Morrowind has the best aesthetic design and the best writing but, unfortunately, has horrid gameplay.

Oblivion has woefull aesthetic design, horrid writing, sub-par game play.

Skyrim looks very pretty, but the aesthetic design was very bland (though bonus points for Moonpath to Elsweyr mod) had mediocore writing and the best gameplay.

So, uhhh, not Oblivion? The first time I played Skyrim I would have told you Morrowind, but I'm not so sure anymore.

Skyrim.

It was just so perfectly envisioned by the devs in the development process.
Everything about it just teems with true Elder Scrolls magic.

Overall? I'm gonna go with Morrowind. I'm not going to count Arena and Daggerfall, as they are both drastically different gameplay wise.

SajuukKhar:
I am stuck Between Morrowind and Skyrim.

Morrowind is better in the story front, but skyrim blows it out of the water gameplay wise.

I guess I will tie.

I'd go with Skyrim to be honest, what's the point of a game with an amazing story if it plays like ass and you give up after half an hour?

Morrowind with mods to fix the terrible combat system would probably take it for me but I'm guessing this thread is about vanilla.

The first one SUCKED the second was better but still SUCKED on the level of the other three.

Ralen-Sharr:

Jynthor:
Best Elder Scrolls RPG: Morrowind
Best Elder Scrolls Action game: Skyrim

Pretty much this. Morrowind had an awesome story and was just great from a narrative perspective. I got immersed in the history of Morrowind and the Neravarine.

Skyrim is absolutely beautiful, and has better magic and combat, it's a lot of fun but doesn't feel as deep in the narrative.

Morrowind re-done in Skyrim's engine? Oh yeah that would be awesome as hell... after a no-cliffracer patch/mod. Hell they might not be so annoying in Skyrim's engine.

Cliffracers won't be so annoying now that we can actually hit the damn things.

Skyrim, then Morrowind, then Oblivion and Skyrim wins by a long way. Anyone who claims Morrowind is better than Skyrim is channeling nostalgia.

Well, I just started Morrowind (yesterday actually) and I find it to be far more fun than Oblivion. That said, Skyrim is still king for me ;3

While Morrowind was awesome it doesn't hold a candle to Skyrim in my experience. Morrowind was great but it just doesn't hold up well with the archaic, clunky gameplay mechanics, especially the combat, when compared to Skyrim. Oblivion was just boring. Skyrim it is for me!

I cant play Skyrim due to audio issues. It burns my very soul that I cannot.

Skyrim, no contest.

I HATED Morrowind.

Best? Skyrim.
The one I spent the most time with? Oblivion.

Skyrim improves on Oblivion in just about every way. Problem is...the formula felt dated. I couldn't lose myself in the game for hundreds of hours like I did before.

I never played I or II. In terms of the most hours I've put into them, it's Morrowind > Oblivion > Skyrim so far, though no doubt Skyrim will overtake Oblivion in the future.

But I normally look at games first and foremost from the point of view of core gameplay mechanics rather than things like atmosphere or story. From this perspective Skyrim is the better game no question. That said, I don't think any game in the series is phenominal in terms of gameplay, and I would hope to see some improvements in that area for TES VI (Skyrim is at least moving in the right direction). As a series, I must admit that the atmosphere and immersion is one of the key highlights, and I can understand fully why many people prefer Morrowind.

I've only played Oblivion and Skyrim so I'd have to go with Skyrim for it's MUCH smoother leveling system.

Morrowind is an absolutely terrible game when it comes to most gameplay mechanics. The only thing it wins out on is story which is arguably the best of the three. The rest is so terrible it makes it not worth it. Oblivion is the first game I played and while its story and combat are flawed they are way more fun than Morrowind. Skyrim has simplified combat but in the end it is fun for hours which is the point of a game. Id say its a fight between Oblivion and Skyrim for me.

I have to say Morrowind is my favourite, just for the fly spell alone. The magic system is much better than Skyrim in general. I have a soft spot for battlespire, the only game I know where your underwear could shoot fireballs.

Skyrim I get bored with, Morrowind I get frustated with, DaggerfallXL I get lost in - as in I get out of the dungeon and wander around 20 minutes while spotting a lot of trees.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Why? Because it's the best of both worlds. Morrowind was brilliant in terms of the RPG specific areas but fell down in the combat and action areas. Skyrim was brilliant in terms of action but was far too simple for it to be a brilliant RPG.

Oblivion had odd combat and sneak that still needed to be improved but was far superior to Morrowind while also having some much more user friendly RPG aspects. It also made questing a little easier while still maintaining some difficulty. Skyrim was just way too simple to be the best and lacked key RPG traits whereas Morrowind made questing too difficult for me to really get behind it. Oblivion fixed both of those.

Morrowind really, it's from a time when EVERY RPG was slow and boring. I played a few minutes of Morrowind, I purchased a long sword from a shop then very slowly made my way to where I thought I was supposed to go. Just so happens there's random high level monsters there, and even the low level ones got me because of all the crappy dice rolling in the background. I'm sure the story is of Shakespearian quality, but the actual GAME part of Morrowind is terrible to me, it's just not fun at all and instead focuses on making a highly technical luck game. I play video games to experience new worlds, meet new characters and fight in awesome ways, Morrowind only does on of those for me (new worlds). Yet, if someone somewhere made Morrowind in the Skyrim engine, without all the technical dice rolling bullshit combat, I'm sure I would love it to death. So as you may of guessed, my vote goes for Skyrim.

morrowind by far, No pansy ass hand holding when questing you had to use your brain to figure out where to go. The world was so.. Alien way more interesting to explore compaired to Oblivion and Skyrim (I still love oblivion and skyrim btw)

I've played the newest three, so out of those three, I have probably spent the most amount of time on Morrowind, just because of how huge it is, but I went back and tried to play it a little while ago (after playing Skyrim)played it for like 30 minutes and gave up. The combat is very unresponsive, and getting a strike to land in the earlier levels is like pulling teeth. Back in the day I had nothing else to compare it to so I just stuck with it, but I have now been spoiled by SR so...

Though all that though I still wont say Skyrim because the world seemed much smaller then Morrowind. It might just be because of the lack of fast travel (which ruined Oblivion for me along with the dumb number of Gates you have to clear in that game) and the trickiness of Slit Strider system (which doesn't connect every city together like the wagon seems to in Skyrim (I never use it) so you have to either get directions, or trial and error that shit).

Which this reminds me of another thing about Morrowind that was better. No compass heading telling you exactly where you need to go. It was better back in the day when the game would start up, you get off the boat and the game gives you vague instructions on what to do and says "have fun" and leaves you alone. I mean maybe they shouldn't repeat some of what they did. Like I remember in the Main Quest in Morrowind there is a mission during the Tribe section of the game where you need to go find a temple to get some bow and the instructions to get there are literally "go to the shore, head east until you find a rock (one of many) then head due south until you find the temple." It did't matter how many times I replayed that fucking game I ALWAYS had to seek outside maps to find that damn place.

Basically as a functional game, I would say Skyrim is the better game, but Morrowind is the better experience. There is a story that is actually important, the factions are awesome (MORANG TONG BITCH), and the game actually expects something out of you. But the dang game is unplayable now :(. If Bethesda were to re release Morrowind, experience as is, and updated the combat system to Skyrim's (seriously do not touch ANYTHING other than the combat system...and graphics if you have time but that isn't as important) then I would buy. Twice.

Seriously.

DO IT BETHESDA DO IT!!!!!!!

captch: that's right

damn straight

I haven't played Arena or Daggerfall. I would like to, but I haven't managed to get them to run...

I'm going to have to say Skyrim is the best overall. I absolutely hated, hated the way combat worked in Morrowind. I'm not 100% sure how it worked, but all I know is that I couldn't get past a team of two rats because I could, despite being centimeters away, almost never land a hit. This was in the first city; some sidequest for a woman who couldn't get into her attic I think. Suffice to say, I ragequit. Maybe I should just go back to it later.

Frankly, the best thing Oblivion had going for it was the Dark Brotherhood. (Oddly enough, that same guild is the biggest complaint I've found so far in Skyrim.) Everything was pretty frackin' ugly in Oblivion, voice acting sucked, yada yada yada, all the usual complaints.

So yes. The best Elder Scrolls, as far as I know, is Skyrim.

Morrowind for sheer diversity of race (by that I mean races hated/liked eachother and had their own feel to them) and landscapes for sure.

Skyrim for just being 10x more solid. The game has a lot going for it art wise and gameplay wise.

Oblivion doesn't qualify because of ...many reasons, I'd say bland art design, there was maybe 3 different landscapes, 4 voice mediocre voice actors and Patrick Stewart, animations just really off it just felt like a beta for a much better game.

I liked Morrowind but I didn't play it much, and when I did play it the combat felt barely functional. Oblivion was good, I got a hundred or so hours out of it but it felt too much like generic fantasy. Skyrim was a little more unique, had pretty good combat, looks gorgeous, has better levelling systems and monster scaling, has stuff like decapitations and slow time with the bow and arrow...
Yeah it has to be Skyrim for me.

I'm gonna' be a douche and say:

Ni!

I can't give an true answer as I missed out on Morrowind and Daggerfall, and played Arena 10 year too late; so my judgement of them is clouded by the sands of time (and technological advancement).

But then again I have played Oblivion and Skyrim within the right time-frame, so of them two (relative to the time they came out) I would say Skyrim, though the mods made Oblivion PC better for me than Skyrim Console, which has no mods.

Best Bethesda game? Fallout 3.

If I could rewind the clocks I'm sure I would say Morrowind, it is very well designed and built. certainly more RPG-ish than the last two TES games, not that they aren't good western RPG's (they are some of my favourites).

Jynthor:
Best Elder Scrolls RPG: Morrowind
Best Elder Scrolls Action game: Skyrim

you hadn't played Daggerfall, have you?

Honestly, hasn't aged too well, but if you are a fan of old school no apologies RPG's, then its a great game.

It is also free.

Only problem though, learn to love fast traveling in the later games, because it can take the better part of two real life weeks to travel across the Dagger Fall game map with NO FAST TRAVEL.

Dont get me started on how almost everything is trying to kill you either.

_{or the fucking Rats in the starting area, seriously, fuck those rats.}

Kalezian:

Jynthor:
Best Elder Scrolls RPG: Morrowind
Best Elder Scrolls Action game: Skyrim

you hadn't played Daggerfall, have you?

Honestly, hasn't aged too well, but if you are a fan of old school no apologies RPG's, then its a great game.

It is also free.

Only problem though, learn to love fast traveling in the later games, because it can take the better part of two real life weeks to travel across the Dagger Fall game map with NO FAST TRAVEL.

Dont get me started on how almost everything is trying to kill you either.

_{or the fucking Rats in the starting area, seriously, fuck those rats.}

Yeah my Daggerfall experience wasn't that great.
I joined the Mages Guild once I got out of the starter dungeon and had to go to a dungeon for a quest. Obviously I got lost because; Randomized dungeons. Then I thought to myself: "Do I really want to go through this for every single quest in the game?" My answer was no.