What the hell does everyone have against Oblivion?

[Archonsod]

See, you claim to have played it, but then you come out with something stupid like

In case nobody has noticed the game made use of about 1 city design,

Every city has a completely different layout and architecture. I mean, if you can spot a similarity between the circular layout of  log cabins in Bruma and the twisting design of the gothic stone Skingrad I'd like to hear it.

My main gripe was it seemed to be mostly a combat oriented dungeon crawling game;

Depends on how you play it. It's generally left up to the player to do what they want rather than leading them through the game by the nose. In fact IIRC ther's only three compulsory fights in the main plot, you can get past most things with either stealth, brains or plain speed. It's also the only RPG to my knowledge where you can tell the world to sod off and embark on a life of non-adventure.

The absolute worst thing about oblivion is the rape of morrowinds fantastic magic system.

They removed the levitation spell, the requirement to switch to spellcasting mode and added regenerating mana. Which part of that was a rape?

 

[Agent Griff]

Why not post a few more videos of Oblivion's hilarious flaws? Better than actually arguing in a coherent way since what's the point? Someone will just disagree with your views and then you're back at the drawing board.

So let's have a laugh at Oblivion's expense!

A telekinesis spell on steroids.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tm1lS3YLe4&feature=related

An interesting collage of rumours that also shows how almost all of Oblivion's human NPCs look very much alike. Perhaps Cyrodiil has been experiencing an outbreak of incest and inbreeding these last years?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tm1lS3YLe4&feature=related

Here, however, is an example of what great heights one can reach with the right mods, especially when it comes to combat. I personally use this mod, and I can certify to it being one of the very best mods out and the most kickass mod for combat. Its name is Deadly Reflex, and it is a most unflattering name.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdPt0En3ovg&feature=related

 

[Vovolov]

They have absolutely no reason to, Oblivion was and still IS a great game, in my opinion.

So Halo would apply to your theory too, Archonsod? It's succesful, and as such everyone seems to have something against, while I really, really like it.

 

[Ilex]

So Halo would apply to your theory too, Archonsod? It's succesful, and as such everyone seems to have something against, while I really, really like it.

It's just that when people think something's overrated they try to compensate it by "hating" it, while without the hype it might be mediocre to them.

 

[Lost-Lamb]

The combat was much too simple, the game lacked any meaningful dialogue and the artwork was in no way unique. Then there's the horribly chunky UI (the only real "dumbing down for the console" point) and the atrocious heads/faces on people, I was always shocked when I found an un-repulsive person in Oblivion, in Morrowind at least that could be fixed.

 

[Rilder]

The ability to set your own goals.

HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAH

OH MAN, HAHAHAHHAA

That made my day.

 

[Ronan]

So Halo would apply to your theory too, Archonsod? It's succesful, and as such everyone seems to have something against, while I really, really like it.

It's just that when people think something's overrated they try to compensate it by "hating" it, while without the hype it might be mediocre to them.

Well they do cash out with those games quite a lot. E.g. Fallout 3 seems like it's going to sell a lot just because of the name and with this game it was pretty much the same. And because of the hype everybody was let down so the reaction is mostly hatred.

One of the let-downs for me was that there was always only one solution to the quests.

 

[Great_Duke]

See, you claim to have played it, but then you come out with something stupid like

In case nobody has noticed the game made use of about 1 city design,

Every city has a completely different layout and architecture. I mean, if you can spot a similarity between the circular layout of  log cabins in Bruma and the twisting design of the gothic stone Skingrad I'd like to hear it.

I was being sarcastic. Regardless, yes, Oblivion designs tend to repeat themselves ad nauseam, wich quite takes away the feeling of exploration. The dungeons, cities, forests and everything else have very little variation and it does feels like a tube roll in a an old cartoon.

 

[Locke Foreer]

The deadly reflex mod makes combat excellent. Sure vanilla Oblivion isn't very good, but I found it definitely worth playing after about an hour of installing mods. (sounds a lot but I was on the computer anyway, doing other stuff)

 

[Lost-Lamb]

The deadly reflex mod makes combat excellent.

Well I'll give you better, still far from what I'd call enjoyable though

 

[Locke Foreer]

True. No one element is anywhere near perfect, but everything rolled up together has made it mainly enjoyable for me. The first times I played Oblivion, it was for 9 hours straight, and after that 9 hours I simply turned off the borrowed Xbox, and hated the game for months. I've only just got a strange craving for it again, and have been playing for 50 hours now.

 

[arbites_augmented]

That's true, I played it every day for an hour or so, missing work, etc. So I played it for 13 hours, just to get myself off it, and I hated the game for months. But, now, I want to go and start it up again.

 

[Archonsod]

So Halo would apply to your theory too, Archonsod? It's succesful, and as such everyone seems to have something against, while I really, really like it.

There's an element of backlash, but Halo is probably one of the key examples of the PC / Console divide. Prior to Halo, perceived Wisdom was that you couldn't do a proper FPS with a joypad.

It's just that when people think something's overrated they try to compensate it by "hating" it, while without the hype it might be mediocre to them.

Assuming they've played it. Quite a lot of the time it's more to do with fitting in with a crowd. I've lost count of the number of times I've seen an Oblivion troll launch into a rant regurgitating the common arguments, and be completely incapable of further qualifying said complaints.

I was being sarcastic. Regardless, yes, Oblivion designs tend to repeat themselves ad nauseam, wich quite takes away the feeling of exploration. The dungeons, cities, forests and everything else have very little variation and it does feels like a tube roll in a an old cartoon.

Again, did you play the same game as the rest of us? Just from looking at the map in the editor you've got around six separate biome's defined, from the swamps in the South (Leyadwin region), the golden savannah in the West (Anvil), the tundra of the North and so on. Each biome has it's own environment defined (you won't see mangroves outside of the swamp), it's own list of random creatures (some crossovers exist like bandits, but you won't find a lion far from the savannah, nor will you find many trolls in the swamps) and it's own weather types. I've already covered the settlements. Dungeons are hit and miss, but again this comes from overestimation on the devs part. In terms of playing area alone the actual dungeon area (not including Oblivion gates) is larger than Vvardenfell. Some are pretty unique and detailed, particularly the quest related ones, others tend to be a little more generic. Oblivion levels are pseudo random, with six basic templates (gives around 80 or so potential layouts) but they do tend to get somewhat similar after a while.

Oh, and missed it before but:

I thought the little caves/tombs/whatnot were better, along with little quirks like the idiot wizard with the +1000 to acrobat scrolls that falls down and dies in front of you.

There's similar touches in Oblivion, from entire quests (the Uffredyke for example), the goblin totem war you can have fun with or even small touches like breaking into someone's home and finding out they're having an affair with the Countess and the like.

 

[Rabid Potatoe]

My main gripe was it seemed to be mostly a combat oriented dungeon crawling game; minimal dialogue, not many skills that didn't somehow relate to combat and the main obstacle of the dungeons I visited seemed to be monsters... not old hermits refusing to give you the key to the vaults below, not jumps too long where you should have high enough acrobatics, etc. And the main use of lockpicking seemed to be acquiring of extra loot, rather than say making you able to advance in the dungeon. So, what's wrong with that? Nothing really. I think there's a niche for combat dungeon crawlers... but if the combat sucks I don't see any reason to play the game.

I won't get into the graphics, or the voice acting, since they come second to gameplay, which itself I found flawed.

Pretty much this. They seem to have been a bit confused about what exactly they were trying to make.

 

[Trooper5445]

The ability to set your own goals.

HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAH

OH MAN, HAHAHAHHAA

That made my day.

My favorite example of fault argumentation. You are so dumb I don't even have to refute your point. Well if you can't refute a point then it is true as far as I'm concerned.

Look the point is I had a fun time playing the game. I enjoyed just wandering around the world sneaking up on people and just generally being a thief. I've played Oblivion for over 150 hours and never even bothered to start the Main Quest. (Disabled it with M.O.E)

 

[Cleaning agent]

The ability to set your own goals.

HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAH

OH MAN, HAHAHAHHAA

That made my day.

What kind of an answer is that exactly? Do you even have a ****ing point to make? No. You just hit caps lock as whacked your thick skull against the keyboard for a bit.

 

[Buxton]

It was successful. Pretty much any game which meets with success attracts a crowd of tards complaining about it. People just can't take success it seems, particularly when it's from a series / developer who was previously something of a cult. Pretty much the same reasoning you get when people complain about bands selling out.

This really is what most people say, I find something like that INCREDIBLY stupid. I had a friend who used to listen to really obscure death/black metal bands no one had heard of, once more than a couple hundred people liked them he hated them. E.g. Lamb Of God.

 

[Nairagorn]

Level scaling can suck my nuts.

Bandit wearing glass armor with OMGDEATH weapons of smitingness demands 100 gold from me?

Now I hear Fallout 3 is going to have same/similar scaling. FFS.

 

[Great_Duke]

The ability to set your own goals.

HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAH

OH MAN, HAHAHAHHAA

That made my day.

What kind of an answer is that exactly? Do you even have a ****ing point to make? No. You just hit caps lock as whacked your thick skull against the keyboard for a bit.

I think he was mocking the fact that most of this so called "Ability to set your own goals" comes from the subjective penchant of the Oblivion Player for LARPing and not the game design in itself.

 

[Cleaning agent]

I think he was mocking the fact that most of this so called "Ability to set your own goals" comes from the subjective penchant of the Oblivion Player for LARPing and not the game design in itself.

Where else is it going to come from? A game can't set your own goals for you, that's an oxymoron.