Morrowind Gets Big Boost From Xbox One X

The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind has received a much-needed upgrade thanks to Xbox One X. Digital Foundry reports that the classic Xbox RPG shows a massive performance difference when played on the Xbox One X.

The game runs at a relatively stable 60 frames per second on the console, making it one of the fastest Elder Scrolls games available on consoles. The original had an uncapped frame-rate, causing stuttering and inconsistency. The backwards compatible emulator smoothes that problem, though it does still hit occasional hitching and dips into the low 50s FPS in dense areas like the town of Balmora. It also adds near 4K resolution, a big upgrade from the original output of 480p.

Digital Foundry is careful to note, though, that the original Morrowind was known for its performance degradation on the original Xbox. The more hours you played, the worse it got, and there's no way to test that on the Xbox One X without investing hundreds of hours into a fresh save file. Surely some Morrowind fans will find out for themselves, but these tests didn't cover that aspect. The testers advise cautious optimism. It's already available, though, so if you want to dive in and play for a few hundred hours you can see for yourself.

Morrowind was one of a slew of original Xbox games announced as coming to Xbox One or getting Xbox One X enhancement updates. Others include Red Dead Redemption, Gears of War 2, Portal 2, Darksiders, and Jade Empire, among many others.