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I just love the Elder Scroll series, but I'm hungering for more. I was just wondering if anyone has any suggestions for games that are similar to ES, but different enough to not seem bland.

A lot of people have likened the Gothic series to the ES, you might want to consider checking it out.

There aren't as many features, but two worlds is coming out soon and it's similar to thegame.

As far as I remember, you can download Daggerfall (Morrowind's predecessor) from Home of the Underdogs. A game that's downloadable there is legal, since they only put up abandonware/freeware. I may be mistaken about Daggerfall's specific case.
Here's the link: Home of the Underdogs

Daggerfall isn't abandonware (anymore). Bethsoft will sue anybody who is hosting it. You can get it at ebay or amazon for about 80 bucks if you're really determined to get it. IMO it's not worth that much. It's better than Oblivion in many and better than Morrowind in some regards but it's buggy and awfully repetetive.

If you don't mind going way back you should give Darklands a try. One of the best, if not *the* best sandbox RPG ever developed. It *is* abandonware and the underdogs should have it. Should run flawlessly with DosBOX. Well, not absolutely flawlessly as it's also quite buggy as far as I know but it's more playable than Daggerfall.

Oh, sorry, I thought it still was Abandonware. I remember downloading it from The Underdogs, but that was a long time ago.

Oh, sorry, I thought it still was Abandonware.

Abandonware is still illegal. Abandonware means that the developers abandoned it, it doesn't mean that the copyright is off of it, and the elder scrolls series will continue to be copyright so long as ES games keep coming out.

That's even on the link to the site you gave-

But isn't abandonware illegal?

Unfortunately, yes. Despite the fact that publishers no longer derive revenues from these games since they have stopped selling them (and any revenues from retailers that still sell them were gained a long time ago, at the time of sales), it is illegal to distribute them so long as copyright holders have not released them into the public domain, and 95 years after the games' release have not elapsed. For more in-depth information on this issue, We recommend the following articles and websites:

Home of the Underdogs - Frequently Asked Questions

You could also try the expansions for the Elder Scrolls series out. Such as the Tribunal and Bloodmoon expansions for Morrowind, both of which are included in the Game of the Year edition of the game, or you could try the Shivering Isles expansion as well as Knights of the Nine for Oblivion.

Have you considered the KotOR games?

Planetscape: Torment and Baldurs Gate I and II are also brilliant games of the RPG genre, but just don't expect it match the free flow and wide open maps of the Elder Scrolls series. Probably the only game of late which can come close to the vast maps of the series is STALKER.

Loki[D.d.G] wrote:Probably the only game of late which can come close to the vast maps of the series is STALKER.

And don't forget Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Pretty vast map with 3 cities in them. The one advantage it has over S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and Oblivion is that there is no need for further loading after the initial loading screen.

Monolith wrote:Daggerfall isn't abandonware (anymore). Bethsoft will sue anybody who is hosting it. You can get it at ebay or amazon for about 80 bucks if you're really determined to get it. IMO it's not worth that much. It's better than Oblivion in many and better than Morrowind in some regards but it's buggy and awfully repetetive.

If you don't mind going way back you should give Darklands a try. One of the best, if not *the* best sandbox RPG ever developed. It *is* abandonware and the underdogs should have it. Should run flawlessly with DosBOX. Well, not absolutely flawlessly as it's also quite buggy as far as I know but it's more playable than Daggerfall.

Bit late answering this as it was posted a few months ago but only just seen the thread. $80 for Daggerfall?? That's one of the funniest things I ever heard More than likely you can get it for $8 rather than $80 it's a very old game now. Much as I loved Daggerfall at the time it would be a big step backwards playing it now if you've played Morro and/or Oblivion.

There aren't really any other games as non linear as Elder Scrolls. Gothic III has been mentioned bit the world is smaller than Cyrodiil and the game is quite linear but if you're not bothered about that I'd agree that going for KOTOR would be a good bet as is The Witcher.

DesR85 wrote:And don't forget Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Pretty vast map with 3 cities in them. The one advantage it has over S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and Oblivion is that there is no need for further loading after the initial loading screen.

Yeah, but GTA: San Andreas was a couple of years back. The only game I could think of to be released this year was STALKER.

That shouldn't allow you to stop playing and enjoying it, though.

I never said I didn't enjoy it... I was just making a comparison.

But back on topic, if you would like to try games from other genres, then I can highly recommend Sports Interactive's Football Manager series. The latest being FM 2008.

Surprised it hasn't been mentioned yet, (or my Ctrl + F in this thread failed. ;-)) but Dungeon Lords is surprisingly entertaining.

I can't say it louder, but I can write it bigger,

THE WITCHER

'Hope you can read it.

I recommend Planescape Torment if you don't mind the old graphics

STALKER has huge maps to explore but the similarities with Oblivion ends there. Exploring the wilderness in StalKER remains an unbeatable experience, it's so real you can feel it. The wind, the wild dogs barking at the distance, the storm and the lightning makes of the Oblivion environment, even if it's great, look outdated. It's an horror sci-fi FPS, so i don't know if you'll be too happy with that.

Daggerfall is just amazing. You won't get the Morrowind or Onlivion expierience, that's for sure, but you have hundreds of thousands of square miles to explore, thousands of villages and thousands of characters. But most of this environment, like 99'9% was radomly generated, so except some heavy
repetitiveness and borring situations.

Morrowind had this exotic alien-like touch that trapped me since the beginning, if Oblivion looks too medieval, Morrowind looks everything else. But as Oblivion or Daggerfall it lacks of a well driven and compliant story. You just feel as lonely in Morrowind as you do in Oblivion.

My 2 cents...

If you like Oblivion I think the next obvious choice would be to agree with Jazz.z and say check out The Witcher.
Stepping back in time you'd have to check out Morrowind, but stand by for possible disappointment because, well, Oblivion is newer and better IMHO.
Dungeon Lords is fun, but it's buggy and not as good as Oblivion.
Balder's Gate / Icewind Dale / Planescape: Torment - great RPGs. They're older, the play style is completely different, but they deserve mention (especially BGII).
Definitely check out Fable: The Lost Chapters. I had a lot of fun with that game and thoroughly enjoyed the physical changes my character endured as his alignment swayed (super evil is really cool looking).

And that's my 2 cents.