Random thoughts on Morrowind Vs. Oblivion

[John Lau]

Okay, so I know many of you have tried Oblivion and I just recently got my
grubby little hands on it at a cyber cafe and gave it a whirl. Here are my
thoughts:

First off, I must say that the graphics are awesome. They totally and
completely exceeded my expectations. The details, textures, and light
effects completely blew me away. I was honestly surprised how "solid"
everything looked. On a related note, I thought it was neat how you can
change the details of your character's face, but ultimately I thought that
this was kind of pointless because you don't look at your own face much
anyways and this isn't an MMORPG. Plus, I noticed that all the non-beast
faces kind of came out the same regardless of race. The Dunmer faces
definitely looked less "Elf" like and more human. In Morrowind, the Dunmer
and the Bosmer looked quite different from the humans.

Okay, I also noticed that Magicka regenerates in real time much like
Endurance and that Endurance regenerates rather quickly. Plus, it seems
that they got rid of "Major" and "Minor" skills. I also noticed that the
weapon system seems to be more simplified. All in all, my friends tell me
that Oblivion has been dumbed down as far as mechanics go. Part of the
reason why I like Morrowind is the initial harshness of the game. I really
didn't get that with Oblivion.

Soo.... does that mean I'm gonna rush out and start playing Oblivion? Not
likely.... I'm still exploring the Morrowind world. This is different from
say, Fallout, which I've played more times than I can count and I know the
game backwards and forwards. I feel that there is so much more for me to do
in Morrowind that I'm not quite ready to move on just yet. Maybe once I win
the game as a Mage, I'll be ready to switch over.

That's the end of my rant, thanks for reading!



-John

[MTD]

As you say, many things have been dumbed down a bit in Oblivion. This
is not necessarily a bad thing, it's a matter of taste; to take an
example, some people hate mission markers, but I prefer to get on with
the quest without wandering about aimlessly until I find the right NPC
/ object in the right place at the right time.

The quests in Oblivion are generally individually more interesting than
the ones in Morrowind, I find, and have more intruiging twists and
turns. That being said, there seem to be less, too.

Graphically, Oblivion is simply stunning; travelling across country in
Morrowind was more tedious because there was less eye-candy.

I hate the level-dependency of Oblivion; thank god it could be modded
out.

I do prefer my character's progression in Oblivion, but this has more
to do with the fact that there are no obvious abusive loops to exploit
(or at least, that I've seen), unlike in Morrowind, where extreme
Alchemy was one of the best "legal" exploits in the game. In Morrowind,
most of my levelling came from excess cash made from Alchemy and/or
training Alchemy to 100; in Oblivion, all my levelling has been done
the "hard" way and I like it!

The reduced skill set is a little annoying, but on the other hand I can
live with it.

Overall, I really love both games; I think I prefer Oblivion, but only
with certain mods. If I were forced to play without mods I'd probably
be happier with Morrowind.

[FTA]

On Wed, 31 May 2006 17:52:16 -0700, "John Lau"

Post by John Lau
Okay, I also noticed that Magicka regenerates in real time much like
Endurance and that Endurance regenerates rather quickly. Plus, it seems
that they got rid of "Major" and "Minor" skills. I also noticed that the
weapon system seems to be more simplified. All in all, my friends tell me
that Oblivion has been dumbed down as far as mechanics go. Part of the
reason why I like Morrowind is the initial harshness of the game. I really
didn't get that with Oblivion.

To start, Oblivion has Major and Minor skills, though the skills were
changed in Oblivion. Considering that the changes to skills contain
both good points and bad points (in my opinion), I'm still undecided
how what I think of them. In Oblivion, I Love the Physics engine,
it's GREAT Fun blasting movable things with Fireballs and watching the
result! ^_^ In Morrowind, spells had no real affect on things in the
game.

I do think that Morrowind was a GREAT game! Over several years, I
created and played to boredom more than 2 dozen characters using a
series of ever changing mods in the game. It's the replay ability
factor along with some GREAT Must Have mods that made Morrowind a
Great game that ranks as one of the Top 5 games I've ever played. I
may even return to playing Morrowind someday, however for now I'm
TOTALLY burnt out on playing the game.

On the other hand, the Oblivion game map is MUCH Larger than in
Morrowind (as it should be) and the graphics are Great! Oblivion also
has A LOT more locations (caves, forts, etc...) to explore than exist
in Morrowind. And while I do like the fact that foes and treasure in
them respawn after you clean them out, it happens WAY Too Quickly! It
happens so quickly that someone could clean out one location, go clean
out a second one, and by the time they clean out a third location, the
first location should be restocked for them to loot again. Oblivion's
rapid location respawning kind of removes the incentive to keep
looking for new locations to explore looking for better loot. :(
Granted I'm sure that a modder will soon make a mod that changes the
game's respawn time of 3 game days after your character's last visit,
(which I believe the game uses) to maybe a more realistic several game
weeks later.

Some of the things I liked better in Morrowind was collecting soul
gems filled with the souls of various foes my characters encountered
and killed in the game! I enjoyed seeing the named souls in my filled
soul gems, as well as trying to collect one of each type of soul in
the game. I also Loved the various Morrowind wildlife mods that added
things like Sharks, Jellyfish, and other new critters to the game.
Obilivion doesn't seem to have much wildlife variety, though hopefully
some creative modders will fix that soon. Then there were the self
made quests that some here gave themselves such as trying to collect
EVERY spoon in Morrowind, or Stacking pillows ever higher on top of
each other (the physics engine in Obilivion and the lack of a
levitation spell wouldn't allow a character to do that) until they
quickly became the tallest thing in the game...

Over all I like Oblivion, however I'm starting to get bored with my
current level 43 character. At this stage, I'm not sure if I want to
keep playing with him, or start a new character, or maybe stop playing
Obilivion for awhile until the various bugs in the game are fixed, and
some more advanced mods are created for the game. Obilivion just
doesn't seem to have the replayability factor (which is important in a
Great game) that Morrowind and Daggerfall before it did. :(

I do know that my next Must Buy game is Gothic 3, which should be
released with Great graphics before Christmas of this year. For now,
I think I'll go back to playing the Sims 2 with some new mods for
awhile...


That's my 2¢,

FTA


"In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."

-Martin Luther King Jr.

[Freddy]

On Wed, 31 May 2006 17:52:16 -0700, "John Lau"

Post by John Lau
Okay, so I know many of you have tried Oblivion and I just recently got my
grubby little hands on it at a cyber cafe and gave it a whirl. Here are my

<snip>

Post by John Lau
Soo.... does that mean I'm gonna rush out and start playing Oblivion? Not
likely.... I'm still exploring the Morrowind world. This is different from
say, Fallout, which I've played more times than I can count and I know the
game backwards and forwards. I feel that there is so much more for me to do
in Morrowind that I'm not quite ready to move on just yet. Maybe once I win
the game as a Mage, I'll be ready to switch over.

</snip>

Post by John Lau
That's the end of my rant, thanks for reading!
-John

I agree wholeheartedly, it's not the pictures that make a game good,
it's how much fun you have playing.
In Morrowind my 40th level character has only just gone to mournhold,
and I haven't finished the main quest yet either...
So many things to do, so little time :)

Have a good one,
Freddy