tad long IMO

I kind of miss Oblivions opening cutscene. IMO the intro was too much action. I don't think any other quests really live up to it. Then again I have not done half the main quests or even picked a side in the civil war yet...

I prefer Morrowinds.
It did what it was supposed to (character creation), had the whole "WOW Beautiful new world!"-experience when you exit the ship, and it was something you could get through rather quickly if you wanted to.
I can imagine Skyrim's being REALLY annoying, once you've played it enough.

I have to agree with others in that I prefer Morrowind's intro. Both Oblivion and Skryim suffer from the same problem. A long drawn out tutorial process that is unskippable. It's fine the first time, but being forced to go through it every time I start a new character is just annoying.

No.

personally, i was blown away with the opening sequence where you're almost beheaded and then [censored] gets real. the dragon spewing flame everywhere, arrows flying around, people dying...i was hooked from the start.

Me too. I don't really like the feeling of getting dumped out there all at once with Skyrim without an opening cinematic. A little less hectic tutorial is my preference (like with OB, FO3 and FO NV).

Skyrim intro is nice the first time....... a little to long but not a problem.

But it was a really big mistake to force us to do it again and again when we want to try another character.

A chekpoint like in oblivion/fallout3 before leaving the helgen cave to allow a change of race/face would have been perfect, there are no reason to not implement this in the first place.

From an "artistic merit" standpoint, Skyrim wins Hands-down

Skyrim's intro, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4Y2oO9oZwo, really sets the mood for the game. The tutorial's also pretty good at introducing new players to the mechanics and is not as intrusive as Oblivion's. And for engaging the player AND character, it does everything Oblivion's does, but better, to get you into the action and judge your character. The biggest dissapointment to me is that neither Hadvar nor Ralof become marriable companions. I love them both so much.

Morrowind's music, while nice, doesn't fit the intro as tightly, with the cutscene being too "generically" atmospheric, and the Main theme, starting as soon as you "awake", doesn't quite combine with the on-screen events to create such an emotionally-compelling moment.

Oblivion's introduction pales in comparison's to Skyrim because of the lack of unique music - Generic dungeon theme, with generic combat music throughout. It also falls down once you get out of the caves, becoming a case of "Watch how awesome these people are."

From a strictly gameplay perspective, I like Oblivion best.

Oblivion wins because of the "Save at Sewer Exit" and double-confirmation of your choice, allowing you to check out all the races/appearances and benefits of the skills, and creating a new character's a breeze once you're familiar with the game: Just load the sewer exit. It also comes with the best "Starting Packages", giving access to whichever class of weapons and armor you favor, as well as the basic "Starting Spells" in any magic schools you choose. The only problem is with the inequality of gear: The blades you get access to are superior to the Blunt weapons you can use - having access to a Steel Waraxe and Iron Greatsword could have evened that out a bit more.

Skyrim and Morrowind are somewhat tied: Morrowind gets you into the game "Faster" because it's shorter in terms of duration... but it tends to "feel" longer because it's slower: Once you gain control of your character in Skyrim, you can get through the intro at your own pace. You have to slog through too much conversation to go through Morrowind's... and the time it takes to loot the Census and Excise Office slows it down more. But, you don't really need to do that. For "starting packages", while you start in town and can thus buy what you want, the inventory can frequently be underwhelming.

Skyrim, on the other hand... I'm so glad the Stormcloak soldier decides to just get on with getting his head lopped off... After that conversation (Which seems to drag on forever on your not-first character) and sequence, though, it immediately gets better by allowing you to self-pace until you enter the keep and have to wait for the guy to shut up, decide you're standing in just the right place, and unbind you. At which point you take the lead again. And for non-mages, the starting package is superior to Morrowind's - it lets you play around with the different styles before committing to your favorite loadout that matches your style. While I don't like the gear discrepency (You can't get any decent heavy armor if you side with Hadvar, and I don't like siding with Ralof), and the lack of spells to play around with in the start is underwhelming (Did we really need a Sparks tome when we already have Flames to play with Destruction? Why couldn't it give us "Conjur Familiar" to play with Conjuration, and/or a novice Alteration spell such as Oakflesh to test that school out?), I find the free access to different playstyles to make up for that.

It also avoids two of the pitfalls of Oblivion's character creation by never taking character control away once it's established, and ensuring you're a contributing member of the introduction sequence.

Of Bethesda's games, Fallout 3 beats them all any day of the week. It's just epic. A nice mix of free roam and scripted, very thorough in explaining what the world is like (afterall, it was 10 years since Fallout 2), very lore friendly and had many elements from the past Fallouts, and it was just nice. I didn't want to leave the vault, dammit!

Very Nice reply.

Having played all the ES games from Daggerfall to Skyrim, I still think Morrowind had the best beginning. You were just dumped out into the world, bam, and you could do whatever you wanted. I mean, you were supposed to go talk to your parole officer or somesuch, but who cares? Even if you did talk to Caius, he sort of asked you whether you wanted to help him out. In Oblivion and Skyrim, it's all like "AHHHH! The world is ending! You're a big hero! You gotsta save it!" Of course, you didn't actually have to, but it doesn't make sense to leave the world hanging like that. You live there, after all.

My only complaint on the Intro is not being able to skip the cart ride to get ahead to the 'face/race making'. It does make it a little slow for when doing multiple characters.

Yeah it has a lot more action then oblivion.

Cheers

I also wish you could change your character at the end of the tutorial cave

There's a reason it makes a hard save just before the character creation screen.

I can agree with this, but personally a gameplay merit standpoint is more important for me. Sure first time through Skyrim's intro was better than the first time through Morrowind's, but after a few times of being forced to watch the movie you could care less about the artistic merit and just want it to end so you can play. It's the same for Morrowind's really. Yeah it was a little slow paced, but after you've made a few characters you pretty much had the whole thing memorized. You could easily skip the dream sequence, type in your name, run past the guard leading you off the boat, exit, tell the other guard where you're from then run past him into the Census and Excise office, and blow through all the dialog in the intro. Just click the needed keywords and don't even bother reading what the NPC replies with. The majority of your time will be in actually making your class. Which I enjoy, Daggerfall had my favorite class creation from any Elder Scrolls game. Oh how I wish advantages/disadvantages and the questions about your background would make a comeback, but that's another thing entirely....


Not to mention if you did say you wanted to help him he basically said, though not in these exact words, "You're totally a newb dude, go get some experience so you can actually be helpful to me." Which was great. It let you set your own pace instead of, like you said, "AHHHH! The world is ending! You're a big hero! You gotsta save it!".

Lol the board changes n 0 0 b into new player

Whats up with TES and starting as a prisoner?

Noobs

Not sure; seems very repetitive though.

If nothing else, it doesn't drag on endlessly. How many times could one play through boring Vault 101 or listen to Patrick Stewart spill his drivel before it got old?

I could listen to Patrick Stewart forever!

I personnally think that the introduction was far better than in previous games. When I finally got my hands freed, I already asked myself the following questions :

Was the Dragon attack a co?ncidence, or was it to kill somebody here (me or Ulfric?)? Or to prevent me/him to be killed ?

How did they capture Ulfric?

Why was Ulfric gagged ? To prevent him from using the Way of the Voice, or from claiming he was innocent in case he didn't kill the High King ? In the former case, is he a Dragonborn, in the latter, who killed the High King? The Thalmor? Or someone who expects that the Thalmor will appear as guilty, in ordrer to instrumentalize the hatred that the Nords feel against them to expell the Thalmor out of Skyrim ?

So many questions in my head after only very few minutes in the game, in fact more questions than I ever had in Oblivion. I consider it as a far better introduction than the ones of all the previous games.

Morrowind did it the best.
It simply kicks you out in the world (quickly and painless) with no strings attached to you.
With that, you being the hero feels much better since it doesn't seem pushed on you at all and at least gives you the illusion of you having to work for it.

In Oblivion and Skyrim, it's simply lame and practically pushes you into a direction like a simple-minded child.

The intro in Skyrim is slow and boring. The ride to your execution, listening to them talk about you not being on the list, running around town waiting to finally get into the dungeons, waiting to get your hands back and finally making your way through the cave. Long and boring, even the first time through. Maybe the first time through was the worst because you were all excited about the game seeing as you went to the launch party so you could play as soon as possible.

Morrowind was the best but atleast Oblivion gave you a chance to change everything at the end of the sewers. Saving there allowed you to skip the intro dungeon in new playthroughs.