

[Surf Solar]

I voted "I hate TES" even though technically it is not true. It is just the general style these games are played (hiking, First Person, etc) that I don't like, I for some reason always prefer tilebased isometric perspectives - but I realize this would go against the very nature of these games. The lore I find quite lacking in some aspects, while others are well done (I somewhere read that the whole Tamriel etc is just some kind of "dream" ((?)) )

The only TES game I enjoyed for some hours as an RPG was Morrowind, it was fun to explore the land without questmarkers, how I could develop my character in so many possibilities, many items and so on. The landscape and the entire land was truelyy fantastic, one of the few games where you really feel like in some strange and alien land. But eventually the clumsy playstyle (FPS) overwhelmed me and I never finished it... I played Skyrim too, but here's the same problem while the game lacks even more in RPG aspects.


So that makes my vote "hate" TES, but like Morrowind somehow.

 

[Mayday]

After some consideration, I voted Morrowind.

Combat was shitty. In Skyrim it's also shitty, just for less reasons. Balance is equally shitty in both. Dialogues... hmm, acceptable to me (though barely!).
But the atmosphere is much better in Morrowind. And in a game which has exploration as its strongest part, that's what counts.

Though I must say Skyrim is fucking beautiful.

 

[Demnogonis Saastuttaja]

All of them are broken and suffer from the fact that finishing quests is pretty much pointless - and they are full of filler quests. Yeah thanks for the 500 for the menial task, I'll start stabbing you now.

Maybe I had the most fun with Morrowind, because it had the most fun exploits. Taunt & murder, steal everything and then sell them to the mudcrab, break the game with ridiculous super-items, kill everyone and then quit. Skyrim was fun for a while, too, but it's also a game where you could play without ever finishing a single quest, just steal and make iron daggers. Then what? Dunno, start killing villagers or something. Does it matter? If you need to level your swordery, best start hitting some horses, buggers have a lot of HP.

Of course you could do them to advance the story, about which you probably don't care all that much about.

Dunno. Maybe Skyrim, at least it seems like they tried.

 

[fizzelopeguss]

Skyrims fundamentals are what morrowind laid down back in 2002. oblivion=morrowind with downs syndrome, FO3=morrowind with crappy guns, skyrim=morrowinds bloodmoon...with dragons.

After redguard and battlespire tanked morrowind was actually quite a ballsy move, and it deserved all its success. Bethesda's been coasting it ever since.

 

[Fatty]

Morrowind, although Daggerfall was closer to "greatness" if only they could have taken the next few steps in its evolution over the next few games.

 

[Wyrmlord]

So everyone who voted for Skyrim, thanks for being part of the decline.

Apparently, voting for Morrowind on an internet poll will automatically make general quality of games incline.

 

[Jaesun]

I'm still waiting for a response on what made Morrowind so great.

At the time it was really fucking pretty. That's pretty much it.

 

[Fatty]

I'm still waiting for a response on what made Morrowind so great.

I had fun collecting shit ::shrugs::

Doesn't have to be great to be the best TES

Edit: I somewhat enjoyed the alchemy system also. Collecting even more shit and mashing it together to make more better shit.

 

[Ituhippi]

I'm still waiting for a response on what made Morrowind so great.

At the time it was really fucking pretty. That's pretty much it.

Mudcrabs.

 

[Heresiarch]

Voted for Daggerfall even though I think I enjoy Skyrim the most.

To me, DF is something really special not only at more than a decade ago, but also today. It is probably the only one true medieval GTA game and the game with the biggest world size scaling ever. And the most atmospheric music of all TES.

Strangely enough, Skyrim really gives me some DF vibes. One reason is its stupid radiant quest system, giving you random dungeon names to fetch random quest items, which is the same thing as DF side quests do. The world of Skyrim is also better crafted than all of them.

Unfortunately Skyrim sucks in the small and not-so-small details part. For example, the monsters variety in Skyrim is much less than all the others. And there is so little spells and no spell making. Having the stats gone at first gave me a massive facepalm but soon I realize the perk system is actually quite interesting. Although I wish the stats still remained.

Morrowind is great too, but for me the game feel boring fast, maybe due to the general slowless of movement, awkward combat, weaksauce magic, or having the most sleep inducing soundtrack of all.