Ok , I'm currently playing Morrowind and for the past few days I have constant urge to abandon the damn game unfinished.
Maybe I'm repeating some things, but here are my pro-s and contra-s, of course much more contras than pros, so they come first:
Contras:
1) UGLY textures - I've seen better looking textures in 5-year old games/engines. Everything is damn brown, not a single clear color, not to mention that you're sometimes not sure where exactly the path is, when walking througs "wasteland". Take look at NWN - it has bright, clear colors, despite it's also a 3d game.
2) Crappy grephic engine - like I said, I've seen old games which work and look much better on my computer than (fabled) Morrowind engine. Besides that, I've read they linked copy protection to graphic engine, so the "crack" actually improves performance on legitimate copies of game.
3) Total absence of humor. Even Beldur's gate and NWN have had lots of really refreshing humor, but Morrowind has absolytely none of it.
4) Senseless descriptions/ dialogues (I HATE when you got 2 quests at the same time, from the same character, with half the way you should pass being exactly the same, both being explained with two different, both being more obscure than the other, descriptions.
5) "Journal" - When I even hear something called "Journal" is appearing in the game, I KNOW that Journal is a load of useless crap and dislogues, mixed with actual quest info/log. I mean, c'mon, Baldur's Gate's journal evolved (not to point of usefullnes, but, evolved), and Morrowind's journal looks like journals from first BG. Take a look at MM 7/8 quest log/ notes, it's a masterpiece, and shows how it's to be done.
6) Quests, beside being boring, pointless etc yield nothing else but possible progress in storyline, and few crappy coins and some crappy eq (usually). No reflection on character's advancement.
7) Stat/skill System, although interesting at first sight, turns out explotiable to the point of senslesness. I managed to get 3 x 5 stat improvement almost every level, by training (or paying for) skills I never gonna need. If you want to develop long blades, for example, just summon tons of bonewalkers, and slash them with minimum force (in order to hit them more times before they die), for couple of hours, and there you go. Not to mention buying tons of ingredients and "alchemizing" them , and later selling some poisonous potions for lots of cash, levelling at the same time...
8) Limited first person sight - evem Might&Magic (before 9) had better field of view. Why they didn't learn fomething from Wizardry ?
9) Dull quests... Enough has been saidabouth that already, NPC-s who's reaction towards you is not connected to what you did in the game. Again Wizardry comes on my mind , and it's sometimes adventure-like quests (whics are not "officialy" quests, either), beind more riddles than quests.
Pro's:
1) Potion making/item enchanting - refreshing, but becomes boring on higher levels...
2) Game system - It's NOT AD&D and it wouldn't be that bad if it weren't so exploitable... Everything which is not adnd is a plus
3) Editor. Nice thing indeed, but not crucial - Who wants to buy a game, an then to spend a month downloading and installing 100s of mods (of which, like stated here, 10% are worth downloading), just to make game playable??
4) Some effects, landscapes, and some visual details, which would've looked nice if the colors weren't so damn brown. Just lots of good ideas wasted...
5) Hyperlinked "encyclopedia" style dialogs - really good idea that should be followed in all future games.
As a conclusion, no matter how awful Morrowind is, it doesn't mean Bethesda HAS to f**k up FO 3... If they were really FO fans like they said, and if they realised their mistakes with Morrowind.
Besides that, FO 3 is entirely new game, and , despite what they said, new engine must be developed, because MW engine just cannot be used. After all, they know they depend mostly on old FO fans, not some console-Final Fantasy playing-dumb kids.
The only thing I fear is loosing big part of Monty Python/HHGTG/SouthPark humor found in FO/FO2, because if the same team of dumb-minders would write dialogues, it would be a fiasco... Hope they'll employ someone else...
And one more thing, from what I;ve seen on screenshots of abandoned FO3 version, I'm afraid this nice Arcanum-style item crafting won't work like that in Bethesda's FO3...
