Oblivion First Impressions

[Gabrielle]

Too hot there. I prefer to go to Iceland.

[metadigital]

With the boiling thermal pools, instead? "

[Llyranor]

Stay on-topic. Final warning.

[Gabrielle]

With the boiling thermal pools, instead? "

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Oh no, I like the cold, it fits my personality.

[ShadowPaladin V1.0]

Stay on-topic. Final warning.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

[Bokishi]

Stay on-topic. Final warning.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Yes, yes indeed.

[Llyranor]

Alright, I did the first Dark Brotherhood task. Nothing special. Just kill someone, with nothing specific attached to the quest. Afterwards, I've been officially admitted into the Brotherhood, and was given some cool ninja gear, which also gives some very appreciated skill boosts. My first contract is to go kill a pirate. Now that's a good start, yarr.

Edited March 25, 2006 by Llyranor

[ShadowPaladin V1.0]

Why are the indoor screenshots so dark ? Not just yours , but Hades' were too.

[Shadowstrider]

The indoor areas are extremely dark, much to my chagrin.

[@\NightandtheShape/@]

With the boiling thermal pools, instead? "

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Oh no, I like the cold, it fits my personality.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Yeah but ICELAND? Geez

[jaguars4ever]

With the boiling thermal pools, instead? "

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Oh no, I like the cold, it fits my personality.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Yeah but ICELAND? Geez

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Those cold-hearted Icelanders do nothing more than leech off their Danish neighbors!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just Kidding.

 

The Icelanders are a kind and industrious people with a rich cultural heritage. And did you know that Iceland gave us the brilliant explorer, Eirikur

[@\NightandtheShape/@]

With the boiling thermal pools, instead? "

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Oh no, I like the cold, it fits my personality.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Yeah but ICELAND? Geez

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Those cold-hearted Icelanders do nothing more than leech off their Danish neighbors!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just Kidding.

 

The Icelanders are a kind and industrious people with a rich cultural heritage. And did you know that Iceland gave us the brilliant explorer, Eirikur

[Tigranes]

Indoors and especially caverns are very dark, my brightness settings is nearly at max. However, I've had to do this for KOTOR and other games. The problem in Oblivion si taht screenshots seem to ignore gamma. At least sometimes.

 

Getting some talk in before the thread is smitten by angrymeta -

 

Radeon9600(256mb) and 512mb RAM, the issue appears to be RAM not the Vidcard. On lower settings (800x600, Bloom, NoAA, Minimum Shadows, Normal View Distance) it works 20-30fps, but the fps doesn't really go dwon that much when i turn up the sliders a lot. However, the one place I do chug (and nearly unplayably) is in dense forests. I'm getting 512 extra RAM in a few days, so we'll see if that makes it better.

 

I've explored Bruma and Imperial City. The population ratio is no better than Morrowind, things still never really feel bustly and busy, except in some Taverns, where all those stupid RAI conversations echo off each other into an incomprehensible babble. Quests seem to be slightly better at least, though.

 

Horses have really bad control, the turning is slow, and in general not very enjoyable. I think both with Oblivion and NWN2, it was always going to be either Mounted Combat or No Horses. Without combat there's no point.

 

Persuasion minigame is quite fun, IMO, whereas the lockpick one is kinda random. Maybe I don't have the hang of it yet. Both are simple and fairly easy.

 

It appears to be a Morrowind, some things improved quite significantly (combat, world environment..) but some things not enough (empty cities, horrible dialogue..)

[Cantousent]

Let me give an update. Didn't have a ton of time to play today, but what I did play was good.

 

However, the horses suck. I hate them, and it would be a trip to the glue factory for the damned things if I had my way. What possessed Bethesda to implement them in such a way escapes me, but they are a pain.

 

I don't care in the least about empty cities. I don't want resources going to take care of huge numbers of pointless NPCs. Some folks think it's important. More power to them. For my part, I don't care. I want to have more interesting interaction, not more pointless dialogue. If you want huge populations, play an MMORPG.

 

Shadow, you're plain wrong. If it's a design feature to have the creature able to disappear into thin air, then it's a bad one. If it's a bug that I smote some ten creatures under the bridge and every squar inch I could access then don't tell me I missed something. I scoured the area. If something is that good at hiding and it's necessary to kill it to further the quest, it's a bug. Don't go the Troika route and tell me it's a design desicion. Well... I'll forgive you, but pay attention to how folks treated Troika over the same thing.

 

The instant travel feature is great. I hate my horse. If I want to travel and explore, which I have, then I have the opportunity. I hate my horse. If I'm in a hurry and want to get from point A to point B, which I have, then I have the opportunity. I hate my horse. The option is great. If I were my horse, I'd shoot myself. It'd be hard using my hoof, but I'd find a way.

 

Meanwhile, travel is so much better in Oblivion than Morrowind that it's like a new game. Wait, it is a new game with great exploration instead of a sucky, drab world with some random monster attacking me every inch of the way.

 

More observations as I play.

 

OH, and the quests are much better. Shadow was completely right about the gate quest. It was great. Clearly, someone over at Bethesda is proud of their work and they should be.

[Tigranes]

I don't care in the least about empty cities. I don't want resources going to take care of huge numbers of pointless NPCs. Some folks think it's important. More power to them. For my part, I don't care. I want to have more interesting interaction, not more pointless dialogue. If you want huge populations, play an MMORPG.

 

But is there interesting interaction? Not much so far, apart from sparks of good quests. Otherwise, agreed.

[mkreku]

I was out riding my trusty steed when a bear attacked me. It bit the hind legs of my horse and no matter how fast I rode, the bear kept up. So I had to dismount and fight the bear, but unfortunately I accidently hit my horse over the buttocks with my sword while killing the beer and the damn creature (the horse, that is) ran into the forest and disappeared! I haven't seen him since

[Judge Hades]

The indoor areas are extremely dark, much to my chagrin.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

It makes sense for them to be dark if you don't have a light source with you.

[jaguars4ever]

The indoor areas are extremely dark, much to my chagrin.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

It makes sense for them to be dark if you don't have a light source with you.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

They should give you a light source. Damn cheap-skates. <_<

[Hurlshort]

I use my torch frequently, and it really makes a difference in the light. I was actually down in the sewers for a quest, nd I decided to douse my torch and sneak around with my bow. I started getting way creeped out. Sewers + Dark = Teh scary.

[Judge Hades]

They should give you a light source.  Damn cheap-skates.  <_<

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

They do. They are called torches.

[Enoch]

Damn. Now I want this game. I guess I'm off to newegg or somesuch to order more RAM and a new vid card.

 

Then again, I'm probably not going to have much gaming time in the next month or so...

[Diogo Ribeiro]

On the other hand I won't bother with Oblivion. There's little I've seen that excites me about the title, and some of the hype has fell trough the cracks of many experiences several gamers have shared on the net, including the TES Forums.

[Lyric Suite]

On the other hand I won't bother with Oblivion. There's little I've seen that excites me about the title, and some of the hype has fell trough the cracks of many experiences several gamers have shared on the net, including the TES Forums.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Indeed.

 

I will get the game eventually, but i'll propably wait a couple of years, like a did with Morrowind, just so the mod can get the proper time to finish the game Bethesda has left in alpha state...

[Hassat Hunter]

My first Impressions...

INCLUDES SPOILERS (of the beginning cave; since I couldn't get out of it yet)

 

Short: IT BETTER WELL GET DAMN LOADS BETTER AFTER DUNGEON #1

 

In long:

From what I have seen from Oblivion so far makes me so pissed off I actually bought the Special Edition . Wouldn't expect such a long time of non-freedom (haven't gotten out of the intro cave yet; read further to know why) after playing Oblivion, and frankly what I see of the cave sucks.

My first impressions:

Maxed up the graphics; knew it wouldn't run perfect, but just wanted to see it before lowering it to a playable rate. Anyways I start and create my char; all perfect...

Run around, looking at the walls, pick up stuff etc. etc. all fun. So I approach the door and all starts... I follow and then the first combat scene comes up...

HARD LOCK

DAMN, must be the graphics (silly me...) so I resetted them to the "advised", but then 1024x768 instead of 640x480. All goes pretty smoothly, and I told myself that I could probably bump it up more later (untill... )

Anyways, loaded the quick-save and continued on. This time the game didn't crash! All well, I was thinking (oh oh stupid me) and continued on smoothly (high FPS). Anyways after the fight they leave and I loot the bodies. Odd that the guard has a armor that apparently is part of her skin or something... very lame!

Ah well; since I am not going to say what happened to me room to room I just list here all the things I HATE (since I haven't really met things I like);

LOCKPICKING; WTF? For every succes on VERY EASY locks I break 3 lockpicks. What the hell? When the things are on top and I click I suddenly break the thing because the pick came down so enormously fast it is wicked. I already noted I ATLEAST have to bump up a thing twice or I will break it even if it is up; how lame is that? Also the damn thing is unresponsive, I have had many times my pick "bumped" 5 times before I could move on to the left or right, and sudden bumps to unknown locations ? Seriouly NOT addapted to Mouse-use

COMBAT AND SPELLCASTING; What the hell is the use of blocking good for? You just slash them up and then use your healing spell because Magicka regains so extremely fast it isn't funny. Who the hell thought up THAT regain rate? Never really needed blocking anyways, just keep attacking, and then they always "suddenly die". Never got any good indication whenever that is so I stay beating them up 5 more rounds before I notice they died.

JOURNAL: Who the hell made this? J to get in, do all the stuff and then J out? How many times didn't I tried Escaping, only to get more clicking as reward. AAARGH. And then the buildup is pretty lame too, far too many tabs and scrolling before you find your destination, *sigh*

LEVELING: Talk about extremely fast. I gained 10 levels in Stealth(!) only by sneaking up that goblin in the first stealth lesson Besides that I needed 3 heals to get a restoration level ... hopefully the leveling speed reduces ALOT later when you need to up the higher levels...

 

And then to finish it off... Why I actually not play Oblivion now, but rather rant on it here. I met the King for the second time when he was attacked. Heroic as I am " I wen't in and slashed an assassin, only to be rewarded by that he suddenly turned naked (all his equipment vanished after he died ) and yet ANOTHER HARDLOCK

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH...

Tell me this get's better, otherwise I really have to beat up SS

 

[/end rant]

I will post new impressions when I cooled down again in about an hour or 2 and retried this "currently PoS"

 

EDIT: Also wan't to mention the Installer bugged out on me! When selecting "I wan't a desktop icon" without "I wanna read ya readme" the Installer crashed and needed a Crtl+Alt+Del Termination...

Edited March 25, 2006 by Hassat Hunter

[Llyranor]

On the other hand I won't bother with Oblivion. There's little I've seen that excites me about the title, and some of the hype has fell trough the cracks of many experiences several gamers have shared on the net, including the TES Forums.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

All in all, it pretty much feels like Morrowind 2.0. There have been improvements, but the similarities stand out as well. The main dialogue seems to be better written, but it's painfully linear (5 hrs in, at least), and the PC only gets 1-2 dialogue 'choices' at a time at best. The dialogue system is definitely an improvement, and the 'wiki' system seems to be more tolerable and toned-down this time around. The problem, however, is that it is STILL too prominent. There's really no opportunity to infuse your character's personality into the game, unless you're the kind of player who likes to roleplay Diablo. Most of the changes from Morrowind have been for the better, so I'll applaud Bethesda for that. Still, from what I expect of your roleplaying/storytelling standards, you will probably not enjoy it enough to warrant a purchase.

Edited March 25, 2006 by Llyranor