Elder Scrolls IV

[Erkki]

Bethesda has released a bit more info about it. GameSpot has some screens.

Bethesda promises a "combination of freeform gameplay and cutting-edge graphics."

But if that's still all they're going for, I'm not really that interested. I played Daggerfall for a while and Morrowind for a few hours, but was disappointed by both of them. I plan to give Morrowind one more try, but I think that the dry dialogues and characters just destroy the game's potential completely.

A new artificial intelligence system, called Radiant AI, will see non-player characters make choices based on the world around them. NPCs will do different things during the day--eat, sleep, go to church, steal things--depending on their personalities and environment. Everyone in the game's world will sport full facial animations, lip synching, and full speech for all dialogue.

Now this sounds more promising. But the full speech still won't convince me if the NPC's will still lack personality.

I'd love to see Gothic 3 look as good as this though.

[MrHoatzin]

These screenshots look insanely impressive...

[Intrepid Homoludens]

[off topic] BTW, anyone else looking forward to Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines?! [/off topic]

[Intrepid Homoludens]

Yeah, I read the Gamespy preview earlier. Whoah, from that it sounds like a relative of Fable ! The A.I. description got me excited, and the moral alignment, consequences of your decisions and actions. A lot of it mirrors Fable's, so I want! And of course, the graphics. I could definitely snag the Xbox2 expressly for this game alone!

[Marek]

I'm very interested in Oblivion. I liked Morrowind despite its flaws, and it seems the developers have got at least a couple of good ideas to make Oblivion better.

However, I'm not crapping my pants over the graphics. They look good, but I think a lot of people are exaggerating how impressive they are. It's nice that leaves are probably rendered individually, and that the engine is capable of a creating a thoroughly bumpmapped and eerily lighted dungeon with super-shiney walls, but it's not blowing me away. I'm not saying it should, but a lot of previews are overreacting to the fact that it's for the next generation of consoles. Maybe it's the art direction. I've seen many forests but few of them had just one shade of green.

In any case, I'm anticipating more information on the game itself.

[Lindset]

I like what the GameSpy preview had to say about the game. They're fixing a lot of the things that I didn't like about Morrowind. (the combat system, the cardboard cutout NPCs, the lack of direction)

[toblix]

"Oblivion features a groundbreaking new AI system, called Radiant AI, which gives non-player characters (NPCs) the ability to make their own choices based on the world around them. They'll decide where to eat or who to talk to and what they'll say. They'll sleep, go to church, and even steal items, all based on their individual characteristics. Full facial animations and lip-synching, combined with full speech for all dialog, allows NPCs to come to life like never before."

This is written about all games that feature even a smidgeon of randomness to NPCs. There's nothing revolutionary about "the ability to make their own choices based on the world around them." This is descriptive of even the simplest pathfinding algorithms. "They'll decide where to eat or who to talk to and what they'll say. They'll sleep, go to church, and even steal items, all based on their individual characteristics"... This sort of thing is said about lots of games, but they all turn out either with completely unbelievable behaviour, or they don't use the "incredible AI" at all. And "Full facial animations and lip-synching, combined with full speech for all dialog, allows NPCs to come to life like never before." is bullshit. This technology is many years old, but still every shitty little 3d game PR team talk about it like it's futuristic laser plasma technology or something. The mouths just flap open and shut according to the amplitude of the sound file anyway. It will look stupid.

[Erkki]

Reading the GameSpy preview made me more optimistic, but I won't get too excited about ``an extraordinary new "living world" system´´ until I see it.

[Farbror]

I agree. Let's not get too hyped, people!

[Intrepid Homoludens]

Oh, I'm not hyped, I'll be careful. After all, I did a gamer's blackout on Psycho-boner-nauts and Half-sexy-Life 2. And there doesn't seem to be a superfluity of press over Bloodlines, so I'm fine with that.

[Erkki]

You know what elements "next-gen" big RPGs like Oblivion should have? Playing Morrowind made me think about this again...

They shouldn't only do this "living world system" where people move around more inside the towns and actually carry out some activities. That has been done, somewhat. But since GTA has started taking RPG elements, games like Oblivion should start taking stuff from the GTA series and other places.

There should be caravans and carts moving on the roads, people moving around in the world, other adventurers competing with you. And there should be a more realistic economic model.

If you need to carry loads of heavy stuff out of some Dwarwen mines you shouldn't make 5 trips there, carrying as much as you can on your back each time. You should be able to organise a full caravan. Some horse carts would ride out, with guards riding along on horses. A camp would be setup near the mine entrance. Some folk would enter the mines and start bringing stuff out, others will be guarding the camp.

Stuff like that. This is what would bring RPGs to a "next generation", not more advanced graphics, physics or slightly more complicated NPC behaviour that has already been done in some past games (Outcast, Gothic).

Anyway, I'm aware that it's possible they have quite a lot more planned than they have said so far, maybe what they will do will be amazing as well.

[Roderick]

(I guess that's also due to the lack of roleplaying of many of them, or am I mistaken?)

Oh wow, Grand Theft Horse! GTA in a medieval world! A bustling stronghold where you can steal a man's horse, take it for a cruise and ram it into other quadruplets!

[Erkki]

http://morrowind.rpgdot.com//index.php?hsaction=12

Wow. The FAQ at morrowind.ttlg.com says there will be ridable horses!

10.3 Will there be horses or other rideable mounts?

Yes, both ridable mounts and mounted combat will re-appear in Oblivion.

(Reference: Game Informer Magazine, October 2004 issue)

[Simon]

Well they had horses in Daggerfall, the last Elder Scrolls RPG I played, but I guess those could have been done a lot better. 'Mounted combat' sounds new and fun.

I remember once I got bored and hacked Daggerfall with 'Dforge', I could run around towns faster than any horse, so they became redundant. The hack allowed you to alter all your stats to ridiculously high numbers, but that had some odd effects. You could be haggling with a merchant and end up buying a cape for -452 gold.