how did Oblivion get such a high rating?

[wanderer27]

Originally posted by: ShawnD1
This game is horrible. It's made by the same people who made Fallout 3, so I keep giving it the benefit of the doubt, but it keeps sucking ass. I've explored most of the map and I have yet to find any merchants that have money. My inventory is constantly full because I can't find a single person who can buy any of it. I'm looking for mods or patches to fix this bullshit, but so far I haven't found anything.

Seriously, can anyone tell me how this game deserves anything higher than a 4 or 5 out of 10?

There are Merchants in every City. A lot of them are specialized - Armor only, Weapons only, Plants only, etc..

They keep regular hours, generally 7am or 8am to ? (don't remember), so you can't just walk in anytime you want.

I thought their money reset each day (24 Hrs), not every three days . . .


Oblivion is a pretty good game. The major issues I have with it is the scaled Leveling and generic Dungeons.
I'm also a bit pi**ed that they ripped out some parts (Wizard Tower) that were in it so that they could sell it as DLC.

Between Oblivion and Morrowind, I like Morrowind better.
The Oblivion NPCs & AI are better, but Morrowind is a more engaging game.

 

[Marty502]

Oblivion, to me, was worthless without mods.

Originally posted by: Denithor
Was there ever a patch created that removed the "enemies scale directly with your level" crap? I too started the game several times but never could get past that factor - I want some challenge at points & also want to feel powerful eventually. When the standard-issue bandits on the road always provide the same fight for you - regardless of level - it's broken.

I'm not really up to date since I haven't played it in ages,
but the Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul mod brought that game to life, and disabled that scaling thing. I hated it straight out of the box.

And by the way, the level matching system in Oblivion is, by far, the most idiotic, retarded idea I've ever seen in an RPG.

I mean, isn't part of the soul of RPGs to take big risks and fight epic battles against much superior opponents? It's not so epic to have a game babysitting you.
Thankfully Oscuro took care of that and removed that system.

 

[wanderer27]

Originally posted by: Denithor
Was there ever a patch created that removed the "enemies scale directly with your level" crap? I too started the game several times but never could get past that factor - I want some challenge at points & also want to feel powerful eventually. When the standard-issue bandits on the road always provide the same fight for you - regardless of level - it's broken.

This is supposed to be a pretty good (and challenging) mod:

http://devnull.sweetdanger.net/ooo.html



Another level adapter is #9 on this list:

http://planetelderscrolls.game...1&view=Articles.Detail

 

[Markbnj]

And by the way, the level matching system in Oblivion is, by far, the most idiotic, retarded idea I've ever seen in an RPG.

Yeah, I agree with that. Very dumb. Aside from the interface it's the next most obvious evidence of the game's console-based design focus.

 

[BenSkywalker]

Morrowind was awesome when loaded with mods. It had unique atmosphere, you could get your ass busted up if you went to the wrong place

You could die in Morrowind? That is one aspect I thought Oblivion was much better at then Morrowind. Took anyone all of a couple of hours to make themselves a god in that game if they were vaguely aware of how Elder Scrolls games worked.(Alch-Int boost pot until a few hundred million mana- custom create a couple spells and gg). Within a few hours I could be fighting the final boss, standing in a pool of lava and walk away from the keyboard coming back an hour later and still be at full health. Morrowind was terribly, horribly broken in terms of difficulty. Two shot Vivec at level 2? Yep.

Granted, you could do the same in Oblivion(wait until level ~40 then pick up all dmg reflect and spell absorb gear, you will be unkillable) but because of the level scaling at least it took a while. Oblivion also killed Morrowind in terms of stability. Morrowind was a nightmare to play through when it launched, on a realistic basis you needed to wait several months before you could get anything resembling a smooth playing game going. Oblivion wasn't without issue(nor Fallout3) but they were certainly better then Morrowind(Morrowind on the XBox was the shittiest coded game I have seen to date- and that includes ET- I also have it for the PC along with expansions).

Morrowind was kind of cool because to me it played like Black&White should have, a sand box god sim. Just flying around doing my thing slaughtering anyone I felt like when I felt like it, helping people if I felt like it. It wasn't challenging though, not even close.

Someone was having problems with the combat in Oblivion? For real? While it isn't Morrowind easy by any means, it is easier then Fallout3 by a decent amont(not that FO3 is hard, but ElderScrolls games in general are not known for their difficulty to put it mildly ).

Yeah, I agree with that. Very dumb. Aside from the interface it's the next most obvious evidence of the game's console-based design focus.

Honest question- was that an attempt to sound stupid? Said another way- care to link up console RPGs that do anything like that? The level balancing design was all PC native dev, as was the inventory system.

 

[nakedfrog]

Originally posted by: Denithor
Was there ever a patch created that removed the "enemies scale directly with your level" crap? I too started the game several times but never could get past that factor - I want some challenge at points & also want to feel powerful eventually. When the standard-issue bandits on the road always provide the same fight for you - regardless of level - it's broken.

I'm pretty sure a mod came out very shortly after the game to fix that.
I think when road bandits start packing some of the best gear in the game, there's an issue

 

[dj2004]

Originally posted by: wanderer27

I thought their money reset each day (24 Hrs), not every three days . . .

Probably right. I was likely using the Living Economy mod which resets every three days.

 

[Martimus]

Oblivion is my favorite game that has come out in the last 5 years. So I have to completely disagree with you. Fallout 3 was ok, but it was nowhere near as good as Oblivion to me. Oblivion was far more open, and the side quests were so well done that you could spend all your time doing them and not feel like you are grinding. The fact that the AI actually interacted with each other in a non-scripted way really helped with the immersion of the game world as well. I loved that characters could go out and die after getting attacked by bandits and you wouldn't see them again. Worlds where the world will function without your interaction are rare in games, and this is one of the few that was able to succefully capture that (Stalker did a better job, but I digress).

Issues with the game were that once you got to a certain level the opponents would be very boring, since they just didn't change anymore and would always have the best equipment regardless of whether it made sense for who they are or not. Also, the leveling system made little sense, and you had to micromanage it to avoid getting behind the curve. The main quest wasn't done very well, although the side quests were perhaps the best of any game I have ever played.

 

[Dumac]

Oblivion was the biggest letdown in gaming I have ever experienced. They got rid of EVERYTHING that made Morrowind enjoyable, and replaced it with shiny graphics, physics, and blandness.

The setting was bland and boring. The characters were boring. The extremely limited dialogue was boring. The story was boring. The weapon, magic, and enchantment systems were all stripped to the point of being boring.

The leveling/scaling system was retarded, and completely killed the game for me. The AI was laughable. The spoken voices drove me insane.

The fighting system was very clumsy, but an acceptable alternative to Morrowind's semi-silly fighting system.

Morrowind was better in every single way, excluding eye candy.

EDIT:

OP, mods can fix some of these issues. Others, I haven't been able to find a fix for.

 

[Marty502]

Originally posted by: Dumac The spoken voices drove me insane.

"Aww, is the baby gonna cry!?" :thumbsdown:

I gotta give you that one. The voice acting in Oblivion is atrocious.

 

[Markbnj]

Honest question- was that an attempt to sound stupid? Said another way- care to link up console RPGs that do anything like that? The level balancing design was all PC native dev, as was the inventory system.

I don't even know what you mean by PC native dev, and I'm a dev. I don't care where they developed it. What I meant was that developing for the console market meant a different audience than the old-school RPGs. I'm not anti-console, but consoles represent the mass market of gaming, and RPGs of the old-school variety never appealed to a mass market. If I accidentally tripped over your console vs. PC war mentality... oh well.

 

[brandonb]

I played Oblivion and Morrowind when they were released. I enjoyed Oblivion more. I'd rate Oblivion on a 7/10 scale. I had no mods on either. However, I've tried Oblivion again a few times since it was released (my roommate saved over my saved game when I was near the last night with the end dude) but I just couldn't do it again.

I think the worst thing about oblivion and even morrowind is the horrible character development. The assigning points into attributes when leveling, the character leveling was retarded. I didn't mind the monster leveling, the character leveling was worse. I hated jumping up and down for hours to make sure I had enough points built up in acrobatics to get a +5 speed bump when resting. That type of crap is horrible.

That and the console interface was a turn off. I didn't care much about the rest, such as dialog, it didn't bother me much. Alot of the dungeons had interesting and atmospheric parts which drew me in. But the oblivion gate towers were just cookie cutter and was a let down.

 

[pwnagesarus]

I admit, I was blinded by Oblivion's shiny-ness. Looking back on it, it wasn't a bad game. I think the guild missions were better done than Morrowind. Other than that and the graphics, Morrowind was superior in every way. I had many hours of fun with Morrowind with no mods or expansions. Once I started loading up on the mods....it's addictiveness was on par with Blizzard's best. Then I went out and bought Tribunal and never touched Morrowind again two days later. =/

 

[ShawnD1]

Originally posted by: nakedfrog
I had the most fun with Oblivion going through all the guild missions.

Originally posted by: ShawnD1

Now if you want to complain about ratings then how did boring Biocrap (Bioshock)get such a high rating is beyond me since the game was slow and boring,even storyline was not great and I can think of 100 games a lot better,I'm still annoyed I wasted my money buying that overhyped short game.

It's arguable that this game's main problem is consolitis. You can tell the game was never play tested if you try playing it on medium or hard difficulty. The nitro splicers kill in 1 hit, big daddy grenades kill in 1 hit, big daddy nail gun kills in 2-3 hits, your machine gun does no damage, hacked sentry guns can be destroyed by the weakest splicers in the game. It's a fun game on PS3, but the PC version is broken beyond belief.

Weird, I played through it on medium difficulty (PC), but it sounds almost like we were playing completely different games.

I made a video to show you what I'm talking about. Here's me attacking a big daddy. I shoot this bastard with a shotgun a total of 9 times and he's only half dead. In the 30 seconds fraps allows me to capture, he drains my life enough to use 2 health packs. It's also worth noting that big daddy can run faster than me, so there's really no way to escape him. I can't just buy anti-armor bullets because I already spent all of my money on those when trying to kill one of the other big daddies in that level.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gebsAsL7Ol4

edit:
On an unrelated note, I'm really impressed with Windows Movie Maker. It took 200mb of raw fraps video and crushed it down to 9mb. The original wmv uploaded to youtube is incredibly high quality even when it's that small.

 

[Stoneburner]

Morrowind was so much better at being a game and more engrossing. Gothic 3 would have been better than oblivion if not for the damn bugs.

 

[nakedfrog]

Originally posted by: ShawnD1
I made a video to show you what I'm talking about. Here's me attacking a big daddy. I shoot this bastard with a shotgun a total of 9 times and he's only half dead. In the 30 seconds fraps allows me to capture, he drains my life enough to use 2 health packs. It's also worth noting that big daddy can run faster than me, so there's really no way to escape him. I can't just buy anti-armor bullets because I already spent all of my money on those when trying to kill one of the other big daddies in that level.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gebsAsL7Ol4

Is this on hard difficulty? They were tough on medium until I upgraded my weapons a bit (and used special ammo), and did kill me at times, but they're not supposed to be easy to kill.

 

[ShawnD1]

Originally posted by: nakedfrog

Originally posted by: ShawnD1
I made a video to show you what I'm talking about. Here's me attacking a big daddy. I shoot this bastard with a shotgun a total of 9 times and he's only half dead. In the 30 seconds fraps allows me to capture, he drains my life enough to use 2 health packs. It's also worth noting that big daddy can run faster than me, so there's really no way to escape him. I can't just buy anti-armor bullets because I already spent all of my money on those when trying to kill one of the other big daddies in that level.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gebsAsL7Ol4

Is this on hard difficulty? They were tough on medium until I upgraded my weapons a bit (and used special ammo), and did kill me at times, but they're not supposed to be easy to kill.

That's on medium. I haven't tried hard but I can guess what it's like. Also, this video is taken before upgrades are available. That's in Neptune's Bounty which is the first level where you are supposed to go around killing big daddies. The one I'm fighting in the video is the second big daddy in the game.

 

[RyanPaulShaffer]

Originally posted by: ShawnD1

Originally posted by: nakedfrog

Originally posted by: ShawnD1
I made a video to show you what I'm talking about. Here's me attacking a big daddy. I shoot this bastard with a shotgun a total of 9 times and he's only half dead. In the 30 seconds fraps allows me to capture, he drains my life enough to use 2 health packs. It's also worth noting that big daddy can run faster than me, so there's really no way to escape him. I can't just buy anti-armor bullets because I already spent all of my money on those when trying to kill one of the other big daddies in that level.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gebsAsL7Ol4

Is this on hard difficulty? They were tough on medium until I upgraded my weapons a bit (and used special ammo), and did kill me at times, but they're not supposed to be easy to kill.

That's on medium. I haven't tried hard but I can guess what it's like. Also, this video is taken before upgrades are available. That's in Neptune's Bounty which is the first level where you are supposed to go around killing big daddies. The one I'm fighting in the video is the second big daddy in the game.

Why are you discussing BioShock in an Oblivion thread?

 

[brblx]

i played morrowind around the same time i played KOTOR and i simply hated it. the latter was ten times more engrossing, i did not want to read the former's boring text and dredge through what felt like a story-less wasteland. if there was a main quest, i never found it.

i played oblivion un-modded and loved it. the story was a bit bland but i enjoyed leveling my character and progressing through the game's dungeons. the thief and assassin missions were excellent.

fallout 3, meh. it was just oblivion with zombies and radiaton. i was bored by it.

 

[smackababy]

Oblivion was a watered-down carebear version of an RPG made for console kids who can't play through a 300hour game. Simple as that. That is why the majority (read as stupid) loved it and the people who remembered graphics don't make games thought it to be lacking heavily. Why did Final Fantasy 7 even get a single regard as a great game? It was mediocre at best. People just fell in love with the pretty movies and lackluster story with some fan service.

 

[TheVrolok]

I never really got into Oblivion either. I enjoyed Morrowind.. but just couldn't get into Oblivion. For whatever it's worth.

 

[StinkyPinky]

Yeah, vanilla Oblivion is overrated. People were just dazzled by the graphics at the time, which were the best out there in 2006. Of course, now the graphics are just average and people start to see that the game is pretty repetitive and flawed.

Morrowind was the better game, without a doubt. Fallout 3 is better than both imo. The setting is just way more interesting...Oblivion is just some generic cookie cutter fantasy setting that lacks imagination.

Fallout 3 is bethesdas best selling game btw.

 

[brblx]

you just can't bash oblivion and say fallout 3 is good. it defies logic.

 

[Jumpem]

After Fallout 3 I will never buy another Bethesda product.

 

[QueBert]

Originally posted by: brblx
you just can't bash oblivion and say fallout 3 is good. it defies logic.

Fallout 3 is much better, for this reason alone. All the NPC had their own voice, Oblivion had 3 people doing the voices for every NPC. And they didn't even make an attempt to sound different from character to character. It totally took away from the experience to me and that alone made the game unplayable. I would have rather had no speech and all text, because it's lame when you have a game that big, with that many NPC's and regardless where I was at, the dude I spoke to sounded the same as the last dude I spoke to way across the map. Because it was the same voice actor. Besides that there were plenty of other things wrong with it. Fallout 3 wasn't great, but it was about 57 times better than that POS Oblivion.