Oblivion

[Moosferatu]

Anyone have it yet? I'm hopefully going to get it either Tuesday or Wednesday. Anyone watch the marathon on Gamespot? I had nothing better to do, so I figured I'd spend a couple of bucks and watch Greg blunder around in Oblivion for a bit. I must say the game really does look amazing. I can't wait to play it. I'm thinking of being a ranger-esque character, possibly a wood elf or one of those cat things. I want to run around in the woods making crazy potions out of 'shrooms.

[Duncan]

I'm getting it in two days, at which point you can watch my Idle Thumbs-exclusive LIVE 13 hour marathon.

this is a joke

or is it???

[Moosferatu]

That'd be awesome. You guys could do a whole series of Thumbs videos. Who wouldn't want to watch Spaff and Nick duking it out in Lego Star Wars?

[Oath]

It's due here this friday, so hopefully I'll get my hands on it by then. I'm really looking forward to it quite a bit, I just hope it doesn't sell out (or that it does, only I manage to get hold of it first).

I think I'm going for a thief/illusionist character, with a bit of alchemy. Does anyone know if you can make poisons to coat your blades with?

[Moosferatu]

Does anyone know if you can make poisons to coat your blades with?

Yep, you can, but I believe you have to recoat after every use.

[brkl]

I doubt I'll get it this week, even though I preordered it

[Roderick]

The store said they'd get it tomorrow, on wednesday, so I'm psyched.

[David]

I ordered it this evening. Free shipping option ensures it won't be here until after my finals are over, though I hope it gets here before the end of my spring vacation.

[schepton]

I've been following all the videos and the massive hype on internet forums surrounding this game, but it really isn't doing anything for me.

I enjoyed Morrowind, but I think the whole Fantasy genre is getting stale for me.

[brkl]

You are wrong.

[schepton]

You are wrong.

What am I wrong about?

[Trithemius]

I preordered mine, and if it is not there I shall smite the employees at the gamestore, hip and thigh!

And fantasy is not a stale genre, although some of the exponents of the genre are not really doing a good job of convincing people this. Under the tide of mediocrity and blatant imitation there are some people with interesting approaches - it just remains to be seen if this can migrate to the computer game genre.

[Moosferatu]

Does the theme music remind anyone else of a cross between Pirates of the Caribbean and The Lord of the Rings?

[lailoken]

To me the problem with these games is that they simply feel flat.

There is no characterdevelopment and the stories lack emotional depth.

How many characters have I met in a game that actually made me care

about them? Almost none! Okay it's shiny and they have a great physics engine...

[miffy495]

I second. The graphics are fantastic, but the only RPGs to ever really grab me were the ones that focused on character development through story rather than leveling up. No matter how great the gameplay may be, I'll be waiting on word about Oblivion's story before I consider picking it up.

[Trithemius]

Personally, I liked the Morrowind story - even if Iolo was not there to give my character a handjob the second I stepped off the boat.*

* disparaging Ultima VII reference

[MrChlorophyll]

Good God. I spent entirely far too long playing yesterday. I must have binged about 6 solid hours, then 2 more later in the day. Thank God I only have one class on Tuesdays.

The sad part is, I can't really comment on the story, beyond the intro stuff which I'm sure everybody already knows about, because I haven't even touched it yet. I did maybe 4 quests all together. Otherwise just exploring.

I also can't really comment on any character development, or player-npc relations because I haven't had much yet. But if you've played the previous titles in the series, you know the flavour already. My initial gut feeling says that if you take everything Morrowind did right, multiply by ten, and fix a lot that was wrong about it, you get Oblivion.

Obviously, I'm hooked. I don't know why but this series has always been incredibly playable for me.

[Oath]

Damn, I hate having to wait for this. At least there's only 2 days left. Why not a simultaneous release, as I remember seeing screenshots taken by some German at the start of the week? It was obviously ready, but no...

The draw distances look pretty horrendous without tweaks, any views on that from those playing it? I mean, does it distract you a lot when you play, or is it just that in the screenshots, when you pretty much only focus on that bit?

[lailoken]

So is somebody writing the review for this?

[Moosferatu]

The main sites haven't even reviewed it yet. I'm guessing if Thumbs ever reviews it it probably wouldn't be published till this time next year at the earliest.

[Duncan]

So is somebody writing the review for this?

I'm doing it.

I'm guessing if Thumbs ever reviews it it probably wouldn't be published till this time next year at the earliest.

¬ ¬

[David]

I might opine in a secondary fashion on that aritlce. In 2007.

[manny_c44]

I heard there was some sort of 'Fallout 3 Preview' (whatever that might mean) on the disk...well, is there?

[MrChlorophyll]

Not on mine. Maybe the collector's edition.

Also, the draw distance for the grass on max is still too close. Kind of annoying. But I'll muck with the ini file and see what I'll see.

[Oath]

The draw distance on PC apparently has a very easy fix, something about setting a uGridsToLoad=5 to 8 in an ini file.

(Btw Otah have you found any good deals for the game?)

I'm going to buy it in-store, as I don't want to wait for delivery. I haven't preordered, but the average price seems to be 399 SEK for the regular PC edition and 549 SEK for the special version. That's about 42€ and 58€.

I think I'm going to get the more expensive one...

Putting "Collector's Edition" on the box lures me in way too easily.