The guild quest lines are longer in Oblivion. I wouldn't say better.

And, IMO, that's why Oblivion plays more like an RPG than Skyrim. Being able to do what anyone wants in Skyrim just makes the player character on any style of play seem all generic. I'll admit that Oblivion's system was a bit complex and it could be improved upon, but I honestly don't think SKyrim did that, it just over-simplified things while stripping out many aspects that have been in TES lore. Not including spellmaking for one is a huge flaw. It is also is more unbalanced favoring melee style far over ranged magic style. What made Oblivion better, again, IMO, is that you were held to the class and style you chose when you make the choices for skills to excel in. It's not that you cannot excel in all skills, only that the ones you don't choose take forever to level, essentially holding you to those choices. Skyrim doesn't do that at all.

Does health not automatically regen in Oblivion? I'm finding that it doesn't, but thought I remembered that it had?

Yes better. In Oblivion's thieves guild I actually felt like a thief in Skyrim I felt more like an assassin.

It does not.

I've also noticed that you don't automatically harvest everything. I assume thats a skill perk that you get better at harvesting the ingredients in the world as you level up? If so, i kinda dig that...

There really is no comparison , Skyrim is far superior to Oblivion.

Yes, if you play as a Redguard or Imperial, your health auto-regens.
Major Edit:

Correction, but still yes,, only if you choose the proper birth-sign (like Lord), sorry for the mis-info

For me its better in Graphics and combat only. The guild quest and main quest are way too short. IMO they could have done so much more with all of them

I decided to go Breton, as I want to take advantage of the ability to be a pure mage in Oblivion that everyone keeps talking about.

Like someone else said, Morrowind had the same class and attribute structure that Oblivion did but did not have the same problems. So naturally Bethesda decided rather than tweak what had been working thru the first 3 games and fix what was wrong with Oblivion they scrapped alot of the potential customization. Baby meet bath water.

I agree.

Skyrim's over-encumbered system is much more realistic

Oblivions main quest was worse and i don't think the DB or Theives guild quests were really any better either, longer yes . I played the hell out of Obllivion and remember the quests and there story very well. Skyrim is better than Oblivion overall same with all the previous TES.

Ahhhh! The repair equipment and weapons systems. Now why did Skyrim do away with that? This adds a lot to the game, IMO.

lol I could just imagine your character standing in the middle of a cave motionless.

If you PC game, download graphics-enhancing mods for Oblivion so the differences won't be so glaring. I'd be interested to see an article comparing the two based on quests, dialogue, story, combat, and so on.

Oblivion was just more complex, not broken like most detractors claim. Morrowind actually works in scaling similar to how Skyrim works, making the game too easy at higher levels, even the enemies in caves, etc stick at their levels. I know some people hate level scaling, but I like it as it makes the game challenging. I do see the point of it being regarded for easier gameplay for leveling up though. with Morrwind's and Skyrim's system. What made Morrowind a bit longer, no map markers, no fast travel (except for special cases) No regen of any kind (IIRC), you need potions. In honesty that added a bit more realism to the game. I personally think Daggerfall's system was better, it had way more skills and 8 priamry attributes like Mor and Ob. It kinda works like Skyrim for Skill leveling, but instead of being able to easily level all skills, the ones you choose to use the most will level fast, while the other become impossibly hard to use and level, holding you to your style of play. And all of the TES game before Skyrim had "Spellmaking" I want taht back so bad.

Hmmm. Visiting from the Oblivion forum. I'm waiting for the Skyrim GOTY, I don't enjoy playing russian roulette. As for the leveling: you level up based on the skills that you use. That's it. All those who complain about poor leveling were caught with their pants down. You guys spammed skills didn't ya? Tried a little power-grinding, and it backfired?
Pick the majors you plan to use. Use them. As long as you have one good killing skill, you're good to go. My two septims.

Why would you say it's got bad graphics? it's a 2006 game but you can mod it and it still looks awesome.

oblivion vs skyrim: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXY-lxI2nek&feature=related

Sorry, health never regenerates in TES IV: Oblivion (without mods). The Lord has a less power to heal, it still does not regen health automatically.


I've noticed several things like that. In Oblivion there is a percent chance of successful harvest. And that depends on the plant. Some plants like Flax are easy to harvest, some like many mushrooms are more difficult. It's not related to a skill perk.

There are lots of things like that in Oblivon. Armor degrading of course. Haveing to find higher level alchemy equipment too.

And even more things like that in Morrowind. Like spells and potions have a chance of failing.

I guess these things are reduced due to "streamlining"


That is of course a matter of opinion.

And, when my character finally became arch-mage, I felt that they earned it. I love both games. Both have pluses and minuses. I never minded the level scaling in Oblivion, and thought it was challenging/fun to have to keep your character competitive with the world. A spreadsheet to maintain all 5's, for each level up was never required. My only personal complaint with Oblivion was that my characters were very lonely and unfulfilled playing on the vanilla 360 version. Skyrim has helped to resolve this with the limited companion/follower mechanic. Flawed, but enough for decent role-play. My largest gripe with Skyrim (aside from the downgrade of magic/spellmaking) is the removal of fame, infamy and the impact of morality. Nothing wrong with playing the "bad guy", but anyone can be blessed in a chapel in Skyrim. No impact for your actions. No npc reactions based on your characters disposition. I liked and miss the mechanic of spirituality and repentance in Oblivion. They never forced it on you, but the structure was there if you chose to play that way. Oblivion is a much deeper experience than most give it credit for.

Im simply not seeing this huge graphical differance betwen Oblivion and Skyrim sure Skyrim is a little more poslished. Maybe I need glasses or my Oblivion was running on high with some mods.

I haven't played Oblivion in two years, but whenever I did a reinstall of the game I made sure I had the various texture replacements installed before I even fired it up. The only area I could reasonably stand stock was the Shivering Isles expansion.