I love RPGs like the next videogame player but when thinking about buying Elder Scrolls 4 or Fable, I think Fable is more my style. I have played Elder Scrolls 3 and loved it but it was just too long of a game (never did finish it). If I buy Elder Scrolls 4, I know I'll love it but I want a game I can finish. I think Elder Scrolls 4 would be too ambitious for me (I would never finish the game or have the time to). However, I keep hearing that Fable is a great game but relatively short. So I think I'll buy Fable or Elder Scrolls 4 but I may change my mind.

Did anybody here actually finish Elder Scrolls 3?

Depends on your definition of "finish" --- the Elder Scrolls games are more of an RPG-oriented sandbox. Definitely not the game you want for a quick linear story (although within a few hours of playing you can make some good headway).

Kind of like arguing Burnout vs. Grand Turismo. Both are good games but are different styles, neither one "sucks" --- more like personal preference.

I believe Elder Scrolls 3 can be beaten in under eight minutes with the right glitches exploited.

Fable has some decent ideas, but the main thing that bothered me was how superficial a lot of it was. Nothing really matters in the game. I suppose it shouldn't be any surprise given the original development name ("Project Ego"), but so much of the game seems ego-driven and juvenile. Give enough gifts, say enough flirty things, and any girl will fall in love with you, no matter how hideous you look or how old you are. Marry her, have sex with her, beat her. Wife gets on your nerves, kill her, kill some of the guards that come to stop you, pay a fine, everyone loves you again. In other RPGs, characters might only say one thing throughout the game, but at least you couldn't manipulate them however you pleased. Only a handful of main characters in Fable have a personality; the rest are simply generic peasants that you can save, kill, or have sex with as you see fit. What's the point?

Besides the fact that the townspeople let a school stay open that regularly churns out homicidal maniacs...

I spent a lot of time with the game, relative to most, but I finished in around 30 hours. You would have no problem beating it in 15, if you wanted.

I agree, was also my major problem with the game, at the end of the day nothing really mattered that went on, you could be good, evil, somewhere in between and the story really doesn't change. Then of course you factor in the super short time it takes to beat if you don't care to flirt it up with women or kick chickens and well great idea but not a great execution.

Way too easy...not enough content either...

The Elder Scrolls game can be played straight through without any superfluous exploring, if that's what you want. The problem with Fable was that there was very little to do "off the beaten path." It's one of the most linear American-style RPG's I've ever played.

You guys are saying all the right things. But I do buy a game to finish it someday.
I may pick Elder Scrolls up.

The toughest thing for me to adjust to was the combat and magic in Elder Scrolls, as well as the way the "leveling" system works. Fable is definately a linear RPG with some customization options, whereas Elder Scrolls is a "sandbox" as someone said earlier.

I got around to playing Oblivion finally last night (PC version, my 360 is still out of comission) and have to say, they definitely made it more accessible (read: fun) than Morrowind and a tad more action oriented. Fable was a good game that just got way too repetitive for its own good. So either way you go, you're in for at least a few hours of fun heh.

I was terribly disappointed with Morrowind. I thought it was too open-ended, without a sense of direction, it didn't explain things enough, and you often got lost. Bugged the hell out of me.

I tried out Fable. Thought it was fun. Very straightforward, but still had fun quests. No problems with it. I got it for free, but a used copy is $10, and that's not a bad price for what you get.

Oblivion, meanwhile, is $60, but it absolutely worth it. 100% worth it. They streamlined a lot of the stuff that bugged me in Morrowind. Making a custom class was easy and well-explained. Getting from place to place is simplified, and if you ever get lost, there is a line on your compass to put you in the right direction. The combat system actually works now (I hated "hitting" things without actually touching them), and the magic is easier to use, too. The inventory system is categorized to an extent that was not in Morrowind, and it's just an overall amazing experience.

In short, forget what you thought about Elder Scrolls 3. Play Elder Scrolls 4.

Unfortunately playing in third-person mode is still ridiculous.

How so? I just picked ES:O up this weekend for $45 ($35 w/ my GC I had from xmas) but my 360 is still MIA at MS - I mean M$.

I actually switched Oblivion over to 3rd person as soon as I started the game. I like having the option to play in either 1st or 3rd person.

The Reason I like the ES games is whenever I feel like throwing something in and playing for a couple hours I can go to them. There is so much to do in these games that you can actually drag them out for months if you want to. You aren't tied down to doing a specific quest or join a specific guild at any given time and if you don't have time to play for a couple weeks you're not lost when you jump back into it. Fable always seemed like more of a chore to me.

It just looks silly, plays strangely, and makes combat much more difficult. The character moves the same in either perspective, which I see as a negative. I think in third-person mode they should behave like every other third-person mode in an RPG or action-adventure game, not like a first-person mode zoomed back. By that I primarily mean turning when I push left instead of sidestepping.

Here's a link to the video of Morrowind getting beaten in 7:30:

http://speeddemosarchive.com/Morrowind.html

I agree. And you can basically abandon any quest at any point and come back to it later. Very few have to be completed within a certain time frame. I'm trying to run around now, starting every quest I can, so I can beat them as I go from place to place.