re: Oblivion fans check in

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Morrowind is superior to both Oblivion and Skyrim in nearly every way.

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I love Morrowind for what it is, and it absolutely has strengths over later games, but in nearly every way? Goodness, no. It has by far the weakest combat, the worst graphics, and the worst side quests. Hell, the guild quests were basically nothing but fetch quests.

But the lore, art design, world building, freedom, etc, are all absolutely fricking amazing.

I’m also genuinely surprised that you think Oblivion and Skyrim are at all comparable regarding the quality of side quests. I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone try to say that before, and that includes people who prefer Skyrim.

Yeah, I like a lot about morrowind, but that combat was beyond frustrating.

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Other than the obvious graphical improvements, I have a hard time thinking of areas in which I thought Skyrim was an improvement over Oblivion, outside of the leveling system. 

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The immersion in Skyrim is unbelievable. Especially in the earliest days after release, I'd find myself racking up side quest after side quests and every time I finished one it would lead to three others. Before I knew it, it was 4AM and the hours had literally disappeared and I had to be at work by 6AM. Man, those were the glory days.

Still though, I can't argue against your point. Immersion in Oblivion was honestly unprecedented at the time among console-available RPGs. I was in my mid 20s when oblivion came out and really the only reason I wasn't involved in those all-night gaming binges then was because I'd be passed out drunk. I'd wake up with my character randomly standing somewhere odd and having no idea how I got there, then just save and head to work and figure it out later. When I first learned the duplication glitch, I crashed the hell out of my PS3 multiple times daily. Learned really quickly that it's a very bad idea to duplicate 100 watermelons whilst standing in a small room.

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The immersion in Skyrim is unbelievable. Especially in the earliest days after release, I'd find myself racking up side quest after side quests and every time I finished one it would lead to three others. Before I knew it, it was 4AM and the hours had literally disappeared and I had to be at work by 6AM. Man, those were the glory days.

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I agree in general, but not in specificity, and that’s the issue. I absolutely agree that Skyrim could suck you in with its radiant quest system. But looking back now, how many of those quests do you actually remember? I know I can barely remember any of them, while so many years later, I can still describe probably a solid dozen Oblivion sidequests in detail. Skyrim simply felt mile wide inch deep by comparison. And I say that as someone who bought it the day it was released and wanted to love it.

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I agree in general, but not in specificity, and that’s the issue. I absolutely agree that Skyrim could suck you in with its radiant quest system. But looking back now, how many of those quests do you actually remember?

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I remember some side quests but only because I've replayed it recently. They certainly could have done better, like the overall content of side quests being just "deeper" like they were in Oblivion.

If Bethesda would figure out a way to make side quests you completed (or skipped), or seemingly trivial random occurrences, affect the main quest line more like CDPR did with Witcher 3, they could potentially create a contender for best game of all time. They always seem to lack just one or two ingredients though. Skyrim definitely knocked it out of the park with the main and guild quest lines. They were some of the most memorable of relatively recent times. But you're absolutely correct that many of the side quests were very milquetoast.

I really believe that W3 set the gold standard for deep and meaningful side quests that actually affect the big picture in both insignificant and big ways. I'm waiting for another game dev to catch lightning in a bottle and give me something like that again. Might never happen but I sure hope it does.

Nothing will ever top that moment coming out of the sewer for me. What a time to be alive.

Oblivion > Morrowind > Skyrim in my opinion. All 3 are legendary and I could make an argument for each being number 1 but for me, it was Oblivion.

I feel like Bethesda has been coasting off the successes of these 3 games for over a decade now and Im worried about what the next Elder Scrolls has in store for us if we ever even get one.