Elder Scrolls: Oblivion

[Grumpy Old Wizard]

Right. When you get the game and play it - you forget all the problems that have been mentioned by anyone. Anything you feel a bit iffy about - a mod has been released to fix it.

Just immerse yourself, the game really lets you do that - then... float... bliss... gameage, yes. So if you've held back - go buy it.

You're not one of those people that are paid to promote games etc on forums, are you?

Sure it's a good game, else I wouldn't bother taking time to complain about the stuff I dislike. I for one can't shake the disappontement of all the stuff "missing" compared to Morrowind (amount of weapon and armour skills halved, lot less options when enchanting stuff, half the number of individual armour-parts etc etc.). The thought is "Sure it's a good game, but it could have been great if they had kept the good bits from earlier."

Ah well, think I'll have to fire up Morrowind again when I tire of Oblivion, as others have suggested earlier

I think the loss of the additional combat skills was bad. For example, only a blade skill when there was a short blade and long blade skill, and no axe skill!

IMHO Bethesda was on the right track when they reduced the power of enchanting items. It could be a little more powerful, but it is still useful.

I think overall they were trying to make the game more difficult, and I think for the most part they succeeded.

I'm sure they'll do some tweaking in patches and possibly make changes in expansions too. And there are always player made mods.

GOW

[Veldrynus]

With all the the negative stuff I've heard about this game, I feel less bad for not having a good enough computer to meet the system requirements.

[innokenti]

Right. When you get the game and play it - you forget all the problems that have been mentioned by anyone. Anything you feel a bit iffy about - a mod has been released to fix it.

Just immerse yourself, the game really lets you do that - then... float... bliss... gameage, yes. So if you've held back - go buy it.

You're not one of those people that are paid to promote games etc on forums, are you?

No, doing this on my own accord entirely since I've experienced it first hand. As have many of my friends.

I suppose I do miss the loss of complexity from Morrowind a little, but I see what Bethesda have been trying to do. It is 'dumbing down' as it were, but with the most honourable intentions. One of the greatest things I've discovered is that the game appeals so much to people you wouldn't expect it too! I think that's a worthy trade off.


One of the things that I'd still like changed is the voice-acting on the minor NPCs but considering that they managed to voice the entire game... well.

[Veldrynus]

I suppose I do miss the loss of complexity from Morrowind a little, but I see what Bethesda have been trying to do. It is 'dumbing down' as it were, but with the most honourable intentions. One of the greatest things I've discovered is that the game appeals so much to people you wouldn't expect it too! I think that's a worthy trade off.

"Most honourable intentions" ? This is the dumbest thing I've heard today, and there are great chances, that this one will stay in the week's top 5 list. They are making the game less complex (and more easy) because this way more people will play it and BUY it. This means more profits. More MONEY ! Honourable intentions ? lol

[innokenti]

Well, yes, obviously getting the money for it - but they are having more people play it. And I don't mean just buy it and have a go - actually play it. Enjoy it too. I know at least two people - one who doesn't play RPGs who has reluctantly bought the game... and is now sucked into it, the other who isn't too keen of fantasy but has thoroughly enjoyed Oblivion.


There can be dumbing down that just makes the game shallow and there can be 'dumbing down' that keeps the game awesome and accessible. Even if /I/ may lose something from that , I am glad that many many others will be able to enjoy it.

[Veldrynus]

Why does it make you happy if more people are playing it ? I absolutely don't care, how many people enjoy the game. I don't like things because other people do. I like complex and hard games, with more than just stupid eye candies, requiring highly expensive hardware for even the minimal detail. Period.

[innokenti]

Um, it doesn't require THAT good hardware for minimum detail, considering I've got it running on medium-high with my machine (see above). It really isn't just eye candy, to say that is to not have played the game (or to have been close-minded when playing it) and it has been incredibly immersive and involving.
For me, someone who really enjoys the game, it is an even greater joy to know that many many other people are enjoying it along with me.

[Grumpy Old Wizard]

Well, there are always positives and negatives with any game. I would expect that anyone who enjoys single player crpgs would enjoy Oblivion.

There are lots of quests and tons of places to explore. Many quest have multiple parts and some have unexpected turns. Much, much, more than eye candy. The AI is pretty decent too.

My mage is now level level 35 and I am having a blast. I think it is well worth the money.

GOW

[Personoic]

The combat in this game is pretty good. It has blocking and power attacks and stuff! Some of the fights make you do something besides click on your enemy

As for interesting combat scenarios, there was this one part in the game where you had to help some dudes retake a castle and this lead to some pretty awesome mass melees.

[Wildbear]

You can even disarm your enemy, but it happened to be a problem to me. I was facing a daedra who had a huge sword, in one hit it took around 40% of my hp, much more than any other did, no need to tell I wanted it badly. I decided to make a side attack to get rid of the guy, he was too dangerous, unfortunately his sword flew away and fell in the lava.

[Ethric]

@Ethric:

Is it possible that some of these things will be reinstated/fixed with expansions?

Doubt it, it's too integral to the game. And there's 21 skills, each corresponding to one of 7 attributes, 3 on each. So, I guess that's one reason for axing many skills: pretty symmetry so as not to confuse the consolekids. Some stuff is done with mods of course, like more options for enchanting. But it's not only what you can enchant stuff with I miss, but also the mode of activisation. Armour is always constant effect, weapon is alwyas on-strike. Can't make a ring of fireballs for example. And everything can be enchanted to the same potency, only the quality of the soul gem effects power. So fur boots and an ebony cuirass can be enchanted just as much. Very daft.

And I can't see that the game is easier than Morrowind to play due to the dumbing-downs. Easier to design maybe. It just feels lacking to me, now after the twinkle-effect has worn of.

[Ethric]

And another thing; Vampires.

In Morrowind you can be a vampire, and there are quests and societies for them, 3 clans depending on which you got affected by. Good stuff.

In Oblivion you can also be a vampire. But that's it. You get your hideousness of appearance, your extra skills and abilities, and your sun-allergy. But there's nothing more that I have found to it, and from what I've read there isn't anything. And not only that, I had a funny encounter in a quest where I was to get rid of some bothersome vampirehunters. I was at the time a vampire, in the last stage of it (there are 4, it works in a funny way in that game) where people I meet scream in horror at me and I look pretty awful. The vamphunter, on the other hand, talked to me as if I were a decent citizen and not a scourge of the night. He mentioned that there had been sightings here and they were there to strike down the vermine with the usual zeal you can expect of vamphunters. So, while ordinary citizens recognize me as a vampire, a hardened vampire hunter strikes up pleasant conversation, with no mentions of stakes or beheadings. Yeah...

[innokenti]

There is a quest related to being a vampire. Haven't done it myself (not being one). Go find it!

[Ethric]

Yeah there's a quest for curing it. Did it when being a vampire became to daft due to the lack of integration.

[innokenti]

Not very many advantages to it in Oblivion as you said earlier.


Hmm, one of the things I've now noticed and dislike is that there is little NPC recognition of you beyond the specific quest relevant to them. Say I encounter someone and help them in the Mage Guild quests... and then later on in the Main Quest have need of them again - I am greeted and recieved like she'd never known me before. That and other little niggly NPC things (you and your vampire hunters) do break the immersion.

[Talin_Trollbane]

yeah, Oblivion have been axed abit too much, its nice to play and all, but theres no imersion anymore, Morrowind was great with all the lore and political stuff between the houses, but in Oblivion there isnt even a complete High Counsil (just Ocato always alone in the meeting hall.)

And the Imperial City looked odd for being the Capitol of a Continent, just a big concrete penis (the Tower) and a surrounding city that looks more like a temple complex then a lively, busy capitol.

hopefully there will be mods that fixes those and other stuff.

[Orfinn]

Heres info that a patch is under construction for Oblivion.

http://www.gamepro.com/computer/pc/game ... 3225.shtml

[Ethric]

Hacked of some irrelevancies, can be found here.

[magritte2]

I've been playing Oblivion of late--I expect it'll keep me going till HOMM V comes out. It's gorgeous, of course, even on my Radeon 9800 Pro, and combat's a lot of fun--definitely better than Morrowind in that respect. But I can't help but feeling that it could have been so much more than it is. Cyrodiil is so bland compared to Vvardenfell; I could just as easily be playing in the Sword Coast or Erathia or any other fantasy kingdom. Morrowind was a land of clashing values and cultures where there was no truly good faction. It didn't have a particularly great story, but the setting was up there with Torment, Fallout 2 and Arcanum.

The other way in which Oblivion fails to reach its potential is that they wrote up so many interesting quests in Oblivion only to render them boring by forcing you to solve them in one particular way. I can only assume that this was a deliberate choice to minimize the number of quest bugs introduced by players doing the unexpected--but the lack of real choices to be made is frustrating.

[Linky]

It didn't have a particularly great story, but the setting was up there with Torment, Fallout 2 and Arcanum.

Ah.. Fallout.. now *there* is a game worth mentioning.

Anyways, to the point: Oblivion has a bit too many faults to be considered a gem. I haven't read a single negative review about it - rather it's simply my own opinion.

For me it really comes down to these three things:
- you get the best items instantly as you level up off of enemies
- you can pick any lock in the game with lockpicking skill of 1 (if you are actually good at it); hence no place in the game is unreachable for you, and the locals don't really mind if you clean their houses
- if you wander around the landscape doing random quests/cleaning dungeons, the main storyline gets annoying with all the super enemies you go against in the very first gates .. this is really the biggest gripe I have - I *REALLY* don't like the difficulty level to be forced upon me