Interview Oblivion Q&A at GamesFirst!

[Volourn]

"It's been a couple years since morrowind was developed; for all we know they could have a completely different staff, not to mention a different producer."

That's right. Bethesda games have sold millions of copies so they have fired the ultra successful devs who led them to the Money Land and got a whole bunch of new ones.

I mean, can we all say


R00fles!?!


R00fles!

 

[MrSmileyFaceDude]

Btw, am I the only one who thinks that this pseudo-realism thing sucks? The characters don't look real, they look weird and freaky, especially this fine lady

That's no woman, that's a man, baby!

It's a male dunmer (dark elf) blacksmith and he's kinda pissed at the PC for some reason. As far as the HDR ("bloom") lighting goes, there hasn't been a screenshot published yet that wasn't taken roughly 6 months ago, or earlier. Lots & lots of tweaking going on in the shader department. The contrast & saturation in that screenshot are kinda wonky, too, compared to the original.

 

[Ellester]

I have a feeling Vol, you’re going to pull a Visc. Complain like heck till the game is released, and then on release day, you’ll be the first in line to buy a shinny new box with Oblivion stamped upon the cover.

I think the hint lies within the “I won’t buy Oblivion until it’s under $20” quote. That’s just the first step that will lead you to buy the game on release day.

 

[Ellester]

That's no woman, that's a man, baby!

It's a male dunmer (dark elf) blacksmith and he's kinda pissed at the PC for some reason.

I was about to say that looks like a woman’s body with a male face.

 

[Volourn]

"I have a feeling Vol, you’re going to pull a Visc. Complain like heck till the game is released, and then on release day, you’ll be the first in line to buy a shinny new box with Oblivion stamped upon the cover."

No.

Some points to consider:

1. I have never paid full price for a Bethesda game ever. I played a lot of the odler ones because my brother got a bucnh for a rather cheap price in a collection of games he bought from a friend. I bought MW for like $30 only because people had the gall to tell the truth and sya MW was better than the other ES series. What they forgot to emntion was that it thought it wa barely better than DF and Co.; it still sucked big time.

2. Unlike Visc; I mean what I say.

3. I'm not a sceret Bethesda fanboy like Visc is a BIo fanboy. proof of this is my lack of appearance on the Bethesda boards. It's not worth my time giving them my opinion on their official baords as I know they simply won't give me what i want. And, why should they? They have a million + others willing to pay full price for their crappy games; they don't need my measily dollars.


R00fles!

 

[Vault Dweller]

That's no woman, that's a man, baby!

lol. Every time I looked it, I thought: Damn! That is one ugly woman

I loved Daggerfall portraits. They looked better and there was no gender-related confusion.

 

[crpgnut]

Can't argue with that statement, VD. I liked the character portraits in Daggerfall too. I didn't care for Morrowind's ugly characters. The first mods 80% of the fans install is the Better Bodies and Better Faces. I'm encouraged by the much better looking faces we've seen so far in Oblivion's screenshots. Really, nothing they've shown yet is as good as Redd's stuff. The community just flat out has better artists than the staff at Bethesda. Still you have a company of a very limited number of employees vs. a community that is thousands strong. There is a texture artist modder that I can't wait to see what he can do with the new CS. He made the game 200% more beautiful to me. Kudos to Bethesda for releasing the tools to make it happen.

 

[MrSmileyFaceDude]

Actually, Rhedd made the face meshes, but his wife made the textures. And neither of them were bound by the (admittedly far too restrictive) art guideline that dictated how face textures needed to be structured. The way Rhedd organized the face textures allowed for a texture only twice the size to have a facial details area 4 times the size. 4X resolution over the same amount of space means more detail. If Bethesda's artists had done the same thing, Rhedd probably wouldn't have felt compelled to make his mod in the first place.

 

[Ellester]

"I have a feeling Vol, you’re going to pull a Visc. Complain like heck till the game is released, and then on release day, you’ll be the first in line to buy a shinny new box with Oblivion stamped upon the cover."

No.

Some points to consider:

1. I have never paid full price for a Bethesda game ever. I played a lot of the odler ones because my brother got a bucnh for a rather cheap price in a collection of games he bought from a friend. I bought MW for like $30 only because people had the gall to tell the truth and sya MW was better than the other ES series. What they forgot to emntion was that it thought it wa barely better than DF and Co.; it still sucked big time.

2. Unlike Visc; I mean what I say.

3. I'm not a sceret Bethesda fanboy like Visc is a BIo fanboy. proof of this is my lack of appearance on the Bethesda boards. It's not worth my time giving them my opinion on their official baords as I know they simply won't give me what i want. And, why should they? They have a million + others willing to pay full price for their crappy games; they don't need my measily dollars.


R00fles!

1) But, you still have bought or played the first three in the ES series. I know I can’t say that. Also, I seem to remember a certain thousand arguments from you blasting fellow forum members who complain about NWN, but they still had all the games. Why have them if they all sucked? Seems like a familiar situation.

2) What, you don’t write a post to the developers saying how pissed off you are and say you’ll never buy another product or post on their forums again, and then show back up on their forums in 4 days like nothing happened? :shock: I’ll agree with you, your not like Visc. My apologies.

3) True they don’t, but I have a feeling they'll get your cash anyways. Maybe you'll be deceived like Morrowind. Or maybe you jump in like a raging Bio fanboy. There’s still plenty of time before release to see how this turns out.

 

[Greatatlantic]

That's no woman, that's a man, baby!

It's a male dunmer (dark elf) blacksmith and he's kinda pissed at the PC for some reason.

Oh, great! Just what we gamers need. Beth is going the route of (not)Final Fantasy and creating gender ambigous characters!

I have to say it though, the face looks femine. Not attractive, and I can't quite place it, but its in the eyebrows or something like that. That face also looks nothing like the Morrowind long faced dunmer.

I'm also glad to hear the developers are trying to put that bloom effect undercontrol. A little might be a good thing, but it just looked out of control from glancing at the screenshots.

 

[Volourn]

"But, you still have bought or played the first three in the ES series. I know I can’t say that. Also, I seem to remember a certain thousand arguments from you blasting fellow forum members who complain about NWN, but they still had all the games. Why have them if they all sucked? Seems like a familiar situation."

Compleetly different. I bought exactly 1 ES game. That was MW. I did not buy the expansions. Those who bashed NWN went out and bought the expansions for it? I also played only because they were free thanks to my brother and they were avialable. It's like when you turn on the tv looking for soemthing tow atch and you happen to watch a particualr show or movie for 10 minutes 9or in a agme's case for an hour or two) realziing the tv/game is crap and stop. I don't have all the games. I've only owned one, and that was MW whcih I promptly threw back at the store.


"I’ll agree with you, your not like Visc."

That's all I need. If nothing more comes out of this; i'm glad I got that much. :D


"True they don’t, but I have a feeling they'll get your cash anyways."

Not 'til it's in the less than $30 category and as far aswe Kanadians go; that is the Bargain Bin or equivilant up here. :twisted:

The bottom line though is that we all *know* Oblivion will suck. It's just the way the world works. Just wlike we know thate evry BIo game will have a silly Minsc-Deekin type character in it. Just the way it is.

 

[Ellester]

After Morrowind I’ll wait and see. The reason being Morrowind had the potential, it just didn’t deliver, imo. We’ll see if Oblivion sucks or not, but I'm not judging, yet.

The bottom line though is that we all *know* Oblivion will suck. It's just the way the world works. Just wlike we know thate evry BIo game will have a silly Minsc-Deekin type character in it. Just the way it is.

This is my biggest pet peeve about Bio. It hurts to even think about what new goofy characters they’ll think up in their new games. Ouch!

 

[space captain]

this game looks bad ass, and from the interview it sounds like it will deliver some serious RPG stuff

the question is will it run at more than 5fps on a 4ghz dual PC??? morrowind was a total, crippling system hog

i dont like that

 

[bryce777]

The bottom line though is that we all *know* Oblivion will suck. It's just the way the world works. Just wlike we know thate evry BIo game will have a silly Minsc-Deekin type character in it. Just the way it is.

Hahaha...that is exactly how I feel.

Actually the first ES game was ok because it was different at the time, and didn't try to be too much. Daggerfall I loved and hated, but it was buggy as hell. Since then it has been more of the same crap, except worse.

 

[Sol Invictus]

I don't think Oblivion will suck. I don't know where all of this cynicism comes from. Daggerfall was pretty fun, right?

 

[Shagnak]

I reckon it will be pretty good. But I was one of the ones that thoroughly enjoyed Morrowind, downsides and all.

The only thing is...wil I have to re-morgage my howse and sell my first-born to affford a pc that will play it? Or sacrifice goatse to the almighty satan/cthulhu/nyarlathotep in order to procure the riches required to upgrade my PC accordingly?

Edit: isn't it bizarre how I will endeavour to spell the great ones' names right, but can't even be bothered spelling "afford" etc correctly? I have issues.

 

[Sol Invictus]

I enjoyed Morrowind for awhile, but only due to the mods. The game was pretty imbalanced without them - I could hit level 50 in no time.

 

[Shagnak]

I enjoyed Morrowind for awhile, but only due to the mods. The game was pretty imbalanced without them - I could hit level 50 in no time.

I agree about the mods thing. I installed the archer mod within 10 hours of starting the game, just so my assassin could be more enjoyable - emphasis on distance stealth kills and so on meant a better archery model was required.

I think thats one thing we can give them kudos on - having the foresight to make a game that was easily modable. Don't like it? Change it! (err..except the dialog mechanism... )

Whether people liked the game or not, I think their aims were pretty noble. Given the torrent of effluent we have to wade through every month, I think we are way too harsh. [asbestos coat anyone?]

 

[Volourn]

"I don't know where all of this cynicism comes from."

Hahahaha.


"Daggerfall was pretty fun, right?"

Hahahaha.

 

[RGE]

Daggerfall portraits ... no gender-related confusion.

I can't tell whether the 8th portrait is a hundred year old man or a hundred year old woman.

 

[Otaku_Hanzo]

I like Arena, absolutely LOVE Daggerfall despite the bugs, and despise Morrowind which didn't even get semi-okay until the Bloodmoon expansion. Sadly, Oblivion will have to wait as there is no way I will be able to run it on my system. Bloodlines and HL2 were pushing it for me. I would love to give Oblivion a chance though, and will make some effort to do so.

 

[Diogo Ribeiro]

"I don't know where all of this cynicism comes from."

Hahahaha.


"Daggerfall was pretty fun, right?"

Hahahaha.

R00fles!

 

[Arkan]

I like Arena, absolutely LOVE Daggerfall despite the bugs, and despise Morrowind which didn't even get semi-okay until the Bloodmoon expansion. Sadly, Oblivion will have to wait as there is no way I will be able to run it on my system. Bloodlines and HL2 were pushing it for me. I would love to give Oblivion a chance though, and will make some effort to do so.

This will be the make or break for me. The game has to be better optimised so it will run on average (at the time) systems. Morrowind ran well enough for me, but even when I upgraded, there were no visible improvements in performance.

 

[Country_Gravy]

What's the ETA for Oblivion's release. Is the engine fully built? Will it be out by the end of this year or are the shooting for sometime in '06? It seems like they just anounced it a while ago right? It's getting a ton of hype if this game isn't even going to be out for 12 months or more.

 

[Vault Dweller]

It's a mystary. I don't expect to see it until 2006, but everything could happen. There are rumors that it will be shown at E3 in May, then it would be clear at what state the game is.

Btw, wasn't it supposed to be developed for next-gen consoles? In that case, it would probably be released around the same time. When is xbox2 (or whatever it will be called) expected?