Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

• Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall
• Elder Scrolls III: Bloodmoon
• Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
• Elder Scrolls III: Tribunal
• Elder Scrolls IV: Fallout
• Elder Scrolls IV: Knights of the Nine
• Elder Scrolls: Arena

• Oblivion - The Second Opinion
• Oblivion review  

The Elder Scrolls V: What We Want to See ( Editorial )
posted by VentilatorOfDoom on Wed 28 July 2010, 11:26:12
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Gamesradar ponders how The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, the best RPG of all time, could be improved in a possible sequel. They want concrete solutions to glaring flaws, flaws they didn't discover back then for some reason.

Better (or no) encumbrance
Encumbrance is always annoying in games. Nothing like the stupid reality of gravity to make a game unfun. We understand that it adds an element of strategy as the player must carefully consider what to carry on adventures, and that it feels a bit silly if you can carry twenty full suits of armor, a feast fit for a banquet hall, and more herbs than a medicinal marijuana facility, but at the same time, if you really want to use an encumbrance system, at least make it reasonable. We couldn’t count how many times we were deep in a dungeon, discovered some amazing piece of armor, picked it up, and suddenly couldn’t move. Then we had to shower pots, pans, and cheese wheels like a shoplifter at Costco.

Spotted at: Gamebanshee

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The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion Retrospective ( Editorial )
posted by VentilatorOfDoom on Thu 29 April 2010, 11:49:49
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The best Western RPG made this generation receives the retrospective treatment by esteemed RPG site The Koalition, a site apparently not populated by haters.

What’s completely amazing about this game is that you don’t even have to do the main quest at all. Once you escape from jail the world is yours (to quote Scarface). You can do whatever you like, and no matter what you choose to do it still feels like an adventure. If you want to get real creative you can come up with a little quest of your own, such as visiting all the towns and killing everybody in the game (which I actually tried to do once). You are only limited by your own imagination.
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There are novels to read, caves to explore, houses to break into, guilds to discover and unique items/weapons to obtain. I have never played a game this open before, and that is why I have come to appreciate the game so much. If you have yet to enjoy Bethesda’s amazing fantasy adventure after four years, then I hope this article makes you at least think about picking it up.

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Memories of Oblivion ( Editorial )
posted by VentilatorOfDoom on Tue 23 March 2010, 19:02:23
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Not only are Elder Scrolls News Threads always a huge success, I also regard it as my patriotic duty to bring only the highest quality news to you, which is the reason I take the freedom to point you to this retrospective over yonder at a site called spawnkill. Topic: Oblivion.

Originally released in 2006, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is one of the biggest and most beautiful games to come out of Western developer Bethesda. Like the rest of the series, Oblivion is an open-world RPG with a first-person perspective that gives players a deep sense of freedom. The player is able to roam about the world aimlessly, talking to NPCs, joining guilds, being drafted into many side quests, as well as just taking in the virtual terrain – all without being obliged to participate in the main campaign missions. In a sense, freedom is the philosophy behind Oblivion, both through the seemingly-endless options given to characters as well as the literal goal of the story.
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The non-player characters in The Elder Scrolls IV deserve a special mention here. Through proprietary technology Bethesda has dubbed Radiant AI, NPCs of various towns are enabled to make their own decisions about their lives. Many characters the players come upon throughout the course of the game are literally living their own lives – going to church, working for a living, eating, going to bed by 9 PM, and starting all over again the next day. Many NPCs hunt and kill game to be able to eat, others simply steal food from markets or people’s homes. While the weight of the AI characters’ actions may not directly affect the person playing the game, their need to live and ability to react gives Oblivion a very grand scale.
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Video game fans looking for fantasy-realm freedom need not look further than The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. I would highly recommend it, even to fans of more action-oriented titles. Oblivion is truly a milestone in interactive entertainment, and serves as one of the finest examples of Western-developed role playing games ever created.

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IGN cry over spilt RPGs ( Editorial )
posted by DarkUnderlord on Sat 29 August 2009, 07:56:41
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IGN have taken a look at the five best and the five worst RPGs released recently for the PC (they also did Xbox and other consoles as well but meh, find those yourself). Have some selective quoting so you know where this one goes:

Rather than outline a list of the greatest RPGs ever, we've decided to take a look back at the best and worst the genre has had to offer over the last five years.
[...]
Bethesda Softworks' epic Elder Scrolls roleplaying series...
[...]
Peter Molyneux made a lot of promises about his ambitious roleplaying game and, fortunately for us, he delivered on most of them.
[...]
As great as Oblivion was, it was only a dress rehearsal for Fallout 3.
[...]
BioWare's take on the science fiction roleplaying game may have had some rough spots, but the overall experience was one of the most captivating and original experiences of the year.

Here's a real piece of crap. Roleplaying games are defined by their characters and their story and Call for Heroes has neither.
[...]
Grind a few levels, warp back to town and sell your loot. Now repeat that formula about a thousand times and you'll have a good idea of what it's like to play The Chosen: Well of Souls.
[...]
Dungeon Lords: Is it fun? No. Is it polished? No. Is it even finished? No.
[...]
As enjoyable as the series has been thus far, Piranha Bytes' Gothic III was a huge letdown.

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Todd Howard: 15 years of screwing up Elder Scrolls ( Interview )
posted by DarkUnderlord on Sun 16 August 2009, 13:22:37
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Planet Elder Scrolls has an exclusive interview with Todd Howard. After getting through the history lesson at the start, you get to the meat:

What is your name?
Todd Howard

Have previous Elder Scrolls games had an effect on the development of later Elder Scrolls games? And if so, what are some examples?
Of course. So much of what we do is a reaction to the last game. Just listening to people’s experiences with the previous game flavors what we do with the next one. If you look at Oblivion, the big new things, like the AI or the combat, were a reaction to the key criticisms of Morrowind. At the same time, we really try to do something new in each game. We want to keep the series fresh and usually start a game by trying to make the ‘end-all-be-all RPG’, regardless of what came before. I stay away from +1 sequels. Meaning, ‘it’s just like that game – plus this.’ I think that’s a good way to burn out your franchise. Most fans will usually ask for more skills or more races, things like that. But I don’t see those kinds of things adding to the experience. I wouldn’t add a race, I would ask ‘how can playing an Orc be even more unique?’ It’s about meaningful choice, not more choice.
[...]
What has been Bethesda’s goal(s) when developing The Elder Scrolls games over the last 15 years?
Each time out, we want to give people the biggest craziest game they’ve ever seen. A game where you can fantasize about who you would be and what you would do, and this is the one game that will let you do that.
[...]
What is your favorite story from working at Bethesda over the years?
Pete Hines won’t let me tell it. But it’s awesome. So awesome.

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Back in my day we used to fight rats! ( Editorial )
posted by DarkUnderlord on Tue 28 April 2009, 10:30:10
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"In a rare occasion since I've pretty much stopped writing, I'll be taking a look at the RPG genre; what it means, where we have gone with it, and what to expect out of it" or so say HellForge with their article RPGs: How far have we come?:

I know for the RPG community that there is a definite sense of nostalgia when RPGers get together to talk about "good" RPG games. Most, if not all, will cite an ancient classic. Maybe Planescape: Torment, or Baldur's Gate, or TESII: Daggerfall. They'll maybe even take a punch or a stab at the more current RPGs of today, citing about how "terrible" Oblivion is, or of what little choices you can make in Neverwinter Nights 2. What I can't help but think after finally being able to play "the classics" is if this group of people can actually hear themselves talking.
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In Oblivion, you start off as a prisoner, choosing only your race and appearance from the very start of the game. As you are in your cell the game's story unfolds before you; right off the bat you have a sense of direction to follow (mostly because there is only one way out of the prison) and you also understand the underlying purposes that something big is unfolding here (you are, after all, in the presence of an Emperor). From the point you exit the sewers to the last Oblivion gate you close, you are never actually confused on what you should do. Of course, a handy compass and a quest directional arrow certainly helps that bit out, but you never actually lose an interest in playing the game because you know what to do at all times.
[...]
You see, in Oblivion, there IS a sense of adventure. Want to know why? Because the environment is immersible. It's beautiful.

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Elder Scrolls: The Book ( Company news )
posted by DarkUnderlord on Tue 28 April 2009, 03:07:08
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Taking a page from BioWare's David Gaider, Bethesda have now announced that they too will bring their epic role-playing games to the printing press:

Rockville, MD – April 27, 2009 – Bethesda Softworks®, a ZeniMax® Media company, and Del Rey, an imprint of Ballantine Books at the Random House Publishing Group, are pleased to announce that Del Rey Books will publish two novels based on Bethesda Softworks' award-winning, high-fantasy video game series, The Elder Scrolls®. The best-selling game series is known for giving the player the ability to choose how their story will play out and unfold, and for the incredible amount of lore and depth found in these rich game worlds.

Penned by New York Times bestselling author Greg Keyes, the novels will be all-new, original stories based in The Elder Scrolls universe. The first novel – The Infernal City – is set to be published in Fall 2009. Among Keyes' prior works are the Age of Unreason tetrology (for which he won the prestigious "Le Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire" award), and three New York Times bestselling Star Wars novels in the New Jedi Order series.

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2010: Elder Scrolls Odyssey V ( N/A )
posted by baby arm on Thu 30 October 2008, 05:44:43
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Bethesda's Paul Oughton let slip to GamesIndustry.biz that a new Elder Scrolls title might be in the works for 2010.

"At the moment we've got Fallout 3 for this year and potentially there's a new Elder Scrolls title in 2010," said Oughton. "At the moment we're not that interested in the Wii. We're going to stick to PS3, Xbox 360 and PC. We'll continue to pursue three or four titles a year and go for big titles," he said of the company's publishing plans for the future.

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Yahtzee does Oblivion ( Review )
posted by DarkUnderlord on Thu 05 June 2008, 03:49:10
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HanoverF posted this in our forum but it needs more attention. Yahtzee, that guy on the Escapist who does little video reviews, has decided to take on Oblivion. The verdict? "One of the least immersive RPGS I've ever played."

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Oblivion review at PS3 ( Review )
posted by Vault Dweller on Wed 07 November 2007, 17:34:04
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PS3 has posted Oblivion GotY edition review and I decided to share it with you guys to remind you what an awesome game that was.

There are so many different characters you can create from the classes given it’s almost mind boggling*. With a myriad of facial features, facial details, hairstyles, etc you can really create your own customized character. Or if all of that is too much for you then just create one randomly.

As soon as you leave the initial dungeon and enter the world of Tamriel for the first time you are going to have to use that character you made for the whole game so choose your skills wisely.

I’ll probably be repeating this often but Oblivion lets you play the game how you want, each player will play the game differently and no two experiences will be the same. ... So what do you do when enter the world of Tamriel for the first time? Well to be honest whatever you want to. Bethesda has created such a non linear game that you are free to do what you choose to.

Now if all this fighting and grand storyline isn’t your thing well you can go off and find very rare plants and create potions and sell them. Go search for loot in the harder dungeons and sell them for gold, buy a house and decorate it, be a bounty hunter, hell if you want you can break into somebody’s house steal an orange then get arrested, break out of prison and do it all again!

To sum it up, if you like RPGS buy this game. If you already have Oblivion then buy the Shivering Isles Expansion pack. If you are looking for a very meaty, very fulfilling game play experience loaded with tons of options, storylines and just freedom to do whatever you want. Then look no further The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is for you, it’s not called game of year edition for no reason.

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