No, as far as I know both are fixed now. Warzones was completely re-written from the ground up recently and they fixed all of that, he even talks about exactly what caused it. Same with Claralux lighting...

Agreed. Except for one thing, I didn't like the levelling in Oblivion and most people are using levelling mods. However, I miss the whole attribute concept in Skyrim in which the earlier games had, but despite that I can play the game.

Oh man, DF dungeons were the best! Even the ambiance was way better than any game I have played TES or otherwise. I could spend days in a single dungeon (in game and in RL).

Wish they could bring back massive proceduraly generated dungeons with several side quests in them and also more custom specific dungeons for main/facton quests.

I was in a particular Skyrim dungeon on a quest and the moment I stepped inside, I heard piercing wolf howlings. Those howlings persisted throughout most of the time I was in the dungeon. It really reminded me a lot of the Daggerfall dungeons with that ambiance. Something about that ambiance is what has been missing from the newer TES games. No sudden shrieks from monsters deeper inside. No creaking doors or heavy footsteps. The newer dungeons *look* nice but they don't recreate the same feeling that the Daggerfall dungeons do.

Exactly, bekkilyn.

I was a lot younger 12-13 when I played it on my very own PC and the dungeons in DF really gave me the creeps, but I loved it!

Can't seem to get the same excitement out of these newer dungeosn in TES.

Skeleton's should have never have changed their laxative-like-effect sound. What I will say is that the DF dugeons as larger and confusing as f

Skeletons do noticeably creak in a creepy sort of way, but I think they should scream out every now and again too so that it echoes frighteningly down dungeon corridors.

I love the large Daggerfall dungeons. When I play Daggerfall and get into one of them, I usually do the "follow the left wall" trick until I get back to the starting spot. If the map shows corridors I still haven't visited, I'll do something like follow the left wall until I get to the first unvisited corridor, turn into it, and then follow the left wall from there. Then repeat as often as necessary. I also tend to cast a mark at the dungeon starting spot too, so between my method of following the passages and being able to recall back to the start if I need to, I never get ultimately lost even if I feel lost most of the time.

My only issue with the Daggerfall dungeons is that they get repetitive after a while and I end up playing other games, but Daggerfall never leaves my hard drive and I always get back to it eventually even if it's months later.

With Oblivion and Morrowind it was more understandable given that PC options were mostly topics with very few instance of actual dialogue. On the other hand while it is great that Skyrim finally gives the player more agency in a TES game, it is as you mentioned pretty lackluster in comparison to Fallout 3. From what little actual dialogue options you get in Oblivion, it seems to me that COC is incredibly assertive almost domineering at times in comparison to Dovahkiin who comes off as a confused soft gut.

Speaking of Farengar, it is funny how he is capable of deducing your skill level in alchemy and magic yet constantly tells you to join the college of the Winterhold.... even if you are the Archmage yourself.

Skyrim's dungeons could do with a lot more darkness. The amount of torches and lighting inside is ridiculous. I remember Oblivion dungeons being creepy with those zombies strutting about and wraiths in almost pitch blackness. I never played Daggerfall but from what I've seen the dungeons do look pretty creepy.

The next TES game could definitely use more horror elements.

My real-life eyes are thankful the dungeons are not darker. I already have to turn the brightness up a bit as it is. In Oblivion, I got tired of having to see everything in washed out blue tint because I couldn't see without the nighteyes ring. I like the *idea* of darker dungeons, but they just aren't practical or healthy for me as a player.

Darkness had little to do with what made the Daggerfall dungeons so great and creepy and horrific though. In fact, Daggerfall dungeons were pretty brightly lit in comparison with Oblivion and Skyrim. There was just an ambiance about them that hasn't been recreated since.

Dungeons wise... I honestly prefer Skyrim's dungeons over the previous titles because they were uniquely crafted. Every dungeon in Skyrim had a story to tell and was almost completely different from every other dungeon in the game. The ambiance isn't as good as previous games (like Daggerfall) and the linear nature in a good handful of them was annoying but at least I enjoyed dungeons and had a lot of fun exploring them. In previous titles, dungeons got very old really quickly due to the fact that most of them were copy-pasted. Especially with Morrowind and Oblivion, though mostly Oblivion (it even gotten to a point where I just don't care about exploring dungeons anymore in those games).

True, I don't want to go back to the way Daggerfall dungeons were *exactly* because they did ultimately get repetitive due to the way they were randomly generated. (Sometimes it even made it so that the quest object was inaccessible without using cheat commands too.) I'd like to keep the uniquely crafted aspect of the Skyrim dungeons (along with more unique items like Morrowind had), but also put back something of the scary and creepy ambiance that the Daggerfall dungeons had. Not really sure *how* to do it per se. I just know that something is missing.

If you don't like Skyrim don't play it then.

My list of favorites out of the more modern games are as follows:

1. Skyrim

2. Morrowind

3. Oblivion

Im not including Arena or Daggerfall, simply because Arena was a happy accident and a gem of its time but definitely not the modern era of games, and daggerfall was a similar attempt at the same things. That being said Skyrim is the biggest improvement all around, failing in only one aspect for my own opinion, which is to say, its story. Morrowind and even Oblivion had more captivating MQ's and Morrowinds was the best MQ when written by far. But as a game in its entirety, Skyrim is the best to me.

That's my main problem with Skyrim's dungeons. I don't feel like I'm exploring them, but just going on a set path from Room A to Room B to Room C ... until I get to the boss room with the boss-level loot chest, and a back door for a quick exit.

I feel like that in all dungeons in alot of games that arent specifically for dungeon questing solely. Morrowind and Oblivion are no exception to that, then again, maybe thats just me.

I enjoy all three, but all three are their own beasts.

I will say, in regards to the Main Story, the winner between the three is Oblivion. Morrowind's story is rightfully touted as being excellent, but what gets lost in the sweeping epic backstory is the geographical significance. At the end of the day, Vvardenfell is just one island of a larger province, not the province as a whole. Dagoth Ur certainly had the potential of being a terror...eventually. Considering his influence had yet to spread to the mainland, he was still really a contained threat. The same holds true for Skyrim - Alduin is called the World Eater and has rejected his Divine appointed task to destroy the world. Yet he's still resurrecting dragons and eating the souls of dead Nords. He's not a world ending threat, yet. Heck, the world at large doesn't even know about Alduin at all, despite the bard songs.

Oblivion features a Daedric Prince's planned invasion of our realm...and the assassination of the Emperor and all his heirs by the Prince's fanatical mortal cultists. The story isn't like Morrowind or Skyrim, walking alone into the belly of the beast to defeat the ancient and unknowable evil...Oblivion features a rolling battle on the streets of the Imperial Capital whose resolution you end up being a mere witness to.

Morrowind and Skyrim feature you as nameless prisoner thrust into events. In Morrowind, you are given specific instructions and then told to sod off for a bit. In Skyrim, the main quest never gives you a moment's pause. Go Go Go, Now Now Now. In Oblivion, you find yourself swept up in the Emperor's failed flight from danger and stagger out of the Imperial Sewers with an amulet and a name, but how you get there is really up to you.

Morrowind and Oblivion at least had branching, non-linear, and sometimes non-obvious pathways. Not every path you took led you anywhere, and sometimes multiple paths could lead to the same place. Non-quest-related dungeons didn't necessarily even have an "end", they just had a series of pathways and rooms with loot sprinkled about... it was up to you to decide if you found everything and were ready to leave. In Skyrim, the only times a path branched off was to a side room with a secret loot stash.

That's actually an interesting take on it, and not one I find myself disagreeing with. Sure, Morrowind had a better written MQ (even if there was strong dissonance between what the Sixth House was supposed to be doing in the world, and what they were (not) doing in the game), but with Oblivion you were there helping with unknown or long-forgotten rituals, you were there fighting back against the Daedra, you were there when Dagon physically manifest in Mundus. In Morrowind all the cool stuff happened in the past and you just needed to do what you were told to prevent Dagoth Ur from enacting his plans, while in Oblivion you were on the front lines witnessing things as they went down (the destruction of Kvatch not withstanding).

I actually find the opposite between Oblivion and Skyrim. In Oblivion you start out with the Emperor on the run, and every event following that you're told something important that needs to be done ASAP (get the amulet to Jauffre, get Martin, get to Cloud Ruler Temple, protect Bruma, get the things Martin needs to get the amulet back and stop the daedra from actively coming through the gates, etc). In Skyrim, a dragon shows up, destroys the place, and you escape. It's suggested you go tell the Jarl, but do they really need an ex-con to tell them there's a giant dragon flying around? It's not as if anything special is known about the dragon either, other than it's a rare sight (they say it's a harbinger of the end-times, but they also say it's a fairytale for kids, so do you really need to believe a children's story?). Of course, where Skyrim falters is that a number of things are scripted to happen in Whiterun in regards to the dragon, and they'll happily wait months or years in-game until you get close enough to trigger it (though this is a much more general problem with Skyrim, and happens with non-MQ events too), and you're blocked from completing certain other quests until you get told you're Dragonborn. But on the whole, I felt Skyrim was much less "the world is falling apart around us and we need you to save it right now!" compared to Oblivion.

That also happens to be my biggest gripe with Oblivion...aside from all of my other gripes with the game. While its true, I can have one character chuck the amulet away and go about their day with their new found freedom, if I do take it to heart...the whole thing is just too urgent throughout the entire game. I have to go deliver the amulet to Jauffree (one would think) ASAP. I have to go find Martin ASAP. Oh no, the Amulet has been stolen! That's urgent. Oblivion Gates! Dealing with Mankar! So on and so forth.

There are just no damn breathers throughout it, if you try and take the quest line in a semi-serious matter. The only times I feel like you're actually given a chance to try and piece something together for yourself is obtaining the Daedric artifact, and trying to decipher the Commentaries. That was about it. In Skyrim, after dealing with the Greybeards, you can make your way to the Horn. Its a part of a test, sure, but its not like the fate of the world is riding on that task. There's the Thalmor Embassy, but you can easily pretend that its months away after completing A Blade in the Dark. Trying to find an Elder Scroll is also quite a lengthy task that is, while important, still not put it as being something you must do right then and there. The only time things come to a head is when Skyrim's MQ starts to really fall apart, which is after the excursion to Blackreach. I do think that for the benefit of player freedom, Skyrim gives me more reasonable opportunities to actually let my character to his/her own devices then Oblivion often time does.

I don't disagree with you about the presented urgency, but I have to ask, why do you "take it to heart"? I can understand a first player-character being driven along by the game plot, but once having taken it seriously, I do what I do any other roleplaying game. I take what I want from the game, and I leave the rest.

But the game does, in fact, give you an early way out of the Main Quest. Once you deliver the amulet, and go to Kvatch, you find an Oblivion Gate blocking the city gate, and the officer in charge walks up to you and tells you to go away. He tells you to go away! Honestly, now, unless you are playing an upstanding Empire-loyal axe-toting Hero, what possible character motivation do you have to argue with him?

If you're going to roll with a character who is going to take the MQ seriously and play as such...yeah. Now then, the immediate moments after escaping do offer a to have your character figure out on their own what they're actually going to do next, so there's that. Again, this wholly depends on what character you're playing. I often times find it much more difficult to veer off the track of the MQ in Oblivion far more then I can with Skyrim, which isn't difficult to often times justify. If its applicable to the character and a reasonable idea to have, I'll do it. Not a fan of skipping off and doing something I can't justify as being relevant for most characters if the quest is presented as something that needs to be sorted out in a timely manner.

Kinda why I always wished the Knights of Nine was mashed together with Oblivions MQ. I always found that it was much better paced then the rest of Oblivion was at least.

Well, your character starts out in jail, so it's not hard to imagine that he might have a good reason for being there. And he might not have a whole lot of love for the authorities who put him there.

When it comes to delivering the amulet, the fact that it is known to the blades that you have it might be reason enough to deliver it, but as to rescuing a probably dead Priest from a destroyed city, when a captain of the guard just told you to go away..? Not so much, unless you're really the idealistic hero. I don't see most real-life people taking on a responsibility like that.

Or you have some instinct of self-preservation. You're told that, without an Emperor or his heir, Dagon's forces are going to invade and wreck everything. When you arrive to find Kvatch under attack by Dagon's forces with an active Oblivion gate, are you just going to run away and wait for the end of the world? Especially when you know how to stop it (find Martin and get him back to the amulet), I don't think many character types that have the drive, a sense of adventure, and a will to live would refuse to help.

My Oblivion character was a power obsessed mage who literally threw himself into the Kvatch portal because of the untapped magical potential contained within.

It really is no wonder said character's covetous desire of powerful lore and artifacts eventually landed him in the daddy seat of the Shivering Isles.