The Elderscrolls IV: Oblivion

[dub]

I'm sure most of you have played Morrowind (and hopefully an earlier incarnation of the Elderscrolls) so I'm sure Oblivion is nothing new.

This is *the game* that I am waiting for (considering that the next Zelda has been pushed back to April '06).

I don't know what new and different features they're implementing, but one thing is for sure, the game looks gorgeous.

http://www.elderscrolls.com/art/obliv_pc_screens_01.htm

Fall/Winter release planned.

[Vorph]

Everything I've read so far makes the combat sound just as gay as Morrowind's, or at best a slightly more advanced version of the same boring shit. I don't know what it is about that game, so many people rave endlessly about how great it is, how they played through it 2943802 times. I tried playing it 2-3 times when first released, then reinstalled it each time an expansion came out, and then once again earlier this year (to see if the better graphics/models stuff would make it good enough to play). I think the longest it's lasted on my machine before being deleted was about 12 hours; the game is just so mindnumbingly boring to me. (Incidentally I loved Gothic, Gothic II + Nacht des Rabens expansion, Arx Fatalis, etc. so it's not that I don't like that type of game--it's something specifically with Morrowind that I can't quite put my finger on why exactly I hate the game so much)

Oblivion does look nice though. I just have a feeling it will be another "play for a few hours and delete" and then I'll go back to waiting for Gothic 3. :/

[Samus Aran]

I'm the same as Vorph. I just never really got into Morrowind, yet my friends talk about it as though it is the greatest in history.

But this isn't to say that I didn't like the game...it just wasn't for me. I really hope that I'll be able to get into it this time around. Jesus Christ this game is beautiful.

[Kildace]

Everything I've read so far makes the combat sound just as gay as Morrowind's, or at best a slightly more advanced version of the same boring shit. I don't know what it is about that game, so many people rave endlessly about how great it is, how they played through it 2943802 times. I tried playing it 2-3 times when first released, then reinstalled it each time an expansion came out, and then once again earlier this year (to see if the better graphics/models stuff would make it good enough to play). I think the longest it's lasted on my machine before being deleted was about 12 hours; the game is just so mindnumbingly boring to me. (Incidentally I loved Gothic, Gothic II + Nacht des Rabens expansion, Arx Fatalis, etc. so it's not that I don't like that type of game--it's something specifically with Morrowind that I can't quite put my finger on why exactly I hate the game so much)

Yes yes yes!
Thank you! I thought I was the only person that didn't omglove Morrowind. It was an okay game, but the way combat was handled sucked so much ..

[beepbeepbeep]

Morrowind did a lot of things right, and it did a lot of things wrong. I have high hopes for TES:4, especially with the living world system.

The spell crafting system, the wonderful world and atmosphere, the interaction with objects and thievery, skills based system, graphics, etc were great.

The combat, interface, and spellcasting were not.

I didn't play enough of it to comment on the story either way, though.

[Tuco]

It's difficult for experienced MMO players to get into a game like MW that has a relaxed combat/achievement system, with more focus on storyline. Which isn't to say that we can't appreciate storyline, we just can't look past a weak combat system. In MW you can go get a Daedric Dai-Katana, the most powerful weapon in the game, within an hour or two, you just need to kill a moderately difficult NPC, and nearby you can grab a full suit of good armor...

The itemization was poor, it was easily exploitable(both gaining levels and getting items, the spells were too slow travelling, reflect could be maxed out, regen was too important, the mobs were too weak for a properly made character...

But yeah, oblivion looks promising, I won't comment on the quality of its graphical engine till I play it, since MW was so decieving. I hated the graphics because of performance reasons, but it looks pretty in screenshots....

In MW I made an area with 14 vivecs and killed them all with my dude, I was so cool...

[dub]

The main thing going for morrowind was it's complete openendness. The idea that you could go anywhere, do (in a sense) anything was very appealing. Of course, it's weakest points were combat and magic, and you could also argue that it's openendness was a weakness.

I am by no means a morrowind fanboy. I played the 2nd expansion, never got into the 3rd (although being a werewolf did sound cool) All we can do is pray that the dev's acknowledged those shortcomings, and will hopefully improve them.

But, the storytelling is always topnotch in an Elderscrolls game, and that to me is a good enough reason to try this out. Bethesda has pretty good production values.

[Tuco]

One thing they could have done in MW is keep how open it was, but make it so that if you weren't high level enough to be somewhere, you were damn well dead pretty soon... Even a level 1 could run around high level dungeons, evade mobs by outrunning them, etc...

It should work just like your average MMO, if you were low level, your ass got stomped if you tried going where you shouldn't. Just like when you were in west 1kneedles and you entered feralas, or when you went to burning steppes after killing rotgore(or whomever) in redridge....

In MW, it was open ended, and sure, boss mobs were semi-tough, but with the combat system you could still run around at level one and steal stuff or get crazy stuff....

[LucyKemp]

I liked Morrowind alot, however there was just way too much text for me to get into it.. it was like npc after npc and each had essays of lore etc, it was hard to get into it because I didn't even know if I would like the game, so I ended up skipping past most of it and then just attacking beasties and not knowing what to do.

The graphics were stunning though!

[Samus Aran]

Yeah, the leveling systems were off in Morrowind, but I still played through to the end (~18 hours) using only the strength cheat. I found it fun, especially when you got a home and stashed all your loot in it. The combat was really not THAT bad. Sure it got boring at parts, but I enjoyed that combat a lot more than I do the combat in WoW.

That said, I cannot wait for Oblivion. I will buy it and play it until it gets boring. Then I'll just run around exploring/plundering for a few more hours.

[Sylas]

Loved MW, its up there with torment for greatest RPG ever. The storyline was straight out of WOT though, but it was still very well written/scripted. hopefully they fixed the spell crafting/item enchanting system. Any character could get to 100% dodge in a couple of hours of play making the entire combat part of the game trivial. Combat/spell mechanics were the weakest part of the game in implementation, but the concept for combat/magic is far and away better than most MMOs.

[Jubee]

Sounded better when it was called Fable...

Ohh wait...

On a serious note, I'm gonna wait till the game gets picked apart before buying it. I don't want MW v2.0 where I can get a 1 hitter sword and boots that make me levitate and travel 400% faster after the first 15 minutes.

[Drajakur]

Its pretty funny people are bitching about getting the Dai-katana uber-sword of killing and the levitating boots of ultimate speed after 10 minutes when there is no fucking way you would know these items even existed if you didn't bitch yourself out and read a spolier site before playing the fucking game.

That being said, I never really got into Morrowind either. It wasn't itemization that blew - it was the lousy fucking combat system. Give me a blade, whatever blade, and I could kill pretty much anything effected by it.

Also, same as many people, I thought the graphics were nice when I was standing still but fucking sucked when I'd was getting 6 FPS in a sandstorm. Gay. My system was pretty badass for that time also.

I liked Gothic 2 a lot better. Gothic 1 was just too archaic for me.

Overall, I like the idea of Oblivion for the XBOX 360 since performance is guaranteed, but I bet you'll have to have some kinda monster setup requirements to even get a fucking bit of candy for the PC.

D

[Iannis]

i never played long enough to get the dia-katana...huh, maybe i'll go and try it again. The game might be fun if I'm not a gimpy POS. My first try to play my first guy as a monk/sorcerer. He was so ass it wasn't even funny. I don't know why they even put in a skill for unarmed combat, considering it sucked to ververyveryvery much. Not been able to get into it at all since my first try, who made it the furthest. Remember my self-made nuclear fireball was fun, but I could do that just as easily with a tankmage instead of a pussy straight sorc.

Every time since then I couldn't really get into it.

on that fable note: I wonder if the platinum hits Fable is going to be more worth a damn than the original. Bummed that from a friend, beat it so fast I went "omgwtf, why the hype?" But having tattooes and an actual aging PC was neat, if meaningless.

[Samus Aran]

I will always stand by my assertion that MW was an MMOG severly lacking in the MMO category.