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Oblivion Review Thread
Topic Started: Jun 16 2007, 01:47 PM (333 Views)
BloodPheasant741
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This thread is for posting comments, pros and cons, about TES IV Oblivion. I will select given comments and include them in the final copy of the review, and then post it for all to see. You must play the PC version of Oblivion to participate!!! I'll give an example.


When Oblivion was released in mid-March 2006, players such as myself were quite impressed by the quality of the game. The developers did a fantastic job with the fourth chapter in The Elder Scrolls series.
One of the most appreciated improvements over Morrowind was the awesome graphics and display options, most of which put the previous Elder Scrolls games to shame. Some of these new features included grass and powerful antialiasing. Higher resolution textures resulted in more quality in items and objects throughout the game world The only downside to these new features was a notable lack of performance for PC users.
The amazing combat, magic, and stealth features were definitely one of the best points of Oblivion. Combat included more advanced moves and options, such as blocking with a shield or weapon, resulting in startling realism. Stealth had new factors such as lighting and weight of boots, as well as simple factors like the player's skill. Spells had diverse and visually amazing qualities, some unseen in past games, and new abilities like being able to cast a spell while wielding a weapon. All of these factored into a greater experience for players and a wider range of choices for characters.

To be continued...
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elpiggo
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Finally a team leader!
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The greatest aspect of the Oblivion game was the ability to make modifications to it. Like Morrowind, a massive Oblivion modding community grew, with new projects springing up to enhance the experience of a gamer even more. This encouraged people to stay playing the game even longer than most others, and opened up thousands of new opportunities for a gamer.

How was that? I'll improve it later.

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BloodPheasant741
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It was good. A bit short, but to the point. Fantastic!
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ninja_lord666
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Overall, I like the game for what it was: an action/adventure game with a streak of rpg elements.
The modability of the game is great as most games don't have that or are too difficult for the average person. However, Bethesda relied upon the modding community too much and, thus, their game was lacking in many areas. They also lost touch with the loyal fans and focused more on their wallets. They geared the game towards the console players, and made it flashy enough to be sold. They didn't worry about story lines, or replay value, as long as it would sell. Then, they had the audacity to release their own mods that were far inferior to the ones the modding community had already released and charge money for them.
The game's graphics were incredible and breathtaking, but that's all they focused on. The main quest was a long chain of boring Fed-Ex quests, as were the majority of the side quests. They also were naive to think that the strange landscape of Morrowind would "scare away" potential buyers. Thus, they made Cyrodiil a boring, Medieval setting were everything looked almost identical. They also took away the thrill of dungeon delving by making them all very similar in appearance and taking out the artifacts. The only dungeons worth entering are quest related dungeons and one of the few unique dungeons they bothered to add.
The game was also very biased against evil characters. The only truly evil quest line was the Dark Brotherhood quest line. Even there, it focused around rooting out a traitor which added in a little morality to the quests. Also, the thieves guild, which was an open opportunity to add in more evil, they made into a sissy Robin Hood type guild. That just annoys me. I joined it hoping to at least get some evil only to find out that the guild protects people, and the quest line focused around freeing the Grey Fox so he could return to his wife and live happily ever after.
In short, Bethesda no longer cares for their fans, only themselves.

How was that?
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BloodPheasant741
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It was opinionated. It'd be a good con speech, if you remove the Is.
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ninja_lord666
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Septim741
Jul 1 2007, 04:12 PM
It was opinionated. It'd be a good con speech, if you remove the Is.

Is?
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BloodPheasant741
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The I s

You know, where you refer to yourself.
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ninja_lord666
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Septim741
Jul 1 2007, 04:45 PM
The I s

You know, where you refer to yourself.

So? It gives it a more personal feeling, like I actually played the game, so it seems like I know what I'm talking about and not spouting out random things. (That's beside the fact that I did play the game and I do know what I'm talking about.)
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Eiries
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I agree with Ninja in a lot of areas. It seemed to me that Beth focused quite a bit on gimmicks. Be it the fancy graphics, the several gigs of voice files, or the very much overhyped "AI."

"Our NPCs do crazy things like eat and sleep!"

Morrowind is still my favorite game of all time.

More flaws include the utter lack of unique weapon models (actually, for those with the Collector's Edition, one of the Beth members plainly states that they have better things to do than make unique weapons, and it's perfectly okay if they just use the same models over again.)

Another flaw includes one of Beth's biggest gimmicks: the voice acting. It's another reason why Oblivion is significantly more difficult to mod than Morrowind; on top of everything else, you have to make new voices as well. Luckily we now have the Oblivion Voice Actor's Guild... personally, I don't mind the silent NPCs many mods use.

On that same note, Morrowind players will notice that there are quite a few voice actors that have gone missing. In Morrowind, every race had a unique male and female voice actor. You'll notice that Orcs and Nords have the same voices, as do all the different elves. The Khajiits and Argonians also share voices. Altogether that's six voice actors, not including some of the more unique quest-orientated NPCs like Uriel Septim. Morrowind sported a good 14.

Even with all these things to whine about, Oblivion is still an incredible game. It's absolutely breathtaking, and some of the quests were much more detailed and interesting than the Morrowind ones, particularly the guild quests. Face it: the Morag Tong quests was like watching paint dry compared to the Dark Brotherhood quests.

There's so much to say; the list of Oblivion's pros and cons are endless. but all in all, it's still one of the best games ever. Why? Because most of those flaws can and have/will be rectified by the many incredible modders that continue to produce magnificent works of art, be it new objects or scripting genius.
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