Zero Punctuation: Oblivion

[noelbear]

Given that you utterly loathed Oblivion, I rather hestitate to suggest this, because granted it is a bit like suggesting that you now attempt to copulate with the chainsaw which has just accidentally castrated you, but...

Did you get the chance to play the Shivering Isles expansion set? It's hard to describe how completely different from the original game it is. It's like a door into parallel universe opens and suddenly you are transported to a place where Oblivion doesn't suck (well, in fact, that is exactly what happens, but never mind)

Shivering Isles sports some truly weird and interesting visual design, a coherent and engrossing story line about a mad god badly in need of some lithium, actual things to do which are slightly more exciting than walking from here to there, interesting characters that actually interact with you, quests which are, dare I say, fun to complete like designing and building your own zombie henchman (morningstars or meathooks for hands? I just can't decide), and totally cool new abilities like the ability to change the weather in the whole world anytime you want.

Just a thought, in case those cosmic rays haven't quite worn off.

 

[Cowabungaa]

*claps* Good one, I once got this game for the 360, all pumped up because of all these "It's so amazing!!!" talks I got smacked in my face, but I ended up with a pile of rubbish! It's indeed 1 of the worst immersion experience I éver had. I can remember that this game was renowed by some people for it's incredibly AI and character graphics, but by the Lords of Kobol they suck áss. They don't just stare and talk to you like soul-less drones, but they act retarted as well. An example Yathzee didn't mention, you can just cause havoc in 1 of the many shops, running around on the counter like the local village loony scattering there wares all over the place, but no one gives a damn untill you pick something up. Then they'll cry for help without even looking slightly in distress, not even moving an inch. It's almost scary...
Another thing that totally kills immersion wich Yathzee did not mention, is the combat. Really, I've got a huge glowing sword and when I violently swing it at any random enemy it has the same effect as flinging an inflatable baseball bat at my little brother; it just makes it angry, and you'll just repeat that untill they apperantly get a heartattack.
I can't imagine why any reviewer would give this game a 9+ (see IGN for example).

 

[NezumiiroKitsune]

It's nice to see someone who doesn't seem to think that Oblivion is everything it was hyped up to be. As someone who loved Morrowind to death, this game felt like Bethesda was taking warm shits in my mouth. It was barely even a fucking RPG.

I havent really enjoyed Morrowind so far :\ What Yahtzee suffered with Oblivion, where he feels the game is constantly trying to keep him out of being immersed in the game world, happens with Morrowind for me. I just cant see to give a flying shit about it, I find it horribly too easy to bare, and theres so much reading, its like travelling the world just to read the guide and then meander back home feeling empty, but full of info. Like when relatives come back off holiday, know bugger all about the place, but enjoyed it, apposed to learning every miniscule detail and returning home feeling a bit dejected. I know Morrowind in so many ways is "bigger" than Oblivion, but however many times I go back, Oblivion always seems a thousand times friendlier. I'm a sucker for the STUNNING scenery too Alchemy was one of my favourite skill choices, because wandering through forest was such a joy. Alternatly in Morrowind it was a bit drab. A cross of Morrowind and Oblivion would be great. I missed the unnarmoured skill in Oblivion, good for Barbarian warrior types.

Albeit I never really found any TES challenging since Arena. That as only because the fram rate was awful.

 

[miffywiffy]

You complain about immersion and then you complain the world isn't diverse......... Well the world isn't meant to be diverse it is meant to be a more realistic medieval setting fantasy game based on myths of the time it is set in. it's a small part of the map so take each English country for example and say Oblivion is like Bedfordshire, you don't see a volcano and then a few feet down the road a iceberg now do you? So really it keeps the immersion by doing so.

Also other faults you found with the game happen in all RPG's and the only difference Oblivion has is it's like GTA fantasy instead of the linear progression based most other RPG games are. Don't forget that back in the making of the game it was quite a impressive achievement and well to todays standards some things wouldn't be accepted back then there was more leg room for errors.

The only valid points you said were the dropping items cause I couldn't work out how to first of all... abit of trial and error until I found out how and the people of the streets changing voice halfway through talking to you although this only happened once or twice throughout the whole game.

your other point about fast travel well you don't have to use it, although if the world was amazingly diverse you'd still use it because noone enjoys running from point a to b for 15 mins hense why theres griffins in WOW which let you go make a cup of tea.


I just feel it's a weak review and I loved your past reviews but this one just felt like you had a few drinks and wanted to moan about a game you just didn't gel with.


Oblivion is a fantastic game that fixed all the flaws of the previous Elder Scrolls title and while people will say oh Daggerfall had a giant world.... well it was a giant boring mess where you'd see the same towns over and over again.

 

[SirCannonFodder]

Ok, I'm not sure, but the Marrowind version of the game I had was on Xbox. I don't know if this makes a difference, but if so PLEASE tell me. Because, when I played Marrowind..... IT SUCKED ASS! Seriously! I would get so lost! As soon as you start the game, enemies are too strong pretty much everywhere you go! Nothing ever made sense, usually I'd end up walking mindlessly through the land, not really sure what the hell to do! And every time I thought I found something, it would bring me eventually back to the same damn landscape! Please, somebody tell me what went wrong?!

Morrowind just isn't the right game for you, simple as that.

Anyway, one of the main things I disliked about Oblivion (besides complete lack of voice acting variety, the levelling, and the other points raised in the review) was how it pretty much took everything every previous game had said about Cyrodiil, and completely ignored it. Jungle? What jungle? Nope, it's *always* had a temperate climate. What about the news that there's mass unrest due to the emperor being on his death bed from illness and his sons being complete buffoons, with the empire's future looking bleak? Nope, everybody loves the empire, and everything was going absolutely fine before the daedra showed up. Racial tensions between the Nibenay and Colovian Cyrodiils? Nope, and I've never even heard of those two groups.

Or how about the fact that the whole basis of the Daedric invasion is that the bloodline is broken, when the bloodline was broken multiple times in the past with no repercussions whatsoever?

 

[ShwStppnActr]

Immersion is driving on the highway after watching the Transformers movie and waiting for all the cars to transform.

Immersion is walking down the street one night and wondering where you can shoot your portals so that you can get up the street faster.

 

[Hoodoo]

Oblivion blows ropy goat chunks. This review was too kind.

 

[Giddi]

I have Morrowind on the good ol' Xbox, and after playing it for a little over a week I realised my choice of species was really, really bad and that if I was to get anywhere I needed to start all over again... at which point I said "bugger that" and went back to Beyond Good and Evil.

The controls were difficult, the graphics horrible, every now and then my protagonist friend would get stuck trying to walk over rocks, and I had the feeling the map was so large because the whole point of the game was some sort of mundane treasure hunt where every new section has one hidden item or cave and you are expected to find it.

I think overall they needed a service pack which re-injected the "fun" they forgot to include when they released it /

p.s. Anybody want a copy of Morrowind? P

 

[FLWD2L8]

I was wondering when he would get around to reviewing this one ...
But for the sake of not getting killed ...
Im going to say that its JUST funny ...
*cough* AWESOME *cough*
Never saw the hype about this game in the first place ...
It really does try to hard ... For 360 and PC ...
But then again i kinda went off fantasy RPG's around the time
I could actually run around my local DnD and beat the absolute merciless crap out of everyone else (while they were doing the same mind you ^_^)

 

[Random Argument Man]

What I hated in Oblivion was the main quest. At first its fun, but later it gets worst.

I also hated the lack of guilds...Only 4. In Morrowind you had Fighters,Thieves,Mage, Morag Tong (Assasin) (I liked the contract that permitted you to kill someone), 3 House, Legion and others (If I forgetted some). Also what I liked about Morrowind is some guild had conflict. ( cant complete fighters and thieves.)

What I liked about Oblivion its easier to fight than Morrowind. And the Arena is more lively

All other complaint are already said by Yahtzee

 

[Vicioussama]

I agree with Oblivion, it's fun, the story is cool, but the environment looks alike all over the place and what really pissed me off is that every monster was just a humanoid pretty much. And not just humanoid but just felt the same to me.

I really wonder what you'd say about the Gothic Series. Personally I like the Gothic series far more than Elder Scrolls. Gothic 3 (after finally being fixed with some patches lol...) is a beautiful world, unique places, great story, free choices on how to progress the story. Good times.

 

[media]

Great review as always, but you need to do an actual review of WoW. You have talked about it twice or so BUT NEVER DID A WHOLE REVIEW ON IT! GOgogo!

Or hit up BF2, old game but a great one.

 

[clairedelune]

I think you skipped a lot of the game here, it allowed you to do pretty much whatever you wanted (I always found myself becoming a member of that underground murder society.. interesting). However I agree 100% with the whole huge map yet pointless map because of the teleportation thing and how everything looks exactly the same. Pretty funny in all and you nailed the bad points.

 

[MaxRaine]

I tried playing Oblivion once because everyone kept telling me it was the next best thing after sliced bread, which I don't really see the point of in the first place...

I tried so hard to find reasons not to quit and uninstall the crap but in the end it failed. I wasn't too shocked though since Morrowwind had the same result for me. After those I've also tried out Two Worlds and come to the realization that western first person fantasy RPGs aren't really for me.

That said, I did enjoy Hellgate: London, much because of the Hilarious characters, like Lucious Aldin and Techsmith 314 =D Not that I played that in first person much...

I'm kinda afraid of what Bethesda might have done to Fallout 3...

 

[gasto]

Oblivion... man I am missing too many games.

 

[Therumancer]

Well I tend to disagree with a bit of what Yahtzee said, but then again I'm a huge RPG fan and really liked other games he's blasted like "The Witcher" (which doesn't prevent me from finding him funny).

I thought the immersion was pretty good. Sure there are plenty of backround NPCs, but then again they are just that: backround. A lot of the important ones were pretty well done, like the guys in the Arena, or (paticularly) the Dark Brotherhood quest lines. Not to mention some of the performances in "Shivering Isles" which were pretty amazing, especially our buddy the God Of Madness.

I think the problem with Yahtzee and RPGs is that he just doesn't have the patience for them. Plus writing a review column where he needs to check out a new game a week (at least) I'm guessing he doesn't have a lot of time to actually sit down and let things develop. But then again he more or less admits he has the attention span of an ADD afflicted gerbil gasping it's last after a cruel child overdoses it with speed and LSD just to see what will happen. Hence the comments at the beginning about shooters.

That said, as fans of Oblivion can tell you, it takes place in one province of the world so you have to expect it to look similar. It's not like it would make sense for like deserts and Tundras to be that close together. Plus while a lot of backround stuff is repetitive there are some neat backstories if you read the books, and some cool quests that involve investigating hauntings and such. I especially liked that bit with buying the haunted mansion in Anvil.

 

[andsoitgoes]

my god, I nearly danced in glee. I got this game expecting it to be the best thing since sliced bread (I didn't get much into it during the demo I played on the PC) - SO I got it, I sat down and I really went whole hog into it.

If I see another FAKE zoom on the SAME face of the SAME NPC in the SAME situation say the SAME thing to me for the 5 BABILLIONTH TIME, my head will explode.

I had no ability to get "immersed" in the game, every time I went to have a conversation, it would lose me and I wanted to toss down my controller and jump off a cliff. The expressions, the everything irritated me to no end.

Sigh.

I still need to sell my copy