If Skyrim is your first TES game then I would reccomend you later try out Oblivion and Morrowind. A fresh player will probably find both enjoyable once you get used to the backward step in some areas.

My latest character has been just doing the Thieves Guild and a few side quests and I have personally avoided the main quest with him and there are no dragons in his Skyrim yet. It has been really refreshing. The dragons definitely are not as appealing to me as they are to some people ....

Oblivion helped build up Skyrim, and reveal a lot of possible flaws that would otherwise be in the current game, but on terms of surpassing it, theres probably only a couple instances, such as the Thieve's guild quest-line actually being about stealing.

(seriously it was nothing but dungeons and nocturnal in skyrim)

It's DB was at least equal in my opinion, since Skyrim's was a bit short. Other then that, no, it doesn't surpass it.

Now daggerfall on the other hand...

Considering Oblivion in vanilla (unmodded) state? I'd much sooner return to vanilla Morrowind. Vanilla Oblivion svcked imho. For me vanilla Oblivion was a much much worse experience then Skyrim, It annoyed me to hell for various reasons. But to each their own. Personal tastes are highly subjective.

With mods it's another matter. I still play both modded Morrowind and modded Oblivion. Both, with mods, eat Skyrim in it's current state for breakfast imho.

That said, I am having a blast with Skyrim, even though it's far from perfect and even though there's so much Beth could have done better. Once the CK is out mods will undoubtedly fix what needs fixing, besides adding massive amounts of content, and in the end I do believe mods will make Skyrim rule.

Good point!
Imagine where Skyrim mods will be at, five years from now when the next TES game is released...would Oblivion then come even close to compare?

This.

I got mods to fix many of the issues, so Oblivion is amazing.
My only gripe would be the faces.

Oblivion was awsome but after playing skyrim I don`t even want to look at oblivion. I do miss things from oblivion. they should bring the oblvion gates to skyrim and the fighers guild, not the short crappy questline they call the companions. Or how about the ghost gate from morrowind? Some sealed off place that plays another part in the game. so many ideas could be taken from past games and integrated into skyrim to make it fit. I miss clanfears and cliffracers. I miss minotaurs and ogres. I `d like to see a merchant caravan or ship from mournhold to skyrim guarded by ordinators with quests to aid them in recovering relics or tracking down a thief that stole the hopesfire from the crypt of the nerevar.

Could do so many things that could really make the game pop alot more.

I wouldn't go this far. Honestly, forcing you to unequip melee items to cast spells was a huge drawback of the change to skyrim. They can keep their dual casting if we could switch between spells and items without touching an interface like we could before.

Oh, and I plan on going back to OOO's version of Oblivion with Morroblivion addon soon.

Also, I really hope Oscuro does an overhaul mod for this one.

I play both Morrowind and Oblivion from time to time, so yes.

At the moment i have Morrowind and Skyrim installed, i play Morrowind most weekends and bit of Skyrim during the week. I am sure that some time in the future i will also reinstall Oblivion and have another modded playthrough.

It almost feels like each game is its own faction on these forums, i see many people who love this one but hate that one etc... am i the only person who can enjoy all of them? Graphics mean nothing to me. If they did i would just install some of the graphic mods that are out there. Morrowind is my favourite of the 4 TES games i've played, but i enjoy them all very much.

No. After playing more recent games, the world of Oblivion seems sparse and drab. I cannot go back to it.

I really like Oblivion, apart from the Oblivion gates which i detest, but I will go back to it at some stage. At the moment i still have alot more to do in Skyrim first.

Also i will go back and play Morroblivion at some stage too.

Not to mentions the dungeons are all copy-pasted. Most of em
The reason thats keeping me from oblivion would probably be the graphics. I do miss the persuasion stuff though.

Nooo. Skyrim is way better

I don't know if I could go back and I love Oblivion. The game wouldn't feel right without the changes that Skyrim made, I wouldn't mind infinite gold from the merchants but I would mind the terrible Attribute system and horrible over use of Level Scaling.

Yeah I'll go back sooner or later. It's a nice gameworld and there's still some stuff I haven't done. I see Skyrim as very much a continuation. It doesn't make Oblivion obsolete in my eyes.

They just get bored just like closing Oblivion Gates all the time. I can't go anywhere without there are at least two Dragons. Also i liked the World of Cyrodiil much more (Don't like that cold clima) . And also the NPC were much more alive then in Skyrim, the player fitted better in the world. In Skyrim he seems to be an ignorant Cyborg who doesn't even look at the other NPCs.

I absolutely loved oblivion, spent years on that game. But I have a confession.. I never once finished the main questline in oblivion, I just never got into it. Yet I'm about to finish Skyrim's main quest for the second time, so yeah, im going back if only for a little while

Don't punish yourself--if Oblivion is better for you, go for it--life's too short.

No, I don't look back only to experience the lack of an earlier fascination that is no more.

I recently purchased Oblivion for the PC and i think this game is crap!

I recently purchased Oblivion on PC and i believe this game is crap!!

If you think it is crap, you must have trouble enjoying any games.

It isn't the best game ever, but it certainly isn't crap.

Mods are what make TES games great. Vanilla games aren't that good but still worth.

Guilds were also better, their quest lines were longer for a start.