Editorial The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion Retrospective

[Kosmonaut]

Oblivion and Fallout 3 quickly became my favorite video games after I heard about them. As a kid I always dreamed of having a game that was like a virtual world where you could do whatever you want, and my dream came true when I read about Oblivion. It's the main reason I got an Xbox 360. :D

:piccard:

It is a nice game, but somewhat lacking in content (dozens of dungeons but no reason to explore them due to the generic enemies and loot) and with some questionable design desicions (two words: level scaling :stare.

However with the (currently 179) mods i have i'd say it's the best damn game i've ever played..

 

[Chefe]

Just so you know, he's posted this over at the Bethesda Forums:

http://forums.bethsoft.com/index.php?/t ... -this-gen/

Yes, the Obliviol fags are sucking his cock as usual.

Uhhh.... no.

"GFX and somewhat gameplay wise I agree. But (It's inevitable so I'll just do it right now) IMO, Morrowind did a lot of things better IMO "

"Oh, you mean Console Generations? "

"It is a nice game, but somewhat lacking in content (dozens of dungeons but no reason to explore them due to the generic enemies and loot) and with some questionable design desicions (two words: level scaling :stare. However with the (currently 179) mods i have i'd say it's the best damn game i've ever played. Fallout 3 requires a lot less mods though, so i'm eagerly looking forward to TES V :D "

"Because Bethesda created such a powerful toolset and because of the wonderful modding community, I'll agree that this game is probably the best game of the last several years."

"I'll agree with you on the leveling though. :facepalm: "

"While because of its flaws, I do not think it is the greatest western rpg of this generation."

"Oblivion is a terrible game. Though it does have the best toolset this generation. Oblivion modded is the best game I currently own. "

"Oblivion is bellow average without mods"

"I don't think at all that Oblivion is the best western RPG this gen

far from it
...
It might have the most freedom in a game that I've ever experienced but other than that it falls short in many other categories "

"I do agree with that, sometimes you hit a jackpot and found something great, however those moments were few and far between, usually (human) enemies having better gear than what was hidden in the dungeon. And do not, i repeat DO NOT, waste time unlocking chests. I use the Artifacts mod that places powerful weapons or amors in some caves dungeons, usually requiring some extra steps to take them with you. Not in nearly all caves and dungeons, though. A similar aproach was taken in Fallout 3, with unique items hidden in some locations (such as a powerful weapon and armor in places filled with Deathclaws :cold, however "lockpicking not worth the effort (with the exception of Victory Rifle)" still unfortunately applies to it.

I have to echo the thoughts voiced in this thread though, unmodded Oblivion is quite plain, modded it's one of the best. However as Fallout 3 (in my humble opinion) is a vast improvement
...
And i agree with Saurok, Dragon Age is the best RPG of this generation, out of the box it beats unmodded Oblivion no question. "


You guys really don't give the ESF the credit they deserve. It's nowhere near the cesspool of the old days. Most people there vastly prefer Morrowind, and hope ES:V is more in line with that. Some of the most popular mods bring back stuff from Morrowind and Daggerfall.

 

[Naturaliensammler]

And i agree with Saurok, Dragon Age is the best RPG of this generation, out of the box it beats unmodded Oblivion no question. "

ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff...........

 

[Wist]

Alright, alright, didn't see those.

 

[poocolator]

Hey. I've just been hit by a ton of bricks-- Chefe's back. Welcome, Chefe. I've missed ya, bro. XOXOXO

 

[Chefe]

Hey. I've just been hit by a ton of bricks-- Chefe's back. Welcome, Chefe. I've missed ya, bro. XOXOXO

 

[Secretninja]

How many of the people posting in this thread are Chefe?

 

[Chefe]

How many of the people posting in this thread are Chefe?

It's just me and you, mang.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

How many aren't Chefe?

 

[FeelTheRads]

I wish I was Chefe.

 

[Sceptic]

Chefe's too-long-to-quote post on page 4 delivers. Thanks DU.

 

[madbringer]

I wish I was Chefe.

I wish i was his alt.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

lul. If you google "I'm making an oblivion game", you go straight to that thread deniszi mentioned. On the second page, you get something much better:

TwiiK



Joined: 23 Oct 2007
Posts: 224
Posted: Tue Jan 05, 2010 10:25 pm Post subject:

WinningGuy wrote:
Am I missing something here? It seems a lot of people are being extra hard on this guy.

Not that I encourage it, but he's kind of putting himself in a position where it's easy to rip on him. In everything he says he comes of ignorant.

For instance:

Ik Animation wrote:

Well I've got the graphics and lighting down which is the main thing, any help would just speed things up and make the game better. I'm perfectly capable of doing it myself, it just will take longer.

Graphics and lighting are 1% of any game. Also, your graphics and lighting are just the default Unity graphics, glow filter, real time shadows and some normal mapped textures. This is far from what made Oblivion a successful game and also far from what made Oblivion a beautiful game.

Also, people rip on you because you're making a game in the fantasy rpg genre similar to Oblivion and calling it an Oblivion game. This is similar to xbox gamers calling any third person shooter a Gears of War game or any first person shooter a Modern Warfare game. It makes you seem ignorant because those games are very late games in genres that are 10-20 years old with many much better games.

I honestly thought Oblivion wasn't any good because I couldn't fix it with mods on the pc and had to play it on my xbox. It was ok, but many things were broken in the vanilla game and had to be fixed with mods.

But to list a few of the things that made Oblivion successful:
- A deep, involving story
- Great voice acting
- Interesting characters
- A big world which encouraged exploration
- Well developed rpg elements
- Good gameplay mechanics
- Good graphics
- Good audio

Audio/Music you will have to buy or record yourself which is a huge undertaking in itself. Story is a whole different chapter. Voice acting is practically impossible for one man or a small studio.

And the most important thing, great core gameplay. With great core gameplay you have a game - it's as simple as that. Graphics, story, voice acting, audio etc. comes second.

Find out what people will be doing most of in your game and make it as good as it can possible be and people will like it. Compare Mario to any bad Mario clone and the difference most likely is bad controls because controls are so crucial to a platform game.

Compare Modern Warfare to any bad first person shooter and the difference will be the feel of the gun as your shooting because you will shoot constantly throughout the game and if it feels wrong the game isn't any good.

People on this forum are usually very helpful, but your requests come off sounding as the usual: "I have nothing, but if you give me or teach me everything I will have something".

What you have doesn't look bad, but it's not great. Your buildings are blocky and uninteresting, your ground is flat, your world lacks detail and the overall look is bland. Your textures are way to uniform and clean.

Look at World of Warcarft for example. Certainly not the most technically advanced game, but it has great graphics. Every item, doodad, detail or texture in the game is interesting to look at.

 

[FeelTheRads]

- A deep, involving story
- Great voice acting
- Interesting characters
- A big world which encouraged exploration
- Well developed rpg elements
- Good gameplay mechanics
- Good graphics
- Good audio

The man speaks truth! Especially about the voice acting and interesting characters!

Compare Modern Warfare to any bad first person shooter and the difference will be the feel of the gun as your shooting because you will shoot constantly throughout the game and if it feels wrong the game isn't any good.

Gameplay is the feel of the gun!

 

[poocolator]

Gu
ff
aw

 

[Naturaliensammler]

Gameplay is the feel of the gun!

For shooters which try to be "realistic" and play at this era of mankind, yes... weapon feeling is very important for gameplay in my eyes

 

[GarfunkeL]

Please enlighten me how the "feel of the guns" made MW/MW2. There wasn't much of a difference in the weapons. It's just baseless praise.

 

[Naturaliensammler]

Mechwarrior or ModernWarfare? ^^

ModernWarfare has crappy gun feeling. Besides crappy everything else.

 

[TwinkieGorilla]

annnnnnnd now we're talking about nothing. such is the life-span of a Codex thread.

 

[Sceptic]

I was enjoying the post until I got to "things that made Oblivion successful". Then I stopped reading after "deep, involving story". WTF is wrong with people? How can you find OBLIVION'S story deep?

 

[Konjad]

oblivion's story IS deep.


Deep shit.

 

[Talonfire]

It's deep for what it is.

 

[Genma:TheDestroyer]

It's derp for what it is.

 

[Mastermind]

I was enjoying the post until I got to "things that made Oblivion successful". Then I stopped reading after "deep, involving story". WTF is wrong with people? How can you find OBLIVION'S story deep?

Actually it's pretty simple: most of it is not spoonfed, you have to figure it out yourself. It's hardly a surprise that the typical codexer retard who thinks fallout had a good plot is incapable of comprehending how ES storytelling works.

 

[FeelTheRads]

This guy is good.

 

[Chefe]

I was enjoying the post until I got to "things that made Oblivion successful". Then I stopped reading after "deep, involving story". WTF is wrong with people? How can you find OBLIVION'S story deep?

Actually it's pretty simple: most of it is not spoonfed, you have to figure it out yourself. It's hardly a surprise that the typical codexer retard who thinks fallout had a good plot is incapable of comprehending how ES storytelling works.

That's beautiful. Thanks. :D