Still remember when I first discovered Morrowind. It was 1999. I believe, before I started playing Daggerfall. Never heard of TES before. Was reading local gaming magazine (on paper), news section, when I saw this beautifully armored dude. At first I thought it was real life picture because games didn't look anything close to that. What I liked the most about that particular armor was how "roman" it looked, had total ancient era vibe to it. It was imperial armor. They said something about being able to mix armor pieces at your liking, was sold at that point (fan of Diablo who played solely because of fancy gear). Then I started up Daggerfall and despite poorish graphics was completely immersed. Counted days before Morrowind gone gold, then snatched from local CD salesman and spend crazy amount of hours playing the living shit out of the game. Only issue was, Gothic came out of nowhere around that time so I can to split gaming time a bit.
It is hard to explain how much before its time that game was. Gothic was too in many ways, but Morrowind was just so majestic to look and atmosphere was top notch (Aldruhn takes the cake, those sandstorms were insane at the time). Mechanics was always weak side of TES and I greatly missed ability to levitate on a horse, because there are no horses in Morrowind. Among other things. Gothic was graphically less impressive but also more immersible in certain ways. Going through forest in Gothic, with all those sounds and shadows of the shadowbeast ina distant was like someone teleported me right there. Great games both of them, but Morrowind thanks to modders is playable these days. Gothic is a bit rough at edges and feel a bit empty at times. Golden age of gaming right there.