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View Full Version : Morrowind XBOX hands on - NOT a positive experience



Brevity
06-04-2002, 08:09 AM
I found this and thought it might help some of you out.
Post E3: The Elderscrolls III: Morrowind X-Box Impressions

During our interview with Bethesda Softworks, RPGfan had an opportunity to sit down and play an almost final version of the impressive action-RPG for the X-Box.
Those who are familiar with the recently released PC version will be pleased to see that all of the quest freedom has been retained for the console port. The extensive character creation and class development was also unscathed. Alas, the in-depth Construction Set that shipped with the PC version, an impressive feature that allowed the player to change various aspects of the game world, will be absent from the X-Box release. Bethesda stated that it was fundamentally impossible to create such a powerful editing tool for any X-Box game and that Microsoft is extremely protective of the X-box’s HDD. Allowing gamers to change code that is resident on the X-Box hard drive has a great potential to corrupt the unit, leading to game instability and possibly console death. So much for RPG Maker on the X-box! Even though The Elderscrolls III: Morrowind utilizes the X-Box hard drive, the game suffers from long initialization times as the data is streamed to disc.

The player interface has been streamlined to utilize the strengths of the X-Box controller. While the inability to have a plethora of convenient hotkeys was a bummer, Bethesda did an admirable job at making the game easy to pick up and play. All the menus are simple to navigate and the extensive conversation system has been streamlined to automatically tag new subjects, allowing the player to open new topics of conversation without the repeated pointing and clicking of the PC edition. Controlling your character in Morrowind was a breeze, though the lack of true analog movement made me a bit wary. Combat is carried out in real-time though the game suffered from collision detection issues that will hopefully be resolved before final release.

All of Jeremy Soule’s magnificent music has been perfectly retained, as have the extensive character dialog throughout the adventure. I wasn’t able to tell if the audio was available in Dolby Digital, but was impressed by the remarkable score nonetheless.

Sadly, the most disappointing aspect of Morrowind was the graphics. While the PC version was breathtaking, though required a hefty machine to run smoothly, the X-Box version was lackluster. Severe aliasing was present on both the backgrounds and the character models in addition to extremely grainy visuals. The end result was equivalent to the PC version running in low resolution with 16-bit textures. The background pop-up was another annoyance, though the attempt to mask the limitations of the hardware through fog was almost laughable. While the PC version was notorious for haphazard frame rates and polygon clipping/tearing, the X-Box version was considerably more cohesive, even with animation in the ballpark of 14fps.

The painfully plodding frame rate, the lackluster visuals, and the slipshod collision detection were serious issues that I doubt can be completely rectified before the game goes gold. After playing the PC version on a capable gaming rig, I can honestly tell you that the X-Box version is little more than a stripped down port of an amazing game. There has been much speculation as to why the X-Box version of Morrowind had been delayed time and time again, and I wonder if Bethesda bit off more than they could chew with the limitations of Bill’s Box.

The Elderscrolls III: Morrowind is a fantastic role-playing experience that every RPGfan should avail themselves of…on the PC. The fact that the X-Box fails miserably in capturing the full effect of the game is a testament to Bethesda Softworks cutting-edge PC development and the limitations of PC-to-console ports in general. Like the old adage says, some things are better left alone. Those who are unable to play the game in it’s more impressive incarnation will probably find the X-Box edition an entertaining adventure, but you don’t know what you’re missing. For those eagerly awaiting the port, Bethesda promised that the game should be available at a software retailer near you in June.



not what I was hoping to read about the xbox version of this game - hopefully it is wrong about allot - btw - thanks to Mr_bigglesworth for finding this article



Here is the link (http://www.rpgfan.com/news/2002/1558.html) :confused:

Hermes
06-04-2002, 08:10 AM
How many times do I have to read this lame azz article?

JJaX
06-04-2002, 08:23 AM
Originally posted by Hermes
How many times do I have to read this lame azz article?

Once?

Brevity
06-04-2002, 08:26 AM
Originally posted by JJaX


Once?
hehe

JJaX
06-04-2002, 08:29 AM
i hope this article is some bulls4it PC fanboy point of view.

16-bit textures? 14 FPS? WTF!?

ARG! Im gonna be sooooo pi55ed if this is all true. Im gonna blow someone up!

Brevity
06-04-2002, 08:35 AM
Originally posted by JJaX
i hope this article is some bulls4it PC fanboy point of view.

16-bit textures? 14 FPS? WTF!?

ARG! Im gonna be sooooo pi55ed if this is all true. Im gonna blow someone up!
I know I know,,,,this did sound bad but ya know I got this game on PC and as you walk the thing takes a sec to load the rest of the screen and thats on a very high end puter and the best G-force card. Now I have tweeked it to run a little smoother but I all the time wonder how the Xbox is going to handle all that info. ?????????????????????????????????????Must play soon.

xbaaddict
06-04-2002, 08:49 AM
Im gonna blow someone up! lets start with the guys who wrote this!

Brevity
06-04-2002, 08:51 AM
Originally posted by xbaaddict
lets start with the guys who wrote this!
Oh no me orrrrr the other guy cause I say the other guy MR. Addict. :D hehe And if your in that kind of business then there is this guy,,,oh I guess I will PM you on that one..lol

xbaaddict
06-04-2002, 08:59 AM
Originally posted by Brevity

Oh no me orrrrr the other guy cause I say the other guy MR. Addict. :D hehe And if your in that kind of business then there is this guy,,,oh I guess I will PM you on that one..lol

Actually i only said that so it would make me feel big, and respected, i never even touched a firecracker....(wink)

Ninja Scroll
06-04-2002, 09:06 AM
I linked to this thread because I had the impression I was about to read about Brevity's personal impressions of this game.
Not some garbage article of someone with no credibility.

Next time give us your personal impressions if you buy the game. Not some gump on da net or what have you.

Im interested to know about this game from my fellow XBA's cause I have done little research on this game.
Anyone bought this game yet,... shoot, is it even out yet?

JJaX
06-04-2002, 09:11 AM
Originally posted by Ninja Scroll
I linked to this thread because I had the impression I was about to read about Brevity's personal impressions of this game.
Not some garbage article of someone with no credibility.

Next time give us your personal impressions if you buy the game. Not some gump on da net or what have you.

Im interested to know about this game from my fellow XBA's cause I have done little research on this game.
Anyone bought this game yet,... shoot, is it even out yet?

We should be getting it sometime tomorrow.......
So no XBA reviews til then.

BWHAHAHAHA you said 'Gump'!! :D
Im gonna have to bust that out on someone today......


JJaX leaves his Desk to find someone to insult

Brevity
06-04-2002, 09:20 AM
Originally posted by Ninja Scroll
I linked to this thread because I had the impression I was about to read about Brevity's personal impressions of this game.
Not some garbage article of someone with no credibility.

I dont know about you guys but the way I read this it says " BREVITY has credibility." Wow I cant wait to use my new found power..........How about um I think this game will explode 3 sec after you open it.......ya and then you will win 10,000$ but iut wont matter cause your dead. There now what next to do w/my powers?

EHWfedPres
06-04-2002, 11:41 AM
I dont care about some whackjob's opinion on Morrowind, im getting it anyway. 14 frames per second...im sure that anus had evidence backing his statement. I dont believe anything that homo says. His opinion means crap to me.

JJaX
06-04-2002, 11:58 AM
i dont care how long they worked on this game. I dont think they would release a game that ran 14 FPS.

Ninja Scroll
06-04-2002, 12:12 PM
Originally posted by JJaX


BWHAHAHAHA you said 'Gump'!! :D
Im gonna have to bust that out on someone today......


JJaX leaves his Desk to find someone to insult

Just an example of why Ninja Scroll is da XBA Role Model.:D
My slang is untouchable!:cool:

yall
06-04-2002, 02:52 PM
I have this game on PC as well. I have only a mid range pc (athlon 1.4) with a relatively crappy (geforce 440 mx which is really just a fast geforce 2, not as good as the xbox graphics card), and morrowind ran fine. I don't expect that this game will be all that bad on the xbox. In fact, I will rent it when it comes out and tell you how it compares. I have been playing my PC through my TV so it will be a good comparison.

Xbox Owner
06-04-2002, 05:19 PM
Hopefully this game will be good..

mercsix
06-04-2002, 05:36 PM
I read a post on the Morrowind forum from a guy who played the XBOX version at E3 and he said it ran better than on his PC so I guess we will find out tomorrow who's full of $hit.

RadRider
06-05-2002, 01:39 PM
Eh. The Bethesda boys said it looks as good as it does on a high-end PC with a GeForce 4 in it, only in 640x480 instead of 1024x768 or higher.
Frankly, I'm still getting it. It can't be that bad, and since when do graphics make up the entire game anyway?

Crazy Joe
06-05-2002, 03:59 PM
Originally posted by RadRider
Eh. The Bethesda boys said it looks as good as it does on a high-end PC with a GeForce 4 in it, only in 640x480 instead of 1024x768 or higher.
Frankly, I'm still getting it. It can't be that bad, and since when do graphics make up the entire game anyway?

graphics don't but if they try to do the same graphics, there is the possiblity of choppiness and pop-ups, which i absolutely hate!!! the popups in Mario 64 were ridiculous

dave_m123
06-05-2002, 04:20 PM
I think this is the only negative review ive seen. The rest have rated it well on the xbox.