Months later, the game is still rockin' out on the GameFAQs activity charts, and I'm still playing it too. My first character went through the Dark Brotherhood and Thieves Guild. My new guy is a fighter, and just got done with Fighters Guild and the main story. I'll probably attempt Mages Guild soon, and check out some of the misc stuff and call it quits for a year or two, until some amazing full scale mods get made.
And speaking of mods, I took a refresher course on Morrowind's scene, and I put together the perfect starter batch of visual upgrade mods, and released them all with newbie friendly instructions in an organized fashion. This saves the average person a buttload of time. Check it out here:
I loved both Arena and Daggerfall, but I despised Morrowind so I was leery about Oblivion at first. However, when all the reviews came out and all of the reviewers (Many of whom hated Morrowind as well) ended up loving it, I had to give it a shot.
I put about 65 hours into it before I went ahead and completed the main quest. After that I put it away as I had tons of other games to get to =)
Odd. I think Morrowind's gameplay is better then Oblivion. Morrowind FEELS like a true PC game. Oblivion feels more like a console RPG. Now I mean, Oblivion's idiot proof design is nice for casual play, but it kind of pressures me into speed running through the quests, because there is no reward in actually listening to anyone. But, Morrowind really encouraged you to get to know your NPCs and your town's entire layout. You didn't have some magical green arrow to follow in Morrowind. You had to talk to people to learn directions, then you had to actually follow them. Morrowind didn't have magical fast travel either. You had to know the public transportation routes.
Morrowind was also just plain deeper, and it's world was larger and/or more dense. I'm noticing that as graphics in TES get more advanced, the games are shrinking in scale and becoming more cinematic.
Now while Oblivion looks and sounds better then Morrowind, it's performance is crap, even on my specs. And that's just rediculous, because the game isn't as pretty as some other titles I've installed on here.
You gatta appreciate how Oblivion is 100% voice acted though. Cant imagine how many long days those actors spent on this thing.
Oblivion's a good game, but I think Morrowind should be played first.
I learned long ago that people either love of hate Morrowind and there really isn't much in between. I fall into the latter as do many people I know. Then again, I know tons of people who loved it, including one guy who put in over 200 hours into it (and was always trying to convince me that it was the greatest game ever made).
I personally gave it about 30 hours before quitting it. I tried going back to it right before oblivion came out and got about 10 hours in before I quit as I hated it more than I thought I did heh.
While I love PC games in general (having been playing them for over 15 years), I am not a big fan of most PC RPG's. Mostly due to the fact that I do not like western-style RPG's (KOTOR, Baulder's Gate, NWN, etc..) in general. I have come to realize this is because I have very eastern tastes in RPG's in that I like very linear non-sandbox gameplay.
Oblivion at least gives you a set path if you choose and lets you know what to do and where to go each step of the way. I did a few of the side quests (Mostly the guild quests), then completed the main quest and was happily finished. Sure, there are TONS of other things I can do, but I have no desire to do them all or even 10% of them.
With Morrowind, you get off the boat and then it goes "Have fun!" and doesn't give you any indication what to do. After 30 hours of playing it, I still couldn't tell you why the hell I was playing the game. From discussing it with people, it seems that this is the main reason most people who hate it, hate it and most people who love it, love it.
Either way, I will always hate Morrowind and there are others who will always love it =)
I can understand 200 hours being spent in Morrowind.
Well I am the opposite of you now. I grew up on the Squaresoft shit, and after a decade of that, I've gotten sick of their kindergarden level of challenge. KOTOR came into my life and totally raped everything I knew about the genre, and made me realize that nearly every Japanese RPG had absolutely nothing to do with ROLE PLAYING. They need to be called turn-based adventures.
Um, Morrowind tells you where to go and what to do. Maybe you weren't reading, but virtually every character throws hints to remind you, in case the dozens of storyline NPCs' clear instructions weren't enough. It's very simple. In fact, at the start, you cant even open the first few doors unless you listen to the instructions. Next time don't skip everything. They tell you to go to Balmora and talk to someone, and then he tells you talk to a dude, and he tells you to do a favor, and so on and so on. It operates exactly like Oblivion. But rather then a neon green arrow to guide you, you simply hit your journal up, and remind yourself which town you go to next, then pay for a ride.
You should take Morrowind slowly. Do one quest per day, but be sure to focus on that quest. Talk to everyone related to it. Place yourself in the world. It's more worthwhile.
And I was harsh on Oblivion's performance now that I think about it. Morrowind's performance was equally shitty back in it's day. I forgot that. Throughout the years, I tried playing Morrowind on all of the following computers, and the game ran equally shitty on them all, taking no advantage of their specs:
Now finally on my Athlon64 3700 with Geforce 7600 GT, I can play the game on highest settings, with 4xaa and 16xaf, maintaining 60fps. Bethesda can't code an engine for beans.
Sorry - never going to like Morrowind no matter what people tell me. Remember, I have a friend who was constantly telling me why I was wrong. Doesn't change the fact I hate the game.
I will not debate your comment about JRPG's not being RPG games as that is another agrument I have learned always ends in agree to disagree so that is how I leave it (and will comment no further on it).
You like Western RPG's - I do not. It is as simple as that. I do not say that what you like is wrong, I am simply saying it not what I like =)
Afternoon wasted. Opinion changed. Morrowind is a terrible, broken, ugly game with absolutely no personality or atmosphere, with first person mechanics that feel more dated then Doom.
In another year I'll probably think it's good again. Til the next time...
Havent given Oblivion enough time..but morrowind was pretty good only thing that bothered me about it was that it was too easy to master or at least get very good at every skill if you had enough money to train..kinda ruined the whole rpg expirience for me..that and later on higher levels random monsters just get annoying..i didn know of the mod to remove the cliff racers when i played it:D
But of all tes games Daggerfall is the best in my opinion..might not look so good now but i cant count the hours i spent playing that one.
arion wrote:But of all tes games Daggerfall is the best in my opinion..might not look so good now but i cant count the hours i spent playing that one.
That's what I always hear. Never tried.
I'm ganna get back into Oblivion when I get my new computer in a month. Getting a retail high end system for 1/3rd the price, as long as I type up a professional review for them. I'm ganna incorporate some parts from this current system into the new one and sell the rest that I can't use.
I can't wait to try that oblivion overhaul mod. People are raving about it. Sounds like it changes thousands of things for the better.
