good sandbox/free roam games

On Original XBox? Yep, that was Morrowind. Get the PC version, though. Better general controls, and of course modding.

To say magic was overpowered in Morrowend is inaccurate. You still had to work to get your powerful spells. Spellcrafting cost gold, and new spells were still tied to skill/stat level. Rather than the game saying "you're not skilled enough to cast this", you would have spell failure, loss of magicka and no cast spell, in proportion to how off the skill target you were. This cascaded in the fact that you now have less available magicka but that stupid cliff racer is STILL pecking your head without a scratch on it. If you could reliably cast your uber spell, you were skilled enough/had a high enough primary stat to cast it and had earned it. And powerful spells never had low magicka; my point on casting cost was that the new leveled list system in Oblivion, while conceptually sound, was inherently flawed and caused impossible spells to happen (again, perfect example was the freeform quest reward Finger of the Mountain that, when earned at mid to high levels, could NEVER be cast due to cost), and it felt like the nerfing of spellcraft was an idea to help bring the new leveled list system that they trumpeted and hyped so much during development to the player. This all also applies to enchanting; if you had the skill to obtain what was necessary to craft uber gear (high quality base item + grand soul gem w/ ascended sleeper or golden saint soul), you earned that gear. Even with that, most crafted gear couldn't compare to loot in then end, but had far more options for personalization in that you had a pool of points to work with when choosing effects, compared to Oblivion's "pick a spell and we choose all of the parameters for you" system.

As for the interior cells for major cities, let me first comment that the levitation example was used simply for validation and (in the case of those curious enough to tinker) confirmation. The capital in Oblivion was no more detailed than any city in Morrowind. Thinking about it, barring the graphical engine differences, I'd say most city detail was even between the two games (though I have to admit, the spot in the Oblivion capital where you could just watch a hand to hand brawl and get a one-time skill up in hand to hand was a nice touch; all my years of modding both Morrowind and Oblivion and I never would have thought about that until I found it referenced in a scripting discussion). My point was that building some cities out of interior cells broke some of the open world continuity with a potentially arbitrary door, and in doing so disabled a (minor) feature fans had come to expect (actually, there was a pretty big stink about lack of levitate when Oblivion launched).

As for the laziness comment, I still hold to it. To this day when I play an unmodded game of Oblivion (I have "naked" installs of both Oblivion and Morrowind to occasionally remind myself of what all the mods came from), I find far too many rocks, trees, plants, and in a couple cases buildings, floating an inch off the ground for a polished game. Weynon(sp?) Priory still has a damaged specular lighting layer that causes some computers to crash simply by getting close to the front arch (this was eventually fixed by a fan patch, not an official patch). I think Shadowmere and the Unicorn still occasionally go on a killing spree in the capital if they respawn there (unlikely with the Unicorn considering it's SUPPOSED to respawn in the grove, but it happens). Quest based corpses and containers still vanish or do not populate items if interacted with before the quest (example: the apprentice in the well for the Mage Guild line; I was actually scripting a patch for this when another fan patch beat me to it). And honestly, I'm going to classify the "persuasion mini-game" a bug, because no sane developer could honestly consider that proper.

And apparently you have 3 uncles, 4 aunts, a brother, your brother's dog, and a mage guild buddy who all sent the same courier that would know the exact moment you stepped out of the sewer pipe to tell you that you've inherited three houses, horse armor is being sold, various legendary weapons are in this exact noted spot, and some thieves broke a powerful magic artifact heavily guarded by the Mage Guild, took the worthless pieces, scattered to the four winds, and can be found in the following exact locations. Also, magic compass with "golden path" quest markers and unlimited fast travel (Link's flute from back in the day, much?). Morrowind had no such hand holding. The micro-mods (which were free, not $3 a pop), you had to find yourself. The Tribunal expansion started sending assassins to kill you in your sleep and it was up to you to actually find out what's going on, with nothing more (or suffer more assassins). Bloodmoon added new topics and rumors to NPCs, but it was up to you to find them, or not and just swim to the island with no prompting. Oblivion's DLC implementation was, for the most part, lazy and monetarily exploitative (barring Shivering Isles, as that expansion was one of the best expansions in gaming history).

Personally, the only thing Oblivion brought to the table over Morrowind was the skill mastery bonuses, giving you a little more of a feeling of accomplishment as you hit higher skill levels. It's a shame the Alchemy bonus was cut from the stock game, but that was an easy fix.

Don't misunderstand me. I like Oblivion. It's a good game. And I don't judge on general preference (for the record, I watch My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic with one eye, The Boondocks with the other; I play Doom 3 one day, Lost Odyssey the next). But it all boils down to opinion. I don't dislike Oblivion because it's "not Morrowind" and I find that straw man argument insulting. I just find that Oblivion is inferior to Morrowind, but still viable. Skyrim on the other hand... Just as I assume by some of your comments that you've never played - or at least never thoroughly played - Morrowind, I reaffirm that I haven't played Skyrim. I can't give a completely unbiased opinion. You are right that games need to change to grow. However, I can hold that a drastic play change should not have been given a main line, numbered title (TES1:Arena, TES2:DAggerfall, TES3:Morrowind, TES4:Oblivion, etc.), but could've still been in the world (think TESA:Redguard). If a system is solid, slow innovation can be less alienating than sudden change while still being viable as long as it holds other key factors from previous games in the franchise. That being said, having not played Skyrim, I cannot yet comment on that completely (those factors being, in my opinion, story, game world, and music when it comes to any TES title).

I got it a while ago, didnt expect much but once I play it, I LOVE it! Its a great game.. Dunno why some ppl dont like it!!!

I don't hate or love it, its a pretty alright game but a terrible sequel.

SR2 was a much better game.