It's surprising that Oblivion gets so much support on here. Oblivion is commonly considered the weakest of the modern Elder Scrolls games. Most people cite a boring Western European look, level scaling, and less magic options as the reason.
It's interesting, I just checked Metacritic for Oblivion and Skyrim for PC, and they both have the same exact scores. Morrowind actually has a higher user score than both, but lower Metacritic.
Skyrim has level scaling too, although it was tweaked a bit and I don't care for it either. For me the magic in Oblivion was fine because I'm pretty sure you could still make your own spells once you were far enough in the Mage's Guild. You could combine or tweak spell effects, but there were limits. You couldn't really do that in Skyrim. I actually liked the look of the game too, although Skyrim's Nordic ties were cool too. If I had one complaint about Morrowind it was the over-abundance of Dark Elves (No racist). I understand why, it was their land, but it felt like an...oversaturation of sorts. On the other hand, it also really makes you feel like an outsider or outcast if you're playing a different race.
For me, when it comes down to the 3 Elder Scrolls games from the last 10ish years, I'm probably going to pick Oblivion because of the quests and the NPCs. All the Guilds were pretty well done. There were some really creepy quests like the haunted house in Anvil, and the vampire quest line. The combat was okay, Skyrim has the edge over it, but Skyrim was also dumbed down in areas and added a bunch of annoying Radiant quests to supplant real content. Morrowind was a real challenge that didn't hold your hand, and I enjoyed that. If I had to say something nice about Skyrim it's that they did some cool stuff with the plethora of followers they made available, but like much of Skyrim most of them are very cookie cutter and don't have their own personalities (All the Housecarls are the same person with a different face). That's not to say there aren't some good ones, followers like Aela and Mjoll, that have specialized dialogue and quests. I think Skyrim did some beautiful things with the landscape too, and that's hard for me to say as an Ohioan that hates snow.
In the end, they each have their own flaws and bonuses. When we're talking RPGs for me it comes down to how good the storylines/quest arcs are, how flushed out and memorable the NPCs are, and is there a certain immersiveness that wills me to return to the game to replay it multiple times with different character builds/styles? For me Oblivion has a slight edge in those areas. I felt like Skyrim left some loose ends in places and disappointed in some quest lines. I previous mentioned the Mage's Guild/College of Winterhold, but the whole Thalmar High Elf angle...it felt pointless and they didn't really fit into the big picture. It almost felt like Bethesda threw in the Thalmar as a last second thing so they had a reason to have High Elves in Skyrim. There was no resolution with that conflict, and they barely have any presence in the world. I know the Imperials are kind of their pawns, but it's hard to believe the Thalmar are calling the shots when there's all of 10 High Elves in all of Skyrim. I really wanted to put those guys to the sword, but you don't really get an opportunity to do it.
What do you mean by level scaling?
I have Oblivion tucked away in a drawer with some other PS3 games that I have never played, but Oblivion is the one I always consider getting out.
It's my ultimate "rainy day" hoard, reserved for some point in the future where I'm at home for a whole week by myself or something.
He's talking about the enemies getting tougher as you gain levels. Skyrim had the same thing, although it was slightly tweaked. I prefer older style games where the enemies are less dynamic. Keep it open world, but if the player ventures accidentally into a den of all powerful Mages, that's his mistake. I dislike seeing previous Bandit locations I clear out suddenly upgrade from Leather armor to Daedric or expensive Elven stuff. Maybe the boss would have good stuff, but that's where I draw the line.
If you do get into Oblivion, the main quest is pretty good. Thieve's, Assassin's, and Mage's Guilds are all worth doing (Although you really have to prove yourself to join the Mages). If one quest arc was lacking and a bit forgettable it was the Fighter's Guild.
[EDIT] And everyone else responded to this one as I was writing my book above
