Played Oblivion a ton (but never finished the main story, only watched it on a playthrough once) and now I'm playing Skyrim a lot.
I like Skyrim in many aspects, but I feel like they cut out so many great things that Oblivion had gameplay-wise...I'm highly disappointed in the magic stuff that Skyrim has, not being able to create custom spells, Destruction is just bleh especially if you got a follower you better forget about it. Also I preferred the "perk" system of Oblivion, where you could play everything without having to specialize. Without perks certain things in Skyrim are just useless on higher levels, and because you only get one perk point per level you can't put perks into things like Speechcraft pretty much. In Oblivion you would get the perks just through increasing the skill. Attributes being gone is also a bit meh, but I guess I can live with it.
Love being able to create armor though. Also I find the dungeons in Skyrim less repeptitive. Though so far the major quest chains have been more appealing in Oblivion. The College quests are nothing compared to the Mage's Guild quests, the Companions are too "specific" with their thing they got going on (don't want to spoil anything), compared to Warrior's Guild. Dark Brotherhood main quest story is ok, but I dislike the quests themselves, Oblivion had much more well ... "complex" options for the quests, giving you the choice of killing the targets in quite intriguing ways, not just "go there, kill that guy". Overall the quests themselves felt too easy. I have not yet started the Thieves Guild quests though.
The Dawnguard addon is a great addition, except for the random Vampire attacks IN cities. Entering a town at night can often mean that people die. And I hate it when that happens, especially in the "interior" towns, where you expect it to be safe. Haven't gotten into Dragonborn much either, besides visiting Soltheim, just as well as I haven't advanced the main quest or the war much so far.
Another big factor that disappoints me in Skyrim is the overall Console-port crap. Why the hell do I have to have a mod to turn off the auto-aim on bows? Why do I have to have a mod to make the menus bearable? Why do the controls feel so sluggish without tweaking them?...the journal in Oblivion required you to get used to it, but it was still MUCH better than what Skyrim has as an UI.
Both games luckily have a ton of great mods available which make both games better and more customizable. Not sure which of the two I prefer going by the mods, I think I'd still go with Oblivion.
The big improvement that Skyrim got are the beforementioned less repetitive dungeons. The landscape is also quite detailed, considering they pretty much only had "a cold, snowy area" to work with, unlike in Cyrodiil. I dislike how small the cities are in Skyrim though, I feel like Oblivion cities are way more houses in every city, making them feel more realistic. Also: Dwemer Ruins >> Ayleid Ruins.
If only they had kept the gameplay factors as complex as in previous games...or made them even complexer again. A lot of factors why I prefer Oblivion, but I also have to keep in mind why I got bored of Oblivion every time before finishing the main quest: after doing all the great quests like the Guilds, Brotherhood and Deadra quest, there's no great appeal anymore, dungeons, especially the Oblivion planes, just feel all the same after a while.
I have yet to test the greater Skyrim overhaul mods, maybe they make it better. No idea when or if I ever will get one of them. So far it is hard to tell which game is better, Skyrim looks a lot better, especially the characters, but Oblivion got more well...customizable stuff like Spells and such...
(11-03-2014, 09:40 AM)Luke. Wrote: It's a shame Elder Scrolls Online was such a flop. If executed right, it could've been awesome.
It's only matter of time when it would turn into F2P form. $15 is still a lot of money, when rendered to the other's currency (in Poland, it's like you paid $50).