The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind

It is very possible that you haven't even heard of Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind yet. Prerelease hype has been minimal compared to some of the other Xbox titles, but it is my belief that for the right audience, Morrowind has "game of the year" written all over it. Why? The gameplay, graphics, and replayability, of course.

Gameplay in Morrowind is shaping up to be so much deeper than other console RPG's that I hardly know where to begin. Your character can be one of 10 playable races (3 human, 3 Elvin, 4 "other", such as Orc), and one of 21 predefined classes. The classes are just a suggestion though Ц you can easily create your own class by concentrating on the skills you choose. As you use your skills, they improve, and as that happens, you gain in levels.

Your particular skills govern everything from how well you can fight with a particular class of weapon, how comfortable and mobile you are in plate armor, how well you might fare trying to sneak around in the shadows, how persuasive you can be, and so on.

The game world is big, very big. The latest numbers mention 50-80 large cities to explore, plus literally hundreds more dungeons, towns, farms, and such. The Morrowind universe is open-ended to the extreme. Rumor has it that just the "main quest" part of the game is as long, if not longer than other RPG's, and the world is rife with side quests as well. There are guilds to join, and later, one of several major "houses".

Your actions in the game continually effect how other characters perceive and react to your character; it seems that Morrowind's answer to the question "What kind of character can I play?" is an exciting "Any kind you want to be", and this speaks volumes about the replayabilty of the game. I'm already picturing having to play the entire thing from start to finish at least 4 or 5 times, once for each RPG character type that I enjoy. Say good-bye to whatever other hobbies you may have had Ц once you start with this beast, you'll be MIA for quite awhile.

The graphics are shaping up to be impressive. The world is fully 3D, of course, and allegedly everything you can see can be interacted with. Combat looks to be real-time based, and it is my fervent hope that this works well. As an old school RPG'er, I admit to being automatically suspicious of RPG's with real-time hack Сn slash for combat, so I am hoping for a control scheme that makes this enjoyable rather than onerous. What I mean is, let's hope that combat skills are more reflective of my character's skill with his chosen weapon, and not as reflective of my personal skills as a twitch-gamer. All indications point to this being the case.