Elder Scrolls Oblivion review

[dragon]

So according to Amazon the game was released so has anyone picked it up yet and how about some reviews. Now all I goota do is figure out how to get a copy of it here in Germany as Amazon won't ship software overseas and the software store on base sucks.

[MKSheppard]

Brother has it.

[dragon]

Brother has it.

Well don't leave us hanging what does he think of it.

[lPeregrine]

Copy/paste:

The bad:

1) Awful engine coding. Sure, it looks pretty on the top end, but it loses that quality fast if you don't have a good system. I have to scale back the details to looking about the same as Morrowind and only 800x600, just to get a playable framerate. And even then, it's lagging in places.

Ok, I should've expected it... but people were comparing it to Call of Duty 2 in requirements, and I can run that game just fine (and it looks a lot better).

2) Combat is too simplified. I really miss the options of Morrowind. Variable weapon damage, different attack styles, etc. This is going to make it difficult and/or impossible to add some of the things I wanted to do.

3) The minigames are stupid and pointless. At least the lockpick one has the roll the dice option, but the way they have persuasion set up, I'll probably never use the skill unless I absolutely have to (and even then, I'd rather cheat and get through it).

4) The psychic guards. I picked a lock while out of sight (and didn't steal anything), and walked out right past the shop owner who didn't even notice. But somehow the next guard who saw me came charging out to arrest me.

5) NO 3DSMAX PLUGIN. I'm getting really sick of this, and it needs repeating. GET THE ******************* PLUGIN OUT NOW!

6) The usual stuff we've all heard before: no spears, simplified skills, etc.

The good:

1) The added visual detail over Morrowind is nice. Once I give in and buy a new video card, this is going to be a very pretty game.

2) The voice acting is a nice addition.

3) The more organized inventory/stats system is a very good improvement over the clutter of Morrowind's.

4) Sneaking/critical hits have been improved nicely, and are a lot more useful.



I've only played a bit past the prison intro because of the framerate lag. But overall, I'd say my first guess is about right. Oblivion is going to be a good but not exceptional game, that had the potential to be an amazing one. Bethesda had the chance to make a true legend here, but they settled for the console fanboy crowd and fell way short of this potential.

[DPDarkPrimus]

Combat is too simplified? WTF are you talking about? It's leagues over Morrowind. You can use spells without having to switch from your weapon (and back again afterward) and block whenever you want, and you don't "miss" when in fact you hit them, but the die roll say no.

[Shinova]

IIRC you lose lockpicks a lot less quickly if you actually do it manually rather than do the autopick option.


Was Oblivion even created using Max? Can't you just export or something?

[MKSheppard]

Brother has it.

Well don't leave us hanging what does he think of it.

Looks good, albeit it gets choppy during combat at "Ultra Quality" with his new GeForce 7800 GS.

[Seggybop]

Installing now. Report soon.

[Arrow]

I just spent the past three hours playing. The environment is incredible, especially the forest. Once I got out of the prison, I head northeast into the mountains (and ended up in the middle of a nasty snow storm), and then west to Chorrol, and now I'm heading southwest from their. The mountains and forests are amazing. And I love the combat system; it reminds me of a first-person Rune (I loved that game). My home machine is an X2 4800+ with SLI 7800 GTXs, and it runs the game at 1920x1200 with 2aa, 8af (forced in the driver), bloom lighting, max tree distance and high grass distance, and it runs beautifully (25+ fps in wide open views, 80+ fps in dungeons). I also tried it on my work machine earlier, which is a P4 3.0 GHz with a signal 6800 GT, and it is still visually impressive (1280x1024, HDR, no AA/bloom, medium to high tree/grass distances); even at mid settings, it looks better than Far Cry. The AI is very good; NPCs move about (one almost ran me over on a horse on the road) and have conversations with each other. It really brings things to life.

Now, my two gripes. The first is that distant ground textures are render too close to your location. It looks shitty, but its only noticable in flat areas (such as the area around the Imperial City). Hopefully someone will find an .ini setting change, or put a mod out to fix that. The second is that the AI likes to repeat background conversations, which kinda jars you out of that "you are there" feeling. Neither of these is a major problem.

All in all, this is the first game I've played in a long time that's been able to live up to the hype for my whole first session playing it. I'm extremely impressed, and I wish I didn't have to go into work tomorrow!

Edit: Looks like that graphics issue I mentioned has been fixed: http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=66785

[lPeregrine]

Combat is too simplified? WTF are you talking about? It's leagues over Morrowind. You can use spells without having to switch from your weapon (and back again afterward) and block whenever you want, and you don't "miss" when in fact you hit them, but the die roll say no.

I'm talking about dropping half the weapon types, so all you really have is "sword" or "sword with a different model" for melee weapons. I'm talking about taking out damage ranges, so you don't have the option of quick low-damage defensive slashing vs. full-power overhead chop. Or how about removal of attack methods entirely... you can't even have differences like a scimitar for slashing being different than a rapier for thrusting.

Yes, in ways it's better than Morrowind. But it's way short of what Oblivion COULD have been, if Bethesda had just ignored the console crowd and given us our complex and deep rpg.

Was Oblivion even created using Max? Can't you just export or something?

Oblivion was created with Max 5, but you need an export plugin to get the models into the format Oblivion uses. They're still using the same .nif format as Morrowind, but with enough differences that models exported with the old plugin won't work. And Bethesa is delaying release of the plugin they used, claiming copyright issues that make no sense at all. Either something really weird is going on, or they just don't care all that much about supporting the mod community.

[JLTucker]

I heard some of the npcs speaking. The voice actors lack feeling when they speak.

[Shinova]

I'm talking about dropping half the weapon types, so all you really have is "sword" or "sword with a different model" for melee weapons. I'm talking about taking out damage ranges, so you don't have the option of quick low-damage defensive slashing vs. full-power overhead chop. Or how about removal of attack methods entirely... you can't even have differences like a scimitar for slashing being different than a rapier for thrusting.

Actually, by all indications, quick slashes and long, hard chops do different damages. Plus, as you increase in skill with a weapon type, you gain special abilities pertaining to that weapon class.

Like during that marathon. The guy gained the ability to disarm opponents with his blunt weapon.

What they've done is dump weapon types that barely anyone used, like spears, and made the ones still in more complex. I'm not sure where you got your info.

[Seggybop]

Played through the initial dungeon and wandered around a bit outside. I have a relatively low-end system as far as gaming goes, so this might be relatively useful for those wondering how well the game will run on their craptastic setup.

My computer is a laptop with a Radeon 9700 Mobility 128mb (a bit weaker than a desktop 9700), 1gb RAM, and an Athlon 64 1.6ghz. When I first loaded the game, it told me that it was automatically setting detail levels to medium.

Once in the game itself, I noticed that edges were fairly jaggy but the detail of the environment overall was still farily high. Much nicer than Morrowind. Character creation was extremely detailed. Much more so than I've seen in any game before and very cool. Tutorial dungeon was rather boring. I was annoyed that I had to listen to everyone speak instead of quickly reading it. The texturing and bump mapping on everything is really cool looking.

The combat system seemed better than Morrowind overall. Archery definitely is more realistic and it's very good that you can cast without lowering your weapon. When you hit things with a weapon, it seems to have more force than it did before. I was also pleased to see that I could actually kill a rat in a single hit as a level one newblar, unlike in Morrowind. The magic effects were very pretty, especially the death effects of the assassins and the electrocution effect.

I was afraid of how the world was going to look once I escaped the dungeon. I was expecting either massive lag or horribly screwed up looking graphics. Amazingly, it was alright. Close-up objects looked pretty much like the promo screenshots except jaggy from lower res. The detail draw distance was set very close, producing an odd effect, but it wasn't horrible. The general draw distance for objects was way far away. Standing on a hill, I could see the entire Imperial City and the mountains behind it. Highly impressive. I'd compare the detail level of faraway terrain to BF1942.

At this point I went to save my game and checked out the video options. The resolution had been set to 640x480 and I didn't even notice!! Geez. That's sad. The overall world is so cool that I never realized it. I set the game to windowed mode and in the shrunken little box everything looks clean and nice. After I do some work I'll try jacking up the resolution and see how it goes.

[DPDarkPrimus]

I was annoyed that I had to listen to everyone speak instead of quickly reading it.

Press the attack button, and it'll skip to the next line of dialouge.

[lPeregrine]

I'm talking about dropping half the weapon types, so all you really have is "sword" or "sword with a different model" for melee weapons. I'm talking about taking out damage ranges, so you don't have the option of quick low-damage defensive slashing vs. full-power overhead chop. Or how about removal of attack methods entirely... you can't even have differences like a scimitar for slashing being different than a rapier for thrusting.

Actually, by all indications, quick slashes and long, hard chops do different damages. Plus, as you increase in skill with a weapon type, you gain special abilities pertaining to that weapon class.

I'm talking about having a rapier with 15-15 slash, 1-50 thrust damage, for example. So you have a choice between 15 damage as fast as you can swing, or charging up to full power. As it is, you just have the 1-50 range... if you swing quickly, you do very little damage.

Or for another example, drop the ranges and have a sword with 20 thrusting damage, and 50 slashing. But the thrust has greater reach... so you can poke from a safer range but do less damage, or close in for devastating hack-off-arms attacks.

And of course according to the manual, the "different abilities" are all exactly the same. So that only adds to the feeling of bland, generic weapons. If I'm disarming with a sword just like disarming with a club at the same skill level, how is that a unique talent?

What they've done is dump weapon types that barely anyone used, like spears, and made the ones still in more complex. I'm not sure where you got your info.

I used spears, for a good reason... longer reach = kill opponents from a range they can't hit you at. Besides, the appeal of the Elder Scrolls series has been the open-ended nature and immense range of character options. So what if throwing knives aren't the most effective weapon, maybe that's what I feel like roleplaying?

[Shinova]

I'm talking about having a rapier with 15-15 slash, 1-50 thrust damage, for example. So you have a choice between 15 damage as fast as you can swing, or charging up to full power. As it is, you just have the 1-50 range... if you swing quickly, you do very little damage.

Yes, by all indications Oblivion has that.

Or for another example, drop the ranges and have a sword with 20 thrusting damage, and 50 slashing. But the thrust has greater reach... so you can poke from a safer range but do less damage, or close in for devastating hack-off-arms attacks.

By all indications Oblivion has that too.

And of course according to the manual, the "different abilities" are all exactly the same. So that only adds to the feeling of bland, generic weapons. If I'm disarming with a sword just like disarming with a club at the same skill level, how is that a unique talent?

Can you quote the manual for me?

I used spears, for a good reason... longer reach = kill opponents from a range they can't hit you at. Besides, the appeal of the Elder Scrolls series has been the open-ended nature and immense range of character options. So what if throwing knives aren't the most effective weapon, maybe that's what I feel like roleplaying?

As it has been said, they took those out because hardly anyone ever used them, a sentiment I personally don't mind. Tough luck.

[FSTargetDrone]

I want to know one thing...

Was soil erosion actually modeled???

[lPeregrine]

I'm talking about having a rapier with 15-15 slash, 1-50 thrust damage, for example. So you have a choice between 15 damage as fast as you can swing, or charging up to full power. As it is, you just have the 1-50 range... if you swing quickly, you do very little damage.

Yes, by all indications Oblivion has that.

No it doesn't. Would you like me to make a screenshot showing weapons having a single damage number, and no variation depending on attack style?

Or for another example, drop the ranges and have a sword with 20 thrusting damage, and 50 slashing. But the thrust has greater reach... so you can poke from a safer range but do less damage, or close in for devastating hack-off-arms attacks.

By all indications Oblivion has that too.

By all indications? Have you actually played the game? You have no choice of what attack type you make, and weapons have a single damage number regardless of which animation is played.

And of course according to the manual, the "different abilities" are all exactly the same. So that only adds to the feeling of bland, generic weapons. If I'm disarming with a sword just like disarming with a club at the same skill level, how is that a unique talent?

Can you quote the manual for me?

Page 21, read the descriptions for blade, blunt and hand to hand. All almost exactly the same, with a slight bonus at one skill level for hand to hand.

I used spears, for a good reason... longer reach = kill opponents from a range they can't hit you at. Besides, the appeal of the Elder Scrolls series has been the open-ended nature and immense range of character options. So what if throwing knives aren't the most effective weapon, maybe that's what I feel like roleplaying?

As it has been said, they took those out because hardly anyone ever used them, a sentiment I personally don't mind. Tough luck.

[/quote]

Right, nobody every used them... that's why there have been countless protest threads on the official forums and elsewhere complaining about the removed wepaons...

[GuppyShark]

I'm talking about having a rapier with 15-15 slash, 1-50 thrust damage, for example. So you have a choice between 15 damage as fast as you can swing, or charging up to full power. As it is, you just have the 1-50 range... if you swing quickly, you do very little damage.

Would you like me to make a screenshot showing weapons having a single damage number, and no variation depending on attack style?

That's the base damage. Why do you think they have power attacks available if you don't think they have damage variation based on attack?

[lPeregrine]

I'm talking about having a rapier with 15-15 slash, 1-50 thrust damage, for example. So you have a choice between 15 damage as fast as you can swing, or charging up to full power. As it is, you just have the 1-50 range... if you swing quickly, you do very little damage.

Would you like me to make a screenshot showing weapons having a single damage number, and no variation depending on attack style?

That's the base damage. Why do you think they have power attacks available if you don't think they have damage variation based on attack?

You're missing the point... I'm well aware of the power attack feature, but I'm talking about a variation in damage ranges between weapons. As it is now, the power attacks work as a multiplier to the base damage, done exactly the same for all weapons under that skill (if not for all weapons, period). So for example, all blades gain x2 damage from a full power attack.

What this makes impossible is having different weapons gain different benefits from charging up (or not). You can't have a quick slashing weapon that gains little benefit (a very sharp light axe), and a slower crushing weapon that starts low, but scales up to devastating damage if you put your full force into it (a blunt maul). The way it is now, you can only modify the minimum damage number... if you want that maul to have better max damage, it will have better damage in ALL attacks.

[Silver Paladin]

Oblivion was created with Max 5, but you need an export plugin to get the models into the format Oblivion uses. They're still using the same .nif format as Morrowind, but with enough differences that models exported with the old plugin won't work. And Bethesa is delaying release of the plugin they used, claiming copyright issues that make no sense at all. Either something really weird is going on, or they just don't care all that much about supporting the mod community.

There were rumors way back in like October or November that they were really trying to increase the marketability of the 360 version (to the point where there would be Official mods from Bethesday for the 360 only).

Stopping the PC gamers from being able to create and share mods would be a fantastic way to increase the marketability of the 360 version.

[Luzifer's right hand]

So according to Amazon the game was released so has anyone picked it up yet and how about some reviews. Now all I goota do is figure out how to get a copy of it here in Germany as Amazon won't ship software overseas and the software store on base sucks.

If your are willing to order the game online than "www.gameware.at" is a thrustworthy online store.
The store is rather expensive( 53.99 Euro for the normal english version).
However they do not need a copy of a valid identity card to sell english versions unlike German sites.

[Baron Scarpia]

I picked it up yesterday, against all my "don't buy a game on the release date" instincts, and played for about 3 hours last night.

I haven't gotten all that far (I got out of the sewers and just be-lined it for the town where Jauffre is), but my initial impression is near-totally positive. The graphics are indeed amazing, and I find it to have the most immersive atmosphere of any RPG I've played (which is hard to say, given my devotion to the KOTOR series).

It's too early for me to judge the combat and controls, especially since I'm at a disadvantage due to my left arm being somewhat disabled because of a broken collar bone (I switched the controls around a bit). Also, I have to pull out to 3rd person perspective, as playing 1st person will make me nauseous after a while. My biggest disappointment therefore is the lack of a targeting reticle in 3rd person, making missile weapon use very difficult. Same goes for using spells with a similar effect.

The only other complaint is that the various buttons and selections on the "Tab" screen (and others) don't have a "info hover" property (meaning, hovering the mouse cursor over a selection to get a brief explanation of what it is/does). I think that would have been an easy thing to include that would make learning the game a lot faster.

But these are minor quibbles, as overall it appears (so far) to be an outstanding game. It's telling that I woke up this morning thinking about it and really wanted to play. Alas, this "job" thing had to come first. The game certainly feels much more easy-to-love than Morrowind, which I never got into thanks to it being much too open-ended and being bloated with more dialogue and information than manageable for my meager brain.

[Arrow]

Oblivion was created with Max 5, but you need an export plugin to get the models into the format Oblivion uses. They're still using the same .nif format as Morrowind, but with enough differences that models exported with the old plugin won't work. And Bethesa is delaying release of the plugin they used, claiming copyright issues that make no sense at all. Either something really weird is going on, or they just don't care all that much about supporting the mod community.

There were rumors way back in like October or November that they were really trying to increase the marketability of the 360 version (to the point where there would be Official mods from Bethesday for the 360 only).

Stopping the PC gamers from being able to create and share mods would be a fantastic way to increase the marketability of the 360 version.

Stopping the PC modders would be an ultra stupid idea, since mods are one of the things that are going to draw in a lot longtime Elder Scrolls fans with lower powered PCs, and who don't have/want a 360.

Now, I'm not familiar with the Max5 plugin issue, but I can understand it being a copyright issue (I've seen a few at work, mostly over little things). Either something in the Max5 EULA or some license for some piece of code used in the plugin could easily stop the works.

[Ace Pace]

Tycho, from what I hear you better be shipping it express.