Right, so we all complain about many aspects of the game. I personally love the game, and I think we all do really. Like everyone else I have some issues with the game.
But here's my point, and what I think is the bottom line and reason behind all these issues...

... Bethesda did not try, enjoy, like or dare I say, want to be making this game.

Why do I think this? That's what the game feels like.

Now I never wanted to compare games, and really that's not what I'm doing, but...
... Do you remember the first few hours of playing oblivion?
Stunning new technology, beautiful scenes, excitement, mystery, wonder, gripping dialogue and stories and so on...
We had celebrity voices, amazing main storyline, all the guilds had good stories, bigger better cities, more imaginative side quests... You get the picture.

It felt like Bethesda were just as excited about making it as we were to play it, felt like they were dying to impress, trying new ideas.

I'm not saying skyrim isn't a great game, but it doesn't have as much epic-ness as its predecessor, feels like they played it safe with this game.

Anyone else feel the same? Thoughts?... Discuss.

This is my first TES game so for me it feels epic. Now if I played Morrowind now, I don't think it would feel epic.

Try oblivion, it just feels more "magic".

Oblivion is generally acknowledged to be the worst of the TES series, with the sole exception of Arena. No, You may prefer Morrowind, or even Daggerfall, but vanilla Oblivion was not good for a TES game, while being in my top 10 of all time. Seriously, now Oblivion is the new Morrowind, and It's not nostalgia, we just realised It was awesome all of a sudden.

EDIT: Also, celebrity voices? Have you ever heard of Max Von Sydow or Christopher Plummer? The voices in Oblivion were retardedly overused except for Martin's and the Emperor. It also didn't feel that magic if you ahd played Morrowind beforehand, nor It felt epic in any way compared to Skyrim.

I know I loved Oblivion and Morrowind, also Daggerfall and Arena.
I still enjoy Skyrim, but I'd say to get used to dumbed down RPGs, it's
the trend of the future. All flash and little substance. Remember Dungeon
Siege 3? It was, by far, the prettiest of the three, but little else. It was so
dumbed down that there was little to recommend it. Skyrim, at least, is
freeform, and I like exploring.

Starkiller

Good point. I don't think its so much about the game as about a person wanting to recapture the magic of their first experience playing a previous title. The experience can never be as fresh and new as it was again.

I only played about 30 hours of Morrowind, but during that time I traveled to all sorts of different locations. There was a village of mages living inside a huge tree that you had to have the spell Levitate to go into.........thats wonder and magic....badass in a nutshell.

Oblivion was fun but didn't feel nearly as magical or epic as you think it was. All the caves looked the same, all the ruins looked the same. I got glass armor very early on, and there just wasn't that much variety. It seemed like Bethesda was so happy that they made a nice looking tree, grass, and bushes that afterwards they clicked a button and it was copy and pasted all over the map randomly.

Skyrim is more like Oblivion in that sense that it doesn't have as much variety as Morrowind, but the detail, combat and all the little things make it much better than Morrowind and Oblivion. Dragons are epic. I am constantly looking at the sky to watch out for a random dragon and it's very intense. I like the stories so far in the 2 "guilds" I joined. I'm still doing them but so far I like them.

Skyrim just feels more immersive and polished.

Please definite "substance." From where I'm sitting Skyrim has loads of it.

I think you are way off the mark.

Yeah, I have to agree. Bethesda's heart just wasn't in it. (This does not mean it's 'soulless', though. I'm sure plenty of people who worked on the game gave it their all.)

Oblivion is the new Morrowind now? As Morrowind was the new Daggerfall?

I've yet to give a go to Skyrim. As I said somewhere else, the best thing I did was waiting a full semester before giving New Vegas a go. Most bugs squashed, either by the devs or community, and plenty of goodies on the modding scene.

Also, remember that this game is still developed for older console technology. We're still waiting on the 360 to die. It's not like Skyrim had to show off a new console.

I think a lot of ppl who are complaining about things that relate to what I just said forget that.

you obviously don't own or have not watched the making of DVD. you also have no conjical prove to back such a weak and pathetic statement as this. Your fallacy here erodes my patience for people who make threads such as this: "I have a problem, i blame Bethesda, they svck, wa!" do not waste our time with your meager complaints. Every piece of software has issues. You don't see people complaining because windows 7 has issues i the general sense. no they accept it and work around it knowing that a time goes on its a better OS then vista and that it will get fixed. Skyrim is a better game then oblivion as oblivion is then morwind (arguments aside) and thus issues will be fixed over time

I think they enjoyed it, they just enjoyed making nice looking vegetables and improving combat more than writing decent quests.

Addendum: I think it's a problem of project management. Todd needs to go. I do not want to play iStuff inspired games. What a horrible, crocky source of inspiration.

Sweet, it took almost a month to get these Oblivion nostalgia guys...yeah...that was once pretty hated game when it came..

This.

To the fine gentlemen above me....

People were upset with Oblivion because they felt it was a step down from Morrowind.

People are upset with Skyrim because they feel like it, in certain areas, is a step down from Oblivion.

This makes no sense to me.

Skyrim is an unfinished master piece. Which is a shame I still love the game and marvel at the beautiful world and how few flaws it has and then marvel at how they failed to do such simple tasks as make a menu system.

How else do you explain the mass amount of bugs being reported, complaints of short, boring stories etc.?

Im not saying I agree or have even experienced all the issues with the game, I like the game allot and its amazing in its own right... But it doesn't feel like the same brilliant design team was behind this game.

Liam Neeson or whatever you spell it is in every game, hes a celeb lol, and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is the greatest game in the history of the universe..


THREE DOG'S IN IT THO THTS GD ENUFF FO ME FO SHO U KNO!

I think Oblivion was a great game. I think Skyrim is a great game. The only problem, is that they're not great Elder Scrolls games. In any other franchise, they would be considered masterpieces. But, compared to Morrowind, they're average at best. Skyrim is better than Oblivion, but still, its no Morrowind.

edit - And, I'm almost postitive the dude that posted above never played Morrowind when it was new.

That doesn't mean they didn't put their heart and soul in the game.

Theres a lot of little things that are make the game 10x better than Oblivion.

Have you seen the snow areas......this game has detail coming out the ass. The corn in it's poop is placed just right.

are you like incompetently blind to the fact that this is a very LARGE game and that there is going to be a lot of undiscovered bugs that they couldn't detect or find because every one plays the game different? or are you just an egotistical troll looking for every wrong doing in this game?

I think their hearts are/were in it. Did you watch the making of DVD?

Also, I think Bethesda is mostly renown for two things: their passion... and their bugs.