Elder Scrolls Oblivion Gold 179
Gamespot has word that Bethesda's upcoming release Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion has gone gold. It is due out on the 20th. They also have a rundown on some gameplay. From the article: "In true Elder Scrolls fashion, you start Oblivion rotting in a jail cell. Don't worry--Oblivion plunges you into the action and story faster than any Elder Scrolls game to date. We'll get into some minor spoilers here, though many of the following facts have already been revealed publicly. Once again you'll play as a character burdened by destiny to save the world, this time from a demonic invasion from the hellish plane known as Oblivion. Before you know it, you'll go from the dungeon cell to exploring a dank underground, killing rats and assassins while also getting some welcome introductory exposition from Emperor Uriel Septim VII, voiced by Patrick Stewart himself." I know I don't normally mention gold releases, but I'm really looking forward to this one. You know a guy is committed when he buys new RAM for a game.
Re:Will Oblivion fix Morrowind's bland NPCs? (Score:2, Informative)
Lol FF7 (Score:3, Informative)
They are totally different beasts. If you like one then you will probably hate the other. To me for instance Final Fantasy isn't even an RPG. Its an adventure on rails with piss poor graphics and lousy combat and ZERO freedom.
On the other hand if you loved it then Morrowind will definitly not be your cup of tea. FF very strong story line with NO choice wich allows for your character to have a very real personilty and interact with his surroundings.
Morrowind, you are pretty much a faceless hero, if your lucky the AI will be intelligent enough to react differently depending on your sex but expecting it to react based on your sex, and skin color and species and combat choice is to much for current tech. Then again, morrowing allows you to play YOUR character and not the character the FF designer decided.
As for the loading times, well it all depends, on a good PC it sufffered because it was crippled (was fixed later with the PC only expansions) to be able to run on a x-box and therefor did not make full use of your memory. But again comparing this to FF7 is insane. Maybe your monitor sucked or you played the games on a console but on the PC the graphics difference between FF7 and Morrowind is several lightyears.
Anyway, for anyone still reading, ALL the Elder Scroll games are open ended, be your own character style games. If you expect Japanese style on rail gameplay look elsewhere. Elder Scrolls makes Baldur Gates look restrictive.
Sadly reviewers have to put games in one of a handfull of categories and that makes it very confusing for people who think all RPG's should be alike.
I am not suprised you didn't like morrowind, what is sad that you didn't learn it would not be to your taste before you bought it. Game reviews suck for this reason alone. Stop trying to sell every game to everybody. Make it clear what a game is going to be like.
This gamespot 'preview' again seems to be selling the game as having action and plot and it won't. You will once again be allowed to get totally lost and have to deal witht the fact you can wander into the wrong areas way to early because that is the kind of game Bethseda makes. Some of use love it, but make it clear to the Final Fantasy lovers that they should stay clear. Or at least be prepared for something completly different.
And here is the link... (Score:4, Informative)
Re:What about quests? (Score:3, Informative)
I've read in an interview or something somewhere that had a dev quoted as saying it's still a game that's measured in the hundreds of hours rather than the tens of hours (with 200 hours being the most often quoted figure, and about 20 hours for the main quest I believe).
Re:Not another underground labyrinth start! (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Just New Ram? (Score:5, Informative)
Not that much more money?!? A PC with the recommended specs will easily cost you twice as much as a 360. I hate it when people talk about PC gaming like it's cheaper than console, because it it quite clearly is not. And yes, while you can use the PC for other stuff, you could also use a much cheaper PC that you don't have to upgrade every year for all that other stuff. Sure, gaming PCs do have benefits over consoles, but don't try to pretend they aren't a lot more money.
Re:Interesting (Score:2, Informative)
Re:RAM = commitment? (Score:4, Informative)
Imagine making a texture (not a picture) of something like wood or rusty metal in photoshop. You start with a base color, add some repetetive but randomized detail, apply a bunch of filters, and youve got something very nice. Now you save a picture of it. That is old school. The procedural way is to store a list of the things you did, and save that, then feed it to a copy of photoshop again later. This has two advantages. One, it saves a shitload of space, since the list is tiny and the resulting bitmap is huge. Two, it allows for really 'smooth' changes. You can change one step in the middle of the list and get a similar-but-significantly-different texture.
The same goes for music, 3d models, animations, etc.
Re:Interesting (Score:3, Informative)
As far as ugly, I'd have to agree, the npc's were definately that. However the really good thing about Morrowind was the modding potential. I downloaded some mods that fixed that right up. Some of the modders out there (look for red's heads astar's replaces) made some really amazingly good looking npc meshes and textures, many with very compareable complexity so they won't slow down the game on older computers.
Once you get used to the game (and grab a few mod's to make the npc's look good) it's a very good rpg for those that prefer not being railroaded down a set storyline (though there is one to follow if and when and how you choose).
Mycroft
Re:3rd person option (Score:3, Informative)
It's a bit interesting, as in a lot of other RPGs if you can pick it up, it's either important or valuable. If you do the same in an Elder Scrolls game, you'll find that like in real life, picking up everything not nailed down isn't very helpful, and often quite a burden.