I've seen this brought up a few times by a few topics and it's made me wonder...

Why exactly do some people think Oblivion is a weaker title than Skyrim? What exactly makes it so?

I can understand that Skyrim still has that new-game smell and is still shiny however I still cannot understand the why's. Skyrim is by far the worst and weakest of the series and here are a few reasons and comparisons why...

Level scalling. This gets brought up a lot as if it were an Ace in Skyrims hand. Sure Oblivion had terrible scalling that eventually made it so bandits were wearing full sets of Glass and Daedric Armor.

However Skyrims scalling is hardly much better. Enemies still level with you only now they are locked into a level list once you've entered the area so that if you return 10 levels later you'll stomp them. This sounds way better however really isn't any different than Oblivions scale, save those super hard enemies won't be EVERYWHERE. You will still find spawned encounters with enemies in full Ebony or Glass. Most enemies will use level appropriate weapons, this includes Ebony and Glass. Equipment found in the world suddenly changes from iron and steel to glass and ebony. Merchants suddenly start getting shipments of higher level items when you hit a certain level and if you've held off exploring an area until late game this is even more prevalent.

The only difference between Oblivions level scale and Skyrims is the locking and the bandits only using the high level weapons, not full armor.

The magic system in Oblivion puts Skyrim to shame. Yes, Skyrim has fantastic and beautiful effects however the cost of that is hundreds of spells plus spell making. Sure you could game the spell making system in Oblivion but you can do the same thing with Enchanting/Smithing/Alchemy as well. Magic was gimped massively in Skyrim and that alone puts the favor to Oblivion.

Radiant AI/Quests. How many times is chopping wood exciting? Or getting a random "go to x kill x" quest new? The AI system is still terrible in Skyrim. It's not been improved in the least over Oblivion. Radiant quests are nothing to get excited over.

Dragons and Dragon shouts are cool I'll give you that however, Dragon shouts are nothing more than fancy magic spells that were, mostly, in Oblivion as actual spells. Dragons are boss however that's for sure.

Then there is the skill system and perks. The perks are neat but the game relies on them FAR to much. It is a constant reminder you're playing a video game and only serves to make the whole experience a bit arcadey. Not to mention we lost every single stat, a myriad of skills and armour was further simplified.

Also, upon release everyone was at least able to play Oblivion without to much hassle. Skyrims release has been one of the worst ones this year next to Dead Island. Entire demographics couldn't even play the game without modding files (left handers) More couldn't play for more than a half hour without crashes (4 gig patch) and then an entire system has been a failscade with only a few people bug free (PS3) You must also consider the very lack luster graphics Skyrim has in comparison to other modern releases. We've an Oblivion 2.0 engine with slightly polished graphics.

So, after all this, why is it exactly do people feel Skyrim is greater than Oblivion? I'd like to see what others see as I cannot fathom it.

Level scaling.

Maybe it's simply their opinion that Oblivion is the worst, just like how it's your opinion that Skyrim is the worst.

Why do people prefer the Iphone over Droid

Why do people prefer AMD over Intel

Why do people prefer ATI over Nvidia

Why do people prefer Toyota over Ford

Why are people Democrats and not Republicans


See where I am going here? lol threads like this are pointless. It's merely one person(s) opinion sort of like yours. If you enjoy Oblivion, good for you! no amount of text is going to change the opinon of Oblvion haters.

In fact? So your opinion is fact? :brokencomputer:

I got a good laugh when I preferred everything that you listed second.

This is the internet. So, to him it is. For me I think Oblivion is to cartoonish. Skyrim feels more realistic.

Opinions. I think Skyrim is the best, Oblivion is second, and Morrowind is third.

Does it affect how you play, or how you enjoy the game? If not, then don't whine about it, and say that your opinion is a fact.

Wait until the mods start coming out.

Oblivion was nothing but trees and grass and trees and grass and blue caves and more blue caves and green ruins and more green ruins and trees and grass.

Skyrim has snow....and dragons.

Personally, I despised Oblivion. I will never play it again. So it's a matter of fact that your opinion is just that... opinion. Skyrim is just more... fun than Oblivion was. Just the thought of going into an Oblivion Gate makes me sick.

I am some people...

No Oblivion gates is +1 in my opinion.

Dual cast magic is cool.

But really I think it's time frame. Oblivion came out too soon. Since then not much has come out that has compared to Morrowind for me, so I think I have come to accept this is what a good TES game is like now.

I don't know, maybe I should re-install Oblivion and give it a second chance... I just feel more in the game on Skyrim than I did in Oblivion.

A lot of people seem to think so.

When in fact it is raining hotdogs outside.

I can talk of my opinion. I pop a game in the disc drive, install it, play it. As I am playing it I will be enjoying it or I wont be. It is usually a complete package deal for me (I rearely say "screw you game" if there is one aspect I don't like, unless it is a big one, as long as everything else is good or acceptable). When I am not playing it I can better reflect on it and my feelings about it.

It is the mechanics, the world, the game play, the NPCs, the quests (if it has them), the story, the graphics, the bad guys (if it has them), the choices, those moments that send a shiver up your spine etc. How well all that gels with me. How well it resonates with me. How much enjoyment/engagement I felt interacting with it.

When all is said and done of the big three - Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim - it is Oblivion that failed to impact on me as much as the other two. Not saying it isn't a bad game, or a weak game, or a boring game or any of that. I enjoyed playing it a lot. I liked it. I installed lots of mods to keep playing it. But it simply didn't affect me in a way sufficient for me to like it as much or more than either Morrowind or Skyrim. Sorrry, Oblivion is just my least favorite of those three.

That simple.

I'd say this. Oblivion's leveling overall was just horrible, Skyrim you don't feel punished for just leveling up with the exception of Destruction Magic. Oblivion in my opinion is the better game, for being a game but there were flaws with that just like there is flaws with skyrim right now. I think Skyrim has more flaws then Oblivion had but Oblivion had larger flaws then skyrim has and thus people who get annoyed at lots of flaws prefer oblivion where people who get more annoyed at larger flaws prefer skyrim, in my opinion.

This thread is designed, on It's very core, to bring hatred and flaming...

I almost can't really even put my finger on it, all I know is that I just don't like Oblivion. I also know that Skyrim is my personal favorite.

Someone doesn't remember Oblivion, Morrowind, or Daggerfall on release...

i sorta agree oblivion is a better game. then again i have a few mods running on my oblivion.

Yeah, after some time Oblivion felt really repetitive, Skyrim is still fresh for me after 250 hours. Then again, with the proper modding, Oblivion became an absolute monster, although the same will probably be said for TES V in a year from now.

LOL, yea no kidding. Read the early patch notes for Morrowind....

http://www.tesguides.com/tes3/misc/patchnotes.htm

Morrowind Bug Fixes
Fixed a crash bug involving the purchase and equipping of the Imperial Chain Cuirass.
Fixed several sound problems with several lower quality sound cards. You should be able to play the game with your Hardware Acceleration set at full from now on.
Fixed a bug that was causing problems when you attempted to save with a container open.
Summoned bound items no longer give you infinite stats.
You will no longer crash to desktop if you press Enter while making potions.
Loading while the container menu is open will no longer create multiple cloned containers.
Fixed some menu bugs with saving a game by only allowing saves to occur if you have no other menus open.
Memory leak when summoning bound items has been fixed.
Fixed a crash when canceling barter.
Fixed a freeze that locked the game in a bad menu mode after Sleeper dreams.
Training skills will now add to level up bonus for misc skills.
Armor weight will no longer shift between Heavy, Medium, or Light.
Restore and Drain abilities now affect the current value, not the base value, of attributes being modified.
Inventory change of pc during an attack no longer causes bad animations.
ALT, SHIFT, and CTRL keys were rarely getting stuck down in menu mode. This will no longer happen.
Fixed a bug where you could gain money when buying something instead of paying money for it.
The launcher will not gray out options any longer.
Robe of St. Roris changed to Cast When Used.
Equipping a soul gem/apparatus, etc, during combat will no longer remove them from your inventory.
Fixed a crash when hitting F1 with the quick keys selection menus open.
Fixed a problem with sounds persisting after a cell change.
Fixed a bug in the Berserk ability that was draining all of your fatigue after its use.
Fixed a bug with beast races and the spell cycle function. Now when a beast race has an item they cannot wear (full helm, boots), it will not show up in this menu.
Fixed a bug in the weapon cycle function that was allowing constant effect weapons to add bonuses to you permanently.
Corrected a bug which would cause an NPC to sometimes run inexplicably while wandering.
NPCs/Creatures which bump into an obstacle while wandering without the presence of a pathgrid will select a new point to go to rather than trying to work around the obstruction.
Corrected a bug where the vertical movement distance was not calculated for followers and they could lag behind excessively.
NPCs will no longer attempt to open trapped doors to reach you.
Fixed a bug where you could kill an NPC responding to a crime, with a single blow, and not receive a bounty for murder.
Fixed a bug where you, as a vampire with a high bounty, could commit additional crimes, and guards would fail to respond.
Corrected a bug where an NPC would fail to respond if you were in a crouch and hit them with a projectile weapon.
Fixed a bug concerning trying to equip multiple repair items during combat would cause a crash.
Fixed a bug with the way dispel worked in conjunction with good and bad effects on you.
Fixed a crash bug involving shooting a projectile at an actor that was far enough away that they were not active.
Fixed a missing art file with the Redas War Axe.

Does this happen for all enemies, or just "boss" enemies? So far, the rank and file bandits are still wielding low level weapons, while "boss" enemies are somewhat more level scaled. I'm level 27 right now.

As far as the topic goes, for me, the best parts about Skyrim that Oblivion lacked are:

-An interesting setting. I've lived on the edge of deciduous forests all of my life, so Oblivion's trees aren't anything special to me. The tundra of Skyrim, and its many browns are very alien to me, and thus more interesting for me.

-There is MUCH more lore in Skyrim. Jarls, moot, Thu'um, every monster has its own lore, Greybeards, Alduin vs. Akatosh, Stormcloaks, Thalmor, strange (and non- Earth) plants, giants, Dwemer, Forsworn, new Dunmer lore, Falmer, the list can go on for a LONG time. Oblivion was pretty much just generic fantasy...

-The cities in Skyrim are actually interesting, they have their own history, and they all appear to have some sort of purpose. In Oblivion, the architecture was pretty, but beyond that, the cities were all rather shallow, except for a few tidbits of lore (like Skingraad has wine! )

-Speaking of lore, Bethesda put MUCH more effort into following pre-established lore in Skyrim, along with adding new lore. In Oblivion, they just took Tokien lore, threw in a few TES references, then added some stuff about the Ayleids.

-Skyrim lets me choose! Stormcloaks or Imperials? Join or destroy the Dark Brotherhood? Obey or disobey the Daedra? Who to side with in misc. quests? Radiant story makes me feel like these choices are meaningful, too.

-Less getting disarmed .

-More factions in Skyrim than vanilla OB. (?)

Oblivion did have its strengths, though. Its UI was clunky, but it was sometimes more functional than Skyrim's. Hotkeying was MUCH easier, and the journal actually told me what the quests were about. Buying/ selling was a huge hassle in OB, though. ("Are you sure you want to sell this? Yes! This? Yes! This? YES!!!!")

Overall, I *think* I like Skyrim more than even Morrowind*, though I need to play more to find out.

*This would be a big deal, since I was one of the biggest "Morrowhiners" on this forum after the release of OB .

There was zero point to exploring in Oblivion. Every dungeon was the same generic layouts filled with randomized enemies and loot all scaled to exactly your level. It was boring. There was no challenge as the level scaling ensured that you never found a challenge. You never really had to explore anywhere either because you could simply find the next best loot for your level on every single roadside bandit. Bandits running around in daedric armor that would net them a lifetime of gold were supposedly raiding farmers for food?

What also killed Oblivion for me was it was the first title that really disallowed any kind of roleplaying within quests. You were stuck in a generic fantasy land and your only dialog options were to be the "good" guy. Skyrim isn't a ton better in this department, but at least some of the factions have a gray area in their morality. Everything in Oblivion seemed to be written for a PG rated movie audience.

Skyrim at least has the most interesting dungeons of the series so far. The main quest lines and factions are interesting and I love exploring through Skyrims dungeons.

Oblivion wasn't a 'bad' game persay, but it was the game that smashed my high expectations for the series to bits. Truth is, my expectations for Skyrim were very very low before release and I am pleasantly surprised to find the game exceeding most of those. That alone is making me like the game so far.

The story in skyrim is better. Your character in oblivion was just some guy who happened to be in the right place ant the right time. And an aging emperor with Alzheimer's walks in and says he knows you, so you are thrown into a quest to save the empire. )To the games credit, it does have Patrick Stewart)

Skyrim You are not just your average joe. you were born somebody special. Not just Skyrim, not just Tamriel, but the entire world rests in the actions the person you play as takes. this has never happened in an elder scrolls game as far as I know. Not even the Nerevarine was this influential.

for me Skyrim feels like a step up because Oblivion frankly feels like a cartoon most of the time and a monty-python sketch with all the glitches, corny voice acting, and over-saturated, bobble-headed graphics.

the Gameplay feels like a dumbed down version of Morrowind.

say what you will about Skyrim, but at least Beth. truly WAS trying to do something different, even if it's not perfect, Skyrim feels like it's progressed a little bit.
further more, Skyrim is much more interesting than Cyrodill ever was. Much of the atmosphere and presence of Lore has returned.

the world is genuinely large, and FEELS large. Oblivion, though larger than Morrowind, did not feel like it.

there's a much better sense of gravity and foundation in Skyrim than there was in Oblivion if you understand what I mean.
Though a lot is missing from Skyrim, somehow it doesn't feel as pervasive as it did in Oblvion for me. Sure I'm annoyeed at some of the absences, but it does feel like what is there is tightly focused, and Beth put a great deal of time into.

is it perfect, no, but I feel more satisfied by Skyrim than I did with Oblivion