Oblivion out today

Well, it isn't much to expect for TODAY that a game would have an accessable interface that meets logical standards.

Then I remember that Todd Howard lead the game, and I have to ask myself "What standards?"

It is PAINFULLY obvious that they developed this without testing the interface to any plausible degree, as for an entry-level user figuring out the interface and in regards to design hierarchy, they FAIL on both accounts. The fact that the interface is barely legible without any tooltips or even an option for it, that says a lot. It should be legible and accessable for what IS *gasp* an action game. Shitty interface for an action game = shitty game, usually.

Seriously though, if you're expecting Morrowind ++ then you'll like it, if you're expecting a huge leap forward in gameplay and rpg qualities you'll be disappointed.
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Too bad for Bethesda, because they seemed to flog the hype horse a bit past "Morrowind ++".
 
Talk about taking the losing side of an argument, eh? Unlike all these anonymous reviews I respect your opinion on game design, so I'll take that as my cue to shut up about it before I get my head torn off. :)
 
just think: what would V do? :)

but seriously Montez, NMA is a melting pot of fanatics. you shouldn't be so surprised that we don't exactly welcome an uberhyped hybrid game with open arms. especially not when Bethesda has the rights on FO3.

we all have our little weaknesses though. i like CS, some like doom, some like quake, some like morrowind with a passion,... not very suiting for us die hard fanatic cRPGers, but who cares? you seem to enjoy ES4:Oblivion and i envy you for that. i myself havent played yet, but will soon. i doubt however i'll really enjoy it as you do.

that being said, i'm sure Rosh's weakness is barbie computer games. discuss.

/me runs to the hills.
 
DAOC used the same interface with like 6 menus and the f buttons opened them.

but they had list-based inventory... icon then name and you could always delve the item to see the properties. thats the type of inventory they should have done for this game :( im probably going to end up getting it later today. although i am out of room on my SCSI drive so probably have to install it on my IDE drive which means i wont get hardly any performance on it.
 
I keep considering picking up the game but I know full well my computer, much like my last computer with morrowind, would be brought to its knees by the game. Not to mention I hated morrowind. Sigh, why do I want a game that I will likely dislike :-\. Next thing you know I'll be buying dungeon siege 2 and black and white 2.
 
I don't dispute any of the guys points except the interface one. Ok, going by his and others comments I'm to believe that the same people that are craving extremely deep and intelligent games where gameplay is more important than graphics and that really challenge your mind instead of twitch reflexes COMPLETELY lack the intelligence to grasp a simple fucking interface? You want a system with meaningful choices, complex back-and-forth converstations, stats/skills that actually have an effect in the game world, "puzzles" which actually require some thought - yet you are unable to wrap your mind around a simple menu system, lack the mental agility to perform the simple task of associating "Icon X" with "Menu X", and lack the "adventurous" spirit that might lead you to figure out that the F1-F4 keys bring up the various menus? Give me a break.
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Agreed :)
It was pretty crappy but It wasn't really that hard to understand it, took me like 5 min and i never even played MW .)

In the combat i want to se all the new moves before i know how bad/good it is.

But i think they could have maid a more complex blocking system. Right/Left/high block etc. So you have to react to what the enemy is doing, not just push the damn button and wait for him to attack and you counter.
And would also like to se something more like was it thief? Where when you draged the mouse left you swung your sword from the left?

And i really would have loved to see location damage.

Well well maybe some good mods will come and make it a decent game.
 
Montez said:
F1: Stats, character sheet, etc
F2: Inventory
F3: Magic
F4: Map, journal
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I thought a standard had been set for hotkeys of that sort ages ago. s or c for stats/character sheet, i for inventory, m for map...
 
Kharn said:
I thought a standard had been set for hotkeys of that sort ages ago. s or c for stats/character sheet, i for inventory, m for map...
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You're right, the changes were pretty pointless since there doesn't seem to be any benefit from it. I blame caffeine and an unstimulating work environment for my goofy ranting.

SuAside said:
just think: what would V do? :)
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Haha. That would make a pretty good webcomic; V vs. The Gaming Industry.
 
SuAside said:
j
that being said, i'm sure Rosh's weakness is barbie computer games. discuss.

/me runs to the hills.
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Nah...just the occasional MMORPG and FPS. I'm a Renaissance Gamer, and I play just about every genre except sports, and there's exceptions to that. Mutant League Football was one of my favorite console games of all time.

I really don't care what genre, as long as it isn't overhyped, and as long as the game is made well. Those are really the only two things I demand for any game I play.

Montez said:
Talk about taking the losing side of an argument, eh? Unlike all these anonymous reviews I respect your opinion on game design, so I'll take that as my cue to shut up about it before I get my head torn off. :)
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Nah, don't worry about it. :P

(Sorry, was going to reply this directly below your post on this page, but I was told it was time for bed. :shock:)

I've seen someone digging through the game, and my thoughts about it are highly mixed.

I can see both sides of this argument, and both point towards Bethesda's design not looking that good, especially when these people are now supposedly going to work on what is supposed to be a real CRPG and not their bastardization of the genre.

On one hand, once found, the keys aren't that much of a bother to use, if you remember which is which, and care to use a key much further from the standardized movement keys of the arrows or NumPad. The main of the keyboard letter field is there for the logical stuff like Journal, Map, Options, etc. Even if it was delegated to the F keys in part, why not give multiple binds or the option for multiple binds? It just doesn't make much sense.

On the other hand, they shouldn't be a mystery from the start or require the aid of a manual or random button searches for logical interface design. Especially with a genre as old and established as CRPG/Adventure. A developer not bothering to put in logical key functions, which is simple stuff, tends to point out that corners were cut and that console trash was developed in mind over any PC functionality standards of the genre. It is one thing to learn an interface, it's another when the interface doesn't have much polish behind it.

In particular when almost nothing is labeled in the interface, which is again regressing more than a few years in design standards. Really, what WAS done to back up a lot of the hype they gushed out? I really can't see much to suggest that "polish" would apply to anything about this game besides the polished cavern walls.

Really, when the flaws are big enough for IGN to notice them, that's saying a lot...

Haha. That would make a pretty good webcomic; V vs. The Gaming Industry.
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EA taken out Guy Fawkes style just brings a tear of hope to my eye. :D
 
Roshambo said:
In particular when almost nothing is labeled in the interface, which is again regressing more than a few years in design standards. Really, what WAS done to back up a lot of the hype they gushed out? I really can't see much to suggest that "polish" would apply to anything about this game besides the polished cavern walls.

Really, when the flaws are big enough for IGN to notice them, that's saying a lot...
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Not to mention that the interface windows are non-scaleable. They had tooltips and scaleable windows in Morrowind and they actually threw them out for Oblivion. Ugh.
 
Well, that's certainly surprising.
You'd almost think they grew a brain and some balls, but in the article they don't go into any depth concerning actual roleplaying, dialogue (which I think was lacking in the first two games) or atmosphere for Gothic, they just say 'Combat is better in Gothic III than in Oblivion!'
Whoop-di-doo.
 
Probably because the roleplaying aspect takes extensive testing to verify, while IGN clearly had access to only a brief preview.

Then again, this is IGN, who probably couldn't identify roleplaying if it bit them in the ass.
 
mkay, back to the game itself:

have played it for a while now (not nearly long enough to make a real comment though), but i can start giving first (random) impressions:

- dialog: wtf? does it REALLY matter what i say? i mean you could have dialog loops in FO, but in this game it hardly looks necessary to choose what you say, you end up at the same place anyway... (might not be true, but thats how it feels the first hour or so)

- the whole draw distance thing: it's true that there is a very distinct line where stuff pops up, but it's quite distant for me so it's not that bad. (P4b 2.53ghz + 1gb + 6800GT)

- loading times: people whine about this, but for me it loads so fast that i cant read the info on the loading screen ffs.. (as for 'outdoor' loading does not make me freeze or anything, i can just keep on running)

- skill increase: lollerball, hop around like a bunny -> skillup in acrobatcrap. fight a mob without hitting it & simply use block every time he tries to hit -> blocking leveling for the win. this is kinda true for all skills...

- faces: omfg... i take you all played Arcanum? well, all these mofos have been hit with the ugly stick for sure...

- buffs everywhere i go: when you walk you constantly find altars that give you (temporary) powerups. hell, you cant take a piss against the treeline without getting a powerup. not very good for the immertion (sp?).

- interface: console crap... didnt even bother to remap stuff for PC. very sad. it's 'mostly' logical, so it's not as bad as announced by the big critics, but i can see me getting irritated by it if i play it for a prolongued period of time. no description, so you have to try out everything to find out what exactly the spell does. (how am i supposed to know 'shock' requires to be in HtH range, unlike 'flare')

- inventory: no doll to pull things on diablo style, just a render of your char. click an item & it's equiped. however with armor it looks easy to forget to equip a small item. really isnt use friendly. the inventory is restricted by weight only, not size. this is fine, except you go from normal to immobilized for 1 pound of extra gear... cant move an inch.

- your actions feel very limited: you are in prison, some guy taunts you, you got magical powers, you do nothing... fuck, i'd toast the stupid motherfucker... they say you're about to be executed anyway, why not toast another fucktard, you got nothing to loose.

if the game doesnt give me some interesting side quests soon, i'm gonna die from boredom...

havent been to cities yet though so cant comment on population yet, i directly went with the storyline & some dungeons i met while traveling to the priest 'kid'.
 
SuAside said:
- buffs everywhere i go: when you walk you constantly find altars that give you (temporary) powerups. hell, you cant take a piss against the treeline without getting a powerup. not very good for the immertion (sp?).
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OMG console arcadez FTW!!!11
 
Ratty said:
OMG console arcadez FTW!!!11
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Ha, I haven't encountered any of those yet but that's exactly what I thought when I read that: Standing at an arcade machine and having some announcer's voice yelling "Power Up!" "Super Strength!" "Berserk!". I'll have to go looking for some today, so far the only two altars/shrines/whatever I've run into have given me advice - at least, I think it's advice: "You need to get your Fame rating higher" - gee thanks, I never would have thought of that on my own.
 
- the whole draw distance thing: it's true that there is a very distinct line where stuff pops up, but it's quite distant for me so it's not that bad. (P4b 2.53ghz + 1gb + 6800GT)
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You can fix this by haxxing in the ini.

allot of things can be maxed out in the ini.

Cant find the exact lines now. But have a look at he official forums if you are interested. I have a similar comp to yours and i had like 10 FPS outside when i maxed out the drawdistans and some more stuff :)
It looked mutch better but my comp culdent handle it.

I have a new comp coming in a few hours tho and it will handle it :)
 
My PC pawns Oblivion.

I like the new combat system. Though it's all basically the same, it is improved over Morrowind's. Now everything isn't calculated, and you actually have a reason to fucking HATE archers...
 
it might just be my SCSI 320 drives at 15k rpm but i keep wondering why the hell i get this popup saying loading area when i dont pause or anything... only noticable load times are zonning and thats fast as shit.

i dont want to cheat my skills, i just want to cheat money-wise but i cant find a money cheat so i am having to cheat my skills :(
 
Wes, it's normal not to get a loading screen outside. the loading thing means he's buffering. however, on many lower end pc's (and the xbox, hah) it usually means the game stutters like hell for a few seconds.

Pale Horse said:
I like the new combat system.
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to me, the combat system has no real interest at all. i made a sorcerer: cast, hack, block, hack, block, cast, hack, dead mob, heal self, move on. any class you can recommend? not finding this very fun really...

i'm also finding immersion nill in this game...
cant take revenge on the other prisoner, everyone in the world knowing the emperor died when you just left the fucking sewer (ok, the dagon lights or whatever go out, so the city knows, but how the fuck does every peasant & hillbilly know?), the captain of the guard giving away his armor while his town is crawling with baddies (yeah, he's grateful, but still, sjeez), imperial guardsmen patrols SMELL that you are carrying stolen goods & take you to jail unless you can pay the fine...

ow yeah, the faces... GOD! THE FACES... i dont care that much that they're ugly, or that their lips arent synched, BUT FOR FUCKS SAKE, DONT MAKE THE FACE SMILE BLISSFULLY (as if he just had a blowjob) WHEN HE'S PISSED OFF (at you & threathening to roast your nuts over the campfire) & DONT MAKE THE GUY LOOK SAD AS SHIT WHEN YOU JUST SAVED HIS PUPPY, HIS WIFE, HIS GRANDMA & HIS FUCKING ASSDILDO FROM A BUNCH OF KIDNAPPERS...

cant be that hard?
 
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