Which Elder Scrolls game is the best?

Gedalya · May 2014

Online

GreySix wrote: »

Gedalya wrote: »

You left off 3 games: Battlespire and Redguard; as well as The Elder Scrolls Travels. Or are we not counting these since Bethesda seems to overlook them also?

Were those EPs or stand-alone games?

Travels came out on mobile devices; the other two:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elder_Scrolls_Adventures:_Redguard
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Elder_Scrolls_Legend:_Battlespire

And they didn't include them in the Anthology; I'm still not happy about that.

DoZakar · May 2014

Oblivion

I love them all equally, but Oblivion is more special to me because it was my first TES game.

murklor007neb18_ESO · May 2014

Daggerfall

Well IMO its a tie between Daggerfall and Skyrim.

Daggerfall because temple of Dibella.
Skyrim because an arrow in the kneeeEEEEeeeeeeeEEEEee

Teverus · May 2014

Skyrim

I know Skyrim is sort of the mainstream gamer choice, and I'm a PC-gamer on a PC game forum and will lose my purist badge for saying this, but Skyrim was probably the best game ever made, despite it's one or two arguably major flaws (I'm looking at you, Blades. You step off of Paarthurnax or I will use console commands and shout you off this mountain.)

Skyrim introduced Vampires and werewolves as actually seriously playable things rather than just neat easter eggs that don't really fit into the system too well (See Morrowind, Oblivion). It introduced dual-wielding, streamlined magic and combat, and got rid of the annoying, unnecessary, clunky way previous games forced you to level your stats. With the exception of a perhaps too-long linear quest offered in the Dawnguard expansion, the expansion content was also insanely fun, and hearthfire expounded upon the new levels of immersion included in Skyrim for us helpless folks who like to write a story for our characters in our heads (Although no monogamous Khajiit? Has Bethesda never heard of the internet before? Someone, somewhere is very upset.) .

With the radiant system, you literally never need to stop playing. It's the only game I ever got every achievement for.

ThisOnePosts · May 2014

Online

For me it's ESO. A close second is Skyrim, Morrowind was good to but I didn't invest nearly the amount of time I did as Skyrim. Oblivion for some reason I couldn't get into more than a few hours here and there. ESO --- the world feels so alive and having other players and friends who you can quest with, chat with, trade with, etc.. is all the more better. When they introduce thieving, being able to kill non-essential NPC's with consequences (I can think of a few messed up ones who need it), bring in the Dark Brotherhood, Thieves Guild etc... this will play even more closely to single player TES games.

ESO is new, there is a lot in store.. we are paying monthly subscriptions and I'm sure they'll get a nice vanity store when they don't have such a heavy workload of important things to dedicate most resources to, I can only see this game getting better overall. Bethesda... (yes yes ZOS made it, Parent company >>> which translates to nearly unlimited access to Bethesda) don't let their games fail. At least not when it comes to their bread and butter. There is so much in store for this game, I am really looking forward to it as I already enjoy it immensely. Bring on the Dark Brotherhood....and I want to see some real dragon fights!!!! And Shadowmere!!!!! The dragon-tanking undead steed! XD

SDZald · May 2014

Oblivion

Heck I love them all, I started playing them with Arena. I am a bit partial to Oblivion, I know the skills leveling system was a bit strange, but there was something about the story I really enjoyed.

I had swore off MMO's for good, They all end up being the same thing and for the most part I don't play nice with people, especially idiots and there are lots of them in MMO's. But the Elder Scrolls world brought me back, only time will tell if that was a mistake

Blackwidow · May 2014

Oblivion

Skyrim was the best selling TES game. It was the prettiest. It was very user friendly.

It was gutted. It was simplified. It took away a lot of what TES should have been.

It was still a good game. I really liked it. However, it was less of what a real TES should have been, compared to it's predecessors.

Skyrim was a great success. Sadly, that fact might lead to the fall of the TES series.

Look at Morrowwind and Oblivion. Vast dungeons. Massive underwater areas. You had to know the breath water spell in those games, or be Argonian, to explore parts of the world.

In skyrim, there was barely any underwater exploration at all. Now in ESO, there is no more underwater swimming at all.

They keep gutting the freedoms and wonders from these games.

I would not be surprised if TES 6 does not even have an open world to explore. I bet it will be more like the game Rage.

Moonscythe · May 2014

Morrowind

While Skyrim graphics are breathtaking and I can wander in that world anytime, I want a story with my role-playing and I think Morrowind had the best story. Oblivion had good DLC but I still prefer Tribunal since it continued the main quest so well.

GreySix · May 2014

Skyrim

As someone else posted, give me the Morrowind storyline and world with the Skyrim game engine, and I'll be there with bells on.

driosketch · May 2014

Daggerfall

I still see Daggerfall as the quintessential Elder Scrolls game. Yes even with the bugs, and maybe the reason I'm so forgiving of ESO's bugs. It's probably also why Morrowind is last on my list, maybe tied with Arena, not that they're bad games.

What they needed to do at that point was simply refine the game. Instead, while we got much nicer graphics, we also got a much simpler game system, starting from Oblivion onwards. Not that those are bad games either. I would be hard pressed to tell you where TES IV, TES V, ESO fell in my 2-4 spots at this point.

Victus · May 2014

Skyrim

Yeah while I would say Morrowind was my favorite, I think "best" would still be Skyrim due to the polish it had by that point in the series' career.

david271749 · May 2014

Skyrim

You guys have convinced me to install Morrowind for server down times.

starkerealm · May 2014

Morrowind

Gedalya wrote: »

You left off 3 games: Battlespire and Redguard; as well as The Elder Scrolls Travels. Or are we not counting these since Bethesda seems to overlook them also?

There's also Dawnstar, Shadowkey and the alternate version of Oblivion... but those were accounted for in the "other" entry.

randomriffyrocksprerb18_ESO · May 2014

Other

I say other, because they still haven't made elder scroll 6, 7, and 8 yet

Shanna · May 2014

Morrowind

Draaconis wrote: »

I think technology has changed WAY too much for anyone to actually answer this question. Arena was released in '94.

This is true. I tried to replay Morrowind, and I marveled at how I could have been so into a game with such antiquated mechanics. The immersion feeling I had while playing it back in the day, though, has not been able to be duplicated. I think video games are just designed with the youth in mind. Right place, right time, and you've got your "favorite."

starkerealm · May 2014

Morrowind

Gedalya wrote: »

GreySix wrote: »

Gedalya wrote: »

You left off 3 games: Battlespire and Redguard; as well as The Elder Scrolls Travels. Or are we not counting these since Bethesda seems to overlook them also?

Were those EPs or stand-alone games?

Travels came out on mobile devices; the other two:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elder_Scrolls_Adventures:_Redguard
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Elder_Scrolls_Legend:_Battlespire

And they didn't include them in the Anthology; I'm still not happy about that.

I've literally never been able to get my copy of Redguard working. I've had it for about ten years, found it used at a gamestop (back when they still carried used PC games), but it won't run on an NT kernel OS.

Shanna · May 2014

Morrowind

GreySix wrote: »

As someone else posted, give me the Morrowind storyline and world with the Skyrim game engine, and I'll be there with bells on.

here ya go: http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/12/06/morrowind-recreated-using-the-skyrim-engine

fyendiarb16_ESO · May 2014

Online

Played them all, Morrowind was the first to really drag me in, but since I have always preferred 3rd person view and can't stand 1st person view, ESO is the best for me.

The rest have always been just one of the games and nowhere near my top 10 best PC games of all times. If Zenimax manages to get rid of most problems and doesn't go either the "raid or die" route or moves away from the lore and into the silly pink bunny mounts with laser beams as eyes craziness... then ESO has a change to enter that top 10 or at least get very close to it.

Moonscythe · May 2014

Morrowind

Shanna wrote: »

GreySix wrote: »

As someone else posted, give me the Morrowind storyline and world with the Skyrim game engine, and I'll be there with bells on.

here ya go: http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/12/06/morrowind-recreated-using-the-skyrim-engine

Thanks, I've seen mods for Morrowind that look stunning but I can't play them because I don't have a PC and dislike gaming on the computer. I can still play Morrowind even with the old graphics and gameplay. Then only thing that eve bothers me is how dark it is.

AngryNord · May 2014

Morrowind had the most 'alien' world, you could wear clothes inside your armour, realistic guilds (being in one guild automatically disqualified you from being in some others, there were certain standards before you could join, etc), and arguably the better main quest. By today's standard is let down severly by the "walking encyclopedia" NPCs, ugly graphics and animations, lack of physics and lack of NPC schedules, and no fast-travel option.

Oblivion had a lot of improvements, such as NPC scheduling, probably the best guild questlines, arguably the best journal/quest tracker, a lot of graphics improvement (you could actually see the weapons people were carrying, for example), but was let down by its generic fantasy world, cities were too similar, nothing really going on in the world (very few travelling NPCs, etc) and weak storyline.

Skyrim has the hands-down best art. Its cities are also a lot more unique than Oblivion's, and they actually feel like real cities. Also had a more 'living' worlds - traveling merchants, carriages, etc. And it offers the ability to craft one's own armour and weapons. But is let down by the questlines being too short, poor journal, and the 'hand holding' going a bit overboard wrt quest markers.

david271749 · May 2014

Skyrim

It was a very hard choice between Skyrim and Oblivion for me.