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

[Guru]

I think the travel system was ruined in Oblivion. I prefer the Morrowind's system of walking and public transport. It was a lot more atmospheric and realistic, and even though it took a lot of time I enjoyed it. Ah, to travel the Grazelands on foot.. West Gash... I also liked the Morrowind map better. And I played Morrowind after Oblivion, so it's not just nostalgy.

[Motep]

I only had the opportunity to play morrowind for a few hours, and I still had more fun than with playing oblivion for as long as I have played it. I didnt know they were for the computer untill I read this, and now I think instead of getting morrowind for the xbox, Ill go for the typey-box instead.

I personally liked the scaling of the monsters in Oblivion, and I definitely agree that the npc allie were so suckish when you were at a higher leve that it was a joke. In Kvatch, my level 18 character sat and watched as every member of the guard was decimated in one hit by the denizens of doom. But it really made killing all the soldiers in the imperial city a test of ones abilities. Going to guards barracks with nothing but an elven dagger and your magic, now that was great stuff. Took me about an hour to finally kill everybody using invisibilty and a meagre restoration spell. (slash twice, run backwards, become invisible, run behind them, do it again.)

But I must say that wth morrowind, exploration was so much better, and even more fun. Seriously, that map was a very nice thing to have. In oblivion, it was so...bland. You walk soe, you see some flowers, a tree, and a bandit with daedric everything. You kill the bandit, take the flowers, get bored, and fast travel to get things over with.... And I have noticed that nagging sense of urgency that makes completing the sidequests a test of one's concious. You almost feel guilty leaving the world to die while you galavant your way through incrdibly simmilar caves and worm your way to the top of every single guild when you shouldnt be able to. ... I miss morrowind...and I wil always play an argonian or a dark elf, just for the sake of nostalgia.

[Krusader]

I enjoyed the environment more in Morrowind. Maybe because the game made me feel like more of an outsider. Also enjoyed the fast traveling system there, with silts or boats.

But standing on the highest peaks of Jerall Mts in Oblivion and seeing all Cyrodiil before you was fun too. And riding on a horse was fun as well. As someone else said, a mix of Oblivion & Morrowind would be the best TES5.

[rvg]

Muth-sera...

I loved that greeting.

[Sheogorath]

Muth-sera...

I loved that greeting.

Swi'it!

[Furunculus]

morrowind was the better game.

[Vladimir]

N'wah!

(Looks suspiciously like the other n-word. No?)

[Guru]

Hope the voice acting is going to be better in TES 5 than it was in Oblivion... That was some terrible stuff. Oblivion's dark elves' voice? Argh. Morrowind's voice acting was way better.

[lars573]

Even though it was 70% the same voice actors in both games?

[Guru]

Even though it was 70% the same voice actors in both games?

Yeah, that's my opinion. They better have Jeff Baker doing the dunmer male voices this time. Oh, and I really don't want to hear Craig Sechler's (Oblivion male elves) voice anymore. Really.
I recon part of the annoyance in Oblivion was caused by the fact that the same actors voiced way too many characters and there was a lot of talk. Too much for so few actors; same man voicing four races? In Morrowind there was a lot less voice acting, it didn't get that boring and repertitive, the characters didn't really speak.

Anyway, I'm hopeful. The quality of voice acting has got better in Fallout 3 (by Bethesda too, some same voice actors). I'm hoping this development will continue in the next TES. And I do hope they'll manage (and understand) to hire more voice actors. It's kind of blaah when whole races are voices by the same people. In my opinion anyway.

[lars573]

Voice actors cost money though. Which you could say was Oblivions problem with dropping text blocks and going for full voices for everything. They went whole hog on getting Patrick Stuart (Uriel Septium VIII), Terance Stamp (Mankar Camoran), Sean Bean (Martin Septium) for major speaking roles. So they had to go with 1 person for multiple races to save time and money. Even though with voice acting you get a seperate payday for each character you voice. Maybe background voices are different.

I'll be happy as long as they keep Wes Johnson (imperial male, Lucien Lachance, Shivering Isles Sheogorath, Fallout 3's Mister Burke) he's a great performer (to me). I wouldn't mind Jeff Baker being back

[Krauser]

Swi'it!

I have memories of that in Morrowind. To this day I only remember one time hearing this in Oblivion. I liked how in Morrowind everyone hated you at first. In Oblivion you just start out unknown but everyone's all nice. There's just no depth to it.

Voice actors cost money though. Which you could say was Oblivions problem with dropping text blocks and going for full voices for everything. They went whole hog on getting Patrick Stuart (Uriel Septium VIII), Terance Stamp (Mankar Camoran), Sean Bean (Martin Septium) for major speaking roles. So they had to go with 1 person for multiple races to save time and money. Even though with voice acting you get a seperate payday for each character you voice. Maybe background voices are different.

I'll be happy as long as they keep Wes Johnson (imperial male, Lucien Lachance, Shivering Isles Sheogorath, Fallout 3's Mister Burke) he's a great performer (to me). I wouldn't mind Jeff Baker being back

Yeah, they really wasted their money on Patrick Stewart. He did a good enough job but they probably had to pay him $50,000 and his voicework was over in the first 30 minutes of the game. They probably could have doubled the race voice actors with that extra money.

[Guru]

Voice actors cost money though. Which you could say was Oblivions problem with dropping text blocks and going for full voices for everything.

Yeah, well, the text boxes, it's a two-sided issue. If they had kept the box system, it would probably have gotten called old-timed or obsolete, and the text box system can be a bit "heavy" for less patient people if you know what I mean. But the other side of the coin is that with the text box, it'd have been possible to make more (unique) dialoque for everyone. And you wouldn't have to listen to some certain voice you've grown to hate.
I don't think there's goin' back to the box system anymore though. I guess they could afford the actors, with so many successful games they've made. Reminds me of The Witcher's Enhanced Edition, this talk about voice acting. That thing had all dialoque in like 10 languages..

[Sheogorath]

What bugged me most about Oblivions voices, Dunmer aside, was the way that some people CHANGED VOICE ACTORS MID SPEECH.

The beggars seemed especially prone to fits of vocal multiple personality disorder.

[Raz]

What bugged me most about Oblivions voices, Dunmer aside, was the way that some people CHANGED VOICE ACTORS MID SPEECH.

The beggars seemed especially prone to fits of vocal multiple personality disorder.

True, so very true. It was absolute stupidity that a beggar would come up to me in an old, sickly lady's voice saying "Ss-pare a coin for an old begg-ar?" and as soon as I hand it over she'd suddenly become this healthy, happy youth of a woman saying "Thanks darl!". I gave my money to a sickly woman in need, not a fraudulent con artist.

[lars573]

What bugged me most about Oblivions voices, Dunmer aside, was the way that some people CHANGED VOICE ACTORS MID SPEECH.

The beggars seemed especially prone to fits of vocal multiple personality disorder.

Actually they didn't. If you had a Dunmer beggar it was the same womans voice no matter what she was saying. What would change was the delivery of the dialouge. Oblivion broke up the background voices into small senteces. When a beggar asked you for a coin it was delivered in a certain way. Tired and beaten by the world was the usual way. When you gave them a coin however it changed to an exuberantly happy thank you. But it was the same voice that said each line. Unless you were playing the PC version and the sound files got screwed up.

[Krauser]

Actually they didn't. If you had a Dunmer beggar it was the same womans voice no matter what she was saying. What would change was the delivery of the dialouge. Oblivion broke up the background voices into small senteces. When a beggar asked you for a coin it was delivered in a certain way. Tired and beaten by the world was the usual way. When you gave them a coin however it changed to an exuberantly happy thank you. But it was the same voice that said each line. Unless you were playing the PC version and the sound files got screwed up.

Yeah I think they just tried to reuse as many lines as possible. That same VA probably did a "thank you" for a regular women NPC. Then they just took that same sample for every other elf "thank you". I think I saw an interview of the lead sound guy for the game. He said something like they wanted full voice overs but they didn't want to give him the budget to do it well. He had to compromise. He also said he never supported full voice overs, but did what he was told.

[lars573]

Well that was fairly obvious. Truth is when I heard they were doing full vocies for all NPC's I though it would be a certain way. And then I got Oblivion and popped it into my 360, sure enough it was exactly what I though it would be. Same VA for every NPC of a certain race. Or in the case of the Merrick races 2 VA's, one man and one woman, doing ALL the elven voices. With variations in the delivery. When you talk to a Nord or Orc woman, it's Linda Carter everytime.

[TinCow]

Anyway, I'm hopeful. The quality of voice acting has got better in Fallout 3 (by Bethesda too, some same voice actors). I'm hoping this development will continue in the next TES. And I do hope they'll manage (and understand) to hire more voice actors. It's kind of blaah when whole races are voices by the same people. In my opinion anyway.

Heh, in the beta of FO3 I played, they didn't have all the voice acting done yet, so some of the lines had just been done in monotone by random Bethsoft employees to give it some filler. There was one particular part I remember at the very beginning while you're escaping Vault 101, two random people are gunned down by vault security and the 'temp' voice acting for it was so utterly hilarious that I told them they should forget the paid voice acting and keep it that way. Unfortunately, they didn't listen, and the final version was far more 'dramatic' and far less entertaining.

[Guru]

Heh, in the beta of FO3 I played, they didn't have all the voice acting done yet, so some of the lines had just been done in monotone by random Bethsoft employees to give it some filler. There was one particular part I remember at the very beginning while you're escaping Vault 101, two random people are gunned down by vault security and the 'temp' voice acting for it was so utterly hilarious that I told them they should forget the paid voice acting and keep it that way. Unfortunately, they didn't listen, and the final version was far more 'dramatic' and far less entertaining.

Talking about FO3 voice acting, I really liked the super mutant dialoque, Uncle Leo and Fawkes. But so far my favourite is Harold. His voice acting, appearance and story... Hoping we'll see stuff like that in the next TES.