Thursday 2 December 2010

Super Oblivion 64


Still catching up!

From Kotaku, then:


On the one hand, well, it's about goddamn time already, isn't it? Thank the Lord. Much as I've enjoyed the wastes of Fallout 3 and New Vegas - and I have, albeit to varying extents - I'd been wondering when word would finally get out about the next Elder Scrolls, and though this isn't it, not in any sort of official capacity, I think we can safely take the leak as confirmation of a sort that yes, would you believe it, there's another Elder Scrolls in the works.

Good stuff!

On the other hand, a direct sequel to Oblivion? Oh.


Well, that sucks a bit. For me most of all, probably. Twice I've played through Oblivion, would you believe it: the first time on the PC, where I got perhaps 50 hours in, then again on the Xbox 360, with which version I spent in excess of 100 hours before my save files somehow became corrupted. And on neither occasion did I manage to finish the story quests; being prone to distraction in a game positively founded on the prospect of hiding missions in every nook and cranny turned out to be something of a nightmare for me.

A nightmare I very much enjoyed, I'll say - and both times - but given what Oblivion's put me through, I don't know that I have the will to go back to it, the better to be ready for The Elder Scrolls V.

Still. Sign me up, thank you very much. I've kind of lost heart in the Japanese RPGs I grew up in adoration of... they just didn't grow up with me, you know? Western-developed equivalents, on the other hand - Mass Effect, all that - tend to have enough maturity about them to hook me into the open worlds and familiar old levelling mechanics I used to love.

So I say again: good stuff! :)

2 comments:

  1. I've never been an RPG fan, but I've taken to playing Fallout 3 of late. All of the talk about New Vegas stirred me from my video game slumber, and I have to say the vastness of the thing is daunting. What gets me is my curiosity. I am so prone to distraction that I cannot complete anything. To make matters worse I have no problem shooting someone in the face if they smart off to me or taunt me (all by design, I'm sure). By this time, if I haven't saved before, I wind up dead because people in the game don't like to be shot at for no reason. Funny thing, that.

    Oblivion just irritated me. I played it some with my son, and just found it unsatisfactory. No one's managed to make swinging a sword "in game" as much fun as I want it to be.

    Kristopher A. Denby
    The Sound and Fury of Kristopher A. Denby

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  2. I loved Daggerfall - Elder Scrolls II - to bits, played it for thousands of hours over an 8-year period. At the time, it was revolutionary.

    Morrowind I just couldn't get into; the combat seemed horribly clunky. Still, I appreciated the lush visuals and fascinating world with its varied geography.

    Oblivion didn't really work for me. It was good fun, but I found it to be totally lacking in depth. The story was awfully cliched, and the setting was just stereotypical fantasyland (hills, woods, goblins, ogres, etc). That, and the voice acting - and scripting - was utterly horrendous.

    So personally I'm disappointed the next game is a direct sequel. Still, Oblivion sold very well so I guess they don't want to screw with the formula.

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