Elder Scrolls: Oblivion Impressions [360/PC]

[bapenguin]

IGN (http://pc.ign.com/articles/617/617488p1.html) has a preview of the E3 Elder Scrolls: Oblivion demo. Needless to say, they were impressed.Besides melee weapons, players can choose to play with magic or ranged weapons like a bow. Arrows bounce off of stone and stick into wooden objects and can be collected after being fired. In a demonstration of the game's excellent physics engine, an arrow was fired into a bucket hanging from a rope. The bucket swung from the impact then hung at an angle due to the weight of the arrow.

I....can't....wait......

[Borys]

Me....too....

That Radiant AI system sounds amazing.

[DeadPixel]

/arnold's voice: Give NAAAOOO

[bapenguin]

there's a great video showing some in game gameplay on IGN as well. Need this game now....hmm....I wonder if Bethesda could give me some hands on "playtesting" in the coming months for an article... :D

[Phades]

This IS the killer app for the Xbox 360 to me. I can't wait.

[VoodooKarma]

This can't come out soon enough, I have been jonesing hard for a good rpg to play!

[Reanimated]

This can't come out soon enough, I have been jonesing hard for a good rpg to play!



Same here. Can't friggin wait.

[Cupelix]

there's a great video showing some in game gameplay on IGN as well. Need this game now....hmm....I wonder if Bethesda could give me some hands on "playtesting" in the coming months for an article... :D
I live like 20-25 minutes from Bethesda's offices...maybe I could swing by for the site and get some hands on impressions....

Or maybe they'd slam the door in my face.

[Atorak]

Good lord, Morrowind was one of my favorite games of all time, even if it did have some issues. Heh, I probably spent more time adventuring through the various dungeons and cities than anything else in the game! I made SURE I checked every little nook and cranny.

Sure, it was a little disheartening that someone actually completed Morrowind in under 15 minutes, when I spent two hundred hours or more on it! But I have all the hopes in the world for the next iteration of The Elder Scrolls. 2005 GOTY!

Here's a serious question though. Do you plan on buying it on XBox 360 or on the PC? Hmmmm.....

[Aneurhythmia]

there's a great video showing some in game gameplay on IGN as well. Need this game now....hmm....I wonder if Bethesda could give me some hands on "playtesting" in the coming months for an article... :D
Normally, i would shudder at the thought of playtesting an RPG, experiencing the plot/storyline in an incomplete and incongruous manner. However, i think the Elder Scrolls games might be the most suitable for playtesting, considering how much of the game you can play without ever touching the main quest.

[novicius]

"Completing" the Main Quest in Morrowind through stat-boosting and alchemaical quirking is not really *completing* Morrowind. To "complete" Morrowind, to go through every possible mission for every family, guild, organization, to explore, check and map every inch of Morrowind, from top to bottom, beginning to end, that's still 100+ hours at least.

One think that scares me is the size of Oblivion -- it seems a bit... small.

[Mason]

Oblivion's landmass is larger than Morrowind's

One less fear.

[Hieremias]

Here's a serious question though. Do you plan on buying it on XBox 360 or on the PC? Hmmmm.....

PC, no doubt at all, even if I owned a 360 (jury's still out on that). The user-made mods are what gave Morrowind its longevity, without tweaks like Super Adventurer's 3 it wouldn't have been nearly as good a game.

And if an Xbox fanboy is going to yell something about Live downloadable content, go home. We all know that'll only be officially released stuff, not community developed.

[Morrolan]

If they can make the AI good, make combat more fun, and fix magic so that it's actually useful in combat, I'd say they have an uber-winner on their hands.

[VoodooKarma]

PC, no doubt at all, even if I owned a 360 (jury's still out on that). The user-made mods are what gave Morrowind its longevity, without tweaks like Super Adventurer's 3 it wouldn't have been nearly as good a game.

And if an Xbox fanboy is going to yell something about Live downloadable content, go home. We all know that'll only be officially released stuff, not community developed.


Actually, I would think the new marketplace (or whatever you want to call it)Microsoft has developed for users and developers to be able to sell in-game items and such online would be perfect for a game like Oblivion and probably one of the games Microsoft had in mind when they developed the marketplace system.

[novicius]

One less fear.
Sweet. Proceed with maximum hype. :cool:

[Hieremias]

Actually, I would think the new marketplace (or whatever you want to call it)Microsoft has developed for users and developers to be able to sell in-game items and such online would be perfect for a game like Oblivion and probably one of the games Microsoft had in mind when they developed the marketplace system.
Yeah, you actually LIKE the idea of having to pay real money for an in-game sword or armor? I can't think of a stupider concept, but Microsoft is going to be making money hand-over-fist from the guys with more money than brains, just like they got away with charging people for a simple matchmaking service.

Right now you can download thousands of mods for Morrowind for free, some are basic items while some--like the one I mentioned--overhaul the entire gameplay for the better. And no paying for it. No thanks, I'll take the PC version.

[Phades]

I'll play it on the 360. I like my PC and its games, but I like playing games on a console better. I just enjoy the experience better sitting on a couch in front of a big TV. I had the PC version of Morrowind but ended up borrowing the console version from a friend and playing it much more. I love mods and such, but really other than multiplayer ones I don't usually use them. By the time the good single player ones come out I'm often already done with the game.

As far as Live goes, people CAN charge, not have to. But I don't really care about that. Considering how well this "glorified matchmaking" service works and all the features it has, I have no problem paying $4/month for it (since I buy it by the year).

[snubber]

I guess if they say it's a bigger landmass, I'll believe it's a bigger landmass. But honestly 16 square miles sure doesn't seem big....a square with 4 mile sides? With 7 cities throughout? Especially when you can move at a good clip (a horse, say, or boots of speed or whatever), it seems you could walk from one end to the other REALLY quickly.

Hell, Manhattan, New York City, is about 23 square miles, and I just have a hard time picturing that as entire country with 7 seperate cities on it :)

That being said -- Morrowind *felt* large, no matter what it's virtual square mileage was, so if Oblivian is indeed bigger, well, there ya go.

[VoodooKarma]

Wow Hieremias, sounds like you need a hug!

PS--Is 'stupider' really a word?

[dr_qwandry]

well there goes all my savings into a PC to play this baby the way that it was MEAN'T to be played

[gravey]

Gamespot has a preview as well right here (http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/theelderscrollsivoblivion/preview_6125686.html).

[Morrolan]

The 360 can stream media from an XP PC. MS would be fools if they didn't allow users to also bring their PC-version mods to the 360, and distribute them for free. I think that one of the big ways in which the 360 could revolutionize gaming is with modability. If you have a 360 HD, download the mod tools, bring them over to your PC, make a mod, transfer it back to your 360, and distribute. Shouldn't be all that hard to implement.

[bapenguin]

It'd be nice (HINT HINT KATHODE) if the save game files for PC and XBox 360 were interchangable. So...say I felt like playing it on the XBox on the couch that day, I could just pop the save on my usb memory stick and into the xbox. :D

[Captain Alaska]

D00d. Patrick Stewart is doing a voice. That is awesome.

I wonder what other known names will be in this game?

[Phades]

It'd be nice (HINT HINT KATHODE) if the save game files for PC and XBox 360 were interchangable. So...say I felt like playing it on the XBox on the couch that day, I could just pop the save on my usb memory stick and into the xbox. :D

That would be beyond awesome. I don't see why it'd be all that difficult either. I hope they do something like that.

[mister_slim]

It'd be nice (HINT HINT KATHODE) if the save game files for PC and XBox 360 were interchangable. So...say I felt like playing it on the XBox on the couch that day, I could just pop the save on my usb memory stick and into the xbox. :D
Well, if XNA is everything MS promises, that should be really easy or built in.

[Talanvor]

USB memory stick? It should just be able to do it with an ethernet cable or wireless!