[Serious thread] Morrowind vs. New Vegas

[Vault Dweller]

Morrowind was a great sandbox games: a massive land with a shitload of locations to explore and tons of guild eager to give you generic quests sending you all over the land; the detailed armor system complimented this design nicely. Plus an interesting setting. That's pretty much it. Everything else was beyond mediocre: the characters, the quests, the mechanics, etc.

New Vegas is a "classic" RPG set in a sandbox game. The sandbox mechanics are weak, but the game has tons of choices and multiple solutions. Pretty much the opposite.

So, the answer depends on what type of RPG you want to play. If you're itching for a sandbox, Morrowind wins by default. Otherwise...

 

[Vault Dweller]

Seriously, Morrowind is almost impossible to play without 200+ "essential" mods, while I could mostly enjoy New Vegas right after I bought it.

I had the exact opposite experience. Funny how that goes.

The exact quote is "Seriously, Morrowind is almost impossible to play without 200+ "essential" mods since 80% of the vanilla content is just... boring and repetitive, while I could mostly enjoy New Vegas right after I bought it."

 

[Decado]

Morrowind is better exploration game and has more interesting loot. But the plot? Characters? Uninteresting and very very weak. C&C is almost none, and the only freedom you have is the freedom to roam the wastes.

How were the characters uninteresting? The blades agent undercover as a skooma addict. The necromancer and the rival apprentices in the mages guild, the dumb archmage, the Telvanni council members, ...

People say shit like "they weren't developed enough1!" because they can't fucking read. Morrowind was like Torment in that regard -- you had to read. That's too hard for some fucking boneheads, so they dress up their inability to read by saying the "writing" was sub-par, even though the actual writing -- both what's in the million or so books in the world, and the actual questline writing -- were very good. Morrowind had a fairly original and interesting main storyline.

 

[JarlFrank]

Characters were mostly good, the problem is that the character interaction sucked. The dialogue system was good for obtaining lengthy background information, yes, but it sucked if you actually wanted to converse with NPCs.

The characters were good in a "I'm reading a book about the personality of Charlemagne" way compared to the typical RPG way of "I'm actually talking with Charlemagne".

 

[Demnogonis Saastuttaja]

a lot more skill checks, better characters and dialogues, better quests for the most part...

What? Morrowind has skill checks for running, picking up flowers, jumping, taunting people so you can kill them...

-- you had to read.

No you didn't. Reading wasn't necessary to do anything. Reading the lore of some buttfucker didn't help you in any way, however browsing through the book could give you some stat bonus. And it's nothing like Torment, text isn't used to build atmosphere in Morrowind. Caring about how the characters are written isn't necessary in any part of the game, so it's the implementation that sucks, not so much the writing itself.

Anyway, voted Morrowind, haven't played NV but I'm willing to bet it can't top Morrowind's free-roaming, free-murdering and stealing experience (not hundreds of hours! Geez, it gets boding long before that) by probably mediocre Fallout 3 gameplay, especially considering Obsidian's last massively botched game. Maybe I'll try it one day but lately I have not been in the mood for mediocrity.

 

[peanuts]

Morrowind is better exploration game and has more interesting loot. But the plot? Characters? Uninteresting and very very weak. C&C is almost none, and the only freedom you have is the freedom to roam the wastes.

How were the characters uninteresting? The blades agent undercover as a skooma addict. The necromancer and the rival apprentices in the mages guild, the dumb archmage, the Telvanni council members, ...

ur an idiot lmao, just kill urself retard

 

[ElectricOtter]

Morrowind had a very mysterious and foreign atmosphere to it, and no other game I've played has managed to replicate that. The game has problems, God does it ever, but it has a very unique and appealing "feel" to it and that really worked for me.

Yeah, I'm going to have to go with what Strange said. Same reason I have a soft spot for Geneforge 1.

 

[King Crispy]

Fallout: New Vegas is a decent game trapped within a severely autistic body. I struggle to play it for more than an hour at a time because of its amazingly effective ability to throw me violently out of my precious sense of suspension of disbelief. It's the models, the animation, the interface and the occasional horrid content that piss me off.

I never had that difficult of a time with Morrowind, although I will admit it's probably due more to my favor of fantasy type RPG's and Morrowind's truly innovative style at the time that I admired so much. Getting through its endgame along with all the cliffracers, glass armor everywhere, etc., was rather difficult to stomach, also.

So having not finished NV yet it's not fair for me to vote, but so far my nod goes towards Morrowind.

 

[Pegultagol]

With the mods + expansions, I'd say Morrowind, but as right out of the box incarnations, I'd say New Vegas, possibly because it is more fresh in my memory and somehow I just could not get into the roleplaying aspect of the former.

 

[Nael]

With the mods + expansions, I'd say Morrowind, but as right out of the box incarnations, I'd say New Vegas, possibly because it is more fresh in my memory and somehow I just could not get into the roleplaying aspect of the former.

I felt exactly the opposite way. There's nothing really at character creation in NV that gives the character any kind of history or backstory and it's further complicated right out of the gate. You're a courier for the Mojave Express yet everything in the game gives you the sense that it's your first venture into the Mojave area. It just didn't make sense to me and the total lack of any sort of historical context left a giant, glaring vacuum when it came to imagining my character in any plausible sense.

In short I think the game could have benefited enormously from some sort of character background choice upon creation (ie - Arcanum, Bloodlines, etc).

 

[bhlaab]

Morrowind has a more interesting setting, superior writing and more varied gameplay and a proper PC UI.

:/

It has superior writing - in books.

No

 

[visions]

There's nothing really at character creation in NV that gives the character any kind of history or backstory and it's further complicated right out of the gate. You're a courier for the Mojave Express yet everything in the game gives you the sense that it's your first venture into the Mojave area. It just didn't make sense to me and the total lack of any sort of historical context left a giant, glaring vacuum when it came to imagining my character in any plausible sense.

In short I think the game could have benefited enormously from some sort of character background choice upon creation (ie - Arcanum, Bloodlines, etc).

I haven't played New Vegas but I felt like this with Arcanum, tbh. Although you can choose a background in character creation, when playing the game it was as if your pc was alien to the gameworld, to the point of not knowing the location of the continent's most important city, without having someone mark it for you on the map. The abilty to choose your background made it feel even more jarring, imo.

 

[Pegultagol]

With the mods + expansions, I'd say Morrowind, but as right out of the box incarnations, I'd say New Vegas, possibly because it is more fresh in my memory and somehow I just could not get into the roleplaying aspect of the former.

I felt exactly the opposite way. There's nothing really at character creation in NV that gives the character any kind of history or backstory and it's further complicated right out of the gate. You're a courier for the Mojave Express yet everything in the game gives you the sense that it's your first venture into the Mojave area. It just didn't make sense to me and the total lack of any sort of historical context left a giant, glaring vacuum when it came to imagining my character in any plausible sense.

In short I think the game could have benefited enormously from some sort of character background choice upon creation (ie - Arcanum, Bloodlines, etc).

Strange that...now that I think about it, that irked me too. I thought that the courier was simply an NCR citizen working as a courier and even about that person who wanted the PC to carry the chip in his place...in Morrowind I remember you're arriving in a ship to the island so a new start in both literal & metaphorical sense of the word is plausible. The lack of backstory was in the back of mind, but it did not affect me so much as to put me off the rest of the adventure, though, but I admit I was awaiting some sort of a reveal on the account of your origins in the world. Fallout 3 tried to do this, but didn't pull it off well.

 

[bloodlover]

So NV is superior to Morrowind just because it has "detailed graphics and sound, full voice acting, ragdoll physics and 40pt fonts."

Yeah, that's what makes a good RPG... *sarcasm*

Also I voted Morrowind.

 

[Kraszu]

I rather have no background then one that doesn't influence the gameworld, you are controlling the character, and you are making the decisions why have a background that were out of your control for char that you control now?

As for the poll F:NV. I just could not get into Blandwind, bland cave design, horrible boring combat, and walking, walking never changes not when you walk through blandland that is.

 

[Kraszu]

Morrowind was a great sandbox games: a massive land with a shitload of locations to explore and tons of guild eager to give you generic quests sending you all over the land; the detailed armor system complimented this design nicely. Plus an interesting setting. That's pretty much it. Everything else was beyond mediocre: the characters, the quests, the mechanics, etc.

New Vegas is a "classic" RPG set in a sandbox game. The sandbox mechanics are weak, but the game has tons of choices and multiple solutions. Pretty much the opposite.

So, the answer depends on what type of RPG you want to play. If you're itching for a sandbox, Morrowind wins by default. Otherwise...

That sounds like a pretty horrid sandbox to me, what is the fun when ants don't react to what you do with your sandbox? That is just larping that there is a sandbox, when you just have an image of one.

EDIT: I am after googling, and omg I was always thinking that sandbox were those glass things with ants in them.

If by definition sandbox don't have any gameplay elements but you just pretend that there is or watch the view in game then yeah Morrowing can be the best for what I care.

 

[Decado]

-- you had to read.

No you didn't. Reading wasn't necessary to do anything.

Reading was necessary in order to understand what the fuck was going on, probably the most important aspect of any game in any genre. If you don't think understanding the actual plot isn't necessary, that's your opinion I guess. But it flies in the face of rule number 1 for any kind of narrative fiction, which is: "Make your reader give a shit."

Reading the lore of some buttfucker didn't help you in any way, however browsing through the book could give you some stat bonus.

Why does the reading have to have some immediate effect on the gameworld? It clearly doesn't. Plenty of games have no reading whatsoever (Crysis) and are still awesome games -- but they aren't RPGs.

And it's nothing like Torment, text isn't used to build atmosphere in Morrowind.

Sure it is.

Caring about how the characters are written isn't necessary in any part of the game, so it's the implementation that sucks, not so much the writing itself.

Once again, if you think caring about the characters and understanding what the fuck is going on are not "necessary" to any part of an RPG, I don't know what the fuck you've been playing.

 

[Kraszu]

Reading was necessary in order to understand what the fuck was going on, probably the most important aspect of any game in any genre

Yes the story was crucial to enjoying Tyrian.

Why does the reading have to have some immediate effect on the gameworld? It clearly doesn't. Plenty of games have no reading whatsoever (Crysis) and are still awesome games -- but they aren't RPGs.

RPG = having books to read in the gameworld. Seriously wouldn't it be great to use infromation that you had read to archive something in the gameworld, it would make the connection real not just imaginary, and it could offer interesting gameplay opportunities, interesting quest.

Once again, if you think caring about the characters and understanding what the fuck is going on are not "necessary" to any part of an RPG, I don't know what the fuck you've been playing.

You had missed the point, he was stating the fact that caring about char background changes nothing in the gameworld, what you did in MW was larping while the game didn't "care" about because it had no mechanics to do so.

 

[visions]

God, not this shit again. Storyfags vs mondblutians, another round incoming.

 

[Radisshu]

Storyfags VS LARPfags vs mondblutians.

Thing is, sure, Morrowind might've had great writing, but there's no interaction, so the writing isn't integrated into the gameplay at all, which I admit opens up for tons of LARP possibilities if you're into that kind of thing.

 

[DraQ]

Seriously, Morrowind is almost impossible to play without 200+ "essential" mods

Faggot detected.

Quite a lot of fixes and tweaks are very useful to lift the game from its obvious beta status, but MW is perfectly playable and interesting even as vanilla.

 

[Shannow]

NV has the better RPG-mechanics.
Both games have sucky character development and atrocious gameplay (though NV's was a tad worse).
Story: Both servicable. Don't give much of a shit.
Exploration: Good in both, but NV suffered more from the "nonsensical enemies scattered in nonsensical places" syndrome.

In Morrowind you could get a super character by knowing the fucked up level mechanics and abusing that and some other mechanics...and time to level. In NV you become an unstoppable force of destruction after a few hours of playing by default.
Morrowind had a gamestopping ctd bug right after release. NV crashes more the more you play it although FO3 wasn't as unstable.
Morrowind needed mods to make it more varied and interesting. NV needs mods to make it playable (or to be more precise to make the UI bearable).

Overall I'd say NV is the better game, certainly the better RPG. But since I've sunk a few 100 hours into Morrowind, replaying at least twice and stopped playing NV after 50 hours because of the lack of challenge, suckage of the gameplay/UI and CTDs, I obviously like Morrowind better.

So I didn't vote. Can't decide.

 

[Xor]

I seriously couldn't play morrowind for more than a few hours. It was just boring. And I was able to sit through Dragon Age.

 

[Jaesun]

I seriously couldn't play morrowind for more than a few hours. It was just boring. And I was able to sit through Dragon Age.

I never finished Morrowind either. I did finish DA:O once.

 

[HardCode]

Morrowind, as released by Bethes-duh, was a fantastic software prototype for an RPG. All they had to do was take the 1.0 release, redo the dialog part of the engine (ghey wiki). For quests and guild interactions - if they used what was released as the throw-away prototype that it was, wrote good dialog, and scripted C&C into the game, it could have been an all-time great. However, the prototype was the best those idiots could do.

It's a shame because Morrowind had so much going for it. The inventory system was marvelous. The spell system (I'm talking about the concept, not necessarily the unbalanced implementation) was great, especially with the spell crafting. The mini-map concept was the best mini-map in any game ever, especially the way you could make notes right on the map. In this game, the first-person perspective fit great. All of these concepts were implemented into a prototype framework overlaid with a very unique, interesting setting - creative races, architecture, lore.

It's just too bad they didn't take this and improve it with better RPG-ness for TES:4. Instead, look what they did.