DamnLag - How To Make Skyrim Better Than Oblivion

Doug writes: I’ll be a Morrowind fanboy till the day I die. I wish I could have said the same about Oblivion. With the announcement of new Skyrim, I can’t help to wonder what changes will be made and if those changes will be for the best. It got me wondering, what would actually make the game better than Oblivion? Well, I’m a big fan of open world gaming but I don’t know if my approach to them are everyone’s proverbial “cup of tea”. When I play sandbox games like the Elder Scrolls series, I want to take it as a bittersweet experience. I want to be punished, but like in life I also want to be rewarded for perseverance or risk.

[boogeyman999]

More trips to Oblivion .... although that's not going to happen...

[RedDead]

Hated Oblivion in ES4:Oblivion. They chose the most generic route possible, a plain lava landscape...They could have done way better ones. The shiverings isles expansion, that whole island was also Oblivion. It's a shame, I was dissapointed with repeating generic dungeons. I hope and woul dbet there will be a few times we can go back to Oblivion in some form in Skyrim.

[Overmind420]

Morrowind was the peak of the franchise, that much is certain.

[RufustheKing]

I wonder if they will ever make a HD version of Morrowind like the God of War Collection? Cause alot of new gamers only know Oblivion which is a shame because Morrowind is a great game.

I hope when you became a Vampire or a Werewolves you get a new branch of missions. It would be cool if you could turn whole towns into Werewolves or Vampires.

[rainbowfission]

Man I am excited for this game.

[italianbreadman]

How can Skyrim NOT be phenomenal?

[PrimordialSoupBase]

If it tries to be like Oblivion.

[Zinc]

Bring back levitation.

Higher quality textures. I'm personally sick of having to look at low res textures, especially when looking out a window from inside a building.

Also, more bewbs.

[doopmiel_carl]

Good article. I agree. They should really focus on the social depth of the game. It could really make it badass if the player felt more in control of their moral choices and the chances they take.

[Xof]

It would be nice to actually HAVE moral choices. I'm sick of the "give the puppy a kiss" or "bludgeon the kitten to death" options. Though, I suppose they're better than Dragon Age's concept of Good=Polite and Evil=Rude (and vis versa).

[halo4fan]

This game is gonna be sick

[giantchicken]

I agree that the townspeople should be more dynamic

[denawayne]

Items in the game should be "useable". The menu system definitely needs an overhaul. Would be cool to see random items or weapons littered around the map. Make finding stuff fun like in Zelda. It was a big disappointment to swim underwater in Oblivion and not find anything.

[Xof]

Off the top of my head....

-Voice actors that ACT
-Hire some decent animators
-Spend time on NPC design
-Make a main quest that's lengthy, has depth, and doesn't SUCK (a first for a Bethesda game)
-Release the game STABLE.
-No level-scaling

Well, those are the must-haves. To make it a passable game. Now that Oblivion ain't the ONLY WRPG on the market, it'll have to be more than passable to make the same impact, or exceed it. I would recommend....

-Better dialog system (take a cue from Mass Effect 2!!!!)
-Either remove or completely obscure the moronic karma/morality BS
-More variety w/ attack animations
-More enemy variety
-No more copypaste dungeons
-Over-the-top spell effects
-Better spell customization
-Bring back the FLIGHT spell from Morrowind. Thing was ~awesome~.
-Limit player choices--make it possible to FAIL quests. Don't let the player keep playing the game after beating the main quest--make a New Game PLUS with extra bosses/quests! This is one thing JRPGs have done that's AWESOME that WRPGs seem intent on never, ever even considering. Player progression should also be more limited--you shouldn't be able to be a max level Mage and Fighter, for example. For that matter, certain quest trees should exclude others--assassin guild leaders shouldn't also be able to be mage guild leaders, etc. --Right there, one thing to encourage multiple play-throughs!
-More Varied Terrain. Maybe hard to do with an open-world game, but I LOVE having different environments to explore in an RPG. Deserts and jungles, tundras and savannas and plains. It makes exploration much more rewarding.

[A LIVING LEGEND]

^Sounds like Morrowind...5 years later.
Likely pinnacle of the series but ahead of it's time and suffered for it.
Entirely agreeable ideas regardless :)

Insert Alpha protocol dialogue choices over ME2,imo,very similar but Alpha wins.

[blahblah]

how to make it better?

after oblivion fiasco... simple, don't make 1. last one was so boring and slow paced i'm still having trouble focusing on the speed when watching snails. damn snails are fucking racing

ohh, and yes. so crippled and lame done sword wielding worked much better on c64 and 2d side runners

[jarrod1981]

i loved oblivion. and im sure ill love this game. i cant wait.