Oblivion or Skyrim?

[Palle]

I enjoyed both for different reasons.

Oblivion featured a vibrant, high-fantasy setting which was surprisingly immersive. Through quest and NPC dialogue, there seemed to be a lot of bustle going on in the world outside of the player's influence. In a way, both the main quest and some of the longer side quests reminded me of the old first edition AD&D modules I was raised on. As it was the first TES title I had ever played, the novelty of the mechanics added to my overall enjoyment of developing my characters and exploring the mysteries of the realm. I ended up finishing the game twice; once as a magic-user type, the other as a sort of thief/ranger.

Skyrim, on the other hand, is much more down-to-earth as fantasy games go. It features a more relatable setting, better-looking inhabitants, and a romanticized nordic mythos full of dark intrigue. There seemed to me to be a greater continuity to the history, current events, and personalities of the realm, probably aided by the fact that the entire province was in conflict. The implementation of some aspects did seem a bit clumsy [Companions arc, Dark Brotherhood quests], but most felt like they were part of a larger whole. My problem with Skyrim is that I enjoy dungeondiving and wandering the frozen wastes to the extent that I keep rolling new characters and have never finished the story in roughly 400 hours of play.

[Akaimizu]

That's an Elder Scrolls thing. The issue, some will have, is that the game while having a decent campaign is way wider than it is long. And that the Elder Scrolls constantly puts those shiny possibilities off the beaten path. Someone can easily pump hundreds of hours into one without making too much progression on the main story arc, even though they could've done it a long time ago.

For me, I succumb to that a lot, in the series, but I don't mind. I tend to take a good long time to finish the main arc, but I enjoy all my side activities all the time. Some of the best moments can happen outside of a scripted event.

[DragonForce]

Now that Skyrim's been out for a year, who wants to talk comparison?

Comparison? There is no comparison. Skyrim has better combat, better and more useful perks, better mods, and will have dragon mounts in the next DLC. Oblivion has leveled enemies that take 1000 strikes to kill, bugs that still and will never be fixed outside the pc version, shitty quest rewards, crappy-looking armor and characters, and no headshots with arrows, not to mention no crossbows.

Oblivion is obsolete. The only thing Oblivion had going for it were the oblivion gates and a couple daedra quest rewards that weren't in Skyrim. Like Umbra and Goldbrand.

[Akaimizu]

Don't forget Shivering Isles. That was the pinnacle of Oblivion, for me.

[.Rusty.]

Oh wait I remembered something oblivion had a decent magic system. Skyrim felt kinda limited because you only had a handful of spells and no crafting.

[Sinue_v2]

and no headshots with arrows

What? As a stealth/archer build, I never had any issues with pulling off headshots. In fact, it was a bit of a point of pride for me to go over to a kill I had sniped out across the room - lift up the body into the light, and see an arrow shaft sticking satisfactorily out of a nostril or a gaping mouth... or through the side of the head, like one of those gag arrow props. Maybe you just mean it didn't have bonus damage for a hitbox in the head... but that's something I never noticed since the 3x multiplier from stealth usually killed most enemies in a shot or two.

Also, it seems to me that Oblivion's targeting reticle was spot on, and gauging arrow trajectory for drop over long distances was more realistic feeling. Skyrim's always wants to make a shot lined up for the head overshoot, so you have to aim for the mid-chest area... and even then arrows sometimes pass right through the head without connecting.

Oblivion has leveled enemies

Yeah, that sucked.

bugs that still and will never be fixed outside the pc version

Skyrim is shaping up to be exactly the same there.

shitty quest rewards

Same

not to mention no crossbows.

Coming from Morrowind, the lack of weapon variety in both Skyrim and Oblivion is appalling. Crossbows are a fraction of the problem.


Also, another thing Oblivion did better than Skyrim and Morrowind was house decoration. In Oblivion, things were properly weighted and had multiple "grab" boxes. In Skyrim, you only have ONE grab box, and the items are usually weighted from the top, so everything flips upside down when you go to place it.... and then flies off the the shelf like so much confetti next time you enter the room.

[Kyrith_Ranger_Pso]

Comparison? There is no comparison. Skyrim has better combat, better and more useful perks, better mods, and will have dragon mounts in the next DLC. Oblivion has leveled enemies that take 1000 strikes to kill, bugs that still and will never be fixed outside the pc version, shitty quest rewards, crappy-looking armor and characters, and no headshots with arrows, not to mention no crossbows.

Oblivion is obsolete. The only thing Oblivion had going for it were the oblivion gates and a couple daedra quest rewards that weren't in Skyrim. Like Umbra and Goldbrand.

EDIT: Neither game gave you extra damage for a head shot (I just found out that Oblivion doesn't either from reading, so I could be wrong in relation to Oblivion), but in Oblivion (If I remember correctly) it only allows killing arrows to stick in the enemies head, assumedly so your enemies aren't running around with arrows through their brains.

What exactly do you mean by leveled enemies, do you mean that the enemies leveled up along side you? Because they also did in Skyrim, but in Skyrim they were just very easy to kill, so I turned the difficulty up as the game went along. Though I do agree Skyrim had a better system for it, since not all enemies scale with you in the same manner, it still had leveling enemies (and I still think enemies in Skyrim were either too easy or unfairly difficult after level 10 or so)

On a more opinionated note, I found that the quests in Oblivion were rewards in-and-of themselves. While in Skyrim I got powerful rewards, but I wasn't interested in doing most of the quests the game had to offer, so I never ended up using those rewards.

[Akaimizu]

Skyrim solved the Oblivion scaled enemies problem with a suitable compromise. This way you can still venture into areas too tough for you, while earlier areas can't scale up to your level once you got a certain amount of levels or so. Basically, the system boils down too having areas with level ranges. It matches yours if you fall within the range of that place. If not, they will be at the low of their level range or the high end of it based on what is closer to your level.

Since the levels aren't completely fixed, this allows you a bit more leniency since you can go into tougher areas without the monsters being set quite so high above yours too quickly. The increase in toughness can be a bit more gradual, giving you fair warning that you should consider falling back.

[Kevin PSO]

Skyrim and Oblivion are on par in my mind for different reasons so I find it difficult to state which is better. However Fallout 3 is my personal favorite Bethesda game so at least I can say I'm not an indecisive tool

[DragonForce]

So after playing Dawnguard, Dragonborn, and getting my crossbow, there's no way Oblivion can touch this game.