November 8, 2012 6:35 PM EST
I got Oblivion sometime in my 7-9 year old days at a Gamestop, or maybe EB Games I think it was was still around back then. (Anywhere form 4-10 blends together, I never know how old I was for certain memories unless they are tied to something that reveals the age I would have been.) and was playing it on the 360. I was pretty young and wasn't too great at games so I made a lot of characters that only a couple got high level and kind of did stuff I already knew how to do. No roleplaying, just kind of doing whatever and the quests I used to do, I still to this day haven't completed all the questlines, not even the main one (Though I watched my brother complete pretty much all of the ones that I didn't, and I would have completed them but Oblivion broke after awhile), but I loved that game and I played it a ton, coming back to it every couple games I played and got bored of. Back in the days of being crappy at games, only knowing mainstream games, and just playing on Xbox, no computer.
Since I feel it's related, I played Morrowind way back when I rented it for Xbox. I really sucked at it, being pretty young and the difficulty curve, so I went around and stole stuff and crap for the majority of the rental period and never really got it again. I still thought it was pretty fun, even though I had really no idea what to do and sucked at it. The summer or maybe it was April or May before Skyrim I bought Morrowind from Amazon and have the complete game, still installed with what I think is a crap load of mods, though many believe it would be a 'light setup'. I played one pretty complete Thief playthrough, finished a few guilds, Solthseim, and then got my ass kicked by Goblins in Tribunal's Sewers, which by then I'd been playing quite a lot and ended up putting it down for the time being. Much later I played it a bit more experimenting with mods (My first main playthrough was vanilla) and characters but really despite my love for the game I haven't gotten back to it for a second, complete playthrough. Though I'm sure I will at some point.
As for Skyrim, there is a ton to say on my impressions but I'll say this: I agree with Imeera, Skyrim does not have as much personality, flaws, difficulty curves, and quirks as the other games. You cannot level your destruction by casting a fire DOT spell on yourself, you don't have levitation, or crazy fireball spells from Morrowind: Mostly all because of the over-simplification of Skyrim's magic and the insane removal of spell creating. It's an extremely good game, it let us down in a lot of ways, though in my excitement for the game, and joy in playing it, I actually forgot all of that and never thought about it until much later. I'd say Skyrim is an extremely good game, but it let so much down even from what Oblivion did.
It has some new features, but still. A lot is missing. The Magic System as I said is dumbed down, they got rid of the really cool spells like Silence. They brought a lot about the dynamic quest system and people reacting to things you did, people you killed, how you treated someone. Someone coming at you for revenge, dynamically. Not just some fucking hired goons thing that happens all the time when no one knew you killed them and maybe the person was hardly related to that person etc. The dragons are shitty and way too easy.
Like was said by Imeera, the franchise has been mainstreamed. They've catered to the noobs and newcomers, making the game easy, simplified, and less niche with less personality.
With all it's flaws with promised features that aren't there, comparisons to the old games, I still find Skyrim a incredible game that occupied my for around 250 hours or something like that. But still, if they would have made that game in Elsweyr, and brought back that personality and features that where in Morrowind, or something like that - I think the game would have been 10 times better. It would have blown my mind, and I probably would have played it more, and have gotten the DLC, but it wasn't like that. Codifization is happening, you can see it in niche, hardcore, complex, older franchises. Something I'm not too happy about. But I guess that will just have to happen, at least we have mods and indie games... err... on PC we do. :\ That's another rant for another time 
So Yeah... That's what I think.
