Vault Dweller said:
And you like to ignore the fact that we are not bashing the game because it has a famous actor, nice terrain, and cool trees. We are bashing it because those are THE ONLY FEATURES that have been extensively covered for the last 12 months. Anything else - "trust us, it will be cool!"
What about the traps, or the radiant AI which although isn't emergent, is still good, or the fact that NPCs have emotional states?
Really? Well, post a few quotes, what are you waiting for? Here is your chance to show people what *real* and unbiased game coverage is all about.
There is the interactive combat that's a quantum leap from what we've experienced in Oblivion with strikes, parries, and moves that you learn as your character improves. There's also the full implementation of Thief-style stealth gameplay, as well as realistic archery. What other game can you name that complements players with so many different gameplay styles? According to all the previews, the gameplay of a sword and shield swashbuckler is expected to be a lot different than that of a sneaky thief.
What details? You mean, "it will be deep and awesome, please don't look at the Russian screens, them Russian put the dialogue slider on Dumb"? They said that it's been reworked, that it's better now, that it's topic based, and there are some multiple answer, which, btw, were in MW (yes/no/attack)
What about the emotional states that determine the replies they give to your questions and dialogue. If they're on good terms with you, their responses would be different than they would be if they were not on good terms. Such an implementation might seem trivial but not when it is implemented into the game, offering different outcomes based on your actions towards those NPCs.
There's also a persuasion compass that is based on your Speech skill.
What about it? You say something and watch the reaction. Try 4 things, get visual confirmation, and do the thing that works. Wow!
The persuasion compass is certainly a nice implementation although that isn't what I'm referring to. I could see cases where a player could permanently sour his relationship with a certain NPC (unless he opts to bribe the guy with gold worth a small fortune) being implemented as critical gameplay choices that affect the course of your adventure through the game. Even if Bethesda's designers are too lax to do such things with the main plot in Oblivion, there isn't any reason why modders can't make full use of the system.
Yes, there are trap. Now everyone is up to speed. Traps. Yay.
What kind of argument is that? Prior to Oblivion I had yet to see traps that used the physics system. Such interaction with the game's environment is an evolution step forward in gameplay, so why do you act like there's nothing impressive or important about it? A thief character could certainly make use of traps with that degree of interaction.
Holy fuck! They removed skills, weapons, guilds, mechanics, but they brought to the table realistic surfaces! Now, I know that you like your graphics, Rex, but tell me you are kidding here.
Your argument is out of context. Despite the fact that they've removed skills, weapons and guilds, you can't say that the majority of the skills that they removed weren't unnecessary to begin with, considering the fact that nobody ever understood the difference between light, medium and heavy armor, for example. Despite the fact that they've removed a few weapons from the game, they've heightened the interactivity with all the remaining weapons and completely remade the magic system, which was pretty crappy in Morrowind. You can't argue that the changes aren't for the better in these cases. As for the guilds: quality over quantity. Daggerfall might have had dozens of guilds but they were nothing more than random quest generators.
What mechanics are you referring to, by the way?
