mkreku

I don't understand why people keep on ragging about horses. They're there, they're not vital to the story or the game and, just like most everything in Oblivion, they're completely optional. Why complain about a feature that you're not stuck with? Use the fast travel, use your legs (like me, because I was stupid enough to choose athletics as a main skill), do whatever is necessary for you to enjoy the game and don't spend valuable energy to let one feature out of hundreds get on your nerves. Personally I think the horses are great and I wish more games had them. I just wish they were a tad bit faster and (in the case of the unicorn) less aggressive. Oh, and mounted combat would have been awesome.

That's odd. I recall them mentioning that spears had been removed from Oblivion. Perhaps it's just an easter egg from Morrowind then?

No. Trust me, I have closed enough gates to know that there are no acrobatics skills needed to close them down. The route to the main tower is not always obvious, but it's always possible to walk (without any other skills than walking skills) to the Sigil stone. I guess you didn't have the patience for it.

Crap. At least Sundin got us one point.. with 13 seconds left (his number is 13, remember?). Still, we lost one point against Tampa in the playoff race, they won their shootout!

No, it doesn't go way down, but it goes down below that comfort level of 30 fps sometimes, which is enough for me to keep it at 1024x768.

Uhm.. But isn't referring to gamefaqs as a way of making a game too easy despite of puzzles kind of the same as referring to a cheatcode or a trainer to make the combat easy..? Weird point.

I love just walking around in the Oblivion wastes and discovering new things: The Not-so-hidden Cave. (Its real name was Infested Cave) This next one is odd. In the middle of the forest, I noticeda piece of tiled flooring. As I examined it closer, I found this pile of junk lying behind a rock. It was a bag containing some gold, a quiver of 10 silver arrows, a skeleton and a chest containing some gold and a gold nugget. There was also a book. The book was the interesting thing, because I hadn't found it anywhere else, and it told the rules of "The Hunt" and it mentioned The Spear of Bitter Mercy.. or something. Anyone know what it's all about or if it's a red herring?

They could make challenging puzzles and problems for the player to solve. They could make the maps into mazes (not recommendable!). They could make the world huge and wide open and hide the goals in the wilderness. They could place riddles everywhere. All of the above are probably bad design decisions, but my point is that it doesn't have to be all about cmbat to be challenging.

Well, the games I've been playing the most on my Playstation 2 are God of War, Psychonauts, Burnout 3: Takedown, NHL (any year), FIFA (any year), Fahrenheit, GTA: Vice City, GTA: San Andreas, Resident Evil 4, Black, Toca Race Driver 2 & 3, Colin McRae Rally (all of them basically), Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance (hey, it's fun in multiplayer), Killzone, Shadow of the Colossus and so on. None of them are anime in any kind. If you're talking RPG's specifically, then it's another matter as 95% of all RPG's for the Playstation 2 are really crappy jRPG's.

What?! So what's the deal with the unicorn then? You mean I've been struggling with that damn thing for days and it wasn't even the fastest?! Or second fastest?? I'm gonna kill that damn unicorn myself the next time I see it. I went from that slow-ass horse you're given from a mission straight to the unicorn so I guess the difference made me think it was fast. Oh, and that the speed was what was worth all the trouble.

Nine points out of ten possible from the last five games. It's not shabby, now that I think about it. Too little, too late?

A vague hint: A not-so-vague hint: A truly obvious hint (do NOT click on the picture unless you want to see where the unicorn is hiding!):

Nord named Matt (Uh.. I have bad imagination, sue me) of the custom class "Darkrogue". Uses Blade as his primary inclination. He prizes Strength and Agility (Sneak in, get the initial 6x damage, and then smack them up in a flurry). He was born under the sign of The Thief. Currently level 45. --- Primary Skills: Armorer 100 Athletics 84 Blade 100 Block 100 Acrobatics 89 Light Armour 100 Speechcraft (BIG mistake) 92 Secondary skills (worth noting): Mercantile 95 Restoration 79 Sneak 93 --- Str 112 Int 38 Will 75 Agil 100 Spd 110 End 100 Per 95 Lck 60 --- Primary weapon: Daedric longsword Secondary weapon: Daedric bow (enchanted with +25 Frost damage) Armour: Full Glass Armour

I think the unicorn is the fastest ride you can catch in Oblivion. Of course, you'll always end up in trouble with that damn critter, but it's sooo worth it when you're flying down the road.

First you use the old Xbox games as a selling point for the Xbox 360 (which, for the record, is not very backwards compatible).. If I wanted to play those games than I'd already would own a PS2 and that would destroy your point. ..then in the next post you're saying that playing the back catalogue is not a selling point..? Odd. So, according to you, being able to play some Xbox games on the Xbox 360 is better than being able to play some (and if Sony is correct, all) PS1/PS2 games on the Playstation 3? I fail to see the logic behind this.

YES! Toronto got a MUCH needed win! They didn't play well, but snuck away with two points. I still haven't given up all hopes about the playoffs, although it sure seems impossible. This win, however small and unfair, is a tiny step in the right direction as it's been these close games that Toronto has lost all season. Oh, and those mega-super-giganto losses to the Senators of course

It's weird, but I actually think Kate Beckinsale is ugly. Not pretty, not plain, ugly. I know I am in the minority on this one, but she looks so.. british )

Ok, I made a horrible mistake: I got a Sigil stone that gave Night-Eye (finally, when gate 23 closed!) and without hesitation I applied it to my Glass Helmet. Not seeing any effects, I thought it worked like I always suspected: no visible effects during daylight, see in the dark during night. So I saved my game. Boy, was I wrong! I had forgotten that when you apply a Sigil Stone to one of your pieces of armour, that piece is automatically unequipped. Imagine my surprise when I find out and re-equip the damn helmet.. THE WORLD IS BLUE. Since I have no spare glass helmet (they almost never pop for me, very rare) I'm practically forced to wear it, or go naked or wear something ugly and crappy. Dang! Edit: Oh yeah, if anyone's wondering why my Oblivion pictures suddenly changed from 800x600 to 1024x768, it's because it was my birthday two days ago and I got a Geforce 7800 GS as a present from my mom. Cool mom, huh? She thought I deserved it for sending all the adventure games I review to her.. Anyhow, now I play the game in 1024x768 with 4xAA and almost everything on max (except grass distance) and I'm getting 40+ fps almost constantly (except for some weird drops down to the twenties in some particular places). I like the card.

So I haven't been imagining things? New gates open up while you're playing? I wasn't sure, but it seemed like it.

The point of the Eurogamer review was to say Oblivion is great. I think it is (although not perfect) but they didn't "lose their credibility" for me. It would take more than one bad review for that, and they didn't screw the Oblivion one up that bad. Just a tad high final score. About the preview: I don't like henchmen. I don't like having a party. I really hope the game is designed well enough for a lone hero to be able to pass through it all. Otherwise it'll feel like one of those dreadful MMORPG's where you can't solo anything in the end-game and has to rely on being in a strong enough guild. Uh.. ok, something like that. I want to play alone, dammit!

Nope. I am doing mage guild quests right now. I stopped the main quest somewhere after Does anyone know how many Oblivion gates there are in total? I've closed 20+ gates by now but I keep finding more everywhere.

I've bought two strategy guides in my life: Kingdom Hearts for my girlfriend and World of Warcraft for my girlfriend's little brother. I don't know about the World of Warcraft one, but the Kingdom Hearts strategy guide was a success. It comes with a map with things you can find and several pages full of stickers. Everytime you find one of the things in the map, you can place a sticker on its position on the map to see which ones you've already taken. My girlfriend loved that, and she's been obsessing about it for months. She is currently level 78-80 or so but refuses to finish the game because she doesn't want it to end. Ever I'll buy her Kingdom Hearts 2 as soon as it is released here.

I read in one of the help-loading screens that there's supposed to be some kind of "varla" stones in Ayleid shrines that can recharge weapons. Has anyone found any of those? I've found waylaid stones.. uh something like that, but those only recharge your mana. Did anyone found varla stones..?

This is the one I am currently using.

By the way, let me just add that leveling does not make you weaker relative to your enemies. I am level 44 now and I can sneak-kill most Dremora mages in one swing of the sword, I run through the other Dremore lords like no tomorrow and nothing so far is able to stop me. I hit a rough spot somewhere around level 20, but since then it's been all good. I keep getting better and better stuff (found an amulet that returns 33% of all damage done to me back to the attacker!), my skills keep growing slowly and I am gathering piles of sigil stones. The only thing I lack is a decent weapon. I am still using an unenchanted Daedric longsword, because I hate having weapons that have to be recharged after every second battle. I'm hoping I'll find some sort of weapon that has a permanent effect instead, but it seems my hope has so far been in vain.