Poll: Morrowind Vs. Oblivion and Other Nostalgia.

[Chairman Miaow]

For a long long while, whenever a friend would talk to me about Oblivion, I would say to them "go play Morrowind, it's sooooo much better". Recently I re-installed Morrowind. I managed to play it for about 10-20 minutes. It just played so horribly. I thought I remembered it perfectly as this pinnacle of gaming, but it wasn't, it was just no fun.

So my question to you is, have you had this happen? A game you remembered as being amazing and then played again, only to realise just how bad it was. Another example for me would have to be Mortal Kombat Trilogy. I still love it, but compared to modern fighters it was just.... eh.

 

[Sacman]

Oblivion because it's prettier but I didn't like either anyway...<.<

 

[DanielBrown]

Had the same experience; I remembered Morrowind as being awesome and decided to give it another shot. Took me about five minutes until I realised the game was awful compared to what we're used to today. Going with Oblivion.

 

[TomLikesGuitar]

I played Morrowind recently with a LOT of mods and it was fun and looked pretty good. Then I went through Oblivion and appreciated it even more than the first time through.

Everything is so much smoother and refined...

Oblivion has it's problems, but I'd pick it any day.

Either way, both will be insignificant once Skyrim comes out.

 

[jayjayjay]

Same here. I had recalled Morrowind with much esteem, then it took one swing and miss of the sword for the pangs to realize that i could never GO BACK and unplay what Oblivion had since hard wired. I NEEDED the sword to make contact with a cathartic slicing sound. Then the wooden NPC's and all the other cracks began to show. I expect the same with Oblivion once TES V arrives.

 

[Chairman Miaow]

Same here. I had recalled Morrowind with much esteem, then it took one swing and miss of the sword for the pangs to realize that i could never GO BACK and unplay what Oblivion had since hard wired. I NEEDED the sword to make contact with a cathartic slicing sound. Then the wooden NPC's and all the other cracks began to show. I expect the same with Oblivion once TES V arrives.

Had the same experience; I remembered Morrowind as being awesome and decided to give it another shot. Took me about five minutes until I realised the game was awful compared to what we're used to today. Going with Oblivion.

I don't know what created the mystical nostalgia about it, going back to it I can barely find one good thing about it when compared to Oblivion. I cannot wait for Skyrim.

 

[_Janny_]

The more I think about it, the more I feel like I seriously can't pick...

I adore both of them because they both have their pros and cons, unique atmosphere etcetera. But, gun to my head, I would be inclined to go with Morrowind (even if I played Oblivion first) mostly because it made me feel like a real hero traveling on his own two feet. The lack of fast travel might have been frustrating at times, but it did add to the feel of immersion.

 

[magicmonkeybars]

Yeah I know what's like to go back and discover you've lost the hang of the game.
Sometimes you just need to stick with it a bit and take it more seriously to relive the previous experience.

Gaming has changed in terms of the games attitude towards the player, Morrowind's evolution into Oblivion is a great example of how the console era has destroyed gaming, I'm not blaming consoles but the people who play consoles for being such instant gratification whores.

As far as Morrowind vs Oblivion is concerned Morrowind still wins hands down, vanilla vs vanilla that is.

 

[TomLikesGuitar]

The lack of fast travel might have been frustrating at times, but it did add to the feel of immersion.

I almost never fast traveled in Oblivion... Especially not after I got that Dark Brotherhood horse.

 

[Grouchy Imp_v1legacy]

There was a similar thread to this the other day. I'll start by saying now what I said then...

I got into TES with Daggerfall, but of the whole series my favourite is Morrowind - by far.

Arena was a bit rough and ready, Daggerfall was good for it's day, but Morrowind was/is an exercise in true open-world freedom where your own actions can greatly alter the gameworld. Oblivion was far too nicey-nicey for my taste, and whilst the open-world freedom remained the whole cause/effect thing had been stripped back so that factions not longer fought each other (so one character could in theory command all the guilds at the same time) and quest related characters couldn't die so players could go on mass killing sprees without having to think of the consequences of their actions. More fun? Maybe. More immersive? Hell no.

...and continue by saying Morrowind had a far more unique setting. Vvardenfel was a strange and alien place, with outlandish plants and wierd creatures like nix-hounds, alits and kagouti which made it rewarding and interesting to explore. Oblivion was far more familiar, with grass, trees, wolves and lions. Even the mythical beasts were creatures everyone has seen before - minotaurs, trolls etc, which (to me at least) made it a less engaging place to be.

 

[jayjayjay]

Yes monkeybars gaming should only be enjoyed if it's a muddled exercise in a series of frustrations that serve to promote your self worth by seeing it through. LONG LIVE THE PC!

 

[jayjayjay]

Vvardenfel was a strange and alien place, with outlandish plants and wierd creatures

Shivering Isles isn't the evolution of this?

 

[Grouchy Imp_v1legacy]

Vvardenfel was a strange and alien place, with outlandish plants and wierd creatures

Shivering Isles isn't the evolution of this?

That point could be (sucessfully) argued, but by that same token isn't Skyrim the evolution of Morrowind's Solstheim? And if that's true, why would Bethesda be so concerned with updating ground Morrowind already covered if Morrowind wasn't the best of the bunch?

EDIT - Welcome to the Escapist!

 

[Ragsnstitches]

Morrowind has a lot going for it. But Ultimately I would choose Oblivion over.

Both games require mods for me to play now, but oblivion needs far less to be bearable and enjoyable. Morrowinds age does it a disservice, but at the time it was the shit for me. Oblivion blew me away equally.

For the sheer pleasantness of the experience I have to go with Oblivion... even though I despise the main quest and martin stealing my glory (which morrowind at least made interesting).

Oh yeah, at the moment I'm running both games. I got the 2011 mod for morrowind before the guy got pulled on it and it looks brilliant, still tedious though. Oblivion all I have is Francesoes leveled mod, Bananasplits better cities and A few racial improvement mods.

I recommend francescoes mod as it brings a lot of new items and creatures into the game and rebalances the scaling system so you don't see bandits with glass armor late game.

 

[Imbechile]

Having just installed Morrowind for the first time in 4 years I can fully say that it still kicks Oblivion's ass in almost every way. There isn't much nostalgia here, Morrowind is just a better game for me. Oblivion IMO is a broken action game that is barely an RPG. If you want something similar to Oblivion, then download the german mod Nehrim. Now that mod is excelent, very professionaly done, and also better than Oblivion in every possible way.

 

[Signa]

Every time I play Oblivion, I end up playing Morrowind for nostalgic kicks, and find myself loving it far more because of all the extra options that are presented to me. Spears, throwing stars/daggers/darts and cross bows. Pauldrons and separate left/right gloves. Jump, lock, levitate, slowfall, fortify attack, sanctuary spells. Enchantment, Spear, Axe, unarmored, medium armor skills. The game is just far more complete than Oblivion pretends to be. I just wish the initial running speed was faster, and that "misses" would just make sounds of blocked/deflected strikes so that you get the tactile feedback of a 0-damage strike. You are in fact dealing 0 damage instead of missing. Your weapons degrade with each "miss".

 

[adderseal]

Ah, definitely Morrowind. Even without mods it's better than Oblivion. There are so many more options that the game feels a lot more complete. You've got lore everywhere, there's great variation between the cities (Oblivion's towns were just a copy-pasted house) and the spells are much, much more varied (levitate/slowfall anyone?).
WITH mods, it becomes one of the best games ever.

 

[Fuselage]

Ah, definitely Morrowind. Even without mods it's better than Oblivion. There are so many more options that the game feels a lot more complete. You've got lore everywhere, there's great variation between the cities (Oblivion's towns were just a copy-pasted house) and the spells are much, much more varied (levitate/slowfall anyone?).
WITH mods, it becomes one of the best games ever.

I know, I got Mod Collection or whatever it was called and made it HD so I could revisit my old friend who suddenly took an aging potion and became hot again.

 

[SimuLord]

Oblivion was just flat-out more fun---Morrowind hasn't aged well.