Game News Super duper illegal Oblivion video at Playfuls

[TheGreatGodPan]

I WILL buy Oblivion if it have facials or allow modders to add facials.

Sheesh, you had some of the harshest critcism for Bethesda and this game, and you plan on buying it if they add in porn? I have lost all the respect I never had for you.

 

[Excalibur]

I WILL buy Oblivion if it have facials or allow modders to add facials.

Sheesh, you had some of the harshest critcism for Bethesda and this game, and you plan on buying it if they add in porn? I have lost all the respect I never had for you.

nothing beats a nice facial.....

 

[jasondragon]

Magic reeks. It's an actionyRPG insta-kaboom casting, as predicted. All that is missing now is constantly regenerating mana...
Oh, btw, Todd is also a powergamer and a cheater - watch his stats and how he kills things with one blow. Not a nice thing to do for a demo footage. :D

I think there is regenerating mana

 

[GhanBuriGhan]

I liked the dialogue attempt with two lines to pick:
"This store is a dump, no way, etc...", "Gladly!, etc..."
The first one brought you to: "I'm just kidding!" and nothing else, then you were brought to the same point as if you'd chosen the second line in the first place.
So, no choice here. Dialogue trees here just because some 80's llamas complained that a decent CRPG needs'em?
I know it's a demo but for a demo I'd put a Torment-like dialogue in. Or at least half of it. It's a show off of game's features, right? Maybe they were in a hurry making the demo or they're just being honest... :wink:
Magic reeks. It's an actionyRPG insta-kaboom casting, as predicted. All that is missing now is constantly regenerating mana...
Oh, btw, Todd is also a powergamer and a cheater - watch his stats and how he kills things with one blow. Not a nice thing to do for a demo footage. :D

As to dialogue, I still hope we will see some depth here. But remember that unlike most games you can talk to everyone in TES (even the holy Fallout has most NPC just print a one-liner), and its unreasonable to expect half hour conversation with the bouncy barmaid.
As to Magic - I am glad. It's not like TES ever featured intcicate rune magic ingredient mixing thingies ( I shudder remembering Pagan). So they might as well make the actiony magic it always was good and fun. My hope IS that its a fast, fun action combat WITH a deep RPG behind it.

 

[Section8]

I really liked the magic systems in Pagan (although the pentagram could be a little unforgiving with reagant placement) although I'd rather see something where the recipes aren't fixed, and mixing and matching reagants could yield interesting results. One thing I really liked with the Ultima series, Arx Fatalis and even Dungeon Master, was the system of runes with individual meanings.

And "facial" is the funniest word ever, due to the different definition, depending on whether you're male or female. I know I'm a shallow man, but I'm endlessly amused by girls saying things like "Hmm, I think I'll treat myself to a facial."

 

[DarkUnderlord]

with Oblivion we wanted to start fresh. We wanted to create for a whole new generation a game that captures those things that excites people about plying role-playing games in the first place. The setting, the action, the heroism, being able to choose their own path. We set out to create the RPG for the next generation

Them's big words.

1. Opening menu is good.
   
2. Graphics are great.
   
3. Chain movement is great.
   
4. Picking things up is "cool" but seems a bit odd. I would like to see hands picking stuff up, rather than floating rib cages but that's a minor quibble.
   
5. Sword movement was really fucking fast. I hope that's because the character was beefed up (as I suspect, given he was in prison but had the armour and sword from the screenshots) and not the normal speed.
   
6. Listening into conversations. Very Thief-like. Very good.
   
7. Seems mighty odd a woman's taking "his Majesty" down to prison and obviousl doing a secret coversation but fails to realise there's a prisoner in there. When she does, it's not an issue.
   
8. Oh fuck no. Not another prophecy. Linear as hell Main Quest here we come! So much for being able to choose my own path. Oh wait! I can do it as a thief or a mage! Yeah, that's real choice.
   
9. PATRICK STEWART!! OMG OMG OMG OMGOOMGOMGOMGMG OMG OMGOM OMGO MOMGOM
   
10. I wouldn't have realised it was him until they pointed it out. That means the voice-acting is good but also shows how little care about who does it.
    
11. Single option dialogue selections. I can understand that at the start of the game but another one or two would've been nice.
    
12. I also like how everyone else is just standing around while his Majesty speaks. No "we must leave your majesty" stuff until the PC has finished his questions. Again though, I can understand and it's not too bad. The comment by the lady at the end "Please your Majesty, we must leave" was nice to hear.
    
13. Right, so a secret escape route leads out through the cell the prisoner is in. Ummm... They don't think they might want to move the prisoner into a different cell? Oh wait! They take you with them! It'd be better if the Emperor said something to his guards like "he can come with us" or said something to you like "Follow us out of here" and references his dreams again.
    
14. The loading screens. I hope they don't have that text in the final game. "Procedural creation of photorealistic trees, forest, and landscapes for you to explore" isn't exactly inspiring me.
    
15. Forests are super-cool. Love the bird flying through (I hope that too is not scripted). Love the movement in the environment. Really good stuff.
    
16. SOIL EROSION!
    
17. Trees are good heights. You can get next to them and look up. Bethesda really did their work here.
    
18. Not sure on walking up to the deer like that. MSFD says they run away if you don't sneak so hopefully he's right about that one.
    
19. Interface looks fine so far. Obviously reduced but the weapon, bars, compass and umm.. circle owl like thing look fine (what is that? Anyone know?).
    
20. Interesting that he harvested the mushrooms but nothing happened to the mushrooms. None of them disappeared. One would hope that changes. I prefer picking stuff up and having it disappear from the environment. It should, of course, re-grow back after a few months and there should be plenty of it around that you don't end up picking an area clear. Finding it should be the fun part.
    
21. Sorry, I'd prefer to get lost. A compass that points to "cool locations" is not on. I want to wander through the forest and miss the ruins because I wasn't looking carefully enough. That's part of the exploration I enjoyed about Morrowind and they've gone and sucked it right out.
    
22. I'd like it if attackers gave out a war-cry before they attacked. That's one thing I hated about Morrowind too. Monsters never "roared" as they came for you and bandits never cried "Thou are for it now!" (as in Thief).
    
23. Just a thought, why are ruins guarded by lone warriors anyway? What's up with that? And why don't they ever run away when someone comes after them?
    
24. Love how the sword gets blood on it. On the other hand, it seems a bit cheesy. For him to get that much blood on his swords after two strikes can't mean I'd be in good health afterwards but that's excuseable.
    
25. I like the camera shakes when I get hit.
    
26. Combat is WAY too fast. Both me (ooh look, I'm immersed!) and the attacker are flashing around like rabbits. Combat feels good though - certainly a lot better than Morrowind's whack-a-mole - but nothing like Mount & Blade. It's simply too fast. Rather than "guys bashing each other", it's more like "Guys prancing around like faeries". It didn't feel like a "truie kinetic feeling" though, just better than Morrowind. More involved.
    
27. The sounds are poor. They're not satisfactory clunks (like I would expect). More "clink, clink" like rapiers, yet they're using pretty hefty weapons and shields.
    
28. Blood spots on the camera? Neat.
    
29. I like the attaker "grunting" and making verbal noises during combat. Some taunts would've been nice too though.
    
30. The guy.. umm.. died pretty quickly. It looks like the player swings and misses yet the guy falls over anyway?
    
31. Boy I hope they cut the movie when we head into the dungeon just then. We walked up stairs and BANG. Loading screen. I'm going to presume it was cut.
    
32. Love the roots through the ceiling of the dungeon. They've certainly achieved a very visual game. A bit dark though, I hope I have torches to light up those dark bits.
    
33. The zombie feel just as poorly as the attacker outside when he died. Rather than a meaty cleft and chopping his arm off, the zombie just fell over.
    
34. That second skeleton fell apart nicely though.
    
35. 3rd person looks good.
    
36. Traps are nice. As has been said, a trap skill and a warning indicator onscreen when your trap skill is high enough to detect the trap would make a good addition.
    
37. Who couldn't see that coming though (the trap taking out the skeletons on its way back)? I wonder how many bad guys can be taken out with their own traps.
    
38. Casting a fireball while still carrying a sword. Hrmm... Not sure on that one.
    
39. Dungeon reminded me of what Doom 3 should've been like. Doors coming up to block you while a bad guy attacks, things like that.
    
40. Indicator in the top right appears when the bad guy uses magic? Seems to let you know when he can make a second magic attack. Don't like that.
    
41. No experience points? Who else has the feeling Bethesda are moving more and more towards an FPS and less and less towards an RPG? I wonder what this means they'll do to Fallout 3...
    
42. Interface looks nice. Clean and simple to use.
    
43. I really don't get why they couldn't do crossbows. That makes no sense to me.
    
44. Physics engine is over balanced. The bucket moves too vilently and why the hell does a log roll when it's struck by an arrow? A bit of a rock back and forth but not rolling like that.
    
45. Seems to imply you need to (or that it's better to) change to 3rd person when sneaking. He said "the eye in the middle of the screen" changes but that area was over all too dark for me to really see much of anything. Again, nice to see a Thief thing (the light gem) they've used.
    
46. Boy, that city looks deserted. Not many people there at all.
    
47. The good morning was a nice touch.
    
48. Umm... Standing right next to them and watching them as they talk is a bit much. If you get too close, they should stop and look at you and say something like "Can I help you?". You should have to look away and listen (IE: Pretend you're not listening) or stand a certain distance back.
    
49. A bit concerned that even standing right next to them, the voice volume dropped quite markedly. I hope that's just a video thing and not a game thing.
    
50. Boy, that "humble bard" sure looks an awful lot like "his Majesty" at the start of the game.
    
51. "Daedra Attack" Dialogue options? So much for new and improved dialogue system. Each choice seems to be a 2 or 3 word topic which you pick, rather than actual dialogue. In fact, it looks like the Morrowind system only with the menu on the left instead of the right, and less topics to choose.
    
52. Disappointed that doors don't open and that you can't actually walk into a store and hop out a window. Seems they've stuck to the Morrowind "door transport" system which I never really liked.
    
53. Wow, that joke system sucks. I don't even get to hear the joke! It's an interesting idea but once again, rather than real dialogue, we've got "indicators", bland topics to choose from and a bribe button.
    
54. "Whole cities being destroyed"? Sounds like the continent is under attack. I'm willing to bet that in true Morrowind fashion, nothing will atually happen if you go swimming for a few years. It would be nice if a city got detroyed during the game because you didn't stop the hoardes or something.
    
55. WAYHAY! Now we actually get some dialogue choiecs in an obscure area of dialogue which has little relevance. Neither of those options match what I'd want to say either, which is "Thank you for your offer, but I have to get going." or even just a "Goodbye".
    
56. "I'm only kidding my friend"? Who the fuck wrote this shit? Where's my follow up option of "Fine, I'm leaving".
    
57. Oh God. It's as bad as a Bioware game.
    
58. Turning animation is lame. That dog changed direction without actually walking.
    
59. I like her interactions with her dog.
    
60. Not sure why I followed upstairs to keep her company and watch her do archery.
    
61. Her paralyse spell wasn't too good. The dog was down for all of 2 seconds.
    
62. AI also seems choppy. She tries archery, feeds the dog, reads a book, paralyses the dog, eats a meal and then goes to bed in a period of about 5 minutes.
    
63. Why is she sleeping while I'm keeping her company eh? She doesn't even give a courtesy "I'm going to bed" to me before she knocks off. She's completely forgotten that i'm in the room, seemingly at her request.
    
64. The Radiant AI can't be too good if she's going to torch a dog which is her companion and something one would presume she likes. Given it's ramped up for the demo, what does she do "for real" in the game when the dog wakes her up and she's angry? Paralyse it again for another 2 seconds?
    
65. If the dog barking wakes her up, hopefully me making noise as I raid her home will too. It'll be good to see how that's implemented.
    
66. Fast travel. Interesting. The comment was made about why they didn't do that in Morrowind. I can see jumping around the game like a yo-yo but then again, it's entirely my decision to do so so I don't think it's going to be too bad. I'm more of an explorer myself but unfortunately, it looks like all the ruins are going to be pointed out to me while I'm miles away. That begs the question, why bother exploring? I want to miss a temple and go back through an area and find it on the way back, not have it pointed out to me. An option to make the compass ONLY show NESW and NOT show any "nearby cool stuff" would be nice.
    
67. Lightning is good.
    
68. Given the PC has presumably been to Kvatch before and - going by the comments that it's just been attacked - I'm going to presume the city was attacked during the game, which is REALLY FUCKING COOL!!
    
69. Actually, combat seems to still be very much whack-a-mole given how easily those two monsters were felled. They also seemed to fall over badly like their pre-decessors and once again, no chopped limbs or anything.
    
70. My sword doesn't get blood on it unlike my companions?
    
71. The Big Bad guy fell over pretty easily too. So much for "guys bashing each other".

Summary: Just like Morrowind only with better graphics and dumbed down exploration elements. No super-cool dialogue system as was expected. Combat looks only slightly better but isn't the amazing experience we've been promised. Especially seemingly so when the PC reaches Uber-God level, which I hope this time is significantly higher than level 13.

I'm also expecting a linear main plot once again, especially given the "auto-reload" feature when you kill an important NPC. Sadly, you don't even have the chance of Morrowind's "back door" to finish the game (not that I thought that was particularly any better). Also, given the emptiness of the cities, I'd go so far as saying Radiant AI will be horribly under-used.

The only thing that was impressive to me in that video were the graphics. Bethesda need to learn that you need more than good graphics to make a good game.

 

[Twinfalls]

Jesus Christ, DU, talk about the War and Peace of comments.

In addition:

Dull, cliched dialogue, overwrought voice-acting. (I wanted to kill that Bard).

Fast travel is like lame teleportation (there's no suggestion it's an actual *journey*).

Terrible npc animation.

No FP player movement simulated. Camera 'glides' with basic, one-speed 'thud-thud' sound.

Melee combat looks like clickfest.

Stealth combat looks like fun.

Game will still feel like it's been made with a construction set.

 

[DarkUnderlord]

Jesus Christ, DU, talk about the War and Peace of comments.

You read it all though. SO THERE!!

Game will still feel like it's been made with a construction set.

Actually, I want to add to my own point here. The construction set is going to, once again, be the one thing that saves Oblivion from... well, itself. As per usual, expect the modders to add in all the things that would've taken "hundreds of hours" and "more than one programmer" to do.

 

[Twinfalls]

Sure I read it, they were good observations.

The CS is a great thing in terms of mods - (for me more in terms of potential TCs, since I hate having to put in mods to fix what ought to have been already fixed).

But it still seems like a trade-off. Morrowind had that overall 'clunkiness' because it was all CS-generated, and it looks like the same will apply here.

 

[jiujitsu]

Maybe there will be a mounted combat mod?

 

[Surlent]

Best part of the video was the start where Todd talked about refining rpgs and how they did the game with medieval music on background. That was dramatic.
I wonder too how the AI will work. If they just go practising their skills or setting others on fire, we might see some really wacky stuff. Hopefully it goes to whole town wide mass suicides, civil wars and the annual burning dog festival. So when was this coming out ? December ?

 

[Kthan75]

Just saw the movie clip. My jaw still hurts from hitting the floor when I saw the forest... Other than that... character animations are too stiff, melee combat sucks, dialog will suck (based on what I've seen), AI seems cool but I wonder if it will cause some unpredicted events, fast travel is a good idea.
I'll play the game but I don't expect the perfect RPG. I will most likely enjoy it though...

 

[Gwendo]

Bethesda need to learn that you need more than good graphics to make a good game.

No need to learn that. They learned something better: good graphics it's all they need to get some good profit. How can you argue with that?

 

[NeutralMilkHotel]

snip

It was pretty obvious that the demo PC was uber (starting with the armor in prison, fights lasting two seconds etc.) and probably on god mode (I don't think he ever took damage, or had mana drain when he cast a spell. Though, maybe I'm remembering it wrong).

Also, the demo was obviously (I don't really know a good word to describe it) leaned a certain way, in many parts scripted; Such as the whole lady and dog sequence (and her doing all those things like a speed freak in one or two minutes), and the elf and bard going to talk about that exact topic, at that exact moment. I read Todd practiced the play through many, many times, and things he didn't expect to happen kept happening, or something similar to that. I can't really blame them since Todd was playing it live in front of an audience, and I'm sure he had something written for all the features he was talking about, and I'm sure they were on a time frame. If something happened that wasn't planned, the whole session would probably have been fucked.

I think it would have been better if they just recorded alot of -real- gameplay at their office and then showed clips of what was the best examples of the features with Todd talking over it. But, oh well.

 

[Section8]

Picking things up is "cool" but seems a bit odd. I would like to see hands picking stuff up, rather than floating rib cages but that's a minor quibble.

I don't really care either way. Dynamic animations for hands would be a far from trivial thing to implement, for nothing more than eye candy. Glad you only have a minor quibble.

Seems mighty odd a woman's taking "his Majesty" down to prison and obviousl doing a secret coversation but fails to realise there's a prisoner in there. When she does, it's not an issue.

Yeah, that seemed like a pretty goofy plot element to me too. In the moral climate of the setting, I'd expect the prisoner to be executed on the spot. Otherwise the Blades are pretty fucking incompetent at what they do.

Interesting that he harvested the mushrooms but nothing happened to the mushrooms. None of them disappeared. One would hope that changes. I prefer picking stuff up and having it disappear from the environment. It should, of course, re-grow back after a few months and there should be plenty of it around that you don't end up picking an area clear. Finding it should be the fun part.

That was something I thought a bit strange in Morrowind, the fact that all the plants were effectively containers, rather than objects in their own right. It's trivial, but I'd love to see a system where plants randomly grow, and can be uprooted/harvested or whatever. And then you can sell the player seeds.

Just a thought, why are ruins guarded by lone warriors anyway? What's up with that? And why don't they ever run away when someone comes after them?

Given the POW4H! of Radiant AI, you'd think there could be a bit more depth to those idiots. Is the "guard" actually guarding the ruins, presumably at the request of whoever resides within? Is he a bandit searching the ruins? Is he an archaeologist? Why is he instantly hostile? Is he in a mushroom induced fury?

If nothing else, it's potential for more than just combat. ie, maybe he's a mercenary guard that can be bribed (holy fucking shit, a bribe that would actually make sense!), talked past, sneaked past, maybe he warns you off, mugs you (through verbal threats), fuck, maybe he wanders off from his guard duty to fuck a deer, etc.

It really shows a lack of imagination, if he's just a random angry guy in the middle of nowhere specifically to attack the player. I thought the whole point of Radiant AI was to make it simple to script behaviours beyond:

if (aware of player) then (attack)

I really don't get why they couldn't do crossbows. That makes no sense to me.

Seconded. Maybe because you'd get clusterfucked while you're reloading it, and it's easier to cut than it is to balance. But really, given that arrow physics are there, I'd have thought crossbows would be pretty trivial to implement, with the player gaining a meaningful choice of a ranged weapon that offers a gameplay variation on a standard bow.

Wow, that joke system sucks. I don't even get to hear the joke!

Better that way I think. I'd probably get mightily tired of the humour after hearing a joke once, let alone numerous times. Although...

Even better, would be a joke system, where you pick three elements, "Did you hear the one about the <race>, <race> and the <race>?" or whatever, and so risk offending whoever you're chatting with.

Why is she sleeping while I'm keeping her company eh? She doesn't even give a courtesy "I'm going to bed" to me before she knocks off. She's completely forgotten that i'm in the room, seemingly at her request.

Yeah, you'd think they'd cover the generic VO for actions characters do every fucking day before they start with specific stuff about dogs being set alight. Like "I'm off to bed" or "I'm having a private conversation, do you fucking mind?"

 

[GhanBuriGhan]

Sure I read it, they were good observations.

The CS is a great thing in terms of mods - (for me more in terms of potential TCs, since I hate having to put in mods to fix what ought to have been already fixed).

But it still seems like a trade-off. Morrowind had that overall 'clunkiness' because it was all CS-generated, and it looks like the same will apply here.

Wait, because they have a tool to create game content, the game is gonna be clunky? How do you think other games are created - by Hex editing?

 

[MrSmileyFaceDude]

The video is the same thing we showed at E3. It's pieces & sections of existing game content and a lot of stuff made specifically for the E3 demo (for example, the entire sequence inside the bookstore -- including all of the dialogue -- was made for E3 in order to demonstrate some of the things you can do with RAI.) The player character was beefed up, and the enemies seriously nerfed (to the point of one or two hits to kill) for the demo.

The forests and terrain (including the beloved soil erosion ) are pre-generated in the editor and are then the same for everyone every time you play the game.

Lots of stuff has been heavily tweaked (and in some cases completely redone) since the video was made, and we continue to optimize and improve. We have a lot of people playtesting the game now (internally) and have been adjusting gameplay based on their feedback.

 

[DamnElfGirl]

The thing I liked best about the demo was the heavily-trapped dungeon. Dungeons do actually look interesting now!

I honestly don't expect Fallout-style dialog from an Elder Scrolls game... that's just not the way they operate. I find the games fun in a different way, and I'll be quite happy if they simply manage to give the NPCs more personality. The RAI demonstration in the demo really didn't give me a good feel for how it will actually work, though. I hope all the NPCs don't act like they need a trip to the loony bin.

Love the forests, particularly the trees. The physics system is nifty. Don't love that the dark elf sounds like he's been up all night at a White Wolf LARP. Character models and animations are still "meh", but better than Morrowind.

Overall the demo made me curious enough to want to pick the game up.

 

[Screaming_life]

[*]Casting a fireball while still carrying a sword. Hrmm... Not sure on that one.

It would be cool if it was an ability specific to the battlemage class but not others and others had their own advantages/disadvantages.

 

[fnordcircle]

Oh fuck no. Not another prophecy. Linear as hell Main Quest here we come! So much for being able to choose my own path. Oh wait! I can do it as a thief or a mage! Yeah, that's real choice.

More codexers making comments about something they won't know until they've played the game through.

I'd like it if attackers gave out a war-cry before they attacked. That's one thing I hated about Morrowind too. Monsters never "roared" as they came for you and bandits never cried "Thou are for it now!" (as in Thief).

Did you play with your sound off?

"Die Fetcher!"
"Now you die!"

Overall I liked the trailer a lot. There were some irritating features, no doubt, but I never thought the game would be perfect.

I wish the accuracy of the compass was tied to an 'outdoorsman' skill (Your character noticing a barely-worn path) or only worked for places you had been to before. Can't wait for someone to mod that thing out, if it's possible.

Good to see that the physics are clearly playing a roll in the game other than just 'oh wow his leg twists around when he dies.'

 

[Pr()ZaC]

We have a lot of people playtesting the game now (internally) and have been adjusting gameplay based on their feedback.

I hope these people are not part of the XBOX360 crowd.

Care to address the dialogue "issues" the Codex fellows have pointed out?

 

[Gwendo]

BTW, will those be the loading times? If yes, they are relatively quick! Good!

But I wonder why in the forest he didn't look around, as if afraid there could be a FPS drop...

Maybe it was just because of playing it with a gamepad.

 

[Twinfalls]

Just a thought, why are ruins guarded by lone warriors anyway? What's up with that? And why don't they ever run away when someone comes after them?

Given the POW4H! of Radiant AI, you'd think there could be a bit more depth to those idiots. Is the "guard" actually guarding the ruins, presumably at the request of whoever resides within? Is he a bandit searching the ruins? Is he an archaeologist? Why is he instantly hostile? Is he in a mushroom induced fury?

If nothing else, it's potential for more than just combat. ie, maybe he's a mercenary guard that can be bribed (holy fucking shit, a bribe that would actually make sense!), talked past, sneaked past, maybe he warns you off, mugs you (through verbal threats), fuck, maybe he wanders off from his guard duty to fuck a deer, etc.

It really shows a lack of imagination, if he's just a random angry guy in the middle of nowhere specifically to attack the player. I thought the whole point of Radiant AI was to make it simple to script behaviours beyond:

if (aware of player) then (attack)

Yes, yes and more yes. Here you have one of those microcosm things - exemplifies the problem as a whole. That 'aggro dude' encounter at the shrine just had 'Same old Morrowind Shite' written all over it.

Honestly, Beth. You've got a fucking great big super-improved forest with swaying trees and shit, yet the one thing of substance in there, the wacko the PC has to interact with, is EXACTLY as before? No depth to him at all???

At the very least, you could make the outsieds of dungeons and shrines like Daggerfall - eerie, and solitary, instead of putting random PCP Nut out the front.

 

[Psilon]

It's not like the guy even calls attention to the dungeon either. Morrowind occasionally seemed to use bandits as signposts, but why bother when the ruins are friggin' huge and the compass tells you everything anyway?

 

[Sarvis]

The forests and terrain (including the beloved soil erosion ) are pre-generated in the editor and are then the same for everyone every time you play the game.

Woohoo! You finally answered one of my questions.

Now, about dual wielding...