The Elder Scrolls

[ManMachine]

Tonight I finally finished the last of the stand-alone Elder Scrolls Games.

I did a bit of a George Lucas with them;

Began with TES III - Morrowind, good game but has a few quest glitches, unfortunately one of them can mess up the main quest and render the game impossible to finish. Despite two false starts (one due to the main quest glitch) I finished it.

Then played TES IV - Oblivion, had no problems with this one, played it all the way through twice. Great Game.

TES V - Skyrim, truly amazing game, massive world to muck about in and no main quest glitches. Played to completion once. Amazing game!

Then back to TES I - Arena, for it's age this is a very playable game. There is quite a lot of repetition but no really bad glitches or bugs. The end was way too easy though, bit of a disappointment. Difficult to get going in the early stages but eventually comes good.

TES II - Daggerfall, this is game bug and glitch hell. I spent more time working out how to get around the bugs and glitches than I actually did playing the game. Serious problems with the main quest, I had to keep patching, uninstalling, going back on myself reinstalling, it just went on and on but tonight I finally completed it. The end level is more of a puzzle than a dungeon (if you are of a high enough level). I will definitely not be playing this one again.

Now I've finally completed all the stand-alone games, tomorrow I start TES - Online... assuming I get some free time...

MM

[No_God]

I LOVE TES.

maybe too much...

[The Valkyrie]

I loved/love SkyRim.

Oblivion was also enjoyable.

Couldn't play Morrowind much - kept crashing and didn't really bother with it after that.

[Napoléon]

Never played Arena, played a bit of Daggerfall, quite entertaining for its age. Ridiculous map though.

I never played Morrowind when it first came out so my first playthrough of that didn't impress me with gameplay or graphics. Bloody fantastic world though, I never completed the main quest but did a fair bit of other shit.

Oblivion is the one I have fondest memories of, so many quests in this game have character. Might not be the best game ever made technically, but it's one of the most memorable and charming games ever made IMO.

Then there's Skyrim. I've logged over 600 hours on this beast of a game, I'm actually surprised I don't rank it higher compared to other games considering just how much I've played it. But even with all those hours, I dunno, it just feels like something is missing. Don't get me wrong, it's a fantastic game and well worth every penny, but I just think, considering how much it was hyped, and what it really could be, it doesn't quite hit the 10/10 mark for me.

I'd give Oblivion the same score as Skyrim, hell, looking at it objectively I think Skyrim is probably the better game all things considered. But for some reason I don't look back at all my hours in Skyrim and value each and every hour. A lot of it just feels like a slog to get to the finish of a questline. A large amount of it is probably not that enjoyable in comparison. Or maybe it's just because Skryim didn't have Sean Bean's voice in it.

I have to go with Oblivion.


My 2 cents


*edit* Oh, and I won't be going near Elder Scrolls online with a 100 ft pole.

[Jackalope]

I'm not sure I can pick just one.

Arena / Daggerfall - have not played, though I have both.

Morrowind: despite it's age, it's still playable today. Yes, there are some bad quest bugs, and some *very* abusable game dynamics, but despite logging many hundreds of hours across multiple playthroughs, I'm certain there are things I haven't discovered. I sincerely hope the port to the Skyrim engine comes to fruition. I play it again regardless.

Oblivion: Fewer broken quests, and many of the abusable elements of TES3 were addressed - but I really missed the flexibility of spell creation and enchanting of TES3. I've logged far fewer hours on this than TES3 and TES5. Graphically beautiful, but somewhat lacking in quest content compared to TES3.

Skyrim: I've played nearly 700 hours in Skyrim, but there are still some things that fall flat. Graphically beautiful, lots of quest content (albeit some bugged) and I do like the new classless character model. The DLC is a bit lacking - I still haven't played through all of it (I'm about over vampires, and Solstheim seems like a reboot). Skyrim got it right by giving each town a unique flavor and political bent. I like that you can't just bribe someone that doesn't like you as you could in earlier versions - in morrowind a negative disposition was rarely a problem if you had coin and coin wasn't exactly hard to come by in mid- to late-game.

One thing I do not like - Skyrim is "dumbed down" a bit for the console interface. In TES3, you *had* to read the dialogue, your quest log, and some of the books you found for clues. There was a sense of exploration missing from later games. Despite it's other flaws, that's something that made Morrowind great - you actually had to LOOK for things (e.g. that damn Dwemer puzzle box!)

[Sejanus]

I agree with what's been said above about Skyrim, it was good but lacking in some un-finger-puttable-on way. Oblivion has to be my favourite, I had so much fun in that game, and good memories playing it with friends. (started characters at the same time in the same room on different computers)

[ManMachine]

I suppose on reflection and reading through your replies, I found the gameplay in Morrowind to be very compelling, I enjoyed the side quests as much as the main quest. Skyrim is pretty, it's immersive in it's aesthetic, I really enjoyed just playing in the environment but the gameplay is flat.

One thing I did notice is that when playing Morrowind I didn't notice the travel half as much as I did in Oblivion and Skyrim, where I got the feeling I was off to some far-flung corner of the world for no reason other than to provide an opportunity to marvel at the wonder that is Bethesda's digital world.

In Morrowind the journey always seemed necessary, the plot behind the story and how it was aligned to the various factions in the game had a certain authenticity. Also the addition of quasi-aboriginal tribes with strong links to the landscape and who spoke about certain geographical locations in anthropomorphic terms really added depth and richness to the world. I totally brought into that.

Yeah, bugs aside (which have been largely fixed in the TES Anthology version) Morrowind was my favourite gameplay experience.

MM

[Napoléon]

I think the main issue I have with Skyrim is that once you finish a questline for a certain faction, it's like, well, what the fuck do you really get out of it. It's the one thing that's always bugged me with Elder Scrolls games. There doesn't always feel like any real consequences on the world you're playing in. Daft as it sounds I think Oblivion did a better job at making you feel like part of something when you joined a guild or faction. For me, I got more of a sense that I had to 'work my way up' so to speak. Skyrim's questlines, the companions especially, feels like you're rushed through it. The dark brotherhood and the thieves guild are the two best questlines skyrim has but when you finish them both you're just left with generic pointless quests to complete afterwards. The thieves guild is quite good in that you can 'restore' the guild, but I had absolutely no motivation to do so after hours upon hours of completing generic quests in the first place. Also, are there really any rewards you've got at the end of a questline in skyrim that make you go "damn, that was worth it". Not really. The nightingale armor from the thieves guild is about as good as it gets.

[ManMachine]

I think the main issue I have with Skyrim is that once you finish a questline for a certain faction, it's like, well, what the fuck do you really get out of it. It's the one thing that's always bugged me with Elder Scrolls games. There doesn't always feel like any real consequences on the world you're playing in. Daft as it sounds I think Oblivion did a better job at making you feel like part of something when you joined a guild or faction. For me, I got more of a sense that I had to 'work my way up' so to speak. Skyrim's questlines, the companions especially, feels like you're rushed through it. The dark brotherhood and the thieves guild are the two best questlines skyrim has but when you finish them both you're just left with generic pointless quests to complete afterwards. The thieves guild is quite good in that you can 'restore' the guild, but I had absolutely no motivation to do so after hours upon hours of completing generic quests in the first place. Also, are there really any rewards you've got at the end of a questline in skyrim that make you go "damn, that was worth it". Not really. The nightingale armor from the thieves guild is about as good as it gets.

Totally agree. The Dark Brotherhood and thieves quests in Skyrim were excellent and the black horse with the glowing red eyes (can't remember his/her name) I got as well, matched my red nightingale armour. Also

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there's something slightly Hitchcock about being mother's favourite in the DB quests.

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I was dead against TES- Online, like yourself, but I caved last week. I'll probably set it up on my PC over this weekend, I'll let you know how it goes and what it's like.

MM

[Napoléon]

I've watched enough reviews to know it's not for me. Angry joe especially spent a couple hours describing why it fails.

The whole idea of making TES online defeats what previous games were all about IMO.