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Oblivion First Impressions


Hurlshort

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Decided to upload a screenshot from my home rig.

 

eVGA 7800 256mb PCI-E card, 1 gig RAM. Not the greatest rig, but still detected as ultra-high.

post-137-1143087193_thumb.jpg

 

I'll post more as I go.

 

P.S. Note that my character has 2 skirts on. It is because I am comfortable enough in my sexuality to wear skirts, and lots of them.

 

P.P.S. The greaves I'm wearing are enchanted with Life Detection in 180ft... I called them the "Loins of Life."

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Shadowstrider, I hope the writing in Fallout 3 will be better than the junior high crap that I have seen so far in Oblivion.  Please tell me you guys got better writiers for Fallout 3.  PLEASE!    :'(

 

Really! Find some writiers who know how to writie!

 

I'm more suprised by the fact that Hades has accepted the possibility of Fallout 3 and at the very least is hoping for something decent.

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Vic, it was a typo. Nothing to get excited about. Sheesh. :huh:

 

Haitoku, its not a possibility it is a reality. I doubt Bethesda would spent the money to buy the Fallout license and not make a Fallout game. At least one can hope for them to do decent job of it even if that hope is in vain.

Edited by Judge Hades
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Vic, it was a typo.  Nothing to get excited about.  Sheesh.  :huh:

 

Reminds me a bit o' you.

 

Concluding that Bethesda has crap writers because of a couple lines of text (in the NPC-NPC random convos, where I imagine the least amount of attention got in terms of writing) in a game as massive as an ES game is jumping the gun a bit.

 

Now if you played through the main quest and finished a guild storyline or two and concluded that the writing is ****, then I can understand and I might share your "omg, crapnessess writering" attitude.

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Haitoku, its not a possibility it is a reality. I doubt Bethesda would spent the money to buy the Fallout license and not make a Fallout game. At least one can hope for them to do decent job of it even if that hope is in vain.

 

Yeah, but a month ago you were saying it would be crap no matter what. Now you are hoping it's good, sounds like you've changed... atleast a bit. :huh:

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Haitoku, its not a possibility it is a reality. I doubt Bethesda would spent the money to buy the Fallout license and not make a Fallout game. At least one can hope for them to do decent job of it even if that hope is in vain.

 

Yeah, but a month ago you were saying it would be crap no matter what. Now you are hoping it's good, sounds like you've changed... atleast a bit. :)

It's Hades. Werewolf-boy seldom retains a single view on things. Which is probably a good thing, come to think of it.

I had thought that some of nature's journeymen had made men and not made them well, for they imitated humanity so abominably. - Book of Counted Sorrows

 

'Cause I won't know the man that kills me

and I don't know these men I kill

but we all wind up on the same side

'cause ain't none of us doin' god's will.

- Everlast

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Reminds me a bit o' you.

 

No, I don't on people's cases for typoes. FOr the most part I don't get on people's cases on how they post on internet forums because of the informal nature that it brings. We are not writing a 10 page reseach here are we? These forums are not graded in a classroom nor are they part of an official product from any of us which requires a certain level of professionalism.

 

If you can't handle the odd typo in an informal setting as an internet forum is then you really should not be here. Have a nice day.

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Dark Helmet's first impressions!

 

The Beginning

 

The game opens with an impressive opening cinematic, that has Uriel Septim giving the backround of the game, before showing a panorama of the city. It's quite a beautiful view, and Patrick Stewart does a superb job conveying the Emperor's anguish.

 

You start in the Imperial City prison, in Cyrodiil, and go through a lengthy tutorial, which introduces the new combat engine, various new gameplay mechanics, and gets you some armour and weapons before letting you go off on your own in the Imperial City.

 

Your quest to find the heir gets off to a quick start. Unlike Morrowind, which eased you into your heroic role, Oblivion gets you started right away in dealing with the menace threatening Cyrodiil. In fact, it's likely you'll find your way into the fiery pits of Oblivion pretty quickly.

 

The story is compelling enough, but at the start, the characters just don't have much personality. The characters you meet don't stay in the story for long, though they may play more important roles as one gets farther in the game.

 

What's New

 

Radiant AI is the big new feature. Unlike Morrowind, the AI now have more life to them. They have jobs, carry out tasks, converse with their fellow citizens, and even take up arms to defend their city against would-be bandits.

 

The skills in Oblivion are also different, as many have been cut or combined. Spears, Medium Armour, Unarmoured, and Enchant have been jettisoned, and Short Blade and Long Blade, and Blunt Weapons and Axes have been combined. This lowers the total skills amount by 6, to 21.

 

Combat has also been overhauled. Instead of Morrowind's static, and dull system of hacking until the enemy died, Oblivion has a dynamic, exciting combat engine. Duels are tense affairs, with you and your combatant exchanging blows, parrying, and circling each other. It's much more fluid, and realistic, than Morrowind's.

 

The Good

 

Actors are now voice-acted. While most of the voices do repeat, certain important characters get their own, distinct actor. And it certainly makes the world more lively.

 

Combat is intense, and exciting. Blocking and attacking require timing, and strategy. It also feels a lot more realistic... instead of standing and slashing at your opponent, you have to look for weaknesses, and have to block and counter to have any success.

 

The world is also expansive, and each city Guard has their own distinct livery, which is nice. The Imperial City has a full contingent of Imperial Legion troops, and elite Palace Guards. Their presence in the cities, and on the roads keeps you in the boundaries of the law!

 

The Bad

 

The inventory control scheme is terrible. The menus are labeled with icons, not text, making it fairly difficult to find anything. Instead of having your inventory, journal, and map bound to different keys, you have to cycle through menus to find what you want.

 

Other controls make little sense. Want to drop something? You can't drag it out, you must press shift-click. Not too difficult, but it shows a lack of thought in putting it together.

 

The RAI is quirky. It sometimes does weird things, like forget to open gates, says the wrong things, and their conversations lack... substance. Usually they aren't more than a few lines, and seem very artificial, and not spontaneous banter.

 

And they don't seem to react to any actions, other than theft, and assault. You can wreak havoc on their furniture, belongings, whatever, and they don't care. They don't even question you running into their bedrooms or storage rooms. But take one plate, and the guards are there in no time. The Guards are confounding. They are omniscient, and can detect any crime commited. And the game won't alert you that you've been detected.

 

Combat, while mostly quite good, has a few downsides. The first is that your character will stagger backwards if he takes a hit. Makes sense, right? Well, it makes it close to impossible to hit anything if you're being attacked by multiple enemies.

 

The character models are fairly dismal. Most of the hairstyles are the same for BOTH genders (yeah, you read that right), and many of the models are downright ugly. I understand that many people in the Middle Ages weren't... supermodels, but when I play a game, I don't want to look awful.

 

The Verdict!

 

It's an excellent game, from what I can tell. Fun to play, and I have to commend Bethesda for trying to innovate, rather than sit on their laurels and sell a mediocre, outdated game to their fans.

 

But, while they have taken steps to making an immersive game world, they still have ways to go. The game is not without flaws, and gamers may be easily frustrated with the combat, and the quests.

 

I give it an 8/10. Had it had more time, and more refinement, it might have been a great game. As it is, it's certainly still a good game, but has too many flaws for it to be truly amazing like everyone had hoped it would be.

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A bit touchy, are we?

 

You were the one who brought the subject matter to the table, not I. If you don't like it then there is a nice little function of these forums called "Ignore." If you don't like my posts or my typoes then I suggest using it.

 

Back to the topic at hand...

 

Well, Bethesda pretty much confirmed their writing crappitude with Morrowind. Oblivion is just to determine whether that has gone up or down, and to what extent.

 

It seems to me, from what I have seen here and other sources that it is pretty much the same, but now added a lot more voice acting to the mix, which can be considered worse than what they did before. I think the Mute Button might be used quite often.

Edited by Judge Hades
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A bit touchy, are we?

 

 

You were the one who brought the subject matter to the table, not I. If you don't like it then there is a nice little function of these forums called "Ignore." If you don't like my posts or my typoes then I suggest using it.

 

 

Hades, Hades. Let's explain this step by step.

 

1. Your hyperbole reaction to a small glimpse of writing.

2. My satire of your hyperbole on a small thing like a glaring typo, ironically while you're critisizing writing.

3. You not getting the joke and getting defensive.

4. Me explaining the satire.

5. The satire flies over your head again, sadly. Getting more defensive.

6. A small tease.

7. Getting even more defensive, me now afraid you'll spit out the pacifier and get ready to box me.

 

 

Now if you want to continue this, pm me.

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