I dunno I played both vanilla and I didn't like either the horses or the faster travel system. I know I didn't have to use it, but I always felt compelled to. I liked going on long treks on Morrowind.

The setting, story (as you said), and characters were much better in Morrowind for me. Though the setting was most important. Just felt more intruging than Oblivion. And there wasn't the annoying single voice actor for 90% of the characters etc.

Both great games, but Morrowind just seemed to excel in the right areas, and have way less nitpicky annoyances for me.

Foolz3h

I guess it really depends on playing style. I like Oblivion more because I didn't have to trek everywhere, and it was easier to get to the different quests.  For Morrowind I downloaded a mod called The Ring of Telaportation, so that took care of that. I liked being able to get places, without slogging my way thru the wilderness. I've gotten so I can't play Morrowind with out mods. 

The horses in Oblivion do control worse then a tank, but you have to appreciate the amount of effort the character designer put into their models. They actually move like real horses, unlike the horses in just about every game. Plus, my fav sport in Oblivion was cliff diving with my horse.

When I first got Morrowind I was like, those have to be the ugliest people I've ever seen in a game. I didn't really appreciate it until I got off the boat and could explore. What's funny is I had  the same reaction to Oblivion. Bethesda is good at environments, and stories, but the character designer needs to work on the people. Maybe she shoulda spent less time on the horses...

 Anyway, since I've beat Oblivion, I might just go back and play Morrowind again. I've found a buncha mods that won't make it seem like such a step backward graphically, and I want to play a game where an Axe is not blunt. Plus the story is better, I was disappointed at the end of Oblivion. I really did want to be Emperor!

@waZelda Depends of the fiction you're reading whether or not vampires and werewolves are enemies. In the Elder Scrolls lore I didn't see any indication of that. Of course, I coulda missed a book, since The Elder Scrolls is known for having tons of them in every game. 

If you don't mind bad graphics I'd actually recommend playing the games in order, Arena, then Daggerfall, then Morrowind, then Oblivion. Like I said before, the first two are available ofr free in the Elder Scrolls website, and are also the ones with the bad graphics (at least compared to today's standards, I like the graphics in Daggerfall). They are a good intro to the Elderscrolls, though, since they are the first two games.

Yeah, he's supposed to be a cold hearted bastard. A perfect recruit for the Dark Brotherhood.

 Oblivion is better then vanilla Morrowind, the fast travel system is better, Oblivion has horses, Oblivion has better graphics and a better character creation system. 

If you had said Morrowind with mods is better then vanilla Oblivion, then I'd have to agree. Morrowind has some incredible mods, that can improve the graphics, the fast travel system, just about anything. Of course, there are also mods for Oblvion, but they aren't as good as the ones for Morrowind.

The story in Morrowind is better. In Oblivion they didn't do Kvatch right, they shoulda had it get fixed, and the ending...well, I wanted to be emperor!