Oblivion First Impressions

[Sermon]

I'm tempted to buy this, but I don't know if I'll be able to play this with a half-decent performance.

 

My System Specs:

* Windows XP

* 1 GB System RAM

* 2.2 Ghz Athlon 64 3500+ processor

* 12x DVD-ROM Drive

* 128MB ATI Radeon 9800 Video card

 

What do you guys and gals think?

Edited March 22, 2006 by Sermon

[Pidesco]

You have either had a change in your perspective since Daggerfall came out, or you didn't really "hate" Morrowind.  When someone tells me they put 30 hours into Morrowind and hated it, I don't believe them.  There must have been something compelling enough to get you to spend that much time.  If I hate a game, I rarely spend more than a few hours on it.

 

Maybe you were just disappointed that Morrowind did not meet your expectations.  That is the way I felt.  Personally, I enjoyed Morrowind for awhile, but was very disappointed by the lackluster quests and storyline.  I would not say I hated it though. 

 

Daggerfall was not a shining gem of a story either.  It had randomized quests that were pretty generic, and I don't remember ever even engaging the main plot.  But my perspective was different at the time.  I didn't have a bunch of other free form games to choose from, so it was a refreshing concept. 

 

So Soulseeker, I can't really answer your question without knowing a lot more about you.  I don't know how much time you spent on Morrowind, so I only have my personal experience to pull from.  Hopefully that helps a bit.

 

I suppose "hate" ian't right word. A better way of putting things is that I resent Morrowind. It was a game that I really wanted to like and invested time in only to come away empty handed. I guess that's my fault though.

 

To be more specific about why I dislike Morrowind in comparison to Daggerfall, there's one thing that really annoyed me. Before Morrowind came out I remember reading about it being smaller than Daggerfall. I reasoned that that could be a good thing because (I thought) that would allow Bethesda to deal away with the randomness of the previous game and make a smaller, but fuller and more fleshed out game world. Instead Morrowind ended up being smaller and emptier than Daggerfall.

What I liked about Daggerfall was the sense of having a huge sandbox to play in and do whatever I want. What I didn't like about Daggerfall was the genericness and repetition of the gameworld. So Morrowind did away with I liked about Daggerfall but didn't fix what I didn't like about Daggerfall.

[alanschu]

Even a seamless world like the Ultima games didn't have the AIs running for all people in the world at the same time.  I'd be very surprised if Oblivion did.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Well - be surprised. Oblivion runs AI updates for *every* NPC across the world. I was wrong on the number (it's 1500) and there's a better post than this one but I'm too tired to find it. Here's Gavin 'kathode' Carter arguing about WoW :

 

Even though we have massively higher poly counts than WoW and higher texture res's and more texture passes than they do, it's not all rendering. WoW doesn't have 1500 NPCs running in the background. I know you're going to tell me that they have a lot more than that, but you'd be incorrect. Their system doesn't require that they maintain persistent state data (client-side) on all the characters. In fact, about the only thing it does is update positions and animations and stats for characters in your client's local area. That's throwing around a few numbers, which is easy. The hard part of AI processing is making the decisions for characters (i.e. evaluations of circumstances), which we do for all characters in the world in staggered updates, as we have to maintain a persistent world state. WoW certainly does have quite a load just from the sheer amount of data that they have, but they have a server side to take care of that. We only have a client.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

All that quote really said was that the NPCs in WoW are drones. There is going to be more ticks required for it, but there's no way that they are doing full AI routines for people on the other side of the world.

[Shadowstrider]

All that quote really said was that the NPCs in WoW are drones.  There is going to be more ticks required for it, but there's no way that they are doing full AI routines for people on the other side of the world.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

You would be surprised. We have "high process" and "low process" activities, but the difference in terms of AI computation isn't great. I would have to differ to the Oblivion AI squad for a more in-depth analysis of the difference, but you would be surprised at just how much we are doing in the background.

[Shadowstrider]

I'm tempted to buy this, but I don't know if I'll be able to play this with a half-decent performance.

 

My System Specs:

* Windows XP

* 1 GB System RAM

* 2.2 Ghz Athlon 64 3500+ processor

* 12x DVD-ROM Drive

* 128MB ATI Radeon 9800 Video card

 

What do you guys and gals think?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

It should run, but not very well.

[metadigital]

It's going to be very interesting to study this game. Naturally, I will have to play it to determine just how bad it is and so that I can make good arguments in future debates.

 

 

I'll play it  "som fan l

[alanschu]

All that quote really said was that the NPCs in WoW are drones.  There is going to be more ticks required for it, but there's no way that they are doing full AI routines for people on the other side of the world.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

You would be surprised. We have "high process" and "low process" activities, but the difference in terms of AI computation isn't great. I would have to differ to the Oblivion AI squad for a more in-depth analysis of the difference, but you would be surprised at just how much we are doing in the background.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Not knowing anything about the implementation, I'm skeptical as to how necessary it is. At first glance it seems like wasted cycles because the AI will be doing a decent amount of heavy lifting, even though it will never been seen. I hope it's worth it for when the PC comes back to the area.

 

Meh.

[Gromnir]

I'm thinking of getting this game, but I'd like to hear from folks who've actually played the game rather than folks who've read someone else's review.  ...And that's double for folks who haven't played or even read a review.  Because this is Bethesda, we'll hear the axe grinders who've never even considered buying the game in the first place.

 

Also, is the game out on PC yet?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

we got it a couple days early and have been playing it... though not necessarily enjoying it... but not hating either.

 

...

 

half-arsed feedback is worse than no feedback at all. shout "it sucks," w/o any explanation is as worthless as is describing kewlness w/o giving a why.

unfortunately, we not have huge time at the moment, and we wanna get a little further into game before we start throwing 'round final judgments 'n such.

 

quick observations:

 

1) if you didn't like combat or story elements in morrowind, we would not think that your appreciation for oblivion will be much different.

 

2) the game is a resource hog. got a athlon 64x2 3800+ cpu, an msi neo4 sli mb, 1 gig of crucial's ballistix ram, and a single evga geforce 6800gs pcie, etc. not a Big Dog, but no chihuahua neither.

 

3) the trees look nice.

 

*shrug*

 

more later.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Blank]

...and the faces are god-awful...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

No offence to SS, but this recurrent theme in Bethesda's games lead me to believe that all their own faces are butt-ugly; they model the game-faces after themselves.

[metadigital]

Gromnir's avatar keeps following me with his eyes ...

[Gromnir]

...and the faces are god-awful...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

No offence to SS, but this recurrent theme in Bethesda's games lead me to believe that all their own faces are butt-ugly; they model the game-faces after themselves.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

have said this before, but much like morrowind, the faces in oblivion looks as if somebody attempted to paint a realistic face upon a balloon. there is an inhuman and unpleasant distortion 'bout all bethesda game faces.

 

but the trees look nice.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Shadowstrider]

1) if you didn't like combat or story elements in morrowind, we would not think that your appreciation for oblivion will be much different.

 

The story picks up after the first act. I enjoyed Oblivion's story much more than I did Morrowind. I only dislike one part, and it is towards the beginning.

 

2) the game is a resource hog.  got a athlon 64x2 3800+ cpu, an msi neo4 sli mb, 1 gig of crucial's ballistix ram, and a single evga geforce 6800gs pcie, etc.  not a Big Dog, but no chihuahua neither.

 

Unfortunately, it is.

 

...and the faces are god-awful...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

No offence to SS, but this recurrent theme in Bethesda's games lead me to believe that all their own faces are butt-ugly; they model the game-faces after themselves.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

hrm... I didn't know about this policy, and I certainly don't recognize anyone from the office while in game. In regards to the appearance of the Bethsoft employees, I think we're a rather attractive bunch. I'd do me.

[metadigital]

... or at least narcissistic ...

[ShadowPaladin V1.0]

The story picks up after the first act.  I enjoyed Oblivion's story much more than I did Morrowind.  I only dislike one part, and it is towards the beginning.

 

hrm... I didn't know about this policy, and I certainly don't recognize anyone from the office while in game.  In regards to the appearance of the Bethsoft employees, I think we're a rather attractive bunch.  I'd do me.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

How long is the first act? And does the game adjust if you go wandering off to explore. Or will it just be easy ?

 

Er.. Well thanks for that disturbing mental image...

[Shadowstrider]

The story picks up after the first act.  I enjoyed Oblivion's story much more than I did Morrowind.  I only dislike one part, and it is towards the beginning.

 

hrm... I didn't know about this policy, and I certainly don't recognize anyone from the office while in game.  In regards to the appearance of the Bethsoft employees, I think we're a rather attractive bunch.  I'd do me.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

How long is the first act? And does the game adjust if you go wandering off to explore. Or will it just be easy ?

 

Er.. Well thanks for that disturbing mental image...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

The first act, in terms of gameplay, is approximately 3-5 hours. It does scale.

 

As for narcissism. Obviously, I was joking in regards to "I'd do me."

[ShadowPaladin V1.0]

The first act, in terms of gameplay, is approximately 3-5 hours.  It does scale.

 

As for narcissism.  Obviously, I was joking in regards to "I'd do me."

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Thanks.

 

Lets not go there..

[Kaftan Barlast]

All that quote really said was that the NPCs in WoW are drones.  There is going to be more ticks required for it, but there's no way that they are doing full AI routines for people on the other side of the world.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

You would be surprised. We have "high process" and "low process" activities, but the difference in terms of AI computation isn't great. I would have to differ to the Oblivion AI squad for a more in-depth analysis of the difference, but you would be surprised at just how much we are doing in the background.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

What I would like to know is why you need to have all 1500 running at once? Unless it was basic stuff like "change all NPCs in City X to be aware that plot Y just took place in City Z"

 

 

 

It's going to be very interesting to study this game. Naturally, I will have to play it to determine just how bad it is and so that I can make good arguments in future debates.

 

 

I'll play it  "som fan l

[Meshugger]

but the trees look nice.

 

HA! Good Fun!

 

Looks like it's a must buy then

[LadyCrimson]

Someone I know is playing it on a Athlon XP 2600, 1Gig ram, nVidia 6200 and he said it's running fine....on 800x600. Still ok on 1024 too. He also said the opening is reminicant of Daggerfall plot-wise, and that the beginning tutorial/character creation was a really long process or something.

 

I think I shall wait a bit longer. I did like the first one ok, but once I got bored of the game I never wanted to touch it again (never bought the MW expansions)...I'm thinking, perhaps, that the new one will be too much like picking up the old one and I'll be bored off the bat. I'll be interested in what people have to say as time goes on.

[karka]

Oblivion isn't Morrowind 2.

[LadyCrimson]

Well, I know it's not...but some people talk about it like it essentially is.

[kirottu]

Obviously, I was joking in regards to "I'd do me."

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Riight...

 

I

[Shadowstrider]

What I would like to know is why you need to have all 1500 running at once? Unless it was basic stuff like "change all NPCs in City X to be aware that plot Y just took place in City Z"

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

All kinds of stuff. NPCs like to make trips accross the world (makes for fun random encounters), for example.

[kirottu]

Lets not go there..

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

"Already went there and masturbated."

[Camael]

I am having fun with it so far- it is satisfying to lob an arrow at just the right angle to plant it in the spine of a giant rat far down the hallway, and then pull that same arrow out of the dead rat to use on the next one.

I think the faces look good, a little weird sometimes but the uniqueness is good, much better than seeing the same face repeated on all the NPCs (like Bloodlines) - I spent a long time tweaking my character' s face, you have control over everything, and there are actually hairstyles that look good, unlike morrowind.

One thing I will say is that no one will ever go hungry in the land of oblivion, every table, shelf, bookcase, and stump is loaded with platters of food - fruit, cheese,beer, meat - I thought the watermelon was particularly well done

One other thing was my horse seems incredibly slow, even at a gallop it moves slower than my character can run. I hope some horses are faster than others - maybe I just stole a slow one