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Review Computer Games disappointed with Oblivion

dagamer667

Liturgist
Joined
Jan 25, 2004
Messages
104
This is no question a huge mistake on Bethesdas part. I think they did it, to appeal to the average gamer more and make sure that they could experience everything in the world. In reality, they are going to ruin the experience for the average gamer, because he/she will not create an optimized build likely and when it scales it will get too difficult.

My guess would be that they assumed casual gamers would not play far enough to run into those scaling problems (i.e. bandits in daedric armor) :). At least, that would explain why so many reviews never picked up on it. Up until level 6 or 8, the scaling system works OK. Insanity starts after lvl 10, and it messes up a good number of character builds that weren't made by powergamers who built lvl100 chars in Morrowind in 20 hours.

I simply don't want to resort to the cheesy lvl1 trick. It's pretty easy to create a char with major skills that are never used, and to start pumping your actual skills w/o leveling up. As far as I can tell, enchanting is probably key to higher level play. According to the strategery guide I got, most monsters are weak/neutral against either fire or shock. When I get through the mage guild recommendations quest and get access to enchating, I'll try to post some Kvatch test results in case anyone is interested.
 

sheek

Arbiter
Joined
Feb 17, 2006
Messages
8,659
Location
Cydonia
I remember back when I used to buy/take seriously gaming magazines (mid to late 90's) a score of 84% would be almost 'game of the year'. It's the kind of score you'd give to Civilization II, UFO: Enemy Unknown, Diablo, the original Quake, MDK, Myth: The Fallen Lords, SimCity 200 etc. Games people remember and possible even play five to ten years after release.

What the hell has happened since then? Is this inflation or something?

And you know reading your review any objective person would think a 65-70%. You talk about Oblivion more negatively than I do and I gave it a 73% in my review.

Is someone putting you under pressure?
 

El Dee

Scholar
Joined
Jan 25, 2006
Messages
461
dagamer667 said:
As far as I can tell, enchanting is probably key to higher level play. According to the strategery guide I got, most monsters are weak/neutral against either fire or shock. When I get through the mage guild recommendations quest and get access to enchating, I'll try to post some Kvatch test results in case anyone is interested.

And therein lies the problem. I'm probably beating a dead horse here, but I am playing a warrior char and I don't think I should have to use magic to be successful in the game. When I play any sort of RPG (yes, I know most here don't consider OB an RPG and I'm pretty much in agreement) I try to stay true to my class, ie a warrior doesn't use magic. I'm just not a fan of the "experience everything" with one character school of thought.
 

dagamer667

Liturgist
Joined
Jan 25, 2004
Messages
104
Well, I can now safely conclude that a magic-free warrior just isn't a viable char in the long run w/o rebalancing mods. Blank weapons just don't do enough damage, and only silver weapons can harm a certain number of enemies. For the record my char is lvl15. After getting the recommendations quest done, I took my elven warhammer (doing about 15 dmg on my char w/o enchantments) and added an extra 24 points of elemental damage (8 fire/8 frost/8 shock), which is good for about 40 strikes on a Greater type soul gem. Bandits now die in about two or three strikes again, instead of 10+.
 

Nightjed

Liturgist
Joined
Jan 27, 2004
Messages
675
Location
Wasteland
BossmanCG said:
Role-Player said:
It's also interesting to note this guy is calling reviews in the 80% range to be bad.

Well of course they're bad, haven't you seen what everyone else thinks of the game? All the rave reviews? :)

80% bad?! i praise the lord-a every time i get a 40 or 60 on my college tests ..., 80 is freaking excellent, specially for a review where in the end you basicly recomend the reader not to buy the game and dust old ones instead while waiting for gothic 3
 

sheek

Arbiter
Joined
Feb 17, 2006
Messages
8,659
Location
Cydonia
Nightjed said:
BossmanCG said:
Role-Player said:
It's also interesting to note this guy is calling reviews in the 80% range to be bad.

Well of course they're bad, haven't you seen what everyone else thinks of the game? All the rave reviews? :)

80% bad?! i praise the lord-a every time i get a 40 or 60 on my college tests ..., 80 is freaking excellent, specially for a review where in the end you basicly recomend the reader not to buy the game and dust old ones instead while waiting for gothic 3

Lol. In a few years they'll start marking out of 110... 120... etc.

Games just keep getting BETTER!
 

Nightjed

Liturgist
Joined
Jan 27, 2004
Messages
675
Location
Wasteland
i dont think theyll go over 100 but theyll soon start using decimals ...

oblivion is better than morrowind! oblivion has 99.92 while morrowind just has 99.83 !!!!

then maybe theyll wake up one day and remove the % (its always 99 anyway) and just use the decimals so it will go back to 80 ~ 99, its a vicious circle
 

Pr()ZaC

Scholar
Joined
Sep 16, 2005
Messages
431
I'm glad some of you see how the level system is flawed. When I posted about it before the release, exposing part of the problem, I knew that the whole leveling up will create issues. Now that we saw rare objects being used by "pretty much everybody" once you reach high levels, I hope modders can come up with a fix (there're some WIPs already) for that.

Waiting for the RPGCODEX review!
 

kingcomrade

Kingcomrade
Edgy
Joined
Oct 16, 2005
Messages
26,884
Location
Cognitive Elite HQ
http://www.rpgcodex.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=11817

kingcomrade said:
Overall oblivion score: 844 golden stars and a Cap'n Crunch Super Sailor Merit Badge
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dagamer667

Liturgist
Joined
Jan 25, 2004
Messages
104
jiujitsu said:
Level scaling is fucking stupid. Good review. Tell it like it is.

Level scaling works great if done right. Oblivion's implementation of level scaling would be OK for Dungeon Lords, but not for the most anticipated (and now one of the greatest letdowns) games of 2006.
 

Saint_Proverbius

Administrator
Staff Member
Joined
Jun 16, 2002
Messages
11,476
Location
Behind you.
obediah said:
Then they realized the skills aren't locked - but you have to earn enough skill points to cover the reward before they advance again.

Which is completely stupid in terms of game design as well as a practical model of realistic skill development. If it's not a bug, then there's some amazingly stupid people working for Bethesda.
 

Lemunde

Scholar
Joined
Jan 16, 2006
Messages
322
The modders are already hard at work on fixing the balance issues. The consolers are SOL.
 

Tintin

Arbiter
Joined
Jun 28, 2005
Messages
1,480
fizzelopeguss said:
Was looking forward to this plugin but some cunt of a mod closed it.

...because it was over 200 posts, meaning it was time to start a new thread. Meaning the mod still continues. You just click "thread 2" instead of "thread 1". Like all other threads.
 

Micmu

Magister
Joined
Aug 20, 2005
Messages
6,163
Location
ALIEN BASE-3
A patch? They patch bugs, not retarded mechanics that have been designed like this deliberately.
 

Bossman

Educated
Joined
Dec 16, 2004
Messages
53
Not to brag or anything, but it seems that my little review caused quite a stir on the official forums. The thread hit the 200 reply mark rather quickly and has already been closed.

But I couldn't help but be amused at the energy all the Oblivion fanboys dedicated on bashing the article. Can you imagine what sacrifices they must've made to stop playing Oblivion and post on the forums? :D

Also, you might want to drop by and leave a reply here :lol:

Edit: fucked up the second link, now it's fixed.
 

kohla

Educated
Joined
Feb 28, 2006
Messages
70
Location
Roof of the World!
Yes, indeed. Perhaps next time you should stop using "OMG" in your reviews, brush up on your grammer and stop being a moron all together. Really.
And Desslock's opinions matter more because he writes for a really important pc gaming magazine and you do not. Anyway, you are a east European. So there!:evil:
OMG, OMG, u sux!! :x
 

Bossman

Educated
Joined
Dec 16, 2004
Messages
53
kohla said:
Yes, indeed. Perhaps next time you should stop using "OMG" in your reviews, brush up on your grammer and stop being a moron all together. Really.

Sure, that's why Oblivion has such obvious flaws, because I used OMG in the review. :roll:

P.S: and I think it's grammar... just a thought. :wink:
 

kohla

Educated
Joined
Feb 28, 2006
Messages
70
Location
Roof of the World!
Hmm...sarcasm (not directed at you but at the ESF posters) sorta flew over your head.:lol:
Let me try again.
[begin sarcasm]
Yes, indeed. Perhaps next time you should stop using "OMG" in your reviews, brush up on your grammer and stop being a moron all together. Really.
And Desslock's opinions matter more because he writes for a really important pc gaming magazine and you do not. Anyway, you are a east European. So there!:evil:
OMG, OMG, u sux!! :x
[end sarcasm]
 
Joined
Mar 25, 2006
Messages
51
Bossman, a very honest and personal review that I enjoyed reading.

.02:

I've heard a couple people suggest that the leveling system should have been scaled either within a range (I.E. first encounter Dremora Lvl 10, then every 5 PC levels they increase 1 or 2 etc..) or to have the enemies begin to scale after the PC has reached their level or exceeded it.

These solutions may be helpful, and I am totally for increasing the longevity of the game by making the fights actually challenging even for an "uber" high level character.

However, the item scaling thing is just fucking stupid. I like when items have rarity so they feel valuable...now everyone gets auto-upgrades? Are there any special chests with items that are unique or at least reasonably powerful for your level? I don't even see the retarded fanboy logic behind this choice...
 

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