Export thread

Never played an Elder Scrolls game, but now that I've been thoroughly hyped about Skyrim, I was thinking of giving another a try in the time being. I've already played a lot of Fallout 3, so I know I like Bethesda's style. Considering the improvements made from the previous Elder Scrolls titles with that game and future Skyrim, should I bother with Oblivion? I might pick it up in the morning if so, so any thoughts of yours, or informative videos or whatever, or just your opinion from playing (most helpful) would be appreciated.

Note: Don't suggest Morrowind; it's not easily available and I don't want to play it.

Oblivion is good. It has some minor foibles but it's a good game.

escushion said:

Note: Don't suggest Morrowind; it's not easily available and I don't want to play it.

Click to expand...

Okay.

--Patrick

You should play Daggerfall. It was buggy as hell, but a blast.

Did I mention it is a free download on the Elder Scrolls website?

Oblivion is a fun game to play. I'd give a lot to be able to play that game with virgin eyes and relive the 100+ hour experience. If you like large open worlds, this is a game for you. However, make sure to fully patch it and maybe hit the nexus mod website for the game to download some of the more important mods to improve game stability. The modding community for ES games is probably the best I have ever seen.

The storyline is OK but the huge world will keep you busy. Ooooh a mod I liked is the Francesco mod where it handled spawns and mob-leveling. By default mobs spawn every 3-4 game days, which is lame and I set that to 12 hours and removed all mob-leveling abilities so that if I was LVL 22 I didn't have to have an epic battle with a mudcrab.

Enjoy the game buddy.

Ugh yeah, mob stable levels is nice. Except when you walk into what you think is a low level crypt at level 8 and get wrecked by level 20 skeletons.

Have you been watching X the Tea Bandit play Oblivion as well?

Oblivion is a lot of fun if you give it a chance. Though, if you're like me, you'll be on hour 87 and say to yourself "Wait, there was a main quest? Oh yeah... I remember something... I think captain picard was in it."

I think the main quest was the weakest part of the game. Oblivion portals were tedious. Everything else was fun, especially the different guilds.

figmentPez said:

Have you been watching X the Tea Bandit play Oblivion as well?

Click to expand...

No, just salivating for Skyrim and wondering if I should play a previous game.

I won't be getting mods because I'll be picking it up for PS3; my computer can't handle anything newer than 2004.

Well, crap. Can You Run It? is giving my comp a glowing pass except for having Windows 7. I don't know whether to trust that because the moment my computer's fan kicks in, games skip and jump, even older ones like SWAT 4 and Half-Life 2. Plus, my fiancee likes to watch, and that's easier on the TV.

I'll have to think about it...

Oblivion is probably one of the most boring games I've ever played.

The problem I find with Bethesda games is that given the opportunity to go anywhere and do anything, I often find myself doing nothing.

I typically prefer a more guided story but then I didn't really care for Dragon Age either.

Maybe I just don't like fantasy games. *shrug*

I actually enjoyed going off the beaten path in Fallout 3. A joke between me and Dream is whether, when I sit down to play with a goal in mind (even if it's "explore the place where I'm right next to its entrance") whether I'll actually get around to doing that within the couple of hours I have, or if I'll get side-tracked from my side-tracking. It's fun to have that kind of option. When I was younger, my preference was largely toward very linear RPGs with a set story, but I've grown to like these more expansive games nowadays. Sometimes I want a great story to be gone through straight, sometimes I want gameplay to dither in, sometimes I want both. In any case, I'm open to Oblivion as I already know I like that style; I just wasn't sure if within that the game was decent or not.

Once I decide whether I'm grabbing the usual version from Gamestop for $17 or the GOTY from Steam for $30 that is. Is this like Fallout 3 where you can't finish the main story without the expansion stuff (which is total ass) or is the expansion/DLC stuff all optional side-quests and things?

Nights of the Nine and Shivering Isles are both better than the main quest. Shivering Isles is especially fantastic.

Frankie Williamson said:

I think the main quest was the weakest part of the game. Oblivion portals were tedious. Everything else was fun, especially the different guilds.

Click to expand...

Gotta agree. The only Oblivion porthole I found interesting was the first one. They're all kind of similar. It was still a cool story, but they put so much else in there to keep you entertained that the main story kind of can't compete. It also makes this whole "world is ending" thing seem less scary. "I'll save the world, but first I REALLY want to carve out a name for myself in the Dark Brotherhood!" Priorities, people.

I still play it and love it. Before I had to disconnect my desktop, I was working on Shivering Isles.

Maybe I'll get Shivering Isles at some point, but I passed up on the GOTY edition and got the standard edition from Gamestop today. Going for a Dark Elf.

Thanks for the input, everyone!

Disclaimer: I do appreciate the input everyone gave.

I think I see where Gusto and Mathias, and anyone who mentioned the main quest, were coming from. Eight hours, and I keep thinking "I could be playing Fallout 3 right now..." I couldn't connect with any of what was going on, though the interaction and lockpicking puzzles were neat.

I'm gonna return this and get Dragon Age: Origins instead.

escushion said:

I'm gonna return this and get Dragon Age: Origins instead.

Click to expand...

Now that's a good plan!

Hated it that much?

I'm surprised.

I told you to get Daggerfall.

Good move. Honestly, I liked...oblivion and morrowind but I never got into them as much as I thought I should. Including Fallout 3 and New Vegas...hell I started New Vegas and never bothered to finish it because it couldn't hold my interest.

Jay said:

Hated it that much?

I'm surprised.

Click to expand...

Me too, actually. I thought I was going to jump in and love it, like I did with Fallout 3, but then it felt a plate of nothing going on.

I'm still planning to get Skyrim, but I can stave off Elder Scrolls until then.

I loved Morrowind, but had trouble getting into Oblivion. Every so often I look at the box and think about giving it another try. Maybe I will someday.

This thread actually made me want to reinstall my copy of Oblivion and I always have a completly different experience than you did. I get so enveloped into the world, I feel like I'm there. It helps that I download and install Francesco's Mod with Items/Creatures. It really diversifies the game and gives it a more linear approach. I was hoping to come back to this thread to see your progress and wonder what class you created but oh well. I'll continue my march through the world and look forward to continuing it in Skyrim

Yeah, I understand why some people don't like Oblivion and Morrowind. To fully enjoy it, you really need to have what I like to call "Adventure ADD". If your not able to just pick a compass direction and go walking until you find something, your really missing out on some of the fun. You also need to read up a bit on how to best set-up your character before you being... there are some skills that take a LONG time to raise, like Acrobatics and Athletics, that can really make the game harder to play.

That being said, Fallout 3 and New Vegas are much more structured, as well as make just about all of the locations interesting in and of themselves. Their design philosophy is much more intuitive and I suspect Skyrim will use it as opposed to Morrowind or Oblivion's style.

One of the things that did grate on me was the repetitiveness of most of the dungeon maps. Oblivion only had one dungeon designer though, Skyrim has 8, so here's hoping that won't be an issue.

11/11/11 cannot come soon enough

though the summer and vacation will help things along

Azurephoenix said:

I love Oblivion... it had an expansive world with tons of stuff to do. The Shivering Isles expansion was also a great addition with a storyline that I felt was more interesting than the main plot.

I'm kind of getting the feeling that you hate all/most RPG's. Don't worry... I'm sure there will be another Call of Duty for you soon.

Click to expand...

I would guess.... NHL '12.

More like "Pens Quest : Tears of Crosby"

There will be an epic quest line to find and collect 7 tears from Crosby across the land and once you reunion them (in captain planet fashion), he'll score a golden goal and all shall be well.

That actually sounds kind of awesome.

Reading more on Skyrim, it sounds like they're taking a good approach to dealing with complaints of older games which I didn't play long enough to have a problem with, but would likely bug me. I'm excited for it though.

Got Dragon Age Origins Ultimate Edition. With all this DLC and extra stuff, and at the rate I play video games, I won't be getting around to Dragon Age 2 until the third one's been released.

Gusto said:

That actually sounds kind of awesome.

Click to expand...