But don't look into those sites too much yet before you get the game, you should find out about the series from the game and not those websites.

You probably want to try other Bethesda games because you enjoyed Fallout 3. And even though Morrowind follows the same system (sets of skills, open world, levels, etc..) Oblivion seems like a better fit (fully voiced dialog, more recent graphics, thriving modding community etc..)

The OP seemed to suggest that he doesn't care about graphics or voice acting that much. :shrug:

Regardless, things like quest layout and map markers from Oblivion are more relevant to the fallout 3 experience. Thats just my own opinion speaking out.

Whichever game you decide to get, Morrowind or Oblivion, I would say get the GOTY version. I bought the Morrowind Collector's Edition back in 2002 and I've rarely looked at or listened to any of the extra goodies that came with mine. The Art of Morrowind book is the most valuable extra, but to be honest I've only looked at it maybe three or four times in eight years. I still have my pewter figurine, but I think it's in a box somewhere. I never once listened to the soundtrack CD (I spent so many hours listening to the music while playing the game that I eventually turned the music off because it was getting repetitious).

As far as I'm concerned "Collector's Editions" are nothing more than marketing gimmicks aimed at impressionable players with an abundance of disposable income. If you've got the extra money to spend on trifles by all means, go ahead and buy the CE. But I would buy the full game before I bought some one-inch-high pewter figurine and a paper map.

in my humble opinion morrowind is vastly superior, allthough there are alot of stuff you need to get into and used to fully enjoy it, so give it time, it'll become the best game you've ever bought (was to me). Oblivion is friendlier to you and wont have you wandering around for hours in the wilderness, this comes with the downside that it lacks depth and very few interesting things to do outside of quests (which there are alot of though). So ye, as most ppl have said, get both but play morrowind first

Recommend getting Morrowind first followed by Oblivion.

Get Morrowind first, but you must be patient with that game.
Its quite old and has an stiff combat system, mostly boring conversation system, and outdated graphics.
But, despite that, its amazing and unique world and story make it a masterpiece.
Also, a strategy guide may be helpful to you. Creating your character is one of the most important parts of the game and requires a lot of strategic thinking.

I'm not a spoiled FO3 guy, I play FO1 and 2 more then FO3 in the first place. Great graphics and voiced dialog isn't exactly important. You're right the only reason I was wondering about TES was FO3, I will play Oblivion but I want to play Morrowind first. Thanks for the help though :tops:


@xXAntibodyXx so I'm ordering the Morrowind collectors edition on eBay right now and it should be here by next week. Are there any specific mods you would recommend? Also, Morrowind being such a huge game should I get the strategy guide so I can find out things I need to know without spamming the Morrowind forum?
Thanks a lot man

Get both they are on sale on steam . Two goty versions for less than the price of one.

First off, I wouldn't recommend getting a strategy guide, if you have any problems just go http://www.uesp.net/. It's the most reliable wiki for The Elder Scrolls in terms of finding out quest info and all that, though if you want to find out about lore and lore only at some point in the future you should check out http://www.imperial-library.info/.

As for mods, well, looking http://morrowind2009.wordpress.com/ is a good idea. There are some unnofficial patches listed there you should download, as well as some texture mods. You don't have to download everything there, obviously, just the things you think you'd like. On that page it will recommend downloading MGE (Morrowind Graphics Extender), and I highly recommend downloading it and enabling View Distant Lands. View Distant Lands really helps enhance the Morrowind experience imo, despite what the writer of that page says. Playing with no distant land doesn't give it the same feel imho. I also recommend turning up the Anti-Aliasing to as much as your computer can handle, it really makes a big difference.

Make sure to only adjust MGE in small increments, making sure your computer can handle it. Morrowind is really CPU intensive and unless you have a good CPU fan cranking up all the settings on MGE may not be such a good idea.

If you do turn on distant lands, keep in mind that when you save your game, the game will freeze for a number of seconds as it loads the distant land. This will only happen once every time you load the save, and only when you first step outside. So don't be surprised if you have to wait as long as 30 seconds for your game to unfreeze. Depending on how distant you set the land and how much you have it set to render, the freeze time can be longer or shorter.

Keep in mind that Morrowind has a console like Fallout 3. I don't know if you want to use it or not but entering god mode when you're in a bind isn't shameful. Likewise, the default running speed in Morrowind is REALLY slow, so you may want to immediately edit your speed to be a bit higher as it's better for your sanity. To do so, all you need to do when you are in the game is use the Tab key to go into third person mode, use the ~ key to open the console, click on your character so the console box says you're editing your save game, then type "setspeed 60", or higher if you want, press enter and there you go. God mod is as simple as typing "tgm" and pressing enter, and you don't have to click on your character to use it. You may also run into clipping issues, so using "tcl" can be very helpful at times. Type it again to turn it off. For a full list of console commands go http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Console.

Oh, and you should know, skills don't increase like they do in Fallout. Skills increase as you use them, and don't increase if you don't. So basically, the more you use Short Swords, the more that skill increases. The more you use a specific type of magic, the more that skill increases. The more you jump and run around, the more your Agility skill increases. And so on and so forth.

Edit:

Also, don't attack http://www.uesp.net/morrow/monsters/images/scrib.jpg because they are cute n' cuddly n' stuff. They wont attack you, and you may at first think it's because of the crappy AI when in fact they're just non-hostile. Speaking of which, the AI in Morrowind is pretty bad. There is no compass that shows whether or not someone is a friend or enemy, so the fact that hostile NPCs don't usually attack you right away if you see them first can be a problem. The best way to find out is to run up to them and press the talk button, i.e. the spacebar. If a box pops up saying they're in combat, despite them just standing there, start killing them. If a dialogue box pops up, congratulations you just stopped yourself from killing a friendly. You'll encounter this problem a lot.

Likewise, stealth is rather bad. NPCs NEVER sleep and rarely move from a specific spot, so while stealing things around their house or store is easy as long as they can't see you, anything near them is forever off-limits because they never move. There's a mod that changes this but it just creates more problems when you actually want to find someone and they're off wandering around in some random place, so I wouldn't recommend it.

Get both but play Morrowind first. You'll be (Probably) spoiled by Oblivions sneak and combat systems, so Morrowind first, then Oblivion.

And if you want to be a true TES fan and a lore buff, you've got to get Redguard.

Redguard will give him a totally wrong impression of what the TES series is currently like. It's far too linear. Maybe he could try it once he actually becomes a big fan of the series, and after playing Morrowind and Oblivion, but until then I wouldn't recommend that as his first TES game.

I agree. I'd be more inclined to say: if you want to be a true TES fan and a lore buff, you've got to get Daggerfall.

MW feels like it's from a different age of video games at this point. If you pick it up have time and a bit of determination in case acclimating is a bit rough.

Excellent game beyond that though.

Yes, the speed in Morrowind is kinda slow, especially if you don't have high athletics and speed... I'd rather use a mod to change the walk/run speed of all characters in the game, instead of using the console to "cheat" my way up to a decent speed attribute.

And I won't encourage the use of "tgm", it's pure cheating; and I don't know how that's not shameful.
If something goes wrong, reload your last save instead. The console should be for bugfixing only IMO.

But I guess this is mostly about each player's preferences. If you don't consider cheating being cheating, then go ahead.

I'll recommend learning to use mark/recall and intervention spells (or scrolls and magic items with these effects), as these spells are teleport spells, and make getting somewhere less of a pain.

Also... save often. It can also be a good idea to have several saves to be able to go back to if you die or somehow screw up.

I guess you answered your own question before you even posed it?

I only have one reason as to why Morrowind first. Simply, if you play Oblivion and then Morrowind, the graphics will seem crappy, but if you play Morrowind and then Oblivion, you'll just feel that Morrowinds graphics are decent and Oblivions are good, rather than Oblivions are decent and Morrrowinds are bad.

Lol, my bad. I just copy-pasted from someone elses post instead of quoting. Fixed now.

How is that different from cheating? Using a mod to increase your run speed is simply a more inefficient way of cheating, and increasing the speed of all NPCs in the game doesn't make much of a difference when enemy AI is essentially "stay in a single spot and get killed."



There are quite a few situations where using tgm is simply a good last resort if you're at a low level. For example, after exploring Azura's Coast mainly via swimming and getting attacked by literally close to a hundred, if not more, slaughterfish during that time, I consider tgm a godsend in those types of situations. If the OP doesn't want to use it then fine, but it's not going to lessen his experience if he doesn't have to do something as ridiculous as fighting of dozens upon dozens of slaughterfish in a single stretch of coastline.

If all NPCs have increased speed, you will not be able to outrun enemies you would outrun using the console method. And if the slaughterfish are too much of a threat, just don't swim the first levels.

I'm not going to agree with you, I've made up my mind on this matter, so let's not to take this any further. I'll let you have your own opinion, and OP can decide for himself.

Well at least we can agree on that. :foodndrink:

Morrowind is great for "everything" (well, the item diversity, the deseases, the levitate effect/spell... and of curse, the Cliffracers :hubbahubba: ).

Oblivion has great graphics, a physic engine!, we can buy houses... well thing Morrowind doesn't have,... but also things that they didn't put, for I don't know what reason.

... I forgot to tell you that if you buy Morrowind, buy the GOTY edition.

I believe this might be true only if a player experienced Oblivion's running speed first. Personally, I thought Morrowind's base running speed was far more realistic for a character who had presumably been in prison for some time. When I began playing Oblivion I modded Oblivion's running speed down by one-third so that I didn't feel my character was on amphetamines.

By accident I also found that lowering the running speed helps make the game world feel a little larger. Add a mod to get rid of Oblivion's near-infinite view distance and Cyrodiil finally feels larger than Vvardenfell.