You know what really grinds my gears?

[WeissYohji]

Then there's the playable vanilla races themselves. You've got four human races (Imperials, Nords, Redguards, and Bretons), two beast races (Khajiit and Argonians), and the elven races (Bosmer, Dunmer, Altmer, and Orcs; Orcs being a demi-elven race). Out of the human races, they're all white except for the black Redguards. Would it kill Bethesda to put other types of humans in the game? Maybe some Asians, Arabs, or both kinds of Indians?

 

Well, perhaps, but consider, back in the Medieval Ages in real life, were there many Arabs, Asians, Indians and Black people in Europe at the time? I didn't think so. There is a reason, most of Tamriel is European-influenced, so U won't see Asians, Arabs or Indians. There were a few black people in Europe in the Medieval Ages, so that's why there r Redguards. Trust me, it's not racist

 

Spain had the Moors.

 

As for whatever humans lived in Akavir, I'd imagine they'd have looked Asian.

[happytreefri3nds]

Then there's the playable vanilla races themselves. You've got four human races (Imperials, Nords, Redguards, and Bretons), two beast races (Khajiit and Argonians), and the elven races (Bosmer, Dunmer, Altmer, and Orcs; Orcs being a demi-elven race). Out of the human races, they're all white except for the black Redguards. Would it kill Bethesda to put other types of humans in the game? Maybe some Asians, Arabs, or both kinds of Indians?

 

Well, perhaps, but consider, back in the Medieval Ages in real life, were there many Arabs, Asians, Indians and Black people in Europe at the time? I didn't think so. There is a reason, most of Tamriel is European-influenced, so U won't see Asians, Arabs or Indians. There were a few black people in Europe in the Medieval Ages, so that's why there r Redguards. Trust me, it's not racist

 

Spain had the Moors.

 

As for whatever humans lived in Akavir, I'd imagine they'd have looked Asian.

 

Um... Why would they be Asian??? My point is, the game is NOT racist. Besides, it's too late to introduce another race.

[grelf]

Then there's the playable vanilla races themselves. You've got four human races (Imperials, Nords, Redguards, and Bretons), two beast races (Khajiit and Argonians), and the elven races (Bosmer, Dunmer, Altmer, and Orcs; Orcs being a demi-elven race). Out of the human races, they're all white except for the black Redguards. Would it kill Bethesda to put other types of humans in the game? Maybe some Asians, Arabs, or both kinds of Indians?

 

Well, perhaps, but consider, back in the Medieval Ages in real life, were there many Arabs, Asians, Indians and Black people in Europe at the time? I didn't think so. There is a reason, most of Tamriel is European-influenced, so U won't see Asians, Arabs or Indians. There were a few black people in Europe in the Medieval Ages, so that's why there r Redguards. Trust me, it's not racist

 

Spain had the Moors.

 

As for whatever humans lived in Akavir, I'd imagine they'd have looked Asian.

Well, Moors were mostly Berbers. There were in fact Mongols/other Asiatic peoples in Eastern Europe and in the late middle ages Turks in the Balkans region, but I guess that the game focuses mostly on western European culture though. And Khajiiti already represent the Arabic culture somewhat, even if they aren't human. I hardly think the game is "racist" somewhat because of this. Seriously, just because some TV show doesn't have a black person in its cast it's racist? I think people have much distorted the meaning of "racism" nowadays...

[David Brasher]

I think the healing spells are not powerful enough. Someone compared healing yourself in Oblivion to being a lab rat trained to push a certain button ten times in a row for a reward.

 

I think it is sort of silly that every single character is a mage who can cast fireballs and healing spells, right from the beginning. The classes should be a bit more distinct than that. If a warrior or thief wants to learn magic, it should require at least a little bit of effort.

 

I do not like how all the clothing and armor enchantments are constant effect. In Morrowind, you would have had to work very very hard to get such items and perhaps pay the enchanter 50,000 Septims after going on a long quest to find a grand soul gem and then fill it with the most powerful soul you could find.

[Kyuukei]

Spoilers for those who haven't finished the main quest.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It bugs the hell out of me how Martin insists on going to the Imperial Palace before lighting the Dragonfires no matter WHAT. Gee, Martin, it isn't like we're actively being invaded by the equivalent of Hell or nothing. And the Mythic Dawn and Dagon totally won't accelerate their plans because of Camoran's death, I'm sure. Honestly, I love Martin for taking the whole Emperor thing in stride as well as he did, and also for being as humble and polite in the end as he was when you first came upon him in Kvatch. The whole giant flaming dragon versus 100ft tall Daedric Prince thing also didn't hurt. But seriously, waiting at ALL to light the Dragonfires was just stupid.

[zetenrisiel]

You all seem to hold Morrowind in high esteem, maybe I should check it out. Then again it's so old...

 

Oblivion being my first non FF, non WoW RPG, I was really excited to try what was hailed as a very immersive game(i had a boss who loved morrowind back in the day, but i never took the bait)

 

A few things that grind my gears after 6 mos:

 

The Faces: At first I though "great! i can fully customize my face! It'll look just like I want it to!" then i acutally tried to make a realistic face. I can't figure out how the faces can be so realistic and yet still look so strange and unnatural.

So I downloaded a custom elf race. Anime chicks with pointy ears are always fun to look at so why not

 

The Bodies: Both male and female were way too muscular for someone who just got out of prison and is, for instance, a mage

So I downloaded HGEC. A bit too Pamela Anderson but what the heck, why not.

 

The Gear: 2 handed swords are pointless and shields are a joke. Even from lv 1, things would stagger my block. Since you can't really train block other than fighting real enemies and you will probably die from it, Istopped blocking and chose the stick and move fighting method, which means I can never use a shield because all the enemies just get better and better at staggering me. As another slap, why would I need armor if I never get hit? Why even have a melee weapon if I can just run around a tree and cast spells? Don't even get me started on bows.

So I downloaded multitudes of armor and weapon mods, as well as an archery mod.

 

The Combat: Call me a noob or whatever but this game is stupid hard with stock armor and weapons. I understand realistic, life-or-death battle but at later levels it would be nice not to have to run away to heal after two hits(see aforementioned armor and shiled gripe) meanwhile I'm hacking away at an enemy with my weapon only to see his health drop like, a pixel each time. Then we have the suicidal companions who are doing the electric boogaloo in and out of my line of attack. What really gets me is on quests where I'm supposed to try to keep them alive, and I end up killing them myself. Why would you move so that I heal the bad guy instead of you?!

So I got overpowered Weapons, Armor and Advanced magecraft for that ever convenient health regen enchantment. And I gave up on ever being able to see the positive ending of the "Save the NPC" quests.

 

Vague Quests: I don't mind searching out a quest objective, but could you at least point me in the right direction? I hate just following the green arrow but it seems the only way to finish certain quests.

 

So now I'm rocking a cute anime elf with a smokin hot body, super cool weapons and armor enchanted with overpowered spells, fast travelling across the expansive(to me at least, I never saw morrowind) world just to find the green arrow and enjoy this game. All in all I feel like I'm missing the point of this kind of immersive RPG.

 

I wanna be Danny Zuko, gradually realizing his talents and purpose throughout the story. Instead I feel like Eugene, getting crapped on by every guard, necromancer and mudcrab with a short sweet bit at the end where I get to hit Coach Dagon with a pie, but in the end it doesn't matter because after that I still get the crap beat outta me by everyone.

 

That's my meta gripe. Sorry for the grease reference, it ws the best I could do at this time of night.

[WeissYohji]

Then there's the playable vanilla races themselves. You've got four human races (Imperials, Nords, Redguards, and Bretons), two beast races (Khajiit and Argonians), and the elven races (Bosmer, Dunmer, Altmer, and Orcs; Orcs being a demi-elven race). Out of the human races, they're all white except for the black Redguards. Would it kill Bethesda to put other types of humans in the game? Maybe some Asians, Arabs, or both kinds of Indians?

 

Well, perhaps, but consider, back in the Medieval Ages in real life, were there many Arabs, Asians, Indians and Black people in Europe at the time? I didn't think so. There is a reason, most of Tamriel is European-influenced, so U won't see Asians, Arabs or Indians. There were a few black people in Europe in the Medieval Ages, so that's why there r Redguards. Trust me, it's not racist

 

Spain had the Moors.

 

As for whatever humans lived in Akavir, I'd imagine they'd have looked Asian.

Well, Moors were mostly Berbers. There were in fact Mongols/other Asiatic peoples in Eastern Europe and in the late middle ages Turks in the Balkans region, but I guess that the game focuses mostly on western European culture though. And Khajiiti already represent the Arabic culture somewhat, even if they aren't human. I hardly think the game is "racist" somewhat because of this. Seriously, just because some TV show doesn't have a black person in its cast it's racist? I think people have much distorted the meaning of "racism" nowadays...

 

So, if Elsweyr is a mix of Arabia and Africa, High Rock is Brittany, Hammerfell is the Maghrib, Morrowind is Mesopotamia, Valenwood is Brazil, Skyrim is a mix of the Nordic countries, and Cyrodiil is a mash-up of ancient Rome and the Holy Roman Empire, where does that leave Summerset Isle and Black Marsh? What IRL counterpart cultures are those provinces supposed to have?

 

@ zetenrisiel: Combat in Oblivion is hard? Excuse me, but are we even playing the same game, or did you just turn the difficulty slider up to the maximum setting? If you want to train block, all you have to do is hold your block button and let a mudcrab beat on you. (They're so weak that they might as well not be considered a threat.) But if you really think it's that hard, that's why there's the 100% reflect damage suit. Just get three items with reflect damage enchantments on them (Some of them you should wait till you're level 25 to get the full enchantment) and equip them. Then make a spell that reflects all magic damage for X number of seconds and cast it whenever an enemy tries to fling a spell at you. They'll kill themselves attacking you, so now the game can only hit you with arrows.

[melkormgc]

I don't know if it's true or not, but I heard that one of the devs maintained that they didn't put children into Oblivion because there would be a public outcry about players butchering kids in the game. Sounds pretty lame, but it wouldn't surprise me if that was at least one of the reasons. There are children in Fallout 3, though. Did that game get reamed because of that? Nope. Neither would Oblivion.

 

Frankly, I think the reason is exactly the one I've already given for the lack of a unique Argonian or Khajiit body, or the lack of a female body. The development team was just too lazy, or rushed, or both, to do the extra work required for the additional meshes.

 

Public outcry? So what? It's just a goddamn video game! Totally fake. Not real. Made up. If they can have kids in Fallout 3, they can have them in Oblivion!

 

Bethesda had better learn from this and fix all these problems once TES5 gets out the gate. Especially all the glitches that they never fixed--it's like they just didn't care.

 

Then there's the official plugins. They know we like the plugins--why not just put them in the game from the start?

 

 

They could make kids so that you cannot kill them (e.g. your sword goes right through them).

[melkormgc]

I hate the music system. Lucky we have BMS to deal with that. Daggerfall was great in this aspect but for Morrowind and Oblivion music categories were grouped only by explore, battle, dungeon, public...

 

Music should be more variant. When you enter a tavern tavern music should play.. forests and ruins also should have different music.

[WeissYohji]

I hate the music system. Lucky we have BMS to deal with that. Daggerfall was great in this aspect but for Morrowind and Oblivion music categories were grouped only by explore, battle, dungeon, public...

 

Music should be more variant. When you enter a tavern tavern music should play.. forests and ruins also should have different music.

 

You don't like Jeremy Soule's music, then?

 

I just replaced all the in-game music with MP3s from my own library, except for the title screen and battle music.