Ways that Oblivion is superior to Skyrim

[M4t3us]

Oblivion was better at making me extremely overpowered. Seriously, make a Daedric Dagger in Oblivion with Weakness to Magicka 100% for 3 secs, Drain Health 100 for 2secs and Drain Endurance 100 for 1sec... I call it the Heart Stopper!

Skyrim on the other hand... I keep getting my ass handed to me if I'm not careful.

 

[Sion_Barzahd]

Honestly don't get what hes on about, the UI might not be as in-depth but its slicker and simpler which i prefer.

The skills are plotted out so much better than they were in oblivion. including the removal of acrobatics and atheletic which were useless. I didnt even notice they were gone until my housemate mentioned it.

The story line is interesting, which is a massive U-turn from oblivion.

I also like the way spells have been changed, and you can't just do everything with magic (cause lets face it, as cool as the open lock spells were, they were pretty OP.)

Also, mister OP, i'd like to ask this. How exactly is skyrim "dumbed down" in comparison to oblivion?

 

[Hobonicus]

I am glad you enjoy fighting the dragons in this game. I enjoy it too, just as much as I enjoy slashing a wolf and it flies a few feet. Nothing special about that dragon avatar.

Kinda like how fighting Colossi in Shadow of the Colossus and destroying Borgia Towers in Assassin's Creed Brotherhood is exactly the same thing, right? It's all just climbing and pressing a button to win, who cares about in game context. In fact, as long as I think vaguely enough, everything is one big gray line of sameness!

Okay, posts like this were made for no reason than to piss people off, For one, even comparing the two is completely rediculous, they play completely different, have different aesthetics and fight differently, I could go on and on about how stupid it is to bring the two up, but his point is you fight dragons the same as everything else in the game, there is nothing that stands out, if they made the effort to make each fight unique with different ways of killing said dragons (An aerial fight, building ballista to shoot one, etc.) He'd probably have a very different opinion.

My point was that fighting dragons specifically is different than fighting other things, and seeing the game in such ridiculously broad terms as "high level" and "low level" is crazy. As crazy as someone seeing Shadow of the Colossus and Assassin's Creed Brotherhood as "climbing games" without being able to make a distinction.

Yes, fighting Colossi and destroying Borgia towers is entirely different in the context of those games, but from a broader perspective they're just climbing and hitting the win button. That is just as ridiculous as saying fighting a dragon in Skyrim is no different than fighting a wolf. Dragons and wolves (and I'll quote you here) "play completely different, have different aesthetics and fight differently". I have never played a game with unscripted fights like Skyrim's dragons. They are completely unique within and even outside the context of the game.

And I'm not sure why you brought up fighting each dragon in a different way, that's not what anyone is talking about. We're not comparing the dragon fights to each other. Crono1973 compared fighting dragons to rats or wolves or cliff racers, which is absurd because the dragons in Skyrim are in no way a simple palette swap.

And I didn't post just to piss people off, I was demonstrating the ridiculousness of what he said with an analogy.

 

[Danny91]

I love both games for different reasons, but these are the things that I miss from from Oblivion, I don't hate Skyrim for not having them, I just liked them:

1) The Arena

2) Jumping super high (even though I can change that from the console commands, I know)

3) And finally, the thing I miss the most....The little screen that listed all my ranks within organisations, it made me feel special

 

[Epona]

Sounds to me like your PS3 is underperforming, Whilst I never played oblivion on Xbox, Skyrim runs fluidly, and the loading screens almost don't exist.

I guess there are alot of underperforming PS3's out there then because this problem is widespread. My PS3 is about a month old.

 

[Rayansaki]

- The character creator is worse than the one in Oblivion (which was pretty bad too)

- The UI is ugly compared to the one in Oblivion. It looks like it just has a white/gray frame.

- The UI was designed for looks (that's a failed attempt) rather than functionality. You can't sort your inventory, you can't view your character when equipping stuff.

I disagree with these 3. The interface not only looks much much better than Oblivion IMO, but it actually works better as well. Navigating the map in the PS3 was the most painful thing ever, and having to scroll through 200 keys to get to my azura's star every time is not better functionality in my eyes.

As for the character creation, I see absolutely nothing about it that's worse, aside for the hair colour being more limited (and more realistic).

Looks much better? Seriously, how can a plain black background with a gray frame look better than a wood grain style image?

Navigating the map on the PS3 is painful but ONLY on the PS3, on the 360 and the PC the map works fine. The right stick is not sensitive enough on the PS3 and it seems like Beth could easily fix that if they cared about the PS3.

If you have 200 keys in your inventory, that's your fault. Buy a house and dump them in a chest, drop them or give them to a shopkeeper.

Realism is often a detriment to gameplay. I have been playing RPG's since the SNES and I always made my character in Oblivion have blue hair. A throwback to Breath of Fire. Can't even do that now because choices that aren't realistic aren't allowed. You don't have to make a blue haired character but why does Bethesda care if I do?

Again, it's just opinions, but Yes, I like Skyrim's UI a LOT more. It has good contrast, and the inventory is better organized. I don't care what grain crap Oblivion was trying to go for, but it was fugly in my opinion. And why should I have to leave a key in my house? What if I ever need it eventually?

As for the character creator, sure, the colors in hair are more limited (although better looking, getting a realistic blonde or redhead was impossible in oblivion), but EVERYTHING else has a larger pool of options, and the faces are much more detailed and customizable now.

 

[Epona]

- The character creator is worse than the one in Oblivion (which was pretty bad too)

- The UI is ugly compared to the one in Oblivion. It looks like it just has a white/gray frame.

- The UI was designed for looks (that's a failed attempt) rather than functionality. You can't sort your inventory, you can't view your character when equipping stuff.

I disagree with these 3. The interface not only looks much much better than Oblivion IMO, but it actually works better as well. Navigating the map in the PS3 was the most painful thing ever, and having to scroll through 200 keys to get to my azura's star every time is not better functionality in my eyes.

As for the character creation, I see absolutely nothing about it that's worse, aside for the hair colour being more limited (and more realistic).

Looks much better? Seriously, how can a plain black background with a gray frame look better than a wood grain style image?

Navigating the map on the PS3 is painful but ONLY on the PS3, on the 360 and the PC the map works fine. The right stick is not sensitive enough on the PS3 and it seems like Beth could easily fix that if they cared about the PS3.

If you have 200 keys in your inventory, that's your fault. Buy a house and dump them in a chest, drop them or give them to a shopkeeper.

Realism is often a detriment to gameplay. I have been playing RPG's since the SNES and I always made my character in Oblivion have blue hair. A throwback to Breath of Fire. Can't even do that now because choices that aren't realistic aren't allowed. You don't have to make a blue haired character but why does Bethesda care if I do?

Again, it's just opinions, but Yes, I like Skyrim's UI a LOT more. It has good contrast, and the inventory is better organized. I don't care what grain crap Oblivion was trying to go for, but it was fugly in my opinion. And why should I have to leave a key in my house? What if I ever need it eventually?

As for the character creator, sure, the colors in hair are more limited (although better looking, getting a realistic blonde or redhead was impossible in oblivion), but EVERYTHING else has a larger pool of options, and the faces are much more detailed and customizable now.

Well, I leave the keys in my house and don't recall ever needing any of them. I keep them in my house just in case I ever need them but really I should just give them to a merchant or drop them somewhere. Carrying keys throughout the game is your own fault, it isn't required.

You may think the UI looks better than Oblivions does and that's fine but you can't tell me it's more functional and that is the primary purpose of the UI. There is another thread discussing the menus in Skyrim and most people agree that they suck.

Let me ask you something, why do you think they had to take options out of the character creator this time around? Why couldn't they have the better models AND all the options too?

 

[Warachia]

I am glad you enjoy fighting the dragons in this game. I enjoy it too, just as much as I enjoy slashing a wolf and it flies a few feet. Nothing special about that dragon avatar.

Kinda like how fighting Colossi in Shadow of the Colossus and destroying Borgia Towers in Assassin's Creed Brotherhood is exactly the same thing, right? It's all just climbing and pressing a button to win, who cares about in game context. In fact, as long as I think vaguely enough, everything is one big gray line of sameness!

Okay, posts like this were made for no reason than to piss people off, For one, even comparing the two is completely rediculous, they play completely different, have different aesthetics and fight differently, I could go on and on about how stupid it is to bring the two up, but his point is you fight dragons the same as everything else in the game, there is nothing that stands out, if they made the effort to make each fight unique with different ways of killing said dragons (An aerial fight, building ballista to shoot one, etc.) He'd probably have a very different opinion.

My point was that fighting dragons specifically is different than fighting other things, and seeing the game in such ridiculously broad terms as "high level" and "low level" is crazy. As crazy as someone seeing Shadow of the Colossus and Assassin's Creed Brotherhood as "climbing games" without being able to make a distinction.

Yes, fighting Colossi and destroying Borgia towers is entirely different in the context of those games, but from a broader perspective they're just climbing and hitting the win button. That is just as ridiculous as saying fighting a dragon in Skyrim is no different than fighting a wolf. Dragons and wolves (and I'll quote you here) "play completely different, have different aesthetics and fight differently". I have never played a game with unscripted fights like Skyrim's dragons. They are completely unique within and even outside the context of the game.

And I'm not sure why you brought up fighting each dragon in a different way, that's not what anyone is talking about. We're not comparing the dragon fights to each other. Crono1973 compared fighting dragons to rats or wolves or cliff racers, which is absurd because the dragons in Skyrim are in no way a simple palette swap.

And I didn't post just to piss people off, I was demonstrating the ridiculousness of what he said with an analogy.

He's looking at it too broadly, but ironically you're looking at it too narrowly, You hit the nail on the head though in that he sees all combat in skyrim to be "run up, left click a lot, and win." Although here we'll have to agree to disagree, as I fall in the same position that I don't care what that big monster you kill is, after enough fights, they stop being special in any way.

 

[weirdee]

For what it's worth, I will trade the better look over the sliders, largely because being able to adjust a pie-faced smushed texture in 20 different ways and finding out that none of them could do anything about the train wreck you're saddled with is just so empowering.

If this is solely about what Oblivion does better than Skyrim, and not any arguments about what should have BEEN in Skyrim, faces are not something you can put on that list, because so far you don't need the missing sliders to look like a person and not some masked mutant thing.

 

[Vyper1X]

The Dark Brotherhood missions were better in Oblivion. For example the mission that you have to sneak into a mans house and hide in his walls till he sits on a chair, then you have to crush him with a wall mounted animal head. Also the mission where your trapped in a house with about seven other people and you have to kill them without the others realizing (One of my favorite missions ever). In Skyrim the Dark Brotherhood mission are all just go here and kill this person, with no amusing set up or method.

Also the Mages Guild was far to short and boring.

Skyrim: All fear the giant glowy ball of evil.

Me: Nah, I'm gonna go kill this troll.

 

[makkax1]

On the 360 at least, the game engine in Oblivion wasn't that great. When it 1st came out I loved the game and I bought every single bit of DLC but eventually played it so much that I just got bored. I tried going back to it a little while ago as I still have loads of DLC that I haven't gotten to (inc Shivering Isles) and the constant jerkiness, pop ins, slow down etc.., made it almost unplayable, and once it had its inevitable crash I never bothered putting it back on again. Skyrim doesn't seem to suffer from these graphical glitches (so far). Skyrim's fighting seems much better too.

 

[svenjl]

The UI is slightly better in Oblivion, you can actually sort through items without it getting irritating, which is more than I could say for the PC UI of Skyrim. Aside from that, I can't really think of anything I liked better in Oblivion.

Seriously, I really, really disliked Oblivion and while Skyrim is far from perfect, I actually enjoy playing it.

Yeah, I found Oblivion a chore to play and boring to explore. I could objectively see that it was an amazing game, I just didn't have fun. I am loving Skyrim though. I play on 360, and I reckon the UI is a huge improvement over Oblivion which I found to be messy and inefficient. I think Skyrim has a more streamlined aesthetic and is easier to navigate. In this case simplicity wins for me. Although I was a bit annoyed at the not having a character model displayed in the menu when equipping weapons and apparel.

 

[Sholtz]

So I am a troll with 1300 posts and you are not with 2 posts?

the number of posts has no value in arguments, debates, or make you anymore intelligent or knowledgeable then a guy with 5 posts. For all we know, just like most of your posts in this thread, you could have been just spewing out 1300 trolling/crap posts while people that don't post as often make maybe only 100 posts, but they are all quality posts.

quality>quantity

I think you missed the point. If I were really a troll I wouldn't have lasted this long. While this poster with 2 posts is either brand new and wouldn't know anything about my posting history or was just banned (probably for being a troll) and came back with a new ID.

The way I see it, I posted an unpopular opinion and then went on to defend my OPINION and that made me a troll in the view of many posters here. Crazy how that works, also devalues the word TROLL.

hmm, just thought I should point out the fact that I am neither new nor a blocked troll back for vengence as i have been here since February and that i'v only just recently decicded taht I might start with these forums.

 

[Epona]

So I am a troll with 1300 posts and you are not with 2 posts?

the number of posts has no value in arguments, debates, or make you anymore intelligent or knowledgeable then a guy with 5 posts. For all we know, just like most of your posts in this thread, you could have been just spewing out 1300 trolling/crap posts while people that don't post as often make maybe only 100 posts, but they are all quality posts.

quality>quantity

I think you missed the point. If I were really a troll I wouldn't have lasted this long. While this poster with 2 posts is either brand new and wouldn't know anything about my posting history or was just banned (probably for being a troll) and came back with a new ID.

The way I see it, I posted an unpopular opinion and then went on to defend my OPINION and that made me a troll in the view of many posters here. Crazy how that works, also devalues the word TROLL.

hmm, just thought I should point out the fact that I am neither new nor a blocked troll back for vengence as i have been here since February and that i'v only just recently decicded taht I might start with these forums.

Great way to start!

I don't call other people trolls for having an opinion and sticking by that opinion and I expect to be treated the same way. After all, most of the things said on these boards are opinions and most of the time a person who is willing to type out their opinion is also willing to stand by that opinion.

 

[LordRoyal]

I dont know where people got the idea Oblivion's User Interface was good.

Sure if you played it on the 360, on the PC it was large and low resolution, not to mention your inventory icons were large. Whenever I sparingly played Oblivion I always downloaded a mod that fixed the broken interface. Morrowind didn't have this problem.

 

[Hobonicus]

He's looking at it too broadly, but ironically you're looking at it too narrowly, You hit the nail on the head though in that he sees all combat in skyrim to be "run up, left click a lot, and win." Although here we'll have to agree to disagree, as I fall in the same position that I don't care what that big monster you kill is, after enough fights, they stop being special in any way.

Yeah, I guess we will have to agree to disagree, though I really feel that the dragons in Skyrim are fantastically different than anything else. My character in Skyrim is level 30, killed plenty of dragons, and I just had my first encounter with two at once on the bridge of Windhelm. It was a pretty epic experience, with the guards launching dozens of arrows in the sky, the Skyrim theme's chorus swelling as a dragon turned to make another pass, an NPC that works at the stables being grabbed and sent flying (I found her body a while later while exploring outside Windhelm), having to jump off the bridge into the river to hide and heal just as a spout of frost hits the spot I was standing, a dragon literally crashing into the ground when near death, how afterwards everyone gathered around the dead bones in amazement.

I compare that to my most recent fight with a wolf, wherein I dismounted my horse, unsheathed my weapon, and Lydia shot it dead with an arrow before I could get close enough. Though for the record, even the wolves have their own unique AI with how they'll break off and try to circle behind you.

I consider myself pretty jaded in terms of gameplay, but Skyrim's dragons are still a unique and exciting experience for me. I can certainly see getting bored of them eventually, but I can't see comparing them to something with entirely different AI mechanics and in game context.

 

[ThePilgrim101]

I totally agree! I'll definitely be going back to Oblivion...

...right after the game unglitches my uncurable vampirism, gets rid of the strange green/blue hue under every character's eyes, gives me a separate panel for keys so I don't have to scroll through all 324 of them just to get to a repair hammer, makes companions more useful, adds an actual use for sleeping more than 1 hour a day, makes Oblivion gates actually worth entering, and adds something to do after I've gone through all of the most interesting quests.

Skyrim is - technically and content-wise - a better game.

If we want to talk about the UI, then please explain to me why I need to sort through eighty-billion books, deeds, and keys just to get to my repair hammers? Sure, I could hotkey it (360) but that's a spot that could be used for my chameleon spell which doesn't make much sense considering I could just use invisibility.

The GUI - save, possibly, the map - is much better (in my opinion): essential things are finally separated (potions from ingredients, keys from misc, etc.).

As for the "oh boy, a different enemy avatar!" comments, please. You and I both know that if they replaced the dragons with - say - a rhombus, you'd call them out for adding something that doesn't fit. Yes: avatar and enemy behaviors do matter. That's why the dragons are an improvement over - say - your companions from the last game. Sure, they're not the most difficult things in the world, but they add a flavor to the game that's enjoyable.

As for perks replacing skill enhancements, what's the difference? They're not different than unlocking different abilities at the apprentice, journeyman, expert, and master stages except that there are more to choose from and many appear in between those classic designations, allowing you to better define your playstyle. Additionally, there are more perks in Skyrim than there were bonuses in Oblivion.

Most of the OP sounds like an appeal to nostalgia, if nothing more than crying over elements that are pretty much no different than Oblivion.

TES IV had a worse UI, worse character creator, and was technically inferior (less draw distance on characters, constant loading stops, constant drops in framerate in the bigger battles, etc.).

If you never learned to drop off keys and books in a chest somewhere or never learned to use the hotkeys for your repair hammers, don't pretend to know enough about Oblivion to make a comparison....or were you just exaggerating?

Boy, what an intelligent and well thought-out response. I guess I have no - OH WAIT! I preemptively responded to that already.

"Sure, I could hotkey it (360) but that's a spot that could be used for my chameleon spell which doesn't make much sense considering I could just use invisibility."

360 had eight hotkeys. My battlemage needed all of them for different things.

No, I didn't drop off keys. There was no reason to aside from storage, and then you still have to figure out which keys you need.

What a delightful strawman on your part to undermine my ethos: I didn't store keys therefore I don't know enough about Oblivion. Yes, that's an adequate to response to every refute to you I made.

In response to your other comment, I'm on the 360 genius.

Oblivion is not superior to Skyrim, in any way save for having more Argonians/Khajit.

It's your choice to decide to hold on to all those keys and it's your choice to use all your hotkeys for other things. In other words, you complaints about having to scroll through all those keys is because of your own choices, not because the game forced it.

But the game does force you to scroll through all of them to get to repair hammers if you play as a thief and like to hold onto all of the keys in case you feel like resacking the Cheydinhal Barracks for the lulz. Face it: Oblivion had worse problems sorting out items than Skyrim.

The game *does* - however - force me to retrace through all of my target spells to find the latest fire-based spell I've acquired instead of sorting them by their respective school.

The game *does* - however - force me to constantly check my active effects and read the details to see if I'm suffering from a disease, rather than have NPCs subtly cue it and have a giant red-font splattered on my current active effects.

The game *does* - however - force me to sit through a loading screen every hundred or so steps so that it can load the bear that's waiting around the corner to maul my face off.

Oblivion is a technically inferior and less user friendly game than Skyrim. You're welcome to your opinion, but it's rather markedly different than reality.

EDIT: Not that these new points matter considering you've yet to address any previous ones and would rather default back to this pointless "keys" issue so that you don't have to simply admit most of your points are just abhorrent nostalgia.

 

[Exius Xavarus]

My only problem is the damn menu. I go into the menu index and I choose items. I wanted to drop something I'd picked up and didn't want. But wait, I selected the wrong item category by mistake. So, naturally, I hit the O button. The menu closes altogether and I am back in the game.

.....When I hit the back button, I want to go BACK to the PREVIOUS menu. Not resume the game. >___>

 

[Epona]

I dont know where people got the idea Oblivion's User Interface was good.

Sure if you played it on the 360, on the PC it was large and low resolution, not to mention your inventory icons were large. Whenever I sparingly played Oblivion I always downloaded a mod that fixed the broken interface. Morrowind didn't have this problem.

Well, I don't think it's so much that Oblivions UI was good as much as it's better than Skyrims.

 

[Thirsk]

I always saw the Elder Scrolls as somewhat realistic story fantasy. With Skyrim (and throwing Dragons in en-mass to draw in the kids) just feels like they are moving away from that.

Are you kidding? I find the Stormcloak/Imperial civil war to be one of the most realstically depicted, grey political landscapes an RPG has presented since Morrowind graced us with the House politics.

I'm sure there are many other games out there that do that, but still, you get my drift.

And, as somebody mentioned, the dragons are entirely within the lore. And, you know, you can ignore them and still enjoy many hours of gameplay.

I do, however, feel that Skyrim is a bit too epic at times. I mean, I had barely played for an hour before I'd killed my first dragon, was announced the Dragonborn and was praised as the uniquely awesome hero of the land. All that stuff is great, but I like to feel like I've earned the praise, not gotten it thrown after me for poking my nouse around the Jarl's court for fifteen minutes. If that's what you're getting at, then I kinda see your point - but then again, Skyrim is much greyer and more realistic than Oblivion were.