Zero Punctuation: Oblivion

[fanrock51]

I never play oblivion so i have nothing to say much about this review.


(except one part where he said "200 square yards of medieval english country side..." the picture shows 40000 square yards land or something)

 

[JamesR]

I hate Oblivion, glad you tore it to shreds.

Most Over-rated Game ever.

 

[DistortedRaven]

Ive been waiting ages for him to reveiw this istead of crapy wii and ds games.

 

[Geodancer]

I liked Oblivion, so I thought that I would be quite upset when he began riffing it, but instead I found that any mention of Thief II seems to instill a sense of euphoria within me.

Oblivion was a good game, but it can't quite live up to the legacy that Morrowind left before it.

 

[KBKarma]

Okay, totally wasnt expecting that. Some really good points though. While I disagree with Oblivion playing like its all in the same meadow, since I thought it was a fantastic game too look at landscape wise. Certain points did make sense though. I despised the fast travel, but to be fair, I exercised the magically hidden ability to not use it. The NPC's were pretty god damn annoying and all contained a sparse amount of crappy information you will hear 21367286029846 times before finishing the game. Patrick Stewart and Sean Bean did alright though, since its fucking Patrick Stewart and Sean Bean, for gods sake.

Rock they, yes, yes and, this scramble-speak is excuse speak in.

In Morrowind, you would really feel like an outlander, especially with all the unique creatures and customs. Weird dogs attacking me? Sweet. Wizards grow their towers? Awesome. Varying architecture, TONS of in game literature and lore, et cetera.

In Oblivion, they cut the books down to about two piddling paragraphs and it basically looks like every other fantasy setting I've seen: castles, wolves, et cetera.

Here's the thing: according to Morrowind, Cyrodil should be a jungle, as I recall, not Merrie Olde England.

I miss the longer books. I miss the floating jellyfish. I miss the silt striders. I miss half the things Morrowind had that Oblivion lacked (difficulty slider, par example).

Oblivion made some changes, yes. Some for the better? Maybe. The passive effect of magic on armour was, imo, rather powerful. Learn a spell that granted Chameleon 100%, put it on armour, et voila! Untoucheable.

One of the better changes was with people being able to chase you incredibly far if you trained them, even outside towns. The downside of THIS was the fact that you could no longer drop into a town via jumping off a nearby mountain (they removed the mountains, but still!).

Another was the magic system being easier to use if you're a warrior-type. Just hit a button, and away she goes, as opposed to switching to "magic mode" before being able to do so. Also, shorter magic gesture animations.

Oh, and no cliff racers. That's a definite bonus.

One serious downside, however: the removal of Levitation and the like, which resulted in hilarity for me against nearly any enemy.

Overall, Oblivion was fun. But I enjoyed Morrowind a lot more, despite the bugs.

Though the Dark Brotherhood questline rocked.

 

[GokoWildheart]

I agree with you on the feel of a game. When you get really sucked into a game the floors seem alot smaller and your'll plow on through the game to the end. Oblivion was one of those games no matter how much i tried to love it (and i really did try) It just wouldnt hook me in.

Thanks yahtzee for brighting up another day.. espically today it's just raining kittens.. Damn that english weather XD

 

[vela]

Great review as expected.

 

[Hypersapien]

Great review, as always. I'm playing Oblivion again now and I like it, even though Yahtzee made some good points.

He complained about the repetitive environment, so I'm going to assume he never made it into any of the Oblivion portals.

I was positively surprised that he didn't complain about the leveling system. That would've been far too easy, although I think that breaks the immersion the most.

What are you talking about? The leveling system in the Elder Scrolls games is the best out of any RPG I've ever seen. You increase your various skills by FUCKING USING THEM!

I am saddened that I am yet to finish this game...

Don't be sad. I think that puts you in the majority.

 

[Gregorius]

Let me tell you about immersion. Immersion is when you go for a midnight walk after a weekend marathon of Thief II and catch yourself looking for your visibility gem.

Guilty as charged. XP

There's an old saying, Yahtzee: "If you loved Morrowind, then you'll hate Oblivion."
And quite frankly, that holds true here... well, sort of. I tried Oblivion at a buddy's place and I stood up, smacked him and said "How the fuck can you play this tripe?!" Personally I thought the multi-classing in Morrowind was great because it kept battles interesting, but I tried it this time and got brutally raped by monsters in all orifices, plus a few new ones they made with their razor teeth! And I saw how much you loved the scenery that made you say "I'm pretty sure I've been here before".

Maybe it's because I haven't actually played an Elder Scrolls game in a long time and just suck at it (sarcasm obviously intended, for all you flaming homosexuals*) or the people at Bethesda Softworks crearly tried something new just to piss fans of Morrowind off, but if a man can't fend for his life in this game, then what the fuck is he supposed to do?!

*...he he he, double entendres are funny.

 

[hamster mk 4]

Hilarious review as always. I liked the "If nothing else remember this" image but you forgot to give the if an argument. I know it is a huge nitpick but seeing code that is syntactically incorrect just gets under my skin.
if( nothing() ){
}else{
remember(this);
}
Will compile assuming nothing() returns an int or a bool, you are calling this from a class function, and remember is a valid function that takes the class this is a function of as an argument.
Well I got that piece of nerd rage off my chest, the rest of the review was smashing and I look forward to the planetary alignment that causes you to review a RTS. Maybe even Supreme Commander.

 

[I Mav I]

The only thing i agree with is the samey characters but even that didn't bother me...i still think the game is farking awesome...

 

[Jerakal]

I could never get into this game, one of my brothers acted like it was the goddamn holy grail of videogames but I could never get attached to my character or really feel satisfaction walking around the game world.

This does not give me a lot of hope for Fallout 3.

But as long as they keep the monsters level up with you bullshit out, I suppose they can't fuck it up too badly.

 

[Zetim]

well, the game plays through with more or less in 4 meadows. one tropical rainy meadow, one snowy/hilly meadow, one lush and forested area and one normal meadow. and the re-use of dungeons was really annoying.

 

[Melaisis]

Oh God!

So funny!

He's back on form! Its wonderful! Celebration!

 

[The Sorrow]

Here I was, expecting a Ninja Gaiden II review, and I end up getting the most pleasant surprise in weeks.

I love Oblivion (I even quit WoW to play it more), but I understand his criticisms.

Very well done, Yahtz.

 

[VonBlade]

He complained about the repetitive environment, so I'm going to assume he never made it into any of the Oblivion portals.

Hahaha. Yeah that'll show him. Every single one was a black sludge with loads of lava. Seen one you've seen them all. There is a reason they wouldn't let the journos go into the Oblivion gates, it was to stop them all going "Meh, I coulda guessed it would look like hell".

RUMOURS!

 

[SomeBritishDude]

This is exactly how I felt about oblivion. A friend who's obsested with the game recomended and I've never forgiven him for it. Apsolutely the most boring, unimaginitive game I've ever played. Most RPGs are set in the same old medival england, but at least they bring there own feel to it, something to make it different. Take Fable for instance. The levels looked fantastic and a real feel to them. Take any screenshot of fable and you know what your looking at. But Oblivion was just plain boring, it could been anything from WoW to D&D with all the wierd looking dog men and brightly coloured big boobed girls cut out, replaced by samey looking bad guys and flat chests *sad face*

It reminded me rather of when I tried to read Lord of the Rings. I'd read the hobbit (which I loved) as a kid and I thought I might as well live up to my title as a geek and get started on th rest. But I was just bored by it. Maybe its not tolkens fault, maybe its because every other game/movie/book since has copyed him but it just felt like a boring world with boring charcters where even the most epic fight is a lecture interrupted by spoits of poety. But I could tell it was technichley briliant, even if it didn't draw me in. Thats how oblivion felt. I knew there was a good game there somewhere but I had to fight past coma inducing dialogue and enviroments to get to it.

 

[HomeAliveIn45]

The first time I approached Kvatch, I made the accident of picking up something from a refugee stall. Apparently I hadn't assumed that picking items up counts as stealing punishable by death from a fat ogre woman. Immersion ended there.
I always thought that that game was out to get me, to trip me up somehow....

 

[greyhairdgamer]

i don't agree with you this time Yahtzee (but then who cares what i think) but still funny as fook as always mate.
keep them coming

 

[VMerken]

Touché, and indeed hindsight is always 1:1!