Shadowstrider

@ Deraldin: Go play Fallout 2.

Does it hurt?

The Japanese are very fiercely brand loyal (a friend of mine says "patriotic") when it comes to consumption. I don't think anyone really expected the 360 to sell well in Asian markets, especially in the face of Sony or Nintendo.

You played that game to the end? You are a stronger man than I.

I totally agree. Way too repetitive. There are supposed to be like 16 Daedra Lords each with their own realm and I was expecting each realm to be different, reflecting the Lord that rules over them. The Trickster could've had a bunch of illusions for example. But they were all the same, hell-like levels. meh. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> There is a good reason they all seemed to be similar. They were all part of Mehrunes Dagon's Oblivion realm. The exception being Peryite's realm, the developer explained that to me as Peryite willing it to be the way it was to comply with the current concept of Oblivion. I'd have to ask again to be sure, but the Daedric lords will their realms to be, and what they should be.

"Patriots always talk of dying for their country, and never of killing for their country." - attributed to Bertrand Russell "There was never a good war or a bad peace." - Ben Franklin "Untutored courage is useless in the face of educated bullets." - George Patton "Now I want you to remember that no bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. You won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country." - George Patton "All blame, no fame." - No idea who said this. Gromnir's signature George Bernard Shaw quote, too.

Surgery horror stories... hrm... I have never had a broken bone until recently (two months ago). I've had my clavicle somehow tear ligaments and muscles as it popped out of place. A few years after that I blew out my MCL in a high school wrestling match. Both were pretty painful, but not bad. Oddly the worst surgery I've had was december 22nd last year. I broke my toe playing soccer and didn't know it, I'd been walking around on it for 2 months, it also caused my toenail to become ingrown. I had no idea the toe was broken, the only reason I went to the doctor was I thought the toenail was becoming infected. The doc then tells me that my toe is broken and the toenail needs to come out. That sucked big time, he had to reset my toe and pull the nail in one go. He said it wouldn't be much pain... he was a liar and a witch.

No. The coin toss just decides who gets first possesion. In college football, both teams get equal oppurtunity to score. The ball is placed on the 20 (IIRC) yard line and the team which won the coin toss attempts to score. If they do score, the team which lost the coin toss gets a go at scoring. The winner is the team which scores and prevents the other team from scoring. In professional football it's based on timing.

...but if we use the warheads the international community would herald us as the anti-christ. Plus, then you couldn't point out how many we have, and we're stock piling them in order to use them against all those asteroids we'll have to blow up.

The primary of objective of any game is to provide the player fun. If Scott Tobias had the most fun playing Oblivion, that would make it the best game he has played all year. If not how much fun, how do you judge what "the best" game is? There is no so-called objective way to judge a game. Do you judge it by graphics? If so, Dark Kingdom for PS3 has some of the best cloth simulation I've ever seen! Do you judge it by "gameplay?" EA's Madden franchise has some great gameplay, except for the fact that it's pretty much the same game year after year. Do you judge it by innovation or invention? That's a great idea too! I know plenty of inventive games, Gears of War, Okami, just to name a few. The problem is that a game is judged by the sum of its parts, not some simplistic, technical, "objective" measure. Any feature, in any game most be asked one simple question, "is this fun?" If it isn't fun, something needs to be done about it. If it is fun, most people will not sit back and try to piece together why it is fun. Sure, Dark Kingdom had great cloth physics... the game is not fun. Gears of War is a great little "pop and shoot" title... but the single player campaign was too short, and it got pretty repetitive. You're saying his list is easily dismissable, yet you're raising a huge contention with it. I don't get it, if the list is ignorant and dismissable, what's the big deal? He thinks that Oblivion is the best game of the (previous) year - for whatever his reasons (obviously Bethesda paid this guy off...). Thank god the year is over! LAWL

So, let me get this straight, Oblivion beats games like Gears of War, NWN2, Dead Rising, and Bully, and clearly the reviewer is retarded? If you want to say he is biased, perhaps even simple, I'll say "ok," but to insinuate that he is retarded simply because he enjoyed Oblivion... someone is biased, and it's not just the reviewer. P.s. happy new year, bitches.

That used too happen, kinda. NPCs used to solve quests and close Oblivion gates on their own. It had to be fixed, because it was preventing the player from doing some things.

Is meta encouraging me to use hypnosis on my girlfriend?

It's even funnier because nothing that Martin does at the end would be possible without the player. You can't win, no matter who you try to please.

; _ ;

The player saves the day, if he is noble, worthy knight. The player leads the Knights of the Nine to battle against Umaril the Unfeathered (if he recruits Knights at all). I'm not sure how much the KotN box costs if off store shelves, but all the DLCs are available on our download website: http://obliviondownloads.com/ The Knights download there is JUST the Knights (DLC8) content, not all the accompanying DLC content. The box on store shelves is all the DLCs. @Bokishi: The depends, really. The first time you play through the content, I'd imagine it takes at least 8-10 hours.

Let's go with B.

I'd prefer to date someone who spent less time on my couch than me. Plus, I don't want to lose to my girlfriend.

Only in-so-far as you can fail some quests (and re-attempt them), and can choose to recruit (or not recruit) members of your religious order. If you're asking if there are branching paths, or whether you can persuade Umaril to stop his oh-so-crazy crusade, the answer is no.

My only goal for this year is to keep the girlfriend I have now happy, failing that, get a new girlfriend and keep her happy. Unfortunately, a chiefly important item here is that I have to be unhappy as a result. "Drink less, play less games." Bitch please.

Knights of the Nine was developed completely after Oblivion's release with the exception of concept. All artwork, dialogue (and voice over), gameplay and areas were made over the span of 3 months (possibly a bit longer).

The only thing that proves, though, is that publishers want to make money. They were, undoubtedly, banking on Troika's dedicated fanbase and name appeal, hoping that it would carry over when added to (popular) franchises, like D&D and WoD. Arcanum sold (moderately) well in spite of bugs and having an unrecognizable setting! Imagine how well it would sell in a Greyhawk or Vampire setting! Problem is Troika didn't learn from their mistakes, but the publishers did after their initial dealings with Troika - Troika failed because of Troika, and trying to push blame elsewhere is ridiculous. "But Troika was creative!" That's great, but the publishers learned that their creativity came at a cost of naivety. I'm reminded of a nice quote from General Patton: "Untutored courage is useless in the face of educated bullets" - George S. Patton Game Developers need creativity to succeed, sure, but they also need to build on a solid foundation and have the clarity of mind to release quality products.

Not the hot ones, right?

So basically, "every job except mine is easy?" Get over thine self.

HA CHA CHA CHA! As a person of partially Scottish descent, I applaud this!