Sarvis said:
Also, I get the feeling he was playing on easy mode...
Nope, he wasn't.
... some of his combat scenarios just don't play out. I can BARELY beat ghosts/wraiths while he said they were just a couple hits.
I guess it depends on the weapon's magical bonuses. You hit where you aim, which means that you always hit. Your damage is tied to your weapon skill, which was supposed to balance out the "always hit" thing, but - and that's a big BUT - if you find a weapon with a nice magical damage packed in, the entire system falls apart.
Daedroth truly fuck you up until you learn how to fight them, and wil-o-the-wisps can kill you in about 10 seconds flat.
I didn't say the combat is easy. Some enemies were, some weren't. Some enemies forced me to reload a lot, like the three guys locked in some cave (the Azura quest?). The combat was certainly more enjoyable and more challenging than KOTOR 1-2's combat, for example.
He's right about a lot of the other flaws, but in the end they don't matter much. The game is fun to play, and that's what counts.
Fun is subjective. I think that Oblivion made Morrowind look like a masterpiece, enough ti make me consider replaying it again one day and enjoying all those things MW did right. I doubt I would ever replay Oblivion though. I couldn't even finish it.
The RadiantAI (as I said) could have been better, but to criticize it as not being revolutionary? He mentioned Gothic doing a better job, but was that an actual AI system or did the programmers have to script every blacksmith to do his job?
I don't believe I criticized RAI for not being revolutionary. I said that comparing to Gothic the system sucked ass. As far as I know, the Gothic did have an NPC AI system governing their behavior, but who cares? A programmer might be impressed with RAI's capabilities and potential, but as a player I care only about gameplay and that's where RAI failed to deliver.
From my Gothic 3 review:
A mandatory "Gothic 3 vs. Oblivion" chapter
Since I'm the author of the infamous Oblivion review, I might as well explain why I like Gothic 3 a lot, but strongly disliked Oblivion. So, despite many similarities and focus on the action aspects, the key differences are:
1. Gothic 3 offers you to take sides in several active conflicts whereas in Oblivion your side is predetermined and your choice is reduced to choosing a generic guild that doesn't affect anything in the game. You can't join the necromancers or the Mystic Dawn cult, etc.
2. These conflicts can easily change the entire playing field. You can liberate all towns from the orcs (and one from formerly human, currently undead guardians) and repopulate them with humans, or you can wipe out all the rebels, destroying all hope. In Oblivion everything is static and remains the same no matter what you do. The biggest decision you can ever make is whether or not to start the main quest.
3. Gothic 3's quests are more dynamic, allowing you to double-cross easily. In Oblivion, I was often asked not to tell something to other people, but I couldn't do it anyway, since a dialogue option wasn't provided. In Gothic 3, such options are plentiful – in fact, every bit of information that could be beneficial to several parties is immediately turned into 2-3 quests, allowing you to decide what to do with it.
The rebels asked me to find a local resistance guy in a nearby town. When I found the hidden rebel, I went to a mercenary leader and to the orc commander in that town, and was able to tell both of them about the rebel.
A hashashin merchant sells artefacts from far-away lands in an orc-controlled town. I found his brother in a cave nearby digging for artefacts. A quest to confront the merchant was added. I talked to the merchant who paid me to keep my mouth shut. A quest NOT to keep my mouth shut was added immediately. I talked to the orc commander and told him that the there are artefacts in that cave. And so on, and so on.
4. Consequences. I don't really need to explain this one, do I?
5. Gothic 3 is a non-linear game, Oblivion is extremely linear. We are talking about the main quest and the guilds here. Obviously, you can decide which guild's questLINE you will do first, but each guild's quests follow a linear sequence, whereas Gothic 3 lets you decide what quests to take and in what order.
6. Gothic 3 offers you a huge truly living and breathing, very atmospheric world that actually looks like a recently conquered world with ruined towns, crumbling fortresses, burning capital, and crucified paladins and rebels. People go about their daily chores, cutting wood, working fields, hammering anvils, cooking in large pots, mining ore, sitting near fire, cooking meat, and even smoking weed, effortlessly creating an atmosphere the overhyped RAI had failed to.
In comparison, Oblivion was your trip to Disneyland - a land completely oblivious (pun intended) to the death of the emperor, the upcoming demonic invasion, and rather pointless hell gates popping up all over the countryside - populated by people who like to stare at walls a lot.