well the story (MQ and FQ) are still kinda meh like OB's, but the game is the best in the series in terms of game play and animations and world design

I'd certainly agree that Skyrim is the best in the series in terms of animations, and graphics in general (to be expected) but I'm not so sure I'd agree with world design.

In Morrowind there were more towns and villages to visit, some of them just as big as the 'city' of Dawnstar. Also in Morrowind the world was a little more varied, and 'alien' to the point of providing you with a sense of unease because there weren't as many recognizable things. It did a great job of transporting you out of your depth so to speak.

However, many textures and landscaping were repeated endlessly, making few corners of the world feel special or memorable, in Skyrim every part of the world is unique and you experience the different provinces of Skyrim as more distinct and characteristic.

On another note, Bethesda certainly didn't drop the ball with Skyrim, they kept it and drove all the way to the end zone with it, critical acclaim and praise, sales and a huge increase in customer base is certainly not indicative of anything else. Out of all the fans that find flaws and put forward criticism towards the game, I think very few are so disappointed that they simply will refuse to buy the next TES release...if for nothing else than clinging to the hope that some of the things they felt went missing comes back...

It didn't as far as I'm concerned.

From my point of view they did certainly drop the ball. Sales and awards don't convince me not to be disappointed at all. I am used to getting more out of an Elderscrolls game and I have gotten less this time. Skyrim gave me enough reason not to buy another Elderscrolls game on release.

...after another six years of nothing but Bioware hybrids you might have changed your mind about that

That's simply a byproduct of the technological advances made in the 8 years between Morrowind and Skyrim. It doesn't attest to whether one world or the other was better 'designed', and not a fair comparison. I'd submit that Morrowind's genius is how much of the island is not easily accessible, and oftentimes dangerous or full of mystery, far from civilization. Compared to Oblivion where I can see White Gold Tower from virtually anywhere, or Skyrim where there is a centrally located city in any region of the game, rendering few places truly 'wild'. Plus, the unrestricted fast travel of both Oblivion and Skyrim did a great deal to reduce the size and feel of the world even further.


True. From a commercial standpoint Skyrim is a tremendous success, and will ensure that Bethesda stays in business for years to come, likely creating Fallout 4 and TES 6, both of which I will look forward to. And good for Beth.

In terms of making the absolute best game that they could've made? Yeah, they screwed up in some places. In terms of satisfying the desires of long-term fans who have been with them for a decade or more, supporting them back before Bethesda was creating 'blockbusters'? No they screwed that up a bit too, and I would argue that they owe us a bone or two, though I realize this only counts for so much. There's just so many mistakes, so many glaring inadequacies, and so many poor design choices that may not have mattered for the short-term financial success of the game but ultimately leave a bad taste in the mouth of many fans and contributed to a 'lesser' Skyrim than we might have excepted from Bethesda.

No they didnt drop the ball they gave us ,sprint for acrobatics, n the spell making well u can allways mod ur game. just download from nexus or use the steam thing or the creation kit.

That doesn't help those that play on consoles, and doesn't do the rest of us pc gamers out there any good. It just reinforces the image of us all being elitists when we are not.

If the game for you was all about acrobatics, attributes, spellmaking, dontknowwhatelsepeoplearecomplaiingsabout, then yes...

... also I would mention then you are playing this game wrong.

The leveling system in Oblivion was frustrating as hell, Skyrim's is easily exploited but at least it feels natural. I don't have to level up skills I don't care about in order to achieve some degree of optimization. And I hated there was a Luck score. Screw that.

They just need more variety of spells, way too streamlined and not that interesting to be a spellcaster. They could probably double the number of spells in each spell line easily.

That's not the point. The game isn't about any single option that was removed, it's about having dozens of different avenues available to you. For example, yesterday I started a Dunmer character with the idea that he'd have fled Morrowind in the aftermath of Red Mountain's eruption, and he was either a former Ordinator or former Buoyant Armiger (two military orders associated with the old religion of Morrowind).

I soon realized that there was no way to make this a possibility.

• Had this game been Morrowind I could've picked major skills to reflect my character's history, showing that he started the game better than average at certain skills, rather than level 20 in everything. A holy warrior who lived by his blade for years and never cast an illusion spell in his life somehow is just as good at casting illusion magic as he is at hacking at things.
  
• Had this game been Morrowind I'd have had a variety of different armors and armor types to choose from, to reflect a variety of different cultures. Instead, what few sets of early armor there are have Nordic themes to them, as do the weapons. In Morrowind there were a variety of Imperial, Nordic, Dunmer, and other sets of armor so that I could pick up pieces that I felt represented my character well. In Skyrim there is no medium armor (which I'd have preferred to use) and virtually no armor for any races other than Nord, Imperial, and Altmer.
  
• Had this game been Morrowind I'd have more choices for weapons types. I could use spears, or shortswords, or rather than bothering with a bow and arrow I might have had enchanted throwing stars where I quickly toss one while closing for melee combat to gain an advantage, or distract my opponent.
  
• Had this game been Morrowind I'd have been able to make spells with effects that I wanted, with names that I created. I could've had a spell called 'Shield of the Almsivi', or 'Vivec's Mercy' - a whole repetoire of Dunmer religious-themed magic that would remind me of my character's origins, and add more flavor to his game.

Those things and more are stuff that have been subtracted in subsequent games for no real good reason, which have contributed to making my experience, and my Dunmer character much less than it could've been. Again, for no real reason. All of this was just to give you an example of why the stuff they've been taking away matters to some of us.

Skyrim was dumbed down way to much, I can only imagine what an acrobatics perk tree would look like.

I found the opposite with the lack of major skills. The biggest problem with not having major skills is every skill outside what you view your specialization to be raises you... and by extension your enemies.

The big argument against Acrobatics and Athletics as skills was people picking them and leveling too fast. Now I have Speech and lockpicking doing the same thing and I can't even opt out... unless I want to stay poor by not unlocking chests for loot and not selling any loot I can pick up.

What is the logic here?

If I can raise my level in a store selling goods, might as well allow me to raise sneak in the safety of town and Destruction/Weapons skills on practice targets... at least then I'd be leveling my important battle skills since the current system is letting Speech and Lockpicking up the enemy level.

I've only seen minor-skill leveling have a significant effect on my overall progress at very early levels. Once you get past the very beginnings of your character, your "major" skills should be high enough that they're the only ones that can have any kind of real impact on your overall level.

Let's see:

Jump x% higher then you did before x5, plus a bunch of other useless crap.

Or, you can think outside the box:

Acrobatic Perks could have a "Side Roll," "Move Faster While Blocking," or... get this: Ability to Perform a Jump while Running.

It's not about thinking inside, or outside the box. It's just about having realistic expectations. It would probably be as useful as the Lockpicking or Speech trees.

It all depends on the Perks and what connection the Skill level actually has to gameplay.

Things like an evasive roll would be very, very useful in gameplay and would not be at all as useless as Lockpicking and Speechcraft.

But it is worse for magic users, because Destruction is weak. As Destruction is ineffectual, I ended up using weapons [conjured and real] and blocking when enemies got close... often, raising those skills too. Whereas Destruction was initially my focus, my ending up having enemies at arms length all the time resulted in a whole lot of skills I wouldn't have picked if I had major skills to pick leveling me up. [Speech, Lockpicking, One-handed, Blocking and Light Armor] Up to level 8-9, Destruction was my top skill, by 20 it was 1-handed and Conjuration and Destruction barely moved because it was only good for getting a good first shot or two at a distance. Then Sneak got good enough to make getting that first shot in by hand the better choice and I end up only using Destruction when the damn dragon landed so far away it was almost dead by the time I ran there... then I stopped that since I was getting bounties for hitting bystanders with the blast radius. [...which Spellmaking could have fixed, but then again... Spellmaking could have fixed Destruction from levels 8-9 to 20 as well]

Again, you're doing it wrong... and blaming the game for your own problems.

You can make sure your character is a trained swordman by... hmmm... using a sword instead of a mace?
There's also quite a few different cultural weapon and armor in the game, even if you just cannot find them. Oh Morrowind lacks of good armor from Elsweyr, now I cannot RP my character properly, this game svcks...
Same with weapon and spellmaking you have to go with what you have, I cannot play a spearthrower? The Elder Scrolls Morrowind is the greatest game in the history of the universe., it ruins my planned RP. Also I cannot make a firewall or a spell where I could spread fire and it would remain there, so I cannot RP an arsonist who burns houses for kicks? This game svcks.

They equaled Morrowind, their greatest achievement, in atmosphere. Surpassed it with visuals, animations, combat, but somehow took a major step back in storytelling.

Did they drop the ball? Hardly. Skyrim could've been better, well it always could no matter what you do, but it improved upon plenty of aspects in magnificent ways that I'm not too concerned with Bethesda in the future. If they'd drop the action RPG focus for a more pure cRPG focus, I'd be thrilled.

Most of the negative aspects I've read are limitations of your own imagination.

Yeah I can do that. The problem is that I get the impression my character was born yesterday, without any special traits or skills to set him apart from any other Dunmer that any of you make, other than the exact angle of his neanderthal brow or the type of lips he has. He's lived a life before getting pushed into that cart in Skyrim next to Ulfric Stormcloak, at least in my mind.


When I start a new character he either uses the Nord-inspired leather/hide armor, or the Nord-inspired iron/steel armor, or the Imperial armor. When he levels up he uses Dwemer armor, or Ayeliad armor that ha snow been bastardized as Thalmor armor. When he levels up again he wears Orc armor...you get the picture. There really isn't that much choice of what to wear, there's kind of a very linear system of progression to the types of armor you can wear. Iron armor is tier 1 heavy armor, steel armor is tier 2 heavy armor, and there is only one or maybe two different armor sets in each tier, and for the most part the low tier stuff is just as Nordic looking as the last thing I was wearing. If I roleplay as a Dunmer who hates Nords you can see his issue...


There's a difference between pining for things in past games that were taken out for no good reason at all, and thinking of virtually any situation and wondering why Bethesda didn't predict it and act accordingly to implement it.

My main complaint isn't the lack of armor types, just that most of them look absurd. I'm looking at you, glass and dwarven armor.

No No No and No.
Thats my opinion. But many things could have been better but i tend not to think in that way. Never liked a TES Game this much since morrowind