TESIV: Oblivion discussion

[Markus. D]

I got to play the "Oblivion" game today.



for the Xbox 360.... I was.... amazed.


it feels alot more fast paced, and the characters are more "prettier", The graphics were blissfull and very detailed as I walked through a castle exterminating rats muahahaha.


I was roleplaying a Necro, which was amazing, cause this game is simply amazing.

and I really hope to buy it for pc when I get a chance.

*edited*

[Meat Puppet]

It's the new Elder Scrolls, not Morrowind.

[Markus. D]

oh, yes, my typo.

I meant to say, Elder Scrolls, or just wipe it out entirely and say, I played Elder Scrolls IV today.


-____-

still, great game, I have become a zombi nub fainboi just thinking about it.

[mega_tonberry]

You have no idea how much I envy you right now. I want to play it sooooo bad.

[Markus. D]

oh yes you do sir. yes you do.


I swear, once I buy it, I am going to be consumed by it...

[mega_tonberry]

i swear when I get that game i'm going to be like
"Goodbye social life. Hello worshipping of the nine divines while on a week long gaming spree fueled by coffee and the will to consume every trace amount of information thrown at me"

[XxSephirothxX]

I bought it yesterday at EB as soon as they got it, though I had to wait about half an hour (from 10:00 when the opened until 10:30 when the game arrived) to get it. I probably played for about five hours yesterday; it's pretty much incredible. The character customization is almost endlessly changable, the game looks fantastic, and it plays pretty well, too. I had some slowdown, mostly in outdoor areas with lots of trees and grass, etc., but it wasn't enough to be anything beyond a minor annoyance. Hopefully they can do something about it in a patch later. If not, I've still got a ridiculous amount of caverns and so on to explore, so it doesn't really matter. :p

[mega_tonberry]

It should be illegal to play this game before me.:mad:

[Markus. D]

the first dungeon (where you are avoiding the assassin).... took me like an hour and a half before I decided to finish :P


edit: also, I learned a Shield Bash Ability with my block.... I really want this on PC!

edit edit: I must also say the new monster system is alot differant, quests, monsters, weapons etc... are all based on your level, monsters will always stay challanging (concerning the ones that are stronger then you) .... but defeatable... the person at EB games (which I hope I may sometime get a job at) told me that you cant encounter for example a ice atronach at level 1.

its quite interesting... and now I wanna play it again...

[mega_tonberry]

Anyway somebody can let me......permanetly borrow a copy?:shifty:

[Markus. D]

by the way, From what I have played, as like morrowind was, Oblivion definetly isnt a hire. its a buy!

[mega_tonberry]

my copy of Morrowind is sounding better and better. I can hear it calling my name. I am intruiged yet utterly freaked out.

[Clouded Sky]

Ok, so I picked up the collector's edition yesterday,err, rather my friend picked it up for me. Now today, fortunately (or unfortunately) I came down with a high fever preventing me from going to school. So I've had the oppurtunity to play a bit of Oblivion (in between massive headaches and snot removal.) I'm playing it on my laptop, (128MB ATI X600 with 128MB HyperMemory) and it looks quite good, even on medium setting. It plays a lot like Morrowind with little tweaks here and there that make it even more playable.

I really like this. I'm playing as a wood elf assasin. I actually stole the assasin robes from the first dungeon and have been wearing them. Not a lot by means of armor, but +27 in awesomeness. I got to a point today where I was helping rid this farm of goblins, which was freakin' fun. If you don't already have this game, go out and buy it.

[Madame Adequate]

If my money work out, I'll be calling places tomorrow to see if it's out here (England) yet. I've been playing nothing but Morrowind for the past four days xD I really can't wait to get my hands on this. Once I get it I'll be saving up, because my computer meets the specs but I could do with a new graphics card... I want the shinyness!

But yeah, once I disappear, this is where I went to.

[Vyk]

So from the way people are talking. The 360 version isn't out yet is it? I wonder if my vid-card can handle this. What's the requirement?

[Clouded Sky]

I think it's out for 360 also. At least I'm pretty sure.

Also, I'm kinda stuck at (don't know how to spell it) Vatch (with brother martin) through the portal. If you've gotten past this, PM me because I think I'm stuck. And there's no FAQ yet.

[Captain Maxx Power]

I'm currently twidling my thumbs over Amazon sending me my copy. The irony is I'll get it Friday at the latest, and I'll be heading to my aunties birthday party for the weekend. Well, at least I'll be back on Sunday afternoon, plus I'll have most of Friday depending on how the post is. Damned Amazon saying its "in the middle of dispatching". Either it's dispatched or it's not. Honestly.

[XxSephirothxX]

The sheer number of things you can do, while expected, is still awesome. I'm only a level five character, but I've already improved significantly over where I was to begin with. Enlisting in the Thieve's Guild has been a blast so far.

[Markus. D]

ah!

I havent played this in forever so it seems.

I wanna be my Necro Warrior Palladin thing, heh heh.



....T_T

[Crehan89]

I got my copy for my 360 today, played for 30 minutes then had to go to work, DAMN!!!

It is amazing, so fluid and the animations, soundaffects are supurb.

I got the collectors addition from my local game store, includes a bonus DVD and a 100 page guide to the empire book which is full of cool detailed history and art. Also i bought the guide, (I'm not using it for my first play) the guide itself is like a Argos catalogue, it is so thick!

Did anyone else get the colector eddition?

[Markus. D]

I havent yet no.

but if it does come re-available (all sold out) next week, I will buy it then.

[XxSephirothxX]

Did anyone else get the colector eddition?
Yeah. I wasn't planning on it, but once I got to EB and found out they had one more Collector's Edition that hadn't yet been preordered, I bought it.

The only thing in the game that's annoyed me so far, really, is that if you get caught for stealing a certain item, anything else you've stolen that the guards shouldn't know you stole is also confiscated. Still, by being in the Thieves Guild, you can just run away and then pay off your fines without losing anything. :p Picking locks seems to be overly difficult sometimes, too, but considering you can level up your skills individually, all it will take is enough practice and eventually my picks will stop breaking so easily.

[Crehan89]

Did anyone else get the colector eddition?
Yeah. I wasn't planning on it, but once I got to EB and found out they had one more Collector's Edition that hadn't yet been preordered, I bought it.

The only thing in the game that's annoyed me so far, really, is that if you get caught for stealing a certain item, anything else you've stolen that the guards shouldn't know you stole is also confiscated. Still, by being in the Thieves Guild, you can just run away and then pay off your fines without losing anything. :p Picking locks seems to be overly difficult sometimes, too, but considering you can level up your skills individually, all it will take is enough practice and eventually my picks will stop breaking so easily.

Yeah have'nt tried stealing yet but your right picking locks is hard, im going to read the manual because i think im doing it wrong?

[mega_tonberry]

Doesn't lockpicking just rely on skillpoints though?

[Markus. D]

whats your Lock Pick Rank?


I mean, security

[Clouded Sky]

I must say, as opposed to Morrowind, I haven't really been much of a thief on oblivion. I've got all the skills down to do it though and that's how I'm playing, just no stealing. And Azar, thanks again, I can't believe I got stuck on such an easy part. I literally left Oblivion and got sidetracked for a couple hours.

So far I really enjoy the openness of the game. I just became a member of the Blades, and then, for no real reason, I went trekking through the wilderness shooting deer. And bandits.

All in all, I must say bows and arrows rock.

[XxSephirothxX]

Despite everything you can do in the game, the most entertaining moment I've had so far has come from shooting a deer with the bow and arrow and watching it tumble forward in a heap like both its front legs had been snapped in two. Ah, physics. :p

[fantasyjunkie]

I can't get it till payday on March 31st :( :mad2: :cry: :mad: :crying2: :grr: :sad:

[Madame Adequate]

I got the game today, CE, but my graphics card doesn't run it. And yes, it does meet the specified specs - GeForce 5600FX - but the FX line is apparently borked, because pretty much everyone with one is finding it unplayable.

So I gotta wait for a new graphics card to arrive. Already bought a DVD drive for the game, too :p

[Markus. D]

I may be getting it tomorow on sunday *_*

[The Shoeless Hobo]

I went at 12:01am on Thursday the 23rd to my local EB Games and picked up my Xbox 360, Collectors Edition Oblivion and Call of Duty 2.

Oblivion is so much better than Morrowind, imo. The battle sytem is so much better, so are the quests you do in the main storyline (especially sealing the gate of oblivion), you get to team up with other characters and fight with them against monsters, and unlike morrowind where they just dump you in the game, oblivion's first dungeon you have to go through acts like a tutorial. Even though the maps are so huge, you can steal/borrow horses and ride there, or if you've already been to that certain town, you can just click on it on the map, and you'll be transported there in an instant. Oblivion is so much easier to understand compared to morrowind.

Other than that, I've only played Oblivion for a few hours, I've been hooked on Call of Duty 2 online. :D

[Madame Adequate]

With a whole lot of tweaking and patience, I've been able to get it to the point where, if I'm outside away from large settlements, I can play the game. The settings are all at minimum, but hey. The fact that I played it for two solid hours last night despite the massive slowdown in the tutorial dungeon, and despite the fact that if I'm near more than one creature or person is slows down like crazy, I think shows how excellent a game it is. I'm already seeing things I like much more than Morrowind (Whoo ragdoll!) and the few examples of RAI I've seen show it to be a little strange at times, but a lot of fun anyway.

[KuRt]

MUAH!! I've been playing it since wednesday :p

[fantasyjunkie]

I can't get it till payday on March 31st :( :mad2: :cry: :mad: :crying2: :grr: :sad:
I got lucky, FRY'S Electronics had it on sale for $38 and my wife just happend to be in a good mood! I can not believe how good that game is! I was in some guys shop in the Imperial City and I read a book on his counter that had a song about nudity in Morrowind. Too funny.
It's like World of Warcraft without the griefers, lag, monthly payments, noobs acting dumb, nerfs, waiting in line to play...
And unlike Morrowind, there were people walking around talking to each other and having actual conversations. It was nice having it on DVD too, installation took only a couple of minutes, without a whole slew on CDs to pop in and out.
One thing I have to say though, make sure you have at least a gig of ram, it's a system hog.

[darkchrono]

I read the reviews about it and they sounded quite enticing. But one thing I must know before I even begin to think about getting it is how much different is the exploration process in this game from that of the exploration process in online multiplayer rpg's.

Because as most people know the main downfall of online rpg's is that in order to do much of anything at all you have to go through tons of very boring monster bashing to level up your character just so he will be powerful enough to start exploring.

Because that is one thing I can't stand about multiplayer online games is that you can't really do the things you want to do in the game until you have gone through hours upon hours of tedious leveling up just so your character will be powerful enough so he won't be killed by monsters while you are trying to explore.

[Markus. D]

do take note its a roleplay game, you could stay in that first dungeon that whole time if it was your goal.

[XxSephirothxX]

I read the reviews about it and they sounded quite enticing. But one thing I must know before I even begin to think about getting it is how much different is the exploration process in this game from that of the exploration process in online multiplayer rpg's.

Because as most people know the main downfall of online rpg's is that in order to do much of anything at all you have to go through tons of very boring monster bashing to level up your character just so he will be powerful enough to start exploring.

Because that is one thing I can't stand about multiplayer online games is that you can't really do the things you want to do in the game until you have gone through hours upon hours of tedious leveling up just so your character will be powerful enough so he won't be killed by monsters while you are trying to explore.
To level up, you have to repeatedly use the skills you choose to be your "major" skills. However, by creating your own class, you could choose skills that aren't related to combat. Sure, you'd still have to fight, but you wouldn't have to spend hours and hours fighting just to get to the good stuff.

[Ultima Shadow]

Man, the game is out over here, but I still can't play it. I don't have an X-Box360 and my computer is nowhere near good enough. In about 3 months, I'll be getting a new computer, though. And once I get my new computer, I'll get Oblivion too. :hyper:

[Markus. D]

this wednesday I am getting it.

yay for me ^_^

[fantasyjunkie]

I saw a dead troll under a bridge. He had a suicide letter on him saying that he drowned himself becasue he wasn't scarey enough to make anyone pay a toll to cross the bridge. I laughed for a long time :D

[Markus. D]

I love it how ALL the npcs talk.

ALL!


even the random ones, ALL!

[Necronopticous]

I'm kind of late to the party with this one. Ummm... I just wrote an e-mail with my impressions of the game to my friend who suggested that I get this game. I don't feel like editing or re-writing what I've already written, so I'll just copy it.
So I got Oblivion for PC and I have played for roughly 4-5 hours. So far I am not understanding why this game is getting such high marks! In my opinion this game is like Ultima plus one minus two.

For one I am not at all impressed with the graphics which everyone is raving about. Sure the textures are high res and the game has nice bumpmapping, but graphics are about more than what your graphics engine can do for you. The graphics remind me of how I feel about the Unreal Tournament games, it's like really machine-intensive high-res graphics pasted on a bunch of ugly models with bad animations. I'm not really all about graphics, but I was surprised to see what the game looked like on high settings, considering how good I've heard the game looks.

Next, out of the 4-5 hours I've been playing so far, maybe two of those were solely the time it took for me to create a character that I was even a quarter of the way satisfied with. Er...actually I wasn't at all satisfied, it's just that after two hours I concluded that it was impossible to make a character that didn't look like either the ugliest, most deformed woman I have ever set my eyes upon, or a messed up 3d mesh that looks like some amateur 3d modeler went through and edited point by point.

I finally started the game, and as soon as I was given the opportunity to test the controls in that cell I could already tell how clunky they were. Something about the way it controls just feels so...unfinished? buggy? I couldn't even see my pony tail because it was going through the mesh on my tunic. I was trying to be forgiving until I found the punch button and heard my 3d disaster-mesh-faced woman cry out and swing her arms in the single worst attack animation I have ever seen in my life (and I've played Ehrgeiz).

The clunkiness and general bugginess didn't get any better as i explored the first area killing giant rats with my Darth Vader/Frankenstein "I've got no points of articulation"-esque punches. It got a bit better when I got my first sword, but unfortunately that was around the same time that I discovered that there was certain angles that I could point my camera at my character that would make her hair simply disappear altogether! Being bald actually didn't make her look any worse, though.

I didn't find out about the jump button until I had gotten out to the outside world map area. Before that I thought that you were incapable of jumping since the "set controls" option doesn't have jump listed. Now, I don't know if I was more upset when I thought you couldn't jump or when I performed my first jump, probably the former. I think I'd rather just stick with not having the option than having to look at my ugly woman spontaneously become airborne and make a static pose in the air as if she were sitting on a high toilet seat every time I need to jump over something. Needless to say, I have done a lot of walking around obstacles.

I was excited to encounter some people having a campfire not far from the sewers in which I had just emerged (By the look of my character, that was actually a suitable entrance into the world of Oblivion). Before I can even get within a reasonable proximity of them I hear one yell "If it's a fight you want, it's a fight you'll get!" followed by shooting arrows at me and encouraging his friend to rush me with a battle axe. I killed them and took their shoes, but I just wondered "Why?" I was attacked by a summoner(?) in a similar fashion soonafter. I guess they were evil to the core, or something.

Finally I met a knight who surprisingly didn't want to kill me and I was introduced to the interpersonal communication interface and the disposition minigame thing which is basically fun for about 2 minutes until you figure out how to win over anyone in about 3-4 tries. But uh...actually I stopped doing that when I realized that the fact that they liked me didn't really do anything since they didn't tell me anything new regardless. I guess they greeted me in a nicer tone?

Eventually I was caught stealing a cabbage from some guy's house and forced to pay my bounty of 7 gold pieces (ouch) and I was then forcefully escorted to the castle to be searched. Actually it worked out quite well since I couldn't find the castle and this was a quick way to get there. I talked a couple more guards into liking me and bought some stuff from some orc woman. I even picked a hard lock in the warrior's guild for some crappy dagger replica and gems. I would have been impressed by the amount of things you could pick up and all that if I hadn't already got a lifetime's worth of that kind of gameplay from the early Ultima series. In fact, maybe we should just stick to sprites and 2d worlds for western RPGs until someone can make one that doesn't play like some clunky reject first person shooter (The first person mode is like Thief 3 revisited, and that is NOT a good thing).

I really want to explore more of the game but I'm having trouble tricking myself into thinking it could get any better. I quit just before typing this up, and that was mainly because I couldn't move and I was getting frustrated. I picked up a tunic and I found that my legs had been magically bound to the floor. This is apparently the effect of being over-encumbered. No problem right? ...Wrong. There is no easy or quick way to drop anything, apparently. I learned this after clicking and dragging multiple times on apples and daggers in my inventory before they went bouncing all over the floor in no particular direction. After about a minute I was still over-encumbered, and considering I just stole a tunic from some guy's house I was trying to be quick and sneaking about it, but apparently the game's programming doesn't allow for that. "You can not drop the battle axe, there is no where to drop it." Oh? I can't drop it on this big open space on the ground right in front of me? Really? Okay, I'm done!Seriously, where did all this hype and praise come from?

[Yamaneko]

What kind of system are you running it on?

The game is very open-ended. I usually find the best experience is had when you follow a certain path, like the main quest, and along the way you encounter the NPCs who give you side quests to do. On your way to Anvil? Stop by Skingrad and spend hours and hours doing the sidequests and missions for the different guilds. Sure there are problems with the game (what game doesn't), but I think to enjoy this game you have to ignore some minor details. I understand you're coming from a different RPG background. This game would never sell in Japan, but give it a little more time.

[Necronopticous]

My system isn't top of the line, but it would have been a few months ago. It doesn't really have any problems running the game on high video settings.

[Yamaneko]

I have the 360 version (best looking 360 game besides GRAW right now), but I know there's some plugins for the PC version that improve texture quality at distances. You might want to check that out.

[Necronopticous]

Yeah, honestly the graphics I can get over. Like I said, I'm not going to deny a game a fair chance because it doesn't look amazing. My main beef with the graphics isn't even really the graphical quality (textures, lighting, mapping, &c) though, it's more in the clunky looking animations and models that all of these 2006-brand graphic tricks are slapped onto.

I'll put some more hours into it tonight or tomorrow and let you know if my opinion changes.

[XxSephirothxX]

Most of the comments you made are the kind of comments I would make when I honestly didn't want to like a game. If you want to be nit-picky, you can find enough little flaws in anything to think it's crap. I'd definitely rather play it on the 360 than a PC, and I think most of your criticism with the gameplay system are rectified once you actually get far enough into the game to make use of them efficiently. I don't know what you're talking about with the character creation system, either--I made a pretty cool looking dark elf in about 30 minutes.

[fantasyjunkie]

Well, i'm about 60 hours into the game and barely have scratched the surface, and I'm having a GREAT time! :)

[Necronopticous]

I have been playing for a good chunk of the day today, and I am enjoying it much more than I did yesterday. Most of what I said in my previous posts still hold true as far as I'm concerned, but I am happy that I was able to see through most of the shortcomings as there is quite a bit of entertaining content underneath. I've found that the only feasible way to play the game is in first-person mode, which is a bit depressing as I would rather be looking at my character, especially when they've taken so much time to make all the equipment show up on the equipped character. Kind of sucks, but the game is loads less clunky in first-person.

[Yamaneko]

The third-person view was tacked on a serves no purpose except to take screenshots of. The Elder Scroll series is all about first-person though, and I don't think the fans would have it any other way. It makes the combat a lot more realistic.

[Necronopticous]

I played almost all day. Fun.

[fantasyjunkie]

I like it a lot!

[Necronopticous]

I've been playing way too much it seems. I have the Gray Cowl of Nocturnal, I have Umbra, and I'm pretty close to finishing off the Warrior's Guild.

What level is everyone? What kind of awesome stuff/skills/accomplishments do you have?

I am right about to hit level 14.

I am close to 40,000 gold, saving up for the 25,000 house and furnishings.

[I Took the Red Pill]

I think I'm about level 12, and almost completely done with the Dark Brotherhood quest line, and I'm just getting into the Mage's Guild questline. I've hardly touched the main story line, only closing the Kvatch gate so far, and I think I just stole the Mysterium Xerxes (sp?) from the Mythic Dawn .

PS- I love vampirism

[fantasyjunkie]

I haven't even seen a vampire yet!

[Markus. D]

I played it at a friends house the other day for a few minutes, he used a mod that added in a crypt.


this crypt scared the crap out of me so much... I stepped in the door and exited.


so I watched my friend play through...

he entered his Assassin through the door, it was pitch black inside.

he gets out a torch, a BOO! a Vampire suddenly begins attacking him.

fun ^_^


great mod though.

[Garland]

In Morrowind, every character type was handicapped compared to a well armored warrior with a cure spell who stole everything not nailed down. Pure mages were for all intents and purposes just Morrowind Hard Mode and everyone stole everything anyway making pure stealths simply warriors with crappy armor. Is there any reason beyond roleplaying and self challenge to make different types of characters, this time around? Morrowind was one of my favorite games of all time, probably second only to FFXI, but I quickly recognized the bad case of uber-character-itis the game instilled in its players.