Ok still playing the game and it still moves me of its wonder even though I have been playing almost everyday for a whole year now lol. I cant put my finger on it but I believe hands down its the best game world o have ever tried exploring.
Now I love oblivions map and I believe they nailed yhe whole "knights of the round table era" vibe down pat and ive explored everywhere in skyrim. Skyrim with texture mods is down right beautiful.

So why is it that I am amazed of a land mass from over 10 yrs ago that I get nowhere near the same vibe as I do from the newer and more "graphically" better landmasses? Yes I do play with graphics overhaul and vurts flora.

Is it because of thw different types of landmasses? Granted the landmasses are done very well but oblivion and skyrim had differwnt type of landmasses.

I guess to me it boils down to 3 different things that by themselves would seem so small but because of how greatly and rightly done they are I believe has made the most impact.

Reason 1. Open cities. The cities tbh arent even that much bigger than ob and skys cities but the different amount of shops and temples and npc houses in an open area that can be tranversed by almost any direction instead of "only way in portals" that ob and sky have I believe makes a huge difference.

Reason 2. The strangeness and unigueness of the land and cities are so unique feeling but fit and compliment not only the area but the mood and culture its around. I cant really explain it better than that. Ob amd sky in their vanilla games dont even come close to how well the culture and such is blended in the area and ideals aroumd them. Again hard to really explain.

Reason 3. areas are not made for u to HAVE to explore, they just are there. How many times in oblivion or skyrim did we actually find an area of interest that had NO and absolutely NO quests pushing us into that area? Morrowind is absolutely littered with hidy holes, smuggler caves, ruins, and areas that are not part of any quest what so ever that if we played every single quest in a way we are supposed to, we wouldn't have seen and experienced everything or close to it in the game. How many times have u dived into a sunken ship, cleared out a smugglers cave, explored a dwermer or daesric ruin and literally had no quest whatsoever in the game saying "hey, go to this place and do this". Oblivion and skyrim are littered with explorable areas that a vast majority of them we would have eventually came across because a quest would have sent us there. I know its them mKing sure everywhere they made gets used, but morfowind had soooo many areas that to this day people are still finding after ao long of playing because they went exploring and adventuring.

And ill throw in a bonus 4th one that I believe needs no explanation.
Reason 4. The sheer beauty of the land.

Thanks for reading my thoughts and opionion on the matter.

For me, it is the little things that get tucked into the landscape. That little island north of Khuul for example. Such a gem in a big world!