So I've owned Skyrim for like 8 months now and I'm still playing it a ton. I've also taken the time to do a lot of research into past games, and am wondering if I should get Morrowind and Oblivion.

I'm skeptical, because I feel that they won't be as good as Skyrim and will leave me disappointed, and I find the graphics underwhelming. While I can forgive Morrowind, as it was released in bloody 2002, but Oblivion in particular looks ugly for a 2006 game, and its close-ups on people when you talk to them is frightening. But so long as the immersion is there and the roleplaying factor is high, I'd consider it.

But I'd rather get an expert's opinion. What should I do?

I actually thought Oblivion looked amazing back in 2006. But whatever.

Personally, I don't have time to play Morrowind, Oblivion was my first game and I actually liked it a lot more than Skyrim. There are some glaring flaws with the combat and leveling system that were fixed in Skyrim, but overall, I thought Oblivion was a much deeper RPG than Skyrim, and Morrowind is supposedly a much deeper RPG than Oblivion.

Also, mods have made both these games look as good as Skyrim.

Definitely! They're both great, much better than Skyrim in my opinion.

I hate that too. If you get Oblivion for PC you can disable that feature. It was one of the first things I did when I got the game.

It sounds like graphics are important to you. If this is so, you might not like the earlier games. Gameplay-wise, however, many players like the earlier games better.

Myself, I prefer Skyrim but I like all three.

Think of Oblivion and Morrowind as different games (Which they are, obviously) rather than an old TES game. Just as long as you are not expecting Skyrim when popping Oblivion/Morrowind for the first time, you will be fine. Experience what an actual RPG feels like (Morrowind, that is).

I actually think that Oblivion looks fantastic. Even better than Skyrim in some ways, because of the environment.

Except for the NPCs. NPCs are okay, but humans humans are tuned to be very sensitive to even small inaccuracies with other humans. (That's why they put faces on paper money, it makes it much easier to detect counterfeits if the face is even slightly off). And in Oblivion the heads are a bit large for the bodies and so they have a slightly cartoonish look.

But other than NPCs I think the graphics are great. With mods in particular it's particular beautiful. you can find lots of very beautiful pictures and videos on of Oblivion on the internet.

And when it was released Oblivion was beyond state of the art. Many computers could not even run the graphics at good settings.

Gameplay Oblivion has a lot of features that Skyrim is missing, and vice versa.

The real key is that if you pick up Oblivion or Morrowind and expect it to be exactly like Skyrim, then you are likely to be disappointed. You may even hate them for not being Skyrim. But if you consider them their own game and approach them with an open mind, you may very well like them both.

(for the record I really like Oblivion, Morrowind and Skyrim).

Also if you can't get past the graphics, you might consider Fallout 3. It was release after Oblivion and has technically better graphics including NPCs. Though you still zoom in on the NPCs during conversations.

Get them, play them

I hated Morrowind and Oblvion, but after playing Skyrim and getting into the RPG world, I played Oblivion again.

It was awesome. I can't explain it, it just felt better. It was more... 'complex'... and the Fighter's Guild and such is much better,

Morrowind is very different to Skyrim. As an open-world RPG, it's irrefutably superior in so many ways. If you go into it expecting a polished action-adventure type experience in a sandbox world that revolves around you and holds your hand, you'll probably end up very disappointed however.

Oblivion has some pretty big flaws, but overall I prefer it to Skyrim.

Both games are dirt cheap now, don't require super computers to run, and can be modded to look just as good as Skyrim - if not better. What do you have to lose?

Oblivion won't be too much of a jump. It's a lot like Fallout 3 in a fantasy setting. Morrowind's a little farther away, but it's a very in-depth game. You'll enjoy both.

I loved oblivion and played it every day until skyrim was released but after playing the beauty of skyrim it's hard to go back to oblivion.
Morrowind is crap unless you like playing old D&D board games as a video game...the mechanics are bad, graphics are bad, controls are bad and so forth. The only good thing about it is the roleplaying, lore and the immersion but that all exists in a hideous looking land with outdated graphics