Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Discussion Thread - Page 2

Damn, I didn't pre-order, and that looks like the only way to get it today. Still might give it a shot though, somebody may have gotten anxious.

I pre-ordered at a brick-and-mortar Gamestop, but haven't heard from them yet. I may call this afternoon to check.

My Gamestop still says tomorrow. I checked with EB just out of curiosity and they said they are expecting it today, but can't sell until tomorrow.

From what I've been reading, it doesn't have a street date, just a ship date. So maybe the stores are just getting confused.

Looks like tomorrow for me, from Gamestop.

I'm thinking shops that get it in today may be getting it too late to get in the system then sell....after all, it was just shipped today. Places close to the point of origin would get them early enough to seel, the rest of us have a day or two wait.

Over at TXB, a guy is claiming he bought a retail copy earlier. He's provided this gamercard as proof:

http://live.xbox.com/en-US/profile/p...g=postmortemxl

Might not mean anything to most of us, as stores could vary wildly on this. But if you have your heart set on playing it today, there may be hope yet.

http://www.elderscrolls.com/forums/i...owtopic=271579

This guy seems quite legitimate with his ownership, and what he says makes me want the game more.

OMG...I want it now. Being at work sucks. Chances are I won't find it for a few days anyways. Better finish GRAW in the meantime.

I'm waiting for some PC reviews to see just what sort of specs are needed just to make it run. Sure the specs are out there, but I want some hands-on views.

A heads-up for you pc users with an Nvidia card: new Forceware drivers will be released this Wednesday specifically optimized for Oblivion.

Thanks, Masked Muppet. I was hoping this game would be a starting off point for total noobs like me (to this world, of course).

Just curious, I have both an Xbox 360 and PC - I am torn which way to go. Of course, the PC should have the best graphics overall, but I can play this with my Xbox on a 46" TV screen. Which way will all of you go?

I'd play the 360. It's easier, in general, and the difference in graphics isn't likely to be huge.

(I haven't seen the game on anything but a super high end rig -- for most people the 360 will probably look better.)

Thanks, Jacob! I always forget to update the drivers prior to beginning a new game.

Hey guys,
I got the game yesterday and played through it a bit. I still haven't closed my first Oblivion gate, but that's because I like to explore. Its also 7:05 in the morning here and I'm just now getting off to bed. Take that for what you will. First impressions. Sometimes the load screens come up often while riding the horse at full speed. Never loading for more than 2 seconds, though. Load times between areas never more than 20 seconds, unless you're loading your game. The environments look amazing. I guess the 360 handles HDR and anti-aliasing, but the CP version can only do one or the other. The quests really pull you in. Its not the usual Fed-Ex quests like Morrowind. I heard alot about how breath-taking it is when you first step out of the sewers in the beginning, but unfortunately I stepped out at night and things weren't as pretty as they could have been. In the daytime, though, the game is gorgeous. The game is pretty much Morrowind on steroids, which is definitely a good thing. So much has been improved and the things that haven't aren't that bad. Like loading or half-broken quests. The physics engine had me giggling all night. The rubbery rag doll physics are awesome. Nothing is as cool as having a goblin charging at you, blasting him with a fireball, and watching him launch 7 feet straight up and then come down on his head. I'm not a big fan of Star Trek or the X-Men movies, but Patrick Stewart nails his character. His voice acting is some of the best I've heard, anywhere. There is some pop-in, but if you're an Elder Scrolls fan than you've put up with Morrowind so you can put up with anything. Don't let the hype dissapoint you. This game isn't flawless, but its still close to, if not the best 360 experience you can buy, and I've only played the game for 7 hours.

I'm contemplating going to bed now so that I can wake up earlier to play the game, or just jumping back into it now and finally closing that Oblivion Gate.

Oh, and V.T.

Unless you're computer has a new 7800 card and some killer specs, go with the 360 version. My buddy, who is a total PC snob, was over watching it and he is getting the game and was dissapointed, after seeing it on my roommate's 56" HDTV, that he would have to play it on his monitor. He hates consoles but gave this game a lot of credit and he says the worst thing about the transition from TV to monitor is that you'll lose the widescreen. So go with the 360 if you've got the widescreen HD set-up. The game is beautiful in 720p.

One thing for the PC version, I think, is that it has a level editor, where the 360 version doesn't. If that matters to you, verify it before you decide.

I don't have a 360 and do have a 7800 card (new computer in January....64x dual core, too), so I'm getting the PC version.

My computer matches the minimum specs, I'm wondering what kind of experience that'll give me.

According to folks posting on the Elder Scroll boards, just fine.

Picked mine up at lunch today...they didn't skimp on the collector's edition. PC version comes in a nice fold-out DVD case, the coin is actual metal and has weight, and the pocket guide to the empire is bound in vinyl faux-leather (as opposed to cardstock). Not shabby at all.

Sold!

If you own a 360 and even remotely enjoyed Morrowind, do yourself a favor and buy this right now. I picked it up last night and to say that it's amazing would be a gross understatement. This is definitely worth the wait and I couldn't recommend it highly enough.

The only way this game could be better is if it were hand delivered to me by a nude Scarlett Johanssen carrying a six pack of Corona in one hand and a huge Chong sized doobie in the other.

But it is torture sitting here at work when I could be home playing it. Hell, I don't even have an HDTV and it's beyond gorgeous.

I might aswell cancel World of Warcraft.

The menus are confusing, I hope the tutorial (I only played for about an hour, and half that was character creation) explains them a bit. I'm also a little unsure about weapon/armor equipping, and what crap I should keep/toss.

Yes! Reserved the final copy at EB. Picking it up in about 4 hours. I should probably trade in the 9 or 10 games I have for 360 since I'll probably never have time to play them again.

I'll end up finishing GRAW in 2009 at this rate. Damn.

One of the best "tutorial" levels ever, and a very subtle character creation system.

For you PC users out there, I have a 1.8 Ghz processor with 1 gig of RAM and a 512 mb ATI 9550 video card. The game auto detected it for a low setting, and I upped the resolution to 1024x768, and while it's not anywhere close to the screenshots, the gameplay so far more than makes up for a lack of top of the line graphics (and the graphics do not suck on my system by any stretch, they're just not what a faster paced rig could do). There was some slowdown during the character customization process (the cursor moved very slowly across the screen), but in gameplay everything moves smoothly.

When I said I reserved the last copy I should've mentioned I'm a complete liar. I forgot that when you call at 2:30pm to reserve something for 7pm it means you were just calling to say, "Hello, please ignore me."

Fuck EB. I need a Canadian Head Office number and a free game.

I know the feeling Mali.

This game is just awesome.

Soooo pretty.....I already got busted for horse thievery. Those bastard guards. And my compulsion for stealing everything that isn't nailed down has abated only slightly.

Not exactly their fault, but my pre-order was misplaced by UPS. Could've had the bastard at noon today. UPS is just a shoddy carrier - can't say that enough.

I was debating on whether to get the pc/360 version. After realizing I never used much of the Construction kit and internet mods I settled on the 360 version. That and my hdtv is a lot bigger than my 21" monitor.

Oh but it was their fault. They had it. I called. They put it aside. They sold it. Fuck `em.

The amount of sliders on the face ...insane.

As mentioned, the character creation is brilliant. Basically, you pick race and your sex/face before play, then you play the tutorial (which is a major part of the plot setup) for a while. At one point, someone asks you what star you were born under, and then you get to choose that. Later, someone guesses what your profession is, and you get to choose (including making up your own classes if you wish).

VERY well done.

I've missed how to switch to 3rd person view in the PC version, anyone know?

Anyone else having problems with the pc version crashing all the time?

Scroll your middle mouse button towards you and you can set the 3rd person view as far back as you want.

But in 3rd person view the cursor is gone, and it has too much functionality for me to abandon it except for the occasional look at my character to check out the armor detail. Plus it's easier on my rig not to have to render my character along with everything else.

Edited to add: Brian, I played for two or three hours yesterday with no crashes.

I get so distracted in this game. I love it. "Oooh, start the main quest. Wait, gotta sell shit. Oooh, Mage's Guild! I'll join. Quest. Fighters Guild! Say, a dungeon. Awesome! I just killed a necromancer! Horsie! Another dungeon? Don't mind if I do. I need mutton. A sheep! Fireball!"

Got the 360 flavor and the HUGE player guide book. Loved that opening dungeon crawl. Love that racial bonuses and class bonuses don't cancel each other out (thieves can wear heavy armor, for instance, if their race supports it, with no penalties). Love the look of everything so far. Love about half of the voice acting I've heard so far. Hate the other half (it's REALLY obvious when some of the poorer talents are voicing multiple characters). Load times are not too obtrusive. Love just wandering the countryside. Love the instant travel feature.

Basically I love it. Between this, Fight Night, GRAW, and Blazing Angels, I'm a happy 360 camper.

Hehe, exactly! Perfect summation.

Brian, try these (you might already have, but hey):
Defrag you machine.
Check your drivers and Direct X version
Make sure you're not running anything in the background, like a virus checker that kicks in.
Check and make sure your memory is ok, and that the video card isn't overheating (check your fans, too, while you're at it. If one of them failed, you might be pushing your hardware with the game, and then POOF)

Heh, I installed the game last night and *poof*, 2.5 hours gone in the blink of an eye. I never even got around to installing the extra gig of RAM I bought that night. Very fun, and so much to learn just about character control and navigating the menus and the Persuasion mini-game and etc. Hell, I didn't even know there was a 'grab' key.

The trees are amazing, being able to see cities waaaaay in the distance, mountains that are actual mountains, great looking (if slightly plastic-sheened) dungeons, great enemy monster models/skins, and on and on and on. A visual feast... however... all the screens I've seen, and all the stuff I've seen so far in-game, makes me worry that the game is going to skew visually toward 'standard fantasy' and away from all the amazingly unique art direction in Morrowind. I'll be really disappointed if that's how it ends up.

The combat improvements TOTALLY ROCK, though. Blocking... hell yes. I love that if you rile something up while deep in a dungeon and then run away, it'll still be chasing you when you think you've escaped out into the open air. Wolf blood on the snow. Creatures that look like they're actually walking on the ground and not flat-footedly floating above it. Zombies!

Performance on my very-much mid range (2.8 GHz, .5 Gb, x800) system is surprisingly great. I'm worried that the fact that the recommended system specs on the box *actually run the game* might mean the end of all life as we know it.

Popups and all, so far a really great game.

Question about the sneaking. When you sneak, do you have to be in third person for the "eye" icon to tell you how visible you are, or is that icon there in first person as well?

From what I've seen, the special cursors only seem to appear when you're in first person mode.

Linky to the drivers I mentioned earlier:

http://ve3d.ign.com/articles/697/697679p1.html

The "detection eye" comes up in both modes on 360. Wouldn't think it'd be any different for PC.

Joined the Thief & Fighter guilds, and got hooked up with some Brotherhood of Darkness (something like that, they gave me some cool armor for joining) crew. I've played for hours (having a hard time NOT playing) and done exactly one thing for the main quest.

The quest event icons make things so much more fun than Morrowind. I remember looking at my quest list for that game and just going "nope, not going to do most of those" simply because I had no idea where to go and half the time couldn't even find the person who sent me on the quest to begin with.

I mentioned earlier that I thought the menus were confusing, I've actually discovered that the menus are fine and I'm just really stupid.

Where the hell is the Thieve's Guild? I think I must be Oblivion's Most Noble Thief -- I never steal from the undeserving. Guess that's why I'm broke all the time.

And can I just say this now? FUCK PAINTED TROLLS!!!! (You'll know 'em when you see 'em...)

Some elf lady just walked up to me and and gave me a secret note that I had to bring to a garden outside the city at midnight. When I got there I met the guild leader and had to win a little stealing contest to join up.

***edit***

I think the lady approaching me is linked up with me getting thrown in jail. Before she gave me the note I hadn't heard anything about the guild from anyone yet. She approached me in a town to the far West, don't recall the name.

spent nearly an hour wandering around like a retard for the guilds. I know where to join for the mage & fighter guilds...haven't killed anyone to qualify for the dark brotherhood.

So far, thieving is taking up all my time. Still figuring out the art of lockpicking. It's kind of a high to break into a dude's place at night, loot the few high priced items, and then sell the stuff off for some piles of coin. What I really need to do is just follow some of the npc's around and lift their house keys from them in the daytime (or night). Save me the trouble of getting in.

Now I'm further south in Leyawin. My thieving has gotten derailed by a she-Orc and some other things I'm trying to wrap my head around - narratively speaking.

My character is a Breton sword/magic user. Haven't exactly been faithful to that class so far though. But that's ok...

Where did you find a mage guild? I've had 50 people talk about it, not one gave any indication as to a location though.

PC help please. I installed the game and it plays great, however everytime I exit the game my pc crashes. I decided to try and reinstall it but i get an error message everytime i click uninstall. Any ideas?

Otis, there's a Mage's Guild in every main town. In fact, you have to acomplish a quest with each of them to be allowed into the Arcane Univ. As for joining the Thieve's Guild, steal a small bauble and get caught. Spend the night in jail. some time after, someone will bring you a note, explaining what to do next. That, or bribe/persuade the shit out of some beggars. I've just been spazzing out, doing a quest here, raiding a dungeon there, talking to everyone in a town looking for quests, looting the shit out the Mage and Fighter's Guild halls. I'm having a blast. I went with a custom class that let's me be a battlemage with light armor, alchemy for potions and alteration to open locks. It's working out rather well.

There was this one bar at the west gate of Leyawiin. A fighters guild member was leaving and told me where to find the guild locations. Mediumdave gave a better useful answer.

Sorry for not answering your question. I saw you asked maybe 6 minutes after my post. By then I just hit the sack after having played all night and into the afternoon....just an engrossing game.

I wonder if Oblivion will be the kind of game you read about in the papers when a story pops up about some dumbass gamer forgoing food, sleep, bathroom breaks - and just collapsing of exhaustion.