From technology to politics to video games; these are the random thoughts of a geek with too much time on his hands
My first 4hrs with the game...
Published on March 22, 2006 By Zoomba In PC Gaming
For those of you living under a rock (or just the non-gamers here), Bethesda Softworks released the fourth installment to their outstanding Elder Scrolls series yesterday; Oblivion. Being a fan of the single-player RPG and having gone years since the last good one released for the PC, I snagged my copy as soon as it came out. I've only spent about 4hrs with the game so far so I can't post a full review, but I do have a few, short, initial impressions of the game.

First, here are my system specs:
P4 3.0GHz HT
nVidia GeForce 7800GS 256MB (AGP)
3GB PC3200 RAM
SB Audigy 2

Now, for my initial thoughts...
Graphics - Ok, I have basically the top of the line AGP card out now, so I expected my graphics to be good... and damn are they good. I play at 1024x768 with all of the bells and whistles turned to max. I've got HDR going for me. I've got shiny rocks and translucent water and individual blades of rendered grass. My dungeons are oozing with virtual slime and fungus, and my opponents lurch and die with amusing realism.

One problem I have seen though is draw distances outdoors. If you've ever played Star Wars Galaxies, you're familiar with the effect I'm experiencing. You have a radius around you where everything is rendered and populated. But then there's a line beyond which the grass and rocks are gone, the ground texture is set to low, and only a few trees are shown. As you move forward, that edge moves out and the terrain then starts to "pop" in as you come into range. I have my distances set far enough out that it's not a huge problem for me, but I still get statues, buildings and large rock outcroppings poping in front of me.

Aside from popping, my only graphical gripe is with the faces on NPCs... For how darn good everything else looks, the faces just don't hold up in a lot of cases. I've got a longer associated comment about the character creation system, but I'll save that for the full review.

Sound - I've got a 5.1 speaker setup in my office, so I try to get the most out of the sound of any game. This game has very good natural ambient sounds and outstanding music. The most impressive part though in terms of sound is that all the dialogue I've encountered so far, even from random guard NPC has been fully recorded. I think Bethesda said at one point that the vast majority of the data contained on the DVD and installed to your system was recorded audio. I'm not surprised in the least. Other sounds for walking, combat etc are nice and solid. Only one I wasn't impressed by was the sound of drawing and firing a bow.

Content - Ok, Elder Scrolls games are pretty well known by the sheer vastness of information and playable area in them. They're the size of an MMORPG but with only one player. And if you thought WoW had a lot of little books and story bits to read scattered about, then you're going to be blown away by Oblivion. Like Morrowind before it, Oblivion has an entire virtual library worth of books and scrolls detailing the history of the world, news and current events. In my 4hrs playing, if I had taken the time I could have spent at least 2hrs reading all the books I came across.

The story so far, I'm not sure on. I've played a few missions but I think I took on the latest step before I was powerful enough to survive it, so I'm going back and just running minor quests to build up skills, money and equipment. There's a main thread through the game, but you could spend probably dozens of hours completely ignoring it and just doing all the side quests.
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Oblivion however already suffers, for me, the same crucial problem Morrowind did... I'm given way too much choice and far too little direction or indication of what I'm capable of doing. If you're used to games like Baldur's Gate or Final Fantasy where you are given quests when you're powerful enough to take them on, and are given a clear idea of what the main quest threads are versus auxillury quests, Elder Scrolls games will present a significant challenge to you. They toss you in, give you the first task to complete and then set you loose to figure out what the heck is going on. It's up to you how the game plays out, how the events unfold and who gets saved and who gets crushed. All with very little influence from the game designers.

So that's just after a short evening of playtime. I want to get a few more days in, maybe some more quests under my belt and more of the world explored before I sit down and do a larger review. This is a game you can't slap a review and score up for after even 8-10hrs of gameplay.

In the full review expect more on the NPC conversation/influence system, the game tutorial and character class/race selection system, world travel/exploration and character advancement.

Comments (Page 2)
2 Pages1 2 
on Mar 23, 2006
I'm looking forward to playing this game.
on Mar 23, 2006
I restarted my game as a dark elf battlemage last night (was a Redguard Crusader previously) and am ignoring the story quests for now. I spent 2hrs just wandering around the Imperial City and only really explored two of the quarters as I make my way to the Arcane University. I'm going to try and advance a bit in the mages guild before I move too far into the story, maybe get some better equipment.

Also, I snagged the Strategy Guide for the game since the manual that came in the box was utterly pitiful and unhelpful. This is what a strat guide should be. 368 pages long... that's a LOT of strategy they packed in there! Definitely worth $20.
on Mar 23, 2006
Well, im leaving for 3 weeks day after tomrrow... so ill wait and not dishonour that gfx angine by running it on my lappie's fx5600go

When i get back, its OC'ed Opty 180 & X1900XTX time!
on Mar 23, 2006
Oi! Can you tell how many GB of disc space dat thing eat? And any commentz on deir praized Radiant AI?
on Mar 23, 2006
Game requires about 4.6GB of space... and expect that to expand as mods come out that people will just have to have. It dumps pretty much the entire DVD down to your disk.

As for AI, I'm not sure yet. I've only fought a few goblins and some rats so far. They're good at zigging and zagging to dodge arrows and fireballs, but I haven't seen anything in terms of tactics yet. I've already found a few ways to cheese melee combat when using a longsword. Basically you run in, and as you're running in you swing one, maybe two times. Your reach is just enough to hit, and then you immediately back pedal and take another swing as you retreat out of their range. It allows you to attack faster and not worry about timing blocks. I'm hoping this becomes less effective as the enemies get more powerful. It's already a waste against spell casters cause they'll just set you on fire.
on Mar 23, 2006
Hmm. Game sounds interesting, but I don't like the notion of FPS style combat in my RPGs.
on Mar 23, 2006
Don't expect something like Mortal Combat fighting there, its RPG you know It's just the same dice rolls as usual, just served better. And I feel somehow cheated on graphics! Don't get me wrong, the game is superb but with all this hype I expected something that would drop me from my seat. But landscapes... They are great on short distances but if you look at he horizon you feel like watching cartoon! And this with all graphics maxed out! If you ever have played Far Cry you know what can be done with wide landscapes. And to think that Far Cry needs far far lesser computer to play....
Well, this is the only thing that bothers me so far so I better quit whining.
And some tips for people lost in this big big world - search out some guilds and join. There will be plenty of quests given to you.
on Mar 24, 2006

Don't expect something like Mortal Combat fighting there, its RPG you know It's just the same dice rolls as usual, just served better


Okay, fair enough.

This game does sound like a real resource pig too, and as you say, it sounds like the graphics seem to be less than they should be for the resources they use.

Notably, Morrowind (which I only played briefly on a friend's PC) was pretty ugly. And it turns out that it was partially due to sloppy programming/ design. I stumbled accross a mod for Morrowind once that was for VASTLY superior character models, that actually used a few less polygons! So its possible that this game should be capable of more, but the 'art department' was a little substandard (i.e. not up to the same skill level as the writers of the story).

on Apr 17, 2006
I was looking for a post from you on the forum but couldnt find one. I think I remember you saying it was your birthday today? So here it is:
HAPPY BIRTHDAY ZOOMBA

(I hope i got it right, otherwize never mind, lol)
on Apr 17, 2006
Hehe, it's not for another few hours (April 18th is about 4hrs away right now). But thank you for the well-wishes

I"M OLD!
on Apr 18, 2006
Does anyone else feel like its almost too big? There are like 32 quests in the first city alone I can't listen to all that babble when I just want to complete one quest. (imagine walking into a town and everyone huddles up and starts quest talking. same with taverns like everyone comes up to me.)

overwhelmed thats it I feel overwhelmed.

CPU
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Minimum: 512 MB
You Have: 512 MB PASS
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You Have: Windows 2000 Professional Service Pack 4 (Build 2195) PASS
Video Card
Minimum: 128MB Direct3D compatible video card (NVIDIA GeForce FX 5700+ / ATI Radeon 9500+)
You Have: NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 (GeForce FX 5200)
Video Card Features - Minimum attributes of your Video Card Video RAM: Required - 128 MB , You have - 128.0 MB
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Video Card Driver Version (DirectX)
Your driver version number is: 6.14.10.8443
DirectX Version
Minimum: DirectX 9.0c (included on disk)
You Have: 9.0c PASS
Sound Card
Minimum: Yes
You Have: MPU-401 Compatible MIDI Device PASS
Sound Card Driver Version
Your driver version number is: 5.0.2184.1
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on Apr 18, 2006
It is overwhelming at first, no question. It's daunting as you're just tossed out there into the world with little direction and are just left to explore and discover on your own. But that's the strength of this sort of game. It's a world to explore, you just have to figure out a few things to focus on at a time, and just go after those quests. When you're ready for more, talk to more people for quests. Or spend time just digging through caves and ruins.

This is not like Baldur's Gate or Icewind Dale, or any of the other really good RPGs of recent years. Those games give you a path to follow and leads you along. Sometimes they branch off a bit, but there's really one main line that everything follows along. Oblivion has a thin core quest line, but it's laregely independent of everything else going on. The game continues after you "beat" the main story. The world continues to function and everyone talks of your accomplishments as legend etc...

It just takes a bit to get into.
on Apr 18, 2006
It is a complaint that some people have made, that the very free form gameplay is overwhelming. Although the game isn't as 'dispersed' as Morrowind where there were big areas of nothing. This will not make it to some people's tatses to be sure, but that is unavoidable.

Personally I don't mind. If I like a game, I want to be able to play it through a couple times, but conventional RPGs are too static, you know everything that will happen after the first play through. I still can play some through a couple times, but isn't nearly as fun. Oblivion however is so big that you would have to be really dedicated to get every quest the first time round.

My character is up to 14th level now, and I'm only on the 'Path of Dawn' quest in the main story line, which is only about 1/3 of the way through the main quest line alone! Plus I've decided to joing the mages guild, theives guild AND fighter guild (I'm mostly a fighter with some magic backup, but being a Lone Wolf I need to be able to open the odd lock on my own too, and am not above breaking in somewhere to get something I want). And then there are all the various ruins and mines I've found, and most of them are just on the main roads!

This game should keep me nice and busy for a while, yes indeed.
on Apr 19, 2006
Sadly, I have stopped playing GS2 all together after finishing this game. As much as I love GS2 I'm an old school RPGer and it seemed like the thing to do. Why you might ask?

Well I did so because I found the Dark Brotherhood plot line to be very well done, in fact the best in the game in my opinion so I decided to add to it in a seriously major way. I started working on putting together an exceptionally professional mod team from other like minded communtiy members. For example it has members from several areas of the entertainment industry, not just the gaming side of the house. Additionally as a boon we even have "support" from the developer and talent directly responsible for the Brotherhood dimension of the title.

In short, our goal is to basically produce an unofficial Dark Brotherhood expansion pack.
If anyone is interested our forums are here: thedarkbrotherhood.com

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