Poll: The Wasteland or Tamriel?

[Jitters Caffeine]

Recently, I got into a bit of a friendly debate with a friend of mine over which world/lore/game whathaveyou was better, the Fallout series or The Elder Scrolls series.

I cited that even though the engine for Fallout 3 and New Vegas were just the Oblivion engine painted brown, the stories and the worlds of the Wasteland just felt better to me. The stories felt personal. Like I was more than just some guy wandering through the woods killing wildlife and trapsing through cities stealing everyone's pants. I know the maps for Fallout 3 and New Vegas were smaller, but that just meant less dead space between discoveries of brand new things to dig through and discover, even if the landscape was decidedly monochromatic.

His reasons were basically that he preferred the fantastical medieval setting and Lore of The Elder Scrolls series. There are Crazy Gods of Madness like Shaogorath and a race of immortals that fear only boredom and pain. He loves being able to get lost for hours in the forests before finally coming across a cave, because you never know what will be inside. He loved that the player was anonymous and being moved by an overarching "destiny" that you have no control over, just made the settign that much more fantastical.

Now my question is this, Which do you prefer? What are your reasons? Got any fun stories from your time with these games?

Be sure to know, neither of us hate the other series, we just prefer our respective series more.

 

[chaosyoshimage]

Fallout series hands down, mostly because of New Vegas though. Far more interesting characters and storyline...

 

[Jitters Caffeine]

Fallout series hands down, mostly because of New Vegas though. Far more interesting characters and storyline...

That's another point I brought up in our discussion. I always FELT like the followers I that were with me had a reason for doing so. In Oblivion and Skyrim, you feel nothing when a follower goes down. Did I feel bad when I lost Lydia or Uthgert? No I didn't. Because they were just a suitcase with a sword. But if I lost Veronica? Holy Shit. I would willingly go back hours of gameplay just to get her back. Why? Characterization. You knew who she was and why she wasn't with her family back in the Hidden Valley. TES just has always been lacking in characterization, and that is a big turn off for me.

 

[The_Blue_Rider]

I voted CAW AH DOOTY!! Because you didnt include a sensible "I like them both" option.

 

[Ectoplasmicz]

I voted CAW AH DOOTY!! Because you didnt include a sensible "I like them both" option.

Yeah, exactly the same here. They are both nice...but CAW AH DOOTY!!!!

 

[Jitters Caffeine]

I voted CAW AH DOOTY!! Because you didnt include a sensible "I like them both" option.

That was an over sight on my part, and has been rectified. But I just figured that if the option of "both" was there, I wouldn't really get the answers I was looking for.

 

[theevilgenius60]

I like Tamriel better, but that's no surprise. I love the high fantasy setting and TES has it in spades. Shields, blades, bows and horses are the main war machines while it seems anyone can learn magic. I also love the scope of Tamriel. Especially Skyrim as the land isn't randomly generated. It, along with magic make me feel like I'm in a huge land of infinite opportunity. I can do as I please and that pleases me.

 

[chaosyoshimage]

Fallout series hands down, mostly because of New Vegas though. Far more interesting characters and storyline...

That's another point I brought up in our discussion. I always FELT like the followers I that were with me had a reason for doing so. In Oblivion and Skyrim, you feel nothing when a follower goes down. Did I feel bad when I lost Lydia or Uthgert? No I didn't. Because they were just a suitcase with a sword. But if I lost Veronica? Holy Shit. I would willingly go back hours of gameplay just to get her back. Why? Characterization. You knew who she was and why she wasn't with her family back in the Hidden Valley. TES just has always been lacking in characterization, and that is a big turn off for me.

Yeah, that's Obsidian's writing for ya, I wish Bethesda had writers at least half as good as theirs...

 

[ChupathingyX]

Definitely the Fallout world.

I find the whole lead up to the Geart War to be an interesting set of events which lead to the mankind's own destruction and the eventual rebuilding and recreation of society and civilisation.

There isn't a single character I've encountered in the Elder Scrolls that I liked, except maybe M'Aiq, Bethesda just can't create interesting characters. Compared to the Fallout series which I think has much more fleshed out factions and characters throughout the series (except Fallout 3 and Brotherhood of Steel).

 

[Zhukov]

Wasteland. By a bloody mile.

Tamriel is just medieval fantasy land #4472, whereas Fallout's world has its own specific identity with the whole retro-futuristic 50's aesthetic after the nukes have done their thing.

Although, to be fair, Tamriel is a whole lot prettier and more varied. The sheer browness of the wasteland gets visually monotonous pretty damn quick.

 

[scnj]

I think Fallout edges it, but I'm cool with either really. For different reasons though. Fallout tends to be populated by more interesting characters, whereas Tamriel is more interesting to look at and explore.

 

[Wayneguard]

With the exception of Vvardenfell, I think that the wasteland takes the cake here. Imo, nothing beats Morrowind. It's the fantasy RPG that I cut my teeth on and it's my favorite... that's it. But in general, I really liked scavenging and surviving in the wasteland.

 

[Dutchy115]

Meh, they're both crap

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

the characeters/story/overall depiction ----> fallout new vegas, hands down.

the style/world/atmosphere -----> skyrim, hands down.

pretty cut and dry basically...how i feel about em.

 

[Slash Dementia]

Elder Scrolls, specifically Morrowind. That has to be one of the best worlds I've ever seen. Skyrim is good, but it's repetitive and lots of places look the same. Oblivion was just a big copy/paste, but Morrowind...

To be honest, I don't like The Wasteland, it just seems really bland.

 

[Fappy]

Tamerial. A lot of people don't bother to look into the lore behind the setting. Some of the most interesting game lore out there. Makes the whole place seem much more vibrant.

 

[lord.jeff]

It's mostly a matter of if you prefer high fantasy or post apocalyptic, I myself prefer Tamerial because there's a lot more variety in scenery, I get bored of grey abandoned this or that.

 

[Wolfram23]

I have more fun playing Fallout games.

But I like the wilderness of Skyrim.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Tamriel is more developed, fleshed out. Deeper. Bigger. More solid. More of a sense of place. I have a concept of where X is relative to Y, what the connections between areas are. The politics. The religion. It's the most "alive" setting since Britannia, in that respect.

The Wasteland is more evocative. It's more melancholy, more primal. The art deco/50's retro pastiche has been borrowed on heavily in the last decade and isn't as fresh as it once was, but it's still fresher than the stale air of a medieval countryside. Fallout's grim humor and occasional sidelines into the zany help as well, whereas Tamriel is a Very Serious Fantasy Epic.

Edge goes to Fallout, narrowly. If you take away the weight and significance of Elder Scrolls, all the lore and depth it's accumulated over 20 years, and just ask me to rate their stock high fantasy realm against Fallout's Wasteland, then it's Fallout by a mile.