Oblivion

[Mazeroth]

If you guys haven't heard about this game, it's about time you did. It's the successor to arguably the best RPG ever, Morrowind. It's coming out in a little over a week so if you have a few months, or years, of your life to waste, I highly suggest picking this one up:

http://elderscrolls.com/games/oblivion_overview.htm

[jdhdiggs]

This one will drive my next PC or XB360 purchase...

[Mazeroth]

It sure will. It's the reason I upgraded my computer recently. I had an Athlon 2800+ with a GeForce 6600GT. Now I have an AMD Opteron 165 (dual core) overclocked to 2.4ghz per core and a 7800GT video card. I can't wait for it to come out :)

[Demiurge]

Looks pretty sweet. Will it be a game that you can play in small chunks of time for a few months? Those MMORPGs are terribly addicting, so I hope this isn't like that.

[Shizelbs]

I will be renting it at least. I foudn Morrowind to not be my cup of tea, but I didn't really try it for too long. I haven't played a good RPG in a long time.

[jdhdiggs]

If it is at all like morrowind, it takes about 10-20 hrs of gameplay to get addicted, then you're hosed...

[Demiurge]

I downloaded the trailer for it on XBox live and the game looks absolutely spectacular. I love when games have fantastic graphics, but they key is to also have the playability. If I can get both from a game I know I will love it. I'll wait to hear a few reviews before buying it.

[Mazeroth]

It scored a 93% from the UK PC Gamer and a 9.5 from another source :)

[bankshot]

Believe the hype. No big gamming sites have put there reviews up yet, but some of the reviewers have been saying on the forums that this game is incredible.

Dont worry about which version to get, I heard the 360 and PC versions are identical.

[Demiurge]

High Definition will make it better than PC. :D

[Mazeroth]

High Definition will make it better than PC. :D

It will play at 1280x720 on the 360, which is going to look incredible, but if you have a fairly high-end PC by all means get it for that. The mods people make for it are going to be unbelievable, so that's a HUGE reason to get it for the PC. Also, gaming on the PC will exceed the 360's graphics, as long as you have the horsepower, which I do :)

[Grimster74]

Who's getting this today? I'm awaiting delivery of my projector and once it arrives, off to BB I go.

[Demiurge]

I am getting it today, I watched like 25 videos of it yesterday. No way I can pass it up now.

[Demiurge]

Picked up my collectors edition a little while ago. I'm pretty stoked for this one! Weird thing, I went to Best Buy first and they said the XBox 360 stuff doesn't come in until Wednesday -- I was like "WTF?". So I went to a GameStop and they had a ton of them.

[MrNightly]

Please keep us posted about the game... I still have to upgrade my graphics card on my PC, but if it's a true RPG, i'm totally in!

[Demiurge]

Game is absolutely stunning.

[avelanchefan]

Okay when I was a PS2 fanboy I would hear about how great the games looked on the original XBOX. Yet the gameplay sucked. There were no games for the XBox that validated a purchase of one...until PGR2 and Rainbox Six 3.

Now fast forward to today. We had the Xbox 360 release. And while PGR3 looked great and played fantastic, and PDZ was refreshing, did this really mean a sure buy of the 360? Not until the last two weeks did we actually see what the system is truely capable of. GRAW, looked and played fantastic, and the realism was top notch. Ubisoft did afantastic job.

Now comes O:ES. This game is so down right stunning my jaw hit the floor. It makes every other game out there look childish. The detail, the sun, moon, stars, trees, gravel, buildings, dungeons, weapons, the face maker, the charecter models, clothing, walking....ugh the list goes on. It is scary that a system like the 360 can do something like this. Amazed,and thrilled. AND GUESS WHAT!! The game play is top notch. I had never played Morrow Wind, so I cannot compare, but it is enthralling and just special to be a part of. Elder Scrolls WILL win game of the year, there is no doubt about it. GRAW will win shooter of the year. PGR3 will win driving game of the year.

The only flaw I have seen in the game are actally two. There are times of slow down when you a battling multiple enemies, and when running in third person mode jump around, it looks very cheesy. Thats it folks, cheesy looking jumps, and some choppiness from time to time.

7 hours people, I plopped this in the 360 and played 7 hours straight.

[avelanchefan]

Oh and Demi.....I wlked into BB and they had their shipment in by 11 am. Still in the boxes, but I was able to snag one as they were putting their display out.

[Demiurge]

Oh and Demi.....I wlked into BB and they had their shipment in by 11 am. Still in the boxes, but I was able to snag one as they were putting their display out.

It was probably just another yellow shirt dumbass that didn't know what he was talking about. :mad: I don't like Best Buy much, but it's the closest place to my office.

Yeah, I haven't had enough time to play it. I only got a good 3 hours of gameplay in, and I am already thinking about starting over. I am not a fan of the AutoSave feature. This is because I was trying some stuff out and ended up getting arrested like 3 or 4 times, and now the thiefs guild is trying to recruit me! :rolleyes:

It wouldn't be a big deal, but the autosave wrote over my last saved game. :( :(

Oh well, plus I am going with a full on Mage, and also honing in on my Alchemy skills. Those are the 2 hardest things to do in any RPG.

I'll have plenty of time to mess with it this weekend.

[avelanchefan]

Well after I do a thing or two, I just hit pause and save it myself.Kill an ORc Save, pick a lock save. Just easier that way. PLayed til 2 am, I joined the fighters guild. Going to start doing some quests with them.

[Shizelbs]

I am getting Oblivion next from Gamefly. Should be here by the weekend. You guys had better be right about it being awesome.

[Demiurge]

Well, if you don't like RPGs it won't be.

[Shizelbs]

I like good RPGs. Emphasis on the good part.

[MrNightly]

How's it compare to SW:KOTOR (The first one)?

That was the best RPG i've ever played... hands down.

[Demiurge]

I don't like Star Wars games, so I have no idea.



I restarted my character last night, and went the route of a thief. :p I still have my mage, but that stupid autosave feature got me in the begining, now I save all the time.

Anyhow, I murdered a few people :eek: in game and now I am part of the Dark Brotherhood. The quests for them are awesome. I guess you can do all of the quest lines in each guild. The game is VERY slow at the start (IMO), but the fun really picks up after that. You have to come to the realization that you need to travel and get out of the city. Doing quests leads to more quests.

I can see how some people really wouldn't like this game. It's long, and involved, but once you start outfitting your character and getting new skills it's a blast to play. I've got this crazy dagger from the Dark Brotherhood, as well as a full uniform. Now I can pick-pocket, steal, and assasinate without being noticed. The Dark Brotherhood is basically like a hitman service, your quests are contracts to kill people.

***SPOILER***

My third quest for them was to go back through the sewers (BONUS GOLD FOR NOT BEING SEEN) and killing the prisoner that was mocking you in the cell across from you in the begining of the game.

I'll be putting in some major hours this weekend. :D

[avelanchefan]

Yeah I am a I am a swordspell/monk I believe. So I can do a little of everything.

So Demi...what has been your hardest quest. There have been two for me.

1) When you hit the first little inn after you get outside. (basically swim across to the island, kill the two weak people and then take the road to the left) Any ways the bar-keep tells you about some mad women living in the caves above. That biatch was tough to kill. I had to level up a few times then go back and do her after trying nearly 50 times on level 1.

2) Town of Cheydinhol...woman there lost her husband who was a painter, locked himself in a room everyday to paint, one day he never comes out, she goes in and he is gone. That mission sucked donkey dee too. I found where he was at immediatly, but after that it was trial and error again. Very tough quest that in all reality was easy, just took a while to catch on.

[Demiurge]

Going back into the prison was a little rough, but this new quest I got before I went to sleep last night sounds like a real tough one.

You have a guy who contacted the Dark Brotherhood to place a contract on his own head, but it's tricky. He doesn't want to die, and people are looking to kill him anyhow. I need to get there and "kill" him while the other assasin is there, and make the assasin think he is dead. The blade I "kill" him with his coated with a poison that simulates death. It can only be used once.

The other thing is that the Dark Brotherhood must take a life in every one of his contracts, so the man had to sacrafice his mother to save his own pathetic life. :eek:

I wasn't sure if I wanted to join this guild, it's totally evil.

I'm a member of The Blade as well, up in the mountains.

[Demiurge]

I now RUN the Dark Brotherhood. Muahahahaha! :D

[avelanchefan]

lol too funny demi

[polkatese]

you guys done playing single-player GRAW already?

[Demiurge]

I already beat it on Normal and Hard mode. Also apparently halfway done with Oblivion, too.

[Shizelbs]

I started playing this game last night. I can tell I am going to like it a lot. Very nice graphics.

Question, am I going to regret going the magic route? I usually do the warrior choice for my RPGs, so I thought I would mix it up. Can anyone tell me if the magic is going to be fun to do? My sign is battlemage, just to even it out. I just got out of the sewers, so its not too late to start over.

[Demiurge]

It doesn't matter, the game is incredibly easy, which is my only beef with it.

I became the Grand Champion of the arena as a Thief, so...anything is possible. You can join all the guilds, and I have completed all of the quests in 2 of the 4 guilds. Just have the last 2 guilds to finish up and then the main quest line....which apparently you can do at any time.

The magic route is fun and more involved. Makes you think a little bit more than just going in and bashing the crap out of people.

[avelanchefan]

I made myself into a Swordsspell, or is it Spellsword? Any ways it is even in both battle and Magic.

Demi If you finish the Guilds, and the main story you are about half done. The side missions are long and expansive. I have the stategy guide just so I can keep track of it.

[Shizelbs]

I think I'll start over tonight and do the first go round as a warrior.

[Demiurge]

I go by achievements, because you can play that game for eternity without 'beating' it. But achievementwise I am more than half done with the game.

[Shizelbs]

Anyone having problems with their console reading the disc?

[avelanchefan]

one time it froze for me in a loading sequance....other than that no.

[Shizelbs]

I finally got fed up with it and sent the disc back to Gamefly. It would spaz out on me every 5 to 10 minutes. Too much time lost reloading the dang game.

[bankshot]

I finally got fed up with it and sent the disc back to Gamefly. It would spaz out on me every 5 to 10 minutes. Too much time lost reloading the dang game.


The developers of the game made a statement about it.
They said you have to reset the 360, then hold the (A) button while you boot up the game.
I tried it and it worked perfectly.

[Shizelbs]

Awesome. I wished I had known about that earlier. Thanks.

[jhermance]

So am thinking about trading ghost recon advance warfighter for it.

[Sami]

High Definition will make it better than PC. :D
360 max for oblivion is 1280x720 while the PC version goes up to 1600x1200...

My friend bought this game and was showing it to me but I just can't seem to get into computer RPG's. AD&D played with a good/great DM is still the way to go but unfortunately there isn't as much time to kill as 20 years ago. I did enjoy Baldur's Gate but WOW and Dungeon Siege didn't get me hooked at all. Maybe I will give this one a try, maybe not.

[Mazeroth]

Yeah, a good PC will kill the XBox 360, however, for $300-$400 the XBox is a killer deal.

My computer has an Opteron 165 dual core overclocked to 2.4ghz (roughly a 4800+ Intel P4 times 2) and an ATI X1900XT video card. I'm playing the game in 1600x1200, everything completely maxed, and it runs unbelievably good. This is, by far, the best looking game I've ever played. My wife absolutely hates that I got it :)

[Demiurge]

M'kay, we'll try it like this:

I like it better on my 360, my TV, and my sound system.

Better?

[Sami]

M'kay, we'll try it like this:

I like it better on my 360, my TV, and my sound system.

Better?
Is it going to be any different if you hooked a good computer to your TV and sound system? Your TV would be the weak link unless it's 1080p, in that case it would be the 360. :)

If you do nothing else than play games then a 360 is a better option, but obviously all in this forum have a use for a computer or otherwise they wouldn't be here. :D

[Mazeroth]

I *could* take my computer across the street and hook it up to my brother's 65" Hitachi G700 (I think that's it) HDTV and play the game in 1920x1080 with his surround sound, but I prefer to play on my Sony 21" with headphones :)

[Demiurge]

Is it going to be any different if you hooked a good computer to your TV and sound system? Your TV would be the weak link unless it's 1080p, in that case it would be the 360. :)

If you do nothing else than play games then a 360 is a better option, but obviously all in this forum have a use for a computer or otherwise they wouldn't be here. :D

Well, I am not going to ask you to dig up old threads, but I have always been a 'computer is better' person. I still am, but unless you have a decent PC there is no way that Oblivion will run better than it does for me right now. Having been a huge PC gaming advocate I know one of the dirty little secrets is that you have to have the best in hardware to claim the PC is the better gaming experience. The incredible gameplay and graphics that the 360 gives you are rivaling the PC experience, especially in the arena of cost.

The cost effective option is to get a gaming unit if you're worried about games. I've realized that constantly upgrading to have the latest and greatest costs you in upwards of thousands of dollars more in the long run than just sticking with conventional console systems.

I think PCs are great, and I have a home build that I use for graphic design and gaming, so I need to keep it high end when running Adobe Photoshop CS2 and the older versions of the programs to keep performance high when running multiple applications. :D

[Shizelbs]

I'm with Demi. I've always preferred the PC over consoles, but I was at the point where if I wanted anything like 360 performance on the newest games, it was time to build a new $1000 computer. I'd rather take the console. I spent the last few years wishing every few months that I had purchased an Xbox instead of upgrading my graphics card.

What used to keep me on the PC was that I would obtain my games for free. I realized its total BS, and sinful, and plain wrong, but I justified it by the fact that I was in college and not making any money. Now that I don't do that anymore I prefer to purchase console games and also I can rent for the 360. No renting for PC games.

[Sami]

Well, for $300-400 you'd get something like a 3300+ Sempron, 1GB of PC3200, DVD burner and 6600GT. That would be enough to play games no doubt. Not sure how it compares to 360 in performance but when you look what it can do in addition to playing games then I'm not so sure the 360 is a bargain. As for constantly upgrading, not necessary, I have had my P4 3.4GHz system for almost 2 years now and yes, it did cost me around $800 to build back then but it still serves me well for the latest games (running at 1600x1050 which is my monitors native resolution). I'm a software engineer so not having a decent PC is not an option.

I have played XBox, PlayStation etc. and they are ok but there is one major thing I do hate, the controllers. Keyboard/mouse combination is light years ahead of the pads on consoles, luckily you can get wheels and pedals for both.

Oh well, didn't mean this to turn into computer vs console war again. :D

[Mazeroth]

My computer, which is pretty much top of the line:

DFI Lanparty Motherboard: $110
AMD Opteron 165 Dual Core: $320 (overclocked from 1.8ghz to 2.6ghz)
1 gig Corsair: $70
Antec P180 case: $110 (overspent here, but it's sick)
Thermaltake Liberty 500w power supply: $110 (overspent, but well worth it)
Sound Blaster Audigy 2: $20 (used)
ATI Radeon X1900XT video card: $430

Total: $1170

The nice thing about my computer is processors haven't got much faster over the last two years. Two years ago my friend purchased an Athlon64 3500+ (2.2ghz), which is still being sold today. The fastest single core chip out now is only a 2.8ghz version of his chip. We've pretty much reached our max need for CPU power with the current crop of chips. How much CPU do 90% of people really need? A ghz, maybe. Games today are very GPU (graphical processing unit) intensive and not so much CPU intensive. Heck, my last computer was an Athlon XP 2800+ that was four years old and that chip is 90% as fast as my current chip, in single threaded processes. Since the recent push for dual core chips game developers are now starting to program for dual core optimization, even though it's really not necessary, yet. I have complete faith that my new computer will last at least another three to four years for gaming. Yes, I will upgrade my video card another two to three times over that course, but I will, undoubtebly, get a 70-80% return on my video card investment. It's amazing how well video cards are holding their value. I did have a GeForce 7800GT for about two months that I paid $250 for, but with Oblivion coming out I decided to sell it for $230 USED and grab the X1900XT, which was a very expensive decision :)

With that, I will probably throw $100 into my computer each year for the next 3-4 years and I will continue to have a near top of the line gaming machine for that time. Right now, there isn't a game out that I can't play in 1600x1200 with everything maxed, which is absolutely amazing.

Gah, I could go on and on. Yes, I spent $1170 on my system, but you could get 80% of the gaming performance out of a computer that would only run you $500-$600. You can get a QUALITY case, motherboard, psu, sound card, cpu, and RAM for $400. Then throw a $200 video card in there and you're set to game at 1280x960 or higher in any game out right now. Sell the video card in a year for $100-$120, throw another $100 into your video card, and you'll be set for another year of killer gaming.

Ok, I gotta get back to work... :p

[MrNightly]

Man Maz, you have it figured out!

Question for ya? I have bought Dell's for the last two computers and they have lasted great. My last Dell is about a year old. It's a P4 3.4gig, 1.5gig memory, but what I'm running into is it only has 2 PCIe slots and one PCI slot. Not alotta rom for upgrading. And the case is small. Can't even add an additional DVD drive in it. Sucks ;) I have the Audigy zx SC, and need to find a good PCIe Graphics card.

But can you just buy a new motherboard, and throw everything else on? I now that memory is made differently, and doesn't fit every motherboard. Personal experience, bought the wrong type and had to put it into the other computer. How do you know which to buy if you aren't a total computer genius?

And how much does a good mother board run ya?

[avelanchefan]

Well my two friends both have a 360 and are huge cpu gamers. Both are constantly upgrading their PC's in a every 6 month cycle. Trust me I get great deals from these guys when it comes to memory and storage. Any ways they are both playing Oblivion on the PC, and they are averaging about 40fps on their PC's. One had to dumb it down a bit to run it more smoothly, the other is running it at full. Both said it looked fantastic on thei PC's but they seem to be buying more 360 games as of late.

[polkatese]

So, I borrowed this game from BB, out of curiousity. I just started playing it a couple nights ago. I have to say that this game is not my cup of tea. Other than clubbing Goblins and rats, is it to get any better?

Btw, graphics is awesome, also the sound. Of course, on XBOX360.

[Demiurge]

Well my two friends both have a 360 and are huge cpu gamers. Both are constantly upgrading their PC's in a every 6 month cycle. Trust me I get great deals from these guys when it comes to memory and storage. Any ways they are both playing Oblivion on the PC, and they are averaging about 40fps on their PC's. One had to dumb it down a bit to run it more smoothly, the other is running it at full. Both said it looked fantastic on thei PC's but they seem to be buying more 360 games as of late.

That's my take on it. I still play PC games, but I like the 360 a lot, and I am glad you guys talked me into getting it.

[Demiurge]

So, I borrowed this game from BB, out of curiousity. I just started playing it a couple nights ago. I have to say that this game is not my cup of tea. Other than clubbing Goblins and rats, is it to get any better?

Btw, graphics is awesome, also the sound. Of course, on XBOX360.

It does get better. It's an RPG, so you've got to invest time into it. I can see that a lot of people wouldn't like it. I have found that the game is way too easy, especially if you know how to make good use of their map system. I still love the game and look forward to finishing it.