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Preview Oblivion impressions at Gamers with Jobs

Vault Dweller

Commissar, Red Star Studio
Developer
Joined
Jan 7, 2003
Messages
28,024
Tags: Bethesda Softworks; Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

<a href=http://www.gamerswithjobs.com>Gamers with Jobs</a> has shared not overly favourable, but the most informative <a href=http://www.gamerswithjobs.com/node/22390>Oblivion impressions</a>, after playing the game for several hours.
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<blockquote><b>Character System</b>:
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I wasn’t thrilled by the character creation system. Given the myriad of options most sports games offer to their players today, I was a bit disappointed that Oblivion (and most RPGs for that matter) have not followed suit. It never really made me feel like I was really customizing my character, more that I was just tweaking a preset base.
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<b>Graphics</b>:
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The cities themselves are given the same kind of loving treatment, so that every city really looks like it was built by hand, with some buildings beginning to show the signs of wear and decay, and others standing proud against the sky. I’ve never seen the thatched roof of a farm look quite so appealing, or looked up at the king’s palace and really felt like it had a royal majesty to it.
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The landscapes really are a graphical achievement, one that will certainly help players immerse themselves in the world. All of this would be absolutely perfect, if not for one small flaw.
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<b>Loading</b>:
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Where the problem is most pronounced however, is inside of cities. Upon entering a city, and any building within a city, you’ll have to wait while the game loads the area. It’s not an agonizingly long time to wait, but the load times are comparable (roughly) to those of GTA: San Andreas for the PS2, which is a bit disappointing.
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<b>Combat</b>:
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Combat is still entertaining, if somewhat shallow. The player is given two attacks, a normal swing, and a power-swing, which you charge up before hopefully delivering a solid shot to your opponent that will inflict extra damage, or stun them if they were blocking. Fighting against equally well armed enemies generally felt good, as I had to judge my attacks and wait for openings before launching into the offensive. Against “lesser” opponents, like Goblins, things had an unfortunate tendency to degenerate into a whirling, button-mashing hack-fest.
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In the time that I played, I only had one experience of combat against a magic-user, a Goblin mage, so I didn’t really get to see what it’s like to fight an experienced wizard. The goblin mage I did fight was obviously designed not to be very challenging and simply charging headlong at him and slicing him to pieces did the trick. I would hope a little more thought is required against other wizards in the game.
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However, while being able to recover your used arrows from the corpses of your defeated enemies was a nice touch, the use of archery in the game at all seemed a little superfluous. Anytime an enemy detects you, they generally will come charging at you full-speed, leaving you able to fire a shot or two before whipping out your melee weapons and getting to the evisceration. I understand it’s a unrealistic to expect the Battle of Agincourt when it comes to archery, but I just didn’t see much use for archery in the game.
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<b>Stealth</b>:
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This brings me to the stealth system and the enemy detection AI. A special stealth icon has been introduced for Oblivion that turns different shades, darker or lighter as you go from undetected to seen. It’s nice, and it allows for some sneaking, but, unfortunately for those people out there who might want to play the part of a stealthy assassin in this game, detection seemed to be an all-or-nothing gambit. Less pleasantly, some of the enemies seem to be rather deaf, as I managed to get into a hand-to-hand battle with two goblins, with a goblin mage no more than 15 feet away, and the goblin mage never even noticed anything out of the ordinary.</blockquote>Discuss.
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Thanks, <b>Peter</b>
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Llyranor

Liturgist
Joined
Jun 13, 2004
Messages
348
"the writing, and especially the voice acting for Oblivion are top-notch. The people do sound believable, the dialog isn’t too over-the-top"

What?
 

Gnidrologist

CONDUCTOR
Joined
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Messages
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This pretty mutch summs up the gameplay facts that devs have provided themselves in various press releases and interviews, but without silly hype and drooling over the graphics.
That's how Bethesda's PR info looks when all the useless crap has been cut out.
 

Vault Dweller

Commissar, Red Star Studio
Developer
Joined
Jan 7, 2003
Messages
28,024
Take a look at this thread:
http://www.elderscrolls.com/forums/inde ... pic=244891

I couldn't resist:

VDweller said:
Attention, local idiots!

Regarding the review, what difference does it make if the guy is a noob? In the preview, he DESCRIBED what he saw, giving you, the RPG "veterans", a chance to form opinions. That is the best kind of preview one could hope for. Of course, most of you can't read & comprehend at the same time, so that's probably the reason for confusion.

Anyway, the important thing is, he liked the graphics, which is the most important RPG element - YAY!, so I don't understand what you are so upset about. As for the rest, take a look at these quotes:

<the combat quote>
Any question? Anyone surprised? Anyone expected anything better? WHY?!

<the stealth quote>
Same as above. It's not the first preview/opinion, indicating that stealth is f...d up.

I know that you guys think that mighty DEVs can do no wrong (and if they do, you'll quickly find the upside - see one of those "why it's good that feature X is gone" threads), and God knows all those "How awesome RAI is" threads are hilarious, but I think it's time for some reality check, no?
 

HanoverF

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MCA Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Codex USB, 2014 Divinity: Original Sin 2
Less pleasantly, some of the enemies seem to be rather deaf, as I managed to get into a hand-to-hand battle with two goblins, with a goblin mage no more than 15 feet away, and the goblin mage never even noticed anything out of the ordinary.

Obviously the Goblin Mage was using Radiant AI and had listened to rock music to loud and was deaf!!!!1


Why did you link that thread, I could feel individual brain cells dieing as I read it.

Frankie said:
They are the most ridiculous people that I've seen, second only to another group I won't meantion.

Sorry, they need to stick to whatever REAL jobs they might have. If this is it, they are in DEEP TROUBLE.

I wouldn't put one ounce of seriousness in their preview.

I wonder who the other group could possibly be...
 

Fodel

Novice
Joined
May 20, 2005
Messages
49
Location
Spain
You can learn about new side-quests simply by overhearing a conversation on the street.

Fine :D

With a fatigue bar that depletes with every swing, jump or running step you take, you’re forced to occasionally stop your attacks and hide behind your shield, but that didn’t stop combat from occasionally feeling like a medieval version of Quake.

¿Fatigue wiill be important in mele?, it would be good.

The weapons themselves and their various qualities will really affect the way you approach a battle

Fine :D

Getting around the world is exceptionally easy, thanks to the fast-travel system in the game. Any place in the world that you’ve been to can be accessed instantly simply by going to the map and selecting that place

Stupid, but optional.

I left Bethesda’s event thinking that I could not see this game being badly received by fans of the Elder Scrolls series. It’s more of the same, done better, with more polish and thought going into its execution

Agree, if you dislike Morrowind dont play Oblivion, if you like MW, Oblivion will be a better game. :D
 

Jora

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Finland
There actually is a thread called Are you taking gamers with jobs seriously? ? I had thought that the fabled Elder Scrolls forums were only a silly legend.
 

Pegultagol

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I guess I can approach the game as more of the same, but with better graphics. I am nonetheless getting a bit excited over the impending release.
 

Vault Dweller

Commissar, Red Star Studio
Developer
Joined
Jan 7, 2003
Messages
28,024
Some comments on archery:

Emil said:
Calling archery useless in Oblivion is about the equivalent of calling a keyboard useless when typing an e-mail.

If you play an archer right -- particularly when using stealth or when outdoors -- you are hands down DEADLY. You can absolutely play the game and thrive with JUST the Marksman skill, if you play smart.
Hilarious. So, I have to play it right. I assume that I can snipe everyone silently and their comrades would ignore the growing pile of bodies.

MSFD said:
My character at about 55 hours in uses Marksman almost exclusively. It's far from useless -- the previewer just isn't very good at it yet
I hope it's not another "MW mage quests are intricate" pre-release statement.
 

Lumpy

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Sep 11, 2005
Messages
8,525
I'm not too knowledgeable about medieval combat, but from what I know, archers only used bows until enemies got close, and then engaged them in melee. So in Oblivion, you can either make a stealthy archer, which will make sure he isn't detected while he shoots an enemy, or a combat archer, which will have some melee weapons ready for when he is detected.
So the world is interesting. Very nice. Exploring the world is one of the best aspects of TES. Maybe it will even have as much variety as Morrowind, although I doubt it. Morrowind's many different regions and architectural styles were great. Although many people disliked the ashlands, I liked them as much as any other region.
How good a stealth system could you expect? This isn't Thief. It still sounds much better than Morrowind.
 

elander_

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Messages
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Lumpy said:
How good a stealth system could you expect? This isn't Thief. It still sounds much better than Morrowind.

By reading the review we can conclude that enemies don't give any kind of alarm when they detect the player. You don't need Thief tech for this.

The combat thing is also disapointing. It shows how devs like MSFD while being great engineers still need to learn a lot in terms of game design knowledge. You can have a fantastic AI tool but it doesn't create good gameplay just by itself. For that you have to learn with the classics MSFD that didn't had to use any RAI to be great.
 

Elwro

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There should be a "WTF?" phase between the opponent being totally oblivious of your sneaking character's existence and him charging you at full speed. He should look around, inviestigate/take cover, tell his buddies sth is wrong etc. I hope something like that is in - if the AI is to be Radiant at least to some extent.
 

LlamaGod

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haha, TES idiots trying to talk down about Gamers with Jobs.

They are one of the few good gaming websites and have much more credibility then some guy who thinks roleplaying is pretending he is scared of heights.
 

Blacklung

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This is exactly the kind of preview I was waiting for. Fair, unbiased, realistic. In fact, everything the man said was exactly what I was expecting. Combat is no more complicated than Jedi Knights, sneaking is a bit simplistic but better than MW, the character generation could have used a few more options, the scenery is beautiful, and the RAI is not earthshaking but adds to the game. Fine, good, that's exactly what I wanted to hear, and now that I know, I can buy the game knowing that this is what I was expecting to spend my money on.
 

Levski 1912

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Jan 9, 2006
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Lumpy said:
I'm not too knowledgeable about medieval combat, but from what I know, archers only used bows until enemies got close, and then engaged them in melee.

Let me make a couple of quick points- archers were almost never expected to engage in any kind of melee in medieval battles, as they usually were drawn from the peasant classes of society and forced to supply their own equipment, which often meant a bow and a spear or axe, and potentially a dagger or knife. In medium to large engagements, archers would often be placed behind barriers of sharp stakes to prevent cavalry attacks, and would have some infantry covering their front and flanks. Also, while archery was invaluable in ambushes, arrows in real life can kill far faster than they would in Oblivion, especially since archers ambushing a target have time to aim their shots instead of volleying (that's why the lack of locational damage really screws stealth characters). The lack of horseback archery is also a bummer, as horse archers consistently beat European armies during the Middle Ages.

So the world is interesting. Very nice. Exploring the world is one of the best aspects of TES.

I agree- the world and exploration in general were always Bethesda's strong points in game design, though Oblivion could have been a bit larger- since they have now incorporated procedural tools, it wouldn't be too much trouble to create more landscape.

How good a stealth system could you expect? This isn't Thief. It still sounds much better than Morrowind.

It's an issue of hype (again). Reading all of Emil's comments really made me think the stealth game was going to be superb, but previews like this ruin the illusion. Now, I'm not saying it'll suck, but it might not be the thing hinted at by Emil.
 

Proweler

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Levski 1912 said:
It's an issue of hype (again). Reading all of Emil's comments really made me think the stealth game was going to be superb, but previews like this ruin the illusion. Now, I'm not saying it'll suck, but it might not be the thing hinted at by Emil.

Even Thief sucks when you play it as Rambo. Thats what most of the reviewers were doing.
 

dongle

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Jan 23, 2006
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Sylvanus said:
This is exactly the kind of preview I was waiting for. Fair, unbiased, realistic.
Agreed 100%.

It’s funny how whipped it the ESF into a frenzy. How dare they write something mildly critical of our baby! Well, funny if it weren’t so sad.
 

Rat Keeng

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Oct 22, 2002
Messages
869
It's honestly positive, as opposed to "How awesome is this game?" positive.

Archery was, for me, one of the few redeeming qualities of Morrowind. Had a lot of fun trying to bend and time my arrows, so I'd hit a target with two arrows simultaneously, which was entirely possible what with all the vast open areas you would come across in MW.

I would assume archers in Oblivion still have the advantage, of being able to see the enemy before they see you, so you can get those pre-emptive strikes in, before finishing them off with melee weapons. After all, they did say they binned the crossbows and throwing weapons, to make bows absolutely fabulous, so the whole archery part of the game should by all means be fantastic.
 

GhanBuriGhan

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Aug 8, 2005
Messages
1,170
Vault Dweller said:
You mean the last paragraph? Yeah, sure.
Not only that, VD, not only that. Not to talk about the 10 or so other previews... But of course those guys are all either bribed, or idiots, right?
 

Greatatlantic

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They went ahead and started a third thread there about the GwJ preview, and people were still bringing up the Codex. I think we've somehow managed to get underneath their skin, and know they need to somehow justify the Codex's general negativity about this game. I was still willing to meet in halfway until I learned dialogue would feature a mini-game. That is just the worst sort of cop out imaginable in my mind. Heck, dialogue is probably why I like Bloodlines so much. But turning RPGs into mingames is just that unforgivable sin in mind.

Edit: Grammar stuff.
 

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