The Witcher: Enhanced Edition (the first game) free on GOG (Gaming)

by cheapLEY , Wednesday, April 26, 2017, 01:30 (2769 days ago) @ narcogen

Done and done.

Morrowind is also the best game in the ES series, I think.

Oh don't get my wrong--I absolutely agree. I'm about ten hours into a new play through (my first in probably three years) and enjoying it immensely. It's my favorite Elder Scrolls game by miles. That's partly due to nostalgia, for sure. I was 12 when Morrowind came out, and it was my first real RPG. I never had a PC, so missed out on all the great isometric RPGs. Ocarina of Time was the only real game I'd played that even approaches what Morrowind was. I think it, even more than Halo, was a revelation for me when I got my original Xbox.

But it's also just because I really do think it's a damn good game. It's main quest and story are more interesting than anything in Oblivion and Skyrim. It was cool to see a story where you have put a lot of effort into proving you're the hero, instead of being declared Dragonborn within 30 minutes of starting the game. Not too mention all the politics of Vvardenfell, between the great houses, the Temple and the Imperial Cult, the imperial occupation, legal slavery, etc.

More than anything I hope Bethesda go backs to that sort of questing and storytelling, but I'm not optimistic. They're becoming more and more invested in their radiant quest system, and while that was exciting and new in Oblivion, it's really unappealing now. With games like The Witcher 3 focusing on hand-crafted, awesome quests and stories, that random, radiant quest crap feels archaic and awful. If Elder Scrolls 6 is just Skyrim 2 (in terms of design philosophy), I'll be really disappointed. But given the direction they went with Fallout 4, that's really all I'm expecting.

A lot of its bugs are being addressed in the OpenMW project, and for those who can't abandon the modern engines there are fan projects underway to add its content to Skyrim (Skywind) or Oblivion (Morroblivion) as well as an official expansion to Elder Scrolls Online this summer that adds Morrowind's territory to the game. (Not the plot content, just the area.)

Skywind looks like it's shaping up to be something really cool, but it still seems like it's going to be years before we really see anything from it. I'll be ready to play when it finally hits, though.

Have you played Elder Scrolls Online? Can it be played alone, without really engaging in the more MMO elements? I've heard that it can, but maybe not satisfactorily. It certainly looks like a neat game, if only just as a tour of all of Tamriel, but I just don't feel like playing an MMO. That trailer for the Morrowind expansion looked cool, though.

In any case, The Witcher 1 isn't as beloved as Morrowind by any stretch. While the Enhanced Edition is improved over the initial release, it doesn't have anywhere near the mod support that any of the Elder Scrolls games benefit from. As I said, for folks who really enjoyed The Witcher 3 and want to experience more of that world, there's plenty of value there, but even at the price of free, it's not a game I'd recommend everyone just go play.