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Review Have they got no shame? Oblivion and the media

Vault Dweller

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

A few lines from two latest Oblivion reviews that kinda stood out.
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<blockquote><a href=http://www.telefragged.com/reviews/oblivion/>Telefragged review, 97%</a>
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The combat in Oblivion, simply put, is some of the best I've encountered in any RPG.
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<a href=http://xbox360.gamedaily.com/game/review/?gameid=3640&page=1>Game Daily review, 4.5/5</a>
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Regarding its visuals, Oblivion is definitely a technical showpiece for the Xbox 360, as well as a game that I can point to as being "next generation". </blockquote>Unbelievable.
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<br>
 

Solik

Scholar
Joined
Jan 24, 2006
Messages
377
Well, I certainly agree 100% with the lines you pasted from their texts.

Given how loudly some here shout that the fanboys seem incapable of grasping that people actually don't like their precious game, certain individuals around here seem equally incapable of grasping that people -- a lot of people -- enjoy it.
 

Diogo Ribeiro

Erudite
Joined
Jun 23, 2003
Messages
5,706
Location
Lisboa, Portugal
Speaking of grasping, some individuals here also seem to be equally incapable of realizing the difference between someone saying they enjoy something and someone saying something is the best in a given field when it actually may not be (or simply isn't).
 

FaranBrygo

Educated
Joined
Feb 16, 2006
Messages
99
I just recieved my PC Gamer today, a publication which I have collected since 1994 but has turned to shit. I predict a 94%.

Result: LULZ 95%

I have been meaning to cancel my subscription for a long time and this seems like the time to do it.

"...it's (Oblivion) an astoundingly deep RPG"
"It's a superlative RPG"

"Guilds also do a better job than in most RPGs (including Morrowind) of actually requiring you to act like a member" Like being able to head and join all guilds at the same time. IMMERSHIOUN

For some reason I feel like the reviewer "Desslock" did not play the game
"The streamlined interface consolidates the automap, quest journal, inventory, and character screens into asingle display with multiple tabs."

Another good one: "To make it harder to avoid obstacles, Mark and Recall spells have been removed from this installment of the serie, and there are no flying or levitation abilities, so you don't have to worry about being haunted by Morrowind's annyoying Clif Racers" IMMERSHHIN
Problem: Clif racers harass the player during flight
Solution: Remove flight
I hope Dessock enjoyed sucking Bethesda's teat.

The reviewer calls it an RPG but only discusses fighting, the scenery, a few quest improvement, more fighting, and a bit about the AI copied from a promo flyer. Desslock does not mention the introduction of minigames or the restrictions imposed by the large text size.


From the Final Verdict box bottom line: "Years from now, gamers will look back on Oblivion and say it was a classic." Classics have fallen far.
 

bryce777

Erudite
Joined
Feb 4, 2005
Messages
4,225
Location
In my country the system operates YOU
FaranBrygo said:
I just recieved my PC Gamer today, a publication which I have collected since 1994 but has turned to shit. I predict a 94%.

Result: LULZ 95%

I have been meaning to cancel my subscription for a long time and this seems like the time to do it.

Send them a note about why you are cancelling, too.
 

Vault Dweller

Commissar, Red Star Studio
Developer
Joined
Jan 7, 2003
Messages
28,024
Solik said:
Well, I certainly agree 100% with the lines you pasted from their texts.

Given how loudly some here shout that the fanboys seem incapable of grasping that people actually don't like their precious game, certain individuals around here seem equally incapable of grasping that people -- a lot of people -- enjoy it.
What Role-Player said.
 

Jiles

Educated
Joined
Feb 13, 2003
Messages
68
Vault Dweller said:
Regarding its visuals, Oblivion is definitely a technical showpiece for the Xbox 360, as well as a game that I can point to as being "next generation". Unbelievable.

There's too much cunting bloom.
 

Section8

Cipher
Joined
Oct 23, 2002
Messages
4,321
Location
Wardenclyffe
Speaking of grasping, some individuals here also seem to be equally incapable of realizing the difference between someone saying they enjoy something and someone saying something is the best in a given field when it actually may not be (or simply isn't).

Yes! Well said. It brings to mind "Greatest songs* of all time" lists, and the inclusion of whatever rubbish is popular at the time. I distinctly remember one where "Eiffel 65 - Blue" was ranked the second best song of all time... right behind "The Offspring - Pretty Fly for a White Guy."

There's a lot to be said for having some fucking perspective. A game may have a lot of appeal in the here and now, but that doesn't assure lasting appeal.
 

Zomg

Arbiter
Joined
Oct 21, 2005
Messages
6,984
The problem is that mainstream gaming journalism still believes in Victorian-style capital-P Progress where things are inevitably getting better and better every day, a habit gaming culture probably picked up in the '80s. So, to them, being good right now is logically the same as being the best ever.
 

DarkUnderlord

Professional Throne Sitter
Staff Member
Joined
Jun 18, 2002
Messages
28,343
Hey, Blue was a fucking rocking song!

That's the "If I was green I would die" one they rumoured isn't it? That's a fucking all-time classic right there.

Desslock said:
To make it harder to avoid obstacles, Mark and Recall spells have been removed from this installment of the serie, and there are no flying or levitation abilities, so you don't have to worry about being haunted by Morrowind's annyoying Clif Racers
See now that, that right there is fucked up. Rather than, GOD FORBID making Cliff Racers docile animals (I mean really, who gets attacked by birds on a daily basis here? Anyone? Anyone at all?) OR simply cutting down the sheer amount of the fuckers OR tweaking their AI so that they don't fucking tail you across the entire map, they just remove them.

Zooming around over mountains at break neck speed with the boots of blinding speed on (with another charm to counter the blinding aspect) was actually how I preferred to travel in Morrowind.

Chefe was right. They really are BethesDUH.
 

Jason

chasing a bee
Joined
Jun 30, 2005
Messages
10,737
Location
baby arm fantasy island
"I mean really, who gets attacked by birds on a daily basis here? Anyone? Anyone at all?"
I used to have a pet pigeon who would attack anyone (men, women, & children) who would dare to walk past my house. It was a beautiful sight to see him chasing a group of schoolchildren down the sidewalk. He even chased cars.

On topic: I don't see anything wrong with that review saying that Oblivion is a "technical showpiece for the Xbox 360". It's not like there are a lot of better looking games on the 360 (COD2 didn't seem like much). It's fairly impressive looking and nextgeny and all that.
 

Twinfalls

Erudite
Joined
Jan 4, 2005
Messages
3,903
Just how well are these mainstream media bodies doing in terms of sales/hits? Printed gaming magazines are surely in serious decline, sadly the likes of PCGamer still get enough sales to be published, but I wonder how much of an effect they really have. Sites like Gamespot and IGN (both Murdoch now I believe) may get a lot of hits, but I get a feeling (a hope) that this kind of endless hyping (people do remember things like the Black and White fiasco) have driven a greater reliance on user-review systems like Gamefaqs, even just Amazon.com's.

So perhaps all the ridiculous hype pretending to be 'reviews' we see out there are the last, hysterical gasp of a dying commercial marketing structure.
 

mckracken

Novice
Joined
Mar 11, 2006
Messages
16
Oblivion HAS killer graphics, ill give it that. (on the PC that is - I dont buy conoles)

As for the modern rating system - much too differentiated. It needs discipline and really, really good taste to maintain the 100 percent over the years as a working system.

Something that only one mag has achieved. (Powerplay from Germany)
From '88 to '95, this was a true gaming bible.
 

HardCode

Erudite
Joined
Aug 23, 2005
Messages
1,138
Solik said:
..., certain individuals around here seem equally incapable of grasping that people -- a lot of people -- enjoy it.

No, we can grasp that a lot of people are retards with ADHD.

OOO!! OOO!! K3wl! Kombat! We cna fite the monstarz!!!! OOOO!!
 

mister lamat

Scholar
Joined
Mar 23, 2006
Messages
570
HardCode said:
Solik said:
..., certain individuals around here seem equally incapable of grasping that people -- a lot of people -- enjoy it.

No, we can grasp that a lot of people are retards with ADHD.

OOO!! OOO!! K3wl! Kombat! We cna fite the monstarz!!!! OOOO!!

actually at around level fifteen in the game, combat becomes something more akin to a dance if you want it to be. i'd imagine you can blindly get by jackhammering buttons and hoping for the best... but block, mez, stun, block, stab, mez, stab, etc... is really quite intricate as well.
 

jasondragon

Novice
Joined
Oct 1, 2005
Messages
45
Not that it needs to be said again but the melee combat is ugh.

Hold block, then click to swing. They added some kewl kinetic type movements. They added perks, that are identical at each new level for every weapon including hand to hand.

And they all read the same in the manual which is hilarious.

Blunt/Blade/Handto hand. At master gains master forward power attack, with a chance to paralyze. Same for all three perks.
 

Saint_Proverbius

Administrator
Staff Member
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Jun 16, 2002
Messages
11,475
Location
Behind you.
FaranBrygo said:
Another good one: "To make it harder to avoid obstacles, Mark and Recall spells have been removed from this installment of the serie, and there are no flying or levitation abilities, so you don't have to worry about being haunted by Morrowind's annyoying Clif Racers" IMMERSHHIN
Problem: Clif racers harass the player during flight
Solution: Remove flight
I hope Dessock enjoyed sucking Bethesda's teat.

Removing flight had little to do with Cliff Racers, but had everything to do with removal of things like Mark and Recall. It's vastly easiser to design game worlds when you nail down the movement of the player to fewer and fewer means. If the player can't scale walls, all wall are barriers and mazes become obstacles. If the player can't swim, all streams become barriers. The same thing goes for teleporting and flight.
 

FaranBrygo

Educated
Joined
Feb 16, 2006
Messages
99
Saint_Proverbius said:
Removing flight had little to do with Cliff Racers, but had everything to do with removal of things like Mark and Recall. It's vastly easiser to design game worlds when you nail down the movement of the player to fewer and fewer means. If the player can't scale walls, all wall are barriers and mazes become obstacles. If the player can't swim, all streams become barriers. The same thing goes for teleporting and flight.

The reason I picked that one out is because I did not believe his reasons for the culling of mark, recall, and levitate. I probably should have mentioned my doubt. Wasn't the reason that if the player did not enter through the city gates the city would not load?
 

Section8

Cipher
Joined
Oct 23, 2002
Messages
4,321
Location
Wardenclyffe
And they all read the same in the manual which is hilarious.

Blunt/Blade/Handto hand. At master gains master forward power attack, with a chance to paralyze. Same for all three perks.

Fuck me. Can Bethesda do anything even remotely above average? Surely they could come up with at least two variations to make weapon skills something more than a purely cosmetic choice. Alas, no. Bland and predictable as always.

I know I shouldn't be, but I'm actually shocked by that. Could they not even go with the obvious Blades cause bleeding (damage over time) / Blunts cause stunning / Hand to Hand damages fatigue dynamic? Do they even employ game designers? Or do they actually believe that homogenising the whole world is a good thing?

I'm honestly dumbfounded by this revelation.
 

Chefe

Erudite
Joined
Feb 26, 2005
Messages
4,731
I'm not surprised. Reviewers have no balls. What, they're going to come out and tell thethousands of people that have been looking forward to this game... "Hey, guess what? You know those last two years you've spent slaving over ever little bit of information? As it turns out, the game is complete trash! Haveaniceday."

No. Of course not. There's a secret rule among reviewers. If the game is extremely heavily hyped and not developed by EA, then give it no less than a 9.3, 4/5, etc. score.
 

Twinfalls

Erudite
Joined
Jan 4, 2005
Messages
3,903
jasondragon said:
They added perks, that are identical at each new level for every weapon including hand to hand.

And they all read the same in the manual which is hilarious.

Blunt/Blade/Handto hand. At master gains master forward power attack, with a chance to paralyze. Same for all three perks.

Oh boy. MSFD should really be roasted over this one. Pity he's been banned like a kid from coming here anymore...
 

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