The love that dare not speak it's name?
 

I D/L'd Elderscrolls:Oblivion last night from Fileplanet... from all I've heard the graphics and immersion are awesome. The D/L weighed in at a compressed 4.17 GB so there would appear to be some meat to this game. I'll report back later on the w00tage/suckage index.

Woot! I loved Morrowwind!!

I'll have to D/L the demo.

Once I get my Xbox360, that will be all I do for a while. But I dont expect to get one any time soon...

I've had the game for just shy of a week now (Xbox 360 version) so I'll toss up some comments. Oblivion is not as big as Morrowind in terms of quests and things to do. However, I think in terms of gameplay it's a lot better.

For starters, combat is more visceral. Morrowind was basically you'd attack, and there was a "die roll" system that would sometimes result in the blade pretty clearly hitting the enemy, but "missing" the target. Now, a hit is a hit is a hit. Some attacks might do less damage because you're not as good with them or hit them on their armor, but they'll do SOMETHING. Blocking is also much more common sense now. I found the Arena to be a decent place to practice combat, since you get money and such from being a combatant.

Haven't fiddled much with magic, the lockpicking mini-game is much better than Morrowind though. Persuasion I've not done much with, but it seems to be more interesting than the old way.

Fast-Travel to any location you've visited before is a big boost. The quest system is much improved with the ability to mark on your map where you should be going for a certain quest. The leveled encounters (the game adjusts the difficulty based on where your character is in the game) is much better than Morrowind's, but it really does sometimes make the quests seem "too" easy since it's scaled to be a certain difficulty regardless. Nice for when you've got the uber-character at level 20+ (think 23 is the max level...not sure) that the game still has a few tricks up its sleeve, but somewhat un-immersive when you're one of the top assassins at Level 8.

Still there's something for everyone in the game. My best recommendation is that you forget absolutely everything you think you know about RPGs. If you're not familiar with Elder Scrolls, there are no rules and there is no XP...you level by skilling up your primary skills, which you in turn do via practice. If you want to break into someone's house, rob them blind and fence the goods, you can (and it's fun) with the caveat of the fences all being part of the Thieve's guild. If you want to go on a murderous rampage and kill people left and right, you can (though the guards will eventually kick your ass). If you want to wear heavy armor, use giant claymores and still throw fireballs around like they're candy, you can. It's how YOU want to play, and that freedom can paralyze a lot of people with TOO many options and make them run away.

The graphics are pretty damned impressive, and by and large the game is a lot of fun. My only annoyance is that my disc sometimes loses where it is and the game dies. Frequent saving, even on the PC version, is highly recommended.

Thanks for the review!

Is this a MMO..I saw it in best buy last night...they wanted 49.95 for it so i didn't even stop to take a look.

The Elder Scrolls games are single-player (so that's a one-time price), however they have the breadth and depth that one would expect to find in an MMO. Morrowind had an INSANE amount to do, and could literally occupy someone for hundreds, if not thousands, of hours. Oblivion is supposedly clocked in around 250 hours of gameplay according to Bethesda.

Most RPGs have you following a set storyline and other than a few minor deviations, that's it. Oblivion has a storyline, but you're under no obligation to follow it (I'm still at the start of the Main Quest but have advanced several ranks in many other guilds). If you want to spend all your time exploring caves, you can. If you want to spend time picking flowers and making potions, you can. If you want to become an assassin of your own making (rather than a member of the Dark Brotherhood) and sneak into homes and murder people in their sleep, you can. Wanna be a vampire? You guessed it, you can (finding one can be tricky...). They're often described as "sand box" games because you, the player, decide what to do.

The PC version comes with a construction set so people can make their own adventures in the game, so it's not something bad to pick up, especially for someone who travels and would still like to get some gaming in.

Morrowind ended up with 2 expansions and a strategy guide that was some 500 pages of quests and side journeys. Oblivion will probably be the same way.

Coolest (and situationally annoying) feature: Radant AI. The NPCs have lives. They don't stand in one spot waiting for you to gallop up on your horse (which you can buy/earn)...they have jobs, they visit friends, they go shopping, they eat (sometimes poisoned food thanks to a nearby assassin >_>)...they're part of a living world. Cool, but REALLY annoying when you want to talk to a fence and he's wandering the town for another 4 hours...sure, you just use the fast wait, but still!

It's a good game, though I have seen lots of people have issues getting it to run right. If you can get it going and can get past the initial learning stages (the idea of no XP confuses people) , it's a top-notch title.

I think WoW has ruined me for other genres of video games. Don't get me wrong, the graphics are top notch, the world is huge and the limited questing that I've done is well designed. I just miss the interaction - now if ES:O was an MMO and all you guys were there I'd drop WoW like a hot potato For now, it's a fun graphical experience but WoW still rocks for pure gaming satisfaction

I just ES-O today installed and made my toon..a way ugly dark elf but oh well.
I just have to say W O W what a pretty game and everything you can do is just wow.... This game will consume some time from me inbetween PS and all.

I have to agree with ya Sammy. During my "no-internet" time right after I moved, I tried to play some WC III and even Call of Duty. I missed the interaction with other people... I honestly dont think I can spend a lot of time playing a single person game anymore.

The only game that still has single-player playability is halflife2 and the new "episodic" content should be out soon, PCGamer has it specc'd at 8-10 hours of play for $19.95 half life 2 was the only "FPS" that I've ever played through completely multiple times.

Anywhoo, although the graphics are quite uber I can't see me spending the time to thoroughly play the game with WoW around.

Make sure to try running instances with 5-man before you say that. Yes, it's great fun to be around people...but being able to play something in 30 minute chunks (as opposed to mulitple hours) and still make progress is alluring in and of itself as well.

I sit on AIM while I play Oblivion and talk to friends since I have this nifty "pause" button. Seems to work quite well.

I am not a single player type of guy, but the AI in this game keeps me goin. I got it just last week, im a thief/murderer/marksmen type.

Im just gonna say this... I broke into this guys house on a whim, stole some phat lewtz, went upstairs and killed him while he slept... then i slept in his bed with his body... IM ADDICTED

I am liking what I am hearing about this game. Down side is that I don't have the money to buy it nor is my computer up to par to play it.

There is the Xbox 360 version....$500 (the cost of the video card you'd need for a computer) instead of $2000+ for a computer to do it.

Mine is really starting to annoy me though with losing reads right in the middle. :mad: Dunno if it's the disc or the 360.