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The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind, Collector's Edition

The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind, Collector's Edition

List Price: $59.99
Your Price: $59.99
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Superior RPG/Action Game
Review: This is the best RPG to date. I've played Scott Adam's Adventure, the Wizardry series, Bard's Tale, Might and Magic, Final Fantasy and Baldur's Gate; The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind is the best of the bunch.

It does have some problems. It is hardware demanding. You need audio and video cards that support Windows DirectX 8.1. With a slow processor, under 500MHz and with less than 256MB of RAM, play can be full of fits and starts.

On the positive side, there is everything else!

Graphic images are simply beautiful.

If you have a newer audio card and a 5.1 sound system, the monsters creeping up behind you will raise the hair on the back of your neck!

There are so many different types of characters you can create and so many different ways of playing that is boggles the mind. That complexity makes it difficult for someone used to a console gaming system to play, because there are just so many choices.

There is no "right" way to play the game. Most other RPG's have a story line that you follow, going from place to place, solving problems and eventually getting to the end of the game and fighting the final boss monster. You can do that with The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind. Or you can do something else!

Like to collect "items", ala Diablo/Diablo 2? You can collect tableware and put them on the table the way you want! Want to see what you're wearing? You can! Changed armor? Changed pants? Check yourself out in the third person view.

Want to be a good guy? Bad guy? Mad murderer? Saintly healer? No problem. Wanna be a Thief and try to steal everything in the game? No problem!

My lament is the lack of multiplayer support. There is stuff I'd like to show my friends and places I'd like to share. Especially Muzgonk gro-Borbog, the Orc, guarding the entrance at Ashurnibibi, Shrine, Northwest of Hla Old, in a full suit of Orcish armor! ;)

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Excellent game, with tweeking, a perfect masterpiece
Review: This is the most imersive game I have ever played. And it's hard to imerse me, I am easily distracted. The graphics are spectacular with Java effects such as shimmering streams and seas and contrasting environments such as swamps grasslands, deserts ect. It is not just the Earth-like places but the more alien places too that realy do feel other worldly. Giant mushrooms, luminescent swamp grouth that glows in the swirling mists of the gloomy evening. As the main character in the game 'Redgaurd' said, "these Dark Elves are wierd!" You must have a top of the line graphics card for these effects to be truely appreciated. Geforce 3 will do, a Ti 500 can run the effects and cliping planes at a decent frame rate but with some choppieness. A AGP Pro 50/100 slot(and card) will be needed for a full experience.
Sound FX are equally spectacular with the odd alien creatures of Morrowind.
But the graphics and sound are only the icing on the cake, it is the character developement that is really the masterpiece. This game, according to some is TOO realistic, and I agree some of the stuff could have been left out, such as the mundanity of everyday life. The purpose of playing a game is to ESCAPE from the real world, not re-enter it in simulated form. I don't need practice in dealing with people or meanial work experience, that is boring and should be left in the real world where it belongs. The guy that asks you to take your clothes off should also be removed in the patch, no one on the forums likes that. Me either. It is a plot critical and if you do not, you can't progress through the game. There are some skills also that could be tweeked. Speechcraft for one. I don't think admire is the appropriate thing to do in a place like Morrowind. I think persuade would be better in that slot and 'admire' could be in an optional slot and renamed 'flirt' because that is exactally what you are doing. Ever wonder why guards say "bet you say that to all the guys" when you ARE a guy! That really offends me personally and takes the fun right out of being an Impirial Knight or any kind of diplomatic character. If you want speechcraft, be a rouge and use it only to intimidate and bully people. Unless of course you want to flirt with the guards and citizens. I think for the sake of diplomatic characters who don't want to fight citizens a 'persuade' method is more appropriate than 'admire'. Persuasion deals with being asertive and, well, persuasive. Complementing strangers is not realistic, it is stupid! Especially too Dark Elves. If the game is going to be realistic make it realistic, but make it where you can deal with the world realsitcly too or it will make for a frustrating experience. Speechcraft is, however much better than Daggerfall's method but the options are very limited. At least you know who you are dealing with.
I think the option 'persuarsion' should be added for dealing with people in general and obtaining quests and so forth. The 'admire' option should be changed to 'flirt', for when you want to well, uh... 'flirt'. It should not effect speechcraft however, hey, it doesn't in real life either.
I think I'll wait until Elder 4 comes out(probably in a beastie land. Black Marsh or Elsweyr) to play a Knight(an agile Knight), maybe by then speechcraft will be tweaked better. For now, a Nordic Crusader is my character. He doesn't say much that's interesting or clever(like me mostly), but he gets the job done heroicly.(and he swings a mean sword and mace to boot). Redguards are much better balanced than Nords at fighting, however. Both races are better at fighting than anything else. Willpower is a Redguard's only weakness(his mace and axe are a bit weak too.) Nords lack sword skills and Agility. Combat and freelance adventure is the funest aspect of this game(when you make level progress)control and timing are key. I haven't played far, but the guilds seem to be a bit boring. You get alot sure, nice gifts from members, training, ect... But the quests are menial(more on that later) The legion is for Impirial characters(I think), most of those quests involve killing the natives or something. That is not my style, I like heros, not law-abiding [people].

Aside from the little anoyances I mentioned, and a few others it is an excellent game. And should be played by everyone who plays games. Great combat, great environments, excellent character developement and deities to your weak areas.(Impirial Knight of the Lady is an excellent combination) And better quests than Daggerfall, much better. You don't know what you are missing!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Not for casual gamers
Review: This is the second best Role Playing Game ever made. Period.

Role playing has been deluded from it's original intentions, playing a ficticious character in a fantastical world with all the perks and hardships associated with it. Previous ventures (anything Diablo, Dungeon Siege, Everquest) have all been experiments in one of the fundamentals of Role Playing, character development. With Baldur's Gate, a cohesive, player-centric universe was created and a flimsy story along with it to increase immersion. Not until the advent of the best Role Playing Game of all time, Planescape: Torment, had a game captured the player with a beautiful, tragic story, colorful, detailed characters, and a fluid, easy to use interface.

Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind is the only game since Planescape: Torment to grab my attention and make me actively participate in it's story. In Dungeon Siege the plot was based on leveling up to defeat the main guy, all well and good, but in Morrowind my goal is anything I want it to be.

I remember playing a level 4 mage in Daggerfall for months, just because there was so much to see and do that I never got around to the main quest. In Morrowind, you can either not follow the main quest at all, follow it, or follow it once in a while and explore the rest of the time. The amount of open-endedness in this game is only surpassed by it's feeling of soul, for some reason this game feels alive moreso than any other game I've played (sans Planescape: Torment).

Casual gamers will not be able to play this, they'll get confused, frustrated, lost and stop playing, claiming "it's too non-linear!" Die hard pen and paper RPGers will not be able to play this, "you have to use the mouse to see things!" But any computer game player with half a brain, half a memory and at least 100 hours to play this game will find an experience they will never forget.

Reno, layeroffrost.com

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: the most amazing rpg in years!
Review: this is totally open-ended,do-whatever-you-want fun!right now I am going to every daedric temple and dwemer ruins I can find and doing side missions for weapons,money,and armor!The game is so huge I have done 2 or 3 story driven missions and i've had the game for 4 months!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A fitting sequel to Daggerfall
Review: Unlike the first "reviewer", I've actually played the game and I can tell you it is amazing. I spent a few minutes just looking at the sky, marvelling at the photo-realism. Morrowing is much more than pretty pictures, though. Bethesda has created a fully fleshed out fantasy world in the tradition of Middle Earth. Almost any character type can be created and role-played in any manner desired. There are myriad guilds and factions to join, so the quests you perform will further your own interests. This is very nearly a true virtual world. Five stars doesn't do it justice.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Epic! Mesmerizing!
Review: What a blast! I've been playing RPG's since 1978 and this is truly a gem. I find myself thinking about it when I am not playing. My favorite is the exploring aspect. You can wander in any direction and discover....anything! I delight in the seemingly infinite details like weather and night sky. The biggest problem I have is having to fight for time on the game with my kids so I mostly play at night. Unlike online RPG's, you can quit and save anytime and not worry about missing anything because you pick up where you left off.
I could write more but I want to get back to the game.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: some flaws, but very pleasing and addicting overall
Review: Yes, yes, it has compatibility issues, but in compatible systems like mine it runs very well, even as I have a non-exactly-hot video card (GeForce 2 MX 200). My advise: check carefully if your system supports it before buy. It sounds obvious but obvious things tend to be overlooked :)

I have spent now several hours playing it and it's been very fun this far. The only negative thing I've experienced so far is a crash I got after playing several hours, like 5 hours in a row. I've read that is a common issue and will be corrected in the patch i'm now downloading (it's just 3.4 Mb).

The game world is so huge and the interaction/double-crossing with NPCs are so diverse that you can easily get lost. An advise: whenever you need to get to a certain point try to use available transports, like the silt striders or teleportation from a mage guild. Walking from town to town can take quite some time and expose your character to dangers, especially if you're just begginning or are still low leveled. After level 5 or so it gets easier.

I specially like the customizable alchemy and magic systems, which let you create your own potions or spells out of individual magic ingredients (which you can collect walking around and tearing apart flowers, mushrooms or bushes) or effects, and get your own "Juancho's Famous Flying-Confuser-Scorcher" scroll, or something like that :)

Pros:
- THE MUSIC!!!
- HUGE world to explore and fool around in.
- The interactive magic, alchemy (and others) systems
- The construction set, which let you add your own dungeons to the world, even new land and houses and ruins and all that.
- The level of detail with which all 3D stuff is made. Architecture, specially, is beautifully done, and is very diverse depending where in the game's continent you're located.

Cons:
- The crashes. Fortunately, they manifest only after several hours of gameplay.
- To somebody accustomed to D&D type monsters and creatures, some of the creatures in this game are downright bizarre.
- Some NPC's dialogue repeats from time to time, especially on common topics. It should have been more diverse, have variations.


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