anyone dislike Morrowind/Oblivion, but like Fallout 3 & Bioware/Black Isle RPGs?

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IanM

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I'm thinking about trying Fallout 3, but so far I've been reluctant to buy it as I didn't enjoy Morrowind at all. Oblivion from what I could see was quite similar to Morrowind, albeit with more polish, and as a result I'm wary of anything Bethesda. So I was wondering if anyone else was disappointed with Morrowind and/or Oblivion but enjoyed Fallout 3? or did anyone feel Fallout 3 was just a chore?

I mention Bioware/Black Isle in the title as Baldur's Gate II and Planescape Torment are in a whole different league. These may have coloured my opinion significantly - by comparsion I found Morrowind to be utterly unengaging and soulless, lacking good characters and humour, and suffering from dull, simplistic magic combat in a pretty empty world. So how does Fallout 3 compare? Does it have random battles with enemies levelling up around you to break up wandering between areas? i.e. a load of filler to hide the lack of genuine content...


EDIT: thanks for all the responses, think I'm going to look for something other than Fallout 3.
 
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i love fallout 1/2 baldurs/icewinds/nwn/etc.

hate morrowinds/oblivion.

I also hated Fallout 3. I just cant stand the sandbox uninspired bethesda type RPGs. I find myself just getting completely bored with no real linearity.
 
I never have Oblivion a chance mostly because I got lost within the first hour and had no idea wtf to do. I havent tried Fallout 3 but I am getting the quakecon pack because I want to try it out.
 
I love the bioware/black isle nwn/BG offerings and I enjoyed Morrowind (for awhile) but Oblivion never got my attention and was really just kind of boring to me...everything in that world felt so disconnected and whatnot. lots of stuff but too much effort to go find any of it.

morrowind might have grabbed me because it was such a new thing and the mods came fast and furious and made it even better.
 
I just could not get into Morrowind or Oblivion. I really tried on both of those. However, I played the snot out of Fallout 3. Oblivion I felt totally lost in. Maybe it's the addition of the PipBoy in Fallout games but I felt much more direction in Fallout 3. I like playing games for completing quests and getting loot and Fallout 3 seems better in that area than Morrowind/Oblivion.
 
Fallout 3 is a little better on things complained about in Oblivion, but it's certainly not a 180. You'll still find plenty of similarities between the two. Fallout 3 has a little level scaling too, but it's definitely more tame than Oblivion's silly system where leveling up is a bad thing. Being interrupted by your wanderings by wolves, mudcrabs, and rats was annoying in oblivion. Fallout 3 doesn't feel pesky like that. Infact, I don't recall being annoyed by random battles at all.


Specifically, what issues do you have against Oblivion? I could give a better answer if I knew. You mentioned level scaling. Certainly annoying, but if you download Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul, then it removes the enemy level scaling. Infact, almost everything you hate probably is addressed in mods.... other than something that would have to do with voice acting.
 
Didn't like morrowind so much, i gave oblivion a pass completely. Really liked FO3, though.
 
I'm a big fan of RPG's, but Oblivion didn't do it for me. It's been a while, but I think I can remember enough to list some reasons.

1) It's a first person RPG. Hack and slash combat just doesn't work well in a first person setting. I'd much rather see my dude executing these awesome moves than watch a sword and an arm flash across the screen. KOTOR went in the right direction with their semi-choreographed fights over the standard method of just taking turns hitting each other until the other person died. I also like to admire how cool my guy looks in his new armor.

2) You didn't change the world. I became head of the various guilds, but that didn't actually change anything. People still treated me the same. I would have expected my underlings to give me items, go on quests/jobs for me, fight in wars for me, etc.

3) The dialogue was awful. I prefer only being able to have meaningful conversations with a few people and sort of get brushed off by the rest. After a while I was just running up to everyone in the city and clicking on "Bosmer", "Dunmer", "Dwemer", etc. without listening to them because you could ask everyone in every city the same thing, get almost the same response, and not have it matter at all.

4) The leveling. I remember playing on the hardest difficulty and actually having my dude perform worse the more "powerful" I got.

5) The compass. I have a similar complaint with other games (like GTA). It's too easy. There isn't any searching or detective work required. "Hmm, there's a mark on my map. I guess I'll go there for some reason to get a new mission". Should I even be thinking the word "mission" in a sandbox game?

6) The main story. It had no sense of urgency. I spent tons of hours helping people clear their basements of rats while there were portals opening up and monsters pouring out into the world. It was also boring. I got tired of closing all those portals in worlds that were near clones of each other. I don't think it speaks well of a game's story when most people thing a optional side mission is better than your main story.

7) companions. I like having them.

There's probably more, but it's been years since I played it.
 
I've played both Oblivion and Fallout 3, I prefer Fallout 3. But maybe its just me, I prefer first person shooter as in shooting stuff.

When it comes to those fantasy RPG with swordsmen, magician, archer, etc kind of game, I prefer 3rd person
 
Morrowind did feel a little too big IMO... I, also, felt very lost when I first tried it. Oblivion was a great game though. I have so many hours put into that title it's almost sad :D

Fallout 3 really ticked me off when I found out about the level cap... not to mention the game just ending when ya beat the main quest. I stopped playing it for 6-7 months and picked it back up when some of the expansions were released. Honestly, I'm really glad that I gave it a second chance... it was a great game.
 
I loved Fallout 3 having no experience with any of the Morrowind/Oblivion series nor previous Fallout titles. In fact I'm playing through FO3 now for the 3rd time (maybe 150 hours per play-through?). After playing FO3 twice I played through Oblivion and all the DLC and loved it too (4-500 hours?). Oblivion was a slight step backward for the interface, but it was nice to know the improvements made in FO3 with the Pip-Boy.

I think it comes down to if you are an explorer personality or not. I am. I followed the story in both games but didn't get upset if I missed something. FO3 was definitely fun as more of a shooter and I just like guns, lasers, and grenades more than swords and arrows. But Oblivion hooked me too with the depth and breadth of the world.
 
Fallout 3 is about 100x more boring and bland than Oblivion, and some people called Oblivion repetitive. Oblivion is a virtual smorgasborg of interesting things and variety compared to Bethseda's interpretation of the fallout world by using the same limited number of models and muddy bland palatte of brown textures for EVERYTHING. There is also only a mere fraction of the missions and exploration options in FO3 than that of Oblivion. I've explored the whole map and accomplished every side mission and it's just barely anyting compared to what was in Oblivion.

I really enjoyed Oblivion. I played Fallout 3 for many months before realizing that it was a chore that I was just trying to complete and not actually fun. The graphical blandness ate away at my brain.
 
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Mayson said:
I'm a big fan of RPG's, but Oblivion didn't do it for me. It's been a while, but I think I can remember enough to list some reasons.

1) It's a first person RPG. Hack and slash combat just doesn't work well in a first person setting. I'd much rather see my dude executing these awesome moves than watch a sword and an arm flash across the screen. KOTOR went in the right direction with their semi-choreographed fights over the standard method of just taking turns hitting each other until the other person died. I also like to admire how cool my guy looks in his new armor.
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Umm, did you ever try to scroll your mouse wheel in the game? Oblivion and Fallout 3 offer the only decent camera system in all of videogaming, variable zoom at any time you want from first person to faraway 3rd person while retaining full control.

If Oblivion were 3rd person locked, I would not have ever played it. I hate games like that. I need both.
 
This thread is actually disgusting me. Seems like most people in this thread rather have a hand holder..

"And over here we have an evil villian that you must kill now... so we can do the next tour!"

Oblivion was badass imo. The game was so open. You didn't have to stick to the main quest if you didn't want to. There's no real "end" to the game. You stop the destruction of the kingdom but you can choose to continue playing after that or shelve it. Up to you at that point. Myself I leveled another character and started destroying the towns myself..

I like having the choice to do wtf I wanna do. Sandbox FTMFW!

-Dill
 
I don't particularly care too much for sandbox games, but I did love FO3. Didn't really care for Oblivion and Morrowind.
Sandbox games usually lack the overall environment details that make the plot awesome. Plus they involve a lot of pointless walking around while you are left hoping you will find a random encounter. When I was playing Oblivion I honestly turned auto walk on.. left and came back still going to my destination. Walking is boring... I can do that in real life... just let me kill things. If it wasn't for quick travel though FO3 would be a no go for me (I know it was in the others as well).
Plus I didn't really care for the leveling up system in Oblivion, kinda off putting for I got a level up from running and jumping...
 
I did not like Morrowwind or Oblivion but very much enjoy all of the Infinity Engine RPG's. I liked FO3 though.
 
Seriously, I never played Morrowind without mods. You really have to play it with mods. These games give you pretty much whatever you want. You just have download and install the mod. If you hate hand holding, then there are over a 100 mods that will make things more realistic and harsh. No fast travel? No compass? Have to eat and drink? No enemy level scaling? Better looking graphics? Changed combat system? tesnexus and planet elderscrolls has it all.

JoNo216 said:
I don't particularly care too much for sandbox games, but I did love FO3. Didn't really care for Oblivion and Morrowind.
Sandbox games usually lack the overall environment details that make the plot awesome. Plus they involve a lot of pointless walking around while you are left hoping you will find a random encounter. When I was playing Oblivion I honestly turned auto walk on.. left and came back still going to my destination. Walking is boring... I can do that in real life... just let me kill things. If it wasn't for quick travel though FO3 would be a no go for me (I know it was in the others as well).
Plus I didn't really care for the leveling up system in Oblivion, kinda off putting for I got a level up from running and jumping...
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You can mod that out too. Some good leveling mods out there.
 
JoNo216 said:
Plus I didn't really care for the leveling up system in Oblivion, kinda off putting for I got a level up from running and jumping...
Click to expand...


really? that was one of my favorite features of oblivion. The more you do something (be it magic, lockpicking, sword fighting, hand to hand, etc) the more you level that skill up/the better you get at it.
 
I liked all of the games mentioned. No, I actually loved them. Does that make me weird?
 
dr.stevil said:
really? that was one of my favorite features of oblivion. The more you do something (be it magic, lockpicking, sword fighting, hand to hand, etc) the more you level that skill up/the better you get at it.
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That part is good, but he's probably talking about the +5 vs. +1 to attributes system. It is annoying planning out your skill increases so that you maximize you levels. That's why I at least get one of those +5 always mods if not nGCD.


LeninGHOLA said:
I liked all of the games mentioned. No, I actually loved them. Does that make me weird?
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It means you lack finer taste. You probably don't like reading classical literature either. :p ;)
 
played obvivion for 2 hours, boring as hell, never played again

<3 fallout 3
 
Spare-Flair said:
Umm, did you ever try to scroll your mouse wheel in the game? Oblivion and Fallout 3 offer the only decent camera system in all of videogaming, variable zoom at any time you want from first person to faraway 3rd person while retaining full control.

If Oblivion were 3rd person locked, I would not have ever played it. I hate games like that. I need both.
Click to expand...

Like I said, it's been years(I haven't played it since it first came out). However, I remember having to be in first person to do almost everything (fight, talk, pick up items, etc.), but you could press tab to admire your guy if you wanted and, most likely, do some traveling.
 
Mayson said:
Like I said, it's been years(I haven't played it since it first came out). However, I remember having to be in first person to do almost everything (fight, talk, pick up items, etc.), but you could press tab to admire your guy if you wanted and, most likely, do some traveling.
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Nah, you could do whatever you wanted in third person. Talking to NPC's was really the only thing that forced you into first person.
 
Dillirium said:
This thread is actually disgusting me. Seems like most people in this thread rather have a hand holder..

"And over here we have an evil villian that you must kill now... so we can do the next tour!"

Oblivion was badass imo. The game was so open. You didn't have to stick to the main quest if you didn't want to. There's no real "end" to the game. You stop the destruction of the kingdom but you can choose to continue playing after that or shelve it. Up to you at that point. Myself I leveled another character and started destroying the towns myself..

I like having the choice to do wtf I wanna do. Sandbox FTMFW!

-Dill
Click to expand...



I'm sort of on the fence on this issue.

On one hand, I like to feel like I'm making choices. I like to find secrets that no one else has found. I like to feel like I'm actually the main character.

On the other hand, making the game too open, more or less, ruins the story. The more "on rails" the game is, the more it resembles a movie or a book and, like books or movies, allows the director to tell the story he wants to tell.

I like a good story.
 
dr.stevil said:
really? that was one of my favorite features of oblivion. The more you do something (be it magic, lockpicking, sword fighting, hand to hand, etc) the more you level that skill up/the better you get at it.
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Yeah but if it was a Major then the more you do it the faster you level up and the faster you level up the faster the monsters leveled, this then starts to tip in favor of the monsters later on. So in order to min-max properly whats recommended is spending alot of extra time leveling your Minors, or even putting your most favored skills as Minors so you don't level as fast, a testament to how broken the system was in the first place.
 
PornoSatan said:
Yeah but if it was a Major then the more you do it the faster you level up and the faster you level up the faster the monsters leveled, this then starts to tip in favor of the monsters later on. So in order to min-max properly whats recommended is spending alot of extra time leveling your Minors, or even putting your most favored skills as Minors so you don't level as fast, a testament to how broken the system was in the first place.
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That's where Oscuro's comes into play and why they revamped the system for Fallout so that certain high level enemies only appeared in areas that you supposedly wouldn't reach until more advanced stages.

Bandits wearing emerald armor are pretty hilarious.
 
I love them all and consider them all to be my children. Seriously though, there all great games.Especially the offerings from Black Isle, those are the Apex of PC gaming imo.
 
I played through Oblivion twice and FO3 twice. I greatly preferred FO3 to Oblivion however I think that was simpoly because I enjoyed the setting of FO3 over mideval times.
 
Loved FO3 but then again I'm a huge sucker for post-apocalyptic settings. I tried to get into Oblivion after beating FO3 but stopped once I got my horsie. I've never gotten motion sickness from any game or any thing but that horse made me dizzy.
 
JoNo216 said:
Plus they involve a lot of pointless walking around while you are left hoping you will find a random encounter. When I was playing Oblivion I honestly turned auto walk on.. left and came back still going to my destination.
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FAIL: Bring up the map and auto travel to your destination if you don't want to ride/walk there. Takes mere seconds to click where you want to go and "travel" there.. Just warps you to the location but moving in game time forward depending on how long it would've taken you to go there.

-Dill
 
chineseman said:
I tried to get into Oblivion after beating FO3 but stopped once I got my horsie. I've never gotten motion sickness from any game or any thing but that horse made me dizzy.
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Likely due to the narrow FOV. Hit tidle, type in 'fov 86' and see what that does for you.
 
Subjective preferences aside, I think Fallout 3 is better then Oblivion. Obviously being the later game it simply is more polished in terms of the game mechanics out of the box obviously due to feedback and experience from Bethesda working on Oblivion.

But I feel both games need mods, not that they are bad without mods, but you are missing out on a large part of the experience. Both games were designed to be very modular to allow easy integration of modding, and were really designed with thousands of community addons (or even create your own) that would eventually occur so you can really tune the game to the way you want it.

Really the only other big budget titles I can think of that is as remotely accessible for modding and with so much community content is Blizzards RTS lines.
 
Vanilla I got bored, but I really enjoyed fallout 3 with the fook/fwe/mart's mutant mods. I ended up having to give myself ammo via the console a few times though because there was just way too much hostile stuff to avoid.
 
I was bored after about 3 hours of Play with Oblivion, put it aside for a few months, downloaded a ton of Mods and played it again from start until my eyes bled. I love that game, once you get into it, it is pretty well done, with the extremely fantastic modding community available it becomes a fantastic game. The vanilla version most certainly does not do the game any justice. The DLC were nice also. I think the last time I played it I was well over 200 hours.

The same could not be said about Fallout 3. I played it for several hours, but aside from the portoin of the game where you are still in the vault, the rest of the game seemed boring and bland. The one exception is when you first get out of teh vault and see the wasteland, it dropps of the cliff of meh from there. I downloaded a few mods, but never was able to find one that made the game pop for me. I am sure by now the mods exist, but I just can not get back into that game.
 
I found oblivion boring and repetitive. I also hate the console-itis GUI, too confusing. Loved NWN, hated NWN2. Stupid camera and poor performance. DAO was awesome.
 
phide said:
Likely due to the narrow FOV. Hit tidle, type in 'fov 86' and see what that does for you.
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Thanks for the tip. I'll probably re-install the game tonight and give it a go and see what all the hype is about :D.
 
I enjoyed Oblivion, but the graphics were VERY repetitive. My biggest gripe with the game is that I never felt like I was progressing. All of the areas and monsters I fought before seemed to keep getting stronger, so it was always an uphill battle no matter what level you were at. I liked that morrowind was broken into tougher sections of the game, they didn't just make everything harder. I hated that system HATED it.
 
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