The last few days didn't see much progress for me. Really busy right now...but will get back again soon.

I just entered the city of Skingrad...I'm really enjoying every minute of the game, and I'm not in a big rush. Exploring every possible corner, talking to people, even reading books. This game literally takes you in it. And I thought Baldur's Gate and Champions of Norrath were the best RPG's! (Same goes for the countless Japanese RPG's I've played... nothing comes close to Oblivion. Although I'm still curious as to what Sony has up its sleeve..hmmm)

quote:

Originally posted by Cody K.:


I wouldn’t mind hearing some criticisms from game owners in this forum. I usually find better information in people’s gripes than in their seduced praises.

I'm still early on in the game, but this is what I think so far.

The Pros:
- The world of Oblivion is HUGE.
- The absolute freedom to explore and do non-linear quests. The non-linear quests get you really involved in the NPC's lives.
- You *will* find yourself immersed in the game (see above).
- Temporal settings are so "real": you sleep, you wake up, you do the regular daily grind, then back to sleep, etc. NPC's do the same.
- Almost unlimited character classes (you can create virtually any class you like, on top of the predefined 21 classes).

The Cons:
- the picture. It's definitely not bad, it's just that I expected sharper and smoother picture from a next-gen system. Then again... the game was launched early.
- in the beginning (when the game guides you through a sort of tutorial), it could be a bit overwhelming, there's a lot of information and perhaps not enough time to absorb it before the game pushes you out into the world. Also, setting up your character could take loooooooooooooong -- although I thought this was actually fun.
- although this is not really a con, the first person battle system took some time getting used to. RPG's I've played in the past were all third person.
- Magic. In Oblivion you have to go to the arcane colleges and buy the spells from them. And not all magic is available for sale in one place (there's different schools of magic, so each school sells different spells. Oh, and the schools are miles away from each other.). I think this is the traditional way of acquiring magic, but I preferred the skill tree system in previous RPG's I played where you spend skill points on spells you favor and move along to more powerful spells as you advance levels --- kinda makes the game easy if you ask me coz you don't have to make long trips to buy the spells you want, they're right in your character stats menu.
- Although you can "create" a custom cleric, I don't think the game quite captures the essence of it. Firstly, if the game did, the cleric would've been one of the predefined classes (it's not.. thats why you have to create it yourself)). Secondly, the spells available to use are all mage spells, no divinations. The game however tried to compensate for this by having schools of Restoration and Conjuration.

That's all for now. I'm barely Level 5 right now and I'm guessing I'm not even 5% into the game (main quest wise that is). I'll post more reviews later as I go along.

Carlito hit a couple...although most of his are based on the way he likes to play the game It's all good though.

Just to add, I'd say that there are some definite graphical hiccups....especially when exploring the forests, temples, etc. outside the cities. The loading is pretty frequent, but there is no loading screen until you enter a town/dungeon/house. Still, the frame rate dips quite a bit outside the cities. Nothing really to detract from the game itself, but something to consider. Other than that, I haven't found much in the way of cons. To me, if you're a RPG fan and you don't have this game, you're doing yourself a huge disservice.

Oh don't get me wrong, I love the game. If you like RPG's, this MUST be in your collection.

I might have overarticulated what I thought were downsides to Oblivion, but they're still not enough to make me think it's not worth the money I spent. Just wanted to provide some feedback for others who would like to hear a few imperfections so they can decide better whether to get it or not.

Quite honestly the loading hiccups when you're walking through the country don't really bother me, you barely notice it. A little bit of slowing down of frame rate yeah, but I can forgive that too. What I was expecting was finer, more realistic picture. Since this is my first 360 game, it's my only basis for comparison and the graphics wasn't a massive improvement from the original XBOX in my opinion.

quote:

Originally posted by Carlito's Way:
Oh don't get me wrong, I love the game. If you like RPG's, this MUST be in your collection.

I might have overarticulated what I thought were downsides to Oblivion, but they're still not enough to make me think it's not worth the money I spent. Just wanted to provide some feedback for others who would like to hear a few imperfections so they can decide better whether to get it or not.

Quite honestly the loading hiccups when you're walking through the country don't really bother me, you barely notice it. A little bit of slowing down of frame rate yeah, but I can forgive that too. What I was expecting was finer, more realistic picture. Since this is my first 360 game, it's my only basis for comparison and the graphics wasn't a massive improvement from the original XBOX in my opinion.

Did you ever play Elder Scrolls: Morrowind for the original Xbox? The graphics on this game are 1,000X better. You can't really compare these graphics to a game, like say, Doom 3. They're totally different games with totally different engines. I mean, sure, games like Halo 2 and Ninja Gaiden look cleaner....but they're not doing as much in the background or trying to churn out billions of textures at once. For this type of gigantic, open-ended game, the graphics are as good as they're gonna get right now....to me, they're absolutely amazing.

Did you get to the part of the game after you close the first Oblivion gate yet? After that, the game really picks up. Damn...I'm having so much fun with this....haha.

i agree with gzagenius when he says that after the first oblivion gate, the game picks up, but i dont agree with the graphics statement. for example, fight night round 3 is what graphics on the 360 should look like or at least close to it. im not saying that the graphics on oblivion are bad im just saying that they could be better. other than that, the game is PERFECT, seriously.

You won't see Fight Night type graphics in a game like this for a looooooong time....so comparing the two is useless. Fight Night takes place inside of a ring where things like draw distance and textures are minimal. The developers can maximize the horsepower because there aren't as many things to render.

Oblivion on the other hand has a draw distance for miles, billions of textures, and gigantic environments. Very difficult to get really good graphics on a game like this....they pulled it off nicely though.

It's like comparing apples to oranges when you mention Fight Night....if you really look at the detail and work put into Oblivion's world, you will begin to appreciate the amazing graphical capabilities.

Does anyone know how someone's attribute gets a negative skill modifier on it? My Endurance reads 42 and is highlighted red (I know for a fact it should read 43). I'm not sure what's causing it, I checked everything I'm wearing: weapon, armor, amulets, etc, and the tabs that come up on the right hand when you highlight each item don't read any negative effects on my Endurance or any other attribute for that matter. I don't think I'm poisoned or anything, nor am I under a spell (if I were, the screen would display an icon at the top right hand corner to tell me I was under a spell). Can anyone help? I'm really at a loss as to what's causing the negative effect on my Endurance. I noticed it the first time when I was in that small town where Jauffrey lives.

quote:

Originally posted by Carlito's Way:
Does anyone know how someone's attribute gets a negative skill modifier on it? My Endurance reads 42 and is highlighted red (I know for a fact it should read 43). I'm not sure what's causing it, I checked everything I'm wearing: weapon, armor, amulets, etc, and the tabs that come up on the right hand when you highlight each item don't read any negative effects on my Endurance or any other attribute for that matter. I don't think I'm poisoned or anything, nor am I under a spell (if I were, the screen would display an icon at the top right hand corner to tell me I was under a spell). Can anyone help? I'm really at a loss as to what's causing the negative effect on my Endurance. I noticed it the first time when I was in that small town where Jauffrey lives.

Usually that happens when you get attacked by an enemy with a magic weapon....I had it happen to me a couple of times. Just go to a temple in any of the cities and cleanse yourself at the altar or use a cure disease potion (I went to the temple - much easier)....should be good to go after that.

Been playing a bit for the last few days...

Finally completed the Arena questline...which is the only questline I was even close to completing (about 25 hours into the game)...

If you are finding difficulty in the Arena, I highly suggest going through and getting all the Mage's Guild recommendations first, and getting your staff. I made a Staff Of Frost....and when I used it in the Arena, I destroyed everyone. The grand champion got one hit on me, I believe. I also like to use the Blackwater Blade (which you get from an Imperial City quest) a lot.....those are my 2 favorite weapons right now.

Has anyone actually tried to buy a house? I wanna buy one coz...well I want a place where I can keep my growing collection of books (among other things)...they're just eating up my encumbrance. The thing is, the houses for sale aren't cheap, and the one affordable house in Imperial City looks worse than a Brazilian favela.

ive been playing this game for HOURS possibly lke 50hrs already on Easter Break. You get all the cool magic stuff around lvl 20. The game works by when you reach level 20 bandits necromencers will have magic stuff too so all you have to do is kill them. MAKE SURE YOU GO ONTO THE BLOATED FLOAT IN THE IMPERIAL CITY WATERFRONT AND SLEEP FOR 24HRS. WHEN YOU ARE AROUND LVL 18ISH I GOT A DAEDRIC LONGSWORD AND THE BLACKWATER BLADE WITH EBONY ARMOUR. need any help just ask me

Do you *have* to sleep for 24 HOURS? Is that essential? I often find sleeping to be a waste of time and I usually nap for only an hour when I level up, I don't see any difference.

hey guys i have a quick question, when your enchanting things the most fire damage i can put onto a sword is like 39dmg or something like that, is there anyway to put more fire damage on besides putting weakness to fire on it?

well i rested for an hour and it didnt work mayb itll work with 5 hrs or sumthin but i went straight to 24hrs and it wokred really cool i think

wow...i am the boss of the thieves guild, mages guild, and the Dark Brotherhood. Gets pretty intresting

K wait. hold up.. *what* will work if I sleep for 24 hours?

They're just talking about a quest in the Imperial City....

If you go to the Waterfront, and find a boat called "The Bloated Float", enter it and rest in one of the beds there....when you wake up, you will trigger quest....it actually gets you a pretty nice sword called the Blackwater Blade (which I mentioned above). I'd suggest doing the quest.

ne1 no where i can find will-o-wisps? i need the remains of them for the star of azura quest (is the dungeon really long?)

For the Azura's Star quest, instead of going and getting the gold dust from Will-O-Wisps, I went to the Mages Guild in I belive Bruma or Cheydinhal....not sure which one exactly....

But if you go into one of the two, go upstairs and find the living quarters, I think it's the 2nd room on the left....there is some gold dust on the table by the Alembic....there are a bunch of other ingredients on the table too, and the gold dust is kinda small (but not at all impossible to find).....just grab that, and bring it back to Azura....and you will be good to go.

No, the dungeon is not that long either....a few vampires with magic. Nothing you can't handle if you're above level 6. Should take you about 5 minutes.