Oblivion has arrived.

[Occulus]

Best-looking RPG I've ever seen, period. I haven't even scratched the surface yet... even though I was up until 5:30 this morning playing it.

This game is not. To. Be. Missed.

[The Revolution]

1. I'm going to go look for it after work.

I haven't played any of the other Elder Scrolls games, but this looks like it might be a lot of fun, so I'll give it a try :)

[Occulus]

2. It's awesome.

Seriously.

It's the best computer/console RPG ever made in my book so far. I had to take a short break because it's just so much to take in. The world the game is played in is rich and filled (in a VERY natural way) with everything you'd expect to be there for the environments you're in.

Everything can change in the blink on an eye. A gateway to Oblivion (their version of an afterlife) opens in a town near my character while I was walking up a hill, and in the space of about five seconds, all the stars in the sky got blotted out by a firey-looking mess. It looked like the entire sky, from horizon to horizon, got covered in lava suspended in the air. Everything- everything- turned very very red, and I immediately knew there was Something Bad Ahead.

I'm doing a little happy dance about now- this game is every RPGer's dream come true.

[StaggerLee]

3. Will it consume my life?

Should I quit my job now?

RPGs a hellevu drug...

This game sounds hot.

[Occulus]

4. It sizzles.

It's full of HDR-video lovliness. It's dripping with physics and AI you'll love to stroke. It shines with on-the-mark VOICE ACTING (which is uniformly suspect in most other games).

I haven't even looked at the manual yet; I didn't need to. This game takes your hand and holds it throughout the entire character generation process- which is also a tutorial map set in a dungeon. So even the character generation portion is very well done, and just challenging enough in and of itself to make you want more.

Then you get to go outside. If you have a good video card or an XBOX 360, you'll be able to see for what seems like miles when you exit that first dungeon. AND you'll be able to go there.

The procedurally-generated forests are so green and lush you'll want to just go walking around. You don't have to, though; there's a fast-travel system that allows you to avoid tedious and time-consuming wandering.

Really- if you have a 360 or a good PC, Oblivion will rock. Go to www.srtest.com and see if your PC measures up (or what you need to make it able to play this game).

[StaggerLee]

6. Thanks for the link

Looks like my rig will rock Oblivion.

I checked out the screenshots on gamespot last night. Tasty! :9

Good thing I'm still single - the transition will be all the easier. :D

[Guy Fawkes]

5. I need to ask, after TES III....

does it have multiplayer on the PC?

[The Revolution]

8. Nope

Single player only.

[The Revolution]

7. I've put in about 10 hours

And it seems like I've barely scratched the surface of everything there is to do, so this should keep me busy for a while. :)

One thing that I've been wondering is: are the outcomes of the quests pre-determined, or do your actions determine the result. For example, when you go to rescue the Count in Kvatch, I found he was already dead, but the NPC guard tells me something like "if only we had gotten here faster". So if I hadn't stopped to sleep, would the Count still be alive? I suppose I could have reloaded and checked...but I didn't really want to go back through the whole quest again.

I do have one minor gripe, and that is that it is WAAAY to easy to accidently steal things. I think I got arrested 4 times in a span of 20 minutes while in the Imperial City. :)

[katamaran]

10. Stealing IS way too easy to mess up

I got ES:O yesterday and played about 5 hours last night. I agree that it was way too easy to accidentially steal things or pick someone's pocket. And when they lock you up, not only do you lose the stuff you just stole, but EVERY item and EVERY gold coin you found/filched throughout the game. I went from about 250 gold, some nice iron armor and weapons and magic items to just my skivvies and a dagger because I accidentally stole a piece of bread. If you can get out of the city quickly, you can resist arrest, run out of town a ways, wait a couple hours, and go back in...they forget about you. Gonna start the game over anyway, this time with the strategy guide.

[Occulus]

16. It really IS too hard to steal

I've learned the hard way to turn my character's head away from the shiny potentially free ordinarily expensive items when I need to use the 'use' key.

However, being a thief/mage, my fingers are a little bit sticky. Sometimes.

Hey, I really needed that alchemy equipment.

As to your first question, no, I don't think anything happened while you were asleep. Now, if you played too long after being given the quest... that I'm not so sure of.

Also: make sure you pay some attention to the main quest, because (as the quoted "gripe" post describes below) the enemies ding up a level whenever you do. This does keep the game challenging, but imagine your surprise when you go to Kvatch finally at level twelve only to fine all the imps that kicked your ass before when you were on level 2 have now been replaced by Daedra. At level 12.

Not a situation my piddly little thief/mage could handle without some serious attention to bladework. Time to put up the bow for a bit.

I've just been clearing out dungeons (and they're nice and biiig too) and sneaking like mad. These are some of the creepiest dungeons I've ever seen in a PC game.

[Skinner]

9. PC or Xbox360? (nt)

[The Revolution]

11. Its been released for both

I have the PC version (collector's edition :))

[NewHampshireDem]

12. I watched the highlights of GameSpot's 12 hour marathon ...

Wow! I want it soooooo badly ... but I know that once I buy it, I'd better be ready to spend some late nights, otherwise I'll never see my kids again.

<on edit>
The stealing things was a problem in Morrowind, too ... though I also thought it was too easy to steal things on purpose as well. :evilgrin: Once you got the shopkeepers looking the other way, and the guard lured upstairs, it was 5-finger discount for anything you wanted.

[NewHampshireDem]

13. Played for a little over an hour last night

Tore myself away only because ... well, let's just say somethings are better than playing on the computer :evilgrin:

It has absolutely met my expectations so far ... and my expectations were very, very high. After reading a couple of reviews, I knew it was going to be worth the wait, though I was initially a little nervous about the console-inspired menus. However, I think the new menu system is a great improvement over the old and may be one of the best I've seen in any RPG, hands down. I love that one key pretty much does everything for character and inventory screens. The combat is also much improved, and I love the new blocking feature.

As for the graphics, well ... wow! I found myself creeping around that dungeon like I was working my way through a Quake level--I was totally sucked in.

If you do not own this game, BUY IT NOW! I've never spent more than $40 for a computer game, and I winced at the $60 price tag on this one, but it is well worth every hard-earned cent.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

14. Hilarious contrarian, curmudgeonly review of Oblivion here:

http://pcgamer.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=15277&sid=771cf3629e49da3b8186fb73b69e9601

-Your avatar can be customized by adjusting 1 billion sliding scales. No matter which one of the seemingly infinite combinations you pick, you WILL look like an extra from a low budget zombie flick who's been down the pub for a fortnight and has lost his specs. As will every NPC you meet.

-The dialogue is so lame as to be comical. Approach the lady in the street and smile as she tells you she likes her boys rough. Then wince in horror as the burly guard next to her tells you he likes it rough too. Run screaming from the city when you realize they all say the same $%!*.

-Finding a dungeon difficult? Think you should come back in a few levels time?? Think again!! Every NPC and monster in the game world DINGs a level every time you do! If you want it easier, use the sliding bar in the options; job done!

-The plot involves saving the world from some hell demon lord who is invading through portals. No characterisation, no personality, no style; just by the numbers nonsense. I can't remember the name of a single 'character' Who cares? Patrick Stewart clearly didn't.

[NewHampshireDem]

15. Yeah ... some people think they're cool if they hate on Oblivion

It's funny, but ... eh :shrug: It reminds me of the people who like to argue that CS or DoD aren't 'real' enough.

The difficulty scaling has been a major bone of contention over at TES forums ... some either love it or hate it. I guess there's something to be said for wandering around a coming across some Daedric ruins that you mark for later; but that said, last night I came across a dungeon not far from the starting area and wiped everyone out with my LVL 1 character. I also like that I don't have to worry about accumulating a bigillion quests that I'll have to come back to later once I've spent hours upon hours grinding to make sure my character can handle the quest.

It's a game ... it's fun ... IMHO, that's what really matters.

[semillama]

17. Now that I have it

you have no idea how hard it is not to call in sick for the week.


Wait, YES YOU DO!!!

[StaggerLee]

18. lol

Talk about immersive. I had to take two days off this past week from that game. Trust me, it wasn't easy.

:hi:

[StaggerLee]

19. something pretty funny

I found myself not outfitting my wood elf properly at certain points in the game and realized I had been doing battle without any pants on.

Another time I was fighting shoeless.

Great game, thank goodness theres a skivvy default... :evilgrin:

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

20. You should get extra XP for fighting in your skivvies.

[Guy Fawkes]

21. Great game... (but)

Honestly, the main quest is a bit... well, if you've played the first half-hour of the game, you know. On the other hand, the side quests and hundreds of dungeons more then make up for the game's shortfalls. Even if it wasn't everything promised at E3 (far from it, in fact) Oblivion is still amazing.

P.S: visit the daedric shrines (i.e. Sanguine!) for some of the best side-quests.

For people who've beaten the game (possible extremely-minor spoiler below):






My regular Ebony armor was better then the Dragon Armor. What the hell? And I wear a full suit of Daedric armor now, but no one notices that I look lke a demon!

[jayfish]

22. Hmm... I Thought Wearing...

daedric armor was a big turn-off among the general populace. Plus it's damn heavy. Even the deadric maces weight a ton and they don't do a lot more damage than everyday weapons.

Jay

[Guy Fawkes]

25. At ultra-high strength...

I can carry anything. Funny- at ultra-high intelligence you can't even cast the best spells twice.

[jayfish]

28. Speaking Of Spells Twice,...

in Morrowind, couldn't items be enchanted several times to give them multiple specials? I was rather sad when I couldn't do so to the first enchanted weapon I found.
Jay

[democracyindanger]

23. Entertaining, but the interface blows.

Counterintuitive to the point of wondering if it's on purpose. The voice acting is horrible. The voice editing is even worse. Ever notice that sometimes that an NPC will switch tones in the middle of a speech? Gruff, suddenly friendly, then gruff again.

Pretty entertaining, though.

[StaggerLee]

24. Yeah

I noticed that with a beggar in one of the towns. Her voice was initially really raspy and old and then when you asked her a question her voice changed enough to where she sounded like she didn't smoke four packs a day.

That kinda bugged me but the textures alone are making up for it.

[Guy Fawkes]

26. There are some UI mods out there...

map mods and such. Links to download sites found at www.elderscrolls.com (click downloads, scroll down to the bottom).
As for the voice acting: very dissapointing.

[semillama]

27. I agree with the voice acting

seems like they only had four or five people max to do voices. I really don't like how they basically have one male and one female voice for each race - a little annoying. It's actually baffling, considering how much work went into assuring that no two people look alike.

My only other grip so far is that you really gotta work to find lockpicks after you've found the ones in crates!


still, everything else more than makes up for it. I'm very pleased with the game.

[Occulus]

29. Yeah, I've changed my mind about the voice acting after hearing it more

At least it has it, but damn... when a beggar goes from being a beggar to sounding like nobility and then goes back to sounding like a beggar.... it's jarring.

Something else I noticed (and this, to me, is a major graphics bug): water freezes its motion when you're talking to someone with an ocean background on the screen. It looks as though everything else stops, too.

As for the interface, I found it to be very intuitive ; one key for a tabbed menu system is a lot< better than the floating, key-for-this-menu, key-for-that-menu system they used in Morrowind. I'd like a popup label on the menu tabs, though.[br />
It's not perfect, and I'm betting they'll fix some of these things in updates and patches... but it's my understanding via Tycho, I think, from Penny Arcade, that Bethesda will only be selling in-house, official expansions. No freebies, so I don't expect the voices to be expanded in any way. :/

[semillama]

30. Ok, I can cut them some slack on the voices

after watching the documentary. Apparently, the voices take up half the space on the DVD. That's pretty worthy.

Plus, Lynda Carter does all the Nord women - how cool is that?

[Hatalles]

31. Coolest moments?

I have mixed feelings towards Oblivion... however, one of the most enjoyable moments I had while playing this game occured when I was sneaking around a random underground dungeon somewhere between Imperial City and Skingrad. There were a number of heavily armored bandits and archers loitering around a pool and, from the shadows, I carefully shot off an arrow at one of them... almost immediately the entire group began in-fighting while I watched from a safe corner... their numbers dwindled to only two before I joined in. :)

[Guy Fawkes]

32. This is a possible Destruction Mage spoiler...

but Finger of the Mountain is the coolest spell if you wait a long time to get it. Large damage in a huge radius... everyone just explodes!

[CrownPrinceBandar]

33. Got it this weekend...

So far I like it. I can see how this game could easily eat up huge chunks of your life.

I like that you have the ability to wander any where ya damn please, and that there are little dungeons and non-quest bits off the beaten path. I'm also digging that you have magical ability from the get-go, that your ability to cast a spell is only dependent upon your Magicka level, as opposed to having a certain number of spells per day (per the d20 system games like NWN).

However, the combat feels unwieldy. I've yet to get the hang of the timing of the blocking thing. This could be that I'm so used to having your AC and your Dodge rolls taking care of all that. Anyone have any combat success tips? But what I do like that shots to your shield eat up your fatigue and the enemies taunt you with stuff like: "Getting tired?..."

I have only put 2-3 hours in this thing and I am looking forward to getting deep into this uber-rich world.

[Occulus]

35. Blocking tip:

When you are not attacking, block. It helps to be able to see everything, so scroll out in battle if you feel you must (although I've found it becomes much more difficult to properly target if you're not in first person view.)

I('ve found I don't often need to block because I've already knocked my enemy down to a health level I can manage- today's exception was the end of the staff quest in the Mage's Guild. I had to go swimming, and progressively wear down that last necromancer boss. Nonetheless, in dungeons, poison an arrow with a Damage Health potion, fire, rinse, repeat. Make or buy several of these; they're invaluable. When combined with a good Sneak skill level, you'll not have problems in dungeons.

The skills I use the most are Alchemy, Sneak, Blade, Marksman, and Restoration. I'm basically a Battlemage with a bow. That picks locks. And pockets.

With ease.

Hmmm...

[semillama]

34. Some 360 bugs:

sometimes in the Ayleid Ruins, the gates stop working. Solution is to shut off the machine and restart it.

Another is I've seen that rarely, you will enter combat with someone and all of a sudden, you get the message that you've stolen from whatever guilds you're in. I don't think there is a solution to this one, or at least one I've found out. To make life easier for yourself if/when this happens to you,

***SPOILER WARNING******












make sure that you have stashed away somewhere 20 bear hides (for fighters guild) and 20 redwort(?) and 20 dragon flowers for mages guild. otherwise, be prepared to spend a lot of time hiking around the countryside!

[semillama]

36. Another bug:

I just started get a "disc is damaged or dirty" error message, which crashes the game. It first just started with my game when I started a fight inside an Oblivion Gate, but it has creeped and infected the rest of my saved games and my girlfriend's as well. So far, there hasn't been any word from Bethesda on this problem. It apparently has nothing to do with the condition of your disc (mine is neither dirty nor damaged). On the Elder Scrolls forum, there's a handful of people who have had the similar problem. So, be warned!

[semillama]

37. Ok, if you get this error message:

Forget all the microsoft solutions. they don't work. Go and rent a copy from a video store or something, and try it out. If all your saves work fine with the rental, you have a bum disc and need to replace it.

Hope it doesn't happen to anyone else - it's really frustrating!