[360] Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

[Abulia]

Woot! Just 48 hours to go! :D

I was an old school player of TES:Arena and Daggerfall back in the day; I'm real excited for Oblivion on the 360! Who else will have it on launch day?

I was very surprised with the amount of gameplay that Oblivion offers and voice dialog that the entire game fits on one DVD (DVD-9)disc! (Bah, who needs Blu-Ray?) :D

Edit: Oh yea, Xbox Magazine reviewed the game already (a 42+ hour gaming binge) and gave it a 9.5.

[rjgonzales]

I'll have it on day one as well, but I'll admit I'm new to the Elder Scrolls series. I haven't played a game on the 360 that has blown me away yet(Call of Duty 2 has come closest)..... I'm hoping this is the one. The selling of my 360 will probably depend on this game.

[clayj]

I'm thinking I'm gonna pass on this one... between GRAW and Burnout Revenge and Blazing Angels (also out this week), I've got more than enough Xbox 360 games to keep me occupied for now. ;)

[MacRumorUser]

So far this month I've bought, GRAW, The Outfit & Burnout Revenge...

Will pick up my special collectors edition of Elder Scrolls this week and next week I have FarCry & Blazing Angels.......... What a month :D

[Abulia]

I'll have it on day one as well, but I'll admit I'm new to the Elder Scrolls series. I haven't played a game on the 360 that has blown me away yet(Call of Duty 2 has come closest)..... I'm hoping this is the one. The selling of my 360 will probably depend on this game.Try Fight Night Round 3, even if you don't like boxing at all (like me). It's amazing and very next-gen!

So far I've resisted the magic that is GRAW. It's on my Gamefly queue, though!

MacRumorUser, start a thread on The Outfit. I played the demo and it was horrible. Please tell me the game is better than the demo.

[Abulia]

I'm thinking I'm gonna pass on this one... between GRAW and Burnout Revenge and Blazing Angels (also out this week), I've got more than enough Xbox 360 games to keep me occupied for now. ;)Good news, Blazing Angels is delayed (so I heard) -- so get Oblivion! :D

Edit: Or not! Appears that BA went gold. Get it anyway, clayj!

[wwooden]

Try Fight Night Round 3, even if you don't like boxing at all (like me). It's amazing and very next-gen!

So far I've resisted the magic that is GRAW. It's on my Gamefly queue, though!

MacRumorUser, start a thread on The Outfit. I played the demo and it was horrible. Please tell me the game is better than the demo.

The Outfit doesn't "look" net-Gen, but my roommates and I have a great time playing the demo against each other. I might eventually get it, but only when it goes onsale and is a used game. I rented GRAW from gamefly just to make sure I liked it as I didn't take to the original on the XBox, but this version is awesome, will be buying it soon.

As for Elder Scrolls, I never really get into RPGs. Maybe this is different, but I always fall into first-person-shooters and racers. I hope they have a demo for this game on the marketplace, I would be willing to give it a shot.

[Abulia]

Early reports are coming out from those that broke the street date...mostly much drooling and people passing out from the awesomness that is Oblivion.

The strategy guide is 368 pages! :eek:

[calebjohnston]

I'm not sure a game can get much better than morrowind. That game just recreated the whole idea of modern RPG's.

[Sutekidane]

I'm not sure a game can get much better than morrowind. That game just recreated the whole idea of modern RPG's.

If its like the last one, I'll be asleep before the intro is over. Though I may be biased, since I hate first person by default RPGs.

[JDOG_]

I'm thinking I'm gonna pass on this one... between GRAW and Burnout Revenge and Blazing Angels (also out this week), I've got more than enough Xbox 360 games to keep me occupied for now. ;)

Agreed. And in addition to that, I hardly have the free time for a 80-100+ hour adventure...although I wish I did.

[Abulia]

Picked it up today along with the strat guide. Unfortunately I'm trapped at work. :(

After just reading through, the depth of this game is, in a word, amazing. Going to have to find new adjectives to describe Oblivion, I fear. It's entirely open-ended character design so you can be whatever you want. The main storyline looks interesting, but it's the ability to roam the entire dynamic world and interact with its people that's the most amazing thing. There are so many quests and things for you to find (browsing through the strat guide) that it in some ways defies comprehension.

Of course, the proof is in the execution so I'll have to wait until later to see how Oblivion plays.

[thechris69]

So far this month I've bought, GRAW, The Outfit & Burnout Revenge...

Will pick up my special collectors edition of Elder Scrolls this week and next week I have FarCry & Blazing Angels.......... What a month :D

Make a thread when you get Far Cry, im dieing to know how good that game is on the 360, far cry instincts blew me away and that was for xbox, i cant imagine what its like for 360

[MacRumorUser]

Make a thread when you get Far Cry, im dieing to know how good that game is on the 360, far cry instincts blew me away and that was for xbox, i cant imagine what its like for 360

Will do!!! ;)


Not fair Don.. 3 day's before I'll get my copy... I want it now.... (he say's in a cartman type wine).... :D

One thing i must say, is the release dates between US & Europe have really improved with this generation of games, hardly any difference at all. Long may it continue.

Noticed things like cinema releases are getting closer too, which makes you wonder why we still have regions. The main reason I believe they introduced region coding was to stagger release dates, especially since things like film releses used to have a 6 - 10 month headstart in the states.. now this has changed to a week or two in a lot of cases is there any real point to keeping region coding..

Especially as cinema's become digitally distributed, no longer having to share reels of film (one of the main reason why europe releases came after the states is that they only make so many copies. once theyve finished showing them in the states they shipped them over here...)

Ireland out of interest will be the first country in the world to have all it's cinema's go digital.


Even a lot of xbox 360 games have been released region free, so obviously a lot of developers don't think so. I for one will be glad to see the back of them.

[takao]

for the german xbox360 gamers who want to play the game do yourself a favour and import the UK version
according to gamestar magazine the german retail release (which can't be switched over to english) is filled with bad translations in dialogs, texts and item names because it it was made in house and not out side like with the speech (which is reviewed as extremly fine and without errors)

link in german:
http://www.gamestar.de/news/pc-spiele/rollenspiele/32322/index.html

some highlights:
"Schw. Tr. d. Le.en.-W." .. should mean "weak healing potion":
dates sounding horrible wrong "27th of Letzter Samen" (which means "27th of last semen" on top of being grammatical incorrect)
first healing spell called "Feuerball" ("fireball")
in the explanation of "intelligence" it displays "constitution/stamina"

and control explanations sounding "Denglish" at best
- "Drückt der rechten Bumper" "Press the right bumper(?)" including 3 wrong cases
- "Wollt ihr den Zauber wechseln, drückt drücken" "want to switch the spell, press press(ing)"
- To ready your weapon or fists. drücken: (sentence half english and

some might think that with those huge budgets they can afford somebody doing professional translations.. it's Civ2 all over again.. except that in civ2 it was editable by the user himself and switchable to english

[Abulia]

Well, I got to play last night for 6 hours. :D

Words fail me to describe this game. I'm trying to find a way to ditch work to play some more. ;)

This is, without a doubt, the greatest RPG ever made. It's nearly perfect in every aspect. You LIVE in a virtual world. There's no other way to describe the total open-endness of the game and the degree of freedom given to you.

I am in awe as to what they were able to do with this game. Obviously, in high definition, it looks great, but its the total gameplay experience that's a real joy. The controls are so easy and intuitive to use that you're moving about in the starter dungeon inside 20 minutes totally comfortable.

For those that didn't get the game, you're probably wise; this game OWNS you. I've no desire to play anything else on my 360 now that I have Oblivion!

Unless the wheels totally fall off this wagon, Oblivion will likely go down in history as one of the greatest games ever made. It's worth buying a 360 to play Oblivion (if you don't have a monster PC).

I'd be happy to go into more detail for people but, in all honesty, I've no idea where to start. :) The combat? Character creation? Walking to any point on the screen that you can see? Stealing? Exploration? The jaw-dropping visuals? The incredible music and ambient sounds? :eek:

Gah! Must. Play. Oblivion! :D

[Abulia]

Finished a 12 hour straight stint just now. I'm tired. :)

But it was soooooo worth it. Oblivion is incredible. The funny thing is that I've being doing all these side quests and dungeon delving because they're fun -- also a big thieving stint -- and have barely touched the main plot.

[Malcster]

But it was soooooo worth it. Oblivion is incredible. The funny thing is that I've being doing all these side quests and dungeon delving because they're fun -- also a big thieving stint -- and have barely touched the main plot.

Oooh, excited now! :D not out here until Friday, shall have to pick it up.

Incidentally, found this solution if anyone is having any loading delays with it, known issue for some 360's apparently.

http://www.elderscrolls.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=273721

[SilentPanda]

I've got about 6 hours on Oblivion and am following the path of the Assassin. So far the guards aren't aware of my "evil-doings" and if they ever get wise to it I guess they'll have to die too!

I thought it was kinda funny that during the "tutorial" level both myself and my roommate got picked to be Bards. Of you can choose whatever you want but that was the recommended class. I think it's mostly to do with the fact that we both followed the tutorial. If you really want them to pick a class for you, do the tutorial level then restart and play the tutorial level how you would play it. I did so and got picked as an assassin which is what I wanted to be anyway.

Overall I enjoy the game. I haven't done any of the main quest line outside of the tutorial level at this point. I have about 6 hours on this character, I'm level 5, the 2nd rank in the Dark Brotherhood... fun stuff.

While fast travel is available I would recommend walking/running/horse riding to new destinations at least once. There is much to discover between point A and B and once you've travelled the road once you can fast travel to places you've discovered along the way if need be.

If anybody needs assistance joining the Thieves Guild or the Dark Brotherhood, shoot me a PM... but only if you REALLY need help. Half the fun of joining the "underground" guilds is finding them. ;)

[Bubbasteve]

If anybody needs assistance joining the Thieves Guild or the Dark Brotherhood, shoot me a PM... but only if you REALLY need help. Half the fun of joining the "underground" guilds is finding them. ;)
Now this might be an ignorant question (actually it is). But are you suggesting this game is like WOW in that it's a MMORPG? or like can one person on XBL help me out on my quest...

I'm sorry about the wording but if this is the case this game has just been knocked up 4 points on my "Awesome" scale.

[SilentPanda]

Now this might be an ignorant question (actually it is). But are you suggesting this game is like WOW in that it's a MMORPG? or like can one person on XBL help me out on my quest...

I'm sorry about the wording but if this is the case this game has just been knocked up 4 points on my "Awesome" scale.

No. It's not an MMORPG at all. In the Elder Scrolls games there have typically been "guilds" that you join. Not in the MMORPG sense but more in a classical sense of "he's in the miners guild" or "he's in the cobblers guild". There are (from what I can see on the XBox 360 achievements list) 5 total guilds; fighters, mages, thieves, dark brotherhood, and arena. I'm assuming the Arena is somewhat of a "Gladiator" type guild. The fighters are the warrior types, the mages for the caster types, thieves for those of thievery, and the dark brotherhood that of the assassin types.

The fighters, mages, and arena guilds are legal so they're public whereas the thieves and dark brotherhood are of course illegal... therefore they take a bit of poking around to find. I found both of them on my own accord but for some people it might be difficult and as there are very few FAQs out aside from the Game Guide at the stores, I figured people could send me a PM if they really were stuck. However I think you should go about finding it as that is more fun... :)

[Abulia]

Overall I enjoy the game. I haven't done any of the main quest line outside of the tutorial level at this point. I have about 6 hours on this character, I'm level 5, the 2nd rank in the Dark Brotherhood... fun stuff.I'm also level 5 and rank 5 in the thieves but haven't joined the DB...mostly because I can't find anyone I can easily kill!

Everytime I sneak into someone's home and wack them when they sleep, they get up and raise the guards. Do I just need to suck it up and go to jail for my crime? I wanted to join the DB but without getting caught. Is this a pipe dream?

Oh, and I'm at work today, sooooo tired from lack of sleep and playing Oblivion and the only thing that we at work are talking about is, you guessed it, Oblivion! :D

I can't wait to get home tonight.

Oh, and purchase the strategy guide. You can skip the spoilers and walkthroughs, but the guide is really helpful in making the game more enjoyable, providing maps, etc.

[SilentPanda]

I'm also level 5 and rank 5 in the thieves but haven't joined the DB...mostly because I can't find anyone I can easily kill!

Everytime I sneak into someone's home and wack them when they sleep, they get up and raise the guards. Do I just need to suck it up and go to jail for my crime? I wanted to join the DB but without getting caught. Is this a pipe dream?

Oh, and I'm at work today, sooooo tired from lack of sleep and playing Oblivion and the only thing that we at work are talking about is, you guessed it, Oblivion! :D

I can't wait to get home tonight.

Oh, and purchase the strategy guide. You can skip the spoilers and walkthroughs, but the guide is really helpful in making the game more enjoyable, providing maps, etc.

Can you be in the thieves guild and the DB at the same time? I never really figured that out. Seems odd to be in all 5 guilds at once.

My first kill was... okay I'm at work... there is a bridge leading from the Imperial City heading west that is north of the Waterfront. On the west side of the bridge there is a small village. There is only an inn and a house. My first kill was the guy in that house. He took one stealth hit and 1 normal hit while he was asleep. He had no time to run.

Thus far I've assassinated at least 5 or 6 people and have yet to be caught for any of my actions. Every time I commit an offense I even run up to a guard just to double check... so far so good... I'm a sneaky little guy... ;)

I don't have the strategy guide though. I like to try to figure it out and find everything on my own. If I follow the strategy guide I might as well watch a movie.

[Abulia]

Doh! I hadn't even thought of finding a village beyond the guards!

To my understanding, you can be a member of as many different guilds/factions as you'd like. Guess I'll find out tonight. :)

Off to find a victim... ;)

I'm the "Grinch of Thieves"; when I rob a house I take EVERYTHING. In fact, on some nights I raid the house twice because I can't carry all the loot! I hit the fence, sell the items, then head back and clean them out. Yet to be caught as a thief.

[SilentPanda]

There is a guard near that village. Sometimes he is in the inn and other times he is patrolling around... but at your level you should be able to 2-shot the sleeping person no problem... barely time for a yelp. Killing people in big towns is harder since if they have decent enough health they'll sometimes run and go outside... then yer done for.

I was going to "clean house" at these places but most of the stuff isn't worth anything anyway... plus... my job is to kill without questioning... not to pick throught the leftovers... ;)

[dubbz]

Oblivion = Single Player "MMORPG", in a way.

Played it for a few hours. Graphics was very nice, music was nice too (but it's like I've heard it all before), PATRICK STEWART, sound effects were nice, character creation system was interesting... I spent a lot time there.

Undecided how I feel about it yet. Not quite ready to proclaim it Best Game Ever (or even Best RPG Ever). We'll see...

[Haoshiro]

I've heard Oblivion has a very bad frame rate, very choppy, etc... to the owners... is this true?

[raggedjimmi]

Not sure if it's what anyone here wants to hear. But I had a play on my mates Oblivion yesterday. I wasn't overly impressed, but I was repulsed by the jumpy framerates. I might have another go on it, but the choppy rates (which don't seem as apparent in 480p) and the immense load times are stopping me from playing this.

Is this also out on the PC? I might give that a go when I get my new graphics card.

But yes to Haoshiro. The graphics annoyed me more than anything.

[takao]

Is this also out on the PC? I might give that a go when I get my new graphics card.


yes both version got released at the same time (the pc version is 15 bucks cheaper though)
i'm going to wait untill i hear some friend reviews and it drops in price

[Abulia]

Not sure if it's what anyone here wants to hear. But I had a play on my mates Oblivion yesterday. I wasn't overly impressed, but I was repulsed by the jumpy framerates. I might have another go on it, but the choppy rates (which don't seem as apparent in 480p) and the immense load times are stopping me from playing this.

Is this also out on the PC? I might give that a go when I get my new graphics card.

But yes to Haoshiro. The graphics annoyed me more than anything.On the 360? Because on my 360 at 1080i Oblivion is silky smooth.

Also, I don't know what you mean by "immense load times"; the longest load time that I've had is 20 seconds.

I suggest your friend Google the solution to clearing (resetting) Oblivion's hard drive cache. This apparently solves any stuttering/loading issues. Does his 360 have a hard drive?

In short your experience is nothing like my own.

[Abulia]

Rather than gush about how much fun I'm having in Oblivion, I thought it might be fun to give you a taste of gameplay from last night. My character is a wood elf with a mostly stealth/magic mix, although I have the Blades skill as a primary skill along with Light Armor. I can hold my own in a fight but not for long going toe-to-toe; I specialize in Sneak and sneak attacks with my sword or bow.

Anyhow, I loaded my save game in the Imperial City….

Ever since I escaped from the sewers just outside the Imperial City, I wanted to explore the ruins across the river. There was a small bandit camp and a shrine on top of hill, but just to the side of the hill a dungeon entrance. I explored it once before -- as a young newbie -- but was quickly deterred by the beatings I received from additional bandits. Flush with courage from hitting level 7, I vowed to enter once again.

Using quick travel, I was there in 15 seconds. The camp was just the way I left it, with the two bandit bodies still up front. I used the shrine to up my magicka and headed in. I quickly made it to the furthest point that I got last time and entered Sneak mode. Using my night vision spell, the entire world turned into a hue of blue as I made my way down the stair with perfect clarity. I was, of course, near invisible in the darkness. Unfortunately the night vision only lasts 15 seconds, so I find myself casting it very frequently.

Down the stairs I spied a bandit standing watch. Pulling out my bow, I draw back on the string and let loose an arrow. The arrow strikes as a sneak attack, doing X3 damage! Drawing back again, I let loose another shot as the bandit draws his own sword. Unfortunately a second bandit starts running up the stairs; I didn't use my detect life to see if anyone else was about!

I pop out of Sneak mode (to move and swing faster) and select my melee weapon, a magical katana. I pull back to block, bringing up my leather shield and quick select a spell. The second bandit hits my shield and the view shakes. I bring down the shield and cast my spell of Fury, which causes the second bandit to go into a crazed fighting fury; he turns around and charges his wounded companion! The two bandits exchange blows while I use my bow to help finish off the wounded one. The crazed bandit -- now without a target -- charges back up the stairs to me. Wounded in his skirmish, I finish him off quickly, cursing my bad luck. A quick restoration spell and I'm fully healed. They have no noteworthy loot.

Using my night vision, I again Sneak further down, this time spying a rope tied across the stairs; an obvious trap. I jump over it without issue. Making my way down to the landing, the stairs split to the left and right into a large, dark room. I hear voices. Not wanting to repeat my earlier mistake, I use my detect life spell. All lifeforms within 60 feet glow with a pink hue to my gaze alone, even through obstacles! From here I am able to see the bandit in the center of the room, guarding their encampment and the patrolling bandit off to the left. Waiting for the patrol to leave I Sneak out and put two shots into the bandit by the camp. He's quickly dispatched by the time he reaches melee. By this time the patrolling bandit has returned and I do the same to him. Sneaking into the center of the camp I loot their locked chests and take a few sundry items. Following the patrol path of the other bandit, it leads up into the now-unguarded bandit headquarters. I take a few relics and read a missive on the table. It seems that a bandit has gone missing in the lower level and the other bandits fear that the dungeon is haunted. I laugh.

Returning to the large room, I Sneak down some more stairs and spy another bandit standing guard. Drawing my bow, I strike him with a sneak attack. He runs into the room and I hear shouts of alarm! Looking to the left I've done it again; there were two other bandits nearby. Now it's 3 on 1! One bandit draws a huge two-handed warhammer and charges. Quickly changing spells, I cast Fury on the attacker who quickly turns on his comrades! From my vantage point I cast a Snowball attack spell, hitting the remaining bandit with a bow for some damage. She returns fire with a bow shot that explodes in my face! Fortunately she quickly dies as I exchange fire and drop behind cover between shots. The warhammer bandit finishes off the other and heads for me but he's quickly fallen. I loot the bodes and replenish my arrow supply. The loot this time is extraordinary as the bow bandit has a magical fire bow! I equip the magical bow and move on after healing. Moving into the next room, I use detect life and spot a bandit below from my vantage on the balcony. Time to try the new fire bow. Two shots drop the bandit where he stands! Excellent!

Sneaking down, the room is clear and a door proceeds further down. Now I find myself in some tombs. Using detect life, there's only one bandit about and I easily finish him off. A locked chest provides little challenge and I make do with a few artifacts. Heading into the western most tomb, I see a blood trail on the floor that suddenly ends at the wall. Moving forward I step on a pressure plate and the grinding of stone reveals a corridor beyond! My excitement is dashed by the trail of blood. Following it, I enter into a huge room, a pedestal in the middle holding the slumped over dead body of a bandit. Perhaps the caverns are haunted? Using detect life, I see nothing about and search before moving on. In an adjacent room I find another secret door. As it opens I hear the moaning of the dead and see a zombie standing beyond the darkness. From prior experience I've found the zombies to be incredibly tough but this time I have the initiative…and a new bow. It takes three shots to fell the zombie, but I'm giddy with my success. I move down the passage.

The passage is in total darkness but my night vision makes it trivial. Thank goodness that I'm an apprentice in the magical school of Illusion! Going down stairs, I encounter another zombie and a "dead end." A few moments later I'm looting a nearby relic cache. A strange indentation in the floor beckons me and I trigger another secret door. Sneaking beyond I hear the sounds of bone rattling…and spy my first skeleton. They look formidable! The skeleton is armed with a bow so I'm hopeful he's not a tough warrior. Drawing back with my fire bow I let loose a sneak attack that drops the skeleton in one shot! Looting its body, I move to the door beyond to the next level.

Going down more stairs, I encounter a large hallway with two skeletons on the other side. I easily pick them off from here, the fire bow worth the trip to this dungeon alone. The center of the hallway is a giant chessboard-like mosaic with holes on the floor. My mind screams "TRAP" to me! Sneaking to the side I make it across, no worse for the wear. Continuing down the hall I spy an intersection ahead…

…and giant scythes swing from the walls covering my path!

Fortunately their speed is predictable and I'm able to easily make my way past. Two corridors lead east and west and I clear them out before continuing ahead, taking the relics I find along the way. My haul of loot is impressive!

Making my way up winding stairs, I feel as if I should be wary. My instincts pay off as poking my head above the stairs I spy a cloaked figure walking about the room. He has a gnarled staff and is dressed in all black. If I had to guess, I'd wager a lone necromancer held up down here, responsible for all the skeletons and zombies I have encountered. I draw back on my bow and hit him for a sneak attack! My second arrow flies before he's able to cast a spell, summoning a ghost! The howling ghost heads towards me and I drop two arrow into it before it dies. The necromancer continues to fire spells at me but I duck back behind the safety of cover, coming out only long enough to let loose an arrow. In time the necromancer charges me, drawing a dagger! Switching to my katana, the fight is over quickly and I stand victorious. Unsure if any other minions may be about, I quickly cast a restoration spell to heal myself. Searching the area, I find the necromancer's magical staff (I'll take that!) and a chest full of gold and a magical ring. The ring has a 20% passive Chameleon effect and I put it on…and disappear! (ala the Predator)

A note on a stone slab confirms that the necromancer has been hiding here for some time, hidden from the bandits and conducting his experiments. I take his key and make my way past a locked door and return to the surface, laden with all my loot!

Returning to the Imperial City, I sell off my wares and recharge the magical effects of my newfound bow. My purse overflowing with cash, I go the market district and speak with the city official about buying a house. He doesn't like me but a few well-placed coins remedies that problem quickly enough. Shortly thereafter -- and 2,000 coin lighter -- I've bought a house in the waterfront district. It's a dive to be sure, but the waterfront district is under the protection of the Grey Fox -- my liege -- and the Thieves Guild, so I take this to be a good omen.

Now short on cash, I take the opportunity to remedy the situation. Going to the Talos district -- where large manor houses abound -- I find a likely target and stake it out. At about 3 am I Sneak to the door and pick its hard lock; always a good sign that something valuable is beyond. Inside I begin looting, not only fine silver to sell, but also to decorate my new home! Unfortunately the owner is up and about and comes downstairs; curse my luck for stealing from the only home in Talos where the owner doesn't sleep! Not wanting to risk capture, I Sneak into the shadows and wait for him to turn his back on me. Striking out, I kill him quickly and feel as if unseen forces have been watching me. No matter, my pockets heavy from loot, I leave and go to my new home.

[Abulia]

Inside I stow away my items in my home, leaving my person unencumbered so that I can carry more loot in the future! I make a few potions while there to pass the time and decide to sleep and level up. In doing so I wake up and am startled by a man in my house! An emissary of the Dark Brotherhood -- a guild of assassins -- he saw my murder earlier and offers me a task. With the mention of great rewards, I accept the stranger's invitation. A beggar at the Inn of Ill Omen (or somesuch) is to die by my hand. Now level 8, how hard could it be?

The next day I head south to the Inn. It's a beautiful day and the horse ride is strangely relaxing. Deep dart across the path and the wind rustles the trees. I find the Inn without incident and go inside. The innkeeper tells me the location of the beggar's room in the cellar and I head down. Sure enough, the beggar is there, asleep, and it takes but one strike to end his miserable life. Sadly, there's nothing of value in the room. Instinct tells me that my Dark Brotherhood contact will visit me when given the opportunity, so I take a quick nap. Sure enough, he appears again, congratulating me on my induction into "the family." I'm given directions to the Guildhall, located in a remote southern town. I make way immediately.

Finding the abandoned building is easily done and making my way down into the basement, I find the secret passage into the halls of the Dark Brotherhood. It's terribly mysterious and I feel as if I'm being watched every step of the way. Upon entering I'm warmly greeted and accepted as part of the family. I'm given two amazing gifts for joining: a set of black magical armor and a hood, both of which vastly increase my key abilities! Unburdened by the weight of the chain mail armor I've been wearing, I get giddy at the thought of all the loot I can now carry. A Dark Brotherhood vendor also provides me access to a selection of spells, including a 30 second invisibility spell that will come in incredibly handy! Best yet, a longer version of the night vision spell that I had already been using, this one lasting 150 second per cast! Membership has its privileges!

I then make my way to Vicente, my new contact. Turns out Vicente is a vampire, but gosh he sure is nice. In fact, I find myself liking him quite a bit. Vicente gives me a new job: kill a ship captain in the Imperial City waterfront district. I don't care much as to why, and accept; I'll bet the captain has some nice treasure of his own.

Making my way back to the Imperial City (via fast travel, 15 seconds tops) I find the ship, but a block away from my home. Pirates on the deck aren't very friendly but I find an open crate on the dock. Sneaking inside of it, I close the latch and am carried on board the ship…

I open and find myself deep in the hold of the ship. Making my way up to the next deck, I overhear two of the crew talking. My extended night vision is so nice and with detect life I'm able to see where everyone is…including the captain. One of the crew heads my way, but thanks to now being an Expert in Sneak, I can run at full speed without penalty; he has no idea I'm there. I easily make my way to the captain's cabin and pick the lock, avoiding the entire crew. No point in killing when I don't have to.

The captain paces about and I Sneak up behind him, thrusting my katana into him for X6 damage. The fight is quick and I take the key and gold off of his person. Going to his cabin I find a locked chest and plunder it; he won't be needing any of this now. Crew come to door and knock on it, asking if the captain is okay. I move to the rear of the ship and unlock a rear window, leading to a balcony. Closing it, I drop off into the water and swim to shore. The crew find the dead body but the assassin gets away without so much as an inkling as to his identity. Just the way I like it.

At the shore, I'm perhaps a dozen yards from my home, so I head that way for a change of dry clothes and a quick nap. It's been a busy day.

[raggedjimmi]

Ok, for details sake.

It was running in 720p on his 20" Phillips HD monitor via VGA. We were in a room, some building of some sort. No weapons. had fists out. light beams coming down from the ceiling. Hands looked very smooth (polygon wise). walked past some people with light on them, BAM. what was very smooth suddenly dropped about 20fps.
The load time was horrible. I'll tell him about the cache problem. But it gave us enough time to go downstairs, grab a glass of coke and a couple of Penguin chocolate bars, had a fight with his brother, head upstairs and it was still loading.

[Abulia]

I've heard Oblivion has a very bad frame rate, very choppy, etc... to the owners... is this true?I've stated it up above, but I'll address this directly: no. On my Xbox 360 (premium) at 1080i, the game has no stuttering or choppiness.

[Abulia]

The load time was horrible. I'll tell him about the cache problem. But it gave us enough time to go downstairs, grab a glass of coke and a couple of Penguin chocolate bars, had a fight with his brother, head upstairs and it was still loading.Yea, he's got a problem, probably his cache is corrupted. The absolute longest load time I've had is when entering a city or fast travelling from city-to-city, maybe 20-30 seconds tops.

Or his disc might be dirty, but it's probably the cache issue. I believe the solution is to press 'A' as the game starts up from the Dashboard. This forces the game to re-create the cache.

Slow Load Times in Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion? Try This!
Some (but not all) people who have gotten their hands on Oblivion already have complained about long load times. How long, you ask? How about ten whole minutes just for the inital load! Someone from Bethesda made a post on the official Elder Scrolls forum that solves the problem. When you first turn on your Xbox 360 hold down the A button while Oblivion loads. This clears the hard drive cache and lets Oblivion start fresh. Don't worry, you won't lose any game saves or anything. The hard drive cache allows for faster load times by copying and reusing some data to the hard drive, but sometimes the data in the cache can get fragmented which results in slower data access.

[MacRumorUser]

I have to say my experience is the same as Dons. I'm at 1080i and VERY smooth framerate. Never seems to drop. Loading is silky smooth when loading new areas and the longest laod time is about 15-20 secs.

I'm very impressed with it graphically and i'm using my big projector screen so anomolies like framerate are much more apparent, but so far I've had no bad things to say.

I think the low-res textures in the distance aren't that big a deal either (some reviewers complained, but this effects pc & 360 versions).

Best RPG i've played in a long long while..... So like Don M say's. My experience is nothing like yours. Smooth Framerate and Short Loading Times for me... Sounds like he's playing on a core (without HD) to me, either that or like don says he needs to empty the cache...

[Abulia]

I'm on a 60" HDTV so yea, any stuttering would be readily apparent.

Not sure what reviewers are unhappy about; the terrain distance is excellent. The fact that I can stand on a hill, overlooking the Imperial City, and walk/ride to anything that I see in the distance without a loading screen just blows my mind. :eek:

My only complaints are the occassional pause/stutter when in the wilderness and the game has to load the scenery up ahead, specifically the "Loading..." message. It kinda ruins the sense of immersion. Just stream the data into the cache and don't tell me about it.

Anyway, I'm quibbling. Best RPG ever made IMO.

[MacRumorUser]

Because the obects in the very distance use low res textures the reviewers complained. Just nit picking I guess.

Yep my projector goes up to 8feet x 4feet (now that's a HDTV screen :p )
Though I only use it once in a while (those bulbs are just too expensive to replace ;) $400 )

But as for Oblivion I'm really blown away with it. Lived up to my expectations completely. I just don't know what game RaggedJimmi was looking at... But maybe that's the difference with the HD over the Core for a game like this..


Edit for RaggedJimmi (you state in first post you were running 480p? are you running in HiDef or Standard Def).

If it's standard def he's running (after all why the heck would he run 480p if he's using a HDTV?) then make sure PAL 60 is selected in the setup menu. This game is 60HZ only and that would cause stuttering if your running on Pal 50... Dont know if that helps but it's worth checking.

Like I say for me the games framerate is smooth as butter.

[mahashel]

Finally got my 360 copy last night and gave it a go.

Chalk my experience up as one of the WAHOOOOOOO! votes.
I have a premium 360 running @ 1080i on my 55" Mitsubishi rear-projection set.
Framerates are VERY solid, except for when riding the horse, which simply seems to traverse the zones faster (hence more loading). Riding the horse is purely optional (seems to serve little purpose other than RP value), so I may start marching around on foot.

I won't get too much into the story details I've played through so far (especially since Don M. already did this in fantastic detail).
What I will say is that this is a LOT more engaging than the old RPG's people may be used to. Combat is more interactive, reflex-based, & adventure-style. This seems like a possible love/hate factor. Some of the old-school RP gamers that might prefer a more strategic, turn-based combat system may be annoyed by the constant maneuvering, blocking, counter-striking, and well-timed casting necessary to slaughter everything you face.

The advancement system is also a love/hate feature, since it increases opponent difficulty as you become more powerful. This allows for more challenging battles throughout the game, but might dissuade some from power leveling since they never feel "heroic", able to carve through their foes effortlessly. (I love to 1-hit my enemies from time to time, but I feel like that's what the difficulty slider is for.. I prefer to call it the "mood slider". lol)

Unlike Morrowind, the "Loading.." screens do NOT lock up the controls, so they're less intrusive. I think this makes a big difference. Even the audio in Morrowind would come a jarring halt when loading a into a new zone. Oblivion loads in the background, with lurches only apparent when queueing up multiple loads by moving rapidly.

Anyway, this game is a MUST for any RP gamer out there, plus any Adventure gamers (1st & 3rd perspective) who are looking for a bigger experience.
Very solid work, Bethesda.

[nihilisticmonk]

Out of interest, what class are you guys playing as? I've chosen a Knight but am thinking of re-rolling.
If you make a custom class, what skills did you choose?

Also, as a knight, can I upgrade my healing spell, or am I stuck with expensive potions for the entire game?

[Abulia]

I made a custom class based off of Stealth. My seven primaries are:
Sneak (at 100!)
Marksman
Light Armor
Blades
Security
Illusion
Alchemy

I'm level 10 and have done bits of the main quest and am about halfway through the Dark Brotherhood and Thief quests. I also am a vampire. :D

If I had to do it again, I wouldn't make Sneak a primary. Sneak is sooooooo easy to level that I essentially "wasted" a primary slot. My Sneak is so high that I can level anytime I want; I have enough "saved" levels that I could be level 20 if I wanted.

After closing the first Oblivion gate I got the sigil stone that you can use to enchant a weapon or an article of clothing. I had a regular plain Silver Bow in my inventory that I enchanted with the sigil to add a +15 Frost Damage and named it "Froststrike." Firing from stealth mode, I can TWO SHOT level 10 fire demons (Daedra?) that had been kicking my ass the entire game. (7 + 6 + 15) x3 = 84 damage

I've been fooling around with a pure mage character as well, except the exception is that I've intentionally not raised her level. At LEVEL ONE I've nearly completed all the Arena quests which I consider absolutely amazing. I've read that people have completed the main story quest as low as level three and I believe it. This is a game that, because of the dynamic difficulty, you can go anywhere and do anything any time and NOT feel pressured to do so.

BTW, the Dark Brotherhood quests have some of the best early loot in the game for some really easy time investment. That is if you don't mind killing people in cold blood. :D

Fantastic game. I bow before it. This IS next gen and worth every penny. Top 10 game of all time, easily.

[Abulia]

Also, as a knight, can I upgrade my healing spell, or am I stuck with expensive potions for the entire game?Yes but the trick is you have to raise your Restoration skill. The higher level spells will heal more damage but cost more magika to cast and have a minimum Restoration level requirement.

Thus, a Major Healing might require Restoration 50 to cast, plus considerably more magicka. Or you can just use the default Minor Healing like I have for most of the game.

Magika is in short supply if you didn't take one of the two boosting birthsigns or have Intelligence as a primary stat. Unless you can get your magika around 200+ you'll never be casiting any of the major "cool" spells in the game.

[mahashel]

I created a custom class:
Athletics, Blade, Block, Destruction, Light Armor, Restoration, Sneak

This is actually a relatively weak character, since I split my skills into all 3 classes
(Blade, Block, Athletics, Armor = combat) (Destruction, Restoration = mage) (Sneak = stealth)
I've heard that some people are intentionally assigning skills they do NOT intend to use regularly as their 'primary skills', while assigning their frequently-used skills as 'minors'.
This apparently results in level advancements being few and far between, but very powerful. Due to the game increasing enemy difficulty according to your level, the game is actually easier if you are lower level with highly-developed skills (lvl2 with blade as secondary skill of 50), rather than a high level with low skills (lvl5 with blade as primary skill of 30).
I may have confused this, but if you're curious, head over to the Elder Scrolls Forums for Oblivion (http://www.elderscrolls.com/forums/index.php?showforum=3). There are people endlessly debating this subject.

Oh, nihilisticmonk, you can buy more powerful heals as soon as you have the money to afford them. Just be cautious you don't buy a spell that you have insufficient total magicka to cast.

EDIT: Dang, Don M., you're too fast. :D

[Abulia]

I've heard that some people are intentionally assigning skills they do NOT intend to use regularly as their 'primary skills', while assigning their frequently-used skills as 'minors'.I'd agree with this strategy, except for maybe real important skills like Blade, Block, or Armor; those bonus 25 starting points make a big difference.

But Sneak or Restoration? Just use those a lot, even just sneaking around the town, and they'll go up rapidly. Sure, they won't count towards your next level but as you noted, there's actually some benefit in Oblivion in not levelling.

Sadly I find myself at level 10 in the predicament that you described...some pretty high primary skills but absurdly low secondary skills that are taking forever to raise.

[srobert]

Hmmm. I played for about 20 hours and I love the game so far.

Only one little question. How do you guys restore attribute damage?

My personality score has been reduced (in red) for the past 10 hours and I can't seem to be able to restore it. All potions and herbs I've tried have only temporarily restored it. Not sure how it got reduced in the first place. I think it happened while I was battling a goblin. Poison?

[Abulia]

Only one little question. How do you guys restore attribute damage?Going to temples can restore ability damage, as does sleeping, I believe. (I had ability score damage that eventually just went away...I think it is because I slept.)

It's noteworthy that if you go on a life of crime (like me) that you can't use the temples anymore. You're told you're a sinner that must repent. The Nine don't look favorably on those that sin.... ;)

[nihilisticmonk]

Thanks for all the advise all!
I was hoping that the minor heal may be enough to just "top up" myself with as well as a few potions....

I'm enjoying playing as a knight, but wonder if I'm missing out on any of the cool magic stuff....I can always make a secondary character but I've heard rumors that savegames have been deleted or overwritten doing this (360 version) :eek:

Anyway, I'm loving the game, I've just got a badass katana and a horsey, and have closed the first gate so I'm not doing bad......

That arena is my next target :mad:

[srobert]

Going to temples can restore ability damage, as does sleeping, I believe. (I had ability score damage that eventually just went away...I think it is because I slept.)

It's noteworthy that if you go on a life of crime (like me) that you can't use the temples anymore. You're told you're a sinner that must repent. The Nine don't look favorably on those that sin.... ;)

Nope. Slept 3 times and attribute damage is still there. I've check my inventory in case I had some sort fo cursed item. Not the case. I'll try the temple. Thanks.

[mahashel]

I second the Temple vote.

Completing the invisibility quest in Aleswell damaged my luck.
A quick visit to the temple cleared me right up. (of course, I'm not terribly evil.. yet) ;)

[Abulia]

I'm enjoying playing as a knight, but wonder if I'm missing out on any of the cool magic stuff....I can always make a secondary character but I've heard rumors that savegames have been deleted or overwritten doing this (360 version) :eek:Ack, I hope not! I've just started fooling around with an alt but no problems yet. I did notice that if you're not careful it's easy to accidently select the wrong save and overwrite it. I wouldn't be surprised if such "problems" are a byproduct of just not paying attention.

[SilentPanda]

I've made 3 or 4 characters and haven't had any problems with saved games being over written. I've got around 70-80 saves total under my belt excluding autosaves.

One thing I do wish is that you could organize your saves by character name.

[MacRumorUser]

Yeah, or rename them at least.... Get's very confusing looking at the tiny snapshot to work out which is which :)

[saunders45]

I was totally on the fence about getting this. I never finished Morrowind. I had put in like 100 hours, had a totally badass 2 handed emerald sword worth 100,000 but I got lost in the desert looking for the three stones that were like a pearl (or something like that). I haven't even had the time to finish some other games (Ghost Recon, The Outfit, and Metroid Prime Hunters) and I told myself to wait to get this. Thanks to Don's freakin posts about his exploits, he pushed over the fence and now I'm afraid I'll have to go get this after work.

Thanks.... Jerk....;)

[Abulia]

Thanks.... Jerk....;)No problem, man. ;)

One of us! One of us! :D

[saunders45]

No problem, man. ;)

One of us! One of us! :D

Yeah... so I had to run some errands for work and stopped by Walmart and picked it up. As luck would have it, they had quite a few 360's in stock, which is good since I've been keeping an eye out for my friend's wife who has been looking for one for his birthday. The dude at the counter was like, 18. He was like, "Dude, Oblivion sux, you need to play Counter Strike." Then the retard begins to tell me about his different matches he's played in CS. God, I hate CS Nerds. But hey, at least I have the game now.

[AJ Muni]

This game really is BAD ASS. I never played an RPG before...and never even heard about oblivion before all this hype. I jumped on the bandwagon and bought this game for the hell of it hoping that i would like it... and it is great. I was never into fantasy games or magic games but this game is just too cool. Im just having a hard time learning what to do, and how to do it. QUick question though....when i started the main quest i had to go meet some dude...but i got a letter from like a blue looking guy and started the thieves guild. My other freind started the dark brotherhood guild. DO i eventuallly start the dark brotherhood too as im doing the thieves...or do you only pick one??..or do you wait until i finish thieves guild.. cuz its like my freind and I both have the game...but we are doing two totally different story lines and quests ( thieves for me and dark brotherhood for him)...do i eventually run into the other guilds???

[Abulia]

You can do any of the quests in any order. You can play Oblivion and totally IGNORE the main quest if you'd like!

Forget other RPGs where you have to go here and do this in that order. In Oblivion you have total freedom to "live" your character anyway you'd like. If you're not interested in joining the Dark Brotherhood or the Thieves Guild, don't worry about it.

You can do as many of the world and faction quests (Dark Brotherhood, Thieves Guild, Mages Guild, etc) as you'd like at a time. There's no limit to the number of factions you can be a member of; your character can be in the Dark Brotherhood and the Mages Guild at the same time if you'd like.

In short, there's no "right" way to play the game or an established order...just do whatever seems fun for you.

[AJ Muni]

Thanks alot DON..that cleared up alot, now I understand. But aside from the main quest..there is THIEVES, MAGES, DARK BROTHERHOOD..and i dont know if im missing any others...do u know how many "side" quests each one has..?? and also how do i join the dark or the mages...is it by accident in talking to a right person...and does the game initiate it (like in thieves guild when they bring you the note)

[shortyjj]

You guys suck, thanks for posting the rave reviews...

I guess what I save from quitting WoW could somehow pay for the 360 and this game... damn.

[SilentPanda]

Thanks alot DON..that cleared up alot, now I understand. But aside from the main quest..there is THIEVES, MAGES, DARK BROTHERHOOD..and i dont know if im missing any others...do u know how many "side" quests each one has..?? and also how do i join the dark or the mages...is it by accident in talking to a right person...and does the game initiate it (like in thieves guild when they bring you the note)

There are 5 "main" guilds. The ones you've missed are the Arena and the Fighters. The Fighters guild and the Mages guild are true guilds like the thieves and dark brotherhood. You can join the Mages Guild and/or Fighters Guild by going to most any of the other main cities (not the Imperial City) and asking a guard for directions to the guilds.

The Thieves guild and the Dark Brotherhood are obtained in different ways. For the thieves guild you can ask around about it if you know the right people (how I first found it) or if you do the right things you'll be asked to join the thieves guild... I'm certainly not sure what you could do to make thieves take notice of you... ;). As far as I know there is only one way to join the Dark Brotherhood and that is if they ask you... not sure what might make an assassins guild take notice of you either... ;)

The Arena isn't a guild so much as it is a tournament you can join and rank up in. It is easily found in the middle of the Imperial city. Shows up on your map from the beginning.

As far as I know you can be in as many guilds as you want. Some of them have conflicting ideas which may make it more cumbersome. Dark Brotherhood requires you to murder "innocents" and the fighters guild dislikes that. The fighters guild requires you to be in good standing but being an assassin you'll have to continually work your way out of poor standing to stay in the fighters guild. Things like that...

I believe there are other factions you can "get in good" with. For instance I was talking to some people about joining some group (can't remember the name and want to be vague to not give away any sub-story) and in the end I chose the wrong word path and we got in a fight... ;) Maybe you always get in a fight with them though and can never join... I really don't know.

[AJ Muni]

Thanks man I understand it now...I noticed the arena and I beat upto 5 people...again this game is soooo addicting i cant wait to leave this pharmacy and plaY! thanks for all the info

[Abulia]

Yup, Panda pretty much covered it all. The factions have their own quests and rewards. Then there are several types of quests:

* The Main plot
* Open/Misc quests (random quests that you stumble upon when you hit a city)
* Faction quests (as mentioned above)
* The Daedric quests (quests you can only get after reading a book in the main plot; these involve visiting Daedric shrines in the game)

All of these (sans the Daedric quests) you can do at any time and at any level. There may be some pre-reqs before getting (such as how the Dark Brotherhood will contact you) but they're pretty easy to figure out.

Some of these quests will have you visit the dungeons throughout the world, but even then you can go dungeon delving without having the quests anyway. One of the things I love about Oblivion is just exploring and doing things. You stumble into this 2-level dungeon in the middle of nowhere and unravel the story behind it and why it's there, kinda like my two-post play experience earlier in this thread. The world of Oblivion is just so "alive" and dynamic that you can do whatever you want.

And, if you finish the main plot you can still explore the world and do these other quests. There is no "end" to the game.

Ever.

[srobert]

I second the Temple vote.

Somehow I can't seem to find the temple. There is only one big empty public building in the temple quarter and no altar. :-/ I must be missing something obvious.

[SilentPanda]

Somehow I can't seem to find the temple. There is only one big empty public building in the temple quarter and no altar. :-/ I must be missing something obvious.

I'm not sure that there is one in the Imperial City. Go to one of the outer cities and look for the church. Just look towards the sky and you'll find the steeple somewhere. That's where you want to go.

[Shrek6446]

This has to be one of the stangest games I have ever played. what I mean by that is I rented it from Gamefly and played through the opening level. I started to get bored so I went to do my homework, as I was working on some english homework I couldn't help but think of this game and all of the cool things about it. Right after I finished with my homework i ran back into my living room and started playing again. After playing for about 4 hours, i headed to bed, before falling asleep i was thinking about all of the cool new things I found about this game. Woke up and played it again for a few more hours. Now I am at work thinking about the cool things I did in the game today.

Dont know if this happens to anyone else or just me.

Oh, and i havent had any frame rate issues on my 720p TV with xbox360

[saunders45]

So, after Don M's rambling, I went a picked this up. I only got to play an hour last night (freakin college papers suck). I spent WAY to much time screwing around with the character creator. Pretty cool stuff. I only got just past the goblin wizard, but cool none the less. I really like the combat over morrowind. In that, I was always frustrated by knowing that you should have hit your target, but nothing happening. Oh, BTW, I'm concentrating on making a badass Redguard balanced between swordplay and archery. Sort of an Aragorn type.

[srobert]

The level of character customization is amazing.

I currently play two custom class characters.

Number 1, the "Die Hard", is designed to take the most punishment possible. HE takes a beating and keep asking for more. I could just sit there and wait for the opponents to tire themselves. Sort of a medieval John McClane/Bruce Willis. ^_^

Number 2, the "Tom Raider", is designed to find the best items, carry a maximum of loot, and to get the best selling prices. He's built to make money, the honest way.

The way you can customize the appearance is also incredible. The only thing missing is more hairstyles and facial hair. I ended up with a character looking eerily like me. O_O

Yeah, or rename them at least.... Get's very confusing looking at the tiny snapshot to work out which is which :)

Agreed. A patch improving the way we can save our different characters game's would be very welcome.

Hmmm… I haven't tried it but if you swith to 3rd person view, will your character appear in the save game file screenshot? Could be a temporary fix if your charaters look different enough.

I'm not sure that there is one in the Imperial City. Go to one of the outer cities and look for the church. Just look towards the sky and you'll find the steeple somewhere. That's where you want to go.

I spent an hour looking for the capital's temple but looks like there aren't any ^_^. I auto walked to the nearest city and was able to restore my attribute. Thanks a bunch.

[saunders45]

Yeah, facial hair would be nice. Hard to believe some guy in prison would be so clean shaven.

[mahashel]

I realize this may not be news to those who've been playing for several days (I've only logged ~15 hours so far).

However, I encountered a dunmer woman last night whose husband was missing. He's a painter, known for painting very lifelike scenes. The quest to rescue him led me inside one of his paintings, where everything was textured to look like an oil painting, and venturing to the edge of the painting resulted in bland terrain that was textured like rough canvas.
I had to slay painted trolls by "poisoning" my sword with turpentine.

I found this to be very, very clever. Perhaps I'm easily amused.. or perhaps this game is BRILLIANT! :cool:

[SilentPanda]

If you go to http://www.facegen.com (and have a Windows box) you can download FaceGen which uses a picture (or 2 or 3) of your face and renders it into a 3d model. You can then take all the slider values and put them into Oblivion. Sorta fun if you're bored.

I tried it and it worked pretty well. The main difference is you can put those values also into the lizard/cat races too. I'm assuming most of our MR members are not lizard or cat humanoids. That being said, none of the other races end up looking terribly much like yourself either unless you look like one of the other races in real life.

The facegen software is neat and renders a pretty good 3d face. It's pretty time consuming to put the values in and don't expect a perfect match in Oblivion. But if you're bored and want something to do...

It's the same program the Oblivion team used to make the heads. Which is why the sliders translate easyish. My big problem was sometimes moving one slider will auto move another so you have to over compensate one so when you move another they line up.

[Abulia]

I realize this may not be news to those who've been playing for several days (I've only logged ~15 hours so far).

However, I encountered a dunmer woman last night whose husband was missing. He's a painter, known for painting very lifelike scenes. The quest to rescue him led me inside one of his paintings, where everything was textured to look like an oil painting, and venturing to the edge of the painting resulted in bland terrain that was textured like rough canvas.
I had to slay painted trolls by "poisoning" my sword with turpentine.

I found this to be very, very clever. Perhaps I'm easily amused.. or perhaps this game is BRILLIANT! :cool:Whoa! :eek:

Must. Find. This. Quest! That sounds awesome!

[mahashel]

I do not recall the name of the dunmer woman who initiates this quest, but I do remember that it was in an unlocked house in Chardynnhal (sp?)
There's some interesting backstory to the magical artifacts involved.
I won't spoil it for you though.. You'll have to find it. ;)

[Abulia]

If you go to http://www.facegen.com (and have a Windows box) you can download FaceGen which uses a picture (or 2 or 3) of your face and renders it into a 3d model. You can then take all the slider values and put them into Oblivion. Sorta fun if you're bored.Cool. So I can take a pic of a supermodel and translate it onto my Oblivion character. :D

[SilentPanda]

Cool. So I can take a pic of a supermodel and translate it onto my Oblivion character. :D

Only if you can get a super model to stand still long enough... ;)

[MacRumorUser]

Whoa! :eek:

Must. Find. This. Quest! That sounds awesome!

Damn Straight. THAT IS AWESOME.... If it takes me till next year.. I must do this quest :)

[mahashel]

There are a number of people on here actively playing this game, and seem a lot more intelligent about it than the majority of posters on the official Oblivion forums. ;)
Thus, I have a question:
Has anyone had a breakthrough regarding how to succeed in melee combat?
I'm really struggling to survive, and am convinced I've simply not grasped some brilliant strategy.
My character is currently set up to be something of a tank. Heavy armor, 2-handed claymore, high block skill, and high athletics. I hold block during most of combat, while maneuvering (slowly while blocking with that huge sword) into position to counter-attack after an opponent's strike is blocked.
While I am usually victorious, it is typically by a very narrow margin. I'm healing regularly during battle, and end combat with very little hit points remaining. (even when fighting only ONE opponent)
Anybody have any tips or strategies they'd like to share?
I could go with stealth or lighter weapons, but that's really not this character's.. erm.. idiom. :D
I guess what I'm looking for is anyone's suggestions on block/counterstrike/dodge processes that have proven reliably successful for them.
Thanks!

[Abulia]

Sure! I'm a stealth/archery build -- I love to kill my foes with x3 sneak attacks without them ever seeing me -- but sometimes I have to do a standup fight.

Different foes attack differently. So unless you're used to their fighting style, start off the fight with your shield up to block (or your sword). For me the easiest foes are those with 2H weapons; they swing soooooooo slow that if you have an even moderately decent Speed, you can sit back, wait for them to wind up, back up, avoid the swing, then charge in and get two attacks off before they can swing again.

On lighter/faster foes, you're going to be using your block to weather the attack, counter, and then step back. The AI will probably take a swing that you can avoid and then thrust in an attack of your own.

Of course, if your blade/blunt skill is high enough you'll get stun and disarm abilities which are really NICE. If you disarm, quickly pick up their weapon and watch them flail against you with their fists. Knockdown is nasty too with a bow. With a higher level of blades you get the side attack to get an attack in between their defenses.

Also, defensively, if you get your Acrobatics high enough you can do a dodge in combat. I've no idea how it works; my Acrobatics isn't that high yet.

The only foes I have a serious problem with are those wearing a ton of armor, a shield, and a fast 1H who like to charge me. They're in your face doing so much damage that your options are block and die, run and die, or try to heal and die. But then, I'm not a melee build at all. :)

Edit: Meant to say Acrobatics instead of Athletics. Fixed.

[mahashel]

So I guess it sounds like I'm blocking/tanking a bit too much.
Also, since *I'm* the guy with the huge, slow sword, perhaps I should pick up a 1H longsword until my blade/strength improves.
I'm really enjoying combat moreso than in morrowind (hack, hack, hack, hack), but I must admit, I've easily died 20+ times, and I'm only level 4. I'm averaging 2 death-related reloads per hour of gameplay. I suck! :D
Oh, the agony and the ecstasy! :o
Thanks for the suggestions.
-m

[Abulia]

Picking up a 1H until you get your skill high enough -- and using a shield -- probably is the best way to go for now. Once your skill gets really good and you can disarm or stun your foes, things will probably get a lot easier.

I'm level 11 and I get stunned in melee all the time. I hate it. I die quickly. :D

Well, except for that +10 health and +10 strength drain dagger I use. :D

[saunders45]

Yeah, I have to agree with Don (thanks for the fence push buddy, I LOVE this game). It depends on the enemy. Look at his armaments, and go from there. My character is a custom "ranger" type, balanced between archery and blade skill with a little magic thrown in to boot. Generally when I see some guys, I try to sneak attack an arrow shot to one guys head, which I do quite often I may say. This evens the odds by either killing the guy, or at least spreading them out. Also, look to see how close he is to his buddies. If he's toe-to-toe, try to seperate each enemy and take them on 1 at a time. It's all about timing.

[Abulia]

I played quite a bit last night, mostly doing misc quests in towns and continuing the Dark Brotherhood line. So many cool things happened last night, like revealing a corrupt guard and taking part in an Agatha Christie murder mystery in a house (think "Five Little Indians") that I don't know where to begin. I also raided a very spooky dungeon for some phat loot. :)

Oh, BTW, my Sneak is now 105 and with my 20% Chameleon ring, I'm DAMN hard to spot. In fact, I can kill most foes with my bow without them ever seeing me; they fail around, looking for me while I pepper them with arrows. Too. Darn. Cool.

Oh, and I'm a vampire too. Vampire's need love too. :D

[saunders45]

Okay, So I'm totally hooked. I played till 4 in the morning saturday. I was able to beat the whole arena quest in one sitting as a level 1. The thing is, i forgot how to level up in the ES series. I was just "waiting" instead of resting in a bed. I also closed the first oblivion gate. I can't say I'm too impressed with the Oblivion part of the game, seems a little to Diablo-esque. However, the rest of the game is the r0xx0rz. The fighting for Kvatch was cool to. Especially watching the Imperial guards mow the baddies down. Even better was when a couple got killed, and I was able to "borrow" their gear. Between the arena and selling the loot from Kvatch, I was able to pad my coinpurse quite well.

I do have a question about a small quest though. It's about the one where the merchants in the Imperial City want to you find out where the guy who is undercutting them is getting his stuff from. I already talked to him, and he ain't saying jack. Do I need to bribe him or what? I also looked around his shop some, but I haven't found anything.

[madmax_2069]

yea this game rock's. i liked morrowind alot i started playing it on pc first then moved to xbox. and the same friend that i played morrowind with me helping him with quest's and vica versa got oblivion and i love it and so does he. i like how it looks's i like the rag doll effect on the body's. i acidently hit the monk you go to to talk about the amulet the king gives you. i tryed to fight but he would stomp me every time . i lerned out that holding the block button and press a i think or b you will surrender.

[Abulia]

I do have a question about a small quest though. It's about the one where the merchants in the Imperial City want to you find out where the guy who is undercutting them is getting his stuff from. I already talked to him, and he ain't saying jack. Do I need to bribe him or what? I also looked around his shop some, but I haven't found anything.Do what you'd do in real life: stake out his shop and follow him.

[SilentPanda]

Do what you'd do in real life: stake out his shop and follow him.

In real life I would give up, go home, and play video games.

[ijimk]

i purchased this game and i really must say I was impressed withthe look and atmosphere the game put out. I chse to play a Dark Elf an like it thus far. The story is good and i like how there is so much interaction withthe objects in the game. Adding Patrick Stewart is also a nice touch in the game as well. Overall I am please with this game for my Xbox 360 and recommend it for anyone looking for a good RPG. :D

[Abulia]

I didn't get to play too much this weekend; I spent time with the family and re-calibrated my HDTV for my new DVD player and receiver. :)

However, I did make more progress on the Dark Brotherhood chain and continue to be impressed. I had to assassinate a fairly prominant guard in a city and then deliver his severed finger as a message to his replacement. It was very cool. :)

Finally got my Sneak up to Master, with a total Sneak bonus of 115. :eek: The ability to ignore armor when attacking from Sneak is amazing. My damage potential has shot way up.

Is it just me, or does Marksman go up too slowly? My other skills are going up at a really nice pace, but my Marksman is flailing around at about 45ish, and that seems low since I'm a bowman.

The other night my wife told me that Oblivion has taken me away from WoW, and she didn't think any game could do that. :)

[saunders45]

Do what you'd do in real life: stake out his shop and follow him.


Um... duh... I should have thought of that. Not used to characters acting... um... real.

[SilentPanda]

Is it just me, or does Marksman go up too slowly? My other skills are going up at a really nice pace, but my Marksman is flailing around at about 45ish, and that seems low since I'm a bowman.

The other night my wife told me that Oblivion has taken me away from WoW, and she didn't think any game could do that. :)

Don't you only use our bow for the initial shot? That might be why it's going up slower. I'm currently playing the game with a "reverse" build where I'm a caster but my main skills are heavy armor, weapons, and such. I've got about 17 hours in it and just hit level 2 yesterday (had to to do the main quest line). It has it's pros and cons. I can't cast any uber spells since I have a small mana pool but the creatures are my level... only a few guys have given me real trouble.

I've gotten two pretty odd quests so far. One of them I just happened to find a box of wine out in the wilderness. I have a quest to find out more about it but no arrow pointing me where to go. The other one happened when I killed an ogre I found at random. I looted some "ogre potatoes" and have a quest to find out more about them just like with the wine.

I cancelled my WoW subscription when I got my 360... and life is probably better without it... :)

[Abulia]

Don't you only use our bow for the initial shot? That might be why it's going up slower.Nope. With Sneak 115 and a ring of Chameleon (20%), I can sit back and shoot foes to death; they can't spot me to attack/close to melee.

I'm kinda forcing myself to do the faction quests before doing any hard core exploring in the world; I'd hate to clear a dungeon and then find out that I need the scepter in the boss chest at the end for a Mage Guild quest, for example.

Also, since I'm level 11 now, I really just need to skill up and get better gear. My last foray into an Oblivion gate was far from certain; I got my butt handed to me a few times. :)

[SilentPanda]

Nope. With Sneak 115 and a ring of Chameleon (20%), I can sit back and shoot foes to death; they can't spot me to attack/close to melee.

I'm kinda forcing myself to do the faction quests before doing any hard core exploring in the world; I'd hate to clear a dungeon and then find out that I need the scepter in the boss chest at the end for a Mage Guild quest, for example.

Also, since I'm level 11 now, I really just need to skill up and get better gear. My last foray into an Oblivion gate was far from certain; I got my butt handed to me a few times. :)

Bah... make a level 2 character and you'll just plow through the game... I already finished the Mage quest line and only one guy there gave me problems and it wasn't even the "end boss". I have a total of 3 armor I believe. Totally overrated... :P

[Abulia]

Bah... make a level 2 character and you'll just plow through the game... I already finished the Mage quest line and only one guy there gave me problems and it wasn't even the "end boss". I have a total of 3 armor I believe. Totally overrated... :PI have a level 2 pure mage that I took in the the Arena for fun. Just by summoning creatures and running around staying out of melee I'm nearly the Grand Champion.

Funny stuff. :)

[AJ Muni]

Don. M im having a little bit of trouble understanding on how to level up. (even though im on level 4 now, but i think its from luck, not trying to level up on purpose) and from what i read in the manual you need to go up 10 pts. in major skills to go up a level. do u need to go up in your minor skills which then increase your major skiils??

[SilentPanda]

Don. M im having a little bit of trouble understanding on how to level up. (even though im on level 4 now, but i think its from luck, not trying to level up on purpose) and from what i read in the manual you need to go up 10 pts. in major skills to go up a level. do u need to go up in your minor skills which then increase your major skiils??

Nope.

You have "skills". When you choose your class or create your class you then get skills designated as major. You can view them through the in game UI. Only your major skills count towards leveling up and you don't have to raise your minor skills at all.

[AJ Muni]

So for example when I'm fighting and then i see on the top left " Heavy armor skill increased" can i officially count that as 1 out of the 10 points i need to level up?? I also see "security level increased" which i think is at about 20 now...is that minor or major?

[SilentPanda]

So for example when I'm fighting and then i see on the top left " Heavy armor skill increased" can i officially count that as 1 out of the 10 points i need to level up?? I also see "security level increased" which i think is at about 20 now...is that minor or major?

You can only count it if it is a major skill. It will show both major and minor skill ups on the top left corner. Go into your UI. There should be 4 main areas. Click the one on the far left. Then in the "sub area" I believe it is 3rd from the left. That should list your major and minor skills and also what percent you are through the level.

[Abulia]

You can only count it if it is a major skill. It will show both major and minor skill ups on the top left corner. Go into your UI. There should be 4 main areas. Click the one on the far left. Then in the "sub area" I believe it is 3rd from the left. That should list your major and minor skills and also what percent you are through the level.Yea, there's a "level bar" that will show your progress towards the next level. As your major skills increase in ranks, this bar will also move.

It's worth mentioning that you a) don't have to level and b) the game remembers all the major skill levels you've earned and "banks" them for later use; my bar for "next level" has been full for about 5 levels now. I actually could rapidly level about 5 times in succession if I wanted to.

There's actually some good reasons for not levelling too fast in Oblivion, as the enemies scale with you.

[AJ Muni]

Yea i know how to see my level progress and where to locate major and minor skills in my journal...I jus wanted to kno if i can be more in control on how and when i level up..instead of it just happening sporadically (or maybe thats how its suppose to be):confused: :confused:

[SilentPanda]

Yea i know how to see my level progress and where to locate major and minor skills in my journal...I jus wanted to kno if i can be more in control on how and when i level up..instead of it just happening sporadically (or maybe thats how its suppose to be):confused: :confused:

You will only level when you sleep. Not if you wait. So just never sleep. :) Sleeping does you no good actually aside from leveling you up when desired.

[Abulia]

You will only level when you sleep. Not if you wait. So just never sleep. :) Sleeping does you no good actually aside from leveling you up when desired.Or if you want to be turned into a vampire...

BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!

[SilentPanda]

Or if you want to be turned into a vampire...

BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!

You wouldn't.... would you? :eek:

Being a vampire has its pros and cons I guess. I got bored with it on my first character and just made a new character (my current) that isn't a vamp.

[mahashel]

I'm back.
After a weekend of spending many hours traversing the beautiful landscape of Cyrodiil, I've stumbled onto an oddity.

I broke down and connected my account to xbox live. While Oblivion is not an online game, it does seem chatty in the background. Perhaps it's telling Redmond what kind of shoes my Imperial likes to wear, so that I may be bombarded with "subtle and appropriate" advertisement in the next expansion. lol :D
Seriously, what I have noticed is that the game menus (the 'start' button variety: load, save, quit, etc..) are VERY slow when connected to xbox live. Particularly noticeable when scrolling through saved games. This is NOT the case when offline. Browsing saved games is very quick and "snappy". :p

Anyone else noticed this? I might submit this as a defect, if it were reproducible on other systems/internet connections. (I'm suspecting it may be related to my flaky 1Mb connection)

[Abulia]

You wouldn't.... would you? :eek:

Being a vampire has its pros and cons I guess. I got bored with it on my first character and just made a new character (my current) that isn't a vamp.I love it! It just adds to the role-playing atmosphere and works very well with my stealth/assassin/thief character.

Right now I feed daily, which is really easy since I'm constantly breaking into houses and stealing items. Plenty of juicy bodies to feed from. :)

Oh, and the stat bonuses and nightvision powers are nice, too. ;)

[Abulia]

Seriously, what I have noticed is that the game menus (the 'start' button variety: load, save, quit, etc..) are VERY slow when connected to xbox live. Particularly noticeable when scrolling through saved games. This is NOT the case when offline. Browsing saved games is very quick and "snappy". :p

Anyone else noticed this?Yes! I don't find the menus very responsive at times and just figured it was the game itself. They're not "bad" per se, but they're not very "snappy" either (to borrow a Safari term). :)

My 360 is online 24/7, so I've never played the game offline; I had no idea that the menu speed improved.

[mahashel]

I noticed the difference since my internet connection goes down for ~5 minutes several times a day. (I'm rural. I have a fixed-wireless microwave antenna, which is *much* better than dialup, though markedly unstable)

It's also interesting to note that a loss of connection really confuses xbox live. When a hiccup occurs, it kicks the machine off Live. Fortunately, this doesn't really affect my gameplay since Oblivion isn't MMO. However, Live never seems to attempt to reconnect. I have to manually enter the dashboard to connect.

Ahh.. the things we learn when working in an unstable networking environment. ;)

[SilentPanda]

I love it! It just adds to the role-playing atmosphere and works very well with my stealth/assassin/thief character.

Right now I feed daily, which is really easy since I'm constantly breaking into houses and stealing items. Plenty of juicy bodies to feed from. :)

Oh, and the stat bonuses and nightvision powers are nice, too. ;)

With my assassin character I just fed on people in the Dark Brotherhood... :P they didn't seem to care (or know!).

[AJ Muni]

I see how people have created multiple characters...if you do so do you need to start all over again, as in starting the game from the beginning and creating a different save?

[Abulia]

Yes, you have to start all over, unless you make a save right before you exit the sewers. Remember, when you exit the sewers you can recreate your character from scratch without having to re-do the entire foreward.

At least, that's what I did.

[saunders45]

I had a weird radiant AI thing happen last night. I was finally venturing out on foot (beyond the Imperial City and fast traveling to Kvatch). Anyways on the road to Chorrodal(?) I saw two guys just standing by the side of the ride shooting the breeze. Then, from down the road, and Imperial guard comes charging down, hops off of his horse and hacks the two guys apart. Then he proceeds to get on his horse, and walk over the bodies and just leaves. I tried to talk to him and the response was freakin hilarious. He was like "what is it citizen, I'm busy and have important matters to attend to.." I thought it was freakin hilarious.

[topicolo]

Has anyone tried to install Oblivion on a macbook or imac running windows XP with Apple's Bootcamp drivers yet? How are the frame rates? I want info! :D

[AJ Muni]

I'm about 20 hours into the game and only on level 6, and i wanted to know if i can switch my character by going back to the sewars and losing any the the quest that ive done?

[Abulia]

I'm about 20 hours into the game and only on level 6, and i wanted to know if i can switch my character by going back to the sewars and losing any the the quest that ive done?Nope.

[SilentPanda]

I beat the game the other day... at level 2. Took 21 hours and I did the whole mages guild quest line... wheee...

Now I'm going back through and finishing the other guild quest lines.

[AJ Muni]

my character is an imperial, and is built like a fighter. It sux cuz i cant seem to get my restoration or alteration up. I have alot of spells and it says i need a restoration of atleast 25, and im stuck like on 6. what can i do to increase it and my magicka?

[Abulia]

my character is an imperial, and is built like a fighter. It sux cuz i cant seem to get my restoration or alteration up. I have alot of spells and it says i need a restoration of atleast 25, and im stuck like on 6. what can i do to increase it and my magicka?Well, first, read the manual. :)

To raise your skill in Restoration or Alteration you need to...drumroll...cast Restoration and Alteration spells! So, go find a rat and let it chew on you a bit while you stand back and cast Restoration spells. Or use Alteration to keep casing Feather on yourself. Anything.

As far as magicka, you have to raise your Intelligence. To raise your Intelligence you have to use skills that are tied to Intelligence, like Alchemy.

Another way is to take one of the three magicka-enhancing birthsigns. In fact, unless you take one of those at the start of the game, you'll never be casting the huge, badass spells in the game.

[AJ Muni]

Well, first, read the manual. :)

To raise your skill in Restoration or Alteration you need to...drumroll...cast Restoration and Alteration spells! So, go find a rat and let it chew on you a bit while you stand back and cast Restoration spells. Or use Alteration to keep casing Feather on yourself. Anything.

As far as magicka, you have to raise your Intelligence. To raise your Intelligence you have to use skills that are tied to Intelligence, like Alchemy.

Another way is to take one of the three magicka-enhancing birthsigns. In fact, unless you take one of those at the start of the game, you'll never be casting the huge, badass spells in the game.

what does "feather casing" mean??

[Abulia]

There are weight reduction spells (Alteration, I believe) called "Feather" that you can cast over and over to raise your Alteration score. Or, find any other low level Alteration spell and cast it repeatedly.

It takes time, but that's how you raise your casting skills...by using them.

[AJ Muni]

There are weight reduction spells (Alteration, I believe) called "Feather" that you can cast over and over to raise your Alteration score. Or, find any other low level Alteration spell and cast it repeatedly.

It takes time, but that's how you raise your casting skills...by using them.

Awesome now i get it...dam Don M. do you work for 2k sports or something??:p :p ...you seem to know everything about this game. thanx for all the help btw.

[SilentPanda]

In fact, unless you take one of those at the start of the game, you'll never be casting the huge, badass spells in the game.

Unlesss..... you spam a spell based on intelligence, get it to 100 (or whatever... doesn't really matter), get thrown in jail, lose some points in that spell school, spam back to 100... you can infinitely level and infinitely get int (up to a cap if there is one)... long process I admit but... getting thrown in jail over and over again could be a way to find out what/if is the max level and stat cap. :p

[AJ Muni]

Unlesss..... you spam a spell based on intelligence, get it to 100 (or whatever... doesn't really matter), get thrown in jail, lose some points in that spell school, spam back to 100... you can infinitely level and infinitely get int (up to a cap if there is one)... long process I admit but... getting thrown in jail over and over again could be a way to find out what/if is the max level and stat cap. :p

I dont understand that at alll....

[Abulia]

I dont understand that at alll....He's talking about spamming a spell/skill that uses Intelligence as its primary stat and then levelling to raise your Intelligence stat.

Yes, this would take forever, you'd be something like level 30ish (!), and you'd still have fewer magicka than a pure mage who took the Apprentice birthsign at the start of the game.

In essence, when creating a character in Oblivion, if you have any interest in hurling end-game spells, you need to take one of the spell-oriented birthsigns for the 50/100 point magicka boost plus you'll need to raise your Intelligence periodically.

My stealth/assassin character is at a paltry 125 magicka right now (started the game at 80) after investing a few level-ups in Intelligence. It's a loooooong, sloooooow road. :)

[Abulia]

Oh, and if you want an easy way to raise your Intelligence, use Alchemy a lot between levels. Every time you level up you'll be offered a +4/5 bonus to Intelligence.

[SilentPanda]

I dont understand that at alll....

Edit: Now that I think about it I think there are 7 primary skills... but whatever. It's all just numbers.

---------------------------------------------

Fortunately I am bored. So here goes:

Skills have a maximum value of 100 aside from possible bonuses such as maybe a certain piece of armor giving you +3 to blades or what have you.

You only gain more ability points when you level up. Abilities are things like Intelligence, Willpower, Personality, etc.

You can only level by gaining 10 points in a primary skill of which you have 6.

Let's pretend evey primary skill you have starts at 0 (in reality it is much higher but 0 is the lowest you could start at). 6 primary skills each with 100 points to gain. That is 600 points. It takes 10 points to level. Therefore the max level you could achieve would be level 60 if your primary skills started at 0. They won't start at 0 but we're pretending okay? :)

Now you are at level 60 with your primary skills at 100. If you get thrown in jail your skills (not necessarily primary) go down depending on the length of time you stay in jail. So if you get thrown in jail (let's say for 10,000 in game days) your primary skills will probably go back to 0 but you will still be level 60. In theory you could then bring your skills back to 100 and gain another 60 levels.

Noooooooooooow....

Every time you level you can get more points to add to your abilities (if you've leveled once you've seen this screen). So by being able to level without limits you could in theory increase your intelligence by an infinite amount which would give you an infinite amount of mana.

Please note that my examples are with extremes. If you are level 60 and your skills dropped to 0 you most likely would die really really quick. Moreso you would drop a 100 level skill down to 90ish then bring it back up. There is also probably some realistic point where the monsters out level your skilled ability thus creating a point where you can no longer kill anything.

It's all theoretical and you'd be silly to do it... but... you could if you really wanted to. Probably.

[Gurutech]

I have a quick question.
Does this game only play in first person perspective mode?
I get pretty bad headache playing in any first person perspective.. and tho this game sounds very interesting, but if it's only playable in 1st person perspective, I woudln't really want to try this game.

Can you change camera mode or whatever so that it looks like 3rd person thing?... at least showing shoulder and head.. and perhaps arms..should be ok....

[SilentPanda]

I have a quick question.
Does this game only play in first person perspective mode?
I get pretty bad headache playing in any first person perspective.. and tho this game sounds very interesting, but if it's only playable in 1st person perspective, I woudln't really want to try this game.

Can you change camera mode or whatever so that it looks like 3rd person thing?... at least showing shoulder and head.. and perhaps arms..should be ok....

Yes you can play it in 3rd person. It's full body 3rd person like... uhhh... splinter cell or tomb raider.

[Gurutech]

Yes you can play it in 3rd person. It's full body 3rd person like... uhhh... splinter cell or tomb raider.
Thanks!
I'm gonna buy this baby tomorrow and try it out!!

[Shrek6446]

I have a quick question.
Does this game only play in first person perspective mode?
I get pretty bad headache playing in any first person perspective.. and tho this game sounds very interesting, but if it's only playable in 1st person perspective, I woudln't really want to try this game.

Can you change camera mode or whatever so that it looks like 3rd person thing?... at least showing shoulder and head.. and perhaps arms..should be ok....

You can change the camera angle but I wouldnt reccomend it. I tried to fight in 3rd person view and I couldnt block with my shield to save my life (literally) also it was really hard to cast any sort of destruction spell in 3rd person view. Good news though, my friend is the same way with 1st person perspective and this game doesnt give him a headache.

[0s and 1s]

On the other hand, it WILL give you a headache after playing for 7 hours straight! :(

Damn this crack!

[ijimk]

i also admitt i have been having a blast with this game and quake 4. I just found out about the third person mode. I have a question though, to level up you need to sleep right? do you do anything else? Does this have to be at an inn?.:confused:

[SilentPanda]

i also admitt i have been having a blast with this game and quake 4. I just found out about the third person mode. I have a question though, to level up you need to sleep right? do you do anything else? Does this have to be at an inn?.:confused:

To level up you have to sleep yes. It doesn't have to be at an inn, just in a bed.

You can change the camera angle but I wouldnt reccomend it. I tried to fight in 3rd person view and I couldnt block with my shield to save my life (literally) also it was really hard to cast any sort of destruction spell in 3rd person view. Good news though, my friend is the same way with 1st person perspective and this game doesnt give him a headache.

Sometimes people get sick due to "head bob" in first person. This game doesn't have it which helps a lot.

[srobert]

I play a character I would qualify as a pile-o-brick. I maxed endurance to 100 very early and got almost 400 HP at level 14 and got big heavy armor/shield. I also have maxed 100 strenght.

Yet, I run in fear when I see a Will-O-Wisp ^_^ The little guys drain my health faster than I can say "holy mud crab batman!".

Any pointers on how to fight will-o-wisp effectively? I know I need to use magical weapons. They drain all my health and magicka before I can kill them, even with health potions.

Until I find a good way to beat them, I'll keep avoinding them.

Thanks

[Mord]

i just sneak up on them and fire off a magic arrow on my magic bow, usually that takes them down to about half health, and i can finish off the rest with some blasts with my ice staff.

you can just buy glow dust in imperial city.

btw i seem to have done 90% of the game and i'm still lvl 7.....

nord healer, (i chose the charecter that looked most like me, pale, tall, long hair, nordic ect.)

[srobert]

There's my problem… I have next to nothing ranged firepower. I can avoid the wisps pretty easily outside but I seem to keep bumping against them in dungeons where I can't ovoid 'em.

Only level 7 and 90% done? ohh…*all those poor attribute up losts! :D

[Mord]

90% of main quests, all i have to do are a few fighters guild quests and i need to close the great gate.

damn my evilness i just found a unicorn and it turns out you have to be "pure" to ride it, i have over 500 murders to my name, and i've fenced over 20k g worth of goods.

[Abulia]

damn my evilness i just found a unicorn and it turns out you have to be "pure" to ride it, i have over 500 murders to my name, and i've fenced over 20k g worth of goods.Whoops! :eek:

Guess I'm not riding the unicorn either. ;)

[Mord]

shadowmare is good enough, it cracked me up first time i saw her, she has the most bizarre expression on her face with the red starring eyes.

i dont want to be a vamp, mainly because i fast travel all the time and if i couldn't do so in the day without feeding constantly i'd be annoyed.

[Abulia]

i dont want to be a vamp, mainly because i fast travel all the time and if i couldn't do so in the day without feeding constantly i'd be annoyed.I don't find the feeding to be an issue. I just do it when I get the chance (a lot) and keep "topped off." Then I fast travel anywhere I'd like.

Vampirism has been anything but a burden for my character. Lots of cool perks, no (meaningful) drawbacks! :D

[lad1509]

hello guys,
didn't want to start a new thread so ill try asking it here.
how does the PC version play on the intel imac20" via bootcamp?
thanks

[Shrek6446]

hello guys,
didn't want to start a new thread so ill try asking it here.
how does the PC version play on the intel imac20" via bootcamp?
thanks

I just installed Oblivion on my Macbook pro (I have the stock model with the 1.83ghz and 512 ram) and it runs great. The loading screens take a little longer then the xbox360 and the graphics dont look quite as nice but it still plays very well and I havent had any lag while fighting. I have only had a chance to play it for a couple of hours, so i dont know how well it will do later on during the game but for now it performs alot better then I expected.

[Littleodie914]

Ah... I've been reading you guys' reviews, and I can't even tell you how excited I am to play this game! We found it at Target on sale for $42, and my mom said she'd buy it for me as an Easter present if I paid half. (A deal in which I took no time in accepting!) The only bummer, though it makes sense, is that I have to wait until Easter to play it. She was willing to compromise and said that I can have it at 12:01 AM on Sunday morning (or LATE Saturday night, depending on how you look at it.) I CAN'T WAIT!!!

I was really hoping to save up my money and get WoW, but I loathe monthly fees, and we have dial-up, so I'm ridiculously excited about this game! :D :eek:

[Shrek6446]

Ah... I've been reading you guys' reviews, and I can't even tell you how excited I am to play this game! We found it at Target on sale for $42, and my mom said she'd buy it for me as an Easter present if I paid half. (A deal in which I took no time in accepting!) The only bummer, though it makes sense, is that I have to wait until Easter to play it. She was willing to compromise and said that I can have it at 12:01 AM on Sunday morning (or LATE Saturday night, depending on how you look at it.) I CAN'T WAIT!!!

I was really hoping to save up my money and get WoW, but I loathe monthly fees, and we have dial-up, so I'm ridiculously excited about this game! :D :eek:

Maybe you can convince your mom to let you play it at 12:01 Hawaii time or another time zone that is ahead of you. Then you can at least play it before midnight your time.

[Mord]

then she'd get one back and say "you should be able to play it when jesus died, (whenever that was, i have no idea, but it'd basically be saturday for you.

[Littleodie914]

Well guys, I'm back, and I've got good news and bad news.

The good news is that it's 1:50 here, and I've been playing the game for almost two hours now! (yay for loopholes)

The bad news is that the game runs HORRIBLY on my computer. Like even in the beginning of the game in the dungeon and caves, I'm getting 4-6 FPS, and 10 if I'm really close to the wall. Mind you this is on 640x480 with ALL of the video stuff set to the minimum. No AA, specular, or anything spiffy on, just bare minimum, and I'm getting 4-6 frames per second... My computer runs Half-Life 2 at 1280x1024 flawlessly... What gives?

My specs are...
2.6GHz P4
768MB RAM
nVidia FX5600 Ultra w/ 128MB

So shouldn't that be okay? I can't seem to understand why I can get great framerates in other games like HL2 and Doom 3 with the graphics turned up pretty high, but then in this when the graphics are REALLY low, it isn't even playable... Anybody have any ideas? Thanks in advance!

[risc]

I just spent my whole Easter break Friday to Sunday morning playing through the main story quests with a new character. This game is so intense. To the guy above I'm sorry to hear it sucks on your machine, but damn it plays nice on my 360.

[risc]

Vampirism has been anything but a burden for my character. Lots of cool perks, no (meaningful) drawbacks! :D

Agreed, I hated it when I first found out I was a vampire, but now I'm used to waiting a while and munching on a neck each night. :D Best game I've played in a while! Man vampires kick a$$!

[Shrek6446]

Well guys, I'm back, and I've got good news and bad news.

The good news is that it's 1:50 here, and I've been playing the game for almost two hours now! (yay for loopholes)

The bad news is that the game runs HORRIBLY on my computer. Like even in the beginning of the game in the dungeon and caves, I'm getting 4-6 FPS, and 10 if I'm really close to the wall. Mind you this is on 640x480 with ALL of the video stuff set to the minimum. No AA, specular, or anything spiffy on, just bare minimum, and I'm getting 4-6 frames per second... My computer runs Half-Life 2 at 1280x1024 flawlessly... What gives?

My specs are...
2.6GHz P4
768MB RAM
nVidia FX5600 Ultra w/ 128MB

So shouldn't that be okay? I can't seem to understand why I can get great framerates in other games like HL2 and Doom 3 with the graphics turned up pretty high, but then in this when the graphics are REALLY low, it isn't even playable... Anybody have any ideas? Thanks in advance!

hmmm... with those specs seem like you should be able to do better then that. Heres a couple things you can try to get better performance.

1. Run a spyware/adware/virus scan
2. Defrag your harddrive (a big game like this will frag your disk)
3. check nvdia's site for an up to date driver.
4. press control + alt + delete and check if anything is taking up excessive cpu cycles. If something is try killing the process
5. disable virus scan before you start oblivion

If all else fails try downloading a program called Powerstrip. Powerstrip is a fairly safe video card overclocking utility. Just adjust the sliders until the heat begins to rise on your video card. This has sometimes doubled my fps. The download site for powerstrip is listed below.

I hope this helps and goodluck
http://www.entechtaiwan.com/util/ps.shtm

[Littleodie914]

Thanks to the above poster for the suggestion, but I've always been a bit shy of overclocking. (Had a bad experience in the past :) )

I've been tweaking the heck out of the .ini file, and have managed to get OK performance most of the time just running around and what-not. One thing I have noticed is that when casting spells (whether it's me or the enemy) the FPS drops HORRIBLY. Like from 20-25 to about 2-3. Makes combat pretty darn frustrating, even against those Scampy Goblin things.

Does anyone know how to tone down the quality or shininess of the spells? I think that if I could just accomplish this one last thing, the game might be enjoyable. :rolleyes: Thanks a bunch so far guys!! :D

[Abulia]

Just get a 360, absolutely gorgeous. ;)

[srobert]

Just get a 360, absolutely gorgeous. ;)

Just curious. Oblivion on 360 is one of my favorite game ever but I have been experiencing a lot of crashes. Just want to know if I have more than I should. I get one approximately every 3 hours. It happens mostly on the loading screens. (Freezes). It's not that bad because the game auto-saves very often but it sorts of annoys me considering I paid hundreds of dollars to play this game.

[SilentPanda]

Just curious. Oblivion on 360 is one of my favorite game ever but I have been experiencing a lot of crashes. Just want to know if I have more than I should. I get one approximately every 3 hours. It happens mostly on the loading screens. (Freezes). It's not that bad because the game auto-saves very often but it sorts of annoys me considering I paid hundreds of dollars to play this game.

You might try clearing your cache. Hold down "A" while the game is loading (before the Bethesda screen when the game first loads) and it should remove the cache from your hard drive assuming you have one. Often times this will fix that problem.

[KafkaWasRight]

You might try clearing your cache. Hold down "A" while the game is loading (before the Bethesda screen when the game first loads) and it should remove the cache from your hard drive assuming you have one. Often times this will fix that problem.

You might also want to delete some save files. I've heard that having more than 10 or so can cause things to slow down. Also, you might want to clean out your inventory (those keys, notes, ingredients, and potions add up fast). I've heard that can help, too.

[srobert]

You might also want to delete some save files. I've heard that having more than 10 or so can cause things to slow down. Also, you might want to clean out your inventory (those keys, notes, ingredients, and potions add up fast). I've heard that can help, too.

Thanks for all the tips. I do have a lot of save files and keys ^_^ I also carry 300 pounds of alchemic materials with me all the time. I'll store some in the old shack from now on.

[SilentPanda]

Thanks for all the tips. I do have a lot of save files and keys ^_^ I also carry 300 pounds of alchemic materials with me all the time. I'll store some in the old shack from now on.

Make sure you own the shack or else it might be gone when you come back... :D

[calebjohnston]

Just pummel the manor with the dead person in it in B.... the first big town. That's always my hideout.

I haven't played the game in forever, I can't remember any of the names. Beautiful game, though.

P.S. My high elf pure mage would pwn all of yours. A lot.

[srobert]

P.S. My high elf pure mage would pwn all of yours. A lot.

Even if I'm 100% imune to magic? :D Your spells would only refill my Magicka bar ;) And I hit hard.

P.S.: I'm not imune to magic yet but I'm working on it. Now if I could only find/enchant the right equipment.

[Abulia]

You might try clearing your cache. Hold down "A" while the game is loading (before the Bethesda screen when the game first loads) and it should remove the cache from your hard drive assuming you have one. Often times this will fix that problem.What Panda says. The "A" fix clears the cache and really just fixes absurdly long loading times.

My 360 and Oblivion has never crashed thus far.

[srobert]

What Panda says. The "A" fix clears the cache and really just fixes absurdly long loading times.

My 360 and Oblivion has never crashed thus far.

Hmm…*maybe I got a lemon. I hope it's the game. 360 works fine with COD2 but I haven't played as much.

[etoiles]

I have had the loading 'feeze' (or maybe it was just a really long loading time ?) on me a few times... not sure if it was a crash. Also, some areas chug a bit, but it is usually just temporary. I'll try deleting the cash...

Btw, I just bought my own little cottage in the mountains... cost me 10'000, but hey, it has a fireplace :)

[Shrek6446]

Thanks to the above poster for the suggestion, but I've always been a bit shy of overclocking. (Had a bad experience in the past :) )

I've been tweaking the heck out of the .ini file, and have managed to get OK performance most of the time just running around and what-not. One thing I have noticed is that when casting spells (whether it's me or the enemy) the FPS drops HORRIBLY. Like from 20-25 to about 2-3. Makes combat pretty darn frustrating, even against those Scampy Goblin things.

Does anyone know how to tone down the quality or shininess of the spells? I think that if I could just accomplish this one last thing, the game might be enjoyable. :rolleyes: Thanks a bunch so far guys!! :D

Just a suggestion but have you tried turning EVERYTHING down to low or off? if not try that, if the game runs smoothly with all of the graphics turned down then start turning one thing at a time a little higher. If you turn something on and it makes the game run slower then turn it back down and try another setting. Again with those specs there is no reason that Oblivion shouldnt run a heck of alot faster then it is. Another thing you can try is downloading nvdia's Beta drivers, they speed up the video card without technically overclocking them. I will post the link below. If that doesnt work you might want to slap another stick of ram in there and see if that works

Good Luck

http://www.3dchipset.com/drivers/nvidia/beta/index.php

[panphage]

Sometimes people get sick due to "head bob" in first person. This game doesn't have it which helps a lot.

Oblivion absolutely has head bob and it makes me feel like my brain is trying too puke. Just like spinning around in place for like 5 minutes.

[Abulia]

Oblivion absolutely has head bob and it makes me feel like my brain is trying too puke. Just like spinning around in place for like 5 minutes.Speaking of which, go into Sneak mode, find a sleeping beggar, and just spin on top of him for about 20 minutes real-time. You'll get your Sneak to 100 in a jiffy. :)

(I recommend you close your eyes while you do this. You will get dizzy!) :D

[SilentPanda]

Oblivion absolutely has head bob and it makes me feel like my brain is trying too puke. Just like spinning around in place for like 5 minutes.

Weird... I never noticed it on the 360... maybe I was just too excited the whole time and was counter bobbing with giddyness.

[Abulia]

I downloaded the new 360 Oblivion content last night. Anyone try it yet?

Is the horse armor vanity armor, or does it actually have a use?

[SilentPanda]

I downloaded the new 360 Oblivion content last night. Anyone try it yet?

Is the horse armor vanity armor, or does it actually have a use?

I initially had read that it gave your horse actual armor but later read it was for vanity's sake.

I haven't used the new Oblivion content. Not sure if I'll get it...

[KafkaWasRight]

I initially had read that it gave your horse actual armor but later read it was for vanity's sake.

Aw, it is? Damn.
Oh well, at least Shadowmere looks great with it on.

[mahashel]

I downloaded the Orrery mod on my 360, and finished the affiliated quest.
The orrery itself is very interesting, as the machine is enormous and highly detailed.

(semi-spoiler)
The orrery grants the player a 'greater power' spell. These are the spells that can only be used once per day. The spell itself is okay; not really super-amazing. That's about it. All in all, the quest and "fixing" of the orrery took me 10 minutes to complete. While it's a cool-looking gizmo, some may not feel like they're getting their money's worth (it's only 2 bucks though).
Me? I think it's worth it, just for the story value. Granted, I'm a little disappointed that the NPC's who help you fix the orrery act like nothing ever happened after the quest is complete (kinda breaks the immersion).

As for technical impact, the Orrery content did not affect the stability of my game (I always get roughly 1 "loading" screen lock-up for each ~12 hours of play). The additional content automatically loads from the hard disk each time you launch the game.

[SilentPanda]

Aw, it is? Damn.
Oh well, at least Shadowmere looks great with it on.

My Shadowmere died... *sniffle*

[Lord Logan]

I HATE OGRES. I'm doing the PALE PASS Campaign and got besieged by Orgres. I'm a level 8 SpellSword Vampire with various enchanted weapons. I got so frustrated with those Orgres that I leveled out as a Vampire and slaughtered them all. I'm stuck in the ruins with nowhere to sleep. If I attempt to wait til dark and quick walk to a city, I die due to sunlight. I need some sleeping humans damn it!!!! The Thirst is upon me!!!!! Thankfully I saved before the decision to go all Angelus on them. Oh by the by, if you have the patience, there is a Unicorn near Anvil by the side of the road. If you train him he becomes a BADASS wilderness companion.

[Lord Logan]

I have a question. If you complete the cure Vampire Quest, once you're cured do you retain the powers and advances that you received as a Vampire? Probably not, but it'd be a cool payoff for this bitch of a quest.

[Mord]

i completed all the main quests (includeing guilds) and most of the side quests in about 20 hours and then my disk ubruptly died , now i'm bitching to 2K as my retailer only accepts returns within 30 days.

[EvilDoc]

Hey can any one help me out i kinda stuck on one of the quest. Its the best the brotherhood sends you on to kill the dude in the prison. The Door that would let me into the sewers is locked and i need a key to get in. so i tried to just go to the prison and kill a guards and take his key, but thats not the right key. I am completly out of lock picks too. And my magic isnt high enought to cast and spell to open the door. Any one have any ideas?

[Abulia]

Hey can any one help me out i kinda stuck on one of the quest. Its the best the brotherhood sends you on to kill the dude in the prison. The Door that would let me into the sewers is locked and i need a key to get in. so i tried to just go to the prison and kill a guards and take his key, but thats not the right key. I am completly out of lock picks too. And my magic isnt high enought to cast and spell to open the door. Any one have any ideas?Commit a crime and get thrown in jail. :)

Not sure which quest specifically you're referring too. There is one where you intentionally get caught, however.

[SilentPanda]

Hey can any one help me out i kinda stuck on one of the quest. Its the best the brotherhood sends you on to kill the dude in the prison. The Door that would let me into the sewers is locked and i need a key to get in. so i tried to just go to the prison and kill a guards and take his key, but thats not the right key. I am completly out of lock picks too. And my magic isnt high enought to cast and spell to open the door. Any one have any ideas?

It's been a bit but I'm pretty sure you get the key when you get the quest. Try talking to all the people in the Dark Brotherhood again. I've done that quest twice and I was given the key both times I'm pretty sure.

[EvilDoc]

It's been a bit but I'm pretty sure you get the key when you get the quest. Try talking to all the people in the Dark Brotherhood again. I've done that quest twice and I was given the key both times I'm pretty sure.

that maybe it, i didnt talk to any one other then the vamp who gave me the quest, so maybe one of the others will when the give me one of there oh so helpful tips.. thanks ill try that ;)

[EvilDoc]

Ok so i finish a quest for the ***** and ***** asked me if i wanted to be turned into a vampire. I of course said yes, my questions is it has been a couple of days (game days), and i keep getting new vampire skills. seems like its when i sleep i wake up with new spells and so on. But will i continue to get new spells or is this the result of not feeding?

edited.. removed possible spoliers..

[Abulia]

You get more abilities after not feeding for three (?) days. You also get greater vulnerabilities. Tried walking outside in the sun yet?

Also, you should spoiler tag that bit above about how you were made a vampire.

[EvilDoc]

yea i tried to fight in the arena during the day.. not a good idea. So the sensitivty is due to not feeding or does this happen regardless?

[Abulia]

New content on Marketplace. The Wizards Tower. Anyone try it out yet?

[mahashel]

Yup. It's my favorite official mod thus far. It adds some really great content, not just eye-candy.

I'm not sure if some might consider this a *spoiler*.
It's not quest-related, so I'll take my chances.

The Tower is east of Bruma, high in the Jerall mountains. It's very ornate, with little gyros and weathervanes spinning in the breeze. The view is spectacular (can see all the way to the sea beyond Imperial City), though it's frequently obscured by foul weather.
The tower does not require a quest or any other action on the player's part to unlock. The character will simply receive a message that they've inherited the tower and can go find it at their leisure. It is like any other house in the game, as it comes without furnishings, and they must be purchased.
The furniture is not any more expensive than other mid-level houses (~1500 per upgrade, if I remember right), and they add many cool features. One is an alchemy bench that adds a bonus to your alchemy skill while standing near it. There are also personal spellmaking/enchanting machines in the tower. They require special candles, though, which are fairly expensive. The cost is obviously worth it, since the ability to enchant and create spells on your own is priceless. (This is *awesome* for magic-users who don't want to follow the mage's guild for RP reasons)
The top of the tower hosts portals to every mage's guild in Cyrodiil. They're a very nice RP-friendly method of crossing the map without using fast-travel. Unfortunately, there's no way to teleport *back* to the tower. heh
Theoretically, the view from the top of the spire would be breathtaking, but it's constantly raining at the top of the tower (even when sunny or snowing at the base), which is disappointing. (I've waited for hours, and the rain never clears up. I'm assuming it's intentional; perhaps for performance reasons)
There is a vault in the basement of the tower, which is filled with treasure chests for hoarding your precious loot. This room is filled with imps that guard your plunder, which is a nice touch (after you buy the vault upgrade).

The mod has not affected the game's stability. I get solid framerates around the tower (except for when an oblivion gate opened nearby. Bah!).
Enjoy!

[Redline13]

I just got this game about a week ago and I love it. You can just get lost in it. The only major complaint I have is that the controls while riding a horse are horrible. I am playing on a 360 so maybe it's different with a mouse and keyboard.

[srobert]

Maybe not the best thraed to ash but Oblivion on the 360 runs in 720p right? Any games on the 360 that supports 1080i? I'd like to rent one to see what this baby can really do.

Thanks.

[Artful Dodger]

Maybe not the best thraed to ash but Oblivion on the 360 runs in 720p right? Any games on the 360 that supports 1080i? I'd like to rent one to see what this baby can really do.

Thanks.

I just played Oblivion tonight @1080i and very much liked it. Some say games at 720p look better but like I said I'm very happy to see 1080i. It ran very smooth and my friend said it was a big difference from his TV as he put it through it's paces in certain areas without a glich ;) I'm so glad I bought a HDTV when I was able to and playing this games is a nice reason to add to it.

[srobert]

I just played Oblivion tonight @1080i and very much liked it. Some say games at 720p look better but like I said I'm very happy to see 1080i. It ran very smooth and my friend said it was a big difference from his TV as he put it through it's paces in certain areas without a glich ;) I'm so glad I bought a HDTV when I was able to and playing this games is a nice reason to add to it.

Is the game set to 1080i by default or is this something that must be set in the options?

[Abulia]

Maybe not the best thraed to ash but Oblivion on the 360 runs in 720p right? Any games on the 360 that supports 1080i? I'd like to rent one to see what this baby can really do.Oblivion (and all 360 games) support 720p and 1080i. The resolution is set via your 360 Dashboard.

I believe Oblivion is 1080i native, though. (I've played in both and 1080i is a teeeeny bit better looking on my set.)

[Shrek6446]

Maybe not the best thraed to ash but Oblivion on the 360 runs in 720p right? Any games on the 360 that supports 1080i? I'd like to rent one to see what this baby can really do.

Thanks.

Why would you want to run it at 1080i?? 720p is much better then 1080i

If you dont believe me check out this link (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/720p)

[coffey7]

I play this game in 1080i but now I will try it in 720p. Just to see the difference.:)

[mrgreen4242]

Why would you want to run it at 1080i?? 720p is much better then 1080i

If you dont believe me check out this link (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/720p)

Meh. That's a very debatable statement. First off, a single field of 1080i (1920*540=1,036,800 pixels) has more data than a full frame of 720p (1280*720=921,600 pixels). When you consider temporal resolution (the number of pixels displayed in a given second) 1080i can end up just marginally ahead when you compare 1080i60 (which is pretty much always used) to 720p60 (standard but not always the case), or it can come out way on top if you are looking at 1080i60 vs. 720p30*.

The interlacing effect is almost completely unnoticable at 1080i, unlike 480i, because the scanlines are so thin. From any appreciable distance you simply can't make out that high level of detail. Now, I'm not saying 720p isn't ging provide a smoother image, it will, but the jitter from interlacing is so amazingly fine at 1080i that you just don't see it. With the increased overall resolution you get a more detailed image.

Finaly, the real deciding factor is simply going to be the TV you are using. If it's a fixed pixel display, a 720p signal is going to look better no matter what. Between deinterlacing and scaling you will ruin the original, higher qulaity, signal if you feed it 1080i. If your TV is designed for 1080i (CRT or CRT based projectors) it's obviously going to look much better with that than a 720p signal.

The two technologies have their advantages, with fixed pixel/progressive systems being smaller and have potencial to be very large. CRT based sets, though, can deliver to agruably higher standard 1080i picture, as well as natively display a 480p signal without scaling it at all (which gives a really nice picture without the need for an expecsive scaler - which still won't end up as nice). This is great because, like it or not, DVD and other SD video sources aren't going anywhere anytime soon.

Plus CRT displays have black levels that make plasma (and LCD) owners cry with envy. If you ask any videophile or TV tech, poor black levels can make even the nicest image look like crap. This, I find, is particularly important for games, as you get really vibrant looking colors and moody atmospheres.

Now, my last quandry is this: when playing HD games, on say the 360, I wonder if the system is actually rendering a full 60 frames a second? It could get away with rendering 30 frames at either 1280*720 or 1920*1080 depending on your settings, and then either displaying each frame 2x for the 720p output or splitting the 1080p signal into two fields for 1080i.

This would make sense to me, since I have heard reports that some Xbox games run well at 720p but stutter at 1080i. If it's just going a 30fps render at differing resolutions, it would end up working twice as hard for the 1080i gamer than for the 720p, as oposed to just ~12% hard if it was doing full 720p60. Anyone know anything about that?

*1080i60 = 62,208,000 pixels per second, 720p60 = 55,296,000 p/s, 720p30 = 27,648,000 ... not many devices use the 720p30 signal, but it is officially defined by the ATSC standard, so it's worth considering.

EDIT: Ferretboy - set the 360 to match your TVs optimal display settings. Generally, if you have a plasma/LCD display, then go for 720p. If you have a CRT HDTV, then keep the 1080i setting. If it's a rear projection set you'll have to check the manual, it could be either. For regular projectors, it'll probably be 720p, but it could be 1080i, you'll want to consult your manual as well.

[Shrek6446]

Meh. That's a very debatable statement. First off, a single field of 1080i (1920*540=1,036,800 pixels) has more data than a full frame of 720p (1280*720=921,600 pixels). When you consider temporal resolution (the number of pixels displayed in a given second) 1080i can end up just marginally ahead when you compare 1080i60 (which is pretty much always used) to 720p60 (standard but not always the case), or it can come out way on top if you are looking at 1080i60 vs. 720p30*.

The interlacing effect is almost completely unnoticable at 1080i, unlike 480i, because the scanlines are so thin. From any appreciable distance you simply can't make out that high level of detail. Now, I'm not saying 720p isn't ging provide a smoother image, it will, but the jitter from interlacing is so amazingly fine at 1080i that you just don't see it. With the increased overall resolution you get a more detailed image.

Finaly, the real deciding factor is simply going to be the TV you are using. If it's a fixed pixel display, a 720p signal is going to look better no matter what. Between deinterlacing and scaling you will ruin the original, higher qulaity, signal if you feed it 1080i. If your TV is designed for 1080i (CRT or CRT based projectors) it's obviously going to look much better with that than a 720p signal.

The two technologies have their advantages, with fixed pixel/progressive systems being smaller and have potencial to be very large. CRT based sets, though, can deliver to agruably higher standard 1080i picture, as well as natively display a 480p signal without scaling it at all (which gives a really nice picture without the need for an expecsive scaler - which still won't end up as nice). This is great because, like it or not, DVD and other SD video sources aren't going anywhere anytime soon.

Plus CRT displays have black levels that make plasma (and LCD) owners cry with envy. If you ask any videophile or TV tech, poor black levels can make even the nicest image look like crap. This, I find, is particularly important for games, as you get really vibrant looking colors and moody atmospheres.

Now, my last quandry is this: when playing HD games, on say the 360, I wonder if the system is actually rendering a full 60 frames a second? It could get away with rendering 30 frames at either 1280*720 or 1920*1080 depending on your settings, and then either displaying each frame 2x for the 720p output or splitting the 1080p signal into two fields for 1080i.

This would make sense to me, since I have heard reports that some Xbox games run well at 720p but stutter at 1080i. If it's just going a 30fps render at differing resolutions, it would end up working twice as hard for the 1080i gamer than for the 720p, as oposed to just ~12% hard if it was doing full 720p60. Anyone know anything about that?

*1080i60 = 62,208,000 pixels per second, 720p60 = 55,296,000 p/s, 720p30 = 27,648,000 ... not many devices use the 720p30 signal, but it is officially defined by the ATSC standard, so it's worth considering.

EDIT: Ferretboy - set the 360 to match your TVs optimal display settings. Generally, if you have a plasma/LCD display, then go for 720p. If you have a CRT HDTV, then keep the 1080i setting. If it's a rear projection set you'll have to check the manual, it could be either. For regular projectors, it'll probably be 720p, but it could be 1080i, you'll want to consult your manual as well.

WOW who did you steal that from?

All I know is that if you ask ANY expert they will tell you when looking for a new TV to get it in either 1080p or 720p, all of them will say dont settle for 1080i.

[DougTheImpaler]

Well, thanks guys. I am going to get 2 games with my 360...the first is PGR3...I think this is now the second.

[sb58]

Well, thanks guys. I am going to get 2 games with my 360...the first is PGR3...I think this is now the second.
i hated that game... (just my opinion)

[Artful Dodger]

Is the game set to 1080i by default or is this something that must be set in the options?

I'm not sure what the default was or is but I just set-up my 360 via dashboard and put it to the 1080i. I did this since my HDTV is a 30" CRT type and not LCD based. I did try it using 720p but I think, so did all my friends so far, that the 1080i has the best picture for now. As mrgreen4242 has put it, Finaly, the real deciding factor is simply going to be the TV you are using. If it's a fixed pixel display, a 720p signal is going to look better no matter what. Between deinterlacing and scaling you will ruin the original, higher qulaity, signal if you feed it 1080i. If your TV is designed for 1080i (CRT or CRT based projectors) it's obviously going to look much better with that than a 720p signal.

As of now if I had a LCD HDTV I would use 720p or even 1080p but at the price I got my HDTV I will never complain :D Anyway it's a nice looking game that I seem to be spending a lot of time on.

[etoiles]

I finished the main quest a while back, but I still like to do a few side-quests here and there... guess this game never really ends.

I am kind of running out of cool spells to buy, tough :)

[Abulia]

I am kind of running out of cool spells to buy, tough :)Time to start making some, then! :D

[EvilDoc]

can any one tell me what i need to do to enchant weapons? can this only be done in the arcane uni?

[etoiles]

Time to start making some, then! :D

you are right... unfortunately, I am still just an apprentice in the Mage's Guild. Now I have something else to focus on. Been sidetracked becomming a fighter and asassin... oh, and saving the world :D

can any one tell me what i need to do to enchant weapons? can this only be done in the arcane uni?

you can also use the sigil stones (you get them when you close a gate)...

[sb58]

you can also use the sigil stones (you get them when you close a gate)...
and don't forget that the power of a sigil stone is equal to your level. so its best to get them at a higher level... and then the cloning glitch helps you enchant, say an entire set of armor :p

[Abulia]

and don't forget that the power of a sigil stone is equal to your level. so its best to get them at a higher level... and then the cloning glitch helps you enchant, say an entire set of armor :pCloning glitch?

[EvilDoc]

and don't forget that the power of a sigil stone is equal to your level. so its best to get them at a higher level... and then the cloning glitch helps you enchant, say an entire set of armor :p


yea cough it up i wanta know too ;)

[Shrek6446]

Cloning glitch?

Here is the cloning glitch, (scroll down if you dont want to know :p)

1)Equip ANY set of arrows.

2)Draw your bow back,while its drawn back press B to go to your inventory screen.

3)Click on the arrows you have equipped with A and then on any other set of arrows you own and press A twice.

4)Now find an item you wish to clone and drop it. This doesn't work with every item.

You will get the amount of items as the amount of arrows you have ( For example, if you have 25 arrows and you try to dupe a potion you will get 25 potions and so on.)

This doesnt work with most of the quest items and a couple other random items.

PS if it doesnt work at first try it a couple more times because it doesnt always work. Practice with the lockpicks

HAVE FUN!!!

[Abulia]

Must...resist...temptation....

;)

[Haoshiro]

I saw a video of this in action, it looked incredibly cool because they cloned like 50 potions on a roof and you just saw them pouring off onto the street... insane.

Crazy bug, surely they will patch it eventually, lol.

Edit: then again, it's not an online game.... why patch it? let the cheaters have their fun! ;)

[sb58]

Also a couple of hints for the cloning glitch:
1)Don't make alot of Sigil Stones. the noise is unbearable.
2)Don't make thousands and thousands of items in one area. It makes map loading times a pain.
3)Items like quest items, enchanted items, and most weapons are not able to be cloned.

[sb58]

I saw a video of this in action, it looked incredibly cool because they cloned like 50 potions on a roof and you just saw them pouring off onto the street... insane.

Crazy bug, surely they will patch it eventually, lol.

Edit: then again, it's not an online game.... why patch it? let the cheaters have their fun! ;)
they already have. teh new patch that has the horse armor fixes it.

and yeah i double posted, sue me.;)

[quikssurfer]

I have had the loading 'feeze' (or maybe it was just a really long loading time ?) on me a few times... not sure if it was a crash. Also, some areas chug a bit, but it is usually just temporary. I'll try deleting the cash...

Btw, I just bought my own little cottage in the mountains... cost me 10'000, but hey, it has a fireplace :)

yeah well, my craphole in skingrad waterfront has a fireplace! :)

[saunders45]

Anyone get the thieves den yet? I'm tempted to, just so I can have my very own band of pirates. We shall be known as the Goonies, and I shall be known as Captain Sloth.;)

[JDOG_]

Anyone get the thieves den yet? I'm tempted to, just so I can have my very own band of pirates. We shall be known as the Goonies, and I shall be known as Captain Sloth.;)

Yeah I got it. It's a nice little place...not spectacular, but quite nice. Also, getting a free 1,000 gold every pirate raid is pretty neat and the trainers can be quite helpful. Plus a $1.88 ain't bad mate...that's like a taco. :D

[sb58]

As soon as i hook up to XBL(assuming that silver or gold or w/e subscription that came with it still works) i plan on getting all the updates.

[etoiles]

yeah well, my craphole in skingrad waterfront has a fireplace! :)

I now also have a nice, fully furnished place downtown Skingrad... you should stop by for tea some time :)

[quikssurfer]

I now also have a nice, fully furnished place downtown Skingrad... you should stop by for tea some time :)
downtown aye?
how much did that run you?
mine was half the gold of a horse :) - and boy is it ugly

[etoiles]

downtown aye?
how much did that run you?
mine was half the gold of a horse :) - and boy is it ugly

can't remember exactly... probably around 30'000. Plus 2000 for each furnishing item to make the place nice and cozy.

Pretty crazy when all you need is a bed and a couple storage bins to keep things tidy. I wish there was a way to throw parties at your place :)

[achie25]

I guess I thought that I would revive this old thread since reading this was one of the reasons I went out and got this game. Most everybody has had this game a long time and probably has already beaten it but I just got my 360 last week and I have to say that Oblivion is one of the funnest games I have ever played. I am not a real big traditional RPG fan but I love the action RPG gameplay that this games brings to the table. I love the interaction of the you character and the environment and the graphics are great. I just wish I had more time to play it.

[Abulia]

Surprisingly, I haven't beaten Oblivion yet. I just like exploring and taking my time.

Part of the reason I stopped is being distracted by some other great games on the 360. The lure of Oblivion always calls to me, however...