Also ES has some of the best, deep, insane lore. The series is at its worst when it tries to be grounded.
Even Skyrim ends with you going to the afterlife to gather aid from the dead and fight the embodiment of the cyclical nature of time by imposing the concept of mortality on it. And somehow that was a bog standard dragon fight.
Even Skyrim wasn’t bad. I put like a thousand hours into it. It’s just not exactly what I’d call “ultimate”.
Oblivion was good. It’s dated at this point and like Morrowind combat is not comparable to say Elden Ring. Oblivion solves the whole open world (as in OpenCities) thing in mods, but Morrowind has it to start with. Which is why I think Morrowind is the closest the series has been to my ideal.
Morrowind was the first of the ES series where they drastically reduced the area but invested more in the content in that area. It had a unique art style and location. It kept most of the complexity of the prior games in the series, while subsequent games heavily simplified things to cater to console gamers. There are a lot of babies that were thrown out with the bathwater after Morrowind. Of course the later games also added a lot of improvements, but I think for its time, Morrowind was a very good game. It depends on preferences, but I would consider it the best game of the ES series relative to when it was launched.
Fair enough. I loved it. Had never played a game like that. I was definitely under the impression that these were mostly PC games. I had a lot of fun with Morrowind and played oblivion a bit too. I didn’t see a ton of difference in them. Then Skyrim for me was absolutely incredible. Besides the bugs (which I barely ever saw myself) I didn’t see a single reason people talked so much smack about that game.
Rather than saying it’s better than say Oblivion, I’m saying it’s closest (among the ES games) to being what I’d want out of an “ultimate” ES game. Oblivion has mods that fix its bixest shortcoming (OpenCities and various magic mods) but I’m not inclined to give Bethesda credit for the work of modders.
Unless they’ve made some major engine changes… I feel like it’s going to be hard to top games like BG3, Elden Ring, or even Breath of the Wild.
BG3 has the deep story and npcs. Elden Ring has the emphasis on combat. Breath of the Wild freeform exploration.
Yes, I want a game that combines all of those and in the ES series the closest was probably Morrowind (combat being perhaps the most notable lack.)
Also ES has some of the best, deep, insane lore. The series is at its worst when it tries to be grounded.
Even Skyrim ends with you going to the afterlife to gather aid from the dead and fight the embodiment of the cyclical nature of time by imposing the concept of mortality on it. And somehow that was a bog standard dragon fight.
Oblivion was fantastic too I think. Things started going seriously downhill with Skyrim, at least that is what I think.
Even Skyrim wasn’t bad. I put like a thousand hours into it. It’s just not exactly what I’d call “ultimate”.
Oblivion was good. It’s dated at this point and like Morrowind combat is not comparable to say Elden Ring. Oblivion solves the whole open world (as in OpenCities) thing in mods, but Morrowind has it to start with. Which is why I think Morrowind is the closest the series has been to my ideal.
Morrowind is older than many in this thread. It was a great game but I really don’t understand why people think it was way better than its sequels.
Morrowind was the first of the ES series where they drastically reduced the area but invested more in the content in that area. It had a unique art style and location. It kept most of the complexity of the prior games in the series, while subsequent games heavily simplified things to cater to console gamers. There are a lot of babies that were thrown out with the bathwater after Morrowind. Of course the later games also added a lot of improvements, but I think for its time, Morrowind was a very good game. It depends on preferences, but I would consider it the best game of the ES series relative to when it was launched.
Fair enough. I loved it. Had never played a game like that. I was definitely under the impression that these were mostly PC games. I had a lot of fun with Morrowind and played oblivion a bit too. I didn’t see a ton of difference in them. Then Skyrim for me was absolutely incredible. Besides the bugs (which I barely ever saw myself) I didn’t see a single reason people talked so much smack about that game.
Because it is.
Left click on zombie has better graphics, and that’s it.
Rather than saying it’s better than say Oblivion, I’m saying it’s closest (among the ES games) to being what I’d want out of an “ultimate” ES game. Oblivion has mods that fix its bixest shortcoming (OpenCities and various magic mods) but I’m not inclined to give Bethesda credit for the work of modders.