How does Fallout New Vegas (2010) compare to The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind (2002)?

Two games with a release difference of about eight years…both being RPGs in their own right and both having similar gameplay…the big question is: How does “Fallout New Vegas” (2010) compare to “The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind” (2002)?
(from left to right: Morrowind and Fallout New Vegas)
Fallout: New Vegas Review

Before early 2009, I had not heard of the Fallout series. I was too busy playing this neat RPG called Morrowind, which is riveting despite the minor issues with AI and combat. Now I have a game in front of me which is fairly recent (came out in Fall 2010), and is surprisingly similar to Morrowind. Of course, the setting is different and you have many more options in gameplay.
The story is that you play as a courier who tries to deliver a package from Primm to New Vegas, who gets shot by a fierce raider gang and is saved by an intelligent robot named Victor. Victor takes the player to Doctor Mitchell, where the game begins.
Afterwards, you go through the character creation process which allows you to choose your character’s gender, facial features, traits and so on…
Sigh…
A lengthy character creation, don’t you think? Back in Morrowind, all you did was choose your race/gender, facial features, class and birthsign. Then, you were out into the game world faster than you could say John Appleseed. Still, you had the option to answer questions for the funny
(they could be twins…)
looking priest (pictured above, left) so he could choose your class (if you REALLY wanted to hear an old man rambling on and on about rude nicknames, mobs and sweet rolls, that is)
but…oh snap that! Er, nevermind about the length of character generation in both games. The fact is – in both games, there is a character creation process but they are both radically different. Basically sums it up, don’t you think?
After the character creation, I set out in the lovely Mojave Desert. Just when you set out in the wilderness, you get a second chance to create your character. No, thank you! I spent about 15 minutes choosing my character (yeah, I timed it…) and I will not spend another 15 minutes just staring at the screen and constantly asking myself the same question over and over again (“Is she a perfect character?”). Nah, “perfect” does not exist in Fallout’s books. “Good enough” is a better phrase for the term. Sorry about the mix-up.
Like in Morrowind, you gain levels when you gain enough experience in your skills (some skills include Unarmed and Guns). With every 2 levels, there is a perk which you can choose. For example, you can choose the Rapid Reload perk which allows you to reload your weapons 25% faster than the normal rate. Cool, huh?
After leveling up, I decided to spend about half of my allotted time to go and kill some mutant ants. I loved testing the combat system, especially with the VATS. Basically, if you have enough so-called Action Points, you can choose to shoot any part of the body of your victim. Then, prepare to watch as litres of blood come oozing out of their bodies in full HD! Or otherwise…you can make a nice cuppa instant coffee with extra foam. Mmm…
Morrowind was pretty simples when it came to combat. All you did was use your sword, dagger, hammer, club, spear, spell, staff, shortsword…etc…
to pummel your enemies.
Finally, both games have quests. You can choose either to agree to help people or not. Sometimes you are kinda forced into completing the quest if the quest-giver offers you an enchanted sword or a nice gun prior to completion. Other than that, you are free to do whatever you want in both games.
Both games get my rating of:
9.2 (outstanding)
Sources: Morrowind
images – Google Images/Morrowind Photography Guild/UESP Wiki
Fallout New Vegas images – Google Images/Fallout Wikia
Words – My own brain 😛
Commentary
I chose to reproduce this article because I am interested in gaming and I thought that this has a large variety of linguistic frameworks to discuss.
I used a variety of sentence lengths to engage the reader’s interest. The one word sentence “Sigh…” offers a pause after four long sentences with a lack of punctuation. It is also used for rhetoric effect as it is accompanied by a rhetorical question “A lengthy…don’t you think?” so it will leave the reader to make up their own mind and involve them in the gameplay.
I use game jargon like “Fall” and “gameplay” because of the article is in the form of a blog and it shows by using the direct address to engage the reader and the centered pictures with a short subtitle underneath, “they could be twins…”.
This article shows an element of bias as well. I tend to mention the game Morrowind slightly more than the game Fallout New Vegas. This is done purposely because it illustrates my preference for Morrowind compared to the other game. When I am talking about the Fallout game I tend to rush through the summary of the game, using as little punctuation as I could. This is very subtle bias. Even though at the end of the article I give both games the same rating, the true preference goes to Morrowind and therefore I hide the bias by using a variety of linguistic techniques like the aforementioned one.
Although, it is implied that I do not really like the Fallout game, my opinion changes when describing the “VATS” combat system, I use a lot of emotive language and show my utter amazement to the feature, for example the transitive verb “oozing”.
I use the colloquial noun “cuppa” instead of “cup of” because it adds humor to the article and also, to create consonance and rhythm between the concrete nouns “cuppa” and “coffee”.
I used the adjective “simples” instead of “simple” as it makes a reference to popular culture. It also adds to the sibilance of the list of weapons which Morrowind has. I added an image below the list to illustrate my point on the variety of weapons which Morrowind had.
Finally, I include the list of sources where I have acquired my images. It uses the standard layout and grammar in a sources list until when I say “Words – from my own brain :P”. This is used for humor and the 😛 emoticon emphasises that I am in tune with colloquial language and modern ways of conversing in an electronic mode text. This contrasts with the headline which looks and reads professionally.