VIDEO Favorite Elder Scrolls Game

Quite frankly, the Elder Scrolls are the Lord of the Rings of RPG gaming. Their open worlds with vast landscapes and intriguing characters have created hundreds (if not thousands) of hours of gameplay per game. The quests, stories, guilds, etc are always carefully planned and masterfully done.

This begs the question: which game was the best? Most people have only planned Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim; I, myself, also fall into that category of people.

My favorite is Oblivion, which is odd considering most people usually say it's the weakest of those three.


First of all, the soundtrack is brilliant. Jeremy Soule *is* the John Williams of video game music, and I would say this is his second best soundtrack (behind Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic).

The story is the most fascinating for me. I love the impending threats that reach into a supernatural world. I love that basically nobody in this game is safe. Our main protagonists are not guaranteed life, and in many instances they will suffer.

I like the color design in this one much better than Skyrim. It could just be personal taste -- I live in the countryside, so I prefer more vibrant, bright colors opposed to gloomy colors.

The guilds, particularly the Dark Brotherhood and the Thieve's Guild, are epic in this game. Much better than their Skyrim counterparts (in my opinion).

What is your favorite game in the Elder Scrolls saga? Do you embrace the newer generation games, or do you prefer the older ones?

 

Okay ... so far I played them all, barring the handheld/mobile and MMO versions, and I liked them all: Arena, Daggerfall, Morrowind, Battlespire, Redguard, Oblivion and Skyrim. Now to what I liked and what I didn't like about them - difficult to say which one is my favorite ...

Arena: I liked the vast world (all of Tamriel IIRC ... it's been a while since I last played it). I also liked the 'boss fight' gainst Jagar Tharn which wasn't a real fight at all, thus each type of character had the chance of winning. I really liked the way you could work with spell combinations - my favorite character might have been called 'the invisible, wall-tunneling, lock-picking fireball thrower'. What i didn't really like were that all races looked alike, apart from the skin color. I also didn't like outdoor regions much because it was impossible to actually reach a place by walking.

Daggerfall: I sank so many hours into this game - my first play-through took me roughly 8 months. The Iliac Bay wasn't as vast a region to explore as Arena's Tamriel, but areas were better designed and more fun to walk through. There were actual seasons, a parent lock, you could acquire houses and ships to live in/on, and I really, really loved the detailed paperdoll (just the female Dunmer was, alas, a bit off). The bugs were annoying, yet the Gold version came with a 20 MB bugfixing patch that took care of many of them (and it unlocked debugging keys so you could work around the bugs that weren't fixed). To this day I believe that the mysterious disappearance of the Dwemer was the result of the holes in the world I so often fell through (and to my death) before I learned of the debugging keys . Oh yes, and the werebeasting mechanism was nicely implemented.

Battlespire: Many gamers happen to hate this game dur to its bugs and its 'small' gaming area, (it should have been an add-on to Daggerfall but finally became a stand-alone game), but I love it - it gave a detailed explanation of and introduction to Oblivion, the place where Daedra happen to live. Not sure if it introduced my friends the Dremora and Dark Seducers, but the Xivilai definitely appeared there for the first time. It also made me fall in love with Mehrunes Dagon's sleazy, utterly charming and clever Grand Vizier . A pity that he didn't appear in Oblivion (the game), but after what he did to Prince Dagon that's not very surprising, isn't it...

Redguard: Not an RPG but a third-person and true 3D action-adventure, Redguard told the story of pirate Cyrus and the occupation of Stros M'kai by the (Cyrodiil) Empire. With its beautiful day/night cycles and architecture Redguard looked and felt like a proto-Morrowind, if less detailed (and less weird). I didn't like the third-person only view, however, and the game was difficult at a 'do something out of sequence and you're doomed without knowing it' level. Another aspect I didn't like that much: The version of Khajiit it introduced. Redguard replaced the slightly Elvish looking Ohmes-Raht Khajiit by the cat-headed races also seen in the later games.

Morrowind: I spent fifteen months on my first playthrough with the game itself and both expansions (Tribunal and Bloodmoon, respectively). In its eerie, outlandish way, Morrowind was incredibly beautiful (and reminded me of Star Wars, sort of). Though the only areas to explore are Vvardenfell, Mournhold and Solstheim, the game's size is epic. Many people mod the heck out of Morrowind just to make the characters prettier, but the weirdness was exactly what made that game so special IMO. I found it a pity that they had dumped the instant teleportation system for a much more restricting mix of public transit and spellcasting, but, to be true, jogging through the ashlands for hours (in real time), trying to herd a stupid AI NPC to a certain place was part of the game's charm after all. The best thing in all of Morrowind IMO: Building (and annexing) houses. And better still: Portable light sources. Afraid you won't find your house when you return in the middle of the night? Just line the roof with stolen candles and lanterns . A dream for hobbyist interior decorators.

Oblivion: To be true, while I liked the game for its lore and the return to the topic from Battlespire, there were several aspects I didn't like all that much. The visuals: Too smooth, too generic, too Medieval Fantasy for my taste - especially after outlandish Morrowind and its strange cultures and vistas. The Imperials? Not Roman enough. All Redguards are robbers? Puhleeeease... and interestingly enough, the return of the insta-teleport made the game seem small, even though the actual gaming area (Cyrodiil and its border areas) was said to be bigger in size than Morrowind's. The game, however, redeemed itself at least a bit by its second add-on 'Shivering Isles'! While just as eye-candy beautiful as the vanilla game, 'Isles' added the weirdness back into the gaming experience, you got to know a lot about Dark Seducers and Golden Saints, plus it told a great story ...

Skyrim: Skyrim did many things right IMO by combining the strong points of Morrowind and Oblivion into one vast game with beautiful, yet slightly weird graphics. While I'm not too fond of Nords in particular, having the Romanesque Imperials of Morrowind times back made me love the game ... and then I'm a sucker for Remembrance Dungeons (a reference to Lands of Lore, by the way ), and one of the add-ons covers my beloved Solstheim (of Bloodmoon fame). The best of the DLC packs, however, is Hearthfire which lets you adopt children and pets and build your own homes.

 

I got introduced to The Elder Scrolls by all of the positive reaction Skyrim had been receiving since it was released, so I simply had to see what all of the fuss was about. Skyrim is the unfortunately the only one I have played.

 

This is not the correct tag. I wish gamers weren't such n00bs that they think CRPG = RPG. Since there is no pen and paper Elder Scrolls game, my favourite tabletop depends on the era. Pathfinder for fantasy, GURPS for military, Spycraft 2.0 for espionage and WEG for Star Wars.

 

P&p? Give me WEG's Star Wars any time. Simple enough rules to get even the kids interested. Apart from that, my favorites are Traveller, Twilight:2000/Merc:2000, Dark Conspiracy, Fading Suns and (of course) Justifiers .

 

Morrowind was my first ES experience, and I didn't really care for it at the time. But then a few years later I got Oblivion packaged with an Xbox 360 I bought, and I figured what the hell, I'll give it a try. And I absolutely loved Oblivion. I played it so much that my disc got too badly damaged and I had to buy a second copy. And then when I went back to try Morrowind again, I found it much more enjoyable (long load times and ugly character design notwithstanding).

And so naturally I eagerly anticipated Skyrim's release. The visuals and gameplay are much more engaging this time around. It's just a shame that the Mages Guild and Companions storylines are so bland.

 

I've only played Skyrim. I tried Oblivion for all of an hour and just couldn't get into it.

 

The Companions and College of Winterhold are probably my favorite part of the game, especially the Companions, outside of the main quest. Though that's not to say I don't like the Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood, like them a lot, but I do wish The Dark Brotherhood Forever didn't clutter the journal and was instead only activated by approaching the Night Mother. The Civil War has a lot of potential, but it ends up being a little repetitive. I can see so many possibilities with the Dawnguard main quest, though its a shame that Dawnguard is somewhat bugged. The Dragonborn main quest and the beautiful island of Solstheim look extremely promising, but I am saving them to be my end game, since they are clearly intended for level 60 characters.

 

I prefer Oblivion to Skyrim, but only just.The soundtrack for all the ES games are also sublime.

There are also a whole bunch of modders recreating both Morrowind and Oblivion using Skyrims engine. Here's the link. http://tesrenewal.com/

Skywind - +

Skyblivion - +

Quite awesome really.

 

I've actually only played Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim so I can't say about the earlier games. Of the ones I've played, Skyrim easily ranks #1, followed by Oblivion, and then closely followed by Morrowind. Having said that, it was hard for me to pick between Oblivion and Morrowind for the #2 slot because they each have qualities that make them better than the other. In the end, I had more fun with Oblivion so that's why I chose it.

I look forward to seeing what they come up with for TES 6. I'm hoping for them to have it take place on the Summerset Aisles.

 

Skyrim. Skyrim is the only ES game I play. Now I was just thinking a couple days ago. Imagine Star Wars game made by Bethesda. Oh my.. That would be amazing. All the Star Wars mods work perfectly with the game. If they could make this for free roam, quests, just like the movies and shows. Third and First perspective capabilities. This would be a game of the year for sure! Other planets, vehicles, different creatures. That would be insane! Cost a lot so it'd take time. But I'd support it and donate! It'd most likely be for PC if this ever did happen. Only a PC would be able to give enough power for a game like that.

 

Unfortunately I've only played Oblivion and Skyrim… I personally enjoy Oblivion more because it's the first ES game I played, and consumed a lot of my soul back in college. Arguably though, Skyrim is a better game all around (I think we can agree on that), but I prefer the land of Cyrodil over Skyrim, and also the soundtrack and how it makes me feel more adventurous and medieval, as opposed to cold epic. Does that make sense? Music plays a huge part, haha. I've resulted to putting the Oblivion OST on my Xbox and letting that run while I play Skyrim.

 

Skyrim is my favorite followed by Morrowind.

I will say that Morrowind has the BEST soundtrack out of all the Elder Scrolls games. Its just sooooo enchanting and beautiful.

 

My favourite is Morrowind, especially with Tamriel Rebuilt. Dawnguard and Dragonborn were also really good and my favourite expansions.

 

All are really fun in a lot of ways, but I prefer Oblivion because of its Dark Brotherhood questline. It was so much fun to go through, and extremely depressing once I realised that Lucius (was that his name?) was killed. He was like a father figure to ol' Malvoro.

 

Morrowind followed by Skyrim.

 

Elder Scrolls Online is my favorite by far, simply due to being a MMO. And having couple more qualities I like, great community & sieges & PvP and all that stuff.

 

Skyrim was the easily the best. But I found myself having to avoid anything related to sneak or enchanting weapons do to the over powered nature they present. I was a loud in your face player..I died a lot and that was fun. I've never been end game type of gamer, I prefer the journey myself.

 

I've only played Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim. Oblivion is my favorite. I thought it had the best story of the three, awesome ending and I just liked the setting more. Skryim was great, but the setting is so desolate and the story wasn't as great in my opinion.

 

Has anyone here played the new 15.12 release of Tamriel Rebuilt for Morrowind?

The city of Alamalexia, while temporary and lacking interiors, is still an incredible creation. Numerous districts, stunning architecture.

It's amazing.

Plus the rest of the Morrowind Province is astonishingly detailed and fun to explore.

 

Morrowind is my favorite in terms of story, Daggerfall and Arena were both a lot of fun but I never finished them and will never revisit them... I loved that you could scale walls in Daggerfall, that's something missing from the other games. Oblivion had a great potion and spell making system, and once modded to get rid of the pudding faces was pretty good. Skyrim was a total let down because of how they dumbed down so many gameplay elements and then gave it a crappy iPhone interface, hardcoded key bindings, cookie cutter dungeons, and generally just hosed it by making it little more than a bad console port.

Morrowind gets my vote. It was so alien and immersive, the story was the best of them all, and every little location was obviously hand built with an effort to make each one unique. They don't make games like that anymore.