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Oblivion First Impressions


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The Dark Brotherhood quest line is among the best in the game.  I think it is probably the closest to what Hades' is looking for in Oblivion.  It is probably the most popular quest line around the office, and I don't think anyone will be disappointed with it.

 

One of my favorite quest lines is the most difficult quest in the game for someone to finish without a strategy guide... so difficult that I can't see anyone completing it without a map marked with locations marked on it.

 

In all honesty, aside from the very, very beginning and a a small part of "Act One,"  Oblivion isn't bad.  I don't think there are many games whose developers continue to play the game for fun.

Okay, other than the Dark Brotherhood and the main storyline, what other quest lines do you recommend?

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One of my favorite quest lines is the most difficult quest in the game for someone to finish without a strategy guide... so difficult that I can't see anyone completing it without a map marked with locations marked on it.

 

:shifty:

 

If people managed the celestial weapons in FFX I think they will. Thats one seriously obscure quest.

I have to agree with Volourn.  Bioware is pretty much dead now.  Deals like this kills development studios.

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Okay, other than the Dark Brotherhood and the main storyline, what other quest lines do you recommend?

 

A lot of the settlement and miscellaneous quests are fun. The aforementioned "stuck in painting" is fun. As is the quest in Anvil where the wizard is stuck in a dream state.

 

As I said, my favorite questline is among the most difficult quests to complete, because it is obscure. You basically have to luck upon an item in a dungeon to trigger it, and then get no real clues as to how to continue. There are a few hints around the world, but without a map or guide, I just can't see anyone completing it, unless people are REALLY lucky or REALLY dedicated.

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Ok, I got the game yesterday.

 

First impressions: graphics are better than I would have imagined! I run a measly Radeon 9800 Pro, but I still have maximum viewing distance and 2x AA, but only in 800x600. Even so, it looks damn good! I'm impressed that they've managed to make it run so well on my aging card. I do suffer from the ATI slowdown that everyone seems to have around the portals though.

 

The main story is already better than the one found in Morrowind (and I am only 6-8 hours into the game), but the side-quests?! I found a fisherman that "only had to catch 12 more fish to be able to retire" and now I'm supposed to gather 12 fish thingies for him! That's MMORPG and doesn't belong in a real game.

 

I found some Shadowsomething wine which triggered a quest. Then I found a girl in a distant tavern that's a wine collector. That seems like it could be a neat quest, but I haven't finished it yet.

 

A paranoid elf wanted me to spy on some citizens in some town somewhere, but it took so much time to stand around doing nothing, waiting for time to pass that I abandoned it. It seemed kind of clever though.

 

Other than that, the quests have been mostly mediocre, although closing the first gate to Oblivion was cool. I'm so impressed with the graphics of this game! I know that distant landscapes become blobs, but it doesn't bother me at all. The planes of Oblivion are very nice, but they're a bit repetitive. Freeing this town (Klutch?) was awesome, although I was getting my ass handed to me by the fire-girls (why on earth can I never remember the names of anything?!).

 

One major problem is still left from Morrowind: I played for 4 hours before I reached 70+ in all my major skills and my main stats (Strength, Agility, Speed). If you just choose the skills you know you're bound to use (or forced to use, even) as your main skills (Blade, Block, Athletics, Armour and so on) you will level like crazy by doing nothing. If you run, you level, if you fight, you level, if you get hit by something, you level, if you heal yourself, you level. You get the point. But the outside enemies seem to scale well, as I am now experiencing some mean pigs in the wilderness instead of wolves, so it's not as bad as Morrowind.. yet.

 

So far, so good. I'll go play some more now.

 

Edit: Oh, I forgot to mention the physics! I love that they've tried to make physics a part of the RPG world! There are lots of these physics related traps in dungeons everywhere. You step on a pressure plate/stumble over a tripwire and these weights hanging from chains comes crashing down on you. Unfortunately, the only trap I ever got an enemy to run into (a rockslide in the plane of Oblivion) didn't quite work. The huge boulders that were supposed to crush the little target creature only pushed him in front of themselves and didn't actually hurt him. It looked very odd, like he was surfing a wave of boulders.

 

Ragdoll works well, and when you get a magic weapon (mine is electric), it's very satisfying to actually blast your opponent's dead body a few feet off the ground.

Edited by mkreku

Swedes, go to: Spel2, for the latest game reviews in swedish!

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Borrowed a copy from a friend named Ted.  Looks good graphically, but the animation is a bit stiff.  HUGE SLOWDOWN if played at max settings.  Um...  too little sleep with too many games...  continue later.

 

Oh well at least it's not a friend called Bit :D

 

Sleep is a good thing. Three days without sleep and some people become psychotic.

I have to agree with Volourn.  Bioware is pretty much dead now.  Deals like this kills development studios.

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The fact that the code is proprietary?

 

I see. So no game ever is going to feature unlimited draw line aside for those made by Crytek? Is that what i'm being told here?

 

No, that isn't what is being said... Just that a company must research of gather such technology. Now technically you can make the draw distance as I have said as big as you like, as big as your memory will allow infact, the problem comes when you render it, there are alot of common algorithms for altering meshes so that they're progressive.

 

You also have spatial partitioning etc... it's a complicated field and without knowing how either engine fundimentally works i cannot answer the question fully for you.

 

crytek may have developed an in house coding trick which allows them to have say double the draw distance without loss of performance, if that was the case from a business perspective would you sell technology that puts you apart from the crowd? You'd be an idiot if you did... So until someone else from another company figures it out(likely) or someone from crytek who coded it shares the secret(unlikely) then to an extent it will be property of that company.

 

Ususally things like this stay very private for a short while and become common practice later on X amount of years after release.

 

Sigh, that's reasonable i guess. Hopefully it's going to become an industry standard soon, as drawing distance is one of the things that i hate the most in games...

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Sleep is a good thing. Three days without sleep and some people become psychotic.

 

Hmmm. How long has it been for you?

 

And however long it's been for you, apparently it's been longer from Shadowstrider.

Edited by Eldar

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best moment of three hours playing Oblivion:

 

 

I accidentally sold my pants to an inkeeper :lol:)

 

 

Yay!

DISCLAIMER: Do not take what I write seriously unless it is clearly and in no uncertain terms, declared by me to be meant in a serious and non-humoristic manner. If there is no clear indication, asume the post is written in jest. This notification is meant very seriously and its purpouse is to avoid misunderstandings and the consequences thereof. Furthermore; I can not be held accountable for anything I write on these forums since the idea of taking serious responsability for my unserious actions, is an oxymoron in itself.

 

Important: as the following sentence contains many naughty words I warn you not to read it under any circumstances; botty, knickers, wee, erogenous zone, psychiatrist, clitoris, stockings, bosom, poetry reading, dentist, fellatio and the department of agriculture.

 

"I suppose outright stupidity and complete lack of taste could also be considered points of view. "

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I thought it was funny that the guard scolded me for trying to loot the emperor's corpse.

 

I think there needs to be decapitations in this game ebcause I think it would be funny seeing a head roll down a set of stairs where his/her buddies were discussing how much they hate the dead bugger's smelly boots.

Edited by Judge Hades
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best moment of three hours playing Oblivion:

 

 

I accidentally sold my pants to an inkeeper :rolleyes:)

 

 

Yay!

 

The same thing happened to me. I walked out the door and down the street - then went into 3rd person mode and realized I had sold my pants

 

thank god for those permanent boxer shorts

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I wish horses were faster. I also wish horseriding was a skill, so you became better at it with time.

 

I love the loading times in Oblivion: there aren't any (almost)! From time to time a small text saying something about loading stuff pops up at the bottom of the screen, but the game doesn't even stutter when that happens. MUCh better than Morrowind's stuttery mini-loading. Also, quickload/quicksave are both less than a second for me! Impressive, especially the speed of quickload.

 

I am having fun with it so far.

Swedes, go to: Spel2, for the latest game reviews in swedish!

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I wish horses were faster.

 

You can buy/steal horses that are faster/stronger. Shadowstrider explained it earlier in this thread.

 

edit:

 

Black horses are the fastest horses, but also the weakest horses.

 

All horses have statistics, in terms of strength, health, speed, etc...

Edited by Vic
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To the off topicness, I really hope Vic is not metadigital.  If there is one type of person that probably shouldn't have alternate accounts, it's a moderator.

 

I also cringed when there were posts suggesting that Gabrielle was Dark Raven.  Imagine if someone reports an alt for breaking forum rules, and the alt ends up "dealing with it" as a moderator as well.

I don't have ANY alternate identities.

 

The criticism seems to be mostly aimed at the NPC-NPC crapathon, though. There have been some praise for the main storyline. Guess we'll see.

I think most of you have never participated IRL coversations. :))

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Im eating everything I kill... rats, goblins, zombies.. Im hoping something will happen soon.

DISCLAIMER: Do not take what I write seriously unless it is clearly and in no uncertain terms, declared by me to be meant in a serious and non-humoristic manner. If there is no clear indication, asume the post is written in jest. This notification is meant very seriously and its purpouse is to avoid misunderstandings and the consequences thereof. Furthermore; I can not be held accountable for anything I write on these forums since the idea of taking serious responsability for my unserious actions, is an oxymoron in itself.

 

Important: as the following sentence contains many naughty words I warn you not to read it under any circumstances; botty, knickers, wee, erogenous zone, psychiatrist, clitoris, stockings, bosom, poetry reading, dentist, fellatio and the department of agriculture.

 

"I suppose outright stupidity and complete lack of taste could also be considered points of view. "

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