My biggest frustration came from the factions, because I really, really wanted to be a professional thief. I entered the faction and I felt like being a part of something cool.

We had a code and everything. And then I learned by accident this code means actually nothing.

It's Fallout 3 all over again. "Oh, you want to destroy megaton, huh? You know it will kill dozens of innocent people!"
Except the one person who gives you the biggest quest in that time.

You know, just in case you didn't want to have any consequences of what you're doing.

I understand Elder Scrolls 1 & 2 are free. When I get my Mac for college, I might as well get boxerapp and install them. Are they fun?

Daggerfall world is huuuge. It would take you a whole year to finish this game. But don't get the wrong idea - the world is mostly empty and repetitive.

I played both. Never finished Oblivion, I just could not stand it anymore. Still have a bad taste from it. Skyrim was alright even if the game can be characterized as being "an ocean with the depth of a puddle". Why? Because no matter what you do, the world is oblivious to you. No NPC gives a fuck. The fighting system is also absolute crap. Dunno why they simply could not work with others like (Arkane) that know a thing or two about such things. Meh

Anyway, I was not blown off my feet by either title. Both had potential and both fall flat on their faces. A pity..

There might not be any game consequences for things, but my imagination lets me know what the consequences for my actions are. That's one of the things I love about The Elder Scrolls. I like when I have to fill in the blanks myself. I like that with anything really. For example, I love it when movies intentionally don't make it clear what happens at the ending, so you have to come to your own conclusions.

The way I see it, there isn't anything wrong with Elder Scrolls being the way it is. Its just not the right series for you. There is no sense in putting yourself through something that's clearly getting on your nerves. Go and play something that doesn't annoy you so much.

Interesting. After all this time, I never aware about this kind of impression. I thought people really enjoy the series. But even the games still have flaws after all.

But I like dungeon crawling in Oblivion :P I like silently sniping enemies with my bow giving them 3x damage basically killing everything with one arrow. :D So I guess I will continue playing the game just for that.

Is there truly a perfect game though? Something to think about anyway..

I've played it four or five times and I'm one of those players who wants to hit EVERYTHING so I spend the same amount of time just exploring caves that the average player spends completing the game. Therefore right around becoming an actual guild member is when I'm so sick of playing it I want to shoot myself, so I quit. That's not to say it's bad but I need a little flavor of some sort and there just isn't enough mixed in. This is like comparing apples to oranges but KOTOR springs to mind. That game throws in little side stuff like races, gambling, and some (albeit basic) space battles. Not a lot, but just enough to wake your ass up when you were beginning to fall asleep from monotony.

Also now that I think about it, there's no goddamn sense of humor in Oblivion! Would it have killed them to throw in the occasional joke or funny pop culture reference!? Little things like that can provide a little pick-me-up.

Here's the thing about TES, though. The modding is so extensive that literally anything can be done in the game. There's a group that has literally added an entire new country to Skyrim, for example, and then there's the guys who built an entire new game on the Oblivion engine.

The Guild Advancement Mod, for example, puts skill requirements back on rank advances in the factions. So you have to have a certain level of advancement in certain skills to be able to get to the next rank, just like in Morrowind.

I'm sure you could find a mod that limits what factions you can join based on what other factions you already belong to. Or if you can't, make it. ;-P

That's the thing about Bethesda games. If you don't like the way vanilla works, mod it.

Make sure to play the game with FCOM. Don't bother without the mod.

We complained about it back when it came out, and have since moved on. :-)

edit: don't get me started on being able to complete steps for a quest before you even get the quest...

For me Oblivion was a big letdown after the amazing Morrowind.

I could rant on about it, but eh, it doesn't even warrant the effort. I'll just say that there's several reasons that I still have Morrowind installed but only ever played through Oblivion once.

My problem with Bethesda games that I have tried (Morrowind, Oblivion, Fallout 3) is that they have no drive, no big picture, at least at the beginning of the game.