Knights of the Nine: HANDS-ON

[Chinese Jetpilot]

From IGN:

It seems this expansion, at least from what we've played so far, functions much like the rest of Oblivion: everything auto-levels with you. Of course with a more powerful character you could likely breeze through much faster with skill ratings or customized spells that rapidly vanquish even the hardiest enemies, but it still seems viable at low levels.

Snagging the helmet opened up the way to the next Relic, a chest piece. This one was located in a church south of the Imperial City. Instead of something like the cavernous or elven ruins we've seen so many times already in Cyrodiil, this church dungeon was different. We arrived at the church's basement to find a cadre of spirit knights waiting to test our mettle. As we descended the steps to their circular stone chamber, what we can only assume was their leader strolled up and basically told us he and his friends were going to kick our ass. It was around this point we stopped playing, but had we continued we would have had to fight about eight ghost knights in successive rounds of one-on-one combat. Our Oblivion battle skills are a little rusty at this point, so we weren't doing so hot.

Aside from the added story and dungeon areas, Knights of the Nine so far gives you one hell of a powerful ability. Successfully visiting all nine shrines unlocks Pilgrim's Grace, which fortifies all your character statistics (agility, personality, speed, strength, etc.) by 10 for 300 seconds. The only down side is it can only be cast once per day. In addition to that power, it seems some new characters will be introduced as well. As we approached the final shrine, we ran into some guy on a horse who was apparently on the same quest we were. After a brief conversation, he says (rather ominously in our opinion) that he might see us again. Is he a friend? The evil doer in disguise?

Let me guess....the player will HOLY SHIT fight him later?

So basically Bethesda is asking players to pay $10-20 dollars for a new set of armor and an AMAZING new spell in which the player would rarely use because he's got tons of custom-made gear that greatly boost his stats already.

 

[RK47]

....lol yeah hardly worth the download even
i'm giving it a skip seriously, even any player made stuff could've done that.

but this expansions' is specially made for X-Kids

 

[Frankie]

IGN shows their ignorance right off the bat by calling it an expansion when Pete himself said the damn thing wasn't an expansion but a big DLC.

They continue to show their ignorance by trying to make us believe that this is worth $10-20 for a damn guild and some quests and items and all you get when you get done is a unique power and maybe a t-shirt that says "I paid $10-$20 for this crap and all I got was a power and this stinking t-shirt".

OK, maybe you don't get the t-shirt..... but you should.

The most sad thing is that people will buy this up left and right and STILL not see the crap that all this "Pay As You Go" mod system has produced.

 

[Lumpy]

I think that that spell was available in the original game.

 

[Jim Kata]

10-20 dollars? Wow, the rape not only continues but increases pace.

 

[Micmu]

I hope none of the local kids get it, because more oblivious threads is what RPG Codex really needs right now - when things are slowly returning back to normal.

 

[cutterjohn]

I wasn't expecting much myself when I read that it did NOT add new landmass, but mainly (c. 20 IIRC) new quests and maybe a few new characters.

I'm still waiting for something with a sizable landmass like Bloodmoon, but with a quality more of Tribunal expansion to show up. Hopefully they'll also address the auto-leveling and some of the other things that many of us perceive as problems. Many of those COULD be checkboxes and the like in a game play tab in an options screen.

 

[Baphomet]

So it seems like you go to different shrines and end up with a suit of armor? Is there any motivation for characters who shun heavy armor to play through?

 

[stargelman]

Huh?

*shrugs and goes back to playing the Gothic 3 demo*

 

[Lumpy]

So it seems like you go to different shrines and end up with a suit of armor? Is there any motivation for characters who shun heavy armor to play through?

Yes. The armor levels to your level.

 

[Texas Red]

So it seems like you go to different shrines and end up with a suit of armor? Is there any motivation for characters who shun heavy armor to play through?

Yes. The armor levels to your level.

Heh, why not just simply remove all of the levels and just be done with it, then? I dont understand. Is Bethesda slowly trying to convert TES in to a full action game?

 

[Admiral Rimjob POOBUM]

So it seems like you go to different shrines and end up with a suit of armor? Is there any motivation for characters who shun heavy armor to play through?

Yes. The armor levels to your level.

Heh, why not just simply remove all of the levels and just be done with it, then? I dont understand. Is Bethesda slowly trying to convert TES in to a full action game?

No shit.

 

[Baphomet]

Heh, why not just simply remove all of the levels and just be done with it, then? I dont understand. Is Bethesda slowly trying to convert TES in to a full action game?

Just download the upcoming mod that lets you push F5 to kill all monsters on the screen.

 

[Ahzaruuk]

10-20 dollars? Wow, the rape not only continues but increases pace.

$10 for the DLC, $20 for the boxed set IIRC.

 

[sabishii]

Heh, why not just simply remove all of the levels and just be done with it, then? I dont understand. Is Bethesda slowly trying to convert TES in to a full action game?

Just download the upcoming mod that lets you push F5 to kill all monsters on the screen.

It better come with cool animations.

 

[Wild Slop]

I hope the kiddies parents do buy it.
I hope this type of behavior continues and accelerates,
till maximum profit over minimum creativity reaches the natural “but they are a business” excuse, that Bethesda moves its main over to India.
The programmers over there know that less wage means more money for the company … and that means more games!!!
While the programmers over here will be more then willing to continue to help make excuses that will explain why this really is for the best.

 

[denizsi]

Yes. The armor levels to your level.

But was the name "Pilgrim's Grace"?

This whole business is Beth's Grace that you can feel right on your face, hot and juicy.

While I wouldn't give a shit anymore about Beth, does anyone think that such raping is successfully becoming a gaming trend and may slowly retardate the whole "Expansion" concept?

For instance, there was a link on general discussion to a news page for an upcoming racing game, which basically comes with just the engine and you pay for cars and laps of your choice, among hundreds of selections, while the stripped down game would cost about 50$ alone.

 

[Admiral Rimjob POOBUM]

For instance, there was a link on general discussion to a news page for an upcoming racing game, which basically comes with just the engine and you pay for cars and laps of your choice, among hundreds of selections, while the stripped down game would cost about 50$ alone.

I KNEW IT. I SAID THAT WAS GOING TO HAPPEN. And what did Hungry Dinner say? "Hyperbole... doubt it's going to reach that extent in the foreseeable future".

 

[elander_]

Heh, why not just simply remove all of the levels and just be done with it, then? I dont understand. Is Bethesda slowly trying to convert TES in to a full action game?

Next time they will want to remove skills too because it didn't work in Oblivion.

Then they will remove dialog because its worthless for the casual player and they can't make it work right.

It's the path of fools.

 

[Jim Kata]

10-20 dollars? Wow, the rape not only continues but increases pace.

$10 for the DLC, $20 for the boxed set IIRC.

Who could be so foolish? It's astounding.

 

[ixg]

Yeah, because it's worth $30-$40, moron

 

[Texas Red]

The next step will be MMORPGs/FPSs with pay-per-play. The companies will keep releasing expansions packs almost monthly. And there are seperate online addons that you can purchase... no, they are not included in the expansions. By the end of the year on the holiday sales they will start selling the collections which will have a few goodies in them that are available *only* to those who buy the collections. They will also tempt hypnotised gamers with items that you can buy from online stores for real money. Dont forget to consider to purchase the "limited" editions of the MMORPGs/FPSs for an extra 20 bucks that will feature cut content from the normal versions! And you can always *pay* to *beta test* the MMORPGs if you sign up with Fileplanet and send them your cash each month.

We must all thank Bethesda for making the publishers know that addons will sell. Quite infuriating.

 

[Chinese Jetpilot]

As we descended the steps to their circular stone chamber, what we can only assume was their leader [maybe because he's titled "Ghost Knight Leader"?] strolled up and basically told us he and his friends were going to kick our ass.

Would Oblivion offer any other course of action BUT fighting? Why not allow the player to use that stupid, fucking mini-game of theirs and Boast, Admire, Joke, Coerce ad nauseum until the ghosts cave and give you the armor?

...had we continued we would have had to fight about eight ghost knights in successive rounds of one-on-one combat

So the ghosts challenge the player, and then decide to just fight the player one at a time? Why not fight all at once; if its just going to be about combat, why make it as easy as possible? Are they really taking "dumbing-down" to this level (rhetorical question).

It was around this point we stopped playing

They won't be the only ones.

 

[Trash]

Thank god for pc's and torrents eh? Having to buy shit like armour and minor quests is idiotic when that stuff used to come for free. At least the pc has an active mod scene that has been providing a lot more quality content then Bethesda has up till now.

 

[Lumpy]

The next step will be MMORPGs with pay-per-play.

Nah, that's impossible.