Ways that Oblivion is superior to Skyrim

[Jacob Haggarty]

Conjuration is ridiculously easy to level up, you could easily get it from 20-30 in under a minute.

I'm NOT the only one who thought that then! I agree with your entire post, but especially this bit!

The moment i got the bound sword spell, conjuration went up like mad! but of course, i kill damn near everything i come across with fire, and destruction is about 30... conjuration is about 52.

I've been working on a bit of a theory that for the spells it's not HOW MUCH you use it, but more WHAT you use... to be honest it's fairly obvious, but if you use harder to learn spells more often, the skill level will just rocket, whereas if you stick to the lower level ones it goes nowhere.

OFFTOPIC: Has anyone else come across the equilibrium spell? You will have if you have done the college quest line. Basically, it's like a mana healing potion, that uses health. Essentially, you can level up restoration by just using them both over and over again. Equilibrium to drain health/gain magicka, healing to drain magicka/gain health.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Oblivion had:
better diolauge options

This I'll agree with.

The dialoge options in Skyrim don't really feel broad enough to cover multiple types of characteristics. It's either "do a mission" or "don't do a mission". Hell, numerous times you only get one single sentence.

 

[Hoboape]

The only thing i dont like is how the friggin loadiing times are goddamn long!!!! jesus could come back, blow up the world with a hippo, become emporer of the universe then get defeated by bob barker and optimus prime by the time loading is only half done, seriously to me that is poor optimization. also the third person seems F'ed, over the shoulder non combat, behind the back so you cant see any thing in combat. see a problem?

Im assuming your not on PC because mine loads in seconds.

OT I am enjoying Skyrim Much more than I did Oblivion. Some of the things said in the OP bother me a little (I did miss acrobatics at the start of the game and the UI is a bit boring) but overall the things i disliked about Oblivion outway the things I dislike in Skyrim (Namely the Oblivion gates and the leveling system).

 

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

Number of dragons in Oblivion: 0
Number of dragons in Skyrim: infinity

I don't care and I have never cared about the inclusion of dragons. They're pretty weak anyway but let's be clear that dragons could be replaced with any other creature not present in previous TES games and I would have cared the same, none. To be even clearer, a rat is a wolf is a lion to me and a dragon is a giant is a mammoth to me. High level enemies and low level enemies are the only two types I see.

That everyone was so hyped that there were dragons in this game, I just never understood.

It shoots fire out its face as it flies in the air growling and taking out villagers?

Sorry, but it sounds like you're busy masturbating over stats rather than looking at the in-game action experience.

The fights are incredibly well done for something that isn't completely scripted, hell, even for something that is scripted. Point is: It really feels like you're fighting a dragon. That's something most people dreamed about as kids, for hundreds of years worth of generations. Name a game that does dragon fights better and I'll play it. 'High level' doesn't come close to capturing it for me.

Correction: dragons don't breathe fire, they shout.
Also, Oblivion had a copy paste world and copy paste npcs.
That is all.

 

[Epona]

1) Athletics and acrobatics really broke the game even back in Morrowind, without them designers were able to create more interesting looking dungeons without the need of putting large walls in most sections just because "Hey a play can jump-get there".

You don't understand the point of open world games do you? In Morrowind they gave you levitation for fuck sake, they obviously weren't concerned about high jump breaking the game. In Skyrim I think I actually ran into an invisible wall. I don't remember where but I remember thinking "is that an invisible wall in an Elder Scrolls game?" I could be wrong though, has anyone else found an invisible wall?

Do elaborate since I have no idea what you are talking about.

I remember not being able to change my hair color and not liking the presets. I don't think I could change hair length either, not sure about that one. While the models look better, you simply have less freedom in creating them.

4) Fair point there, it is quite annoying but I do not see a reason to get up in arms about it since it will be modded out soon enough

I haven't picked up a weapon over it, just mentioning it in a forum post is not "up in arms". Also, mods don't count if you are playing on a PS3 and mods don't count when judging the game as Bethesda has released it.

Isn't it funny how everyone depends on non paid modders to fix Bethesda's game but somehow no one sees that as a problem?

5) Sorry, but you buy it on an inferior gaming platform you are going to get an inferior experience. I'm not trying to take a swing at a console gamers, hell I even have three of the modern bastards sitting right under my TV.

Maybe Bethesda should have sold the PS3 version for less since it is inferior? No, that inferior platform nonsense doesn't work since a game released on any platform should be perfectly playable on that platform.

Besides, Skyrim was built for consoles, the 360 specifically and then ported to the PS3 and PC.

 

[WolfThomas]

A legitimite complaint is how short guilds are. Going way back to Morrowind, you had to do missions for multiple guild buildings in different cities to slowly rank up. Becoming head of a guild was a lot of work. In Oblivion they were shorter but you still had to do a lot of stuff.

 

[chstens]

Number of dragons in Oblivion: 0
Number of dragons in Skyrim: infinity

I don't care and I have never cared about the inclusion of dragons. They're pretty weak anyway but let's be clear that dragons could be replaced with any other creature not present in previous TES games and I would have cared the same, none. To be even clearer, a rat is a wolf is a lion to me and a dragon is a giant is a mammoth to me. High level enemies and low level enemies are the only two types I see.

That everyone was so hyped that there were dragons in this game, I just never understood.

So games are strictly numbers to you?

 

[The Funslinger]

Also isnt there something under one of the skill trees that makes u run faster. I can't quite recall but I think its somewhere in the theif.
Also I found the character creator to be nice and actually functions alot better than in oblivion.

Just a bunch of presets. Most of which suck.

Okay, at the absolute least, you're exaggerating there. Unless you actually never went beyond the character presets, in which case, that was dumb.

Most of the points people are making are merely opinionated, so you can't really say they make the game actually any worse. For example, I couldn't care less about Athletics and Acrobatics. It was nice to have it, but I really don't miss it and for some it was apparently game breaking (*jumps* *suddenly flies 50 feet*) that said, I did everything I wanted to before hitting the level cap on most of my characters, and I had a lot of stuff weighing me down, so I can't say just how bad it got.

The only two things I miss at all are being able to look at my character in the pause menu (though going third person while he's just standing is about good enough) and being able to ask guards for directions. It's a perfectly good trade off for the pluses. As for the people saying "who gives a fuck about a dragon avatar" do seem to be simplifying things a lot. Plus, aesthetic value contributes hugely to the experience.

Also preemptively I'll just say: I'm not a huge skyrim fanboy, but I dislike people getting angry about a game not tailoring itself to their exact desires as though they're gospel. Also, I'm not sure how keeping a constant eye on your character development as opposed to just choosing majors and sitting on your thumbs for the rest of the game is dumbing it down. I think both systems have their merits, but I definitely think this one's better for micromanagers.

 

[J4RD]

The one thing I think Oblivion does better than Skyrim is the Guild quests. In Oblivion, you had to put a decent effort forth to become leader guy. In Skyrim, you're Uber Master High Champion God King after two or three quests. It felt more than a bit rushed.

Past that, however, Skyrim is far superior IMO.

 

[warrcry13]

-No more boring green forest all over the map.

Which is kinda funny because Skyrim for the most part has this lifeless gray all over it. I would take the colour of Oblivion any day over Skyrim, but that is also one of the few thing that I would take from Oblivion over Skyrim.

Yes me too. I know it is considered kiddy to prefer brighter colors to bland ones but I prefer the brighter colors.

Also some of the meadows in Oblivion were just so beautiful. That is something that Skyrim can not do to me because of the lack of bright colours.

Well that's just a matter of taste. I like the view from the mountains or even looking at the mountains with a pine forest around it's base. I think that's because I've always found mountains pretty.

 

[Cyfu]

2 things.
thieves guild and dark brotherhood.
both guilds kind of sucked compared to oblivion's thieves guild and dark brotherhood.

 

[CarbonEagle]

Well I dislike that the UI got even more consoley... Why cant bethseda just give PC's their own PC optimized menu system that works nicely with a mouse. I cant imagine its that difficult.
The dark brotherhood storyline is better, but the individual quests aren't quite as good.
While you still cant kill children (since in Oblivion there weren't any), now they stand in front of you and act like spoiled rotten brats, taunting you even, making me really wish I could. Thankfully there should be a mod that fixes that.
I have mixed feelings about the new skill system cause now it doesn't break the game. In oblivion some of the stuff you could do was pretty fun, but at the same time, it was immersion breaking. At the moment im leaning towards the new system. I do prefer choosing perks over getting a preset perk every 25 lvls.

 

[The Funslinger]

You don't need dragons to do any of those things and why is it that you think that dragons are the be all, end all of enemies? Maybe I have been playing video games too long but I just can't be impressed because they made dragons for this game. What do dragons do in this game that we haven't seen before in other games? Those shouts are just relabeled magic powers, for example, that first set of shouts lets you do a force push. It's fun, it was fun in Lego Star Wars too but it's nothing new.

Don't get me wrong, I didn't expect originality in Skyrim so it doesn't bother me that dragons don't do anything we haven't seen before in other games but I can't understand why everyone acts like they are the second coming of Christ.

One might argue that giant mosquitos could fill the role of flying monsters that can spew fire and land on houses, but you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who prefers them to the current choice.

I never said anything about a be all end all. I merely outlined their usefulness as a game mechanic. If you want to talk about it from a sentimental point of view, tell me one more game that does dragons this way. Sure, a lot of games *have* dragons, but there's precious few who can render the conflict between them and main character in such a personal and non-scripted nature. In Skyrim, killing a dragon is satisfying and rewarding, much more than killing your average mob. It's not the fact that there be dragons in Skyrim, it's the fact that you can personally engage one in a direct fight of pure strength, anywhere, at any level and you're guarranteed at least a little diversity from fight to fight.

From a storyline perspective, you are the Dovahkiin. The game makes it clear that you're the only one who can permanently kill the things and that it's your responsibility to smack them whenever they engage you. It gets the level of conflict down to a more personal nature, something only you can do, something that sets your character apart, without being a pointless demoninator like Spectre or Grey Warden that only serves a purpose in scripted plot events. The impact is akin to the Pocket Plane ability in Throne of Bhaal: you could use it at any time, and it made your character feel truly special as it gave it a measure of power.

Shouts are magic that everyone can use and that cost nothing. More importantly, shouts are rewards. Rewards for exploration, rewards for completing difficult dungeons, rewards for killing dragons. From a game design perspective, this puts them on a completely different level to spells. Spells are things you buy that you shoot at enemies. Shouts are things you earn.

Understand now why Skyrim's dragons make the game better?

I'd also like to add that (while not some stunningly new original concept) dragons are a trope rather than a cliche in this instance. Arguably Skyrim is the most advanced game to feature them, as well. Also, I'd agree that while shouts could be considered relabeled magic abilities, it's about the value the game attributes to them, in your gaining of them, how the shouts function in conjunction with the actual magic within the game and how they're fleshed out with the in game lore. I mean really you can make that argument about any form of flashy special ability in a game. That's never an automatic deal breaker.

 

[Epona]

Number of dragons in Oblivion: 0
Number of dragons in Skyrim: infinity

I don't care and I have never cared about the inclusion of dragons. They're pretty weak anyway but let's be clear that dragons could be replaced with any other creature not present in previous TES games and I would have cared the same, none. To be even clearer, a rat is a wolf is a lion to me and a dragon is a giant is a mammoth to me. High level enemies and low level enemies are the only two types I see.

That everyone was so hyped that there were dragons in this game, I just never understood.

So games are strictly numbers to you?

No of course not but the numbers determine what you can and cannot do. For example, whether or not I can jump on a house in Bruma is determined by my acrobatics skill.

 

[captaincabbage]

Shivering Isles is all I can come up with as as my characters play much better in skyrim.

Yeah, pretty much this.

Seriously the only way Oblivion is better in any way in my opinion is that you could use a shield, sword and a spell all in one. In Skyrim it's either self-preservation or some kickass sith lightning. That seems like a backwards step to me.

Other than that though, I prefer Skyrim in absolutely every way. I love the UI (in both form and functionality), I love the revamped skills and I love that the characters in the game don't look like potatoes with brain tumors.

But hey, it's just a matter of opinion.

 

[Vanguard_Ex]

Are you shitting me?

Oblivion's character creation was fucking dire, Skyrim's absolutely destroys it.

 

[The Last Parade]

all I can think of is that oblivion probably had a more informative tutorial, other than that vanilla oblivion is inferior to vanilla skyrim... so is modded oblivion actually