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Review Oblivion reviewed by the Codex

LlamaGod

Cipher
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Oct 21, 2004
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Yes
I like to buy packs of notebook paper and roleplay it to where its a book.

It works great.
 

LlamaGod

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Yes

Oarfish

Prophet
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But i realise why they took spears out for Oblivion.
I can see it now - running at someone and using a charging power attack with your mace - oh wait, you just ran into a really long pointy stick that killed you before you could even swing your own weapon. Crap.

Is pretty grim reading too. Who would want to play a game where you can actualy loose? That would be against the whole Bethesda definition of freedom - you can smear shit all over the walls of your room and Uncle Pete will still bring you your chocolate milk.
 

Vault Dweller

Commissar, Red Star Studio
Developer
Joined
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Messages
28,035
Have anyone fail at something in this game?

Well, thanks for your replies, I miss having to think and change strategies to fight different threats...it´s not happening in this game...I´m not powerplaying either...even with a level scaling system...I think it should challenge players more...

Real reviews or personal vendettas?

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One of the replies: Popular and experienced game reviewing websites with professional reviewers they know what there talking about. And they play a lot of games so it's easier to compare.

Discussion at Evil Avatar

Name one RPG that does AI better.

Yeah I thought so...

These guys shoud learn how to program and then come back and bitch. People have no idea how hard it is to make a non-exploitable reasonably intelligent AI system that, at the same time, doesn't hog system resources.

And yes.. it is a f*cking game. If I want realistic AI I will go out with the guys for a beer or go to a party of *gasp* play a MMORPG.
 

Kendar

Novice
Joined
Mar 30, 2006
Messages
80
Frankie said:
In any case, when you get the key you promplty drop it and continue on your way. No problem.
Once again, the perfect example of a sentence I used as a joke before the game was released...
 

kohla

Educated
Joined
Feb 28, 2006
Messages
70
Location
Roof of the World!
@LlamaGod.
Hahahahahah...just what I needed first thing Monday morning. :lol:
Thank you.
Subject: Skeleton Key
.. The key needs to be nerfed. It is stupidly powerful.

Solution from Frankie - Who cares how overpowered it is. Don't get the Skeleton Key and you don't have to worry about it.
Simple solution to an EXTREMELY simple problem.

@VD.
Good review. And spot on. Interesting technique in debunking the developers to say the least.
Perhaps you should put this line in your review ? :wink:
"For tis the sport to have the enginer Hoist with his owne petar".
-Hamlet, Shakespeare.
 

VasikkA

Liturgist
Joined
Oct 21, 2002
Messages
292
Location
DAC
Using developer quotes as the basis for a review is certainly an interesting approach, but makes the review feel a bit loaded, because you know the response is going to be negative. It feels as if the dungeon hack part was the mandatory upside in order to balance the review. Still, the reviewer's critique is valid.

The bottom line is, this review is more truthful than any other review I've read.
 

Vault Dweller

Commissar, Red Star Studio
Developer
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Messages
28,035
VasikkA said:
Using developer quotes as the basis for a review is certainly an interesting approach, but makes the review feel a bit loaded, because you know the response is going to be negative.
Blame the developers who openly lie without any fuckinh shame, not me for pointing that out. Besides, even after Todd's comment about 100 pages dedicated to magic, I said that all improvements are positive, especially the fight-n-cast feature that I citicized before the release.

It feels as if the dungeon hack part was the mandatory upside in order to balance the review.
I don't do "mandatory", otherwise I would have trashed the game completely for amusement and controversy (as you can see, many people have expected a much harsher review).
 

VasikkA

Liturgist
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Oct 21, 2002
Messages
292
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DAC
Vault Dweller said:
many people have expected a much harsher review
As did I. I meant that the 'loadedness' couldn't be avoided, given the design of the review. I see the point in bashing developers for their empty promises(or lies, if you prefer), but this perspective cannot but to affect the overall atmosphere of the review. It felt like a comparison between the promised Oblivion and the real Oblivion. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but an atypical basis for a review, nonetheless. As for the actual content, I do not find any notable complaints.
 

Licaon_Kter

Augur
Joined
Mar 8, 2006
Messages
346
Location
Between the keyboard and the chair.
but VD you should of finished the review with the best quote ever (that you get to see only AFTER you've purchased the Collectors Edition, so the joke is trully on you ;) ):

Todd Howard in 'Making Of' documentary said:
Oblivion is a sword-and-sorcery-epic-role-playing-game, you know, the thing you see in Lord of the Rings or stuff like that and at it's heart, you know it is... this run through dungeons and kill things game... and all these features and it's all kind of ... there're so many things you'll get attach to... but at it's heart it's run through dungeons and kill creatures and take good stuff and buy bigger weapons and kill bigger creatures, and thats kind of layered in on top of this, wow look at these flowers, can i pick that? you know, it's almost two things sitting on top of each other, here's that game and then here's the virtual world.
 

Jed

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Tech Bro Hell
Spears were invented in a time before man became smart. Then he created the sword.
Right... Let's have a duel then kiddo; you get the sword, I'll take the spear. Then we'll see who's smarter...
 

Balor

Arcane
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Dec 29, 2004
Messages
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Russia
@ Jed
Well, come to think of it, some twohanders were specifically designed to battle spears (hack thru pikes, for instance).
However, spear, expecially cut&thrust variety like sovnua&naginata are very effective in combat... and, if there is enough room - swordfighter will not stand a chance against more or less proficient wielder of them. He'll just get his legs hacked at, then finished off.
 

sheek

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Jed said:
Spears were invented in a time before man became smart. Then he created the sword.
Right... Let's have a duel then kiddo; you get the sword, I'll take the spear. Then we'll see who's smarter...

OK. Lol.

Spears can be pretty deadly but I think if you got a swordsman with a shield and armor one-on-one he'd have the advantage. Spears of course are better in grouped combat/formations.
 

Spazmo

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Monkey Island
Weren't spears most effective against enemies on horseback? If that's the case, it makes perfect sense for Oblivion not to have any because the knights of the realm of Tamriel have devised a canny tactic of getting off their horses before they fight.
 

Jed

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Granted, as long as you're in an open space and it's one-on-one... you may hack the spear in half, but it will be sticking out of your chest while the spear-wielder is safely out of range.

Naginata are greal *polearms*, but not spears. The favorite trick of the naginata-wielder is to take the feet off of an approaching swordsman.
 

sheek

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Messages
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Cydonia
Excrément said:
Spazmo said:
Weren't spears most effective against enemies on horseback?

= mel gibson bs.

Lol. Those weren't even spears. If you want to see some spear combat and are a media-addicted DVD kiddy check out the combat in Troy (Brad Pitt) - especially the Achilles vs Hector scenes (I think - the one where Hector dies).
 

sheek

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Jed said:
Granted, as long as you're in an open space and it's one-on-one... you may hack the spear in half, but it will be sticking out of your chest while the spear-wielder is safely out of range.

Naginata are greal *polearms*, but not spears. The favorite trick of the naginata-wielder is to hack the feet off of an approaching swordsman.

You can't just "hack a spear". Maybe if the guy is holding it out perpendicularly and you get a good swing in which case he's pretty stupid.
 

kingcomrade

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Spears were useful against pretty much any melee opponent. Nobody fights one-on-one with a long spear, that's not really what they are designed for (short spears like that African thingy the Zulus used are a different matter). The whole thing with spears is that they are easy to use en masse (and cheap) and on the charge they are devastating because if this massive wall of sharp points is rushing at you, what can you do at all? Armor isn't going to protect you because the spears give their users a mechanical advantage.

That's the concept of shock warfare, which was pretty important in the Greek style of fighting (and later other Western armies up to and including the US Army or the Nazis and their blitzkrieg stuff, or the various shock and awe plans of WW1. As a matter of fact, it's when the West can't or doesn't play to its strengths in shock warfare that they typically get bogged down, the most famous example probably being Cannae), while say the Persians and most Asian groups of the time put a lot more emphasis on skirmishing and horsemanship and personal prowess.
 

Saint_Proverbius

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LlamaGod said:
Goddamn I hope these people never ever manage to get work in making RPGs.

Spears were invented in a time before man became smart. Then he created the sword. After that, he became smarter and created the gun. Then the nuke. (off subject - Now man is about to go into nuclear war. What an idiot.)

I just don't know what to say anymore.

That is the stupidest thing I've read in a long, long time. I suppose this kid's never heard of a pike.

sheek said:
Spears can be pretty deadly but I think if you got a swordsman with a shield and armor one-on-one he'd have the advantage. Spears of course are better in grouped combat/formations.

The Chinese disagree.

Lol. Those weren't even spears. If you want to see some spear combat and are a media-addicted DVD kiddy check out the combat in Troy (Brad Pitt) - especially the Achilles vs Hector scenes (I think - the one where Hector dies).

Or Excalibur. How is it Mordrid was able to beat Arthur again? :)

Kidding aside, there are countless examples in history where spears/polearms have been used to wipe out sword users. The pike basically ended the era of the knight because they were easy as hell to make versus armor and swords, didn't require a horse, and even peasants could use them to kill a knight on a horse. I can't remember the dynasty, but there was an era where Chinese officers didn't use swords for the most part. Swords were for the common soldier. The officers and such used spears, polearms and poleaxes when they were engaged because they were more effective than swords.

Anyway, the whole idea that people stopped using spears because they had swords is idiotic. Swords have been around since the bronze age, and people still found spears/polearms useful up until the invention of gunpowder. Hell, a bayonet on a musket is basically a short spear.

Some Chucklenut on Evil Avatar said:
Name one RPG that does AI better.

Yeah I thought so...

These guys shoud learn how to program and then come back and bitch. People have no idea how hard it is to make a non-exploitable reasonably intelligent AI system that, at the same time, doesn't hog system resources.

Or.. Name a CRPG that does AI worse? Take most any CRPG and attack someone in town, the guards will generally attack the player. They most certainly will never trip over the AI and end up starting a battle free for all that wipes out most of the guards in the area.

Look at Fallout 2, when you're fighting near those casinos and a stray bullet hits a hooker or pimp. The hookers and pimps will turn around a jump in and start fighting the casino guards the entire time. The AI will never break, and we're talking about circa mid-1990s "AI" here. Yet, it will always remember which side each NPC is on no matter how chaotic the battle gets.

The whole idea that AI is hard to code doesn't hold much merit when you fuck it up. Given how much hype the AI got before the game was released, the whole "AI is hard to code right" comes off as an excuse rather than a fact.
 

kingcomrade

Kingcomrade
Edgy
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Oct 16, 2005
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The Chinese disagree.
Could you elaborate? I'm curious.

Anyways, you are right. For almost everyone besides the Romans, the sword was a backup weapon. For instance, a knight's primary weapon was his lance, not his sword.

Now, there WERE some people who used swords primary, of course the Romans, and the Swiss with their two-handers, but they handled their two-handers like short spears. They were used to chop through pikes, so the guy was right (though probably by accident) about that.
 

Greatatlantic

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Spears (in some form or another) remained a very important part of warfare up until the invention of the bayonet. Where they especially shined was in group formations. Swords didn't really become effective until steel, while the Roman Gladius was plenty deadly it was also brittle and short.

In contrast spears were cheaper to make and had a much longer reach. Furthermore, they could force a non-spear wielding enemy to fight his way past 3 or 4 ranks of spear tips to strike at the enemy. And the Calavary think is based on some truth. Horses are wider then men, its almost impossible for a horse to charge a spear formation and not impale itself.

As for a weapon of single combat, it doesn't have nearly the same history.

Phalanx1.gif
 

kingcomrade

Kingcomrade
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Spears (in some form or another) remained a very important part of warfare up until the invention of the bayonet. Where they especially shined was in group formations. Swords didn't really become effective until steel, while the Roman Gladius was plenty deadly it was also brittle and short.
Ooh, no. Bronze swords were actually quite effective (it was the iron ones that sucked), and the gladius was not brittle, and it was short for a reason. It was a stabbing weapon meant to be used en masse with soldiers using their massive shields to get up close. When you are fighting in close ranks like the Romans did you don't want a big long sword, which would be pretty awkward to use in close ranks and with those massive shields.

Also, the Roman's primary weapon was not actually their swords but their javelins. The javelins were what allowed them to stop their enemy's charge and get in close where they could start stabbing their way through.
 

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