» Sat Sep 18, 2010 5:16 am
Hmmm ... I'd have to say that Morrowind is my favourite game, though I do think that Fallout 3 is a slightly better game. They occupy my top two at any rate.
Morrowind, because it presents such a believable fantasy, if that makes sense - it's just gritty enough to feel like a real place. The conversations people have, the architecture, the books, everything hints at a living, breathing culture and history. It offers the strange and alien and presents it as utterly mundane, while at the same time offering setpieces that (at the time) took my breath away. You just accept Ald'ruhn and Vivec as being real places where people live, but walking through the council hall in Sadrith Mora or the ancient tombs in my quest for the Ashlanders left me awed and humbled. Even though the main quest was pretty standard it was handled in a very interesting way. You didn't feel like your interactions with the various communities was box-ticking and forced. The baddies were strange and disgusting and, at times, terrifying. The expansions were unforgettable.
Fallout 3 is a slightly better game because it does pretty much everything Morrowind does, slightly better. The only reason Morrowind retains the number one spot in my heart is because it is alien and strange, and because it was the first game I ever loved in quite that way.