Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion

[Rankenphile]

Just got my Collectors Edition in and am installing it as I type this. Anyone else get this game?

omg, I am excited. I've been waiting for this game since E3!

[Sergeant Napalm]

I haven't gotten it yet but i am going to eventually. unfortunately my computer is too crappy to run it, so i'll have to wait... I actually have a friend who has an xbox-360 who's brother stayed home from school just to play it.

[public_eyesore]

what card are you running it on. Im thinking of getting a x800xt to play it. Do you think it would be able to play with full graphics on low resolutions?

[jdbnsn]

I am getting it sometime this week for the xbox 360, can't wait to play it either, looks intense. Coincidently, I am getting rid of my X800 because I just installed the X1900XTX, but I think it would probably handle the game fine. I hadn't run into anything that gave it a problem yet.

[Rankenphile]

I've been playing it on my home computer - AMD 2800+, 1 gb of ram and a Geforce 6800GS (brand new, woot!). It runs great! I just got another gig of ram I'm going to be throwing in my computer tonight, but I haven't noticed any problems at all. The draw distance for the high-resolution ground textures is a little wonky sometimes, but otherwise, it's stunningly beautiful and the physics are great.

Below are a couple quick stories about the fun I've had with the physics. These are jsut copy+pasted from another forum I frequent, so if anything seems wonky, it's probably jsut out of context.

________________________

I was working my way down a mountain, riding my horse down a fairly steep raod, and kept encountering wolves and deer. I would jump off my horse, take my boots off and creep up into firing range, plunk em with an arrow and go get my arrows back from their corpse.

On one, I was on a particularly steep part of the hill and creeping up on a wolf when he noticed me (I forgot to remove my chainmail boots) and charged. I loosed the arrow and nailed him in the face (the arrow was sticking out just above his eye. awesome.). He stopped, gathered himself and charged again, leaping at me as I loosed another arrow into his chest. He flew backwards and rolled for about a quarter mile before coming to a stop. I was just walking behind his corpse, laughing as it rolled over and over and over again.

Another great moment I had using the arrow physics was when I was in a firefight with a skeleton archer. I was in a dungeon and he was up a flught of steps. He stepped back to reload, getting cover from the angle of the staircase. I guessed his location and arced an arrow just right to nail him, even though he was out of sight. My reward? Watching his skull bounce down the steps and stop right before my feet.

Last night, on my trek down the mountain, I also found a cool fort. I climbed to the top, about three stories up, and found a random bandit looking the opposite way, overlooking the scenery. I readied an arrow and blasted him in the back, sending him lurching over the edge. He was limp and barely hanging there, but didn't fall the whole way, although his axe did go barelling over the edge.

I went up and looted his body, getting the usual fur armor and an iron bow, then grabbed his leg using the R key and threw his body over the edge. His head hit an outdropping ont he way down and he spun like crazy until he hit the ground.

When I got to the bottom to look for his axe, I found him laying there, in his underpants, doubled over backward, his chest in the air with all his weight on his face and his feet. I couldn't leave him like that, so I hit him with my sword, sending him over to his side.

_______________

Oh, here's a picture of my character - Gorrhim Shadowleaf, a wood elf arcane rogue. (god I'm a geek! :D)

http://rankenphile.com/images/gorrhim1.jpg

Edit: Here is a cool page (http://cycophant.50webs.com/OblivionTweak.html) that covers a lot of tweaks you can make to your Oblivion.ini file to improve graphics and performance.

[public_eyesore]

wow, thanks for the link(cant wait til i get my new card and the game)

[Custom]

I aint got enough dosh but I am going to get it for me PC!! :D

[DaveW]

Just out of curiosity-is it any good? TES 3 bored the hell outta me, and i'm a pretty big RPG guy. It just felt like i should selotape the walk button down and go for dinner, then come back. I ended up using console commands to set my agility and stamina to 1000 so i could jump around the countryside (which was damn funny, till i got bored of that too.)

-Dave

[public_eyesore]

everybody ive heard said its amazing

[Rankenphile]

Just out of curiosity-is it any good? TES 3 bored the hell outta me, and i'm a pretty big RPG guy. It just felt like i should selotape the walk button down and go for dinner, then come back. I ended up using console commands to set my agility and stamina to 1000 so i could jump around the countryside (which was damn funny, till i got bored of that too.)

-Dave

I had a very hard time getting into Morrowind, but everything in Oblivion is blowing me away. They created a quick-travel feature, that lets you get from any known point to another instantly, although in-game time passes. The physics are incredible, it really leads you in the right direction much more without baby-stepping you, and still gives you amazing freedom.

If you like good RPGs, you really should pick it up. And if you like it, you should be happy - Bethesda, the team that made Oblivion, also has the rights for and is developing the newest Fallout game. I know how much you like them, Dave. hehe.

[jdbnsn]

I just got Oblivion on Xbox 360 today, I've ben playing it for hours and I gotta say it's beautiful! Graphics are very smooth and the fighting has greatly improved since Morrowind. I'm addicted!

[.jrauck]

Ive got the game its pretty sweet. I just hate the fact that my computer got screwed up and all the gameplay that I have done was erased :( ill post my chacter when I re-make him.

[DaveW]

If you like good RPGs, you really should pick it up. And if you like it, you should be happy - Bethesda, the team that made Oblivion, also has the rights for and is developing the newest Fallout game. I know how much you like them, Dave. hehe.

Good point. Support Elder Scrolls, and maybe Fallout 3 won't slip back into game design purgatory for the zillionth time. I'll pick up a copy in 4 months when i have the time to play it. I have a backlog of games that i've bought and not played, including Splinter Cell 3, which i got for a penny on ebay. Tee hee.

-Dave

[Durrthock]

Yea i have it buy it freezes up because i think in need more ram because it running at 86% when i play the game what do you think

[Rankenphile]

Good point. Support Elder Scrolls, and maybe Fallout 3 won't slip back into game design purgatory for the zillionth time. I'll pick up a copy in 4 months when i have the time to play it. I have a backlog of games that i've bought and not played, including Splinter Cell 3, which i got for a penny on ebay. Tee hee.

-Dave

A penny? nice catch, man, that's a great game. I've heard the multiplayer on that is a blast, but I never got beyond the single-player, which I loved.

[Rankenphile]

Yea i have it buy it freezes up because i think in need more ram because it running at 86% when i play the game what do you think

How much ram do you have? It looks like everything else about that rig should run it just fine - I was playing it on 1 gig for a long time, with no problems.

[onelegout]

Im....aquiring this game at the moment. I will buy it if I like it. its taking me 27 hours to get it. 8 hours remaining.
Ive never played an RPG before, and as an avid FPS player, I don't think it will suit me much, but my friend also wanted to try it before he buys it, so thats why im trying it.
Going to be playing on a 7900GTX system so lets hope it handles it well! :)

If you want to see whether your system will run the game, hit this link to go to gamespy's 'system requirements lab test' which will grab your system specs and tell you whether it will play or not, it will also give you tips on how to improve your system in order to play it! I was quite impressed with this free service! Im sure that they keep your system specs info but if that doesnt bother you, give it a try!

http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/referrer/gamespy_srl?registration_option_id=2575

P.S. Who else got the message 'Congratulations, your system will Rock this product! Wish we had a system that hot you lucky dog.'
ahaha!

Peace
H

EDIT: WTF?! That lab test said that I had 2 processors, then I checked the 'performance tab' in task manager and it's displaying 2 processors, and I only have one :S
Anyone got any idea what this could be?!

[nil8]

I have played only 2 games series from the start. Elder Scrolls and Half-Life.
Drool. I need to buy this game.

[Cannibal23]

i have been playing this game for a while now and its awesome. absolutely love it. i usually play fps games but always like the mele aspect of them. also used to play alot of thief so this is kind of a mix of the things i like best. i wish that the mission to become coloiseum grand champion was a little longer or at least more difficult. im not super handy with magic as im not really used to it in fps games yet but i have only run into one magic useing npc that i had a hard time feeding my steel to.

[public_eyesore]

Kinda off topic, but if anyone noticed, the game is now rated M for nudity. Which can be accessed unless you load a user made file. ESRB is gay

[Cannibal23]

esrb is nonsense. how can you give a game a rateing based on a custom config file thats not even produced and or included in the orriginal software release. seriously these people over do it i think. im still waiting for mario bro's to have the graphic violence label put on it cause he jumps on little critters and kills them.

[DaveW]

^^^
The games should be rated the same way as movies, and i'm against underage people getting their hands on games with heavy violence. I think there's a line where you can differentiate between what's right and wrong, and you can't see it when your 8 years old. Anyone else que for GTA San Andreas and watch a stupid mother buy a clearly under 10 year old kid a game that's about violence, drugs, sex, and crime? She wouldn't buy the kid a porno but if it's a game she doesn't think it's dangerous. I think people need to be made aware exactly of what's in a game, and the ESRB just doesn't cut it.

My 2 cents, as you guys say...

-Dave

[nil8]

I would think ES4 would be rated M for the violence/combat/killing. Not for some mod that makes people naked.

DaveW just hit the nail on the head. It's the parents that should be regulating what their kids see, not the government. The ESRB is a useless institution that wastes money and time. Censorship is wrong, and not the government's job.

[Rankenphile]

Tell that to Jack Thompson.

[DaveW]

Tell that to Jack Thompson.

Is this an American Political Thing?

Google-whacked it...ah, someone with a clam for a mind.

-Dave

[Rankenphile]

Pretty much, yeah.

Penny-Arcade pretty much "pwned" him at his own game a while back, when he offered $10,000 to a charity if anyone would build a game that he had in mind - a ruthlessly brutal and violent game that involved killing American legislators, retailers and CEOs of game publishers, as well as a bunch of other nastiness. Well, someone took him up on it, and he instantly backed down. The guys over at PA called him on it and ponied up $10k of their own cash to the charity he had promised the money to, because he was basically a spineless attention whore. To put it nicely.

[public_eyesore]

I would think ES4 would be rated M for the violence/combat/killing. Not for some mod that makes people naked.

DaveW just hit the nail on the head. It's the parents that should be regulating what their kids see, not the government. The ESRB is a useless institution that wastes money and time. Censorship is wrong, and not the government's job.


So you expect parents to buy and then test games before their kids can play them, or easily say, "you can't get anything over T"? It's not censorship if nothings being censored. It's a rating to evaluate the content in a game.

[Pimptimus_Prime]

Howdy all! I can't recommend the mod "Oldblivion" enough if you are having problem running the game. It allows you to use older graphics cards to run the game. I will post more mods and info later tonight after I get my computer back up and running. I'm currently posting from my PSP. =-)

[nil8]

So you expect parents to buy and then test games before their kids can play them, or easily say, "you can't get anything over T"? It's not censorship if nothings being censored. It's a rating to evaluate the content in a game.

And is it necessary?
Isn't it the parents job to determine what their kids can and can't see and do?

I have no problems with a recommendation, but anything more is a waste of time and money.
The TV ratings system without the vchip is a recommendation system. With the vchip it's a system of control and shouldn't be forced on the people who don't want it. You can't buy a modern tv without one, just like you can't buy a video game without an ESRB rating. That's BS. That's as much BS as the national movie rating system. G, PG, PG13, R, NC17. Within 30 seconds of an ad you should be able to determine if you want your 6 year old to watch the film or not. If you can't, you're have bad judgement.

It's thinking like this that gives way to GTA3 should be banned. Or 'naughty' words shouldn't be on TV. Yes, they should. It should be a parents job to protect their kids from what they don't want them to see, not the goverments and definitely not mine.

As for the penny arcade fiasco, I think that was pretty righteous of the PA guys to front the money. That was very cool of them.

[DaveW]

We have an idiot tabloid press here who went nuts because a guy killed someone with a hammer, and the tabloids blamed Rockstar's manhunt game, and temporarilly forced a ban on the game.

It was lifted a week later when the tabloids were forced to apologise-the victim liked to play manhunt, and the murderer was just a guy who decided to do someone in with a hammer. Over here, you get a lot of hyped up horror stories, even though almost every study done into computer games shows that it's mentally healthy in someone who can differentiate between reality and fantasy.

Basically, those aren't the people who play warcraft for weeks and urinate in plastic bottles. You probably know that the chinese government wants to control how long people can play in order to help stop the spread of the addiction: although they might not actually help anyone, at the very least it's spreading awareness of the problems.

If you ask me most kids come under the catagory of someone who can't differentiate reallity and fantasy, and as such need to be protected from unsuitable content.

It should be the parent's job to protect their children, but let's be honest-if you havn't heard of GTA you've been living in a hole, and everyone in that que buying the game for their kids were doing a crap job at parenting.

Just my opinion, feel free to dispute it, but keep it clean ;)

-Dave

[jdbnsn]

My opinion is a little different. I happen to love video game and movie violence, love it! The more realistic and bloody the better. However, I deplore actual violence (maybe why I chose medicine) and victimization of any kind makes me ill. So I hold a clear distinction with no problem. And as for raising children, well I am not a father so my word is rather light. But seriously, they are going to see everything you don't want them anyway. I would not prohibit my child from viewing anything (with the possible exception of sex just because that if they are that young, an explanation might not be useful). But I would rather be there when he/she see's these things so I can explain what's "right and wrong" and why some things happen. In other words, guide them through the darker side of humanity rather than make them walk it alone later.

[nil8]

I hate it when stigma is put behind ideas. When you make something 'wrong','sinful','hurtful',etc you make it interesting and more wanted by kids.
Don't believe me? Look at the old debate of the parental advisory on albums.

Media will blame anything they can to make a 'tragedy' justified. Music, video games, DND, whatever. The media can stay detached from reality and probably will.

My parents took me when I was young to see Schindler's List because they thought it would help me understand the holocaust better. On the way out of the theater, some close-minded fool came up and started cursing my parents out for taking children to an R movie. Nothing to do with the context, or why, just that my sister and I were both under 17. This sticks with me to this day. There are people out there who don't think and never will. Don't let your kids become one of these please. I emplore all of you to help your kids become free thinkers and allow them the benefits of not hiding reality.

I'm not a parent, and might never be. Only time will tell.

[DaveW]

some close-minded fool came up and started cursing my parents out for taking children to an R movie.

Reminds me of that part of Farenheight 9/11 when the woman's talking to a protester outside the white house and some other woman comes out of no-where, and tells her it's all bull****. If you've seen the film you'll know what happens next: don't ask why it's stuck in my mind.


In other words, guide them through the darker side of humanity rather than make them walk it alone later.

I agree with what you're saying, but there's a time to teach kids the more extreme rights and wrongs, and it's later in life. When you're a kid, you should be getting told not to pick your nose and not to beat on tommy next door: sex, drugs, violence, this stuff will become an issue at some point, but it shouldn't earlier in life. Studies show that Kids who are violent are usually exposed to domestic abuse or violence.


The media can stay detached from reality and probably will.
I couldn't agree more: over here, the media focusses every day on how the system fails us. It sickens me the fact that the media has more actual power than the government, and can do whatever it wants with it-they're protected by law, they can say or do pretty much whatever they want and apologise to no-one. If you ever doubted their power, think back a month to printing of a certain cartoon in a french newspaper. But they waste their powers on petty things and stupid, missinformed fear-mongering. I read the independent for the crossword, and sometimes read it; it's probably one of the better newspapers, but even it pisses me off sometimes.

-Dave

[DaveW]

http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/davew/comic.jpg

Relevant?

-Dave

[jdbnsn]

Being exposed to domestic violence/abuse is something completely different from what I am talking about. Each child develops at his/her own rate and I am not suggesting exposing them to things on a schedule, just allowing them to explore the world at their speed and be there when they run across some of the heavier issues.

[public_eyesore]

And is it necessary?
Isn't it the parents job to determine what their kids can and can't see and do?

I have no problems with a recommendation, but anything more is a waste of time and money.
The TV ratings system without the vchip is a recommendation system. With the vchip it's a system of control and shouldn't be forced on the people who don't want it. You can't buy a modern tv without one, just like you can't buy a video game without an ESRB rating. That's BS. That's as much BS as the national movie rating system. G, PG, PG13, R, NC17. Within 30 seconds of an ad you should be able to determine if you want your 6 year old to watch the film or not. If you can't, you're have bad judgement.

It's thinking like this that gives way to GTA3 should be banned. Or 'naughty' words shouldn't be on TV. Yes, they should. It should be a parents job to protect their kids from what they don't want them to see, not the goverments and definitely not mine.

As for the penny arcade fiasco, I think that was pretty righteous of the PA guys to front the money. That was very cool of them.

The tv doesnt determine if the show is suitable, the parents do.

[nil8]

The FCC says that certain words can't be said on certain TV channels. Nudity included.

You just proved my point public. The parents should assume the responsibility, not anyone else.

[DaveW]

The parents should assume the responsibility, not anyone else.

Don't take this the wrong way, but the parents in the que were obviously the problem if they're buying violent games for their children-so if the parents are the problem, then who takes the responsibility? The Government? That's who the media blame, but the media have the power to make people aware of all this and yet they ignore it; instead they print stories about cat's stuck in trees and other rubbish.

I think more parents need to be aware of the real dangers possed by the various influences on their kids, but then again, no-one wants to be told how to raise their children.

Obviously banning violence in games is the most extreme end of the solution; there must be a more sensible way to keep freedom of expression and yet limit it to those who are ready to hear it?

(Obviously, we have different rules and ratings in the UK, but they're generally the same. We have a watershed, at 9.00pm, you can show nudity and violence after this time, but you can't show hardcore porn on anything but pay per view. Same idea in the US? We have the ESRB as well although GTA3 was given an 18 movie rating, making it illegal to buy or own it if you're under 18.)

-Dave

[nil8]

I've learned a lot about the watershed through downloading some BBC documentaries.

We have NOTHING like it. On almost all channels nudity and naughty words aren't allowed.

Most people don't want to know the real dangers of things. Drugs are the easiest example I can give. There's a lot of BS surrounding drugs just like there is around video games.

[Fenrir]

Censoreship does nothing but stunt our evolution and holds us band from truly being outselfs

Now that I said something on that, does the game push you towards what you have to do, or does it let you do what you want when you want?

[Durrthock]

Well people should not ban violent video games and even playing games above your rating the real soultion is to put games like rockstar games like the gta as fun as they are and bully and even true crime say out of buisness but oblivion is hardly the problem like every crazy teenager has access to an enchant sword.

[Lithsanatrex]

is it just me or are the people in that game ugly as hell. i used the eq2 method of putting everythin in the middle and my guy doesnt look like he was beat with the entire ugly forest, but he still isnt great looking. heh. its a fun game tho.

[leprosy]

oh god once i get my new computer done and reinstall oblivion its gona be HOT! 7800 OC BABY WOOOOO ( im currently on ati radeon 9700, the game prety much looks like poop on it so i un installed it for now )

[guitar.child]

i play it with

AMD 3200+
ATI Radeon x700pro
Giel 1GB(512x2) ram

and this is on full graphics no lag no nothing. this is one amazing game,. i loe the side quest there so fun. you ll have fun with it bye

[leprosy]

now that im on my new computer i installed it again it looks fantastic. im getting ready to create a new character for the 5th time so hopefully this will be my last , ill probably make a custom class.

[butcher]

I heard it takes over 200 hours to beat this? Or maybe just 200 hours worth of play including side stuff.. Anyone beat it yet?

[DaveW]

I'm planning to get a x1900xtx 512MB soon-probably the powercolour or the gigabyte x1900xt with the video in-and the first game i'll buy is oblivion.

-Dave