Morrowind old guy

[generalstaff]

Oh yeah I agree, Morrowind remains one of the games that has marked my gaming life. It was just so dang beautiful to have this vivid setting to explore. The setting was so much better than Oblivion's, for some reason. That island had a lot more character than the bland same-old-medieval thing from Oblivion.

It is the setting that made Morrowind better than Oblivion, although I think it had more to do with the factions than Europe Medieval Fantasy vs Exotic Culture Fantasy. The Great House politics made the game very interesting, especially with LGNPC (Less Generic NPC) mods. The fully voiced dialog in Oblivion really discourage people from adding quests, factions, etc.

Anyways, I have to be one of the many here to admit never finishing the game. I would always get distracted by a new mod release, having to start over with a new character to try different choices, etc. On that topic, I hope Tamriel Rebuilt releases Map 3 soon.

 

[Arakhor]

Anyways, I have to be one of the many here to admit never finishing the game. I would always get distracted by a new mod release, having to start over with a new character to try different choices, etc. On that topic, I hope Tamriel Rebuilt releases Map 3 soon.

Likewise guilty on all counts there.

 

[Chukchi Husky]

I been playing Morrowind again. The first time I played the game was when the Game of the Year Edition came out on the Xbox. Since then I got it for the PC once I had a PC that could run it, and have been playing it with several different mods. I have never completed the main quest.

Spoiler :

Furthest I got was the part where you have to unite the different tribes and houses.

 

[serek000]

To whoever commented on the setting being better in Morrowind than Oblivion:

I think, rather than just being different, what sets Morrowind above and beyond Oblivion (which is a good game in its own right, just not up to Morrowind's standards) is the diversity of the environment in Morrowind. From the Bitter Coast Region to the Ghost Gate to the Ashlands to Solstheim, the physical and cultural geography is vastly different from region to region. This isn't really the case in Oblivion, where the terrain only changes slightly and the culture is predominantly similar, although there are minor differences from city to city.

I still remember my "woah. awesome!" reaction the first time I saw a Telvanni city after seeing only Imperial or Hlaalu cities.

 

[generalstaff]

To whoever commented on the setting being better in Morrowind than Oblivion:

I think, rather than just being different, what sets Morrowind above and beyond Oblivion (which is a good game in its own right, just not up to Morrowind's standards) is the diversity of the environment in Morrowind. From the Bitter Coast Region to the Ghost Gate to the Ashlands to Solstheim, the physical and cultural geography is vastly different from region to region. This isn't really the case in Oblivion, where the terrain only changes slightly and the culture is predominantly similar, although there are minor differences from city to city.

I still remember my "woah. awesome!" reaction the first time I saw a Telvanni city after seeing only Imperial or Hlaalu cities.

I found Oblivion to be diverse enough (I agree that Morrowind was more diverse thanks to the number of factions), the issue was that the areas Bruma and the Topal Bay area seemed like quest destinations, not their own. Other than than Cheydinhal, all the other cities felt roughly the same. But even as different as the north and south were, they did not have the same impact as seeing the Telvanni.

Also, I found the fact that there were no Daedric ruins a disappointment, that was such a missed opportunity to tie in with the Main Quest. The caves and ruins in Morrowind were always interesting, they never felt like Bandit Cave #3, where as in Oblivion, except for a few notorious caves, they felt the same, and it was not because they were occupied by generic respawning baddies (Morrowind Comes Alive mod proved that to me).

 

[Rub'Rum]

True dat. And how totally not jarring it is to meet minotaurs where there used to be lowly bandits two days ago, simply because you gained a level in the meantime.

 

[generalstaff]

Oh, did the whole Oblivion random enemy system suck; it made me not want to level up. Enemy equipment gets heavier (glass weapons weighing near ebony, seriously) and more costly to repair (what is the point if the loot/profit ration stays the same), not to mention how out of control the wilderness got. Hundreds of Minotaurs and Ogres running around, and the invasion from Oblivion was the threat? Really? Let's not even mention how these bandits are easily gaining "rare" glass, ebony, and daedric equipment.

Yes, I know some mods corrected these issues, but there should not have been a need for them in the first place.

 

[Rub'Rum]

Oh, did the whole Oblivion random enemy system suck; it made me not want to level up. Enemy equipment gets heavier (glass weapons weighing near ebony, seriously) and more costly to repair (what is the point if the loot/profit ration stays the same), not to mention how out of control the wilderness got. Hundreds of Minotaurs and Ogres running around, and the invasion from Oblivion was the threat? Really? Let's not even mention how these bandits are easily gaining "rare" glass, ebony, and daedric equipment.

Yes, I know some mods corrected these issues, but there should not have been a need for them in the first place.

Yeah I used the mods to correct that. And I hated the Oblivion Gates, they sort of screwed up the already kind of lacklustre setting. I've said this before, but most fun I had with the game was a game where I never delivered the King's amulet and just did some side quests and faction quests. Screw the main quest: the world remained pristine...

 

[generalstaff]

Yeah I used the mods to correct that. And I hated the Oblivion Gates, they sort of screwed up the already kind of lacklustre setting. I've said this before, but most fun I had with the game was a game where I never delivered the King's amulet and just did some side quests and faction quests. Screw the main quest: the world remained pristine...

That sounds similar to most of my games (the only difference being I deliver the Amulet to free up my inventory, then ignore the main quest). You know, that is a similar issue I had with Shivering Isles (which I liked as an expansion roughly the same as Bloodmoon), the main quest messing up the world.

Now I have a second item I would like to (not) see with TES5
1. No full voice acting
2. No main quest which messes up the world

 

[Rub'Rum]

It's hard to not include voice acting in modern games, and I'm sure reviews would sink the game only based on the absence of voice acting.

That being said, I agree that it sort of limits what the company can do with its game. I just finished Planescape Torment, and maybe they had it right back then: some of the inevitable speech is voice acted, but most of the text isn't. I think Morrowind was like that too actually. Of course, there'd need to be a lot more stuff voice-acted in the next TES games but... They don't necessarily have to voice-act everything. In a way, I almost find it annoying as I'm usually reading faster than the spoken voice, and it makes it hard for me to read when someone is talking at me at the same time. I'd rather have a silent character than a character whose voice I remember as being the bartender's voice and the voice of another bandit I killed in a cave. There's also the animations, game companies just aren't willing to put up a character model there standing stiff as you read text that he's apparently saying.

In the end though, I often forget that Morrowind had little voice acting...

 

[generalstaff]

It's hard to not include voice acting in modern games, and I'm sure reviews would sink the game only based on the absence of voice acting.

It is sad but true. A friend of a friend of mine, who is a several years younger than me (I am 23), could barely make it past the Chargen, and gave up before making it to the tradehouse due to Morrowind being text based. Sign of the times.

That being said, I agree that it sort of limits what the company can do with its game. I just finished Planescape Torment, and maybe they had it right back then: some of the inevitable speech is voice acted, but most of the text isn't. I think Morrowind was like that too actually. Of course, there'd need to be a lot more stuff voice-acted in the next TES games but... They don't necessarily have to voice-act everything. In a way, I almost find it annoying as I'm usually reading faster than the spoken voice, and it makes it hard for me to read when someone is talking at me at the same time. I'd rather have a silent character than a character whose voice I remember as being the bartender's voice and the voice of another bandit I killed in a cave. There's also the animations, game companies just aren't willing to put up a character model there standing stiff as you read text that he's apparently saying.

I too read faster than spoken voice, which probably explains my opinion. I do not mind spoken games if they are unmoddable (I liked Return to Krondor for example, which was completely spoken voice from characters), but with moddable games, such as Oblivion, the voice acting either creates mods which seem unfinished or very short mods, either way, it limits user created content.

I think you are also right about the character model now that I think about it. I am surprised that Oblivion got away with barely moving conversing characters, but I guess it helped that Oblivion came out years ago. The only way a game can get away with a static character model during conversation is if they bombard you with text, which will cause you to not notice it, and I am going to have to face that the days of that are over thanks to games being mass marketed to game consoles owned by 14 year-olds.

 

[Psyringe]

It's hard to not include voice acting in modern games, and I'm sure reviews would sink the game only based on the absence of voice acting.

Probably yes. Unfortunately.

I like the way Morrowind did it. The "greeting" you get from an NPC is voice acted. This sets the tone of the conversation (as the greeting usually reflects how much the NPC likes or respects you). The rest of the conversation is then written text.

Oblivion had far less dialogue due to being "fully voiced", and - as already has been said - far less mods adding dialogue for the same reason. Unfortunately, the voice acting in Oblivion isn't even done well. The actors usually just drone on and on, often you can tell that they don't even understand the context of their lines (something the sound director should provide).

Do you guys know Vampire:Bloodlines? Imho, that's a game which really benefits from the voice acting. It's done well, it adds to the atmosphere, and since the game world is smaller than in Morrownd or Oblivion, they could really give each NPC character. But for vast open worlds like Morrowind, this simply isn't feasible, and imho the "voiced greetings only" approach offers the best of both worlds for those.

 

[serek000]

I too think the voice acting, or lack thereof, was a strength in Morrowind. I don't know about you lot, but sometimes, when I'm really engrossed in a game and have gotten caught up in it's atmosphere, different NPCs take on different voices when I read their text in my head. Nothing bothered me more than in Oblivion when, say, Brother Jauffre sounded nothing like how I'd imagine him to if there wasn't voice acting.

 

[Rub'Rum]

I like the way Morrowind did it. The "greeting" you get from an NPC is voice acted. This sets the tone of the conversation (as the greeting usually reflects how much the NPC likes or respects you). The rest of the conversation is then written text.

Yeah that's how it was! I really preferred that, come to think of it. Morrowind had a special mood to it, and I think it would have been different if they had voices all the time. The music and the greetings were well enough. Characters blurting out just takes me out of the fantasy.