The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

I'm a bit wary about this game. Not because I don't expect to love it once the mod community gets going with it, but because one of my friends keeps crushing my hopes by telling me about all the things they've been forced to do to dumb it down. Three guesses why. If you liked the graphics in that pretty 20-minute trailer...well, don't get too used to them.

Still, this is probably my most-anticipated game at the moment. Between this, Dirge of Cerberus, plus a few books I'm looking forward to... The fangirl in me is in for a feast this year, and it looks like Oblivion will be the first course.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

From what I'm hearing, mostly the high-end graphical details. Some of the shadow effects, things like that. Reason? In a nutshell, the optimised PC version would have looked better than the X-Box version. Microsoft demanded that the PC version's graphics be stripped down a bit so that PC didn't seem to out-shine X-Box graphically. Since they're selling 360s at a loss, they're vicious about making the money back through controlling the development of games on the console. The consequence is that if a game is a PC and X-Box release, PC gamers get screwed over in the name of making the X-Box look good.

Someone tell me my friend's just trying to scare me, and that Bethesda wouldn't do that to us. ;_;

How ya doing, buddy?

From a forum where a few Oblivion developers occasionally post off the record. I'll have to ask him for some links.

Keep in mind that I do take everything with a grain of salt, including that. But if nothing else, it's justified paranoia. If you think that PC games haven't suffered in the past due to being dumbed down in development for the sake of an X-Box release.... Well, you obviously didn't play Thief 3.

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

I APOLOGISE FOR MY WANTON HYPHEN USE. :O

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Oh, Balmora... I have so many mods running that Balmora is like a slideshow sometimes (mostly when a magic-heavy battle happens in the town). But it's worth it to have the town full of life, twice as big, and nicely textured.

Any word yet on a direction for Oblivion's expansions? I'm assuming it'll get some eventaully, and it's probably too early yet to really speculate on 'em. But I was sorely disappointed at the fact that there won't be werewolves in the main game, so I'm crossing my fingers for a Bloodmoon-esque expansion eventually.

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