The True Best Elder Scrolls Game : The Elder Scrolls Series Discussion

» Fri Dec 09, 2011 12:22 pm

It seems to me that with TES games, the first edition that you play is your favorite. The Morrowind "generation" of players love that game above any of the others, and any that will come to be. Many of them can't stand Oblivion, which has just as many zealous fans. That first experience of wonder that you have upon beginning an ES game, bewilderment from the gargantuan world completely open to explore, cannot be recreated. It's like entering Disneyland for the first time. At first the awe verges on panic as you wonder what you should do, where you should go, and feel totally lost. However, as you learn the ropes and familiarize yourself with the world, you develop a love for it. For this reason, we are imprinted with our first ES game and it becomes our favorite, and no matter how many features are added or removed we cannot reclaim that first playthrough. Nostalgia leads us to view our first game as the indisputably superior product. For this reason, I will never love Skyrim as much as my first ES game, and neither will you. However, to enjoy the game to its fullest you should stop comparing, stop trying to mold your present experiences into past ones, and relish in the beauty that Skyrim has to offer exclusively. That's my two cents about the constant arguments regarding the "best" ES game, hopefully it will open some minds to other opinions considering there is no truly best game, rather a best experience.

First you're telling us we'll always prefer a certain ES game because it was our first one, then you tell us to stop wanting certain aspects of it... Seems like a contradiction to me. If we want so many aspects from the first ES game we played, maybe that's because we thought those aspects were important and are needed? Maybe those are aspects that made us love the game in the first place? Maybe we just don't like the other games that much because they feel lacking in certain departments, and not simply because they're not the first ES game we play?

» Fri Dec 09, 2011 9:19 pm

Well I truely LOVED Oblivion, even with all it's flaws (like the fugly characters and the copy-pasted landscaped and dungeons)

Morrowind was my first. I loved it too, but only for the exploration, and discovering what the equipment looked like (the swords and the armors were real classy). I really, REALLY didn't enjoy the gameplay, at all. It felt more like I was watchning my character go through [censored], than actually playing the game. Though I did like the spells and the enchantments.

Skyrim so far is my favorite. I've put about 140 hours into it, and I've yet to feel like I'm running out of stuff to do and places to see.
Of course, it has flaws. But it's a beth game, I EXPECT to have to deal with them.

» Fri Dec 09, 2011 11:00 pm

Wow. You sir are open minded to go back that far (2 gens) and retain immersion.

Props to you. I'm impressed.

Even better, I 've been playing last week the GOTY edition on... xbox, even like that I just love the game more than Skyrim.

My wet dream: Skyrim graphics+Morrowind gameplay

» Fri Dec 09, 2011 12:34 pm

For the thousandth time, it isn't just nostalgia.

I like Morrowind the most because I consider it to be the best in the series; not because it was the first game in the series I played. There are dozens of game series out there where the game I consider to be the best isn't the first one I played.

» Fri Dec 09, 2011 7:09 pm

As much as I like the series I never trully loved it until Skyrim. Morrowind was okay, you had a lot of freedom and could explore interesting places, but the story was weak and npc interaction was poor. Oblivion was okay but the leveling system was bad, npcs were still unisteresting, and the monster leveling system was ridiculous. Skyrim is amazing because it has none of those game flaws and managed to improve on all areas, and that is why it is my favorite so far. The only problem with it is that its too easy, but I guess mods will take care of it.

» Fri Dec 09, 2011 11:37 am

Morrowind was my first -- I was not impressed with it. The first 20 hours of play I was in heaven, but everything just went downhill as I got deeper into the game. Skyrim is by far my favorite (despite bugs and lag).

» Fri Dec 09, 2011 11:54 am

Started with Morrowind (spent a whole summer playing it to death and I still haven't seen everything in the game), liked Oblivion as well (the Dark Brotherhood and Thieves Guild questlines just were really cool), but not as much as Morrowind, because of the freakin balancing issues in the vanilla version. But I gotta say that Skyrim certainly has the potential to take the crown. The lore has reached a point of [censored]in epic potential and Skyrim does use that to its advantage, even though it could be better. If the upcoming DLCs utilize this potential, I will put my hands down for Skyrim as best TES I played.

What Skyrim lacks in terms of amount of content and NPCs and questline length compared to Morrowind it makes up for in terms of immersion and quest structure as well as gameplay imho.

Atm Skyrim and Morrowind are both on equal footing in my book and above Oblivion.

» Fri Dec 09, 2011 7:51 pm

Daggerfall,morrowind, battlespire, skyrim(this may change) oblivion.
In that order what include arena in it.

sorry for typos.

» Fri Dec 09, 2011 8:00 pm

I have played them all.... Daggerfall holds a special place in my heart..... as cheesy as it looks now..... it was one huge place to explore back in the day,,,, plus they had the 8 bit topless chicks lol

edit: I remember Arena and that starter dungeon.... mapped it out on graph paper so I had the whole thing down pat...... back in the days before "guides" lol

» Fri Dec 09, 2011 10:54 pm

It seems to me that with TES games, the first edition that you play is your favorite. The Morrowind "generation" of players love that game above any of the others, and any that will come to be. Many of them can't stand Oblivion, which has just as many zealous fans. That first experience of wonder that you have upon beginning an ES game, bewilderment from the gargantuan world completely open to explore, cannot be recreated. It's like entering Disneyland for the first time. At first the awe verges on panic as you wonder what you should do, where you should go, and feel totally lost. However, as you learn the ropes and familiarize yourself with the world, you develop a love for it. For this reason, we are imprinted with our first ES game and it becomes our favorite, and no matter how many features are added or removed we cannot reclaim that first playthrough. Nostalgia leads us to view our first game as the indisputably superior product. For this reason, I will never love Skyrim as much as my first ES game, and neither will you. However, to enjoy the game to its fullest you should stop comparing, stop trying to mold your present experiences into past ones, and relish in the beauty that Skyrim has to offer exclusively. That's my two cents about the constant arguments regarding the "best" ES game, hopefully it will open some minds to other opinions considering there is no truly best game, rather a best experience.

I would agree this is the case with roughly 3/4ths of people.

» Fri Dec 09, 2011 3:39 pm

I started with Oblivion and fell in love with the game enough to go back to the older games and play them. Morrowind is my favorite. It's not nostalgia with me, I just think that overall, Morrowind was the better game.

I guess if I had to rank them, it would look like this: Morrowind > Skyrim and Daggerfall > Oblivion > Arena.

I'm probably ranking Skyrim so high right now because it's the game I'm currently playing "for the first time". Not sure where it will end up when the dust clears.

» Fri Dec 09, 2011 4:18 pm

I started with Daggerfall in 1995 and didn't buy Morrowind until 2008. Daggerfall was my favorite until after the first few months of playing Morrowind. Then Morrowind became my favorite with Daggefall close behind.