The Elder Scrolls: Morrowind
I've tried playing this many times over the years, beginning with the XBOX version and then the PC version once I upgraded my PC. I thought the game was very interesting, but never got very far into it because I wasn't very disciplined at playing games back then. That's especially true for RPGs, which I played more as sandboxes simply to explore and see what I could find, and I'd usually stop playing if I got stuck or the challenge became too high... only to restart months later and do it all over again.
Since then, I've learned how enjoyable it is to figure a game out and complete it, and especially over the last few years I've been having a blast completing a bunch of console and PC RPGs. That includes Skyrim (bland, but nice graphics and music), Oblivion (surprisingly decent once you figure out how the level scaling works), and Fallout 3 (annoying), so it's time now to finally play what many RPG fans consider to be one of the top RPGs of all time: Morrowind.
I played Skyrim and Oblivion as a fighter with some minor magic abilities, so I decided to go with a pure mage for Morrowind. It seemed like it would be a nice change of pace, and I read that the magic system was quite interesting, complete with spell creation, equipment enchantment, and alchemy.
Compared with my attempts at playing the game as a fighter in the past, I had a pretty rough start as a pure mage. Everything a mage wants to do costs money, and it's difficult to make money early on without fighting... and you want to avoid fights against enemies that would actually drop coins or equipment you could sell for coins (and you also don't want to carry around too much stuff to sell, since it negatively affects your fatigue, which makes casting spells harder). Following the main quest, I arrived at Balmora, where I joined the Mage Guild and started doing the trivial tasks I was assigned. One problem here is that Mage Guild quests don't reward you with coins, but instead with potions and scrolls. These are definitely useful, but I was really lacking in funds to create spells and enchant some equipment.
However, with a bit of exploration and by fighting enemies I could reliably kill with my spells, I ended up making just enough to enchant a dagger with the "Bound Dagger" spell on hit, which basically transforms the dagger into a high-level weapon for a short period of time. It takes 18 seconds to recharge, so if you set the duration to 19 seconds, it will never run out of charges.
After some more exploration, I ran into a traveling merchant who wanted to be escorted to her destination, and promised a reward of a pair of "Boots of Blinding Speed." Due to how slow walking is in this game, I knew I had to have them, and so I did it. The funny thing about these boots is that they are sort of a joke. They do make you walk/run REALLY fast, but the "blinding" part is not just a colorful description; they cast a 100% blind spell on you when worn. My character is a Breton, so I have 50% resist magic, which means instead of going completely blind, the screen just gets somewhat dimmer. It's playable, but I wondered if 100% resist magic would actually prevent blindness completely... I did some research online and found that resistances stack, so the next step was to make myself a cheap 50% resist magic spell to cast before putting on the boots. This worked great, and is quite a game changer for a mage. It's not only easier/faster to get around, but you can easily outrun enemies, and since walking with the boots on is much faster than even running without, you really never have to worry about becoming fatigued just by running around.
My next step is to go around to other Mage Guilds and do their quests, and try to make enough money to get some new spells and play around with making some custom spells.
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So far, the game is simply amazing. Each class has real strengths and weaknesses, so as long as you aren't playing as a custom class, you really have to sit there and think about how to play the game properly as your chosen class. Exploration is a joy thanks to the unique world and hand-placed content. The world itself is fascinating and feels totally alien at times, especially compared with the generic "high fantasy forests and castles" of Oblivion and generic "viking world" of Skyrim. I also really like the conversation system in Morrowind, though it has been criticized as the elder scrolls: wikipedia. It's just surprisingly enjoyable and immersive to walk into a new town, talk to the first person you see, and ask directions... and instead of marking the location on your map, the game provides you with actual working directions to follow ("head east toward the river, cross the bridge, then head south. His house is right next to the bookseller there").
