Morrowind GOTY Edition for Xbox (1 Viewer)

[Chris Flynn]

http://www.elderscrolls.com/index.ph...view.htm&bg=10

 

[James T]

It's about time! I heard about the Game of the Year Edition awhile back, but no confirmation on the content. Hopefully, it fixes the minor bugs, but even if it doesn't I'll be picking it up.

What's up with the May 12th date?

 

[Romier S]

Nice, very nice. I already have the PC expansion (and will be getting Bloodmoon) and with my new computer Im pretty much PC only with Morrowind at this point but its great news for those wanting more. It was the best possible solution to adding the XP packs and hopefully getting some bug fixes out of there.

 

[Martin Rendall]

Hmmm. If it fixes the crashes, I'll probably pick it up. I wonder if that sort of thing is a priority for Bethesda Softworks...

Martin.

 

[Derrik Draven]

Now I have some more motivation to go back and finish off Dagoth Ur.

Guess the OXM rumor mole guy sometimes really knows his stuff. He mentioned this possibility a few months ago. Glad to see it's a reality.

I wonder if it's going to include the "sounds of the bitter coast" upgrade? Wasn't that some sort of improved sounds when you were in the swampier areas on the eastern shore of Vvardenfell??? Any PC guys know what I'm talking about?

For you guys that already have these expansions, how BIG are they, area wise, compared to Vvardenfell island?

 

[Romier S]

For you guys that already have these expansions, how BIG are they, area wise, compared to Vvardenfell island?

Mournhold is fairly big but nowher near the size of the full island of Vvanderfell. IF you take your time and handle most of the quests youll get a good 35-40 hours out of Tribunal. The biggest problem with the Tribunal Expansion is it is very linear. Its one big contained story so the open endedness of the main game is somewhat lost when you get embroiled in that particular storyline (I also would not recommend trying it until your character is fairly high level).

Bloodmoon isnt released yet and doesnt get released on the PC until June (6th to be exact). They are adding Solsthiem, a whole new Island that is covered in snow and a bit of a departure from Morrowinds overall look.

This new Island is supposedly quite a bit bigger than Tribunal so I'd imagine you'd get a bit more time out of it than that expansion. (the ability to become a Werewolf is something I've been waiting for a long time. Bloodmoon is one seriously welcome addition to Morrowind.). Also Solsthiem is being designed to allow "younger" characters access to these new areas so I would imagine it will be a tad more free-form than Tribunal was.

 

[Derrik Draven]

Thanks for the info Rom.

My fingers are crossed for the sounds 3.0 you mentioned. I can't deny it; I'm a sound effects junkie.

Although, being a user mod, it's doubtful.

 

[Romier S]

Thanks for the info Rom.

No problem Derrick.

You know with the size and scope of Morrowind I really would not mind if Bethesda put a lot of effort into releasing more free plug-ins and continued to expand the world of Morrowind through these expansions. Tribunal was linear but it was high qaulity and fun. Bloodmoon will be adding a whole new island to explore. The world of Tamriel has such huge possibilities!

If the Sims can have 5-6 expansions so can Morrowind dammit!

 

[JamesH]

I must pray, pray, praaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay for a bug fix. I'm really glad they'll let you use your old save, as that's the deciding point for me. If they can my save where I've turned Balmora upside down with the command human glitch to only crash once or twice a day, I'll be singing their praises for a long time to come.

I know it's a long shot since you really weren't supposed to be able to move 100 NPCs, but maybe they can at least get it to where my old save runs without ever crashing.

Anyone know if they're redoing the engine? The textures, draw distance, and framerate were pretty dismal a year ago, so I hope they get a bit more out of the Xbox this time.

 

[Romier S]

Anyone know if they're redoing the engine?

No. Both new games were built using the same NetImmerse 4.0 technology. The engine has been put through its paces a bit more however.

The fact of the matter is the Morrowind engine scales texture detail according to resolution. At 640X480 your going to see detailed textures. The devs made had a good technology post going on the forums pre-release and went over some of the pluses and minuses of the engine. Rather good reading.

Considering that, Bethesda *HAS* made some good improvements to games performance with the release of Tribunal so a more even framerate may be in the cards for the Xbox version. Though in direct comparison to a low end PC the Xbox's framerate is rather good and is a great alternative.


Heres some nice PC screens to hold you over though:

Tribunal 1
Tribunal 2
Bloodmoon 1
Bloodmoon 2

 

[Derrik Draven]

The complete Game of the Year package includes all the new areas, quests, items, and characters from the expansion, as well as most of the added game features. It's only missing the journal quest-sorting and map notes features, which were deemed unworkable with a console interface.

I grabbed this from www.gamers.com

I'm curious about the part that states "most of the added game features".

...what features? The sounds I'm hoping for? Improved frame rate??? Guess we'll have to wait-n-see.

 

[GlenHaag]

I'm bummed about this. I just bought the regular edition. Oh, well. I guess I can always sell that off.

Glen

 

[Ryan Peddle]

How will this work...I just bought the original edition 2 weeks ago. Is the new one going to be competitively priced or will it be 60-80bucks (CAD)?

I don't mind paying more for the bug fixes and all the new features, plus the new add ons...just kinda a bummer.

 

[Romier S]

I don't mind paying more for the bug fixes and all the new features, plus the new add ons...just kinda a bummer.

I would imagine youll see an either 29.99-39.99 price tag on this new version of Morrowind. Bethsoft may charge the full 50 but I think they know players dont want to pay full price for a game thats for the most part available for 19.99.

 

[Ryan Peddle]

I guess we can simply wait and see.

All in all, the game is amazing and I will still buy it for all the upgrades.

 

[JamesH]

Since they're adding two $20-$30 expansions to a $20 game, they likely might charge $50, although I remember the original morrowind being $40 at several places when it was released.

 

[Romier S]

Since they're adding two $20-$30 expansions to a $20 game, they likely might charge $50,

Those costs may not be comparitive. The X-box and PC versions of the original Morrowind were being developed for the most part simulataneously hence a greater amount of development dollars were being used to create both versions.

This new Game of the year edition is simply incorporating content that has already been added to the game PC side (I would imagine they are adding the enemy health bars and what not as well). For the most part its even more of a "port" than original game was and cost wise cheaper to move to the Xbox platform.

Not too say that the game may not come out at the usual 50, but with what I would imagine to be less developement cost and the consideration that we are talking about a game that has been on the market for a good while and sold in excess of 260k units, I see Beth releasing this one at a lesser price.

 

[Jean-Michel]

From the FAQ:

Are there any features not included?
It does not include the journal quest sorting or placing map notes, because they are not console-friendly features.

OH PUH-LEEZE

 

[Romier S]

OH PUH-LEEZE

Agreed. The journal sorting was the absolute best feature of Tribunal and it is ashame it will not be part of the gold edition. It Made keeping tracks of quest SOOOOO much easier its not even funny.

Playing devils advocate however, the one thing technical problem I can see with implementing the feature is the ability to use previous saves. On the PC version, Tribunal was able to converet your current journal in-game journal over to the new format (this usually took a good 2-4 minutes depending on the size of the journal). With the ability to use previous Morrowind saves on the Xbox hard drive it may be an issue of them not being able to find a plausible implementation. The same could be said of the map notes feature.

However it was really a BAD decision to use such wording/logic to say that these features are not "console friendly" as that can be easily misconstrued.

 

[Bjorn Olav Nyberg]

How does the fighting work in Morrowind? That is the main thing that held me off, the game looks amazing, and I used to play text based MUD's etc, so this may be right up my alley.
I did watch a video preview once though, where the fighting was "live" - I would have preferred turnbased actually - I could not stand the thougth of getting stuck because I suck at the fighting...