The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

I have been looking foreword to this game after first getting Morrowind last year, and seeing the new screenshots for this game. If they hype and previews of the game play trailers turn out to be exactly what is released (and not another Halo 2) this will be the best RPG of the year, hands down. I have even contemplated doing a major PC upgrade just for this game, but will most likely just buy a 360 on account of the (possibility) mods and patches will be available via Xbox Live.

And I hope to god what Amanda's friend was saying about the game isn't true, that would be the most depressing gaming news I would have heard in a long time. I guess we will just have to wait until both versions are lined up to find out, I guess.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Yeah, this is just eating me up inside. I can't wait to pick this up on Monday and start playing (even though my system will barely run it as-is.)

The new 15 second teaser trailer alone was enough to have me going crazy, despite the visible grass drawing (which is hopefully due to the the detail of the backgroud.)

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Grawl

I just found out my own notebook has one flaw ._. I wonder if the 64MB really matter to a point where the game won't run?

Man that sucks. It may be more trouble than its worth just for this game, but it is possible to upgrade the VPU on a laptop depending on what brand it is. I know from the various Dell laptops I have had experience with dismantling that this is a simple procedure (if you know what you are doing of course.) Granted you will void your warranty if its still covered, it just may be worth it, given how beefy the rest of your system specs are.

Or you could just try installing it anyway and see what happens. Who knows, maybe the installer won't check for minimum system requirements.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Well, I got fucked over by Amazon's sluggish supply chain for my Oblivion CE order. The esitmated shipping date was today (I had preordered on the 11th), but I still haven't had any updates to the order and they usually start shipping it in the early to mid-morning.

So i'm just going to download the thing and start early, they have no one to blame but themselves.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Wow, I just installed the game and got through the the dungeon/sewers and had absolutely no problems with crashing and very minimal slowdown (mainly when there were enemies present) with my oh so humble system that detected high settings right off the bat (Athlon XP 2000+ 1.6GHz, 768MB Ram, Radeon X800XT, running at 2048x1536 with Firefox opened in the backgroud.) Overall, this is a beautiful game, which features very smooth gameplay (I especially liked the mouse gestures for different attacks with the katana, and how the gameplay physics were spot on.) Granted my card dosen't support HDR so the overall image quality is degraded when using Bloom.

This should run even better at 1024x768 like the game suggested.

How ya doing, buddy?

This game is so freaking amazing, it has more than exceeded my expectations already. After playing about 17 hours in the last three days it has really grown on me. I really like how Bethesda has enhanced the character growth system and added benefits for having your various skills at a certain level as it adds so much more depth to training your character. I also really like the ability to add poison to your weapons. Granted it is only good for one strike, but if used strategically (like apply a paralysis potion to your sword) it will give you a major advantage over foes stronger than you, especially when you combine it with the 2x or 4x sneak bonus.

There is only one thing that annoys me however, the fact that invisible NPCs/enemies and certain types of magic animation (Alteration I think) will bring my FPS to 0. I don't know if its just a memory leak or if they use some really GPU intensive method to do both of that, but it has prevented me from attempting one quest so far (Allswell). Everything else though runs at a very smooth 30-40 fps, even when I’m in a bit town or fighting multiple people (like a necromancer and his undead minions.)

Most amazing jew boots

Originally Posted by Casaubon

You'd think that information like this would break on the official site, as opposed to a gaming forum.

I have yet to encounter any bugs besides crashing. I don't really see what the problem is, even the crashing is like once every 10 straight hours of playing.

What mods are all you guys using? This is pretty much my first Elder Scrolls game and I don't really know if one would be good or bad. Right now I'm using:
Better Torches
Improved UI
No Pyschic Guards

Pretty lack-luster. The only one I actually utilize is the no psychic guards. Any "Must Have" mods?

Yeah, same here. I have played about 70 hours or so, and it seems I get a CTD about once every 20 hours or so. Mostly I get this when loading a new area (like going into a shop, getting expelled from a closing Oblivion Gate, etc) But they are never persistant. There was also a time I picked up a weapon from a dead bandit, closed out the window then went back and there was a duplicate of the same weapon and the game crashed. I have also had no bugs with any quests. Considering that I've gone through the game without giving a damn about what I pick up and where I think its pretty good for a game this size.

That said, I am currently at level 35, and am finding the game to be difficult at normal, but very playable with proper strategy. Alchemy is really helping as I can distill really powerful poisions that will paralyze enemies while doing both health and elemental damage as they lay on the ground for 2 seconds. The last Oblivion plane I shut out (on the far southeastern border with Blackmarsh) was made really, really easy this way. By the time the foe has managed to get up and get their first attack in, they are just about dead. Which is really effective against those nasty sorcerers that summon a small army if you don't kill them fast enough.

FELIPE NO

Yeah, I have noticed this. I got a little worried with all the people complaining that they were getting owned by low-level creatues with maxed statas/armor on normal difficulty but quickly found this to be false. Bears, Rats, Mountain Lions, Will-O-Wisps are all pushovers that do minimal damage and die in a few hits for me. So I do end up feeling some accomplishment in owning them oughtright. The rest of the enemies become tough, but fair. Mages and other spellcasters can really hurt you with magic but fumble around with meele weapons and are easy to block/counter, and take tremendous damage from conventional weapons (except of undead) whereas close range fighters can really dish out the damage and use power attacks but are succeptible to status effects and magic (again unless they are undead.)

Its really not as impossible as many have been saying, it just takes some skill and planning on your part to survive the main harey moments later in the game. Basically any opponent can be dispatched in a few hits if you exploit their weaknesses, so you have to take advantage of them as much as possible. Granted I haven't done any of the main quest past getting Martin to Cloud Ruler temple, so I may yet eat those words.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?