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[Tervez]

I'd really like to say Oblivion, but many things in it were just bad, like the scaling of the monsters so that you never actually run into a challenge. So I'll go with Morrowind.

[ianfreddie07]

@Talin: Maybe it's a mod conflict that causes the CTD.

[Spoonman]

Originally Posted by ianfreddie07

@Spoonman: Try the Atmospheric Weather System instead.

I'll look for it, thanks

[Doubler]

For me there's only two real competitors: Morrowind and Daggerfall. Arena is decent enough and a lot of fun, and has some of the best wilderness in the series, but is otherwise inferior to Daggerfall across the board. Oblivion looks nice and is fun in small doses, but in my opinion it lags behind the other TES games in pretty much every aspect but the action gameplay. Which still isn't spectacular and doesn't really suit my TES experience in the first place.

Now Daggerfall has the vast scale, gameplay and is easily the most in-depth RPG of the bunch. But Morrowind has a more detailed, original and deep environment. I think I'd choose Morrowind as the 'better' game; more finished and more polished, and I don't think TES would have held half the appeal to me without the lore that Morrowind emphasised so much. But Daggerfall is certainly the most lasting, ambitious and the best showcase of what I'm looking for in TES gameplay wise.

Edit: Oh, and people. The Morrowind mod database is in no way inferior to the Oblivion one
Edit 2: Despite not being part of the main series, I think it wouldn't be right not to at least mention TESA: Redguard and ESL: Battlespire. Both are decent to good games in their own right. A pity I can't get either to run at this time
I can't comment on the mobile games, I'm affraid.

[Blood-Pigggy]

I have to go ahead and say Daggerfall was the only game in the series worth playing at all.

Morrowind was just the series' degeneration into a hack and slash piece of tripe, and it exemplified that with its atrocious quests and just how forgiving it was to whatever moronic thing the PC would pull off.
I can't even stand to touch Oblivion unless I play it on the X-Box 360, where it belongs - like any other first person shooter RPG thingamabob.

The mods don't make either of them better. I can't imagine how much effort you have to put into shifting through the pure unadulterated crap just to get to something good. All the anime/furry/nude/nerd/sword/crap mods out there for both Oblivion and Morrowind that was probably created by some geeky Goth kid and his retarded perceptions of what is "cool" which is usually some stupid ass overpowered sword stashed in the barrel at the beginning of Morrowind with the ring that belongs to the idiot elf who I want to punch in the face.

Morrowind has at least a tiny bit of merit for its unique setting, but otherwise there are too many freaking problems. A craptastic travel system, (not as bad as Oblivion's, but Daggerfall did it right) writing that came straight out of a community college writing class, condescending character development (how stupid did you have to be to to not understand the majority of Daggerfall's skills?), a crap plot, and worst of all, the most horrible ill-conceived combat system ever devised - what makes that even worse? The fact that %90 of Morrowind is combat, the rest is wandering around speaking to soulless NPCs and waxing off with the poor side material available to you.

These problems are only amplified in Oblivion, with it's "How-hard-are-you-hitting-the-brick-wall" character development, and its utterly abysmal lack of character.

A horrendously overrated gaming series, Daggerfall was the only decent piece of software to come out of it. And maybe Redguard, but that's if you count a Tomb Raider-esque adventure game as canon.
Even Arena was underwhelming lameness for its time, I'd rather play Betrayal At Krondor anytime.

[ianfreddie07]

Actually, not all the mods are the anime/furry/nude/nerd/sword/crap mods that you think. But then, there are some

I have tried neither Daggerfall nor Morrowind.

[Nick]

Oblivion without questions.

[gregor]

due to lack of time i only got to play Morrowind a bit and Oblivion... and from these two Morrowind is better and somehow has more to offer, but still has a lot of things missing. the combat is crappy, the AI could be more lifelike not just standing arround all the time waiting for me to come to them and "train", guild advancements are problematic...
but still it's nice to explore it.

Oblivion is graphically better and AI is also interesting just to observe. but stories.. well often they are not really any good. especially the main plot is kind of lame. and then there is the fact that you have Bandits in super expenciv clothes (armour) sleeping in tens, because they can't really afford any house. not to mention they are much stronger than the army.. or so it seems. also like in morrowind too much fighting. clif racers are gone but other creatures that want to challenge a stronger opponent are out there.

or for example training... since there is limited use of trainers, plenty of rich loot bandits, you are stuck with plenty of gold and no way to actually spend it. so the only way to train is to put something on the key and it will train by itself. annoying... you can even press autosneak next to someone's bed (sleeping beggar for example) and get your sneak level up while taking a dump in the toilet... nice.

[Tulac]

I enjoyed Morrowind the most. It has great and unique design, good lore, and absolute freedom but with some sense unlike the random generated cities in Dagerfall.

[Panthro]

I've played Arena, Daggerfall, Morrowind and Oblivion, and I have to agree with Blood Piggy for the most part, Daggerfall is a work of genius. Brilliant Character creation. (I've only seen as good on a couple of very old games, one of which being Megatraveller, where the char gen was almost the best part of the game, despite the brilliance of some of its other aspects.) Its a tough game, but that instills in you a real sense of worth when you achieve anything, and there is so much to achieve. I would wish for a remake, but I worry that someone would spoil it.

Arena has a warm place in my heart as a pure character building but otherwise a bit run-of-the-mill RPG, Morrowind has a great main quest, and some interesting side lines which could have been expanded on. Oblivion looks pretty, but lacks depth, certain guild quests and one or two set-piece events are done very well indeed, but this is often at a detriment to the general game playing experience.