This week was one of those rare occasions in the year when I actually bothered to buy a published magazine from a shop (contrary to popular belief I do actually leave my house, whether Theta does, however, is still hottly debateable and controversial).

An interesting article which I didn't realise the magazine would feature was a vote by the magazine's critics and readers on the best video-game RPG to grace the world so far. Six games were offered; Knights of the Old Republic, Deus Ex, Neverwinter Nights, Deus Ex: Invisible War, Dungeon Siege and of course, Morrowind.

Quite amazingly Morrowind received top marks from all five of the critics and the readership vote revealed Morrowind receiving 41% of the vote with KOTOR closest to it with 29% of the vote.

I, for one, thought KOTOR would win it due to the sheer volume of GOTY awards it has received and the fact I absolutely adored the game (maybe 'cause it wasn't made by Lucas "crap is my middle-name" Arts). It just goes to show that just because a game is a couple of years old, doesn't mean it loses its popularity. Maybe because of the devout community and dedicated modders, or maybe just because the game really is just THAT good, Morrowind continues to thrive.

Does it not make you wonder, however, why other developers haven't taken step and attempted something of Morrowind's magnitude or bigger? Maybe it is a reflection on the gaming industry at the moment - Morrowind was four years (and some) in the making, which is time that most developers will refuse to spend on a game. You only need look at EA to see that cranking out a game in 8 months doesn't mean it'll be good or sell. Morrowind stands as a testimony that a good game isn't one with a big franchise, with big guns and big fights, but just one thats actually been thought through, which is innoventive and captivating.

Half-Life 2, no. Screw you (pile of crap, die die die!!!111 one one one).

I mean, I just finished wasting atleast 20 hours of my life "completing" (I won't reveal why it has quotes but let me just say, for anyone who has the game and hasn't finished it yet, the ending will deeply worry you as a sequel is hinted upon drastically...noooo! Don't do it, please!) newcomers Asgaroth's game, Sacred. I was expecting a game which would give me the fun Diablo II once gave me, god was I wrong.

For some reason, the German developers thought sticking in horse-back riding would make the game as good, if not better than D2. Uh no. So, they stick in horses (which I didn't even use because you couldn't fight on them properly and they're bugged to hell) and take out any sort of decent plot, add GOD AWFUL voice acting, more bugs than Daggerfall and the most annoying and ridiculous CD-Protection ever conceived (it searches your harddrive for Nero, if you have it, you can't play Sacred) and you've got one terrible game.

Asgaroth took on the concept of Morrowind's non-linear, large world setting and thought it would work. Yes, the world is huge but I cannot even hint at the frustration this game has caused me...the amount of bugs in this game makes God's locust swarm look like an ant's air-show fly-by. The sub-quests are AWFUL and half of them don't even work (no crap, you kill the guy which you spent 2 hours trying to get to and the game doesn't even recognise you've killed him...arghh), the skills are drastically unbalanced (as a Dark Elf I literally could not be killed, it was practically impossible, with a simple right click I was invincible to all but one enemy - which I killed with another skill instead). Basically put, I got nothing out of Sacred except arthritis. For the love of God, don't buy this game.

I'm starting to get the feeling that developers take the average gamer as someone who will be wowed by splatters of blood and limitless enemies, and it won't matter that major ommisions have been made to how the game plays and the actual story of the game. That is, of course, unless I'm the only one who doesn't base a games quality solely on how many monsters I can slice and dice?

If you are asking "why is this featured as site news?" then please report to your local Peregrine shooting line clinic where our evil friendly moderator will explain it to you in terms you can "understand".

Regards.

Well, er... I'm "Site N..." And, uh... This is really hard to say... Um... I've recently been abused at the hands of... Uh... Actually, er... I won't name anyone... Let's just call him "Dark 0."

...Yeah, that's a zero... I don't know why it's a zero... Er... WHY AM I ON TRIAL HERE!?

Er... Anyways... Halfway through... It... The, er... Incident... He used me to... to... to bash Half-Life 2... And then... Then came... The review...

*Bursts out into tears*

The horror... The horror...

w00t for Morrowind! I knew you had it in you! Beautiful, smart, and talented, how could anyone resist you?

I hope that "non-linear" is the new fad in computer games. That and "easy to mod". Not that I know anything about Morrowind modding.

Anyway, it's late, and this post is close to spamming. I think I'd better put on a kevlar vest, lest Peregrine reads this.

I have purchased Sacred but haven't opened it yet so might be able to return it. Any one else have any feedback on it or know what the chances are for a patched version.

I played Daggerfall early on and remember how buggy it was but I still stuck with it, and for a non Elder Scrolls game that was really terribly buggy when it came out but eventually patched enough to live up to its potential, there was Darklands many years ago.

I bought Morrowind early but didn't get around to playing it until patches were available so didn't get bitten by the worst of its bugs although I've certainly still seen more crashes to desktop than I'd prefer. Given other good RPG's porrt starts at initial relase, I'm not sure it's fair to write off Sacred due to bugginess if there is potential there despite the problems. Small companies (not that Microprose were when they released Darklands following up on the success of Civ I) and game development groups that care deeply about the "quality" and depth of their game may wel be ones that are prone to loose sight of catching bugs in the excitement of doing a better and more perfect game.

Just a correction: Sacred's development team is called Ascaron, not Asgaroth.

I have not played it myself, but it did receive quite good ratings in game magazines I've read, but I cannot really judge that. (Concerning the voice acting: Hah, now you English speaking people suffer at least one time from what we have to endure mostly when a game isn't released in the language it was originally published in! ;D )

I am a bit startled by the fact that Deus Ex 2 was a voting option (although I rather thought about that as an action-orientated game), but that they completely ignored Gothic II ... does anyone have an explanation for this?

Sorry, I've endured far too many games originally written in English with bad voice acting to feel much sympathy for having to deal with translation voice talent ;-).

I installed Sacred last night and after playing for 4 hours or so, it doesn't strike me as exceptionally buggy or to have terible voices. It is indeed very Diablo II like in feel, nowhere near Morrowind as an in depth RPG. I'm running a Wood Elf and have found useful combat combos for bow fire and have also found it to be a hoot to use a horse to ride circles around monsters chasing me while filling them with arrows. I downloaded the 1.6 update (1.7 is in works now I guess), so that may be some of difference from the original reporter's expreience. I'm currently level 8 so haven't gotten terribly far into the game yet so there may be negative stuff that I haven't run into.

How many sub-quests have you done? And believe me, those combo's will get pretty boring, pretty fast.

Off the top of my head, I'd guess I've done 10 or so subquests so far. I failed on one where the person I was supposed to rescue got killed by wolves before I got to her, but all the rest I have been able tocomplete without any game type problems other than random monsters that seem to spawn rather quickly.

You may well be right about the combos loosing interest value. I haven't really played with the spells that the Wood Elf character gets yet so I'm not sure if there will be interesting possibilities there.

I read this blurb by DarkOne with great interest because it expressed some views
which I have held for a long time, and because Morrowind winning the vote was a
natural, in my humble opinion. There is no other game like Morrowing, unfortunatly.
No other companies have ever made such an effort to please the users and provide
a game with such longevity and potential for customizing. Why, I don't know. What
I do know is that instead of growing tired of Morrowind, I am growing more and more
interested in it. Some of this is due to the fact that Bethesda has not abandoned it but
rather, seems interested in continuing the legacy. Another BIG factor is all of the
talented, inventive and unselfish people in the Morrowind community who continue
to add value and detail to the game, gradually fleshing it out even more and bringing
it so close to life that it's almost scary. All of this brings me to wish very much for
more! I myself hope to soon be providing high-quality additional content and fun.

Here are some ideas which I would love to see happen, some of which Bethesda is
in the best position to bring about.
- Improvements to the game engine to support higher quality graphics (such as
using the features of DirectX 9)
- Top-quality meshes and textures with the game, preferably in common formats
so that the users can easily do customizing and modding using commonly
available, inexpensive software. If compressed formats not supported by
inexpensive software must be used, then common formats of all textures (tif or
bmp) of all textures should be provided along with utilities to convert to and from
the file-types which the game uses.
- Much more sophisticated and customizable AI, especially where interpersonal
relationships between PCs and NPCs are concerned. This should include much
more varied and personalized dialogue with much more branching and interplay.
There should also be a much more in-depth and situation-dependent AI for
the general topics of admiring, taunting, intimidation, and bribing. At the very
least, the choosing of one of these should bring up at least 4-6 choices of what
what to say, representing different approaches, so that the gamer will have some
control over how the treat the NPC rather than just having a random number
pick it. It is SO frustrating to have the NPC reply and react in a way that shows
the game assumed that you spoke something heinous and obnoxious when in
fact you rather liked that NPC and would never have said something catty or
condescending or lewd or rude to them. The choices should have logical results
based on the circomstances and who you are talking to, and some choices should
raise (or lower) their disposition toward you more than others. Also, provisions
should be made in the game engine for non-romantic friendship, romantic
friendship, neighborly friendship and business relationships. All of these should
effect how you get along with the NPCs. These would balance all of the BAD
relationship oportunities allready provided for in the game. Also, the game
should provide for several ways to break off hostilities besides having a guard
interfere. Dialogue should be possible even while fighting, in cases where the
isn't already out to kill you before the fight begins especially. In cases of
accidentally offending someone or especially upon accidentally attacking them,
the player should be able to try breaking off the fight and appologizing. And
the player should also have an opportunity to choose appologize when a guard
interferes, insteadof just automatically being fined. Of course, if the player
struck the NPC multiple times, or severly wounded them, then the NPC may
insist on some compensation. The player should be able to try to bribe enemys
whom they are fighting with also. How easy this is should depend on the
circumstances and who the enemy is.

OOPS! Sorry! I just noticed I was rambling off on a subject best put in a
different forum topic. But I feel SO STRONGLY about these things!

At any rate, I agree that Morrowind is a cut above and I hope that Bethesda
makes a lot more money off of it by making enticing sequels and versions that
we can't refuse.

I wish they would use the game engine for additional un-related games also.
Shoot, they could move right on into anything from Roman times to the the
middle ages and fit the game engine very well. How about King Arthure times,
or Robin Hood, or the fall of the Roman empire, or the conquest of Gaul and
England by Rome. Or the Astrogoths Vs the Romans, Celts Vs Romans, etc. etc.

UJust dreaming, maybe.

I agree with you. An historical RPG that uses the Morrowind engine, especially if
set in the Roman Empire or, even better, in the Roman Republic, would be great.
The King Arthur saga would also be nice, and in my opinion even the poleis
of Ancient Greece and the mead-halls of the Nordic kingdoms would be great.