I agree, played the TES series all the way to when Arena came out (early 90's? Can't remember!) Loved every release, I think Morrowind like many others was the best for storyline, but like you said when I count the hundreds of hours I have put into EVERY one of Bethesda's releases (including FO3) how can you nitpick? Value for money anyone? I am all for improving a game but considering what Bethesda puts out IMO is so far superior to anything the competitors have released, how can I complain?

I trust they know what they are doing, they have been at it for long enough, and they said they have employed new talent which I think will polish off some things like the animations for example, to make Skyrim the best game they have released yet !

I agree. Both Morrowind and Oblivion are incredible games in their own ways. I've played through them both and have lost many hours to each. I think I've played Oblivion more than Morrowind but that's only because I discovered The Elder Scrolls games when Oblivion came out and played Morrowind after the fact. In any case, I highly disagree with the notion that Oblivion is a "bad" game. Disappointing to some? Fair enough, but IMO anyone who says that it's a "bad" game had their expectations set WAAAYYYY too high.

I too can say that Bethesda, at least as far as their RPGs go, have never disappointed me.

BTW, TES > Gothic...by FAR!

I would consider the "final battle" to be part of the ending. As for the slides I've never played Fallout 1 or 2 so I guess I had no expectations for them :shrug:

Edit* also, this is really just a matter of taste and opinion. OP's never been disappointed among others and some of us have. That's just logical. /pointless thread almost?

You probably haven't played too many games if you think FO3 had one of the most disappointing endings ever. I can remember going back to the days of the original NES and playing hours on end in an effort to beat some games and the endings were SOOOOooooo dissatisfying. Case in point, Rampage. You play for HOURS and HOURS doing the same dumb thing each and every level. What do you get when you finally beat something like 100 levels? One word on the screen, "Congratulations". That's it. No cinematic, no funny cartoon sequence, no resolution to a story. Just "Congratulations". I came close to throwing my NES out of a 2nd story window that day.

Anyway, I didn't mind the FO3 ending. I think the FNV ending was better, for sure, but FO3's was fine and I still enjoyed the game immensely.

I think that the reason people didnt like oblivion as much as morrowind is because for oblivion they were experimenting with alot of it, also maybe the amazingness of the games skips generations, arean was awesome daggerfall wasnt better but still good Morrowind was amazing then oblivion was awesome but not better so guess what people Skyrim will be orgismic... that was a joke if you couldnt tell

OP is right. One TES game does not < or > another. They all have their issues, but, as far as I can tell, there is no utterly crippling cause for complaint present in any one game.

Bethesda does what they do, and they do it well. I am of the opinion that Bethesda cranks out a masterpiece every-time they start a project, and I trust them to make something great as they always have.

Things in Fall out 3 and Oblivion disappointed me personally, I gave up on Fall out 3 and stuck with Oblivion, liked it a lot but there were things that got to me and I do hope they fix it in the new instalment

Morrowind fans may bash Oblivion hard, but they also acknowledge what it did well and that Morrowind wasn't perfect. It feels as if you don't praise Oblivion, then you're bashing it.

There is nothing I hate more than people bashing on a game. It is a game first of all, so it can't possibly appeal to everyone, so just because you don't like it doesn't mean you can bash on it. Just simply say you don't like it and it will save you a whole lot of headaches and flame wars.

Horse Armor.

I have to agree.

Bethesda has never released a game that has disappointed me.

Morrowind
Oblivion
Fallout 3
New Vegas

There have been small parts of each game that I think should have been done better, but they are very very small things.

Over all, no game Bethesda has released has ever disappointed me or let me down in any way.

I simply can not wait until Skyrim comes out!!!

bliviongate:

I think that Oblivion is heavily criticized because many people find Morrowind to be superior, not because they don't like Oblivion.

There was a lot to like about Oblivion. There was a lot I didn't like about it too, but not enough to completely overshadow what I did like.

The more generic environment kind of bugged me, but it was still dont pretty well and had enough unique aspects to overcome the IMO generic basis.
The magical compass of all knowing was absurd and took out the enjoyment of actually finding anything, but I just kind of took it a s a given that discovery was no longer part of the series.
The universal Fast Travel irritated me particularly since it meant the exclusion of thought out systems of transport, but I just tried to deal with it.

I'd like Skyrim to have more thought put into it instead of shortcuts, but even if it is a schmorgasboard of shortcuts the world will still be interesting.

The Fallout 3 ending had a wuss for the final boss who also had NO backstory so I felt nothing when I killed him..... then the stupid "kill yourself to save the wasteland" BS..... just cut the power, fix it, then start it up appropriately, duh. WAIT!!! that would make sense. The ending slides were a huge disappointment compared to 1,2, and NV because of no details about how you affected all of the different towns and such.

Oblivion had a lot of great quests, but the combat and spell systems were pretty blah even for its time period. The leveling system was also completely messed up... rewarding you for NOT using your major skills the most and punishing if you did.

There are a lot of RPGs as good or better than Oblivion in many people's eyes, but the beauty of art is in the eye of the beholder.

Obsidian needs to invest in a quality-control division. Neverwinter Night 2 was so buggy that I literally could not finish the main quest.

Its true their games are notoriously buggy, but bethesda isnt much better in this regard, i had to get an alternative start mod for fallout 3 just because the constant crashes made making it out of the vault impossible.

Great idea, let's all stop debating because this guy hasn't been disappointed yet!

The leveling system in Oblivion severely disappointed me.

I think you are missing the point of the criticism. It's relative to previous games, almost entirely. Folks who have played Beth games for many years, have wanted Beth to build on what they had before. For many good reasons, I'm sure, Beth wanted to market to a wider audience, which made them more money. I completely understand this....wish it was different, but the dream of having a game studio make a game just for me, isn't realistic. They have to conform to what is going to drive business. For those of us that were around for Arena, that's disappointing, as Arena and then DF showed an ascending series for the RPG player. Since DF, it has gone the other direction. A little with MW and then a little further with Oblivion. Again, not trying to be confrontational with anyone, but the perspective is based a lot on what games you've played with Beth and how long you've been playing them. Most of us had an expectation the series would evolve, rather than contract.

In a way I agree... However, so far TES is my favorite RPG series. During Morrowind, it was by such a large margin that it was incomprehensible that any other series of RPG or any other game would even come close in originality, content, and time consumed from my life... Oblivion was different, it was a really good game, better then any other game on the market, but not even close to by the same margin, and today the alternative Role-Play games becoming available, are not offering the same level of freedom still, but they are often offering much better plot lines, character development, stories, intrigue, systems and combat. The problem I see, is they are cutting down on the freedom, and trying to improve on all the other things many other RPG games are now beating them on. Rather then focusing on what made TES good, they're becoming more and more like the other RPG games on the market, and its simply not their Forte.

The contention isn't that they won't make a good game, its that its no longer unreasonable that another company will come out with a game better then theirs, because the fact is, other companies are still trying to be original and push the boundaries a little bit, while Bethesda is trying to adopt from the other companies what its not so good at. So yes, I trust Bethesda to make a good game, and I will play it, and I will enjoy it, but I have this feeling that the old TES I used to know is slowly dying, and further, that TES will not remain my favorite RPG for much longer, because the market will move into its territory and a company and developers with a little bit more nerve willing to take some risks will tromp them.

Frankly I give Bethesda the benefit of the doubt, but I will be checking back on this point in about one month, as I think a new flagship may arrive in that time...

Well.... Good for you! No sarcasm, I do agree with you though.

Just look at Morrowind compared to Fallout New Vegas.

Morrowind is a different kind of beast, i honestly dont think bethesda has it in them to create an RPG with morrowinds depth anymore (i really hope im wrong though), but Bethesda removes more and more RPG features with each sequal.

The point i was making is bethesda leant their most recent RPG to obsidian and they improved on every facet of of it.

I also trust that Bethesda will make an awesome game out of Skyrim, I just gripe from time to time because I like the games a lot. Really looking forward to another Elder Scrolls :celebration:

Sickle, we have similar views on Bethesda. If they can bring Skyrim to Morrowind-esque depth, I'll be insanely impressed.