Oblivion

[Wynn]

Monster, tell us what you think of this game. It just came out for the 360.

[Monster]

ITS FUKCEN AEWSUM!!@

Not only did I play it all day yesterday (after work), I also read about it all today (at work).

I only have a couple minor complaints, but they're aesthetic. It would be like complaining about a small mole on an otherwise hot super model. It might be distracting but you wouldn't let that stop you from hitting it for about 200 hours.

[Wynn]

Haha. What are your complaints? The only thing I heard is some graphical pauses sometimes when it loads data off the disk, which can sometimes be helped by clearing your HD cache if yours is overly fragmented.

[Monster]

Those small pauses don't really bug me at all. The game is pretty smooth. The two major complaints I have with the game pertain to the character models (mostly just the faces) and far away textures.

The character generation system is robust for sure, but it's still limiting in that the facial structure of everyone you make still looks similar. Most of the NPC men (at least elves) in the game look like 50-60 year old Steve Perrys (front man for Journey). They also went way too far with making everyone look old and/or ugly. It goes beyond realism. I had a hell of a time making a decent looking character, especially a girl. Man, the girls in this game are dawgs (the faces, anyway). I gave up making a dark elf girl then made a dark elf guy, but his body ended up being green (why would this be the default for a dark elf) and his face purple. It looked awful, it was like sticking a discolored doll head on a different body. My wife noticed this effect when I was talking to someone in town and mocked it. Luckily I noticed this immediately as I started punching the walls in my cell and saw that my hands were green. I finally gave up and made a decent looking wood elf (but still kinda weird looking, looks like the gray haired guy from this season's American Idol), which in some ways is better for the class I was going to be anyway. Still, once in game, the effects still make them look pretty realistic. The orcs look particularly good in-game.

The other graphical issue I have is that far away textures look muddy and just bad. The worst place I've seen this is the place you emerge from the tutorial dungeon. Seems like the worst place to have this happen. So far, I haven't seen much of this in other areas I've been to because the foliage is so dense.

One other complaint I have, though it may be premature, is that I haven't seen any impressive Radiant AI events yet, like they showed in the video with the lady and her dog. In that video she made all sorts of choices, practiced archery, made potions, got pissed at her dog for barking and waking her up, etc. I haven't seen anything realistic or lifelike in the game yet. Sure, people have their schedules, but so did people in Ultima V, and that required no AI. I followed one guy around for a day and he went to his job at the castle and just stood there for a few hours. He walked around a bit in the room but he didn't actually do anything. At the end of his day, he did go walk around on his horse in a pasture, which was pretty neat, but not impressive.

I'm extremely impressed with the weapon and armor models. It's so nice to actually have decent looking armor even at the start of an RPG for once. The armor really looks good, the textures are nice, it's shiny in the right places, and the art design is top-notch.

The models are very nice. Aside from the NPC and PC faces, the models are great. Monsters look really cool and the fauna look very realistic.

The environment is incredible. There is no game that matches the environment in this, not even close. My wife was "ooh"ing and "ahh"ing just watching me walk around some of these places. There are times where you just stop and appreciate the view. The plant life is fantastic. The water looks nice and reflects really well. The sky looks as close to real as I've ever seen and is a very high quality texture.

The artificial environment is also very impressive. Buildings and cities look great. The dungeons are very well designed. They are extremely believable and vary greatly in design from one to the next. This is a big step up from Morrowind. The dungeon design is the best I've seen in any game (in memory, anyway). They even added all kinds of traps that use physics to hurt you.

Speaking of physics, they really help make the game. It's so satisfying to take out a goblin who is lunging at you in midair with a bow and have him be thrown back 10 feet. Bodies will even realistically roll down inclines, which is a first. I've seen games where a body slides but never rolls. The physics add a great deal to the game and really help make it more fun than it would have been without it. There was a part in this one dungeon that really made me feel like what it would be like to be a real adventurer. There was a chest surrounded by skeletons with single gold pieces everywhere. I actually had to move the skeletons (using the L should button) to pick up gold coins that were lying around. Of course, as I moved the skeletons about, equipment and gold slid down the hill just as it would in real life. I really had to sort through the piles of bones to get to everything. It would have been more immersive if not for the fact I was so impressed by the engine.

I love the combat system. It's better than Morrowind and seems harder hitting in the way it controls. You also get special moves as you get better at fighting and athletics, which is new. You even can dodge spells and arrows, so it's very interactive. It's mostly based on skill, though your damage is obviously mostly based on your equipment and stats. Ooh, I wonder if you'll be able to use the telekinesis spell on enemies and throw them against walls???

[Wynn]

Wait, a monster is leaping through the air at you, and an arrow can knock him back 10 feet? That's either a pixie-like goblin or some crazy, messed up physics.

Sounds pretty sweet though. Thanks for the write up. I'll have to pick this up when I get my 360.

[Monster]

Yeah, it's cool. Using arrows is like using a shotgun. It's more like movie physics in that case than real physics, I mean it wouldn't be as cool if they just slouched over like in real life. Kills are very satisfying in this game.

[Hado]

Is it true that the game scales every monster and items to your level?

[Shoruk3n]

So what kind of beast will I need to run this game? I have a 6800GT that I'm hoping will be good enough for the vid card, but my 1g ram and Athlon XP 2500+ I think aren't up to it. What do you have currently Monster?

[Wynn]

Xbox 360

[Monster]

My system runs it fine (downloaded the PC version to compare), but I much prefer the 360 version. For one, I'm playing on a 52" monitor instead of a 19" one, and it looks a lot nicer (it's in HD and my computer monitor is not great). My PC actually runs it a bit smoother, at least in some places. For some reason the PC game can't use AA and HDR at the same time though. The game is actually easier to control using the 360, at least for me.

My specs:

Pentium D (Dual-Core) 830 (3GHZ)
2GB DDR2 SDRAM AT 533MHZ-2X512MB
256MB NVIDIA GEFORCE 7800 GTX (PCI-E)

And Hado, items are scaled to your level, some monsters are and random NPC's that spawn are as well. Also, guards are always 10 levels above you.

The way the system works is that there are "groups" of monsters for certain areas. One area might contain mythical monsters while another one might contain undead. As you gain levels, instead of the weaker things spawning, more badass things will spawn. So if you were in an area a few levels earlier and only skeletons were spawning, now ghosts might be spawning instead (since they're tougher). It's a myth that all enemies level with you. For instance, a rat will always be level 1 or 2 or whatever, and a goblin will always be whatever level they always were. However, there are champion version of monsters that will always spawn to your level. So if you are in a goblin cave, many of the goblins will be weaker than you, but when you have to fight one of their champions, they'll be much tougher (and they'll have a different name).

I think the system works out great. There's a small bandit camp on an island right outside of the sewers you emerge from at the beginning of the game. I fought and killed those bandits first thing. I just went back last night, and am now level 15 or so. This time they were still my level, and were equipped with much nicer stuff, which is cool. I wouldn't want to even bother fighting some low level bandits with crap for equipment.

As another example, there are these mages that spawn in the Arcane University that also seem to be 10 levels above you. They all spawned with really nice magic elven daggers. Once I levelled, some of them started spawning with magic glass daggers, which are worth more.

[Monster]

Another thing I think I forgot to mention is that the physics system also lets you pick up objects and throw them around and stuff. You can even pose bodies, because you can pick things up by any point. So for instance you could pick a sword up by its point if you wanted, or in the case of a body, you can pick them up by their arms or heads or feet, then pose or drag them. Someone posted an interesting picture to demonstrate this:

[RGDelta]

Yeah I love Oblivion even for my POS machine that is min specs heh

[Shoruk3n]

O. M. G.

Please, PLEASE for the LOVE OF GOD let me delete spells from my spellbook Bethesda! The mods available for this take are soo not up to the task.

[Monster]

No shit man, I don't know what they were thinking.

[Shoruk3n]

What I don't get is how it was possible in Morrowind, but not Oblivion.