I think that the elder scrolls games are most fun when you decide to screw the story, and screw the main quests in the game, and just decide what cities you can pillage.  I have enjoyed setting up silly scenarios, such as killing EVERYONE in an important town by getting them to attack me (thus avoiding becoming a criminal), or just flying over towns and raining fire on everyone.

Its not that the story is bad, but you can really go crazy with the elder scrolls games games.

I went a year and a half in morrowind before REALIZING that there was a main quest line.

Originally posted by dbstylin34

I loved oblivion, But skyrim seems so much better

 

• You can dual wield swords( FINALLY)
• The constallation thing where you upgrade thing was awesome
• You can trigger two magicks in both hands and combine them
• Dragons are dynamic
• Looks flipping Amazing
• Dragonborn skills look sexy
• The world actually looks alive, instead of 4 npcs walking around( The imperial city)
• Maps are huge
• Weather dynamically changes

 

Probably a whole lot more, But thats basically what i picked up from the 13 minutes of gamplay trailer :3

 probably only available by way of DLC the day after release - it is bethesda after all

won't purchase until after the GOTY comes out and the mods are available that can strip out all the compromises made for the xbox kiddies

I would simply stick to the main quest line for 10 hrs in Oblivion and see if your mood towards Elder Scrolls changes...if it doesn't then skip Skyrim and head to Mass Effect 3.

Originally posted by gatheris

Originally posted by dbstylin34

I loved oblivion, But skyrim seems so much better

 

• You can dual wield swords( FINALLY)
• The constallation thing where you upgrade thing was awesome
• You can trigger two magicks in both hands and combine them
• Dragons are dynamic
• Looks flipping Amazing
• Dragonborn skills look sexy
• The world actually looks alive, instead of 4 npcs walking around( The imperial city)
• Maps are huge
• Weather dynamically changes

 

Probably a whole lot more, But thats basically what i picked up from the 13 minutes of gamplay trailer :3

 probably only available by way of DLC the day after release - it is bethesda after all

 

won't purchase until after the GOTY comes out and the mods are available that can strip out all the compromises made for the xbox kiddies

I dont understand your post?  Its companies like Bioware that offer the DLCs with things that should already be in the game.  (Remember the DLC released on launch day for Dragons Age?).  If they are saying its in the game then it is in the game.  I've not played a Bethesda game where they stripped features and stuck them in a DLC.  Anything that was added to Oblivion was done Post launch and wasnt a bunch of stuff they had stashed in the server banks.  Also, I never saw anything stripped from oblivion or Fallout for the "xbox kiddies" so if you could elaborate.  

I would like to say that your "xbox kiddies" isnt always accurate.  Maybe in COD it is though.  But I know many of my friends who own an xbox simply because they can not afford a shiny pc as they are paying for college and normal student stuff.  I wont deny there are a lot of kids on xbox live, but I dont run into them very often in games other than Halo and Cod.

horse armor only a $1.99 - woohoo

doors (well, at least one door) that won't open in main game without DLC.................

Player made mods. Mods are the reason i still get lost in Oblivion for hours. After seeing how Skyrim is coming along, just thinking about how far modders will push the game kind of blows my mind.

i enjoy playing games that do not force me in a certin direction, and i HATE maps that tunnel me around a landscape that should be massive. TES games offer a large, explorable map (and the map interface on skyrim is vastly improved into a 3d map, just a cool detail i decided to mention)

other than the intro, you can totally cut yourself off from the main quest. i usually make an assassin/theif 1st thing and hustle moreso than be the hero on my first toon. (i say 'usually' because i have had the game since it came out, over 3 different rigs, the 1st two of which could not play game on max settings. i never actually BEAT the main story until maybe a year and a half ago because i always had a lot of fun playing the game my own way)

honestly, this is pointless, because my personal reason to want Skyrim so badly is because of how much i love Oblivion, and Skyrim looks like it offers everything great about TES4 and more. if you did not like Oblivion, i don't see why this game would have a different effect. UNLESS, timing has something to do with it.

if only mmo's get your attention these days, then why are you 'trying' to find reasons to like Skyrim? You 'thought' you would love Rift, but tired of it very quickly. i admit, Rift hit a roadblock with me due to the dull endgame zones, and the lack of drive to roll alts. since i am an alt-whore, that factor really pushed me away. if Rift had a few more races, housing, alternate beginning zones, and an altogether seperate Defiant option than just being a time-traveling clone, it would have kept me longer. but i'm geting sidetracked. i brought that up, because you say that only MMO's draw you in, yet this draw does not seem to last for you as long as it used to. for whatever reason this is, maybe it has caused you to want something new. maybe, Skyrim can deliver this. as i said above, timing could have everything to do with it. (there is much conjecture in this paragraph, but i am trying to relate with how you feel, not berrate, all the while of course, trying to sell you Skyrim) 

as one person said, it is not an online game, so why should i care if you play it or not. this makes much sense, but i also feel that anyone who is compelled by the magic of a fantasy world should try out this game. i don't have a RP experience in a MMO that has come anywhere close to how immersed i get into the minds and lives of the characters i make in Oblivion.

best advice i have is try out Oblivion again, and play depending on what playstlye you like (hero-power seeking mage-assassin-theif are my main archetypes for TES4 but you can even be a vampire if you want, among many other roles). visit sites like 'planet elder scrolls' and 'tesnexus' and find what mods you feel will enhance the game to your liking. if you do this with an open mind, and still have no desire to play, than unfortunately, TES5 might not be for you either. but who knows? only you can decide in the end, not random people on a website

sorry for rambling on for so long.

Originally posted by elocke

Please don't flame me.  I must be one of a very small percentage of people who just doesn't "get" the hype or excitement over the Elder Scrolls games.  I've played the beginning of Morrowind and the beginning of Oblivion and it just felt boring to me.  Now, before you all get in a huff, I'm just asking politely for different perspectives on this.  I WANT to like the games because I am a huge RPG fan.  I grew up playing Zelda, Dragon Warrior, Final Fantasy, Forgotten Realms games on PC, Bards Tale on PC, early Ultima games, Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale(my favs) and so on.  These newest RPGs, for the life of me, if they aren't MMORPGs I have a really tough time getting into them.

So if anyone has ANY advice or ways to change my perspective, or how to approach the games, please share.  Thanks.

 These games offer 1 main thing, immersion, but to get the payout you got to invest time and focus on the game.  Doesnt suit everybody, and is part of the evolution of rpg.  Try playing Bards tale etc now, they are still fun, but they are no longer immersive as we have moved on.

Oblivion was the best single player game I have played, however it does include abstract ideas and art direction in some places which can hamper the immersion. The character / world level scaling denies character progression. The main quest line switches between comical and "havent i heard this before" most of the time. Which is posibly why you did not enjoy it.

But the world it offers out side of the main quest is not only 100 times bigger, its almost always more intresting, immersive, funny.. i could go on. But 5 hours would have not let you touch on that in any significant way. So first of all I wont convice you to play skyrim, only urge that you spend more time playing oblivion. If you miss out on what that as a game has to offer then you have lost out as a gamer, probably more than what you would from not playing skyrim.

Skyrim will be better than oblivion, it advances  and builds upon what Oblivion is. Its art direction will give greater immersion. The engine advances alone will be worth ticket price (on the PC once modded)

But.

Right now? I can't tell you now Skyrim will be better than Nehrim.

http://www.nehrim.de/indexEV.html

Nehrim is a complete conversion for Oblivion, its a game (bigger than oblivion) not a mod.

It is the best single player game ever. I dont care what anyone says about 1/2 life, system shock 2, ocarina of time, Nehrim is the best.

It has improvments to graphics which will approch those of Skyrim, but its world terrain i feel exeeds what i have seen of the console version of Skyrim so far.

I would like to promote this game better to you, but it is beyond me, its too good. I just urge you to play it.

Oh I forgot, the game has english subtitles, but German voice acting. I know this may seam off putting but i didnt rearly notice it ingame LOL, and only remembered now when i checked the website.

Loved Morrowind tons, played the hell out of that game! Oblivion, not so much. Idk if it just didnt live up to my expections or because it wasnt Morrowind 2. I just felt like everything was very lackluster excluding the graphics. Dungeons meh, no special loot, everything smooshed south of the map, nothing in the north area mostly... I mean yea, I like a open world but there was just.. so much that could of been done with that!

Lots of people liked Oblivion so I guess Im one of the few who didnt. I can tell you that I probably will not purchase Skyrim until I see alot of information on it. If its anything like Oblivion I wont bother, but I havent even been following it and checking on information like I did with Oblivion for a year or two.

You know what Im really wanting to play... Diablo 3 and I give no !*@& who knows it! Also, thanks Sizzz. Im downloading Nehrim atm, never even knew bout it! Looks fun, cant wait to check it out and give some feedback on it.

Originally posted by elocke

Fair enough, BUT, I truly think "enjoyment" lies in perception and mindset.  So how do I change my mindset when I fire up Oblivion in order to not be put off by being thrust into the world and no true set patch given to me.  I mean, I enjoyed SWG at launch immensely and their wasn't a ton of direction in that game, so I CAN adapt to the game if it pulls me in enough or if my mindset is in the right spot.  My other favorite MMO where it's a bit open ended on how to go about things is FFXI.  I loved metagaming in that, researching all the things I could do and then getting into the game and having a blast persuing very hard goals that the game hardly hand holds you through, if at all.

I'm loving the answers in this thread, by the way.  Thanks all for being polite and understanding, even those who were walk the line between flaming and not, hehe.

Well the thing with games where paths are not pre-defined, is that you have to be the one to define those paths yourself. Basically asking yourself what goals do you want to reach? What do you want to do today?  So for exemple, I start up Oblivion and decide today that I want to focus on the Mage's Guild. Yesterday I was just hunting for materials and completing small quests at the same time to level up my alchemy skill. Tomorrow I could just focus on exploring, finding books and do some reading in-game, might as well break into a few houses, steal everything while we're at it. I could also load up a new Mod to enhance certain areas where the game may be lacking (Bethesda provides players with tools to make their own mods). So perhaps I could just load up say Blood&Mud and clear the storyline, or develop my characters to accomplish the story being Midas Magic Compedium mod and unlock new spells. 

But for a new player, who knows less about the game, you could just set your goals to complete the main storyline (which you have access to from the get-go) or join any of the 4 factions, or all 4 of them (Fighter, Mage, Thief, Dark Brotherhood) and complete their storylines. Might as well enter the Arena. Clear a few side-quests on the way, close down the Oblivion Gates appearing all across Tamriel, etc. Lots of things to do, but you have to start the game with a goal in mind otherwise you'll just get lost, unsure of what to do and get bored/uninstall. It's the same for games like Minecraft (sandbox games), without goals you won't do much, but if you start the game with a goal in mind, you can pull some pretty amazing stuff.

Bethesda released DLC that is overpriced = horse armor

Bethesda (publisher) release DLC that is buggy/unplayable = dead money / honest hearts

Also most games that are released on consoles, that have a PC port are "dumbed down" not for the audiance, but for the hardware. Consoles are outdated tech with limitations on them which mean developers produce lower textures, have less objects, design the game to accomodate the crappy response times of consoles. Like look at the Skyrim videos <500m world object draw distance, of course you can whack upto 5 clicks on a PC, but the game world is DESIGNED to display its assets at the consoles limitations, so when you are playing on the PC its stripped out compared to what it would be.

Skyrim example;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ic6dKnv3WdU

1;03

Top right corner you see thier end game instance on the side of what i supose the designer intended to be a mountain, but to for the designer to be able to display that instance from when there character starts, the view range restriction of the console means the mountain has to be little more than hill or a mound of rocks.

11;11

Skyrims new big world, "this is the tundra, a big wide open grassland" dumb chick "woooooow"which looks the size of a couple of football pitches, less than 50 objects?, grass draws @10-20m.

Anyway its not rearly bethesda studio fault because they have to design to the hardware, but pc gamers do lose out because its not design to PC hardware. forntunatley most of the content is through thier dungeon generator, and because that doesnt require much in terms of hardware requirments you wont miss out that much overall. Although you never know what internal dungeon vistas you may miss out on because of the hard ware limitations.

Sorry for rant, Skyrim will still rock. you know it, I know it so w/e :D

The reason I continue to play TES series is that I never have to do the main quest if I dont want. Just recently I re-installed Oblivion and have played ~15 hours while only doing the first step of the main quest and that was only to get an item out of my inventory.

Originally posted by Sizzz

Bethesda released DLC that is overpriced = horse armor

Bethesda (publisher) release DLC that is buggy/unplayable = dead money / honest hearts

 

Also most games that are released on consoles, that have a PC port are "dumbed down" not for the audiance, but for the hardware. Consoles are outdated tech with limitations on them which mean developers produce lower textures, have less objects, design the game to accomodate the crappy response times of consoles. Like look at the Skyrim videos <500m world object draw distance, of course you can whack upto 5 clicks on a PC, but the game world is DESIGNED to display its assets at the consoles limitations, so when you are playing on the PC its stripped out compared to what it would be.

Skyrim example;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ic6dKnv3WdU

1;03

Top right corner you see thier end game instance on the side of what i supose the designer intended to be a mountain, but to for the designer to be able to display that instance from when there character starts, the view range restriction of the console means the mountain has to be little more than hill or a mound of rocks.

11;11

Skyrims new big world, "this is the tundra, a big wide open grassland" dumb chick "woooooow"which looks the size of a couple of football pitches, less than 50 objects?, grass draws @10-20m.

 

Anyway its not rearly bethesda studio fault because they have to design to the hardware, but pc gamers do lose out because its not design to PC hardware. forntunatley most of the content is through thier dungeon generator, and because that doesnt require much in terms of hardware requirments you wont miss out that much overall. Although you never know what internal dungeon vistas you may miss out on because of the hard ware limitations.

Sorry for rant, Skyrim will still rock. you know it, I know it so w/e :D

None of the Skyrim dungeons are randomly generated.

Originally posted by Sizzz

Oblivion was the best single player game I have played, however it does include abstract ideas and art direction in some places which can hamper the immersion. The character / world level scaling denies character progression. The main quest line switches between comical and "havent i heard this before" most of the time. Which is posibly why you did not enjoy it.

But the world it offers out side of the main quest is not only 100 times bigger, its almost always more intresting, immersive, funny.. i could go on. But 5 hours would have not let you touch on that in any significant way. So first of all I wont convice you to play skyrim, only urge that you spend more time playing oblivion. If you miss out on what that as a game has to offer then you have lost out as a gamer, probably more than what you would from not playing skyrim.

Skyrim will be better than oblivion, it advances  and builds upon what Oblivion is. Its art direction will give greater immersion. The engine advances alone will be worth ticket price (on the PC once modded)

 

But.

Right now? I can't tell you now Skyrim will be better than Nehrim.

http://www.nehrim.de/indexEV.html

Nehrim is a complete conversion for Oblivion, its a game (bigger than oblivion) not a mod.

It is the best single player game ever. I dont care what anyone says about 1/2 life, system shock 2, ocarina of time, Nehrim is the best.

It has improvments to graphics which will approch those of Skyrim, but its world terrain i feel exeeds what i have seen of the console version of Skyrim so far.

I would like to promote this game better to you, but it is beyond me, its too good. I just urge you to play it.

 

 

Oh I forgot, the game has english subtitles, but German voice acting. I know this may seam off putting but i didnt rearly notice it ingame LOL, and only remembered now when i checked the website.

Downloading now, I have not heard of this mod... 

Originally posted by elocke

Please don't flame me.  I must be one of a very small percentage of people who just doesn't "get" the hype or excitement over the Elder Scrolls games.  I've played the beginning of Morrowind and the beginning of Oblivion and it just felt boring to me.  Now, before you all get in a huff, I'm just asking politely for different perspectives on this.  I WANT to like the games because I am a huge RPG fan.  I grew up playing Zelda, Dragon Warrior, Final Fantasy, Forgotten Realms games on PC, Bards Tale on PC, early Ultima games, Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale(my favs) and so on.  These newest RPGs, for the life of me, if they aren't MMORPGs I have a really tough time getting into them.

So if anyone has ANY advice or ways to change my perspective, or how to approach the games, please share.  Thanks.

It has to do with our expiriences (biomata) mostly. When u grew up playing the games you mentioned its obvious and natural that some rpg's wont fir to your taste. Then again you mentioned as favourite of yours baldur's gate series whoch is one of the best rpgs ever made.

When i 1st saw daggerfall battlespire i was thrilled with atmosphere of the game. It had some archaic style atmosphere,demons were involved(daedras),it was huge in size,i was impressed with the huge variety of skills i could invest in the characters system.For me it would be natural to love it,and also like morrorwind ,oblivion and now skyrim.

But before them i was playing alot to the end, eye of the beholder series,black crypt in amiga,might and magic series ,bg series. Despice the fact most of these games had alot of dungeon crawling ,i always loved huge open worlds ,adventuring. Morrorwind had that,oblivion had that,maybe in smaller and worst doses but it also did and skyrim seems to do it as well.

Change your prespective for skyrim. The game is what it is and offers what it offers. Its either you like choises or not. If want to restricted and guided thats what u like. Watch out carefully though the kind of wife u ll marry mate. That advice is on the house.

Originally posted by Bainwalker

Originally posted by Sizzz
*snip*

But.

Right now? I can't tell you now Skyrim will be better than Nehrim.

http://www.nehrim.de/indexEV.html

Nehrim is a complete conversion for Oblivion, its a game (bigger than oblivion) not a mod.

It is the best single player game ever. I dont care what anyone says about 1/2 life, system shock 2, ocarina of time, Nehrim is the best.

It has improvments to graphics which will approch those of Skyrim, but its world terrain i feel exeeds what i have seen of the console version of Skyrim so far.

I would like to promote this game better to you, but it is beyond me, its too good. I just urge you to play it.

 

 

Oh I forgot, the game has english subtitles, but German voice acting. I know this may seam off putting but i didnt rearly notice it ingame LOL, and only remembered now when i checked the website.

Downloading now, I have not heard of this mod... 

It's very much well worth the d/l and whirl.  It actually got mention in PC Gamer mag and this mod comes up in mention if you frequent any Oblivion mod sites / forums.  It totally changes the game, which is an immense feat and shows dedication for a mod team to do.

Edit to add:  As for Skyrim, like I said in my earlier post, I hate this recent bit of news.  I'll hold off and do a "We'll F***ing See" attitude.

The big put-off for me is the - Its a console conversion to the pc- line. In my experiance, so far there has yet to be a decent console conversion to pc title released, yes they may have been good to play on a console, but absolutly crap for the pc conversion.

I will hold off and wait, see what the verdict is and how it plays. If it feels like a console play and feels wrong on teh pc then i simply will not get it.

Originally posted by Sizzz

http://www.nehrim.de/indexEV.html

Nehrim is a complete conversion for Oblivion, its a game (bigger than oblivion) not a mod.

It is the best single player game ever. I dont care what anyone says about 1/2 life, system shock 2, ocarina of time, Nehrim is the best.

It has improvments to graphics which will approch those of Skyrim, but its world terrain i feel exeeds what i have seen of the console version of Skyrim so far.

I would like to promote this game better to you, but it is beyond me, its too good. I just urge you to play it.

 

 

Oh I forgot, the game has english subtitles, but German voice acting. I know this may seam off putting but i didnt rearly notice it ingame LOL, and only remembered now when i checked the website.

 I have downloaded it and been playing this mod like crazy. I am amazed at the world, the size, the detail, the quest and triggers.. If this keeps up then I will probably end up with more hours in this mod then Oblivion itself.

I would recommend this mod to anybody who just wants to play something new, love the Morrowind feel. Just got my first piece of a armor set as well in a dungeon, its nice to be able to go into dungeons and actually find decent loot!

Originally posted by Clypto75

Originally posted by Sizzz

http://www.nehrim.de/indexEV.html

Nehrim is a complete conversion for Oblivion, its a game (bigger than oblivion) not a mod.

It is the best single player game ever. I dont care what anyone says about 1/2 life, system shock 2, ocarina of time, Nehrim is the best.

It has improvments to graphics which will approch those of Skyrim, but its world terrain i feel exeeds what i have seen of the console version of Skyrim so far.

I would like to promote this game better to you, but it is beyond me, its too good. I just urge you to play it.

 

 

Oh I forgot, the game has english subtitles, but German voice acting. I know this may seam off putting but i didnt rearly notice it ingame LOL, and only remembered now when i checked the website.

 I have downloaded it and been playing this mod like crazy. I am amazed at the world, the size, the detail, the quest and triggers.. If this keeps up then I will probably end up with more hours in this mod then Oblivion itself.

I would recommend this mod to anybody who just wants to play something new, love the Morrowind feel. Just got my first piece of a armor set as well in a dungeon, its nice to be able to go into dungeons and actually find decent loot!

Hmm i downloaded and playing now Nehrim. So far after i runned out from the mine i witnessed a huge forest mountainson the horizon but i noticed shoortly i cant explore anything nad im being guided via quest line strictly.

Is the whole game so much linear or after the first 3-4 quests in the camp minesite and siege by the mages i m free to go adventuring and explore freely the whole world map? just curious.

P.S. By the way Nehrim isnt exactly a mod. Its a full conversion. Has nothing to do with oblivion's story,new map new scenario, leveling system is more like the traditional xp system (kill enemies and ding quests reward u with xp points and has similarities with gothic lvling system where u earn learning points and invest them on trainers to lvl skills.

just a few quest and you are free to roam. there is no fast travel, but you can buy teleportation spells from certain npc's in the towns, then buy the tele runes to use the spell. i am only level 5, and am really enjoying Nehrim. the team that made this went into great detail to deliver a free game with the TES4 tools.