Why Bethesda changed the appearance of beast races in Skyrim and Oblivion?

[Жора]

So here is how Khajiits looked in Morrowind (just a random example, first pic that come in google will do, if you don't like to click on links):
http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Suthay-raht
Same goes for Argonians. They were digitigrade.

Why Bethesda changed the appearance of beast races in Skyrim and Oblivion? Was that a simple laziness, was it caused by rushed prodution, or was that a sudden change in TES lore?

So I installed these two mods:
http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/3417/?
http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/1975/?
And surprisingly Khajiits and Argonians look much more interesting now, also work very well with animations.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=821626036

[Delta 1038]

Simple: Artistic Evolution. I mean how could you not notice how different each game looks? Kind of a no ♥♥♥♥ moment there.

Also Morrowind's digtigrade model makes them look as if they broke their ankles.

Fun facts:

Real life lizards are plantigrade. So if you want to be 'realistic' about it, Obby and Skyrim are actually more accurate than Morrowind.

Female Khajiits in Skyrim are noticably skinnier than male Khajiits (especially the necks). This is also true for real life cats.

EDIT: Also why is it always this when you disagree with them?

Originally posted by Жора:

Why Bethesda changed the appearance of beast races in Skyrim and Oblivion? Was that a simple laziness, was it caused by rushed prodution, or was that a sudden change in TES lore?

EDIT: All races from Arena to ESO.

http://i.imgur.com/2ZCxorm.jpg

I honestly like Skyrim's design the best, especially when it comes to the Elves. Finally! Something that's not cookie-cutter Tolkienesque elves!

[Brandybuck]

Did you look at the beast races in Arena and Daggerfall? It was Morrowind that changed the lore. Weird how everyone complains about Oblvivion and Skryim changing lore, but never about Morrwond changing lore. Must be special dispensation.

[Жора]

Originally posted by Brandybuck:

Did you look at the beast races in Arena and Daggerfall?

All races there were two-pixel plain sprites. I can't even say for sure how or what some supposed to look like. Morrowind made it clear that beast races look unique and not like people with silly unproportional cat or lizard heads and glitchy tails.
I think Bethesda made them walk and look like people only to simplify the production of the game. We can see how many problems Skyrim had (and still has) with head pieces of armor for beast races. Many of helmets are to this date incompatible with being argonian.

[Locklave]

Does the OP also complain about Lara Croft looks different now from the original?

Better computers = better art = newer art.

Every onging game series does this.

[Жора]

Originally posted by Delta 1038:

Simple: Artistic Evolution.

Originally posted by Locklave:

Better computers = better art = newer art.

So you're telling me that by simplifying beast races appearance Bethesda made game better and more artistic? I call bs on that.

[Icedfate]

I just played morrowind recently and I noticed this with the khajiit and I was like..."wow, that's interesting".

but I dunno, I never look at this little stuff,it doesn't bother me. I'm perfectly fine playing skrim on the lowest graphical settings with no godrays.
like I'll see mods that say "it cleans up 5000 ugly seams in the world and the buildings" and I've never noticed any seams anywhere and I never needed to use one of those mods.

I guess some people are just more hyper aware of these little details than me

[madgamer2]

does anyone other than OP really care how they look?

[Жора]

Originally posted by madgamer2:

does anyone other than OP really care how they look?

That's exactly how Bethesda was thinking before releasing a game where putting a helmet on an Argonian cause his head to clip and shrink in size. Who cares? Majority of players will play as nords.

[Icedfate]

I usually use bretons or imperials mysel

[stabbykitteh]

Personally I think it had more to do with saving disc space and rendering on consoles. Oblivion was pretty graphics intense for it's time, and using one body for every type of male and one for every type of female is more efficient.

[alexander_dougherty]

Originally posted by Жора:

Originally posted by Delta 1038:

Simple: Artistic Evolution.

Originally posted by Locklave:

Better computers = better art = newer art.

So you're telling me that by simplifying beast races appearance Bethesda made game better and more artistic? I call bs on that.

Yes, that Khajiit looks wrong, he has too many joints in his leg. If young Khajiit had legs like that they would break their necks while learning to walk, it is far far far too unstable a leg set up. Artistic flair takes second place to realism, and sorry Morrowind plain simply got that one wrong. I admire Morrowind for a lot of things, but not that one.

Oblivion Khajiit have the best look in my opinion, especially the head, but Skyrim Khajiit are still better than that Morrowind Khajiit.

[feliscon]

I play exclusively Breton unless there's a particular theme that requires something else. Both lore and mechanics wise they've always been my favourite to play as.

[alexander_dougherty]

Originally posted by feliscon:

I play exclusively Breton unless there's a particular theme that requires something else. Both lore and mechanics wise they've always been my favourite to play as.

Khajiit and Argonians can be fun too, Khajiit have a nightsight ability that's hand early one, was loads of fun in oblivion, and Argonians can be fun to watch while you are swimming them (plus waterbreathing and resist disease is fun too).
Dunmer are kind of fun too.

[feliscon]

Originally posted by alexander_dougherty:

Originally posted by feliscon:

I play exclusively Breton unless there's a particular theme that requires something else. Both lore and mechanics wise they've always been my favourite to play as.

Khajiit and Argonians can be fun too, Khajiit have a nightsight ability that's hand early one, was loads of fun in oblivion, and Argonians can be fun to watch while you are swimming them (plus waterbreathing and resist disease is fun too).
Dunmer are kind of fun too.

Oh I have played the other races (as I said, particular themes) but in Morrwind/Oblivion/Skyrim I have lots of characters per game and maybe one or two of them are from each of the other races (and I haven't used Redguard in every game since I basically don't play pure warriors, they're either mages, hybrids or archers).

[MysticMalevolence]

Likely a different subspecies of khajiit.
Not sure about argonians.