IGN Oblivion Impressions

[bapenguin]

IGN (http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/697/697211p1.html) has their dual PC and 360 impressions up of Oblivion. They seem to enjoy the title, but it's not all roses.

In populated areas or environments with large amount of geometry, the framerate definitely drops off. However, at no point does it become unplayable, it's just not as smooth as lurking around underground dungeons. Regardless of framerate, Oblivion is so far displaying some of the best visuals on the Xbox 360. Even with the low resolution textures in the extreme backgrounds, the sheer amount of visible land when wandering outside is a sight to behold. While trekking across Cyrodiil's fields it's impossible not to notice object pop-up. It happens frequently, with grass and smaller objects appearing at a distinct radius around your character. Like the sometimes sluggish framerates, this in no way diminishes the playability of the game.
That's dissapointing to hear. And on the PC version:

This is the first time I've actually laid eyes on the game, aside from the previous batches of screenshots and video clips. We ran it on Dan's machine, since mine decided to start my week by crapping out on me. He has a Dell XPS Gen 4 with a GeForce 7800GTX, 3.4GHz P4, 2GB of PC3200 RAM and some SATA hard drives. It runs fast. Oblivion auto-detected the settings at Ultra High, albeit at 1024x768, with no anti-aliasing. Bethesda recently announced that the PC version of ES4 cannot have both HDR and AA, but it looked quite nice with just HDR. Load times are faster on the PC, but the visuals are about equal. The 360 version of Oblivion does both HDR and AA and runs natively at 1280x720. If you have a 360 and a video card that's less powerful than a 6800GT or Radeon X850, I would recommend getting the 360 version. As with Morrowind, Oblivion is a demanding game.
I really wish I could give you guys some impressions, but I have no idea what Bethesda is doing. We have yet to get a copy for review.

[Vandenh]

>with grass and smaller objects appearing at a distinct radius around your character

I wish people would stop bitching about the f*cking grass.

What do people expect? In 10 years time we will have comments like "the water drops on the grass appear suddenly when you zoom in". People need to compare this to other games that do this... what game has infinite viewing range and grass that you can see at 10000 parsecs????

[NoName]

If you have a 360 and a video card that's less powerful than a 6800GT or Radeon X850, I would recommend getting the 360 version. As with Morrowind, Oblivion is a demanding game.
When I got my x850 I thought to my self that I wouldn't need a new graphic card for a long time coming. It's scary to think some games are already catching up to it...

[Taco]

IGN?

/yawn

[RainOfTerror]

Bapenguin, Bethesda isn't sending out the games, Take 2 is, so god knows when they will get around to it.

[Liquidize105]

>with grass and smaller objects appearing at a distinct radius around your character

I wish people would stop bitching about the f*cking grass.

What do people expect? In 10 years time we will have comments like "the water drops on the grass appear suddenly when you zoom in". People need to compare this to other games that do this... what game has infinite viewing range and grass that you can see at 10000 parsecs????
People bitch about it cus the radius is just so noticeably small. It's there right in front of you the entire friggin game. Increase it by 3 fold and it'd be fine.

[bapenguin]

Bapenguin, Bethesda isn't sending out the games, Take 2 is, so god knows when they will get around to it.

Gotcha. I'm just still sour at Bethesda for forgetting about us for the preview event in Feb. I take it Worthplaying has yet to get their copy either?

[Rirath]

I'm about 10 hours in the game. Quite simply, it looks dang good, but it's not the most jaw dropping thing ever. Frankly, many of the outside vistas were way over hyped in the previews. My first reaction wasn't "wow" but "oh." Outside is easily the least interesting part for me. Towns are big and detailed, caves and dungeons are long, multi-sectioned, well designed, and filled with combat, but wilderness has one thing going for it: draw distance.

What really sucks is that if you ask me, there's too much working against it. You've got nighttime making it hard to see for half of the cycle, you've got fog and rain and other weather effects which honestly, I would do without in favor of a pretty landscape. Some of the deep forest areas off the main roads are much cooler, I'd imagine.

Look for a lot of impressions/reviews like IGN had. For whatever stupid reason nobody felt the urge to mention any of this during the preview events, but they'll be saying it now. Regardless, I'm having a great time. I can't remember the last time I've marathon'ed game this long. I want to stress that I understand and agree that like WoW, the open ended do-anything nature of the game is a worthy trade-off from the pretty but artificial games like Guild Wars. (Which, is great in it's own regard.)

[SMES]

At this point it could get an average score of 4.0 and I'd probably still buy it.

Speaking of which, has anybody spotted a better deal on the 360 version than $45 at CompUSA?

[Grimgrock]

In the real world, I'm a tech writer. I write manuals.

When this reviewer says he doesn't want to read the manual to figure out how to play the game, he loses some credibility. The manual is in the box for a reason. It isn't to waste trees or to brag about their graphic artists. It is to tell you how to play the game. The reviewer does have a point that tooltips would have been nice but in their absence, the manual is right there next to the computer or right there sitting on the couch in the box. I assume the reviewer can read so I'm not sure why this is such a big deal. If you can't figure it out, RTFM and that will usually solve your problem.

[Kelegacy]

>with grass and smaller objects appearing at a distinct radius around your character

I wish people would stop bitching about the f*cking grass.

What do people expect? In 10 years time we will have comments like "the water drops on the grass appear suddenly when you zoom in". People need to compare this to other games that do this... what game has infinite viewing range and grass that you can see at 10000 parsecs????
Object pop-up is annoying to say the least, and when something just pops into existence that close to you, on a next-gen or technology-pushing title, it saps away some of the glory.

I'm a bit discouraged at the drop in frame-rate, as well. Still, Morrowind took a while before I could play it perfectly, so I don't know why I thought Oblivion would be any different. A bit upsetting, but I hope the pros far exceed the cons.

[Taco]

Yes, whining about having to read the manual, especially in a game like Oblivion, hints at some character and/or mental flaws.

[Vandenh]

"Object pop-up is annoying to say the least, and when something just pops into existence that close to you, on a next-gen or technology-pushing title, it saps away some of the glory."

Dude.. it's grass FFS. Not like whole buildings are popping in right in front of you. This is a game.. not a fractal world generator (well not yet :)

[Savok]

So, same as Morrowind? Will run like a sick dog until I get my new PC come Vista (if it isn't a disaster). What I expected, and I'm kinda glad, means I'll be able to enjoy it all over again once I get a meatier PC.

[Kelegacy]

"Object pop-up is annoying to say the least, and when something just pops into existence that close to you, on a next-gen or technology-pushing title, it saps away some of the glory."

Dude.. it's grass FFS. Not like whole buildings are popping in right in front of you. This is a game.. not a fractal world generator (well not yet :)
It's not just grass. Grass is an example you used. I said it was annoying, not game-breaking. I played GTA3 and the sequels and loved them; I know how poor pop-up and draw distances work. But it does ruin a bit of the immersion when the world you are living in blinks into existence as you run around it. I was hoping the 360 could handle such a game flawlessly, though much of the blame could be on Bethesda's shoulders for such graphical and framerate annoyances.

[novicius]

I was only able to give it about four hours last night but so far it has been pretty damn magical in meeting and exceeding my expectations. :)

As was first displayed in the Oct. '04 cover of Game Informer there are horses and they look magnificent. Movement and animations are still stiff (that has to be a Bethesda tradition :D ), and there's a disconcerting zoom-in to the faces of NPC's that you speak with. Disturbingly close.

But on the 360 it all looks incredible (speaking as one who does not have a killer PC) -- the draw distance is sweet even with the minor fill-in, the texture detail is amazing, the lighting, the Havok physics, it's great. Fighting is *very* visceral, with rats leaping at you and thudding against your shield, or parrying attacks from goblins with a sword; of course my fave is still the archery. Very nice to see the arrows drop with range.

There is an odd realization going on here, sort of a recalibration of expectations I'm having in that since nearly *everything* is grabbable, it takes some getting used to because it looks prerendered at times! :p I look at a table filled with bottles and potions, for example, and my first instinct is to say, "Oh, that's a nice render." Heh. :)

I created a Nightblade Wood Elf -- sort of a wizard-thief. I've only used magic fleetingly but what I've seen of it is perfectly Morrowind, but juiced up. There's Alchemy in the game, of course, in fact the whole thing is *very* "Morrowindy" from what I can tell.

Creating a character is a bit of a pain because of the *long* (read: 40 minute) intro. For best results, make a game save just after the events in the sewers (but before you leave) where it allows you to tweak your character, and then just modify it all to make new characters... ;)

There are some minor framerate issues on the 360 as it loads info if you're going too fast and it's worse if you watch your character in 3rd person view gallop along on the back of a horse. :D So I imagine crazy speed will cause some issues, just like with the original Morrowind.

Again, my impressions are based upon the fact that I do not have a killer PC rig to compare it to -- compared to past Xbox/PS2/Gamecube games, Oblivion truly lets you know where your money went. :D

[DropD98]

If it's anything like Morrowind was, then I will be happy. Morrowind is one of my favorite games that I still play around with modding. However, this time I am gonna have to go with the 360 version, as I don't have the money to drop on a new PC at the moment. Still, I think I will have a blast and look forward to picking up my copy today and playing to the wee hours of the night. 5 o'clock can't get here soon enough!

[MosBen]

See, my predicament is that I *know* they're going to release a Game of the Year version or some such thing at some point and I also know that I most certainly won't buy it twice. So, can I hold off on buying this game until the second, possibly tweaked and improved, game comes out? Probably not....

[Bydo_Empire]

Speaking of which, has anybody spotted a better deal on the 360 version than $45 at CompUSA?
Fry's has an ad for the pc version at $37.99.

[Grimgrock]

Creating a character is a bit of a pain because of the *long* (read: 40 minute) intro. For best results, make a game save just after the events in the sewers (but before you leave) where it allows you to tweak your character, and then just modify it all to make new characters... ;)


This is something that I noticed the guy doing the gamespot demo did as well. Seems smart. He also took much longer (it seemed) than 40 minutes to go through that first area. Again, his explanation seems to make sense. The intro makes far more sense than the non-existant one in Morrowind (IMO). I know I will probably go through the whole of the intro to get a feel of the game.

[jacktion]

I really hope that being next-gen would mean an end to pop-up and bad framerates. I guess human error is there in every generation. Bethesda made the mistake of being too ambitious graphically and now the game is suffering. It is a common mistake so don't be too hard on them.
The game should be cool graphically for the most part and that's really all that matters.

[AspectVoid]

Here are my early impressions of the PC version. My system is an Athlon 64 3200+, 1gig of RAM, and a GeForce 7800GT, and I have not updated to the Oblivion specific drivers.

The game runs fast. I'm running everything maxed out at 1024x768 and have had no slowdowns at all. Everything is moving at a nice 60fps. The only place that there are load times is when you're going between dungeon levels indoors. When you are outside, everything runs seamless. The game is beautiful as well. I was annoyed at first that I couldn't run AA and HDR at the same time, but with HDR enabled, there aren't that many jaggies visable.

The character generation is sweet as well. When you're creating your face, it's a lot like the sims game where they give you a face, and then you have dozens of manipulating sliders so that you can change the shape, color, etc. The only dissapointing thing in the generation is that there are only 3 eye colors for most races.

The controls for the game are very solid as well. I haven't had any problems getting used to the combat system, and it works smoothly. When you're in steal mode, you get a damage multiplier for sneak attacks. You can set the game to always run by simply tapping the Caps Lock key. Blocking with the right mouse button does take a moment to shift your weapon, so it's not instant protection for you.

Anyway, as you can see, so far my opinion is very favorable.

[GunnyMo]

I'm loving the game. I played for seven hours straight last night! lol. I've gone a sneaky custom thief/marksman class. The dungeons play out like a medieval MGS with all the stealth I'm doing! :) The character creation alone could take a person upwards of two hours it is so extensive.

Those reviewers have waaaay to much time on their hands if all they can find to complain about is draw distance and how the freakin' grass looks. As someone else said, "IGN /sigh".

Get this game if you have any sort of RPG bone in your body.

[Vandenh]

>I really hope that being next-gen would mean an end to pop-up and bad framerates.

This will never happen since games are pushing bounderies of realistic graphics and the goal/expectations will just move higher.

[Savok]

We may still see an end to pop-up this gen, at least in some games. I say this with a lot of love, Bethesda have trouble with code, lots of trouble, sometimes they have no idea how powerful something they've created is, other times they don't seem to grasp how any of what they've made works, and then the bugs, oh the bugs. So don't go basing what certain things are capable of from Oblivion, chances are something is screwed up.

[51|RandoM]

Yes, whining about having to read the manual, especially in a game like Oblivion, hints at some character and/or mental flaws.

Just another side effect of the console generation.

[Cubfan]

Just another side effect of the console generation.

People haven't wanted to read the fucking manual since the dawn of time, it has nothing to do with consoles.

[51|RandoM]

I really hope that being next-gen would mean an end to pop-up and bad framerates. I guess human error is there in every generation. Bethesda made the mistake of being too ambitious graphically and now the game is suffering. It is a common mistake so don't be too hard on them.
The game should be cool graphically for the most part and that's really all that matters.

The problem isn't techology, the problem is design/development. Instead of shooting for a graphic target that can cover your entire field of view, they decide to go for the "wow" factor and make everything close to you much nicer looking.

They can make a great looking game without pop-up and bad framerates. I know that for a fact, since I've played a few.

[51|RandoM]

People haven't wanted to read the fucking manual since the dawn of time, it has nothing to do with consoles.

...and those people were also reviewers? Anser: No.

[sinclair122]

A question to owners of the PC version...is it starforce "protected"??

[Sloth]

i've always liked reading the manual that comes with games. TWo of my favorites was the Ultima 7 and 7.5 manuals.

[PathMaster]

A question to owners of the PC version...is it starforce "protected"??

I second this question. I would be deeply disappointed if it were protected by Starforce, especially with the recent news of the forced restart.

[Zacharai]

A quick google of 'oblivion starforce' gave me some links that indicate no, they aren't using Starforce. Apparently they've said so on the official forum. My attention span isn't long enough to check that out.

[Heretic Machine]

They are using SecureROM for their anti-piracy software.

[Taco]

Keeping in mind what they had with Morrowind for anti-piracy was pretty horrible. Simply downloading a hacked exe that removed it(maybe still securom?) gained relativley massive FPS increases and I believe fixed some CTDs. No reason to give them a free pass on this front.

[Tricky Thumb]

Keeping in mind what they had with Morrowind for anti-piracy was pretty horrible. Simply downloading a hacked exe that removed it(maybe still securom?) gained relativley massive FPS increases and I believe fixed some CTDs. No reason to give them a free pass on this front.

As I was reading through this thread that's exactly what I was thinking, heh.

If I buy my game, I'll no-cd crack it most of the time. I bought it, I should be able to have that option and it's always been a bit of a smack to the sack that 99% of PC games require discs.

I suppose that's why I love GalCiv 2 and HL2 stuff so much.

Ah well, off of work at 1pm today after dealing with the ES4:O rush. Then I go home and deal with another kind of ES4:O rush.

[Mason]

The funny thing is how easy the draw distance perception issue would be to fix. Somewhere there's an equation which fills in foliage with a constant density at a fixed radius. Cut the density in half, and have the density decrease linearly beyond its current hard radius. Since they're billboarded and pretty tall (from the screens I've seen) the gradual thinning out wouldn't be too perceptible, compared to the hard-edge. Make it a choice in the settings, so as to cut off the inevitable "now it doesn't look like the prerelease screens, we've been gyped!"

It's a dumb issue to obsess the press, and should've been tackled much earlier. Put in a performance hack without making it configurable, and everyone goes nuts. Put in the same hack with a settings slider, and no one would complain at all, since if they're going with a tiny foliage draw distance, it's because of their own hardware or performance desires. It puts the blame on the user, since they could make it prettier if they wanted or could afford to.

[Atorak]

nit·pick·ing - Pronunciation Key (ntpkng)
n.

Minute, trivial, unnecessary, and unjustified criticism or faultfinding.

[Skookum]

The protection is securom 7. There isn't even a CD key.

EB is such a weird little place, most of the time I actually like the people there, but this time wow. Completely inept and frustrated little man trying to help me out while he was searching in vain for an xbox rental for someone else. Of course he couldn't find the rental, and by the time I decided to actually buy the game (Collector's Edition, wasn't sure I wanted to spend the extra 10$ at first) he's decided to look for another xbox rental.
And 5 minutes later he can't find it, again.
At which point I start laughing. And he gives up, again.
Then he slams things around as he rings up my order, and I can't help but find that more funny.Tried to be nice and as I was leaving said "Have a better day, man. Cheers." but he was way beyond that. Poor sot.

[Citizen Philip]

I'm going to ask in two weeks how the game is. Eyecandy and 3 hour character creation isn't enough to convince me. I'd be buying a PC version.

[Skookum]

The game is really good. All the stuff from Morrowind improved - combat, movement, story, and of course the new graphics and even sounds. A few dumb things like animals that "disappear" when they get more than 100 feet away, but still pretty damn impressive so far.
One glitch, I pressed the tilde key (~) and for some reason could not move at all, even after loading a save game. Dunno what that's about but hopefully it won't happen again after I get back into it.

/sarcasm
Bonus: Collector's Edition for Canucks includes all the books in French and English.
o_O

[Taco]

can you type anything after hitting~? Just thinking maybe it's entering a console mode, try pressing escape?

I don't have the game, so just taking wild guesses.

[The Solid Chief]

I can't wait to pick up this game, quick question though for those who have it, is there a lot of different kinds of armor you can get, like Morrowind, cause it seems as though you can't get seperate shouler armor, is it just combined with the cuirass? Just wondering, the game looks badass.

[PathMaster]

Thanks to those who for the quick reply on whether or not Starforce was in there or not. Anyone want to post some PC specs and what their framerate is curently with what settings?

[IndependentGMR]

I have the 360 version, and it's pretty damn good. You hardly even notice the fade-in, unless you're looking for it. The only problem is that I can't see well at night, and I can't find a torch :(

[YoungAlCapone]

Thanks to those who for the quick reply on whether or not Starforce was in there or not. Anyone want to post some PC specs and what their framerate is curently with what settings?

I second this, anyone who bought it for PC have some specs and performance impressions?

[ElectricMonk]

People bitch about it cus the radius is just so noticeably small. It's there right in front of you the entire friggin game. Increase it by 3 fold and it'd be fine.

well a 3-fold increase would increase the volume of grass to draw by 9. But there could be things that they could do to hide the pop-in.

also manuals shouldn't be necessary. and it's not just a 'side effect of the console generation' either. you're getting the same information if you read it via a tutorial vs a manual, but a tutorial is far more effective to get that information across. if anything, the lack of tool-tips is a side effect of developing for a console.

Also securom is pretty lame too. I have multiple cd drives and and having anything in the other drive makes it think I'm trying to play off an image. And they don't have any help messages to help you solve that.

[zrikz]

This game rocks, I had planned on you know.. just installing it and playing tomorrow and that just didnt work out. Ive been sucked in for the past 2 hours and I love it.... horses are fun too :) Collectors edition is nice, I like the coin.

[codswallop]

When this reviewer says he doesn't want to read the manual to figure out how to play the game, he loses some credibility.
Unless software is quite complex (think AutoCAD, 3DS Max, SPSS and probably more complex stuff) it should be simple and accessible enough that you don't need the manual.

I haven't read a game manual for years before playing the game. I might have a read of it if the manual looks interesting, but seriously, games that require me to read the manual beforehand just so I know how to play it are not usually worth playing in my book (not always, of course, but most of the time).

Just like the "you don't need a HUD" argument some developer or another mentioned a few weeks back games shouldn't be complex to figure out. See Chess: you need to remember maybe a dozen rules but it can be an extremely challenging game. Complex games should have a tutorial explaining the basic functions, not require me to read War and Peace!

[Wasson_]

Your all lieing...

It's really horrible, isn't it? You're all just trying to make me upset.

[Savok]

Bad psych meds have destroyed my ability to concentrate, reading takes an enormous amount of effort for me. I still read the god damn manual. Do not be one of the dumbasses who asks on a forum how to do something in game and be told it's on page 3 of the manual, because I may have to stab you.

[zrikz]

Your all lieing...

It's really horrible, isn't it? You're all just trying to make me upset.
If only it were true.. Im strugling to accomplish much studying and have gotten 0 homework done ahhh. Just got an email that my exam has been pushed back a week.. woo more study slacking for me then!

[laggerific]

i've always liked reading the manual that comes with games. TWo of my favorites was the Ultima 7 and 7.5 manuals.


I was just loving how the CE version of Oblivion has that feel to the extra book it comes with.

[SweetsGreen]

I've got the PC version with a 6800GT 256MB/ath64 3000/1GB/74GB Raptor
running at 1280x1024/HDR/NO AA...and I do not have the oblivion specific drivers.

Like most people I spent about 2 hours creating my character...and only about 45 minutes playing....but from what I can see, it runs pretty well...with a little slow down when there are multiple people/animals on the screen...but it is far from unplayable....and this is greatly reduced when I change the res down to 1024...but my LCD looks like crap in its non-naitive res.

As far as load times...They are almost unnoticable.

But I am considering buying the 360 version...simply because I have grown used to the large TV I have for gaming

Does anyone have both????

[CptTripps]

Ok, first off, I'm on a PC and here's my specs.

P4 3.2 HT 2BM Cache
2G DDR2 @ 533
WD 74GB Raptor
Audigy 2ZS Platinum
2x7800GTX 256MB in SLI
Nvidia 84.21 Drivers

The System

(Note, my system was detected at Ultra High Quality and I still had tons of sliders to jack up, similar to EQ2)

First off, how it runs. Running in 1280x1024 with all but one setting on high. Don't like the grass radius, then jack the slider up and you can see it extremely far in the distance. I maxed all sliders out inlcuding the external\internal shadows. I can see shadows from the tree canopy as far as my eye can make out. I see mountains as far as they go and the forest seems never ending. The only time I ever got slowdown was after killing something in an extremely grassy area, while looking down at the corpse it indeed got chunky. So I have turned off one effect, shadows for each blade of grass. I'm sure I could get it running if I brought some sliders down but I'd rather not. I did not do an FPS check but I can just say it's very playable and would be even more so If I had a better gaming processor. The only loads I see are when I'm running around, there is text that says loading zone, but... there is not hitch in gameplay, the text just displays for a split second and then is gone. The only time you get a load bar is for towns and dungeons.

The Game

Ok, I really liked the intro, it 1) started the story 2) game me basic gameplay tips and 3) was still fun as your doing a dungeon crawl. I didn't spend much time on the face creator as I never play these games in 3rd person, it takes too much away from the experience IMO.

I created and elven Thief Mage (custom class). I do not pick locks I open them with alteration (which also has water breathing\walking spells). I am speedy, acrobatic, stealthy and great with bows\blades\light armor.

Day 1

As I exited the sewers i was greeted by the forest at night, a welcome place to be after the stench of a rat infested dungeon. The glass calm lake below, the grass and trees swaying in the breeze and the welcome noises of trees creaking and animals chirping. After taking in my new surroundings, I check my map and decide to head to the nearest market to sell of un-needed items before I began my journey. En route to the market square I was suprised by a nice thunder storm which washed away the stench that clung to me. The wind blew the rain and created a mist which hindered my vision quite badly, I could still make out the city silouette so proceeded on. Half way there I pause, did I hear something? I turn just in time to have a snarling wolf leap at me. I block several attempts and wildly hack away until the beast is dead. I am now on deaths doorstep after the battle, *sigh* my skills have wasted away in prison. Digging through my bag I remove a healing potion which I found in the sewer, still wounded but feeling better I head towards the safety of the city for repairs, supplies, and the comfort of a real bed.

I was delighted by the city yet extremely lost, I ask the guards to provide me with directions to an inn, I will rest first as the shops are all closed at this hour. I awake 5 hours later and proceed to sell my wares. While in a shop I noticed a locked door, well, I am a thief... I have to try. I sneak to the door, hidden well I attempt to unlock the door.. SUCESS!! Giddy with the thought of the riches to be found in this shopkeepers private quarters I quickly enter the room... Damnit!! She has a guard dog!! The animal is ferocious and attacks on site, also it is extremely strong and proceeds to beat me near death very quickly. Disrupted by the noise a guard comes raging in and arrests me for trespassing. Now instead of resisting arrest, or doing jail time, I decide to pay the 5g bounty. They take me to the prison district, strip me of any stolen items of which I had none, and set me free once again. Deciding I've had enough city life for now I sell the rest of my wares and head out for adventure.

Leaving the city gates I look at my map and find my objective... quite the run even for someone as athletic as myself. Out of the corner of my eye I notice something... a stable. As I creep up to it I overhear two people talking, two people who have no idea I am there. Spotting a nice looking white steed I successfully mount the animal with nobody noticing and proceed to ride away.... But that... Is another story.

Shilo the Thief Mage

So yeah, I played for awhile and had a great time, my PC runs it great, the controls are decent and I love the fact that all speech is lip synched and the voice acting is quite decent. Gonna go home and marathon it tonight.