The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind

Graphics and Size
The world of Morrowind is larger and the graphics better than any RPG to date. Unlike Wizardry, where zone walls and deep water limited your movement around the world, in Morrowind you can pretty much go anywhere you want to. There are no zone walls. The only time you change zones is when going from outside to inside. Outdoor world zones are blended, where the game only loads a small area of the world at a time. You still get a loading time every now and then, but you wouldn't realize you were changing zones without it.

Quests
When you start your new life, you have alot of choices. The easiest way to get to know the world is to join a guild/faction. Just like the Umpani and the T'Rang, they will send you on missions, sometimes at random, sometimes at each other. However, unlike Wizardry where there are only 2 sides to work for, in Morrowind there are at least 15 groups with their own interests. Some of them work together, and some of them despise each other. You can also choose to just wander around and do mercenary type work. Travel to a town, talk to some locals and see if there are any jobs, and then move on to the next. Just to give you an idea on the amount of content, there are over 30 towns on the island, and I have been playing a character for probably 3 days now and have barely managed to visit 4 of them. The game supposedly has 600 hours of gameplay on one trip through, but even then you can't do everything, because some choices you make will effect what all your character can do.

Leveling/Skills/Classes
Morrowind is a skill based game. All classes can use all skills, and your skills are what determine your abilities, not your level. If you want to put platemail on your thief, you can do it, just don't expect him to fight real well with it on. If you train him with the use of heavy armor however, he can be just as proficient in its use as a knight can, it will just take the theif a longer time to learn. There are 21 classes available, and if that isn't enough you can also design and name your own custom class. Combat and increasing your skills both give you experience. You could play a character that avoids all combat and still level.

Combat
Combat is not the primary focus of the game, but you will have to fight to survive travelling. It is nothing like Wizardry 8 combat. Fightable enemies are few, and you usually have to go looking for a fight to get one. You will have to fight occasionally though. Even the lowly Pilgrim on a divine search for the meaning of life must protect his bread and water from that rat over there.

Magic
The magic system is another one of Morrowind's achievements. Any class can learn any spell at any level in the game, the problem is casting it. There are 7 areas of magic, 2 of which don't even deal with actually casting spells. The 5 magic schools control your ability to cast magic from that school. The other two areas are the fun ones. Alchemy allows you to combine 2 or more ingredients to make a potion. Whats nice about the system si that there are no set recipes that you have to combine to make a certain potion. Each ingredient does 1 to 4 things, and combining that ingredient with another ingredient that does 1 of the same things creates a potion. You can easily create potions with mroe than one effect. The other magic skill that doesn't deal directly with casting magic is Enchant. Enchant allows you to take any spell you know and charge an item with its power. if you enchant a weapon, then the spell will cast randomly as your swinging. If you enchant armor, you can cast the spell at any time. The items can run out of charge, but they regenerate over time. High level enchanters can enchant items to have constant effects that last forever without the worry of charges. Merchants will also enchant items, but only for the very wealthy.

Construction Set
If 600 hours of gameplay wasn't enough, the developers shipped the game with their development tools. Want your own floating castle? Put it in. Want to create a new dungeon? Pick a spot. There are hundreds of plugins and mods already available for download to enhance or expand the game. The firsts ones to be developed were houses for your character, as you have to be very high in a powerful guild before you will get your own house. There are new classes, new races, new items, anything and everything that people want to add.

Conclusion The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind is the next generation of RPG's. Some people love the game, some people have hated it. Regardless of whether you like it or not, it is what all future RPG's will have to compete with so you should at least take a look at it.