The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind Game of the Year Edition (Xbox)

Games are rereleased all the time. Since the average shelf life of a game is measured in weeks rather than months, game publishers find convenient ways of reissuing some of their stronger titles in order to give them more exposure throughout the year. The typical "game of the year edition" or "platinum hits" version of a game offers nothing more to those who played the original release than a discounted price and a shiny, new box. However, The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind Game of the Year Edition is an exceptional case. This reissued version of last year's incredibly huge Xbox role-playing game includes a ton of new content as well as a few notable gameplay tweaks, making it easily recommended for Morrowind fans. On the other hand, those who were put off by Morrowind's huge, open-ended world will find an even huger, more open-ended world to be intimidated by in Morrowind Game of the Year Edition.

Specifically, Morrowind Game of the Year Edition includes the 200-odd hours' worth of content from the mid-2002 release of The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, as well as the content from the two retail PC expansion packs, Tribunal and Bloodmoon. These were both published in the past 12 months, and each in turn offered an appreciable amount of new territory to explore, new quests to undertake, new weapons and equipment to find and use, new enemies to fight, and more. The back of the box touts "100+ hours" of new gameplay, and that's an accurate assessment of what these expansions have to offer. Much of this content is marginally better than that of the original Morrowind--the quests are more complex, the dungeon crawls are longer, and so on. The new content is also more challenging, since it's intended for those who finished the main quest of the original game. As these players would expect, saved game data can be transfered over from the original game to Morrowind Game of the Year Edition.

Not that Morrowind stops you from trying to get to the new material before you're ready for it. If you want to head straight to the large, snow-covered island of Solstheim, featured in the Bloodmoon expansion, go right ahead. Or, pursue Tribunal's main quest to find yourself in Mournhold, the capital city of the land of Morrowind. Tribunal offers a fairly linear experience as compared with the rest of the game, but in the context of this otherwise highly open-ended gameplay, it can be a refreshing change of pace. But Bloodmoon is the better expansion of the two, in no small part because it lets you contract that popular disease called lycanthropy.

Becoming a werewolf is as much a curse as it is a blessing, but it certainly changes the dynamic of Morrowind. For one thing, in werewolf form, you move about much more quickly than you do normally--at times, the relatively slow standard walking speed of Morrowind can grow wearisome even for the game's devoted fans. You must kill to sustain yourself, but your razorlike claws and pounce attack enable you to do so rather efficiently. Just watch out for silver weapons, and be sure to stay out of sight when night falls or dawn breaks--if you're caught changing to or from a werewolf by any civilized creature, society won't just shun you, but will attack you on sight. However, it's not difficult to keep your new personality quirk a secret.

Morrowind Game of the Year Edition has some other, new features. The most notable of these is straightforward enough, but it makes a big difference during gameplay: You can see a health meter for the opponent you're fighting. In the original release of Morrowind, there was no good way of knowing whether you were severely damaging an enemy with your attacks or barely scratching it, but now you'll know exactly how close you are to taking down your opponent. Furthermore, Tribunal lets you fight alongside mercenaries or hire several different pack animals, a feature that isn't terribly well developed but that can alleviate some of the sense of loneliness you'll get from traveling Morrowind's huge world mostly by yourself.

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