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 Post subject: The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
PostPosted: 01 May 2006 14:42 
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I got Oblivion in mid-April, and have been playing it as much as I could in my scant free time. I've beaten it five ways from Sunday (or whatever the hell that expression is), and feel it's time to share it's awesomeness with you all.

1)Story--Great story. Picks up right where we were told it would at the end of Morrowind (assuming you had the Bloodmoon expansion...and played it last...and did the miscellaneous quest that gave you the info) You're a prisoner, for unknown reasons (though later in the game you know the EXACT penalties for necrophelia [not joking]...make of that what you will) and the Emperor comes to your cell. Turns out there's a passage there he needs to flee the castle in the face of some unknown threat.

He tells you he knows you from his dreams, and asks you to come with. His guards, The Blades (who you should remember from Morrowind) aren't too happy with that, but what the big guy says goes.

You don't play long before the Emperor gets whacked by an assassin and you're let loose on the world. You should have known that was coming, and I won't ruin the story for you past that point.

2)Factions--Remember the Dark Brotherhood from Morrowind? The shady assassin's guild who tried to kill you on more than one occasion? You get to join 'em. Kill any innocent bystander and the next time you sleep you'll get a visit from a high ranking member of the group, offering you an invite.

These assassinations aren't legal though, as they were in Morrowind, so try to be descrete. Or if you have money to pay off the guards, you can kill them anywhere you'd like.

You can also join the fighters at the Arena and work your way up to Grand Champion, as well as standard Fighters, Mages, and Thieves Guild missions.

3)Exploring--it's a whole lot easier now. In Morrowind walking was all the rage. In Cyrodil we do things differently. If you want/have to go somewhere for the first time, you can walk or buy/steal a horse. If you've been there before, you can just open your map and click the place you wanna go. Couldn't be simpler.

4)Side Quests--A huge variety of these. Every Deadra prince, save Mehrunes Dagon, will have you perform a task for them, and reward you with a very powerful item upon completion.

5)Shortcomings--Where the hell did all the weapons and armor go? Morrowind abounded with all varieties weapons and armor for your killing pleasure, but they really stamped that out here. There are about 10 sets of armor in the whole game. Weapons were severely reduced too. In Morrowind there were no fewer than 10 bladed weapons and 5 axes for each material type (Iron, steel, glass, ebony, silver, Deadric). There are two axe types and four bladed weapons per materiel. I mean, dubya tee eff!

A lot of skills were phased out as well, some of which were useless, but some were incredibly handy. In Morrowind you could lock a door to keep the guards out while you smashed some poor bastard's face in, but here you need to be able to kill on the fly and get the hell away from the guards.

Inconsistancies--Akaviri aren't human. Yet you run into undead Akaviri soldiers, who happen to be human skeletons. I bet I'm one of very few people to notice this.

Voice Acting-Some good, some bad, some totally out of character. Azura and Hircine, two incredibly important figures in the main quest of Morrowind and Bloodmoon respectively, sounded nothing like they did back then. I know it's anal, but they should have at least attempted to get them to sound the same, or even hire the same actors.

A few lines seemed to be coming from people with nary a clue about the TES universe, or were simply strange. A person could be screaming their head off about something at the first sentence of a paragraph, but in sentence two they act like they're discussing the weather.

The Breton male makes a decidedly girlish grunt occasionally when wounded.

All Oblivion realms are the same. They look the same that is, the maps are incredibly varied. It's understandable that the places in Dagon's Oblivon, which you explore in the main quest, would look the way they do, and all be similar. But Boethiah, a totally different god, (and who has his own realm [mentioned by several in-game books] that looks totally different) sends you to something in his Plane, which looks just like the Dagon Oblivion.

6)Other good stuff--Bandits respawn, so you can always count on sources of income.

After getting to a certain part in the main quest, gates to Oblivion open all over the place. Going in will cost you a lot more money than you'll make (repairing your armor/weapons afterwards), but God it's fun! Deadra are in no short supply, and you can expect the fights of your life in the burning hellish realms of Mehrune's Dagon's Oblivion.

Your enemies level with you. No more pitiful level 3 Scamps will stand in your way when you're at high levels. What would be a Scamp at level 3 will be a strong Dremora or a Xivilai (one of the new Deadra) when you're level 21, with several layers in between. After level 21 the Dremora and Xivilai level with you, as do most other enemies. With your enemies the same level or higher than you at almost all times, it makes the game much more challenging.

The combat system is MUCH improved. No longer do you just whack your enemy until they fall down, you parry, block, thrust, slash, and dodge. Roll out of the way and fire a few arrows if you want, then switch to your blade when they get up close. You control your shield now, and can hide behind it as much as you want. The more you advance in a skill the cooler things you can do with it, take Blade for example. At a skill of 50, you can disarm your opponent using a sideways power attack. At 75, you can knock them down with a forward one. At 100, you can paralyze them with a lunge.

Despite some shrinking of a few areas, you all but have a duty to buy this game if you liked Morrowind.

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PostPosted: 02 May 2006 01:06 
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Joined: 16 Apr 2006 02:32
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You know, I'd love to pick up Oblivion, but my PC ain't up to scratch with the system specs.

I have a dual 2.8ghz processor, 512mb RAM, some stock Intel Garaphics card, and other stock hardware, but I really think my PC would say "F**k off, I can't play that!!!"

Anywho, I'm glad to see someone really enjoying it, however much cristicism it has received from different people.


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: 02 May 2006 09:13 
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Duckman, that is my feelings to, if someone is enjoying it, then it has achieved some value, by giving a person enjoyment.

And BOS knows my feelings on Oblivion, not my cup o tea. :bs




Cheers, Thor

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man, you gotta realise that thor and bos fell out of the patriot tree (like the ugly tree, but instills patriotism instead of ugly) and hit every branch on the way down.


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