What is Bethesda's best game ever?

My answer to this question is going to be Skyrim. It was, I think, the last time we saw Bethesda attempt to make a title that wasn't entirely dumbed down to be made accessible to a wider audience. The perfect blend of accessibility and depth, nuance and streamlining, it was easy to get into, but you could spend hundreds of hours just exploring everything it had to offer- and I don't just mean geographically. From its leveling system to its unique skill tree, from its incredible world on offer to its never ending content, it was just a great game. It was the best Elder Scrolls game, the best Bethesda game, one of the best RPGs ever made, and one of the defining moments of last generation.

After Fallout 4, I don't have high hopes from The Elder Scrolls VI.

Fallout New Vegas

Skyrim for me. Beat it on PC, then went to 360 and beat it and completed every faction's quest and every side mission.

Wow! That's a lot of time in the game bro

I loved it, also got my 360 character to be a bad ass thief and my daggers would do double damage and take almost anyone out if I got them stealth. I maxed out the quiet walking perk, they never heard me coming.

I'm sure Morrowind will win overall, but I really loved Skyrim at the time, it's boring and not as special anymore, but it was goooooood. Oblivion was okay, Fallout 3 was good even though people hate it, and I've been really enjoying FO4 despite the obvious flaws.

Try again, except this time try to name a game Bethesda actually made.

Yeah, Skyrim was special. It was basically a true successor to Morrowind, a lot of what Morrowind had had that I had felt Oblivion had lost, Morrowind brought back.

Fallout 4 but i haven't played any ES games previous to oblivion. Fallout 4 has many problems but gameplay wise its the best Bethesda title i've played.

Morrowind felt like the only one where I wasn't wasting my time.

For some reason I was under the impression you ended up liking Skyrim when all was said and done?

Have to go with Fallout 4, then followed by Skyrim. The reason I went with Fallout 4 is it's pretty much a modded version of Skyrim (it took awhile to have player built housing made into mods) and I can't wait tell the mods starting rolling in for Fallout 4.

Skyrim for me. People who say Morrowind or any other the older games are just blinded by nostalgia.

Eh, not necessarily. The older games had a lot of intricacies that the newer games lost as they were streamlined to be more and more accessible (plus Morrowind is the best region to explore within these games, that's a fact). I guess it comes down to how much you are willing to trade the jank for the accessibility- as these games got more accessible, they lost their jank more and more. Before they used to have a lot of depth, but they were janky as ****.

In that regard, I think Skyrim hit the perfect balance, which is why I think it is their best game, the perfect Bethesda game. But someone else who can take more jank than you or me as long as they get more depth have a perfectly valid reason to prefer Morrowind or Daggerfall, other than it being just nostalgia.

As far as TES games go, I liked Oblivion more than Morrowind, and I hated Skyrim. Skyrim was mechanically sound but quest righting and variable solutions took a nose-drive with Skyrim. Oblivion was still meaty with quests and more streamlined experience and struck the best balance of these three TES games I played.

Haven't finished Fallout 4 but I liked Fallout 3 more than New Vegas which I seem to be in the minority over.

like i said, blinded by nostalgia. someone who wasn't super into morrowind back in the day would have a really hard time now going back and trying to play it for the first time. skyrim is still very much looks and plays well today.

It depends. Modded Morrowind isn't hard to get into at all.

Vanilla Morrowind? I agree, that game is impossible to get into.

Skyrim has aged the best out of all Bethesda games.

Okay, Fallout 3. I had fun exploring, despite the numerous flaws. The capital Wasteland was an incredible compelling place to explore.

To be honest, I did like the setting way more than Oblivions, but the lackluster story, voiceacting and general gameplay just drained the experience for me so badly.

I have played all of those and Morrowind is the game I enjoyed the most.

Daggerfall or Morrowind.

Oblivion was my first Bethesda game, and the first time I played a game of that magnitude. It absolutely blew me away. My pick is that, even if it doesn't hold up as well today.

Skyrim is pretty great too, though I do think it's weaker than Oblivion in some regards. The Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood quest lines are certainly better in Oblivion. I don't think you actually steal anything in Skyrim's Thieves Guild.

I never really got into Fallout 3, and I have no desire to get Fallout 4.

Skyrim, not so much because of how good Bethesda made the game, but because of the mods.

Skyrim has the most mods when you install the right ones you get one hell of a game

Wayne Gretzky Hockey obviously.

Skyrim. Pretty much perfection as an open world experience. And I am a fan of the Randy Savage mod

Skyrim. I like Morrowind but that's a game I just would not want to replay again anymore. Skyrim I actually went back to it a year ago and tried to play it. Skyrim has just enough open world content with decent enough story. the gameplay as well as mods was decent enough too.

ROFL people voting for Daggerfall. Honestly think about that. The game was the most bugged I ever played, the dungeons were too big to even be workable. I loved it in spite of its flaws but it was too big, too soon.

Morrowind gets my vote. Second up would be Oblivion, then Skyrim.

Daggerfall or Morrowind. Today Daggerfall, tommorow morrowind.

I played Daggerfall after Skyrim.

Skyrim's level scaled themepark with Call of Duty linear dungeons did not hold a candle to the far more dangerous feeling world of Daggerfall where you can actually get lost in dungeons. Or the heavily engrossing culture of Morrowind.

I like my questing to be more than mindlessly follow quest compass to the point that you often fail to take in the surroundings.

as much as I appreciate Morrowind, and as thankful as I am to Oblivion for being my first open-world action-RPG, Skyrim was the most fun for me.

Out of the ones I played: Morrowind, horrible combat aside, it's actual world and lore is the best, the questing is top notch, and its RPG elements haven't been streamlined to death. I didn't actually beat Daggerfall, but I plan on doing that next year so this answer could change, Oblivion and Fallout 3 are garbage.

Didn't play Skyrim, and didn't play Fallout 4.

I wouldnt say TES was at any point deep.

The character system was engrossing though, and enabled you to forge your own character without being restricted by class and whatnot. But nonetheless. Most characters would eventually end up the same... more or less. A fighter/thief/mage. Daggerfall might be an exception due to spellcasting being flat out unviable without some advantages, and some disadvantages outright prevents usage of some equipment or abilities. But even that wasnt as deep as it was fun.

Oblivion IMO. Skyrim and even Fallout 4 are still pretty much running off its same engine. Bethesda needs a new one..I mean need one probably since 2005.

Skyrim. Morrowind is a close second.

I had the most fun with Skyrim, definitely.

This is such a mystery to me. How the f can anyone (excluding mems cuz he's a hipster) like Skyrim and go as far as saying its the best bethesda game ever made. Why? Atrocious exploration (worst open world than DA:I), shittier combat system than TW2!, garbage visuals for its time, no story, shit side quests (just like Fallout 4), uninteresting dialogues. What was even good in this game? Other than a metric ton of mods, nothing... Shallow and oversimplified sandbox so even dudebros wouldn't be lost in.

Absolutely has to be either Daggerfall or Morrowind, everything after those is watered down horribleness.

Oblivion had a horrid setting (minus dlc) and a god awful enemy leveling system that made the game a chore to play.

Fallout 3 was bland, bad gameplay, horrible shooting mechanics with a decent storyline but wasn't falloutish at all.

Skyrim had a good environment even if it was sparsely filled with content, but the leveling system, storyline and Voice acting were all god awful.

Fallout 4 horrid graphics, bad storyline, ehh shooting mechanics, watered down awful leveling system.

Atleast in the early games you had a better leveling system and much more character development control, on top of that the storylines were generally better told and the worlds were much more intersting to explore.

Morrowind was my first Bethesda game, it was also the game that made me become an Elder Scrolls fan. I feel that even though combat was a bit flawed, it was the most lore deep and feature rich of all their other games, even Skyrim.

Off-topic, but I absolutely hate how mediocre the Destruction magic system is in Skyrim. (unmodded)

No "they all suck" option?

I'd give the edge to Skyrim.

It's probably their least jankiest release. Outside of an overlapping radiant quest breaking, I never had issues other than a few entertaining physics interactions.

It's deeply flawed, it's upgrade system is really unbalanced, some boring magic spells exist in the game and mechanics/progression and itemization with alchemy + Smithing/Enchanting can easily be expoited in Vanilla. However, gameplay mechanics like thievery, light-stealth and archery are surprisingly satisfying, which is something I cant say for Bethesda's other games.

The main quest and Civil war questlines blow, Morrowind and even Oblivion had better quest chains. But there's some good stuff in the Dark Brohood and Thieves guild questlines. There's some memorable quests like the one in the lighthouse and that Dwarven ruin near Riften that I thought made for excellent explorative storytelling.

The Mod community is one of the best that I have ever seen in a game. I have molded the mechanics to my liking with cool spells, combat tweaks, balancing, new echantments, survival elements, QoL features etc that add alot of depth to the game. Although people will say that doesnt count as Bethesda's work, it's still part of the product that was available with their game and tools they provided to the players. If people can vouch for broken unfinished games fixed like Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines' Community Patch or KOTOR 2's Restoration mod, then it's only fair to include the community effort of Skyrim's mod community and Bethesda's distributed Creation Kit. I have always had a stance where the community that a game generates is also a part of the product.

@mems_1224: Skyrim plays like shit. So does Morrowind but Morrowind has a much better story, a more interesting world, a more in-depth combat system and is far more RPG'esque. They are both garbage without mods but Skyrim is cringeworthy.

I guess if you put a gun to my head I would say Skyrim, even though you had to play a Nord to get the most from the experience as everything is told from a Nord perspective. It felt so epic for the first 100 hours or so, but then you start noticing it's many deeply ingrained flaws.

FO4 is better than FO3 to be sure, but that's not really saying much.

Only one on the list I've played is Fallout 3 :/ but I did enjoy a lot of it

If Skyrim gets added to the BC list I'll pick it up

I'll get Fallout 4 when I can get the Complete Edition for cheap

That's an interesting theory, skyrim was the most sreamlined elderscrolls to date. They focused more on content with a new engine, same with fallout 4. Morrowind was an incredible game, and oblivion streamlined the combat and made it less roll based and removed item types (like spears...). Skyrim simplified the leveling system a great deal but never gave back to itemization and flexibility that morrowind had. Skyrim also doesn't have the flexibility of getting all of the perks by leveling skills up. Skryim's combat is still pretty bad so without the depth of character customization or flexibility its easily the worst "rpg" but more fun to adventure since its easier to get started in and less punishing if you screw up your character build.

I'm not sure which game I like more, fallout 4 or morrowind. hmmmm its a hard one.

I've tried many Bethesda games and to be honest I've never really got into any of them for some reason...

Oblivion>Skyrim>Fallout 3>Morrowind>Daggerfall>Arena.

Just played a little of Fallout 4, waiting for more patches.

Skyrim leading? It must be a lot of people's first Bethesda game lol.

Morrowind , Skyrim made by modders

That's easy, Morrowind.

More people played Skyrim, that's the only reason. It was a huge last gen game, morrowind was mostly PC and a long time ago.

Morrowind is by far superior. Just more everything.