This is my first exposure to Elder Scrolls. I really enjoy these story lines, and wonder what it would be like to run thru TES IV now. Just how far advanced is the gameplay in Skyrim over that in Oblivion? What would I most notice about the mechanics of the game? Do you think that Skyrim is so superior to Oblivion in content that I'd be really wasting my time? What would make me say, "This was a royal waste of time and money?"

It would be like dusting off the old NES and inserting The Immortal.

Oblivion is still a good game, but for me, it's had it's time in the limelight for over 5 years now.

Oblivion was nothing more than an "Interactive screen saver" A gorgeous interactive screen saver, but a screen saver all the same..Until OOO came along!
It had a great story-line and was an excellent game, it was just too easy...

uh oh you gonna open a whole can of bad worms here... However I would have suggested playing oblivion first. To me I enjoy both games though i tend to lean toward skyrim as better for my tastes not just for what skyrim has that oblivion doesn't, but mainly for the reason that skyrim's setting and character models are more to my liking. They both have almost equal pros and cons IMO. Though there is a chance that skyrim will be improved upon through DLC and such as time goes on and could end up being the better game all around for me.

Oblivion kicks Skyrim's butt anyday.

This topic is gonna explode in 3, 2 ,1....

Gameplay aside, you may find the overall experience worse than if you played it when it came out, or atleast before skyrim. Graphics and voice acting shouldn't make a game "better" than another, but they'll probably become tiresome and un-immersive (?) quick.

I think it is OK to go back, they did make some major changes between the two in terms of classes, leveling, and some minor changes in activities. However, the game play for the most part is similar at least from a combat perspective, magic has changed a bit more between the two. As long as you understand you won't get the graphical detail that Skyrim has in Oblivion, I think that you would enjoy it. It will also give you little more historical perspective, which I am finding is huge in TES Series, Bethesda seems to put so much work in on this, and to understand a lot of it you either need to read all those books they have lying around or play the games. Just my opinion though, so if you go for it and decide it is a waste of time, don't ask me to reimburse you... LOL

Plus oblivion has the best dark brother hood quests where you crash a fake party to slowly systematically kill off all the guests while making each and everyone paranoid of each other but you.

Don't listen to the Morrowind lovers.... Oblivion is a great game http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSHazIP0yP4

Personally after morrowind I hated oblivion just seemed so dull I'm the sense of story and just felt like I want doing much. Don't get me wrong though the combat like slyrim was awesome.

As soon as the opening was done in skim I felt I had purpose and for the first time since morrowind I found myself thinking "this is going to be awesome"

So peraonally I would not waste my money on oblivion thats my opinion a lot harsher than a lot of peoples but if I was to go back I would plug in morrowind and mod the graphics.

Ahh marrowind I remember you well... running around at level one with a ring of invisibility getting rich in less than an hour stealing with no sneaking skill all the expensive loot then killing all before me with a sword once swung instant killed everything in a 30 yard radius while giving me all their health while my sword skill was at 15 and still only lvl one... All of this without mods or console commands O_O.

Hell yeah ! Pretty much every guild questline in Oblivion was interesting, and not to mention not as dull and short as in Skyrim.

I can't beleive I forgot about that quest, that one was awesome. Having to decide who to kill when... then getting one of the last 2 guests to kill the other one. Just a great time all around, what an awesome party that was, good times.

i kinda agree well they were a bit more interesting in oblivion for sure, but as for length where this comes from is the fact that instead of having to do the sub guild quests before moving on to the main stuff and through the ranks skyrim for good and bad made the little stuff option and required you to ask around for stuff to do in between main guild questing. I actually look for the lttle stuff from random members to finish first before doing the quests that take you to leadership (which i think they should have done away with gaining leadership of guilds all together or forced you to finish main quest first)

Hehe well I never experienced that but u can mod it for difficulty as well as so so many great content mods as I'm sure oblivion had aswell I may hate it but I understand why people loved it.

Oblivion chameleon enchantments => same thing

I did exactly that recently, but more to learn about Cyrodiil and lore for my characters' background stories than for actual gameplay. I think the game is terrible . The MQ is incredibly tedious, even if the story itself is interesting. The graphics are also horrible, as are the sounds and general artwork. I played an archer and the gameplay was really laughably bad (arrows travel as fast as spit wads and are just as damaging). Beth has come a looooooooong way.

In other words, steer clear unless, like me, you only want to learn more about Cyrodiil. I personally really enjoyed seeing the points of interest.

Oblivion is still awesome I have played it some times after skyrim release Skyrim has some improvemets over oblivion but oblivion have an awesome feel to it

OP, can you still enjoy other older games? Because if graphics are very important to you then you might find it difficult to get into.
OB is not nearly as dark and gritty as Skyrim, but it does have it's charm.
Personally I don't think the writing has greatly improved between the two, although voice acting is much better in SK, but you should still be able to enjoy it.

Seeing as you can pick up OB so cheap now, I'd say go for it.

yeah i ran into that too i actually threw all such enchanted items away and stopped playing the game for a month to wash that awfulness out of my brain then went back to playing and enjoying.

Oblivion was more like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fxVeAVl2I8

This is my favorite on youtube

damn it all I nearly choked to death laughing

Wow, I was so sure that this topic would have exploded by now...c'mon guys, try harder !