Morrowind (PC vs. Xbox)
If you're reading this, hopefully you're aware of the Elder Scrolls games, the long-running, awarding-winning roleplaying series developed by Bethesda Softworks. Long considered strictly a PC gaming experience, the third game in the series broke new ground by appearing on both traditional computers and a next generation console system, the Xbox.
Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind was in development for years, much longer than the Xbox itself has been available. In fact, the port to the Xbox began relatively late in the game's development time, and it's not surprising that it came out approximately a month after the PC version. What's surprising perhaps is that it came out so soon after the PC one did.
Nonetheless these aren't radically different games, as was (for example) the original PC version of Baldur's Gate compared to the PS2's Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance. Those two games had different development teams, different engines, and completely different game designs. They were alike in name only.
That's not the case here. Morrowind is more or less the same game on the Xbox as it is on the PC. Very few sacrifices or omissions were made in bringing this sprawling, data-heavy behemoth to the console system. Needless to say the entire undertaking would've been impossible without the Xbox's hard drive.
Control
You'd think mapping the complex controls of a first-person PC RPG to a videogame console controller would be a nightmare task of omission and shortcutting. Complex, party-based RPGs like Icewind Dale, Wizardry 8, and the like, I could never see it being done adequately. But the Elder Scrolls series has always had relatively intuitive, simple control schemes, and Morrowind's controls end up working quite well on the Xbox controller.
It also helps that Xbox team obviously played Halo, and uses that games near-perfect controls for moving and looking that should already be very familiar to Xbox gamers. That's a big plus.
As you can see in the image below (click for detail), both versions have pretty much the same controls available. Running, jumping, looking, using -- all the important stuff is one touch away. The PC wins out a little bit in that it's easier to cycle through your character's spells and weapons on the keyboard than it is with the Xbox controller (which requires two buttons to do).
The other main thing that the PC version has that the Xbox doesn't it are Quick Save, Quick Load, and Quick Item menus, the latter very useful for keeping certain particular items you use a lot -- lockpicks, probes, certain spells and abilities, etc. -- custom-mapped to one particular keystroke. A keyboard will always have this advantage over a console game, there are simply more keys. But other than that, the Xbox fares pretty well.
The final point I'd like to make about controls is the fineness of touch. No matter how carefully you handle the Xbox controller, you'll never be able to reflect the pixel-perfect point and click accuracy of the mouse. This is why any PC first-person shooter is instantly more challenging and satisfying than any console counterpart, and if you ever linked up PC and console versions of the same shooter in a networked deathmatch, the good PC players will be shooting, spinning, and rocket-jumping even the best console players into the ground with sickening predictability. A mouse is simply too good.
But Morrowind is not a first-person shooter, it's an RPG, and the occasions where you need your controls to be that pixel-perfect accurate are few and far between. In fact the only real difficulties I had with the Xbox controller was in trying to aim the missile weapons (which takes some practice) and in trying to pick up really small objects, like forks and knives. The former isn't too bad, since the bounding boxes of the enemies are pretty generous, and in the latter case, once you level up high enough you're not really going to bother stealing every fork and knife in a place. It's just not worth your time.
Nonetheless, you have to admit that overall the PC controls are a bit more flexible and customizable. It's the nature of the two platforms.
Winner: PC
Graphics
This is probably the section most people are going to read first, looking to see if there's some kind of upset in the making or something like that.
Well forget it. No videogame console in the world can equal whatever the cutting edge PC graphics of the day are. PC hardware just advances too quickly. The Xbox is a very new console, and the games on it look great, but it's already been surpassed by current PC technology, and the longer its lifespan, the greater that gap will be.
Morrowind on the PC is perhaps the most technologically demanding PC game on the market as of this writing (June 2002). It demands a video card with a minimum of 32 MB of video memory. You shouldn't play it with less than 256 MB of RAM. But if you have the power, you can admire the real-time water reflections, the pixel-shading, gawk openly at all the wonders on the island of Vvardenfall in a system-taxing 1600x1200 resolution.
Don't believe me, check out these screens...though bear in mind, these Xbox shots turned out extra blurry because I didn't have an S-Video out at the time I took them. But even if I did, they wouldn't even come close to the super high-res detail in the comparable PC screens.
Where this shows up the most is in the interface screens (the last row of pics). On the PC, you can view all screens at once. On the Xbox, you use the trigger to cycle through the four different player sheets (map, stats, inventory, etc.).
But just because the PC can shove tremendous screen resolutions down your throat, that doesn't make it a better game. Remember that most PC gamers aren't going to being playing at that high of a resolution.
Also keep in mind that much of the game's actual attractiveness comes from the inspired level design, the use of weather and night-time effects, and realistic-looking water. The Xbox version has all of those things as well, and it is by itself one of the most beautiful and attractive console games on the market today.
Still, if you have a top of the line computer gaming system, there's no doubt but that the graphics are superior on the PC.
Winner: PC
(NDM : des images montrent en effet l'avantage PC, je ne pense pas que vous puissiez les voir en tant que non-insider donc demandez-moi si vous voulez que j'en upload 2-3 sur un hébergeur public)
Features
Morrowind is packed with in-game features and it might be surprising to find that virtually all of them are available on the Xbox
The main things that PC users get that Xbox owners don't is the ability to modify the game's .INI file and access the in-game console while playing. The .INI file lets you modify all kinds of settings in the game, however these are mostly of interest to mod file creators. But in this file you can change the character class questions, the color of the moon, the cost of transport services, even the introductory movie that plays when the game begins.
The console is similar to what you get in Quake and games like that. You access it by hitting the '~' key, pulling down a small menu for you to type in commands. These commands let you do things like see the current frame rate, turn off clipping, adjust the amount of detail on the water and so on. This can be used for entering hundreds of different cheat codes, but its purpose isn't really to give you a loser's way of playing the game, but to help mod designers debug their creations, and help people undergoing hardware issues get a better idea of what's going on behind the scenes.
Since you're not going to be doing any mod-designing on an Xbox, and you're not going to have video card drivers issues on a console either, these omissions are far less important than what you might otherwise think them to be. Still, they should be noted.
Winner: PC
Extras
Both the Xbox and PC versions get a beautiful, full-color paper map included in the game box, a throwback to the old days of PC computer gaming. But that's really the last bit of equality between the two versions, at least in terms of extras.
PC owners also get a second disc called 'The Elder Scrolls Construction Set.' This is a program you can use to build additional areas and regions into your game world, or modify existing ones. The program exists entirely outside of the game itself, and uses a spreadsheet style interface and a graphical preview window to allow you to see what you're doing. This is in fact the same tool the level designers at Bethesda use to make their levels, so the power in the hand of the end-users is vast indeed. One could even go so far as to create your own 3D meshes in 3D Studio Max, and then import them into the game.
Furthermore, PC owners don't actually have to use this tool to benefit from it. They can wait for other users to create new dungeons and magic items, and then simply download them off the Internet onto their own PC.
PC owners also get the benefit of instant patches. Morrowind definitely has some bugs, in both versions of the game, but PC owners will get patches far more quickly and painlessly, by virtue of being connected to the Internet. In fact the first patch is out already. Xbox owners will simply have to wait.
In fact, the best that can be hoped for on the Xbox is a free add-on disc that adds some quests, patches, and other goodies, something similar to what became available for Dead or Alive 3.
Winner: PC
Final Verdict
Which version you should get depends strictly on two criteria, one of which I've alluded to throughout this piece. First, and this probably a minor consideration for most people, is ergonomics. Morrowind is the kind of game you can play for ten to twelve hours at a stretch. Doing this at a typical computer desk -- while a traditional way to play computer RPGs -- can become uncomfortable after a time. This is particularly true if your day job involves computers: sometimes the last thing you want to do when you get home is sit down in front of another monitor, hold onto another mouse, and give yourself carpal tunnel syndrome.
In contrast, the Xbox is pretty easy to move around, and depending on where you've set up your TV, it's much easier to get comfortable on a couch or a bed while you play your console game for long stretches at a time.
A more significant criterion of course is the speed and power of your PC. And this really is where you're going to have to decide which version is for you. If your PC meets the minimum system requirements for Morrowind, you'll have a decent gaming experience. There will be slowdown, crashes, and some sluggishness, but it will be playable.
But on the other hand if you do not meet the system requirements, forget about it. You can't cheat on this one. This is especially true of the 32 megabytes of video memory required. If you have an older graphics card, you'll be able to install the game, even see an opening screen or two, but the game engine itself will crash.
So if you don't meet the system requirements, you may have to upgrade your PC just to play the thing. An endeavor like that can cost anywhere from a couple hundred bucks to a couple grand for a brand new PC. It all depends on what your current hardware is.
At that point, picking up an Xbox for $200, a copy of Morrowind for $40 (and what the heck, Halo too), is going to sound awfully attractive to a lot of people. Especially if you're running a 500 MHz or less PC and the alternative is a complete, $1K+ upgrade.
In the end, the PC version of Morrowind is superior in virtually every department, even if only by a slight margin in some cases. But that's understandable, PC hardware continues to advance and Morrowind itself was even designed to take care of graphic features not yet even available on many PCs.
But that doesn't take anything away from the Xbox version. My home PC is aging somewhat, so when I go home, it's the Xbox for me. I reviewed the Xbox version, I gave it a 9.4. Coincidentally the PC version got the same score.
Both versions are excellent, which is 'better' depends mostly on your own personal preferences and just how capable your PC hardware is, and how much more money you want to throw at it, in defiance of common sense and the cold hard realities of Moore's Law.
Winner: PC, if you meet the recommended system specs. Otherwise get yourself an Xbox.
Jason Bates
FORUM HardWare.fr
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