I noticed the other day that I hadn’t updated my “Games” category in quite some time. So I’m here to fill you in on what’s been occupying my time as of late: Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. I’m sure alot of you see that and go “Don’t you mean Oblivion?” No, I mean Morrowind. First off, I’m not sure my rig could handle Oblivion without some (more) upgrades. Second, from the folks I know who have played both, it seems Morrowind is the favored choice between the two. Finally, a quick trip to your local Target and $20 can hook you up with the “Game of the Year” Edition that comes with both the Tribunal and Bloodmoon expansions.

So a few weeks ago I rolled up a Redguard Crusader and took about cleansing the surface of Vvardenfell. I played the game briefly in college, but never really got around to figuring out much, so the game has been pretty much brand new to me. I’ve already made it up to level 29, have just over a half-mil in the bank, and have made Guildmaster of the Fighter’s Guild. The game is engrossing with a great storyline, and the world is simply massive. Even with the weeks I’ve spent playing it I’ve only uncovered probably somewhere around 20% of the map, and only about 50% of that is really explored.

My one complaint has been the graphics. For a game that came out in 2002 the graphics were good, but by today’s standards they’re lacking. Even at full-resolution (1152×864) with antialiasing turned on and every other bell and whistle I can find, they’re just not very impressive. Not that they really need to be, but it was one small lacking detail. But, the mod community is still very-much active with Morrowind and they’ve come up with a few solutions:

  1. Shadows & Light Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 – complete texture replacements for most of the textures used in the major cities. Adds an insane amount of detail to the buildings.
  2. NPC Replace – replaces the face & hair textures for pretty much all the NPC’s, making them look much more lifelike.
  3. Better Bodies – what NPC replace does for heads, this does for everything else. Full replacement meshes with improved poly-counts for every race in the game!

Screenshots don’t do the differences justice, but I thought I had to try. Sadly, I installed the mods before I had any screenshots and now I can’t find any good way to roll-back to before (not that I really want to). Thanks to GameSpy I was able to grab a few screenshots and try my best to replicate them with my mod-ed version.

Before After

The difference is amazing. These three mods really go a long ways toward making Morrowind look like it was released in 2006. So if you still have it laying around, I highly recommend you load it up and then mod it up. It’s still a great game and I’m looking forward to several more weeks of enjoyment from it.
[tag:elderscrolls][tag:game][tag:morrowind][tag:mod]

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