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Moosferatu

Oblivion

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About leveling up I agree with the fact that the way Oblivion made the game sort of defeats the purpose of leveling up. I feel its more rpg-like to start off weak and become stronger, not so weak that you're a rat's bitch cause youre "unique" but not strong enough to be arena champion by level 4 (which is the case in Oblivion).

I think Jade Empire did this perfectly, you start off weak but still strong enough to make it past the first few levels. Its slow at first then you speed up , eventually you're kicking ass and making it look good. By the end of the game you're more powerful than everyone else but theres still a challenge in fighting the bosses so its not a walk in the park.

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Rodi, here are a couple of mods you might want to check out. I haven't tried them yet, but I'm planning on checking them out when I'm through with exams.

Francesco's leveled creatures/items mod

AFLevelMod

Level Slow or Slower Oblivion

That first one is actually the second most downloaded mod on planetelderscrolls after BTmod.

Karimi, how is Jade Empire? I remember really looking forward to its release and then it seemed to get a somewhat lukewarm reception. Is it worth picking up?

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Jade Empire is fantastic. I couldn't put it down until I beat it. Many a night (far too close to finals) was spent palying Jade Empire until 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning.

And for Oblivion: I only really noticed the whole leveling enemy bit right at the beginning. I was crawling through the sewer and I came across my first rat. My thoughts went as follows: "Well, I better quicksave because this rat is going to kick * It's dead already? I am a god among mice!" It was at the same time really good feeling and also smacking of a sense of "Wait a minute, something is off here." Beyond that though, it hasn't bugged me terribly. But I adapt to game mechanics fairly quickly, generally.

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Jade Empire was good, but it got really boring about halfway through and unlike KOTOR I wasn't motivated to try playing it a second time to see how it would be different as evil.

You got your ass kicked by a Rat? You might not be using the combat system correctly. There are rats in that first dungeon...if you can't kill them easily using the tools you're given (sword, bow + arrows, axe, bare hands) you need to get used to the controls.

Rats are never difficult. Ever. Nor are mudcrabs. Goblins scale, rats never do. You should *always* be a god among rats, even if your character is 100% mercantile/speechcraft.

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So basically I'm being told to hold off on Oblivion and get a used copy of Jade Empire instead? Sounds like a plan. About $40 easier on the wallet too.

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Hurrah! I bought the game. I'm reading the manual and planning my character because that's how anal I am, OK?! Now, about the mods. Is there anywhere to download them besides planetelderscrolls, considering how much I hate file planet. Which is a lot.

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So basically I'm being told to hold off on Oblivion and get a used copy of Jade Empire instead? Sounds like a plan. About $40 easier on the wallet too.

That's a terrible idea.

Okay, granted, I'm biased. Completely.

But Oblivion > Jade Empire. By a factor of 50.

But again, me = biased.

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I have a similar problem. I just got my refund check, and wonder if I should treat myself to Dreamfall or Oblivion.

Another confession: I don't think I've every played an Elderscrolls game.

You don't need to have played one. They've gotten significantly more accessible with each iteration, and oblivion is by far the most accessible to date.

There's a connected world with each game, but the storylines are always unique.

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I have a similar problem. I just got my refund check, and wonder if I should treat myself to Dreamfall or Oblivion.

Depends on what you're looking for. Dreamfall is a beautiful game with an amazing story, but it's relatively short and the gameplay is fairly simple. Oblivion is a huge game with great gameplay and graphics, but not the most enthralling of characters or subplots (that is not to say that there aren't some good ones). I'm biased, but I think you should get Dreamfall if only because it's awesome and Oblivion doesn't need to sell anymore copies while Dreamfall does.

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I bet one could easily spend 10-20x more time on Oblivion than Dreamfall.

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That is very true. Oblivion is certainly more game for your money. It's a great RPG too, though I still don't think it's topped BGII in my book. But, that doesn't mean that Dreamfall or any other shorter game is therefore inherently inferior to Oblivion. It just means that they're shorter. You wouldn't really expect an adventure game to be able to compete with a massive rpg in terms of gameplay hours, would you? Just like you wouldn't expect such a game as huge as Oblivion to have nearly as detailed and involving characters and storylines as a game like Dreamfall (I should note that I haven't played the main quest yet, but I hear it sucks.). It should also be noted that, at least when I played Dreamfall, it didn't feel short or like you were being cheated. That's the difference between a game that's too short (ie parts are missing or not fleshed out) and a game that's just right.

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Even though Oblivion is a very fun game, you should be aware that there is another side to the coin. RPG Codex has a pretty funny review that'll give you some much needed perspective, since every other site is basically only lavishing it with praise in their reviews and neglecting to mention or focus on several negative things.

I still love the game, but keep in mind that it has flaws, some of which are more severe than they should be. Let's say quality voice acting and dialog are two of the most important aspects of a game to you; then you might sway towards Dreamfall instead. However, if a very high level of freedom is what you need then it's needless to say which game you will want to go for (hint: it's Oblivion). If I had the money I'd get both.

Also: what Moos said.

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Oath, that review was genius! I was laughing my ass off. Thanks for posting it. Also, your new avatar is awesome.

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That's a terrible idea.

Okay, granted, I'm biased. Completely.

But Oblivion > Jade Empire. By a factor of 50.

But again, me = biased.

Also, you = correct, so don't worry about it.

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Jade empire has style, a better story, and is generally more fun. Oblivion has great graphics and a big world but doesn't offer much from an RPG standpoint.

I think J.E is better than Oblivion because its more entertaining, and generally feels less shallow (its short and a bit quick but its got more depth than Oblivion imo). Oblivion is a great game, but the story is a bit dull and the locations aren't as original as J.E.

Its depends on what you look for in a game. J.E. is like a short novel that keeps you on the edge of your seat all the way, the author has style and overall its a good book. Oblivion is a huge book but is somewhat dull and while it is pretty its empty. The conversations are short and to the point, and the locations are standard issue.

Had they been combined they would be great. J.E has the story the detail and the style but Oblivion has the scale and looks.

Oblivion is like a big golden plate with very little food on it, and Jade Empire is a small quiche with alot of taste but is quickly eaten. I dunno if that made sense ,but I say pick Jade.

Edit: Oblivion is a good game , but thats all it is a game. Jade Empire offers much more than that.

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Edit: Oblivion is a good game , but thats all it is a game. Jade Empire offers much more than that.

I think we're going to have to agree to disagree on this one.

I enjoyed Jade Empire, but found it painfully shallow. The combat system wasn't nearly as detailed as I had been led to believe, I didn't find the storyline particularly interesting, and most of the characters were weak too.

I played it, finished it and sold it back.

By contrast, I've already put about 90 hours into Oblivion, with no end in sight.

Or an even better example: KOTOR was a stroke of genius. Deep game, great story, memorable characters. I played through it twice (once good, once evil) and loved it both times.

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I still love the game, but keep in mind that it has flaws, some of which are more severe than they should be. Let's say quality voice acting and dialog are two of the most important aspects of a game to you; then you might sway towards Dreamfall instead. However, if a very high level of freedom is what you need then it's needless to say which game you will want to go for (hint: it's Oblivion). If I had the money I'd get both.

Yep: The voice acting SUCKS! Character's voices often change mid-conversation! Plus: Everyone's ugly in Oblivion! I mean REALLY ugly.

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Everyone's ugly in Oblivion! I mean REALLY ugly.

I was going to mention this too. When the character creation screen first popped up I screamed out loud. Took me ages to make someone who looked like they had a full set of genes. And I just couldn't look Emporer Septim in the eye at all.

I'm pretty dissapointed with the art direction in general. Despite the immense number of polygons and effects, it just doesn't look good to me at all. I was planning to play in third person perspective but the charcter animation is reminiscent of a wooden puppet suffering from severe arthritis. The detailed landscaped suffer a severe lack of imagination also. I'll take a low poly rpg that looks like World of Warcraft over this high spec yawn any day.

Despite all this, I think I'm starting to get drawn into the actual gameplay. :tup:

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Oblivion is really unorignal when it comes to locations. Its all beautiful and amazing but its all typical art. I'm tempted to say its like a virtual version of the towns in Lord of the Rings, but I'm sure someone will say "Towns like these were around long before LotR". I agree , but still the towns are very typical. The imperial city looks a bit like Isengard (tower and the gates), Bruma looks a bit like Rohan and Chorrol looks like Bree (or whatever the first town they went to was called). I will admit I haven't been to all the towns so maybe I'm just generalizing. But still, World of Warcraft was much more original with their design even with a lower poly count.

Yes people are ugly in Oblivion, it looks like each face has somehow been crumpled up and and thrown in the trash.

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Granted, Oblivion's visual style isn't unique, but as far as traditional medieval style's go I think it's one of the better looking games. I'm interested in what other games using the same traditional style (ie not WoW) look better than Oblivion. There's nothing wrong with the tried and true as long as it's done well.

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You don't need to have played one. They've gotten significantly more accessible with each iteration, and oblivion is by far the most accessible to date.

Maybe, but at the cost of freedom. Currently I'm trying to complete the main quest just to make those damn oblivion gates to stop appearing. After 20 gates is get's quite boring.

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