Oblivion preview

[LoneWolf16]

Never played Gothic 2, although that softcore porn scene (Which, by the way, nobody seems to care about ) happens to of piqued my interest.

 

And yes, screw what anybody says. Bethesda shall finish Oblivion, and it shall be good! All shall bow down before it's awesome twitch based combat system!

 

 

 

Kidding aside, the lack of control over blocking really irked me in Morrowind.

[Calax]

If you hated the voice actors because they couldn't get the voice to act correctly don't play Act of War.

[chibajoe]

The way I see it, Bethesda has been making the same game for the last ten(!) years or so: a freeform RPG that doesn't limit the ability of the PC to interact with the game world in any way. They have, unfortunately, never succeeded... but they get closer with every try . Personally, I've always been impressed by the games; both by the level of ambition and the level of success, given the limitations of the technology that Bethesda had available at the time. I don't always agree with some of the choices that they have made, as far as game mechanics are concerned, but I've always applauded their efforts. At this point, they are (as far as I can tell) the only people trying to make a real CRPG, or at least one that lets you role play any character you wish (within the contexts of a sword and sorcery setting).

Come to think of it, they might have always been the only company making this kind of game. In every other game that I can think of, you are the "chosen one", with a grand destiny that you must fulfill. Sure, you may be allowed to fulfill it in several different ways, but ultimately, it's either fulfill your destiny or don't play the game, because there's no content that lets you do anything else. The Bethesda games, in contrast, really could care less if you fulfilled your destiny; it's there, if you want it, but if all you want to do is run around pickpocketing everything with a pocket (and even some things that can't possibly have pockets " ) then that's fine too. The biggest problem (for me, anyway) has been that they've always been a bit dull; freeform works best with lots and lots of content. Fortunately, with every incarnation, the games get more and more content, and the interactions between your PC and the game world get better.

As for the game mechanics becomming "dumbed down"... well, if it helps the game become more accessible to more people, all the better. Bethesda is wise enough to include the TES Construction Set with their games, as is very supportive of the MOD community, which means that any failings within the game can (and usually are) fixed within a short time (such as Blocking enhanced and combat enhanced).

 

Bethesda is trying to do something no one else is doing, and blaming them for not making a better game is (IMO, at least) at best counterproductive, and at worst a bit childish.

[EnderAndrew]

For what it is worth, Dragon Age and NWN:2 are real CRPGs. Yet Obsidian and Bioware don't make your list?

[mkreku]

For what it is worth, Dragon Age and NWN:2 are real CRPGs.  Yet Obsidian and Bioware don't make your list?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

How do we know what two unreleased games really are? Maybe Dragon Age is Diablo 3 and Neverwinter Nights 2 is Obsidian's first racing game?

[Ellester]

The way I see it, Bethesda has been making the same game for the last ten(!) years or so: a freeform RPG that doesn't limit the ability of the PC to interact with the game world in any way.  They have, unfortunately, never succeeded... but they get closer with every try  . 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

This reminds me of Troika. They had some great ideas, and came close to making a great rpg, but they just couldn

[EnderAndrew]

Again, the faults of Morrowind all appear to be corrected in Oblivion. That is saying a lot.

[metadigital]

Again, the faults of Morrowind all appear to be corrected in Oblivion.  That is saying a lot.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Until we uncover the faults they have created for Oblivion ... :D

 

 

 

PS There is yet another review in this month's PC Zone, which I'll post a summary of once I get around to reading it ...

[GhostofAnakin]

PS There is yet another review in this month's PC Zone, which I'll post a summary of once I get around to reading it ...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

You seem to have quite a few subscriptions to gaming magazines. Don't you get Playboy over there?

 

As for Oblivion, I'm giving it a chance. Although maybe I should actually get around to playing Morrowind one of these days so I can judge for myself what Bethesda's games are like.

[metadigital]

PS There is yet another review in this month's PC Zone, which I'll post a summary of once I get around to reading it ...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You seem to have quite a few subscriptions to gaming magazines. Don't you get Playboy over there?

 

As for Oblivion, I'm giving it a chance. Although maybe I should actually get around to playing Morrowind one of these days so I can judge for myself what Bethesda's games are like.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It's a hobby. (I was deciding which one I would subscribe to, by spending twice as much as an annual subscription on a few months' worth of magazines at shop prices. I think I'll plump for PC Format; although PC Zone isn't too bad. PC Gamer are just too gushy about any crap that a developer tells them. I might inspect modding magazines next, so that I can prepare for my next game PC build, in about six months or so ...)

 

Playboy is a worldwide franchise, but I gave up reading it about a decade ago. (It does have good articles.)

 

I really wanted Morrowind to be good. I did like it to begin with, but it just didn't grow, as an experience. It was the same in hour 40 as it was in hour one, as it was in hour 140. Just grind. There were some great ideas, though.

[GhostofAnakin]

I really wanted Morrowind to be good. I did like it to begin with, but it just didn't grow, as an experience. It was the same in hour 40 as it was in hour one, as it was in hour 140. Just grind. There were some great ideas, though.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Would you recommend it, though, for someone looking forward to Oblivion? I know the stories aren't really connected, but still...

[metadigital]

I liked the character creation. I liked the beginning. I liked the concept behind the magic system, and the enchanting possibilities using soul gems.

 

The boring bits just started to detract too much from the game play. There are lots of fed-ex: the first initiation quest for the Mage guild is to go and find a bunch of mushrooms. Which is fine, except it takes about twelve hours (of real time) to get them ...

[GhostofAnakin]

12 hours fetching mushrooms....sounds like a drunken college night I had.

[metadigital]

Except it doesn't end in 'shrooming fun. It's just the first of many, many fed-ex missions.

[GhostofAnakin]

Maybe one day when I'm laid up in bed because of some accident or whatever I'll pick it up.

[metadigital]

Get it if you can find it cheap. It's worth checking out. Some people think it is the bee's knees. It is totally free-form. you can literally do anything, in any order. (If you kill a significant character to the over-arching plot, it will tell you and you can either keep playing, or restart from before you commited the sin, provided you saved the game.)

 

There is a lot of good plot stuff, too, but it's all stuck in little books that require you to stare at the screen in an uncomfortable way.

 

There are a lot of pluses, it's just that there always seems to be a minus tempering the pluses, so one never feels like the game is sensational ...

[LoneWolf16]

I liked the character creation. I liked the beginning. I liked the concept behind the magic system, and the enchanting possibilities using soul gems.

 

The boring bits just started to detract too much from the game play. There are lots of fed-ex: the first initiation quest for the Mage guild is to go and find a bunch of mushrooms. Which is fine, except it takes about twelve hours (of real time) to get them ...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Only took me about a half-hour. "

 

I'd reccommend Morrowind, considering that I just started to play it again, and am wondering why I stopped...

[metadigital]

I liked the character creation. I liked the beginning. I liked the concept behind the magic system, and the enchanting possibilities using soul gems.

 

The boring bits just started to detract too much from the game play. There are lots of fed-ex: the first initiation quest for the Mage guild is to go and find a bunch of mushrooms. Which is fine, except it takes about twelve hours (of real time) to get them ...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Only took me about a half-hour. "

 

I'd reccommend Morrowind, considering that I just started to play it again, and am wondering why I stopped...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

We obviously have very different playing styles, then. (You must be exaggerating: your first attempt, and you did that quest in half an hour? It takes that long to get out of the town!) Anyway, as I said, I really liked it, to begin with. Then it just became tiresome. Very tiresome. But, if you like it, you play it. And good luck to you.

 

Anyway, here is an article from the new Escapist magazine

Don't role-play the bugs, which had me in stitches on page 3:

...

When they zoned in (it took only about twenty minutes on Newton's dial-up), the party looked at the woodlands for about five seconds. Then they began systematically killing every living thing they encountered in the zone that wasn't labeled "Kostas." Fawns drinking at the brook - dead. Deer bounding across the woods - dead. "Why are you slaying all the wildlife?" I demanded.

 

"dood... 2.5 x normal xp for killing," explained Jon.

 

"Need to level up to fight orcs," admitted Scott.

 

"I'm hunting to gather dried venison for our overland expedition," rationalized Newton.

 

After about thirty minutes of tile-by-tile slaughter, the party finally reached Kostas, the quest-giver, their only source for the directions to the hidden orc fort. It was after Kostas killed Brian that I realized that my faction script had now set Kostas to be the party's enemy. Too many deer had been killed, you see.

Scott, Jon, and Newton soon joined Brian and the deer in the land of the dead and the zone fell into a grim quiet. "You weren't supposed to kill the deer! Now I have to raise you from the dead and the module is ruined!" I typed as loudly as I could.

 

"If you didn't want us to kill the deer, why'd you put them there?" asked Scott.

 

"BECAUSE REAL FORESTS HAVE DEER! IT'S MORE IMMERSIVE THIS WAY!"

...

[Shryke]

that mushroom quest is easy. you can get all four different sorts in about 5 minutes. just take the stilt strider back to sceyda neen and wander round the edge of town and you'll find them soon enough :cool:

 

i like the books in morrowind. at first i just read ones that would give me a skill boost, but one time i actually sat down and read some of them, and they're quite cool

[Serious Callers Only]

that mushroom quest is easy. you can get all four different sorts in about 5 minutes. just take the stilt strider back to sceyda neen and wander round the edge of town and you'll find them soon enough  :cool:

 

i like the books in morrowind. at first i just read ones that would give me a skill boost, but one time i actually sat down and read some of them, and they're quite cool 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

Could be longer though. I ussually install some mod that gives more books, but then, i am used to read novels on-screen.

[Reveilled]

Y'know, with all these fed-ex missions in games, they really should make a game where your character is a professional courier. Instead of classes like "Wizard" and "Fighter", have ones like "Postman" and "Mail Sorter". Ooo, they could even do like in PS:T and have a faction sort of thing, so you can be affilated with UPS, FedEx, the US Postal Service, Royal Mail, etc.

 

And then, one day, your character delivers a very special parcel...*cue intro music*

 

:D

[EnderAndrew]

I liked the character creation. I liked the beginning. I liked the concept behind the magic system, and the enchanting possibilities using soul gems.

 

The boring bits just started to detract too much from the game play. There are lots of fed-ex: the first initiation quest for the Mage guild is to go and find a bunch of mushrooms. Which is fine, except it takes about twelve hours (of real time) to get them ...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You only need three mushrooms and I found them in less than ten minutes. And that is the very first, basic Mage Guild mission if I recall.

[metadigital]

I liked the character creation. I liked the beginning. I liked the concept behind the magic system, and the enchanting possibilities using soul gems.

 

The boring bits just started to detract too much from the game play. There are lots of fed-ex: the first initiation quest for the Mage guild is to go and find a bunch of mushrooms. Which is fine, except it takes about twelve hours (of real time) to get them ...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You only need three mushrooms and I found them in less than ten minutes. And that is the very first, basic Mage Guild mission if I recall.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Geez, you guys are ragging on me tonight!

 

It was a demonstrative example. I took longer because I walked to the lake to do more than one quest simulataneously, okay? I explored the villiage, I looked around the periphery of it, and searched any and all sidetracks and underground areas (dungeons); I was interpolating these results to ascertain an approximate length of time for the 'shroom quest. (I thought one of the fungal types was near the lakey-thing? Then there was that girl who lost something. Not the one who lost her betrothed, outside the big crabshell villiage, the other one. I did like the dude with the super-jump spell, too.)

 

Anyway, I'm sure you all didn't complete the quest in ten minutes the first time you played the game, which was what I was talking about.

 

For the record, I ended up with about thirty six quests and no idea where I was going. And after the stupid 'shroomin, you have to find flowers or birds or some other dumb things. That's the problem, not the time taken to complete the quests: it's all just "rinse and repeat", ad nauseam.

[Judge Hades]

And then, one day, your character delivers a very special parcel...*cue intro music*

 

:D

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

OH! I want to be part of the Pizza Delivery faction! Cue that special music! (tee hee)

[Drakron]

You know ... porn movies start like that ...

 

Not that I know anything about that of course.