The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

From my understanding of things, those dynamic (?) shadows on things that could be moved were something that was being shown off- they didn't drop it because the 360 couldn't handle it- plainly- it was never going to be in or they went a different route. It’s not like there isn’t any shadows, there just aren’t any on the, what, 9000 (I think that is what heard) objects that are moveable.

At least that is what I got after listening to some interviews; so please correct me if I am wrong. Hey, only three more weeks.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Purely Correct Yillb, as I mentioned prior. I am trying to get most of my school work done in the coming weeks to make room for this game that it will absorb my face.

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

For all the PC fans out there without the xbox360 (well I'll never buy it for that even if I did have one), here's an official guide on the hardware requirements to run Oblivion. It goes into some detail listing out various components and then giving a brief overview of what we should expect the game to run like. All I can say is that I'm glad I won't have to upgrade anything for this. Sure it won't run the game if full everything and at the highest rez but should be fine. The only thing left to do for me is go out to buy a decent speaker setup so I can fully enjoy this game (and various other stuff as well ). Can't wait.

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

After the amount of fun I had playing Morrowind, I just HAD to pre-order Oblivious I got a T-shirt which I will never out in public for my troubles, but apparently it means I'll also get a nice extra booklet, and a ?septim coin (and with that coin, I intend to be able to roll it across my knuckles like Belshazzer [or however it's spelt] from Constantine, cos that was just cool ).

I chose PC largely because I tend to have more time to play PC games as opposed to console games... plus I can't justify buying a console for top dollar when I'm only really interested in one game that it has (plus I like the TES Construction kit )

I've heard that there won't be any "Boots of Blinding Speed" in Oblivion though... pity ;___; I loved those boots (although I have no doubt someone will create an item mod for it )

I was speaking idiomatically.

I hope it's more populated. I didn't like how empty and isolated Morrowind made me feel especially since I played it while I played World of Warcraft. I know it's unfair to compare an offline RPG with an MMORPG in terms of population, but even if I hadn't experienced World of Warcraft, I think I'd still find Morrowind empty. The "main" cities in Morrowind only had a handful of NPCs walking the streets and for such "big" cities that were centers for trade, I didn't get a sense of even being in a city. They felt more like ghost towns. I hope Oblivion is different.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Originally Posted by Spike

I hope it's more populated. I didn't like how empty and isolated Morrowind made me feel especially since I played it while I played World of Warcraft. I know it's unfair to compare an offline RPG with an MMORPG in terms of population, but even if I hadn't experienced World of Warcraft, I think I'd still find Morrowind empty. The "main" cities in Morrowind only had a handful of NPCs walking the streets and for such "big" cities that were centers for trade, I didn't get a sense of even being in a city. They felt more like ghost towns. I hope Oblivion is different.

It's not very realistic when you find NPCs wandering around in dungeons, is it?

Also, a "handful" of NPCs? The cities were pretty crowded.

http://media.pc.ign.com/media/702/70...g_3442822.html <- <3

FELIPE NO

Originally Posted by Grawl

http://media.pc.ign.com/media/702/70...g_3442822.html <- <3

^______^ That's more along the lines of what I want to see ^___^ I remember always wishing that Morrowind had more vegetated areas... sometimes walking to obscure locations in the middle of the rocky hilly wastelands could get depressing

(Would you just LOOK at the detail on the bark of that tree!! ^o^ ... I really need to save the rest of the money I need for that new graphics card )

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

Originally Posted by Grawl

It's not very realistic when you find NPCs wandering around in dungeons, is it?

Also, a "handful" of NPCs? The cities were pretty crowded.

http://media.pc.ign.com/media/702/70...g_3442822.html <- <3

Uh... who said anything about NPCs in dungeons? I'm talking about out in the world where people are supposed to be. That's why I said CITIES. And no, 10 NPCs in a MAJOR CITY doesn't count as a lot. People get so damn defensive if anyone criticizes a game they like...

Jam it back in, in the dark.

No, they get defensive when people overexaggerate their point to try and sound like they know what they are talking about. Balmora is a "large city" and it does not have 10 NPCs. Sorry, no matter how many times you say it it isn't going to magically come true.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

The freedom of morrowind got to me later on, im one of those people that get crazy if i miss anything in any game so eventually i almost went crazy. But I loved how you could break into houses and make them your own. As long as they have that Im all good .

no homo

Originally Posted by Forsety

No, they get defensive when people overexaggerate their point to try and sound like they know what they are talking about. Balmora is a "large city" and it does not have 10 NPCs. Sorry, no matter how many times you say it it isn't going to magically come true.

I didn't seem like Balmora was a city to me, just a busy village of sorts. A city doesn't take you a few blocks to reach the end which is Balmora. Something along the size of Vivec would be more of a city.

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

Balmora was my base co-ordinate. I felt like I was home in the town, everywhere else being foreign or 'overseas' by comparison.

Attests to the game's prodigious immersion.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by Zip

The freedom of morrowind got to me later on, im one of those people that get crazy if i miss anything in any game so eventually i almost went crazy. But I loved how you could break into houses and make them your own. As long as they have that Im all good .

You can buy a house, this time. Of course you can the money from stealing

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

I preordered this game a while ago and I'm so excited about it! I didn't like Morrowind that much to be honest, but Daggerfall is one of my all time favourite games, and by far my favourite RPG. And this just looks incredible and... yeah! I'm just excited, haha.

FELIPE NO

Something just crossed my mind. Do you guys think there is someone crazy enough to re-make Morrowind? It wouldn't surprise me =p

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

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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A new development diary just came out with some screens and stuff of the environment.
http://elderscrolls.com/codex/team_teamprof_nberry.htm

And here is a random one from the link above with focus on just showing the sky.

Quote:

At this point, Cyrodiil is more tactile to the senses than ever before. The player is nearly enwombed on all sides by lush visuals and ever changing scenery – all sides save one. As we look around our world, our gaze turns once again to the only remaining space to fill…the sky.

In more ancient times, it was common for people to turn to the heavens in times of spiritual need. The thinking being, that there above lies the answers otherwise unobtainable here on the ground. I believe it’s fair to say the general populace of Tamriel collectively thinks along similar pathways – for good reason. It is well known there, that special powers are derived from the synergistic energies related to celestial gatherings and patterns. Even the mysterious, ancestral denizens of Tamriel, the Dwarves, were all too aware of the impact of the night sky on their daily lives and went to great lengths to study and understand their place in it all.

For the skies and heavenly bodies above Cyrodiil, the Oblivion developers made some technical improvements on several fronts. Gazing upwards, one might initially notice that there are now dual cloud layers placed in tandem, which naturally parallax from their different rates of travel. The resulting effect affords a skyward view much more depth and a greater sense of spaciousness.

There are also subtle lighting changes to be had based upon where the player is in relation to the immediate environment. In order to better simulate the generally more intense luminance of the sky, High Dynamic Range (HDR) lighting and shader effects were meticulously incorporated into Oblivion’s renderer, to better give a more photorealistic flair to the atmosphere visuals.

Lastly, as the sun drifts gently downward in the westward sky, and the evening kaleidoscope of pastels fades and diffuses into the deepest of blues, distant stars and galaxies begin to scintillate into view. Here, for the first time, all of the 13 major Elder Scrolls constellations are visible to the player. In order to realistically display the star arrangements properly, a new, fully 3D spherical night sky dome was created. Through the in-game passage of time, the player should be able to track the stars above, as they lazily spiral about the ocular curve of the night sky.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Seems like the game may have been leaked early on usenet. I already ordered the game but if I see it pop up on any of my favorite torrent sites I don't know if I can resist downloading it to play it early.

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

Is it true, that different versions won't be compatible among each other? If that's the case, I'll really think over getting Oblivion, because I could only get the German version for free, not the English one. And it absolutely sucks when you can't play 90% of the upcoming modifications, only because you have another version.

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

Cool! Looks like I should be able to run it well. My current PC should last me until 2007 at least, it looks like, by which time the new AMD 64-bit chipsets should have been out awhile and should be a bit cheaper...

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by David Deluxe

Is it true, that different versions won't be compatible among each other? If that's the case, I'll really think over getting Oblivion, because I could only get the German version for free, not the English one. And it absolutely sucks when you can't play 90% of the upcoming modifications, only because you have another version.

I'd imagine even if that were the case you could edit your save to be loadable...

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I'll be going to get the English version this time, for the sake of modifications, just like DD said. That particular thing really irked me with Morrowind...
Oh, and I hope that the animations have improved vastly. Morrowind had that Poser-Animation feeling to it, which was kinda awkward, to say the least...
Plus, English looks and sounds better overall - Geman tends to get flawed translations, even though Oblivion's predecessor did pretty well in that department.

Whatever, I need to hit the sack.

FELIPE NO

Originally Posted by Tequila

Morrowind had that Poser-Animation feeling to it, which was kinda awkward, to say the least...

Yeah, it got to the point where it was pretty ridiculous. The jumping animation was horrible. It didn't really detract too much from the gameplay though, but it did take away some of the realism and in turn affected the immersion the player had with the game.

Most amazing jew boots

Well, it was meant to be played in first person... I've heard that the third person hasn't really improved much in Oblivion and is just for novelty, same as in Morrowind, too.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Supposedly, Oblivion PC version got a 93% in PCGamer UK to go along with OXM's 95%.

I think the only negatives were that some of the Actual dialogue was ackward because of the Radiant AI feature and peoples facial expressions were sometimes stale. As well as non attractive NPCS (lol). Supposedly he spoils the game in the review so I am not going to go track down a scan or anything.

There's nowhere I can't reach.