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Now that Skyrim has been out for six months I think many games have a fairly concrete opinion on it. So far, with, 30 hours invested (in comparison to an estimated 200 for Morrowind, 50-100 for Oblivion, and only 20-30 for Daggerfall), I would rate it as second only to Morrowind.

Skyrim has improved massively on the series in several ways.

1) Improved combat. Greatly improved over Morrowind and Oblivion. The days of auto best attack (Chop/Slash/Stab) are over. Depending on the difficulty level, you are forced to be fairly strategic as to your use of power attacks, blocks, etc.
2) Dual wielding. The ability to wield a weapon and spell in Oblivion was a HUGE improvement over prior TES games. As such the ability to dual wield weapons or spells is naturally an improvement over Oblivion.
3) Voice acting. The voice acting isn't on par with the Witcher series or most of Bioware's work, but it is much better than it was in Oblivion.
4) Crafting. Excellent crafting system. Room for improvement is probably limited by resources and technology.
6) Storyline. Not on par with Morrowind's MQ, but better than Oblivions.
6) Models and animation. Oblivion should be infamous for having laughably ugly and distorted models if it already isn't. Skyrim has excellent models and animations even without mods, arguably the best out of any of the 3D TES games in comparison to their contemporaries.

All in all, Skyrim is a massively superior game to Oblivion in virtually ever way, but it still falls slightly short of Morrowind IMO.

1) Morrowind has a more in depth and detailed world. There are more factions, requiring at least three characters to experience everything. Morrowind's factions have more quests and more detailed factions. Morrowind has a better (subjective, of course) main quest. I do though, seriously doubt, that any TES fan would place Skyrim's MQ ahead of Morrowind's or Daggerfall's. Daggerfall's main quest featured an incredible ending and Morrowind's MQ was just rock solid through and through.
2) Morrowind's world is arguably the most creative and fascinating fantasy world ever seen in a video game. It is (imo) the most fantastic and beautiful setting I have ever seen in any RPG, even considering how dated it's graphics have become. The beauty of the various faction territories, Vivec, and Red Mountain can not be understated. The setting alone makes at least one play through of the MQ mandatory for any fan of RPGs.
3) As an RPG Morrowind arguably offers more choices. Granted Skyrim arguably offers more combat and talent choices, but I still feel as if there is a bit more freedom in Morrowind. Perks are great, but having a cap on perks ultimately limits what you can and can not do. Now, the options don't limit you extensively, but it is mildly annoying that you are ultimately forced into multiple play throughs (more than 2) not to experience content, but to experience various gameplay elements. This isn't as bad for melee characters, but it is very annoying for mages and thieves. Primary (not all, just certain ones from Sneak, Pick Pocket, Stealth) require at least 31 levels alone, seriously limiting combat perks, magic perks, and crafting perks.

In all honesty, it's a bit of a draw between Morrowind and Skyrim for me. I've never played Arena, Daggerfall is a buggy and copy paste mess that fails to live up to its ambitions, and Oblivion is a bastard child that I'll never play again. If I had to absolutely pick the top one, it would be Morrowind by a nostaligic hair.

Your thoughts?

Tie between Morrowind and Skyrim for me. I've put a lot more hours into Skyrim, but Morrowind's got that appeal that more older games don't give.

I'm going Daggerfall for sheer scope and freedom. After that, I have to go Skyrim, probably because I made the mistake of playing Morrowind on the Xbox instead of the PC like the rest of the series.

Bromsy wrote:I'm going Daggerfall for sheer scope and freedom.

I concur.

Morrowind for more me because its largest elderscroll games I have ever played and having some of the coolest spells and weapons available in a game.

The game had it all.

tie between Morrowind and Skyrim, mostly because they are the only two i have ever played, lol.

Having only played the latter three I'd have to choose Skyrim.
Morrowind is a close second but the combat lets it down.

I will choose Morrowind if I can find that updated graphics mod...

I would pick Daggerfall if it didn't make my eyes bleed. That was my favorite area they've done so far, with the Orsinium and everything.

Since that does matter to me, I'd say Skyrim.

I like Skyrim the most to be honest. Runner up being Morrowind. Morrowind was huge, and fun, but at the same time it felt so big that I thought it kind of became a detriment to the game.

Sorry but as much as I enjoyed Skyrim I stopped playing it after doing the majority of quest stuff.

Oblivion only got my vote purely because of the amount of times I replayed it. Somehow I cannot get the same feeling from replaying Skyrim. Its a given Skyrim is better in almost all aspects, but what's been better? A game played for say 120 hours or a game played for probably 400+ hours?

I did try Morrowind but the combat is pretty annoying, I mean a random hit chance when I clearly sliced something in the face. So I never got far because of that.

I love morrowind so much. One of my favorite things is that nearly EVERYTHING can be picked up. Decorating houses or bases was so fun. I used to collect skulls, ash statues, and candles and decorate the boat in Tel Mora (or whichever city the Telvanni main council was)

Glass armor in morrowind was the coolest, it had the most (and best) artifacts and uniques (compared to skyrim and oblivion)
Many quests were awesome, levitation, mark and recall, you had to be good at the guilds skills to advance in rank, way more guilds, your own stronghold, the extra comfy pillow, the list goes on and on

Morrowind > Skyrim > Oblivion

Sadly Ive never played arena or daggerfall

I'd say Skyrim with Oblivion a close second. Despite trying to play Morrowind just couldn't get into it. Whilst with Skyrim I could just jump straight in and not have to worry about my attributes and major skills or whether I have leveled efficiently. The beauty of the game and the awesome soundtrack also help.

Skyrim was great, but Morrowwind popped my Elderscrolls cherri and I spent waaaay more time playing it then i did Skyrim.

Skyrim is indisputably the 'best' 'game'. In terms of 'sook 'em in and dinnae let 'em oot' it beats the others hands down. In terms of Atmosphere amd story though Morrowind is pretty unbeatable.


Tell you a weird thing i loved in Morrowind? The little messages you got when you levelled up. I cant remember any off hand but some of them were, dare i say it, beautiful.

-Morrowind
-Shivering Isles
-Skyrim
-Oblivion


Morrowind is the winner. You had freaking NINJA stars. Throwing Knives. Spears. Halberds. You could craft your own spells that were actually fun to use. The scope of what you could do compared to Oblivion and Skyrim is just nucking futs!

Shivering Isles were just fun. No other way to put it.

Morrowind for me also. I really enjoyed Oblivion and Skyrim, but Morrowind just seemed to have more to it.

Have to agree with the OP on morrowind for the most part. Man, that game was amazing. I kind of want to revisit it with heavy mods and see what it could play like.

But skyrim is an amazingly immersive game, runs fairly smoothly and is stable right out of the box, with great mechanics and supreme levels of adventure. I've really, really enjoyed playing it. And it's even better with mods.

Slarg232 wrote:-Morrowind
-Shivering Isles
-Skyrim
-Oblivion


Morrowind is the winner. You had freaking NINJA stars. Throwing Knives. Spears. Halberds. You could craft your own spells that were actually fun to use. The scope of what you could do compared to Oblivion and Skyrim is just nucking futs!

Shivering Isles were just fun. No other way to put it.

If the rest of Oblivion had been on par with SI, it would have been an amazing game. It had massive game play improvements over Morrowind, even though it was somewhat more restrictive. The biggest problems with it were bland setting, terrible MQ, mediocre faction quests (Dark Brotherhood and Thieve's Guild stood out), bad animations and character models (especially the facegen), and annoying voice acting.

Perkustin wrote:Skyrim is indisputably the 'best' 'game'. In terms of 'sook 'em in and dinnae let 'em oot' it beats the others hands down. In terms of Atmosphere amd story though Morrowind is pretty unbeatable.


Tell you a weird thing i loved in Morrowind? The little messages you got when you levelled up. I cant remember any off hand but some of them were, dare i say it, beautiful.

I agree, they made me feel pretty swell whenever I leveled up, except when you get too high in level, they all were about how you were just getting older and youve reached your limit and just keep going on for nothing or something