Why I'll always say Morrowind is the best TES game

[Sheogorath]

I believe Oblivion's map was larger than Morrowind's.. but it never felt so vast. I'd be able to spend hours just plodding about the Ashlands*, staring in awe at everything around me, and barely seeming to move. That didn't really feature in Oblivion, for reasons already stated.. it was just tedious in comparison.

I'm told Daggerfall was better, but I've yet to buy it.

* The most memorable landscape in any game I've played.

Oblivion was bigger, but, it seemed, had less stuff in it. In Morrowind, pretty much every corner had a well placed egg mine or tomb tucked away somewhere. Or there was a lovely mudpit or some other terrain feature.
Oblivion...well...you got trees. Lots and lots of trees.
Most of Morrowind's dungeons were smaller too, I think. The tombs were, certainly. Which kind of makes sense, especially when compared to the Aylied 'cities', which were apparently ALL tomb. Some of the Dwarf ruins were pretty big, of course, though.
The one thing I did approve of in Oblivion was the 'surface' levels of dungeons. You could walk around the open ruins of the towers and find things...not much, but it was something.

Speaking of the towers, that's another thing that bugged me.

The Empire can apparently afford to maintain a massive military presence in Morrowind, complete with a large number of forts and a couple cities, plus an outpost all the way in freakin' Solestheim (however you spell that), but has, apparently, allowed EVERY defensive outpost in the heart of the empire to fall into total disrepair and, in some cases, become occupied by bandits?
Seriously?
This is the continent-spanning empire which, although corrupt, is capable of kicking the Dark Elves in Morrowind into submission, thrashing the psychotic cannibal wood elves and has lasted for hundreds of years? The Imperial Legions which took on Morrowind can't deal with a bunch of BANDITS?
(Alright, understandable, sometimes those bandits were wearing Daedric equipment...goddamn leveling.)

Also, to those who were talking about Morrowind with Oblivion graphics, I believe somebody discovered that it was possible to run Morrowind's data files through Oblivion, and they're currently working on a project to get it functional (since all the text and such has to be converted to Oblivion's system).
Google "Morroblivion", I think it was.

[frogbeastegg]

The Empire can apparently afford to maintain a massive military presence in Morrowind, complete with a large number of forts and a couple cities, plus an outpost all the way in freakin' Solestheim (however you spell that), but has, apparently, allowed EVERY defensive outpost in the heart of the empire to fall into total disrepair and, in some cases, become occupied by bandits?

The forts in Morrowind felt practical. They were designed to hold off an assault, and featured most things you would expect to see: living areas, towers, armouries, a courtyard, etc.

The forts in Oblivion never felt like that. The surface areas were a bunch of ruins which didn't look like they would convert into a fort if you rebuilt all of the walls, and the areas below ground were just another set of tunnel dungeons complete with traps and mazes. They weren't forts; they were a combination of a crazy warehouse and a cave.

Don't forget the patrols keeping the roads clear for travellers. A mighty 1 guy on a horse at maybe 3 points in the entire road network.