vyshka
6542
A number of them seemed to be in a period where they needed to be updated so wabbajack wouldn’t allow installing them, so I’ve just been playing the vanilla enhanced edition or whatever that release was called. Currently level 21. Had my horse die twice the other night, which was getting annoying, before reading online that they eventually will respawn so blew a couple grand there. I still haven’t really looked into the crafting yet, but I probably should. I’ve been having fun with it though. I’m about 30 hours in.
kerzain
6543
Wow, absolutely fantastic game. I played a lot of this over the weekend, and I must say that I am genuinely surprised how good it is. I just love the setting and the unfolding story. I think my current score is 18 and I’m hoping to have this one wrapped up by the end of the week. I went in blind and I’m trying to keep it that way, spoilers for this type of game would ruin my experience.
Been the same, with the luxury of having more time for (and actually losing sleep over) the game, and I finished it yesterday night. What a game.
Thought I would share this rather evocative Morrowind shot I grabbed the other day.
The game’s worldbuilding, architecture, use of in-game books, etc., are all still amazingly impressive.
I think one of my beefs with Elder Scrolls generally is how the skill system just always seems to flow toward “jack of all trades caster/crafter/fighter.” I can simply forswear certain skill paths, of course, but if I’m looking for the optimal path in any given moment, I just end up learning the skills to do pretty much everything.
It’s not a fatal flaw and it might be more realistic than the arbitrary class walls most CRPGs rely on. Still, it bugs me a bit.
I love reading about all the folks playing Obra Dinn recently. What a marvel that game is.
Morrowind was designed by PnP RPG nerds, which is why it’s evocative and special.
The rest of the Bethsoft worlds from then on were built by not-PnP RPG nerds, and by accountants too, which is why they’re expansive, filled with playpen toys, and are evocative as library paste.
Razgon
6548
Thats just like, you know your opinion. I find Skyrim to be the greatest realized open world in any game ever. And I’ve spent over a thousand hours exploring it, and am still entertained.
Their contained enviromental storytelling is superb, and far better than anything else being done today.
Its shock full of interesting locations, people, quests, things to do, discover and amazing vistas. So good!
Yeah, I kind of wish they would only allow you to pick one of the classes and then allow you to change ONE Minor Skill and that’s it. I feel like with all the ES games I end up customizing the same type of character because I can, but if I could only pick from the available ones, I’d put more thought into it and possibly replay with a different type of character.
Still, I liked that Morrowind locked you into one Great House and (if I remember correctly) one guild. Wish the subsequent games would have done the same. Skyrim would have been far more interesting if they had done this.
I too do not equate Skyrim with library paste. Scharmers appears to be getting his Old Man Murray on.
Skyrim is open, approachable, and as evocative as library paste. Its systems and background are as generic and canned tomato soupy as its overall “plot” - you’re the Dragonborn, Harry!
Oblivion, Skyrim, and the Bethsoft Fallouts have one conceit: big worlds jam-packed with hand-placed stuff. This “environment storytelling” (ex. the careful placement of a teddy bear over a posed skeleton, or a well-realized terrain feature) is literally all the latest of Skyrim’s bastard spawn, FO76, has left. The combat systems are generic and easily exploited, the NPCs are nothing but message boards or quest dispensers, the gameplay nearly hands-off in its unsophistication at this point. They’re busywork games under their obsessive level design.
Skyrim was fine, once, just like Rockstar’s GTA V was fine once, but both have long, long outlived their welcome, and neither studio really seems to realize that.
You’re also a ‘chosen one’ in Morrowind and a jillion other CRPGs. I seldom judge RPGs strongly on their plots because, quite frankly, most don’t have very interesting ones. Worldbuilding, gameplay, yada yada, tend to be where the action is at, at least in the ones I respond to.
Skyrim’s world building, while not as interesting as Morrowind’s, is better than Oblivion’s probably because the Nordic theme feels more particular and because there are some splendid flights of imagination, like, for instance, Blackreach, a location so striking that I’ve wondered once or twice whether it was actually in the game or I dreamed it. (Thief’s lost city did that to me, too.)
Again, you’re being cranky with hyperbole like ‘library paste.’ It’s ok; without cranky gamers the world would be a less interesting place.
schurem
6553
On the other hand it aint nice to yuck someones yumm for no reason but crankiness.
Jesus Christ who are you and what happened to schurem
To be fair, he was complementing the choice of Morrowind while throwing shade at other games.
Additionally, you knew he was scharmers when you picked him up.
I mean, yeah. Look at Morrowind. It’s DENSE. It has its own mythology, own political power trips, own religions, etc. etc. It doesn’t pander. It isn’t a mishmash of YE D&D OLDE FANTASY. When you first hit the shores of Morrowind, you get that oh-so-rare-and-wonderful feeling of not being in Kansas any more. You’re a stranger in a strange land.
In Oblivion/Skyrim, everything is pure generic fantasy. You gotcher demons, you gotcher dragons, here’s some entry-level Viking stuff, and, oh yeah, make sure you sneak by the bear on your way out the dungeon.Oh, and if you end up assassinating the Emperor, that kid is still gonna say you lick his dad’s boots. A bunch of shallow quests that rarely if every hook into each other in any meanful way.
Look, I dug Skyrim for its time because it’s sheer broadness of scale and presentation made up for the fact it was just another Forgotten Realms without the license.
Caveats to my grumpiness:
- Morrowind’s game systems weren’t exactly great either. Nothing like shooting something in the face and the game telling you, no, you didn’t shoot something in the face.
- “B-but what about Blackreach?” Yeah, yeah. Didn’t I just mention that Bethsoft architectural and environmental design is well honed? And the games use that to cover everything else up
Wow, maybe I need to go back for more Skyrim after all. I never found a place called Blackreach.
schurem
6559
Luv u too old man, keep on hatin’ from that crypt o’ yours. Gotta keep that old 90s Qt3 spirit alive eh?
Anyway, wether Skyrim sucks or rules? I haven’t got a dog in that fight. I am allergic to magic. How’s that for a boring ol’ grump.
It’s basically Bethsoft’s version of the Halls of the Dead from LOTR. It’s cool, but it’s pretty much faceroll follies by the time you get there… unless you deliberately gimped your character (i.e. aren’t rolling a stealth-archer).
To be fair, it doesn’t take a ton of Morrowinding to get to the ‘faceroll follies’ point either.
