Elder Scrolls peaked at Daggerfall and has been going downhill since

[Solmyr]

I played the hell out of Daggerfall back in the day. Even used a couple of mods/fixes that were available for it at the time. I remember people used to write big stories of their characters, that were hosted on a couple of websites. Obviously, you had to use a lot of imagination to describe various events in the game.

I didn't really start playing Morrowind until a few years after its release, but eventually I finished it as well. By then, using all sorts of mods making the leveling system better and more.

Oblivion, likewise, I played some time after it released and with various mods.

I've played the vanilla Skyrim through once as soon as it was released, but since then it's been VERY heavily modded (like, mod number in the hundreds). It's basically the only way to play Bethesda games these days. Skyrim in particular is still very much alive thanks to loads of content mods that are made for it.

ESO I've played occasionally, perhaps should try to get into it more. Btw Syt, you can pretty much abandon any newer tutorial as soon as you load into the game (at least I could when my newer characters loaded into Summerset), get back to your faction's major city (via shrines usually), and a NPC will find you who will start the original tutorial. See here: https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Online:Soul_Shriven_in_Coldharbour . That way you can progress with the original storyline first. Some NPCs around cities will still offer quest starters that take place later in the storyline, but if you know who they are, you can ignore them until it's the right time.

[Syt]

Btw Syt, you can pretty much abandon any newer tutorial as soon as you load into the game (at least I could when my newer characters loaded into Summerset), get back to your faction's major city (via shrines usually), and a NPC will find you who will start the original tutorial.

That's what I did for my recent character

[Josquius]

I don't think I ever played Daggerfall or the original.

Morrowind was shit. That's all that needs be said there. I played it after oblivion and..bleh. On every front it shows clear signs of being the game that came before. The biggest pain point is the lack of gameplay. Right button inventory and left button action...eh?

Skyrim vs. Oblivion....
I do think I preferred Oblivion more at the time. Though it was a different age when open world games were not so common and it really stood out from the pack in a way Skyrim doesn't.
So...yes. Probably will say Oblivion is best. Skyrim is fine, perhaps better than Oblivion out of all context, but it really should have pushed things forward more. At the least it should have refined a lot more than it did.

[Syt]

And just because I can, some old screenshots. The trick with haze was to set it that you don't have infinite visibility, revealing how small the place actually is, but far enough to create a good illusion of distance. OG Morrowind has you normally walking around in a bit of a mist to preserv resources.

[Solmyr]

Hopefully Skywind will make the experience even better!

[The Brain]

Didn't play Daggerfall. Morrowind was totally awesome, especially in terms of mood, weird environments, music etc. I only played a little of Oblivion, it was too generic and boring. Skyrim was very nice, but no Morrowind.

[Tamas]

Didn't play Daggerfall. Morrowind was totally awesome, especially in terms of mood, weird environments, music etc. I only played a little of Oblivion, it was too generic and boring. Skyrim was very nice, but no Morrowind.

Exactly.

I can see how Morrowind might not be a huge deal if you come to it after seeing the newer games but damn it was a big deal when it was new. I had trouble making sense of all the reading with my level of English back then but it was still awesome. I particularly remember first stepping out to this sand-stormy area, but in general there was so much ambience and weird shit.

[Syt]

Hopefully Skywind will make the experience even better!

I don't trust those remakes in different engines. Mostly because while I trust them to replicate the environments I expect recreating characters, scripts, balancing (in new combat systems) etc. to be a lot of fiddly busywork.

[Valmy]

Bethesda games may have their problems, but I struggle to find something similar out there.  The Witcher series is close but not quite the same.  Fallout 4 works, but I dislike the post-apocalyptic setting.  If I have a choice, I'd always pick fantasy. 

So I am left with looking forward to Starfield, which I guess may become available in 2021.  I am not holding my breath.  That means Elder Scrolls 6 is like a 2025 release at the earliest. 

I think everybody is fine with the huge problems their games have so long as they are able to deliver on the world building and atmosphere they deliver...but I think you missed my point. Yes another Daggerfall/Skyrim/Oblivion/Morrowind type game would be awesome in 2025, but those games require Bethesda to be the Bethesda of 1996-2011. I don't know if they have another one of those games in them.

Fallout 4 does not work and I really hope a new Elder Scrolls game is not like it.

[Valmy]

I only played a little of Oblivion, it was too generic and boring.

It did have amazing horse armor though!

Oblivion had the best quests of the series, that is its saving grace.

[Syt]

Fallout 4 does not work and I really hope a new Elder Scrolls game is not like it.

Considering that they seemed genuinely surprised that Fallout fans were NOT waiting for a multiplayer online survival sandbox without story ....

[ulmont]

I disagree, Morrowind was the peak of the series. Daggerfall was extremely ambitious, but the randomly generated dungeons/cities are bleh. I prefer the smaller and more focused Morrowind, it had the best balance of the series.

Agreed.  Morrowind also had some great batshit moments like everything to do with the Telvanni and the huge crab shell forming a city etc. etc.

[MadImmortalMan]

Remember that Todd's favorite ES game to this day is still ESA Redguard. In terms of playstyle and design philosophy, that's what he wants to make. Each game has gotten simpler as a result, shedding more RPG elements each time. Fortunately for them, they've only been shaving bits off and not blasting away at it. If MW had been a shift to Todd's perfect vision, Bethesda wouldn't exist. Redguard was a colossal flop.


How can they dumb down further for ES6? Wolf, Hawk, Whale and Snake is too complicated. Let's drop snake. 

[Monoriu]

Bethesda games may have their problems, but I struggle to find something similar out there.  The Witcher series is close but not quite the same.  Fallout 4 works, but I dislike the post-apocalyptic setting.  If I have a choice, I'd always pick fantasy. 

So I am left with looking forward to Starfield, which I guess may become available in 2021.  I am not holding my breath.  That means Elder Scrolls 6 is like a 2025 release at the earliest. 

I think everybody is fine with the huge problems their games have so long as they are able to deliver on the world building and atmosphere they deliver...but I think you missed my point. Yes another Daggerfall/Skyrim/Oblivion/Morrowind type game would be awesome in 2025, but those games require Bethesda to be the Bethesda of 1996-2011. I don't know if they have another one of those games in them.

Fallout 4 does not work and I really hope a new Elder Scrolls game is not like it.

I played Fallout 4 on Survival and it was awesome.  Much better than the other difficulties.  Winning a settlement and being able to use its workshop is now a cause for celebration.  I have to walk everywhere and I see a lot more of the world.  I actually want to avoid being shot now instead of always charging in, guns blazing and thinking, even if I die I just reload. 

[grumbler]

Remember that Todd's favorite ES game to this day is still ESA Redguard. In terms of playstyle and design philosophy, that's what he wants to make. Each game has gotten simpler as a result, shedding more RPG elements each time. Fortunately for them, they've only been shaving bits off and not blasting away at it. If MW had been a shift to Todd's perfect vision, Bethesda wouldn't exist. Redguard was a colossal flop.

I don't believe that ESA Redguard is Todd's vision of the perfect game.  In fact, he designed Morrowind after Redguard, and Morrowind was (unlike Redguard) his concept from start to finish.  He in particular has always been a fan of character creation.  His Morrowind definitely had a dopey idea of character leveling, for sure (in a lot of way, that's been an Achilles' heel for ES games, but luckily can be modded away) and most of the quests sucked.  What has saved Bethesda has been Howard's insistence that the games be modifiable.  There are some terrific mods out there for Oblivion and Skyrim.