OXM: Oblivion gets 9.5, but Fightnight 3 gets 10?

[TiE23]

There is a picture of the April cover of Offical Xbox Magazine going around the internet that hints that either Oblivion, FightNight 3, or Ghost Recon got their first 10.

 

 

Well, it is said that FightNight 3 got the first 10-point perfect score in the magazine. Which is really stupid because it is made by EA and other reviews around the internet give FNR3 an average of around 88%, and I seriously doubt it is better than Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory or Halo 2.

 

What do you guys think? I'm glad to hear that Oblivion got a good review but it really pisses me off that such a stupid game took the throne.

 

It smells like EA waved some cash around to get them excited. :/

 

EDIT: Some one read the magazine and this is what he reports:

Let's see...

 

Oblivion by the numbers:

44 hours played

400 game saves

80 in-game days passed

56 Quests completed

14 Quests they accepted but didn't finish

1529 items stolen

117 locks picked

 

Downloadable holidays are out, but other content is planned. Picture of horse armor... looks very cool. Mention that there is a unicorn in the game... tough to find.

 

Entering Oblivion realm feels like Diablo... lots of lava and broken concrete, imposing towers you have to climb to get the Sigil Stone to close an Oblivion Gate.

 

Main story can be completed in 20 - 25 hours. Add in other aspects, game can be 100+ hours.

 

Vast landscapes are visually breathtaking, unlike anything seen on other systems. Incredible depth in character creation.

 

Links:

http://forum.teamxbox.com/showthread.php?t=420760&page=2

http://www.elderscrolls.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=249436

http://forum.teamxbox.com/showthread.php?p=6934906#post6934906

[El Sitherino]

Fight Night 3 can suck the fattest, dirtiest ass in the world.

[Mike Windu]

My thought is... boo hoo?

[CapNColostomy]

Fight Night 3 can suck the fattest, dirtiest ass in the world.

 

I anxiously await my ass sucking.

 

Anyways, yeah. I thought Fight Night Round 2 was a blast. So I'll probably play this one when I get around to getting it. And when it's not sucking my ass.

[toms]

I've seen some pretty good reviews of FN3... and the graphics do look like being the first 360 game to even approach "next gen".

Never played a boxing game in my life though, so i've no idea if it deserves such a high score.

 

As i'm playing Morrowind at the moment (well, started, played a bit, got underwhelmed, haven't touched it in a while) I'm very confused as to why Oblivion seems to have become the most hyped game on the system.

 

Is it just the graphics?

 

Daggerfall was great but flawed. Didn't have a huge fanbase though, just a small fanatical one.

Morrowind is ok, but i'm amazed at how similar to DF it seems, a lot of it hasn't moved on at all, infact a lot has moved backwards. The graphics are ok, but the world is a bit lacking in life and interactivity... on the whole an ok game... but i don't remember it being a huge seller, or there being a huge hype around it when it launched on xbox.

 

So where has all this hype for oblivion come from?

Were there more Morrowind fans than i thought? Are people expecting a much bigger gameplay jump this time?

 

Seems to me that a lot of people who are hyped about oblivion aren't the sort of people to have the patience to actually play it.

 

PS/ the best thing about MW was the player made extensions, but they were PC only.. is that the same this time?

 

[edit]interesting blog post/preview that might help a few people to manage their expectations.. in the interest of them being impressed rather than disappointed when they get the game:

http://wiredblogs.tripod.com/games/...ntry_id=1422030

[TiE23]

Is it just the graphics?

It's great, but it's not the main point of the hype. Gameplay baby!

 

So where has all this hype for oblivion come from? Were there more Morrowind fans than i thought?

Oh yes, more than you think. I read somewhere that for the first couple of months Morrowind was second only to Halo in Xbox's top games.

 

Are people expecting a much bigger gameplay jump this time? Seems to me that a lot of people who are hyped about oblivion aren't the sort of people to have the patience to actually play it.

 

This time it's a little shorter and they went in terms of story line went with the Quality over Quantity idea. So more details and more immersion.

 

 

PS/ the best thing about MW was the player made extensions, but they were PC only.. is that the same this time?

Official mods will be available as Xbox Live downloads.

 

As i'm playing Morrowind at the moment (well, started, played a bit, got underwhealmed, haven't touched it in a while) I'm very confused as to why Oblivion seems to have become the most hyped game on the system.

That's wouldn't be far from the truth. The offical Oblivion forums already has 155,000 posts and counting just in it's Oblivion area, and it's not even out yet.

[ET Warrior]

My thought is... boo hoo?

I was gonna go with waaaaaah myself.

[toms]

CTRL-ALT-DEL for one seem to think that FN3 is pretty darn good.

 

Gameplay baby?? Thats the most disappointing thing about Morrowind so far, that the gameplay seems to have moved on so little from Daggerfall... and i seem to remember a lot of people whining about not knowing what to do in Morrowind on forums all over the internet.

 

Still, i'd rather a game like oblivion gets hyped to some of the other dumb stuff out there... it just seems an odd choice to be such a big hit imho. (seen loadsof people saying they won't get a 360 until it comes out, for example).

[BongoBob]

Well, Oblivion uses a better combat system. I hated when I shot a guy right in the face or stabbed him right in the face, and it said that I missed. That just pissed me off. Now, if it looks like it hit (1cm away from them and stab them with a 10 ft long pole), it means it hit. Also, you now control the block manually, instead of randomly block based on your skill.

 

Also, the beggining is said to be much, much faster.

[TiE23]

Here's another lengthy Re/Pre-view from the experiance of a Morrowind fan who got to play the final version in England for awhile.

It's pretty good and shows lots of stuff and some annoyances, such as guards having X-Ray vision of item's you've stolen and people you've killed. But it's for the best because now you can't kill half of the town just because they were in a room by themselves despite blood curdling screams as you hack them to death with a rusty axe.

 

http://tessource.net/content.php?page=Official%20TESSource%20Oblivion%20Review

 

In The Beginning…

Those of you that played Morrowind will remember the “What?” questions you’d ask yourself after playing the game for the first hour. What am I? What am I doing here? What is my role? WHAT’S GOING ON!? All valid questions for Morrowind. At the beginning of Oblivion some things remain the same as Morrowind, but a lot is different.

 

After starting a new game you’re given an in-game introduction video circling the green pastures surrounding Cyrodiil, before focusing on the city, its wall guards and high towers. Patrick Stewart provides a vocal background narrative playing the role of the Imperial Emperor; most of it you’ll have heard from the Oblivion Trailer (not seen it? Watch it) but there’s a few new tidbits in there. Rumours abound that the narrative originally started “Captain’s log: star date…” to try and link the Elder Scrolls universe with Bethesda’s newly acquired Star Trek license but this was scrapped due to canonical issues.

 

Following that you’ll enter the first stage of your character generation.

 

 

Character Generation: Part 1

This is where you let your imagination run wild and generate the look and feel of your character and Christen it. First of all you’ll name your character. There’s no random name generator here so get your imagination working.

 

As already known you can choose from the ten different races present in Morrowind: Argonians, Bretons, Dark Elves, High Elves, Imperials, Khajiit, Nords, Orcs, Redguards and Wood Elves.

 

Your racial choice affects not only the look of your character but also it’s specialisation. While High Elves are powerful in magic and gain bonuses to their magic stats the Redguards are resilient warriors and masters of weaponry.

 

Your choice of race at this stage can affect your game play later on in the game so it is wise to read through the descriptions of the races and decide on what sort of character you want to play at this point, rather than deciding half-way through the game you’re bored of being a stealthy Wood Elf assassin and want to be a fireball-hurling Breton mage. Having said that magic plays a more prominent role in Oblivion and every race can wield it; just some races can extrapolate more power from their magic use than others.

 

With the name and race of your character set you can now get to work moulding your character’s physical form into practically any shape and colour you see fit. The level of depth you can enter when changing your character’s face, for example, is second to none. The face has been cut-up into different sections; chin, nose, mouth, cheeks and so on. Then within the different sections are a multitude of slider bars that will change that aspect of the face. Want a thin, small, tight-lip? Play around with 4 or 5 slider bars and you’ll get exactly what you want.

 

Personally changing every single aspect of my Wood Elf (yes, I like the pointy-eared tree-lovers) wasn’t top priority for me, I rarely play in third-person mode or showcase my player to others (make it look good so you can show your friends on Oblivion Players though!). It’s obvious this system was made for the perfectionists out there and I can see many a beauty contest starting because of it.

 

In typical Morrowind fashion this is where your customisation ends for now; you’ll have to wait until further down the road until you can choose your class and skills.

 

 

Lights On

And so with my character made I entered the world of Oblivion. It’s pretty small, about 4m x 4m. Rather dark. Looks a bit sinister to be honest; bit of blood on the walls, skulls and bones littering the floor and chains dangling from the ceiling. About this point I’m wondering if this is someone’s idea of a sick joke; I’ve just entered the game for god’s sake * there’s no chance I could have stolen or murdered someone already. But alas, this is where the story of Oblivion starts. My character has obviously committed some sort of crime (perhaps Thought Crime?) and find’s himself nicely banged up in jail.

 

This is the part where you get to play around with the physics a little and work out what each key does. I specifically ignored the key commands sheet from the Oblivion manual Take2 provided me so I could see how easy the game would be to pick-up for Morrowind players. It’s a cinch, and the only real changes you’ll have is the “pick-up” or “grab” command used to interact with the physics in the game world and the “block” command used in combat.

 

Playing with the physics is rather limited at this point. Knock the chains around, pick up the ribcage of the poor sod who got caught before you and throw it against the metal bars of your cell, you know, standard stuff. You’ll soon get bored. Don’t get me wrong, it’s fun and all, but it’s stuff you’ll be used to if you’ve played some of the more recent first-person shooters like Half-Life 2.

 

So I stroll up to the metal bars that block my exit to see if there’s a guard around; my character is starving. Instead I get an obnoxious Dark Elf trying to scare me from the opposite cell. Guess they don’t call them Dark Elves for nothing, this guy has a nasty tongue. Just when you think about using the new physics engine to throw a bone at the Dark Elf’s head you hear a clamour from above and guards descend the dark stair well along with Patrick Stewart (he likes to be called Emperor, but my character has a problem with authority, so I’ll just call him Patrick from now on). Turns out Patrick is being hunted and the escape route is cunningly located through the dungeon you’re “staying” in. Is it fate? Patrick thinks it is. Turns out Patrick is quite the philosopher, real deep stuff that you’ll not understand until further on through the story.

 

This will be your first up-close encounter with NPCs and dialogue in Oblivion. Nothing too deep yet, mind. Being observant I followed the lips of the guards and Patrick as they entered my cell talking and ordering me about. Bethesda have been pumping their lip-synching technology a lot recently and it works very well. The characters talk, the lips make the right motion. It’s good! Once Patrick’s Blade companions (The Blades are the secret order of the Imperial military established to be “the eyes and ears of the emperor”, as well as his personal body guards) have stopped moaning and saying they can’t trust me (Jeez, I just got up, give me a break!) I get to have a one-on-one chat with Patrick and ask him a few questions. As said, Patrick is the deep kind (yeah, one of “those”) and the answers you’ll get perhaps aren’t what you were wanting. The most important question: “What did I do to end up in prison?” is answered with a “That’s not important now” response. I guess we’ll never know.

 

The dialogue interface is simple and windowless. In Morrowind an interface window was used for dialogue where you had questions to ask on the right and what the character says on the left. In Oblivion your normal interface is minimised and the available chat options take up the bottom half of the screen. The answers you receive are all vocal, but you can choose to have subtitles on which should make for a better reading experience.

 

Once you’re done talking to Patrick you can follow the Emperor and his body guards through a secret passage opened up during your discussion. Time to get your movement fully sorted. It’s highly recommended you have “all-ways run” on at all times unless attempting a stealth manoeuvre, else you’ll be going at a snail’s pace for the whole game. Running makes you move a lot faster but dramatically affects your fatigue regeneration.

 

 

Health, Magika and Fatigue

Fatigue is measured by a green bar in the game interface and affects how fast you move, how high you jump and the damage you deal during combat. It is reduced when you jump or attack but regenerates fairly quickly, so long as you aren’t running. A number of different attributes affect your fatigue and its regeneration, like the player’s strength. There are potions you can pickup, buy or even make yourself that will restore your fatigue instantly.

 

Above the fatigue bar is the blue Magika bar that measures the amount of Magika you have. Magika, Mana, Spell Points * it’s all the same. This is the measure of how many spells you can cast, with spells of greater power costing more magika, and spells of lower power costing less. One of the biggest changes in game play in Oblivion from Morrowind is that magika now regenerates. I’d warrant a guess that Intelligence/Willpower will affect the regeneration rate, as it does the amount of magika you can have, but the regeneration rate was relatively slow on my non-magic using Wood Elf.

 

The health bar, cliché red, sits above the other two and there are no new changes from Morrowind. Simply put your health is how much damage you can take and this does not regenerate without rest. You’ll need to sleep for a few hours or drink a potion to restore your health. As in Morrowind you can drink health potions while in combat and you’ll find the interface is fairly intuitive and non-intrusive on your experience, residing in the bottom-left of your screen.

 

 

Combat

Turns out some people really don’t like Patrick (perhaps he went too boldly where no man has gone before … groan), he’s being hunted by people known as the “Mythic Dawn”, mysterious hooded characters that seem to exert a dark cloud of smoke before dying. Some evil magic is at work. While following the emperor around you’ll not really need to get involved, the guards can dispatch the Mythic Dawn assailants quite handily. Unfortunately the leader of the Blade body guards wasn’t quite so good and died straight away; very handy considering I’m practically stark naked with nothing but my fists out. Here’s your first chance to loot a corpse in Oblivion. Nothing exciting, and, as per Morrowind you get a handy “Take All” option.

 

Equipping my new armour, sword and shield is relatively easy by entering the inventory screen and clicking the appropriate items. Currently worn items are highlighted in a shade of grey. Now my Wood Elf is starting to look a little more like a fighter and a little less like a tree hugger that got caught doing the wrong thing.

 

With my trusty, rusty iron short sword I test out a few attacks and jabs. Using the direction keys I expect a slash when I press the left arrow and left-mouse button together but it doesn’t, it chops. Interesting and worrying; Bethesda have completely removed the slash/chop/thrust system from the game seemingly making it even more easy to just button-mash your left-mouse button to over-come your opponent. Don’t be disheartened yet though.

 

I come up against my first opponent on my own, a particularly large and vicious rat within one of the cave like tunnels. The little beggar is quite ferocious but easy to dispatch with a few attacks from my sword. Throughout the tunnels are a number of rats and goblins to try your sword and shield on; Bethesda have really setup the initial escape from prison as a tutorial and learning area for people to get to grips with the new combat, magic and stealth systems in the game.

 

I quickly equip my bow and arrows to give them a test run. Unlike in Morrowind equipping arrows places a quiver on your character’s back which should save modders a few tasks. Looks good too, especially with a Mythic Dawn hood on and leather attire, imagine Little Red Riding Hood meets the rangers in The Lord of the Rings.

 

I’ve got plenty of arrows to spare so start testing out the bow and arrow system which links in flawlessly with the physics and dynamics system of the game. Shooting arrows against hard walls will cause them to ricochet off the walls and fall to the ground but shooting arrows against wooden crates will cause them to stick into the object. I then precede to pick-up the arrows from the floor and objects I’ve stuck them to. In combat you’ll find arrows rather amusing with the arrows sticking into your opponents, that is, of course, unless your opponent is a skeleton, in which case finding the arrows you used during your fight can often be quite hard in dark areas! Those players who like to get a few shots off on their bow before closing in with their blade will find it amusing to see enemies charging towards them with arrows stuck in all sorts of peculiar places.

 

As with Morrowind holding down your attack button for longer will cause your arrows to fire further and with more power. If you simply tap the left-mouse button your arrow will literally drop at your feet. When you progress further in your combat abilities you will be able to use “special attacks” depending on your specialisation. Archers are able to zoom-in on targets from a distance as they progress for example (I’m guessing you won’t need a scope and laser dot for that to work). Unfortunately I didn’t get far enough into the game to try out these features but Adrian from Take2 informed me that melee characters are able to do special spinning attacks, for example, that no doubt deal damage to all nearby targets.

 

You can initiate your “stealth mode” by using the ctrl key. This will cause you to move a lot slower but can hide you from the eyes of your enemies depending on your stealth rating. A little eye pops over your cross-hair to help you ascertain whether the enemy is going to spot you or not. Sticking to walls and dark areas will greatly decrease your chances of being spotted. If your enemy hasn’t spotted you then you can attempt a stealth attack with the bow and arrow which will hit for more damage (minimum extra damage I did was 2x damage, maximum was 5x). I think this rating goes up depending on your stealth and combat abilities rather than being random. Needless to say it can really change the tide of a fight in your favour when attacking an enemy stronger than yourself.

 

It’s probably important to note that it does not matter where you hit your opponent in combat. A hit to the leg does just as much damage as a hit to the head. No “boom! Headshot!” here. You can see a rough value of how much health your enemy has remaining above your crosshair. A little curved bar decreases as you hit your target and increases when they use health potions or cast healing spells.

 

Melee characters will be happy with the changes made to the combat system with a real emphasis on strategic fighting and use of the new block feature. While the goblins and rats in the tutorial area aren’t a problem and you can simply run in with your sword held high you’ll find the enemies on the surface to be much more worthy adversaries. Arena fighters will find that the gladiators they take on make extensive use of blocking and attacking a character that is blocking can often be very detrimental. The key commands are pretty simple, with your left-mouse button being used to attack and your right-mouse button being used to block.

 

In my first Arena fight I went in “all guns blazing” with my sword and found that attacking my enemy while they were blocking caused me to stumble backwards leaving me highly vulnerable to attack for a few seconds. Your block skill affects how successfully you block and as your blocking skill increases you’ll be able to parry attacks from your enemies causing them to be thrown backwards. Blocking isn’t just for melee fights, however. When fighting enemies using bows you can charge at them until they fire a shot, block the arrow with your shield and then continue charging. Very useful for running down ranged enemies.

 

If the new blocking system wasn’t enough Bethesda have made a great job of linking melee and ranged combat with magic. During the tutorial you’ll have a couple of spells at your disposal, a fireball type spell called “Flare” and a minor healing spell. You can ready the spell you want to use before or during a fight and use the spell with a different key altogether. With my settings it was the “c” key. Is your enemy being annoying and blocking all the time? That’s alright, throw a ball of fire in his face and see how he likes being set on fire. It looks absolutely great as your sword moves out of the interface and a hand comes into view and hurls a ball of fire. There’s nothing more satisfying that running past the charred remains of your victim. While casting your character is weak and cannot block attacks from enemies so you’ve got to pick and choose your time to use your spells. If you’d like to use your heal spell, for instance, it’s a wise idea to retreat a little since it takes a few seconds to complete.

 

One slightly worrying part of the combat physics is the “slow-mo” ragdoll effect that still seems to be active on killed creatures. For instance hurling a flare at a rat will cause it to fly in the air and then descend abnormally slowly, it’s almost like time slows down and you’re watching the rat die in bullet time. It isn’t realistic. Hopefully this one will be “fixed” (I’m hoping that’s a recognised problem!) before the game is finally released.

 

To conclude and sum up Oblivion’s combat system you’re all in for a much deeper and fulfilling experience than with Morrowind. The enemies are smarter, tougher and more skilled than their Morrowind counter parts (I guess they grow them big and dumb in the north east) and you’ll feel you’ve accomplished more after winning an equal one-on-one fight. Your enemies will use ranged weaponry when appropriate then get a blade out when melee is the only option left. When damaged they’ll drink health potions and cast buff spells, and particularly weak enemies like town folk will try and run away. More on that one later.

 

And there is more...

[toms]

Hmm. Doesn't sound like many improvements there. Sounds like morrowind with better graphics and physics and a slightly revamped combat system.

Can't believe they spent all that effort making a character generation system for a 1st person game!!! When they could have spent the effort on adding a decent theft system.

 

It sounds like they haven't fixed the skills/attributes imbalances either. Or the fact that a fighter with one weapon skill is better than a fighter with skill in several weapon types, or the fact that making a character that ISN'T focused on combat or magic is pointless as there is nothing else to do, no big benefits to a stealthy, or charismatic character.

 

I'll go back to morrrowind in a few days, but first i need to find a load of mods to flesh out the experience and give it a bit of variation and depth.

[TiE23]

Hmm. Doesn't sound like many improvements there. Sounds like morrowind with better graphics and physics and a slightly revamped combat system.

Well, you probably know how bad the combat system was, what do you expect? Name any games that had better ones. I can tell you it's better than JO's system of just *swing swing swing*

 

Can't believe they spent all that effort making a character generation system for a 1st person game!!! When they could have spent the effort on adding a decent theft system.

They needed it to make sure that every one of the 1000+ characters would look different.

 

It sounds like they haven't fixed the skills/attributes imbalances either.

Well, you're now likely to not become some unbalanced god who can kill the game's boss in one hit and kill a town without breaking a sweat.

 

Or the fact that a fighter with one weapon skill is better than a fighter with skill in several weapon types, or the fact that making a character that ISN'T focused on combat or magic is pointless as there is nothing else to do, no big benefits to a stealthy, or charismatic character.

Well, would you give a pirate a battle axe, or a saber? Pick a weapon you like and become profecient at it, trying every weapon is just asking for trouble in fights.

About the stealth: How about of instead of attacking in the middle of the day, you sneak through the streets, pull out your bow, fire off a shot into the guard's back and then run away? Then chuck a few more shots off and if possible sneak up behind him and stab him in the back for a 5x damage bonus.

 

Charisma and merchantile are more important now because there more used in this game.

[BongoBob]

Ugh, damn this school and programming and social life, I am filled with the urge to go back and complete morrowind and it's expansions, DAMN YOU SCHOOL!

[LightNinja]

and i seem to remember a lot of people whining about not knowing what to do in Morrowind on forums all over the internet.

thats my problem, i think that its because its in english and there are things that i didn't understand and i got bored too quick of stealing everything, but i've seen in some magazines here that it'll may be in spanish, if so ill buy it.

Also i don't like that guards will have x-ray vision for the things you've stolen, if they do that stealing is useless

[toms]

I think the world they have created is great, and the faction system and so forth is cool too... but they just haven't added enough depth to most elements (and it sounds like they haven't improved it much for Oblivion much except combat. )

 

Voice acting and more characters will hopefully add some much needed character to the experience... and lighting affecting stealth will make it a bit more interesting... though the return of psychic guards might remove all the fun from that.

 

Personally i though one of the best improvements over DF was the blocking skill/animation. But as i say i've only played MW a bit so maybe it gets old. IMHO they should have implemented a KOTOR style combat system... where misses and blocks are factored into the animation.. so it looks like a real fight and not two detached people swinging at each other.

 

Charisma and other atributes need to give KOTOR style advantages as well. In KOTOR (not that i don't think that game had major balance flaws as well) having a high charisma gave you new options, new conversation trees, and the ability to do different things. In MW it just seems to boost your chance of success at doing the same things.

 

Stealth/sneaking in MW just doesn't seem to have any depth at all. No real advantages, no real fun.

They need to make pickpocketing, lockpicking, climbing, critical striking, strikig to stun and other things more useful and more interesting. As it is you can either spend ages boosting you thief skills, or just buy some magic spells and skip the hassle.

 

I also always thought they should have had a local GTA style "wanted" rating that was temporary, but has a small effect on global permanent reputations. So going on a mini crime spree and escaping would have very little long term effect, but being spotted and fighting sould have a much bigger one.

 

Well, would you give a pirate a battle axe, or a saber? Pick a weapon you like and become profecient at it, trying every weapon is just asking for trouble in fights.

But if you look at a lot of the premade classes, the combat oriented ones have several weapon and armour skills.. but this becomes pointless as a magic class with a single weapon and armour skill will quickly end up better in combat, as well as having loads of other skills.

 

They need to convert the skills into some form of tree, with specialisations. So using any weapon in combat will actually increase all your weapon skills a bit. Same with some of the other skills groups.

The basic skills/leveling system is still broke because they haven't changed the basics since TES:Arena. They just keep patching up the syptoms, rather than fixing things at the source.

 

Sounds like they might be adding Fallout (now that is the Bethsoft game i'm REALLY excited about) style tweaks.. which would be a good addition and add a bit of variation.

 

I'm sure oblivion will be a great world - i just hope i'll have lots of interesting and varied things to do there!

[Pie™]

They should implement a Thief 3 style sneaking/lockpicking system...

[swphreak]

Don't knock Fight Night 3 now, I've played the demo, and it's pretty swanky. I wish I could try Oblivian to see what all the fuss is about.

[MrWally]

They should implement a Thief 3 style sneaking/lockpicking system...

 

 

That would be fricken awesome! From what the article says it seems as if everything in oblivion has been improved from morrowind (in my point of view) except for the stealth system. While not being able to kill anyone who's alone in a room is more realistic, guards automatically being able to sense stolen items is definately not, and I think it takes a lot away from the game. Does anyone know if stealth actually affects if the guards see you with their "x-ray vision"?

 

Another idea that I think would be good is for your character to be able to bluff his way out of being taken by the guards, and depending on how high your "bluff" skill is (or even just use speechcraft, or something) you may be able to get away home free.

 

Finally, my only other real complaint is that there still isn't a realistic damage system. Apparantly smashing someone on the head with a battle axe does the same amount of damage as swinging at their foot? I desperately hope a path or mod fixes this shortly after the games release.

 

Other than that, I, for one, think Oblivion looks just as good as I hoped it would be

[toms]

Finally, my only other real complaint is that there still isn't a realistic damage system. Apparantly smashing someone on the head with a battle axe does the same amount of damage as swinging at their foot?

 

Well, i think either would pretty much take you out of the fight in one blow... in a realistic damage system... which is why a better system would be if they simulated "no damage" with blocks or dodges... which would also make the combat more interesting.

 

As for crime/stealth... some form of minigames would at least add variation to the experience.

 

Pickpocketing has always been tricky to balance... get too much stuff too easily and its a path to unlimited money... make it too hard and its a waste of time for a few coppers. Thats why i reckon some form of minigame would make it more rewarding... you'd feel that you were more responsible for your success/failure.. and the better you did the more you'd get.

(time to complete based on skill level, difficulty based on target, lighting conditions, etc..)

 

Its also why i think a temporary wanted level would be a good idea. After any minor or unseen crime you might get a wanted level of a few stars, but it wouldn't automatically notify the guards. These stars would gradually decrease, but if you were spotted by anyone in the meantime then they would raise the alarm.

(eg:

pick a pocket/lock - get 1 star and have to stay unseen for 1 minute until it disappears.

kill someone in a room - get 3 stars and have to stay unseen for 5 minutes until they drop off. )

Then if you were spotted and tried to fight, each extra crime would add stars, like in GTA and the guards would call for stronger backup. And if you committed a serious crime, or a lot of smaller crimes then you'd get a much stronger response if caught.

This would have to reflect a tiny bit in your global reputations, more if caught or spotted.

Either way, so sort of system like this would add a lot more fun and flexibility to illegal options.. allowing players to experiment without major permanent consequences.

[MrWally]

That really doesn't sound like a bad idea. Except that it's really similar to GTA (the stars idea, i mean) which might not be so bad, considering how well GTA does it. And for a "lock picking" minigame that sounds very similar to picking locks in theif 3 were you have to allign the locks using your thief's master tools. Imagine something like that in oblivion but say... if you took to long to unlock a lock (with harder level locks taking longer, obviously) then your total number of uses left until the pick breaks would go down, similar to morrowind.

 

I understand what your saying about realistic damage, but looking at other games that include damage based on which body part is struck usually end up working pretty well, and since you CAN block in oblivion I think they could have done it fairly easily. On a lighter note morrowind has seperate models and such for each body part, so it could be fairly easy to create a mod doing this.

 

The thought of modding has brought me upon the subject of the construction set. Has anyone found any articles or reviews pertaining to this aspect of the game? A long while back Game Informer released a preview saying it would be even simpler (big plus for modding noobs) and include several interesting features such as randomly generated NPCs and terrain, such as forests or swamps. If this is still true imagine how utterly easy it would be to instantly create a whole city or island, etc. The thought makes me want to play Oblivion even more.

 

I think I'm gonna join Ethan on his mission to raid Bethseda.

 

(it's a ctrl-alt-del reference, guys )

[BongoBob]

I think we should make a smiliar mission to raid 20th Century Fox and steal a copy of Xmen 3 : |

[ChAiNz.2da]

And for a "lock picking" minigame that sounds very similar to picking locks in theif 3 were you have to allign the locks using your thief's master tools. Imagine something like that in oblivion but say... if you took to long to unlock a lock (with harder level locks taking longer, obviously) then your total number of uses left until the pick breaks would go down, similar to morrowind.

Well then here might be some good news for everyone

Lockpicking does feature a minigame of sorts, designed by Emil Pagliarulo, an ex-Thief designer. You are presented with a cross-section of the lock you are trying to pick. The game involves moving your pick back and forth across the tumblers and trying to hit them at the proper times. The difficulty is based on your Security skill and the lock's level. It's something we've played and revised a lot to make sure its both fun and appropriate.

^^^

http://www.gamingtrend.com/Articles/articles.php?artID=67&pg=1

 

You will also find locked boxes which let you use the new lock pick mini game. Basically, you get a side view of the lock with 5 teeth. The difficulty of the lock determines how many teeth need to be picked, so for an easy one you might only have to pick one and for hard all five. The way it works is this. You use the mouse to lift the pick and push the teeth up. When the teeth are touching the top, you click the mouse button, to lock it in place. If you don’t click the teeth start to slowly drop and you have to lift again. Your skill level and the difficulty of the lock determine both how quickly they drop and how long they stay up. There is also an option to do an automatic attempt, which is pretty much the same as Morrowind. If you fail an attempt, you break the pick and lose it. It is possible to pick a lock way above your skill level, even on automatic, but it is VERY hard.

^^^

http://www.gamingtrend.com/Articles/articles.php?artID=130&pg=3

[MrWally]

YES!

[TiE23]

Sounds pretty good to me. This is going to be a **** load of fun on a 7800GS

http://www.mwave.com/mwave/viewspec.hmx?scriteria=AA42330