Oblivion

[Roderick]

Is it that poorly written, though? I think it's merely bland, most of the time, purely serviceable to the game. You shouldn't try to raise it to any standard of literature, that's not what it's about. They're ingame items, no different than the kettles lying around.

[Orv]

I would link you A Hypothetical Treachery but the Elder Scrolls Library is busy protesting PIPA. I'm not sure if it made it into Oblivion, I never pursued the books in Oblivion like I did in Morrowind and Skyrim. I know it's in both of those though.

[Roderick]

I recently read A Hypothetical Treachery in Skyrim and it was great. I never saw that one in Oblivion, so I assumed it was new to Skyrim.

[Thyroid]

I'll try seeing if I can find that on my next trip through the Hall of Wisdom's secret library.

Is it that poorly written, though? I think it's merely bland, most of the time, purely serviceable to the game. You shouldn't try to raise it to any standard of literature, that's not what it's about. They're ingame items, no different than the kettles lying around.

Oh yeah. I'm not comparing them to Herman Melville here. I just think they could have had more flavour added to them.

[Roderick]

I do agree that it's a wonderful opportunity for some really strong writing.

Written stories within games have a pitifully short track record. Lost Odyssey on the Xbox 360 did some really fun things, as did Fragile Dreams on the Wii.

[mikemariano]

Thanks for the replies, everybody! And actually it was the fiction of The Elder Scrolls games that got me interested in playing Daggerfall and Oblivion in the first place.

Someone ripped all the books from Skyrim and put them in an e-reader format. Apparently they overlap between games, so I've picked up some books in Oblivion, shrugged and said "read it", then tossed them away.

My BOTY in the Elder Scrolls series is The Argonian Account, featuring the adventures of lazy bureaucrat Decumus Scotti.

[Roderick]

I have on my iPhone a free ebookreader. Can I perhaps through magic get these books on there? No biggie if it's a no, I've been avidly collecting the books in the game, but it'd be fun.

[mikemariano]

I have on my iPhone a free ebookreader. Can I perhaps through magic get these books on there?

You can do this; the ePub format is the one used for iPhone/Pod/Pad books.

Apparently there's an updated version of this file. If I had bothered to scroll down on that page I would have noticed this.

[Sno]

Someone ripped all the books from Skyrim and put them in an e-reader format. Apparently they overlap between games, so I've picked up some books in Oblivion, shrugged and said "read it", then tossed them away.

There is a lot of overlap, but there's plenty of books in earlier games that haven't returned in later games, or have actually been revised or straight-up censored. (Because... Man, Daggerfall. Holy shit.)

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Books_by_Subject

This should be just about every book in the series.

[Thyroid]

There is a lot of overlap, but there's plenty of books in earlier games that haven't returned in later games, or have actually been revised or straight-up censored. (Because... Man, Daggerfall. Holy shit.)

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Books_by_Subject

This should be just about every book in the series.

What books in Daggerfall were "Holy shit"? I know about The Real Barenziah, but is there anything else?

[elmuerte]

What books in Daggerfall were "Holy shit"? I know about The Real Barenziah, but is there anything else?

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Daggerfall:Books

[Thyroid]

I'm wondering about the "holy shit" books, not all of them. Unless you're selling all of them are holy shit books, to which I say "Holy shit".

Disclaimer: I'm not perverted or anything. I'm just curious as to what insane censorship went on post-Daggerfall.

[ThunderPeel2001]

Weird! I had no idea there was dubious, badly written porn in some of those books.

[elmuerte]

I'm wondering about the "holy shit" books, not all of them. Unless you're selling all of them are holy shit books, to which I say "Holy shit".

Disclaimer: I'm not perverted or anything. I'm just curious as to what insane censorship went on post-Daggerfall.

oh like that.

well, on UESP only "The Real Barenziah" contains a warning. For a few books UESP does mention it's a different from the versions in morrowind/oblivion/skyrim. But they don't look offensive.

[Sno]

As far as i know, the original version of "The Real Barenziah" is the only particular standout of Daggerfall with regards to texts that were later censored.

"Daggerfall, holy shit" was more a comment about that game just in general trying trying very hard to be very adult. All of the goofy pixelated nudity, for example.

[mikemariano]

FYI: I have played nothing but Oblivion since January.

I completed Knights of the Nine and I am now Arch-Mage Dexter of the Mages' Guild. Now I'm mostly through the "do what Sean Bean tells you to do" quest. I'm not sure if I'll move onto Shivering Isles after I do the main quest. Am I supposed to do that after the main quest?

I have enjoyed the quests in Oblivion and they are a lot better than their reputation suggests. Even the shamelessly "fetch-y" main quests are meant to give a good overview of the cities of the game, the Daedras, and other big parts of the mythology.

Unfortunately, non-quest exploration of caves, forts, and Ayleid ruins just for the sake of exploring them isn't much fun at all. Closing Oblivion gates is even worse.

But I think I may have just closed my final Oblivion gate. Let's hope the endgame for the main quest is fun!

[Orv]

Do SI whenever. It's the only worthwhile part of Oblivion.

[Sno]

Oblivion definitely got a bit of a undeservedly bad rep among fans.

I agree that Oblivion had a lot of really great quest design, and I feel that the thieves guild and the dark brotherhood were the big standouts.

Though the main quest is the weakest of the modern TES series, and Oblivion's dungeons are just interminably dull, a feeling i didn't get from either Morrowind or Skyrim.

As for Shivering Isles, it stands very much on its own, just do it whenever. It's a great piece of content.

[Roderick]

A few years ago I returned to Oblivion and got a huge kick out of it. The atmosphere in that game, even if it is generic fantasy, is amazing. The problematic thing at first was that, coming from Morrowind, the whole package was so much less interesting. But once you get past that, it is an extraordinary landscape and I smile whenever I think back to it.

Stupidly, after I had spent a good 100-odd hours in the game and was finally ready to tackle Shivering Isles, which I had saved as the best for last, I got fatigued with the game and didn't play on. I really must return to do that, probably with a new character to at least give me a challenge. Because Oblivion, oi, once you get past a certain point in leveling up it gets preposterously easy.

[mikemariano]

I beat Oblivion yesterday! I had to distract Terence Stamp and his children somehow so I learned how to Summon Zombies, Skeletons, etc. All these undead creatures that, as the arch-mage, I vowed never to do! But plain old destruction magic wasn't getting the job done.

Now on to the Shivering Isles!

[mikemariano]

And what did you think of Oblivion? Did you do a lot of the secondary / tertiary content or just the main story?

Oblivion was decent, though it became quite a mess after heading into Paradise to go after Terence Stamp's character. I started the Mage's Guild questline my first day playing. I alternated that with Knights of the Nine, the main quest, all of the non-"evil" Daedric quests, and some of the Arena matches before (in order) completing Knights of the Nine, winning the Battle of Kvatch, and becoming arch-mage.

I started the Thieves' Guild questline as well, but I didn't like that the first (relatively innocent) mission gave me an infamy point. This clogged up my Knights of the Nine quest, so I made my long penance to many wayshrines and decided against becoming a thief.

Later I accidentally fireballed a soldier during the Siege of Bruma, giving me one infamy point and an intro to the Dark Brotherhood questline. I don't want that, either! I am committed to good, which is why I got so upset that I compromised myself and used Summon Undead spells to beat Terence Stamp.

I beat the game at level 20. That is more or less as high as I can go, since I've maxed out Destruction and Sneak. I haven't leveled up in over a month, either in game time or in real time!

[Sno]

The rigid rules surrounding the Knights of the Nine add-on don't mesh very well with the rest of the game, prevented me from ever finishing it.

Is it worth going back and giving it another go?

[Henroid]

It's refreshing to read someone playing a game dedicatedly being aligned to good. So many people want to be shadowy ninja badasses.

[Roderick]

Mike, it is worthwhile to start another playthrough just to do the Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood. Like Sno said earlier, they are the standout questlines in the game.

Also: The hero of Kvatch!

[Orv]

There is a reason everyone clamours so loudly about the Dark Brotherhood quests in Oblivion. They are just cool.