If you love your family and your kids, do not play Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - It's that good
Darn that Phil Haack, he wrote a post on Oblivion as I was writing one on a plane yesterday. If I only had connectivity at 30,000 feet.
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is simply one of the best role-playing games ever made. [GameSpot]
No lie, no joke, it's that good.
Others are having similarly disturbing experiences:
Because the game is so damned addictive that when you're not playing, you wind up looking outside and thinking "man, that lighting model is really realistic!" before you remember you're not actually playing at that particular moment.
Even my wife has sat and played it with me for upwards of 30 minutes, which is a huge accomplishment if you ask me. However, "playing" the game with Mo meant "going for a stroll and looking at the scenery" which is something that you can really do for hours. I walked up a mountain over the course of two days, as I did the sun went down, dusk came, then the stars came out, then it started to rain. As we go towards the top of the mountain it began to snow.
There's been so many amazing moments. Once I found an empty camp and decided to sleep there and left my horse outside. I was awakened by a bandit whose bed I was apparently sleeping in. He had already killed my horse, the evil bastard. There's been times I've met a character I'd seen before and he's said "Oh, you again. How are you?"
There's such a sense that you are a part of a larger world that will (and does) continue without you. I've literally watched fights break out in front of me in a bar when some guy decided to pickpocket another. It wasn't scripted, it just happened.
One aside, to the mad fools who paid $500 for a new video card just to play this game, or just bought a whole new machine, seriously, please, get an Xbox360. Playing Oblivion on a 40" HDTV is just amazing. It's never crashed, no problems at all. I would be pretty frustrated if it were crashing often on a PC as some folks are reporting. (Interestingly enough, I've never had Guildwars crash on my PC...)
If you're playing Oblivion, leave a comment about something amazing or surprising that you've seen while playing the game. Here's an article called 64 Most Amazing Oblivion Moments.
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Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. He is a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author.
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I was in a bar area and this woman walked past me, a cloud of smoke appeared with a small poof sound, her outfit changed to something wicked reminding me of a Samurai suit.
She sliced some dude up and jumped through the window and off the balcony.
Totally flipped me out.
.. and a HDTV?
Because I have a display device that'll do far beyond HDTV resolutions right in front of me. ;)
You can get a refurb 512mb X1900XT for $350 on newegg. That's the 2nd fastest video card on the market.
For $200 you could get a video card that handles Oblivion and delivers X360 level graphics @ 1024x768 (that's a "HDTV" resolution) no problem.
Oh yeah, and it'll run Vista "glass" too. Try THAT on your precious X360, yo! ;)
So I wait around and follow them as they go to bed. When they go into the room, I sneak in and hide in a dark corner. The Maid leaves and the Lady goes to sleep.
I make my move. I pick the lock and grab the ring from her box. As I leave I notice the count down the hall. But I haven't been spotted, so I go hide in the corner.
He comes in and goes to sleep. I try to leave again, but I see a guard on patrol down the hall. I close the door. Wait.
Open. He's walking away from me. I follow behind him and duck into a side hallway.
He leaves and comes back and heads back towards the room. When he's passed me, I duck past him and out the main door, pulse pounding and ring in hand.
I just love that sort of gameplay where I can rely on stealth and intrigue and not just swing a damn sword around.
Jokes aside, I religiously refuse to buy a XBox 360 or PS3 (I want both HD-DVD and Blue-Ray to die). PC games (and Nintendo) FTW!!!
Almost makes me want to go out and get an XBox...
:(
However, being both an owner of the Xbox360 and an avid PC gamer, I disagree about the Xbox 360 part simply for one main reason, the mods. $2 for some silly looking, useless horse armor? meh.. How about game enhancing mods like Illumination Within, texture packs, user generated quests, and UI enhancements that will never see the green light of the Xbox 360.
Let's not forget about the Oblivion Construction Set that allows you to modify every part of the game to your liking. Some bad such as the nude textures that pinned the M rating on Oblivion to creative mods like the Magic Words mod which uses .NET and the Speech SDK to allow you to cast spells with your voice.
Last night I saw to Legion Forrest guys (not sure if that's their correct name) have a fight to the death west of Bruma. Crazy stuff.
I have a general 360 question, though. When I was cleaning off the drive, I noticed that a large portion was reserved. That didn't surprise me, but it made me wonder something... Does this section include in game cache? Or is this section strictly for the system and the games have to fight with the user section of the disk?
people say how open ended the game is. But it isn't. You can't kill major characters and you can effect the world at all. Go into the university, port to the head chamber, steal the staff from the head guy. Repeat a couple days later, because the staff will just come back. Can you slay a king and take over his city? nope..*yawn*.
What makes it worse is the combat. The game is incredibly easy...and that's what appeals to people. If you use a bow or magic, put your points in speed and you'll _never_ get hit. Improve your sneak and you can stay in the shadow and kill anythying. The AI is sooo dumb.
It's great if you're a console player...but PC gamers have been playing this type of game for decades - we've moved on. Make Oblivion a multiplayer game (even just 4-16 players) and then you've got something - otherwise, Lerroy j0wns u.
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World of Warcraft (in fact just about any MMORPG)
Sid Meiers Civilization Series
Practically any video game with the "RPG" tag attached to it, as this genre of videogame doesnt lend itself to the "pick and play for 10 minutes and then do something else" style of gaming