Oblivion:One Game to Rule them All
by Anton Bursch · in General Discussion · 03/26/2006 (1:28 pm) · 51 replies
I purchased a new computer this last week and it should arrive sometime this week. So, I have been playing Oblivion for the last few hours on my old computer on the lowest graphics settings possible. So, understanding that... I have this to say:
This is THE single BEST game EVER made!!! Hands down. No contest. It is The King.
Not since first playing Unreal all those years ago have I been this blown away by a game.
Anyway, if you have been wondering whether or not to get Oblivion... even on lowest settings it's the most enjoyable game I've played in the last five years.
This is THE single BEST game EVER made!!! Hands down. No contest. It is The King.
Not since first playing Unreal all those years ago have I been this blown away by a game.
Anyway, if you have been wondering whether or not to get Oblivion... even on lowest settings it's the most enjoyable game I've played in the last five years.
About the author
I design and direct games for Somatic Vision. We primarily make games for use with biofeedback, but our latest game, Tropical Heat, a jet ski racing game, is for regular gamers and is available on PC/Mac and will be available on ipad and iphone soon.
#22
03/27/2006 (12:04 pm)
At least 4 of us at the office are hooked. I'm representing with the 360 version, though I'm a bit dissapointed all the pretty graphics didn't make it over. I'm really not sure exactly why, but it happens. 
#23
Also - I think I'm averaging a crash once every 15 minutes or so later in the game. Sometimes my last quicksave will also crash which really sucks. Can't believe they released it in this condition.
Having said all that, the amount of content and detail is remarkable. And the audio, wow, the audio is the best I've ever heard, voice acting is also top notch.
03/27/2006 (12:53 pm)
It's a good game. I'd rate it one of the best ever if it could consistently run at > 10 fps while there's more than 3 characters on the screen at the same time. I'm running a 3.0ghz Prescott with 1 GB RAM and an ATI x800.Also - I think I'm averaging a crash once every 15 minutes or so later in the game. Sometimes my last quicksave will also crash which really sucks. Can't believe they released it in this condition.
Having said all that, the amount of content and detail is remarkable. And the audio, wow, the audio is the best I've ever heard, voice acting is also top notch.
#24
I Love the way these guys make the world.
I spent FOREVER collecting Everything in the world and bringing it to my "hideout"
it was alot of fun, I would weight myself down so bad I could hardly move.
ROFL..
then my friend was looking into my case one day and said "hey your cdrom ide cable is loose!! let me tighten that up for ya"
ZZZPPPFFFHhhhtttppp..
whack there goes my win partition.
(linux was fine)
had to reinstall and havent had the heart to get back to my game yet (years later)
but seriously I'm gonna have to buy this and try it.
I remember the crash bugs all to well.
I wonder if it can cripple the 7800GTX?
I once stole this guys hat he had on a bench.
and he kept catching me and taking it away. (reload scene)
till i stole it once and ran like hell .. then stole a candle and kept running
then I hid the hat and let em bust me for the candle.
woot then went and picked up my loot (the hat)
was Awesome I felt so evil after getting away with the hat.
heheheheh
I was 100 at fist fighting in no time. I didnt use no other weapons just fists.
which was really cool too.
03/27/2006 (1:14 pm)
I'm gonna have to rush out and buy this after work.I Love the way these guys make the world.
I spent FOREVER collecting Everything in the world and bringing it to my "hideout"
it was alot of fun, I would weight myself down so bad I could hardly move.
ROFL..
then my friend was looking into my case one day and said "hey your cdrom ide cable is loose!! let me tighten that up for ya"
ZZZPPPFFFHhhhtttppp..
whack there goes my win partition.
(linux was fine)
had to reinstall and havent had the heart to get back to my game yet (years later)
but seriously I'm gonna have to buy this and try it.
I remember the crash bugs all to well.
I wonder if it can cripple the 7800GTX?
I once stole this guys hat he had on a bench.
and he kept catching me and taking it away. (reload scene)
till i stole it once and ran like hell .. then stole a candle and kept running
then I hid the hat and let em bust me for the candle.
woot then went and picked up my loot (the hat)
was Awesome I felt so evil after getting away with the hat.
heheheheh
I was 100 at fist fighting in no time. I didnt use no other weapons just fists.
which was really cool too.
#25
It can!
I'm running it in SLI mode with 2 * 7800 GTX in 1600x1200 4*AA and in some of the large outdoor scenes it stutters a little. Most of the indoor scenes play in top notch speed (AMD dual core 4800+)
But the amount of content - WoW go home..!
03/27/2006 (2:29 pm)
Quote:I wonder if it can cripple the 7800GTX?
It can!
I'm running it in SLI mode with 2 * 7800 GTX in 1600x1200 4*AA and in some of the large outdoor scenes it stutters a little. Most of the indoor scenes play in top notch speed (AMD dual core 4800+)
But the amount of content - WoW go home..!
#26
poor sli.
Ok, Well I guess I'll have to break down and buy the other counterpart to my GTX huh?
(not)
I'll give it a whirl without it.
Edit:
messed up quote.
03/27/2006 (2:51 pm)
RoflQuote:
in some of the large outdoor scenes it stutters a little.
poor sli.
Ok, Well I guess I'll have to break down and buy the other counterpart to my GTX huh?
(not)
I'll give it a whirl without it.
Edit:
messed up quote.
#27
It says the recomended res for my comp is 640x480.
I can run it at playable frame rates with most of the settings turned down and the texture detail on med on 800x600.
But the problem is i have a widescreen monitor and everyone gets to be short and fat.
But if i turn down the texture res to low, i can turn it up to the first widescreen res setting and crank up most of the settings and get very playable framerates.
I have a AMD 2800+ 512 megs of ram, Geforce FX 5900.
The video card can handle all the polys easily, but it suffers alot with the massive use of shaders on the high res textures.
Still it looks better than morrowind. This thing is gonan suck up months of my time and then even more when i upgrade my comp in July. Star Ocean is gonna have to wait for a while.
03/27/2006 (5:30 pm)
HeheIt says the recomended res for my comp is 640x480.
I can run it at playable frame rates with most of the settings turned down and the texture detail on med on 800x600.
But the problem is i have a widescreen monitor and everyone gets to be short and fat.
But if i turn down the texture res to low, i can turn it up to the first widescreen res setting and crank up most of the settings and get very playable framerates.
I have a AMD 2800+ 512 megs of ram, Geforce FX 5900.
The video card can handle all the polys easily, but it suffers alot with the massive use of shaders on the high res textures.
Still it looks better than morrowind. This thing is gonan suck up months of my time and then even more when i upgrade my comp in July. Star Ocean is gonna have to wait for a while.
#28
anyway, even the 360 version has some bugs. are the graphics really that different between the pc and the 360 version? I was under the impression they were the same - when playing on an HDTV anyway.
03/28/2006 (12:29 pm)
I bought the 360 version of the game, even though I have a PC that could run it (amd 64 3200, 2 gb ram, x800 xt pe) figured the pc version would crash a lot more (ahhh..bethesda...can't wait to see how many bugs are in fallout 3). anyway, even the 360 version has some bugs. are the graphics really that different between the pc and the 360 version? I was under the impression they were the same - when playing on an HDTV anyway.
#29
most of the games are locked in 60 fps and doesnt use all three cores.
it will take quite a time before we really see the true power of the xbox 360.
03/28/2006 (2:38 pm)
Even though i never played the game i could propably say that the 360 version, like the other games, doesnt use the power of the 360. most of the games are locked in 60 fps and doesnt use all three cores.
it will take quite a time before we really see the true power of the xbox 360.
#30
It's like making Doom into an RTS, it's just not right :p
03/28/2006 (2:41 pm)
First person RPGs are just.... wrong.It's like making Doom into an RTS, it's just not right :p
#32
03/28/2006 (4:08 pm)
Maybe Bungie can show us the true power of the 360, let's just hope that it is not until Christmas '07. Nobody wants a rushed Halo 3.
#33
The Oracle would like to know what you had for lunch ;)
03/29/2006 (4:34 am)
Quote:Even though i never played the game i could propably say that the 360 version, like the other games, doesnt use the power of the 360.
Quote:"According to past and recent interviews with Todd Howard and other members of the Bethesda Softworks team, Oblivion is the very first Xbox 360 game to utilize all three symmetrical cores of the CPU."
The Oracle would like to know what you had for lunch ;)
#34
bought it up and installed it last night on the wife's machine.
(minimum req.)
Unplayable didn't make it past character creation.
Installed it on my machine and its runs pretty nice.
(PIIII 3k mghz 7800gtx yadayadayada 3 gig ram(BattleField 2))
however like previously mentioned.
I've never had such a close binding relationship to the Quick Save key.
so far has not crashed while in an interior, but outdoors on long walks it seems to crash pretty consistently.
03/29/2006 (9:15 am)
Ok well.bought it up and installed it last night on the wife's machine.
(minimum req.)
Unplayable didn't make it past character creation.
Installed it on my machine and its runs pretty nice.
(PIIII 3k mghz 7800gtx yadayadayada 3 gig ram(BattleField 2))
however like previously mentioned.
I've never had such a close binding relationship to the Quick Save key.
so far has not crashed while in an interior, but outdoors on long walks it seems to crash pretty consistently.
#35
03/29/2006 (6:24 pm)
I just got my new computer installed. Oblivion took less than five minutes to install. Holy shit computers are fast now days. So, I just got to the abby... just awesome. This game is so cool. Now I have to get back to work. Sigh.
#36
Finally got a chance to play this for about 5 hours. It is definately not the best RPG, it actually plays a lot like Morrowind, which was good but not great, I'd maybe put it in Top 10 RPGs but not quite Top 5 (again, talking about Morrowind). The 'topic' dialog system, same thing used in Morrowind, isn't very fun, especially when you hear the same random of 5 things from every NPC in the game. Topic dialog really just makes the NPCs feel really dry, I would hope they use a branching dialog system like Fallout for Fallout 3. The NPCs do talk amongst themselves but its again random pointless talk (hey I saw a mudcrab the other day).
There were a couple bugs I found pretty quickly, I created a custom class character and for some reason it wouldn't let me name it, name would always go back to the default "Adventurer", I restarted game and it worked. Another thing that is pretty lame, I'd categorize as a bug. I am being "pursued" by the Law and I go through an Oblivion gate, which for those that don't know is basically a gate to a Hellish type place, no humans there other than myself. I am fighting some imps and things of that sort and what do you know, the Law has pursued me here and wants me to pay off my 40 gold fine for stealing some apples and oranges, not to mention, I was doing this little Oblivion gate quest thing for them in the first place! The graphics are awesome, everything is normal mapped in this game, I have seen some better characters normal mapped but generally not everything was normal mapped. So I'll give it that. I am able to play on 1280x1024 (my monitor's highest, 19" LCD) on full graphics and runs real smooth. Have 3.2ghz, 1gb RAM, ATI 1600pro 512mb. I tested with same setup except GeForce 5900 card and it was unplayble, character gen screen at 640x480 and low textures lagged. So I would say that you need at least the 6000 series and whatever Radeon equivalent to that is.
Nevertheless, it's pretty good and fun game. Probably best single player RPG since Knights of the Old Republic 2. Definately a lot better than Fable, which was a joke.
03/31/2006 (6:37 am)
Geoff - Bad choice to buy the xbox 360 version, the graphics are dumbed down a bit, game is buggy so no patches, and you probably don't know but the game is pretty editable so no mods on 360.Finally got a chance to play this for about 5 hours. It is definately not the best RPG, it actually plays a lot like Morrowind, which was good but not great, I'd maybe put it in Top 10 RPGs but not quite Top 5 (again, talking about Morrowind). The 'topic' dialog system, same thing used in Morrowind, isn't very fun, especially when you hear the same random of 5 things from every NPC in the game. Topic dialog really just makes the NPCs feel really dry, I would hope they use a branching dialog system like Fallout for Fallout 3. The NPCs do talk amongst themselves but its again random pointless talk (hey I saw a mudcrab the other day).
There were a couple bugs I found pretty quickly, I created a custom class character and for some reason it wouldn't let me name it, name would always go back to the default "Adventurer", I restarted game and it worked. Another thing that is pretty lame, I'd categorize as a bug. I am being "pursued" by the Law and I go through an Oblivion gate, which for those that don't know is basically a gate to a Hellish type place, no humans there other than myself. I am fighting some imps and things of that sort and what do you know, the Law has pursued me here and wants me to pay off my 40 gold fine for stealing some apples and oranges, not to mention, I was doing this little Oblivion gate quest thing for them in the first place! The graphics are awesome, everything is normal mapped in this game, I have seen some better characters normal mapped but generally not everything was normal mapped. So I'll give it that. I am able to play on 1280x1024 (my monitor's highest, 19" LCD) on full graphics and runs real smooth. Have 3.2ghz, 1gb RAM, ATI 1600pro 512mb. I tested with same setup except GeForce 5900 card and it was unplayble, character gen screen at 640x480 and low textures lagged. So I would say that you need at least the 6000 series and whatever Radeon equivalent to that is.
Nevertheless, it's pretty good and fun game. Probably best single player RPG since Knights of the Old Republic 2. Definately a lot better than Fable, which was a joke.
#37
But it sure is pretty.
A couple of my friends are going absolutely crazy over it, though. I should have known that I wouldn't be that excited since I've never been an Arena fan.
Good game, but not my cup of tea.
03/31/2006 (7:21 am)
Got to play it for a bit. I found it better than Morrowind and Daggerfall in the beginning, but it still has the feel of a big, empty MMORPG to me. I can go anywhere, but why would I want to? It's the game that I dreamed about making as a kid...and one which I get bored playing in a matter of minutes.But it sure is pretty.
A couple of my friends are going absolutely crazy over it, though. I should have known that I wouldn't be that excited since I've never been an Arena fan.
Good game, but not my cup of tea.
#38
Open your journal and look at the quests you have assigned - that's why! There's a better story here than in Morrowind, and it's easier to figure out where to go, and what to do. This game is hands-down better than Morrowind as an RPG - which was in turn better than daggerfall.
03/31/2006 (7:25 am)
>> I can go anywhere, but why would I want toOpen your journal and look at the quests you have assigned - that's why! There's a better story here than in Morrowind, and it's easier to figure out where to go, and what to do. This game is hands-down better than Morrowind as an RPG - which was in turn better than daggerfall.
#39
If you wander off into the land theres tons of little places with nice things to do.
03/31/2006 (7:28 am)
Almost too many quests to keep track of.If you wander off into the land theres tons of little places with nice things to do.
#40
..
man i'm PO'd at the ai.
stupid bastards.
here I am Orc Warrior Smashing everything.
go to rescue the emperor's last son.
and get some help from the ai to clean castle out.
man they keep jumping right in front of my 2 handed claymore.
needless to say they dont last long.
then they are like "Murderer!"
and start filling me with arrows.
so I have to kill them ALL
and im like "you dumb bastard why would you jump in front of me?"
so I reload and try again, maybe I wasnt very nice and didnt give them enuff room to fight.
try that angle.
better but the same.
next one I reload let them do all the work and stand back.
they start dropping like flies.... they need me.
its pretty tough to get em to stay out of your way.
and my weapon is so large. there is no way we can fight together.
I threw away all my daggers...
argggg.
plus the map is so confining... that is pissing me off too.
the map in morrow wind was way better.
Plus I havent been able to pick up a candle yet, maybe I just havent found a portable one.
but that is pissing me off too.
one of my fav things to horde in morrow wind was all the candles.
(makes for some kick butt rooms)
03/31/2006 (8:27 am)
Is this the place to bash this game yet?..
man i'm PO'd at the ai.
stupid bastards.
here I am Orc Warrior Smashing everything.
go to rescue the emperor's last son.
and get some help from the ai to clean castle out.
man they keep jumping right in front of my 2 handed claymore.
needless to say they dont last long.
then they are like "Murderer!"
and start filling me with arrows.
so I have to kill them ALL
and im like "you dumb bastard why would you jump in front of me?"
so I reload and try again, maybe I wasnt very nice and didnt give them enuff room to fight.
try that angle.
better but the same.
next one I reload let them do all the work and stand back.
they start dropping like flies.... they need me.
its pretty tough to get em to stay out of your way.
and my weapon is so large. there is no way we can fight together.
I threw away all my daggers...
argggg.
plus the map is so confining... that is pissing me off too.
the map in morrow wind was way better.
Plus I havent been able to pick up a candle yet, maybe I just havent found a portable one.
but that is pissing me off too.
one of my fav things to horde in morrow wind was all the candles.
(makes for some kick butt rooms)
Torque Owner Thomas \"Man of Ice\" Lund
Damn you - I'm going to waste tons of hours now
You made me buy it, and I absolutely love it. Totally stunning. 1600x1200 on ultra high details - wow
(In case of doubt - this is sarcasm!)