I watched the XPlay review of Skyrim last night and I couldn't help but think that it was a Fable clone.

From what I can tell, calling TESV an "RPG" requires a lot of creativity in how you define "RPG".

It may be a good action/adventure game, but it (like Oblivion) is not an RPG and does not deserve the mantle of Elder Scrolls.

Morrowind was the perfect mix of RPG and Action elements. Oblivion shed most of the actual RPG elements and Skyrim appears to go even further towards a full action game.

I loved Morrowind, almost everything about it was an epic win. The only real problem i had, was that after level 25, yo became almost immortal- not even Dagoth ur could touch you on the maximum difficulty. Skyrim seems fun so far, but its still a pretty big dumb down from Morrowind, and not nearly as good. they got the adventure right, i love the twisted paths i have to find to get to my destination and the weather and terrain variations reminded me what i loved most about Morrowind. Skyrim is no place near perfect though, but as far as a comparison to Morrowind goes, its definitely a step closer than Oblivion was- but they need to roll back the silly dumbing down.

MW was amazing, one of the things I really loved about it was the wild diversity you could see on the same island. You had ashen wastelands wetlands and forests. Especially in the architecture you had buildings made from stone, armored bug chitin, or even grown from plants.

Oblivion seemed way too polished and boring everything was buffed and shined up so much it didnt feel like that same harsh landscape in MW that you had to survive in.

Skyrim has definitley got that feeling back again and it feels like what I expected from MW

I get the same sense of atmosphere in Skyrim as I did with Morrowind, and it's such a welcome return. Oblivion was a good game, but it always felt a bit too 'Ye Olde Englande' and slightly cartoonish. The saturation of colours meant that it was more like a walk in a summer meadow EVERYWHERE, whereas Skyrim's got that ethereal feel that Morrowind had, with a slightly alien and bleak landscape.

I'm absolutely loving it, UI issues aside (playing the PC version).

I liked MW because it was a bit more hardcoe and dying there was like the ussual stuff, this is just my opinion. But I didn't dislike oblivion over mw actually, all those things like new physics, more realistic and natural gameplay makes up for it.

Skyrim even went more in detail with realistic environments. So, no I don't dislike both oblivion and skyrim over mw.

Skyrim is better than Oblivion,but not as much as Morrowind for me.

There may be a touch of nostalgia in my feelings,I will not deny that but please note that I have concrete reasons for thinking so as well.

World Art: This is of course totally subjective.What I love about Morrowind more than anything is the game world itself.The cities and architecture is very unique to the game.Also,the architecture varies much more from city to city,without losing its originality most of the time.The same goes for creatures and every design in the game.This is something achieved not by Todd Howard or other people that are usually on interviews,but by the concept artists of the game.So Todd says "I need a city called Balmora with 25 houses and a river" and the rest is up to the concept art team.Needless to say,those artists that worked for Morrowind did not work at Oblivion or Skyrim (you can check UESP) so I don't like the game world as much as I did for MW. (I'm not complaining from the lack of giant mushrooms.I understand Skyrim is a different province but it could still be original and different,I'm sure of it.) Though Skyrim did a better job at this than Oblivion,which was a boring medieval Europe x LOTR crossover,and has places that reminds me of Solstheim,the Winterhold Collegue from distance literally blew my mind,and exterior of some ruins look very nice.That being said,it still has plenty of the boring Oblivion vibe left,especially in dungeon interiors.Exteriors,I can live with.

Plot : I have not yet done much of Skyrim's MQ,so I won't compare the main quests.But I have to say,Oblivion was very one-sided.Holy paladins vs evil evil Daedra.Something similiar is going on with the Winterhold Collegue quests I'm currently doing,the bad guy is introduced in the very first moment and is way too obvious.I like quests that are more gray,not black and white and I think MW does a better job at this than both games,but it doesn't have mind-blowing twists either.But at least there are not many "pure-good-guys" around,more like the world is filled with people thinking of themselves,which is far more believeable I think.

Variety : Well,more skills,more weapon kinds,more armor slots,more magic,more light emitters,more misc items...Morrowind has more variety than both OB and Skyrim.Skyrim actually surprised me with the amount of statics around.Many items I think that should be takeable,like jars,bones,lanterns,candles are mere statics.I'm a little disappointed at that.Though Skyrim somehow manages to compensate for that by crafting,and adding more meaning to misc items.

Other : Theft and sleeping system,are far better in Morrowind.You do not need to be in the thieves' guild or look for a bloody fence to sell everyday plates you stole from someone's house.The only condition was not to sell something stolen to the same person you stole from,which made perfect sense and added much fun to theft.It's more like,not being able to sell them in OB and SY killed the fun.And you could sleep in any bed as long as you were not seen.There wasn't a conscious script looking over you all the time.
I also liked the weapons having different values for different attack kinds,and that they were not direct numbers but intervals.Like 20 min,35 max damage.

I found Morrowind much superior to Oblivion. It definitely had a lot to do with the world building and scope. Oblivion just felt flat and uninteresting. I won't say that I like Skyrim more than Morrowind, yet. Though it might be. I will say that I am enjoying Skyrim very much. Skyrim definitely got the world building right. I have found I've been a bit disappointed in the Guilds so far. The quests that available are of quality, but it seems they fall a bit short in terms of ranks, and overall length. I liked that in Morrowind you had to meet skill requirements to climb up ranks, it gave reasons to play through and pursue different character archetypes. That is if you weren't a min/maxer that just drove everything to 100.

Eh, I could rant a good long while about comparisons. I'll just leave it at - there are certain things I would say Skyrim does as well as Morrowind. Somethings it does better. Somethings it does worse. Where that puts it on TES awesomeness scale is TBD just because I haven't played Skyrim enough. It is my GOTY regardless, and an incredible value in terms of hours of entertainment. As far as it being "not enough of an RPG, too much of an action game". To me, in the end, it doesn't matter that much. Not because I don't like number-crunching RPGs (HUGE FO1/2, PST, BG1/2, Arcanum fan), but because in the end TES is an experience. The systems that govern that are important, just not as much. The vast landscapes, the books, the seeing and doing. The story told just by experiencing it is more important than the "system" at least to me. I think it does enough right that I can definitely say I thoroughly enjoy it.

Morrowind was my first ES title and I loved it to pieces. Oblivion, well, I enjoyed it, but that feeling of exploration just wasn't there for me (plus, helping someone else to do something great will never feel as heroic as being a destined hero yourself). Skyrim, well, so far I have to say it's the best of the three. Of course that's completely subjective, but I'm loving it so far. There's a good variety in location and the enemy variety is good so far and I'm not even Lvl 20 yet, so I'm sure there are plenty of more colourful creatures waiting to jump me soon enough. The Dragons, other than looking, sounding, and generally just being awesome, also add to the excitement of exploring Skyrim, because you just never know where or when you're going to see one, and even then there's a chance it may not notice you and might just fly off elsewhere.

But anyway, if I don't stop myself, this will turn into a full review, which isn't really the point here. The basic gist of it is, I loved Morrowind and I love Skyrim just as much. Would I like to take a fed steps over the border into Morrowind in DLC? Hell yes. Is Skyrim just as compelling a setting. Yep, I'd say so

I liked Morrowind & Oblivion for their different approaches. Visualy Skyrim is a mixture of both imo, which i like allot. Morrowind -> Skyrim -> Oblivion

Morrowind for me was one of the best games I have played on any system (and I have been a gamer for decades). Oblivion was a very different game but never seemed to reach the heights MW did.

I think Skyrim manages to combine a lot of what was good about both of them and I haven't been so hooked into a game in YEARS.

Well done Bethesda

No I still prefer morrowind because I'm a hipster and it makes me look cool and edgy to prefer morrowind over new and clearly superior games ))

I loved Morrowind. I put hundreds of hours into it. I topped out around 40-50 hours in Oblivion. I was so indifferent to that game that, when I reformatted my computer, I didn't even bother trying to locate and keep my save file.

I've already got about 30 hours into Skyrim, and I fully expect to put many, many more into it. I'll also be modding, but this will be about functionality and glitch fixing, not meaningfully changing the game. I think you should always play vanilla the first time around, to have a better appreciation for what you get the second time through.

Morrowind was indeed great, however it was the first game of that type that I played, so I naturally hold that as the standard. It's like when you have a favourite author, usually the first book you read from that author is your favourite. If MW could have the Radiant AI crowbarred in I'd still be playing that over other games, even with the older graphics.

Oblivion... meh. A lot of people feel the same way great graphics leaps, and Radiant AI was nice, but the gameplay seemed to take a step back. I liked getting lost in MW, to me that WAS gameplay, not a barrier to it. Oblivion's method of always telling you where to go, who to speak to, where they are, and what you think when you do, irked me. I disabled as much of that stuff as I could.

Skrim is still a little hand-holdy, but at least I can disable most of it. No arrows, quest markers or compass for me, and I'm much happier for it. The Skyrim world seems great so far, the entire environment is just a joy to behold and play in. I am generally very happy

I LOVED Morrowind! That was my first Elderscroll game. Skyrim is good so far. Haven't played it enough to really judge it. Things like the UI are bugging me, but I'm sure there were things about Morrowind that bugged me, just can't remember them now.

Not sure why you think it'd be an invalid point. Not all responses are comparisons. Whether or not the MW combat system was clunky, it would still be cool to bring Crossbows, Spears, and Throwing weapons back into the mix, into a combat system that is not as clunky. Plus who wouldn't be down for more ways to kill enemies? I like having options. Options to use the aforementioned weapons, options to choose medium armor, options to create my own spell.

I Loved Morrowind. But im loving Skyrim to.. theres only a few things holding it back.

Pros:

1. World is awesome, so much detail.. you can catch fish in the river or go to the coast and kill seals.
2. Voice acting alot better this time round
3. Sound, tis awesome specially when dragons appear
4. Music, epic
5. Level system. Got to say I wasnt sure if I would like it or not but.. I like the perks and the constellations. Though a part of me does miss attributes and the old skill system
6. Quests are hella fun. So many awesome quests you just stumble on. So distracted by the side quests i've barely done any of the main quest.
7. Graphics its very pretty
8. Combat is fun I like the take downs. Greatly improved
9. and smaller things. Like I stole from a guy, got caught and paid a fine. Later a bunch of mercs come after me to try and kick my [censored] holding a contract with the NPC's name on it. pretty damn cool

Cons:

1. UI its terrible
2. Keybinds, dont work when you change them.. and i still for the life of me cant get favourites to work.
3. No PC optimization, a straight shameless console port...

Skyrim goes back to it's roots it does have that Morrowind feel to

For me I liked Morrowind very much better (have not been playing this too long though maybe it improves). I do not really like this style of 3d it looks Oblivion like to me, less artistic than Morrowind was. I loved Morrowind voice acting, like the mumbling and mild sarcasm, and this stumbles often and lots of speech making but the actors have bad accents and can't say their lines. It has a great landscape though and some engaging plot lines.

Morrowind had a great story and atmosphere, but rather weak game dynamics (combat was pretty boring after a while, magic was very diverse but still kinda boring after 100+ hours of the same thing). Still a very good game, one of my favorite RPGs, topped only by Planescape.

Skyrim on the other hand has GREAT immersion and that is i think the big plus for this game. I think Bethesta outdone themselves with that. It's the very first game i actually feel i'm part of a living world, and not just bio-robots standing around with a painted face splurting noises. Add to this a pretty fun combat system (much improved over any other bethesda installment) and you got yourself a great game.

It is time for this type of game to evolve from number crunching and pure storytelling and Skyrim is a step in the right direction, despite it's multiple flaws at the moment. A good game should engage you both intellectually (with it's story) and physically (trough gameplay) and Skyrim remarkably managed to combine this very well.

Bottom line, Skyrim has a far greater potential to become an incredible RPG, and I'm sure with mods it will outclass Morrowind by a far margin.

I'm a MW fanatic and I loathed OB.
Skyrim is amazing, probably better than MW.

I think its almost unfair to compare Morrowind with Skyrim.

Not because of the age difference, but to my mind, they're different games. They were created differently and are fundamentally different. Yes, they both come under the "RPG" banner but lets face it, that's a fairly vast banner.
Is Skyrim less an RPG then Morrowind purely because it has a different character control system? I don't believe so. To me the difference between Morrowind and Skyrim, is like the difference between Final Fantasy six and Tales of Phantasia. (for those among us who are old enough to have played them on SNES). Both those games came from the same Developer but where both vastly different. Yet were both EPIC RPG's for their time.

It's pretty damn good, but misses few vital things which made Morrowind so awesome.
One of those things is its HC feeling since all the characters (essential or not) could die.
Other two things are Morrowind's huge equipment and skill choice which Skyrim does not have, and wonder of adventure and exploration (GPS compass kinda kills that for both Oblivion and Skyrim).

Skyrim has chance to be improved and surpass Morrowind, but I doubt that it will happen.
Morrowind still remains the best TES game with only Daggerfall having chances to surpass it imo.

You can turn the quest markers off in Skyrim, and then the compass only functions as a compass. Frankly I'd have killed for a Compass in Morrowind.

The mini-map in the lower right corner of the screen in Morrowind had a compass in the center. It was indispensible for figuring out how to find your way in the Ashlands and some of hte swamps.

Thanks a lot for your responses, they make me looking forward playing (soon).