First Impressions

[batesmotel34]

I am currently part way through the dungeon under the ruins across the river from where you exit from the Imperial dungeon. I went into that pretty quickly after exititing the Imperial dungeon for the "tutorial" so I don't have much impression yet of life in town and how well the new AI works.

 

Thoughts so far:

1) I really like the new traps in dungeons. Also I like how bows work in Oblivion although I can tell I played Morrowind far too much since I keep feeling something is wrong when I see the character holding a bow in the left hand. It seems a little strange that the bow is essentially held horizontal (like the bow on a crossbow is) when y ou're firiing but I guess it does avoid problems wihich might obscur the line of sight for targetting.

 

2) I don't like the new animal race heads. More so the Argonians which look very square and fake, but also the Khajitit as well. Morrwind ones even with out any of the mods for improved looks struck me as better.

 

3) The new magicka regeneratoin with out resting seems awfully fast compared to earlier games where you had to rest to regenerate. I haven't found running out of Magicka to be an issue for my character (withch hunter class, Breton race, Mage zodiac sign) so far.

 

4) Fatigue doesn't seem to have been an issue. I have noticed that it does drop a bit if I run alot but it doesn't seem to drop in fighting or continuously sneaking through the dungeon. I think I like that stealth mode now "locks" compared to the old sneak that only worked while you continued to hold the appropriate key down..

 

5) The new magic system really does make it much easier to switch between casting and using a weapon which is a definite plus. I have found my reflexes from Morrowind haven't caught up yet in terms of sometimes selecting a spell and then ending up firing my bow instead of actually casting the spell. I wish there were more than 8 quick selections for switching between weapons and spells. So far I have the controls mapped prettty closely mapped to what I used with a left handed mouse in Morrowind. I expect I will modify that as I get used to the native feel of Oblivions interface. That may well cut down on my tendency to shoot instead of casting a spell for example. (The key I use currently for cast in OBlivion is what I used to ready a spell in Morrowing. They're not really analogous operations.)

 

6) So far I haven't really enjoyed the lockpicking mini-game since I haven't really figured out what you' need to achieve to succeed. When I'm doing iit manually it still pretty much feels like purely a matter of luck. The auto attempt option means ithat I don't have to use it at any rate.

 

7)Automatically succeeding with potions feels a bit odd. I've made lots with stuff I found in the Imperial dungeon plsu stuff in the dungeon I'm currently in. Resotre fatigue (as I should have expected) seems like the most common one I've made by an order of magnitude. Given fatigue hasn't been an issue for me so far, they haven't been getting used.

 

8) I definiiitely like the option of being able to use negative potions on weapons. One thing that does feel strange is that when you do it with your bow, it seems to only affect your next shot so you can't prepare in advance for more than one shot for a given fight. I'm not sure how long the effect takes to wear off on a melee weapon but I think it is more than a single swing/hit.

 

9) I'm still not sure how I feel about the new basic melee system. It definitely does seem to lack some of the richness of Morrowind (and Daggerfall) in terms of being able to choose how to use your weapon. I've been primarily using magic and my bow so this hasn't been a big issue with this character. The blocking and eventual speciall atacks may make up for the absence of chop/slash/thrust choices.

 

10) I think the single biggest thing I miss right now from Morowind and older ES games is levitation. Not because of the ability to exploit it in fights or a way to travel but mostly becuase it was a way of being able to enjoy the terrain/architecture/etc from many different angles. I can still get a lot of pleasure from doing that in Morowind. While the graphics in Oblivion really are impressive, the fact that you are restricted pretty much to viewing them from a single plane detracts a lot. There are lots of soaring interior spaces that I'd love to be able to explore in Oblivion but there's no mechanism to do so without levitation or equivalent. And as far as I can tell there is no equivalent of climbing from Daggerfall that could also alleviate the feeling of only having freedom of movement in two dimensions. Jumping just doesn't do it for me.

 

As a final note, so far the game seems to run quite well on my hardware configuration with what I think are the max graphics settings at 1280x1024 (max resolution on my Sony LCD). I have an Athlon XP64 3000+ (socket 939), just upgraded to an eVGA Nvidia 7800GT PCI/E, 1GB RAM.

[Dilvish]

Sorian picked the locks to the second floor of a rich matron's mansion in Cyrodiil City. He stole her fine silver, a few expensive books, and her collection of vintage wines. He couldn't find a merchant willing to buy the stolen goods. He's heard rumors of a crooked merchant in the city. The other shopkeepers hate the crook since he undercuts their prices. Sorian hasn't been able to find the possible fence yet though.

Sorian finally dumped the loot in a pile next to a beggar woman's bedroll in a public park. The pile clinks, shifts, and settles as he adds new items. The wine bottles roll around but none of them break. Maybe the old woman will find a use for the stolen goods.

 

... A Khajiit running at top speed through the foggy streets at night. He's on his own business...no time to talk to Redguards.

 

Skulking through the sewers, Sorian finds an iron door. It displays the message "This door is remotely controlled." Sorian can't find any hidden release so he bashes the door in frustration with his steel longsword. The sword strikes showers of sparks when it hits but the door won't budge.

 

There is a paint horse standing all alone outside one of the city gates. Sorian can't see any guards or other citizens close. He jumps on the horse and gallops away. He follows roads and takes random turns when the road branches. There are some pedestrian travellers and a half-dozen mounted Imperial guards along the way. Riding through the green forest is beautiful.

There are also small winged imps hiding among the trees in two places. They throw some kind of shock spell at Sorian. The strong horse easily outdistances them.

Sorian sees a city up ahead. He stops at a vinyard and talks to a man who is working a hoe among the vines.

The city ahead is called Skingrad.

[edstamos1]

Another thing on voices - I don't like the fact that the Orcs sound so human. They look ugly and gruff and should sound that way.

[CaptainPuffy]

I really havent encountered any psychic guards, and all I've been doing for about the last 5+ hours is looting the various Castles and Guilds. I am using an unlocking spell to open the doors, so that may have something to do with you guys getting caught. I havent been caught stealing yet with exceptions of the ocasional slip up. ( Didn't see the person sitting in a chair in the corner of the room) I havent seen anything simular to the psychic guards you guys are refering to. I find being a thief a little more difficult then in morrowind, but I found it too easy in morrowind so I see it as an improvement.

 

I love the combat, and I feel that its more complex in a simplified way when compared to morrowind. You aren't just limited to the chop/thrust/hack or what ever the options were on morrowind. You have the choice between power and quick attacks from every angle, the manual blocking makes me feel more in control in the battle, instead of being goverened by a stat.

 

I'm currently waiting on an upgraded graphics card, I'm currently running

3.0 P4 800FSB

2.0 GB PC3200 DDR2 RAM

AtiX600.

 

I'm upgrading from an X600 to an X800, I'm hoping to at least be able to run the game at a higher resolution. I am currently running the game on low textures, but with the draw distances for the trees grasses and what not turned up to max. I play the game smooth as silk on these settings.

[Dilvish]

Here are some of my screenshots. They don't do the game justice but I hope you like them.

 

Here's two would-be gladiators sparring on the grounds of the Imperial City Arena:

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y142/Owen...on/Fighters.jpg

 

There should be a "steal me" sign on these guys:

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y142/Owen...vion/Horses.jpg

 

She's hot!

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y142/Owen...vion/Orcess.jpg

 

Skingrad vista:

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y142/Owen...on/Skingrad.jpg

 

Here's my character Sorian Nothus at Level 2. He's all proud of his fancy (stolen) clothes. He's about seventeen and has a lot to learn:

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y142/Owen...on/SorianL2.jpg

 

 

To enable screenshots, I went into the Oblivion.ini (Oblivion Configuration Settings) and set ballowScreenshot=0 to ballowScreenshot=1

The Oblivion.ini is in my computer /user documents / my games / oblivion

The saved game files are there too.

[Adras]

I find the lock picking a bit... not really annoying, but time consuming. Is probably because I'm probably doing something wrong. However, I have been playing for the last 5 hours and its been a blast.

[Kahenraz]

The bad:

 

1) Awful engine coding. Sure, it looks pretty on the top end, but it loses that quality fast if you don't have a good system. I have to scale back the details to looking about the same as Morrowind and only 800x600, just to get a playable framerate. And even then, it's lagging in places.

 

 

Awful engine coding? I would have to disagree. TES4 utilizes Emergent's powerful Gamebryo: Element engine, an incredible improvement over Morrowind's NetImmerse engine and I believe has been very well coded. The engine is very stable, versitile, and has wondeful particle and shader support.

[Stampede]

Thank you for the awesome screenies Dilvish. I am enjoying reading your characters antics.

 

If anyone could take a picture of a tavern during happy hour or an NPC sleeping, I would love to see it.

[Peregrine]

Awful engine coding? I would have to disagree. TES4 utilizes Emergent's powerful Gamebryo: Element engine, an incredible improvement over Morrowind's NetImmerse engine and I believe has been very well coded. The engine is very stable, versitile, and has wondeful particle and shader support.

 

There's more to a game engine than brute force power... Oblivion's does a poor job of scaling down to lower-powered systems, while other games of the current generation work much better. If top-end features were all that count, I already have 3dsmax 8 + Vray to play with... photo-realistic results, just too bad about the several-hour-per-frame render times!

[Dilvish]

You're welcome Stampede.

 

Not during happy hour but late at night. Sorian didn't want to waste the little gold he had on a room for the night. He sat around all night drinking cheap wine and talking to the patrons of this inn:

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y142/Owend/Oblivion/Inn.jpg

 

Two mages in a guild hall bedroom at night. I turned on the lights for a second to take this shot:

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y142/Owen...on/Sleeping.jpg

 

Another shot of Skingrad- this time in the evening:

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y142/Owen...ngradVista2.jpg

 

After a hard battle- You've heard about this from the developers. That's gotta smart:

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y142/Owen...livion/ouch.jpg