What are your thoughts on Oblivion Remastered?

[swordsman5]

So, after shelling out £60 for the delux version on Steam I started playing with high expectations. To be honest I was expecting a version of Oblivion that played like Enderal, but I was wrong. Whilst the game is very pretty it seem very "clunky" while playing. This becomes evident once leaving the Sewers after character creation.  Animation doesn't seem to be anywhere near as smooth as the Skyrim engine, I realise that it's still early days but without serious modding I find the game at present more of a chore to play rather than an enjoyment. I found many occasions where the game engine took ages to catch up with the view, i.e. I would move the mouse to look at something and there would be a series of jerks rather than a smooth pan to the next vista. I have also had at least a dozen CTD's for no apparent reason, and on one occasion when trying to leave the Battlehorn castle I had a black loadscreen that lasted long enough for me to make a cup of coffee while waiting and then I couldn't get out of that screen. The only thing I could do was re-boot my PC to get rid of it. All in all not the best experiance so far.

[pannonian]

Long time fan of Bethesda, fan of the original Oblivion, but having played Oblivion for about 50hrs now, I think the nostalgia trip is wearing off. I caught myself looking for things I haven't seen already (20 years ago) or did before and also got a bit bored trying to enter a fort or an Aleyid ruin, because I know well that there is not much to find in them. Yes, I think Skyrim and the Fallout games and recent games makes it showing how old this game is.  Also, I notice the same glitches and bugs still not addressed and I actually also noticed new ones too.  I understand the concept of keeping the original vanilla Oblivion as some sort of a ritual thing from Bethesda, but I am dumfounded by not fixing obvious issues that are not helping.  Stuff like slaughterfish is on the shores not in the water; eyelashes of characters are bugged; game setting options are not doing anything (hair quality; screen place reflections) and various menu glitches.  I can't really list all, since I only did 50hrs so far and yes I also had several crashes; some just happening when I quit the game, others just randomly while playing.  According to the log, it's either memory leak issue or graphics card vs unreal engine-which is not surprising. The memory leak issue though is - IIRC- is original Oblivion issue too, I remember having those until someone explained that it will happen in time and it's best to stop and restart the game after a certain amount of hours playing continuously.  I won't even mention the empty fortresses and dungeons and caves. Once we get over ourselves the oohs and ahhs of the UE5 rendering they look desolate and boring and lack any details, because the original's limitations.  You go inside a fort and wonder why these bandits just standing around in an empty space and that's clearly showing its age and sort of brings me back to a reality check, that I'm playing a 20 year old game that was created by limitations of graphics; engine capabilities and also limitations of idea of what a 3D action-RPG should be. We moved on. 

So, I think the sudden popularity has to be tied to older folks having a nostalgia trip, while newer folks who never played are curious enough to check it out. I can see the popularity lasting for a while, but nowhere near it's gonna reach the original's fame, because it's not new; because it's harder to mod; because we have moved on from this level of gameplay and game mechanics.  I understand the fanboyism around the game being one myself to a certain degree, but I feel this may not last as long as some people suggesting. 

I may be attacked and criticized, I am well aware, but it is what it is. I am also still playing it and doing all sorts of things in the game, but I can't help not to notice that my attention starting to fade, as I play more each day. 

[swordsman5]

1 hour ago, pannonian said:

 

I may be attacked and criticized, I am well aware, but it is what it is. I am also still playing it and doing all sorts of things in the game, but I can't help not to notice that my attention starting to fade, as I play more each day. 

Well that'll be two of us then!!! lol .

[drsemmel]

Having never played the original game, it is like a new ES game to me, and I really like it. I am excited to be able to play it for the first time in this new, more modern version (it is said to be very faithful to the original).

I always thought Bethesda would have to move away from Creation Engine 2 to achieve anything meaningful in the future (I still believe that to some extent), but the fusion of UE5 and CE2 works brilliantly. It remains to be seen whether modders can adapt, as it is not the same as modding other Bethesda games in that respect. It is possible, no question, but fewer people currently have the skillset required, and even fewer may be willing to learn it (apart from trivial things that can be done via xedit or ini files). I think it is currently unclear how Oblivion remaster modding will develop, but one thing is certain: people are very interested in it.

I love the ES lore and, as far as games go, especially Skyrim SE. It holds a special place in my heart, probably because it was my first contact with the Elder Scrolls. Other games come and go (and I play different genres for different reasons - for example I do replay some fromsoft games every few years), but I always come back to (my insanely heavily modified ) Skyrim SE installation. 
Oblivion Remaster wont change that, but for me, it is an enrichment to the ES universe, that I am now able to actually play (having already read a lot of lore about the era it is set in).

I could have played the original game, of course (same goes for Morrowind, Daggerfall, Arena, etc.), but I could never bring myself to do so because, from my perspective, they are too old visually and (probably) mechanically for me to have any connection to them. Even when I first installed Skyrim SE years ago, I never thought it would click for me like this (and it was a big leap, because I found it ugly and clunky – now, years later, my Skyrim SE folder is half a TB in size and my game looks like it came from the future, lol).
 

13 hours ago, pannonian said:

I may be attacked and criticized, I am well aware, but it is what it is. I am also still playing it and doing all sorts of things in the game, but I can't help not to notice that my attention starting to fade, as I play more each day. 

Yeah, I really hope, that people are more mature and refrain from behaving like b@tthurt toddlers over a video game and that this thread remains peaceful and constructive.

[MrDave]

I honestly feel it's worse than the original. BUT I am 3 gigs of video card memory shy of the minimum, so I'll give it that. The characters just seem uglier. It might be due to running mid level graphics, but I doubt it.

 

I haven't done anything in UE since UE3, so I have some effort coming to get back into modding it.

[JimboUK]

I think they've a great job of recreating the original game, but for me that's the problem, I'm used to playing a heavily modded version of the game and this is going back to vanilla with its awful loot and level scaling, I'll no doubt come back to it but for now I'm playing Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, a real gem of a game. 

[zixi]

It's beautiful. I'm running it on Linux Mint and so far I haven't encountered any issues. It's been stable. I don't have performance issues.

I like the way I can still recognise the original characters but they certainly look better! And so far I've found it very atmospheric... The only change I had to make was adjusting brightness level as I suspect my interpretation of 'the logo should be barely visible' was a bit more enthusiastic than was intended and I found myself peering more than I'm comfortable with. However, that can be adjusted in game without issue. For me, the opening scenes were just as moving as they were all those years ago and Jeremy Soule's score swirled me into the game - I remember only too well when I first saw Oblivion. So, no nostalgia hasn't worn off for me and I could stare at foxgloves for hours! Personally, I'm glad they weren't tempted to 'improve' it.

Over the years I've rebought the (few) games I really enjoy several times as formats have changed or someone has remastered it so Oblivion has just joined the list. If you've never played Oblivion then this is the time to try it but if you have it already and you've modded it to your liking then I can understand why the remastered version might not seem such a catch. For me, the advantage is that the game is just what it was.... just a lot lot prettier in vanilla than the original!

As I say, it's very beautiful. I'm glad to be playing it.

[swordsman5]

I'm now keeping my fingers crossed for Skyblivion , from what I've seen I think it might surpass remastered for play-ability. So far Bethesda are still supportining it.