Oblivion turns 10 years old

[Curious_Tongue]

I can't believe I'm going to admit this, but every time I see or hear something from Oblivion, I feel nostalgic.

For some reason I don't see it as a terrible sequel to Morrowind, but rather a quaint little standalone game with comfy music and a generic medieval fantasy setting.

 

[Space Insect]

I can't believe I'm going to admit this, but every time I see or hear something from Oblivion, I feel nostalgic.

For some reason I don't see it as a terible sequel to Morrowind, but rather a quaint little standalone game with comfy music and a generic medieval fantasy setting.

Your tongue must be curiously exploring Todd Howard's anus.

 

[Curious_Tongue]

Joined:
Sep 23, 2015

Fuck off edgy newfag

 

[pippin]

I can't believe I'm going to admit this, but every time I see or hear something from Oblivion, I feel nostalgic.

For some reason I don't see it as a terible sequel to Morrowind, but rather a quaint little standalone game with comfy music and a generic medieval fantasy setting.

I have a similar opinion, but I consider Morrowind to be the stand alone game. It truly stands out considering Bethesda's catalogue. I can't completely hate Oblivion, though. I wasn't interested in games when it came out (I left games around 2003, in retrospective it was a wise decision), so I can't "feel" how bad it was. I actually played it around 2012 or something like that, and while the concept felt interesting for a few dozens of minutes, it quickly became evident how poor the game really was. But I liked the music a lot. There is one piece with soft piano notes which plays during nighttime which is very relaxing.

 

[Severian Silk]

Is it officially oldschool now?

Yup, and codexers are now free to openly express their true feelings about this honored, influential classic from ye good olden times!

Oblivion influenced the development of the Fallout series. True fact.

 

[RK47]

I can't believe I'm going to admit this, but every time I see or hear something from Oblivion, I feel nostalgic.

For some reason I don't see it as a terible sequel to Morrowind, but rather a quaint little standalone game with comfy music and a generic medieval fantasy setting.

Cum watch my streams lah

 

[Deleted Member 16721]

I love Oblivion. Recently played a heavily modded version in 4K resolution on YouTube. Looked really purty with mods.

It's a lovely game. It's not a perfect game by any means. Morrowind is my favorite in the big 3 Elder Scrolls games because it has more of my style of design decisions in the mechanics, but all 3 of them are great games for me.

 

[Tom Selleck]

I second the weird comfy music. Listening to that music in the weirdo robot kids playing violin video above almost made me go "shit I should play that."

Anyway, Oblivion committed the cardinal sin of being boring bland as shit, but the best thing about it was finding that someone made an audio rip of all of Sean Bean's dialogue and using that to craft a perfect impression of him and then using it to get two girls to blow me at the same time because they thought I was a foreign superstud. Cheers Sean Bean, you rogueish devil, you.

Edit: Before anyone gets the wrong idea, these were two superfat hamplanets. So like, it's not all good. Kinda like Oblivion itself.

 

[MilesBeyond]

I second the weird comfy music. Listening to that music in the weirdo robot kids playing violin video above almost made me go "shit I should play that."

Right? It's a little like the video game equivalent of Kraft Dinner. I'm actually not a massive fan of Jeremy Soule (I find him a little boring and predictable, and more focused on creating cinematic moods than interesting music. He's got a pretty damn solid grasp of melody, though, I'll give him that. I've been humming the Easthaven and Morrowind themes for nearly two decades now), and Oblivion is one of my least favourite soundtracks by him, just because it is, well, bland. But that same blandness makes it feel comfy.

Plus it takes me back to a time of unlimited potential. Morrowind was one of my favourite RPGs of all time, and I'd just received Oblivion for Christmas. Booted it up all excited to explore without having any idea of the mediocrity that awaited me. Music still brings back those heady feelings of "Oh man! Look at these graphics! Wait, I have to actually do some investigating to track down the Thieves' Guild myself? Cool! Oh, this time we can buy houses! I don't have to mod that in! Awesome!"

And then it kind of just slowly goes downhill. You listen to the insane NPC conversations. You break into the castle vault only to discover some calipers and yarn. You discover that Enchanting and Spellmaking are reserved only for Mages. You discover that doesn't matter because any character can complete any faction without having any points in any relevant skills. You sit there and scratch your head and wonder why the game feels so much smaller than Morrowind, even though technically it's larger. Then you begin to learn what level scaling really means.

Oh man, level scaling. What a fiasco. If you build your character around non-combat skills, the game very quickly becomes stupidly difficult (assuming you don't exploit the millions of things there are to exploit). If you build your character intelligently, it very quickly becomes stupidly easy. If you build your character optimally, well... You might as well just use cheat codes. No amount of fiddling with the difficulty slider could make the game a reasonable difficulty. And it completely ruined the game world. Every single place in the game was custom-tailored to suit your character. The other day in Daggerfall my level 2 non-combat character went to explore a dungeon and found it was full of Daedroth and Giants. I had to use all my wits to survive. You never get those moments in Oblivion. Ever. And don't even get me started on levelled loot.

Oblivion is like that girl in high school you had a crush on, and you spent hours thinking about her, and one day you finally ask her out and she says "Yes" and you go on a date and... you have absolutely nothing in common and it ends up being the most awkward and uncomfortable night of your life and you just can't wait to get out of there. I wanted so much to love you, Oblivion. Why did you have to be the way you are.

 

[Genma:TheDestroyer]

Continues in Skyrim, too. "We here at the College don't accept just anyone. We have to be discriminating, there are too many who wish to hurt us."


*Pause*


"Now cast the cheapest, easiest to learn spell there is."


The Telvanni would have poisoned them all. Then started growing a mushroom tower over the ruins cause they're dicks.

 

[DraQ]

I can't completely hate Oblivion, though.

I can lend a hand.

 

[Curious_Tongue]

http://jamesmarchment.com/floorboarder/esl-kids-kevin-ann/


— Kevin & Ann
Ann stood alone and solemnly coaxed the first plaintive, uncertain notes from the violin. She had barely begun to address the demons of her own shattered confidence when she was interrupted with a staccato burst of applause. Kevin stood in the doorway. She froze. It couldn’t be. How had he found her? He stormed towards the stage, wordless.

She lowered the bow, poised to flee as Kevin raised his hands. Instead of striking her, he clapped again; the sound of impact echoed, dominating the music hall air in a way her strings could not. She tentatively opened her eyes from the instinctive wince. His face was unreadable: his eyes were cold, calculating.

“You are great. When is your violin concert?” Kevin demanded.
“June 15th,” said Ann, instantly wishing she had lied. She tried to keep the fear from her voice, but could not refrain from a nervous swallow after speaking the words.

Kevin’s facade slipped for a moment and his brows crumpled, stifled rage playing across his features as briefly and brilliantly as Ann upon her Stradivarius. “What’s the date today?”

Was this another stratagem? Ann cursed inside her mind. How could she avoid playing into his trap? Why couldn’t he just tell her that he’d discovered her infidelity, and have it out right then and there! She knew he didn’t have the stomach for confrontation. To Kevin, mendacity was so much more palatable. “June 11th,” Ann said sharply, striking back at him with a vocal tone that did not match the pretense. Had she given too much away? She didn’t care anymore; there would be no backing out now, and she would have to be ready.

Kevin seemed taken aback, as though he had not expected her to match his fire for fire. She would not be intimidated, not this time. He backpedaled, looking for reconciliation. “Oh! This Friday?”

Ann sensed his weakness, and her opportunity. “Can you come to my concert?” she asked, sweetly as she would have when they were still in love. Behind her eyes, though, was something that had not been there when they first met on that day so long ago; a day too lovely to foreshadow what was to come. It was something Kevin could not see: it was the deceptiveness she had learned from him.

“Sure,” he said.

Oh, how the tables would turn.

 

[Tom Selleck]

Better writing than Oblivion.

 

[RK47]

And then he raped her.

 

[DraQ]

And then he raped her.

When you gaze into the loverslab...

 

[catfood]

Yeah sometimes I get nostalgic about Oblivious too except then I realize I dont get nostalgic about the game which is a piece of shit but because I WAS 10 YEARS YOUNGER THAN I AM NOW NOSTALGIA HOW DOES IT WORK

 

[Dux]

There's a particular quest in Oblivion which is given to you by the Mages Guild. It got me thinking. It's the one where you have to pose as a merchant to lure a merchant-hating highwayman out into the open. The thing about this mission is that there's a hint of choice and consequence. You can announce to the innkeeper that you are in fact a merchant - which the quest giver suggests that you do - or say nothing. As far as Oblivion's quest design is concerned, this is a little odd and different. Usually you're just given the one choice. You move from point A to point B. The reason I'm bringing this up is that the "choices" you're given here - play along or remain silent - has absolutely no bearing at all on the outcome of the mission. It doesn't matter what you say, it won't have any consequences. In theory, you could have thirty different dialogue options and it wouldn't matter. The mission plays out the same no matter what.

This is - in my mind - a clear example of how Oblivion and Bethesda works. It is an effective summary of their whole mindset and the illusion of true roleplaying. What role are you really playing? The quest giver urges you to announce to the innkeeper and the inn that you are a merchant to entice the highwayman into making a mistake later on. However, there's a second option to defy this order by being silent on the matter. Why is there no consequence to this action? Why is it there in the first place? Flavour?

Why am I even talking about this? I am clearly insane. I gazed too deeply into the abyss...

... the abyss being the dead eyes of Todd Howard.

 

[Wayward Son]

Why am I even talking about this? I am clearly insane. I gazed too deeply into the abyss...

... the abyss being the dead eyes of Todd Howard.

Does this make you feel better? He can't see you anymore....

 

[RK47]

Clearly they've doubled down since then with Yes/No/Maybe/Sarcasm.

 

[Roqua]

Who gives a fuck? Normal people didn't give a shit when it was released, never mind when it has anniversaries. Why didn't real games get an anniversary thread like the Buck Roger's games? Oh yeah, those games are good and not console shit for monkey savages like all of Bethesda game's since after Daggerfall.

 

[Mexi]

I can't believe I'm going to admit this, but every time I see or hear something from Oblivion, I feel nostalgic.

For some reason I don't see it as a terible sequel to Morrowind, but rather a quaint little standalone game with comfy music and a generic medieval fantasy setting.

I can dig that. Soundtrack is still one of my favorites.

 

[Red Rogue]

Clearly they've doubled down since then with Yes/No/Maybe/Sarcasm.

Not even.
-Ass kissing yes
-Yes
-Sassy Yes
-Yes but later


Anyways, I can't help but feel positive memories with Oblivion. Perhaps it was because I wasn't into RPGs much when I was younger and I played it when I was 15, an impressionable age. I didn't know any better. When you come into a game like Oblivion in the situation I did you don't realize it's mostly generic, reuses assets, has like 10 voice actors, characters all look like Natalie Portman potatoes, whatever.

For me, It will always live on as this big ass game with a comfy soundtrack and a painting artstyle. Even though I can look back and know there's a lot better out there. Plus Shivering Isles was badass.

 

[ortucis]

I spent 200+ hours in Oblivion, but finished it only once because the game fucking sucked.

Allow me to explain.

Before I heard of Oblivion, I never bothered with RPG's or even knew about their existence because since I was a kid, I had been playing FPS games and before that, side-scrollers (like BioMenace, Dangerous Dave, TMNT3.. etc.). My little experience with RPG games before Oblivion came from Diablo 2 Demo, Syndicate Wars (was it an RPG?) and Baldurs Gate 1 (bought a disc, turned out to be a fucking demo of sorts, fucking BioWare).

So one day (in 2006, of course), while browsing for porn on the internet, I somehow ended up on some site with screenshots from an upcoming 3rd person RPG. I have never played a third person RPG before and only played third person shooters like Heretic 2 or Tomb Raider, so reading about that RPG made me think, "Sounds fun." Then I went back to browsing porn and forgot about the name of the game. The screenshots however were still in my mind and 3-4 months later, I tried searching for that game again.. ended up finding Oblivion, a "ground-breaking" RPG with a lot of hype behind it.

Bought Oblivion and having never played a third person RPG, spent an hour creating a nice looking character, which looked like an asshole the moment the game started, thanks to shit lighting. Restarted and tried again, spent like an hour designing the character which eventually looked "good enough". But still excited, spent a LOT of time playing the game, exploring, killing Mudcrabs. My favorite part however was just riding my horse in the country-side with nice music playing in the background (which I still like, tbh).. which would eventually get ruined by random people or creatures attacking me, but it was still fun. I spent a lot of time looting pretty much every place, exploring, doing every possible side quest.

However, I never finished the game. I tried over and over again (never on Easy difficulty) but would ALWAYS end up at a point in-game where no matter how much I rose in power, every new enemy was even better armored and almost as powerful as me. It never felt like I was making progress with my character, never felt like I was actually getting better. It was frustrating and mostly cause, I had no idea about the retarded level scaling. I even spent a day every few weeks, downloading gigabytes of mods for the game, only to play for an hour and uninstall the fucking game the next day (I did that a lot, hoping to make it fun). Anyway, one day, after like an year of trying, I just decided to say "fuck it" and set the game on lowest difficulty, ignored every side quest and just focused on main storyline to finish the fucking game. To this day, I only remember some kind of Godzilla fight in the end of the game and uninstalling the fucking thing.

The best part? That third person RPG whose screenshots I saw before discovering Oblivion? It was Gothic 3.

I eventually, like an year after enduring Oblivion, found Gothic 3 again. Played it, fucking loved it (despite dying over and over again the moment game started.. fucking Orcs) and went on to discover other Gothic games, Planescape, Arcanum.. etc. Played them all one after another.


- FIN

 

[anus_pounder]

5 pages in and not one mention or link to Adrimal Rimjob's excellent SI LP?

http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/lets-play-oblivion-shiverwinter-islepeaks.24585/

 

[JarlFrank]

Oblivion spawned Nehrim.

So it's not all bad.