Oblivion - Some feedback - comments?

hamster

I was wondering how people are finding Oblivion? Does it live up to your expectations?

Here's some points I like about the game.

1. I expected my hardware to be crushed (1Gb Ram, 2.8Ghz Dual core Intel, 7600GT) but it's quite good at 1280x1024 with most settings maxed (bar the grass). But I'm only 10% into the game.

2. The introduction method.. a step up from Morrowind.

3. Fighting is a lot more fair. Magic is nice. I would have liked more quickslots though. 8 is not enough.

4. The character design screen is amazing. Never the same character.

5. Mods: The BT Mod which allowed more to be displayed in the inventory and the mod to reduce the size and transparancy of the compass and health bars is excellent. The Colored Background map was another.

6. Another Mod.. a Time mod which correctly slows time with ill-effects has really helped me play the game I went - ie at a stroll. A normal day in Oblivion lasts about 48mins - now I have that set at 1/3 of normal time which I find a perfect balance. The day goes slow enough for me to enjoy at leisure and feels more realistic. ie, that one more thing to do before midnight and getting back to the Inn.

7. For the record, despite the time rate change - I still have passed day 12 (slept 32 hours of those) and 44 real gameplay hours. But days pass at a nice pace. Maybe 2/3 real time would be just as good. Normal game time speed just a little too fast.

8. Adventure-wise I have visited Market District (heavily), the Talos district (visited as a normal visitor), The Arb and the Temple district. I plowed deeply into the Elven ruins at Vilverin and the Sideways cave. Exploring Vilverin felt like a really realistic deep cave crawl. I'm currently at the Waywet Inn to the west of the capital. I am thinking about starting the main quest and then return to do some more cave exploring. The enviornment truely is amazing. I would like a little more wildlife but it close to realistic as is.

9. Here's a good point. I really like the way the game highlights in red whats considered off bounds. eg. Doors, books. That was one thing in Ultima VII years ago - you couldn't help but be curious and start rooting through people's house and stuff. In Oblivion you got a choice and can have the consequences.

10. Buying a home.

11. The quests really draw you in. The quest Unfriendly competition was class - where you had to investigate the reason behind unfair pricing of one of the merchants. The fishing quest was nice.

12. Meeting the NPCs in the pub after work. Finally fixed the time schedules that were woefully missing from morrowind. Even Ultima VII had that 13 years ago.

13. But can you bake bread?

14. Levelling up and matching opponents. I don't like the way the game raises the experience of the enemy with you especially the weaker ones. Fine to have a challenge - not so fine to have the enviornmental enemies/equipment change to simply match you. Better to have out of depth characters in hard to reach places (or unlocked quests) rather than that. Having said that it was nice to have to really work for fighting 12 slaughter fish for their scales. I think I could get used to it. I know about the mod that fixes this but I'm into the game already.

15. I play this game only weekends - real life job. But its the best of its kind I have played for years - and the mods out there (especially the type I mentioned above) really will make this game better over time. And there is plenty of scope for faster performance as the GPUs/CPUs get better over the next few years.

Vegeta

hamster wrote:

I was wondering how people are finding Oblivion? Does it live up to your expectations?

Here's some points I like about the game.

1. I expected my hardware to be crushed (1Gb Ram, 2.8Ghz Dual core Intel, 7600GT) but it's quite good at 1280x1024 with most settings maxed (bar the grass). But I'm only 10% into the game.

2. The introduction method.. a step up from Morrowind.

3. Fighting is a lot more fair. Magic is nice. I would have liked more quickslots though. 8 is not enough.

4. The character design screen is amazing. Never the same character.

5. Mods: The BT Mod which allowed more to be displayed in the inventory and the mod to reduce the size and transparancy of the compass and health bars is excellent. The Colored Background map was another.

6. Another Mod.. a Time mod which correctly slows time with ill-effects has really helped me play the game I went - ie at a stroll. A normal day in Oblivion lasts about 48mins - now I have that set at 1/3 of normal time which I find a perfect balance. The day goes slow enough for me to enjoy at leisure and feels more realistic. ie, that one more thing to do before midnight and getting back to the Inn.

7. For the record, despite the time rate change - I still have passed day 12 (slept 32 hours of those) and 44 real gameplay hours. But days pass at a nice pace. Maybe 2/3 real time would be just as good. Normal game time speed just a little too fast.

8. Adventure-wise I have visited Market District (heavily), the Talos district (visited as a normal visitor), The Arb and the Temple district. I plowed deeply into the Elven ruins at Vilverin and the Sideways cave. Exploring Vilverin felt like a really realistic deep cave crawl. I'm currently at the Waywet Inn to the west of the capital. I am thinking about starting the main quest and then return to do some more cave exploring. The enviornment truely is amazing. I would like a little more wildlife but it close to realistic as is.

9. Here's a good point. I really like the way the game highlights in red whats considered off bounds. eg. Doors, books. That was one thing in Ultima VII years ago - you couldn't help but be curious and start rooting through people's house and stuff. In Oblivion you got a choice and can have the consequences.

10. Buying a home.

11. The quests really draw you in. The quest Unfriendly competition was class - where you had to investigate the reason behind unfair pricing of one of the merchants. The fishing quest was nice.

12. Meeting the NPCs in the pub after work. Finally fixed the time schedules that were woefully missing from morrowind. Even Ultima VII had that 13 years ago.

13. But can you bake bread?

14. Levelling up and matching opponents. I don't like the way the game raises the experience of the enemy with you especially the weaker ones. Fine to have a challenge - not so fine to have the enviornmental enemies/equipment change to simply match you. Better to have out of depth characters in hard to reach places (or unlocked quests) rather than that. Having said that it was nice to have to really work for fighting 12 slaughter fish for their scales. I think I could get used to it. I know about the mod that fixes this but I'm into the game already.

15. I play this game only weekends - real life job. But its the best of its kind I have played for years - and the mods out there (especially the type I mentioned above) really will make this game better over time. And there is plenty of scope for faster performance as the GPUs/CPUs get better over the next few years.

good review