The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

luckily (or not) it's no my pic, saw it another forum

lol.....get your mind out of the gutter jmke

combine http://www.oblivionsource.com/?page=...project_id=191 with too much time on hands and get http://img103.imageshack.us/my.php?i...nshot236pq.jpg

those are at max detail; textures does do a lot, and shadows even more, especially when you enable filtering, that will kill performance
I prefer 1024x768 with more eye-candy compared to 1280x1024 with less

it seems for Oblivion you're best of with X1800XT price/performance wise

i'm talking 60-ish fps without stuttering or heavy drops (which i find pretty damn good for an old rig in an eyecandy game), not some craptic 20fps like in the test (and certainly not 8fps).

i dont really have an explanation. i suppose shadows & texture size have something to do with it.

your definition of "damn smooth" might have to be looked at

runs very reasonable imo. (keep in mind this is a non-HT 533fsb P4, 1gb mem, 6800GT. all on stock atm)

res: 1280x1024
texture size: med
fade: all on highest
distances: all on highest
all on/off options: on
all shadows: off (dont like em much anyway)
water: all on highest
water: all on
reflection: all on
details: highest
AA: off

runs like this, damn smooth, high fps, without any tweaks in the gamefiles or whatever.

too bad i dont like the game much ^^

that clears sounds all very reasonable to me, the Oblivion does do away with the classic "roll of dice" instead replacing it with a more active way of fighting, which does not please everybody of course.


at what detail settings can you run Oblivion on P4 and 6800GT?

misconceptions on RPG games:

- stats & leveling make it an RPG: no, it doesn't. each RPG has those of course, but having them doesn't make an RPG.

- i play a role, so it's an RPG: no, it doesn't. each and every game out there lets you play a role, doesn't it? that doesn't make every game out there an RPG.

of course, the above is part of the equation. however an RPG has the following:

- dice: your skills & actions fail or succeed based on 'rolls'. no 'twitchgaming', the computer computes your chance to hit/succeed/whatever. player skill only comes in planning & managing, no aiming in the conventional sense, not clicking faster than light. using the player character skill the game computes everything (fighting skills, persuation, first aid, science,... everything).

- free choice: you have free choice of how you want to complete your goals. this often depends on the role you decide to play: fighter, smooth talker/negociater, stealth assassin/thief,... most quests should be solvable in at least 3 ways. you are also free to go where you please, interact with who you want,...

- player impact on the world: your actions should be reflected in the world around you (often simple good or bad / right or wrong decisions). the world around you evolves & you shape it by your choices, which means you have a lasting influence on the world. (impact in oblivion is restricted to "lol you're a hero!" and "omigawd, you're ev0l!". options of completing quests are "do em" and "dont".)

- interaction: when talking to NPC's you should have sufficient options. this also means that what you say has a lasting influence on the NPC. this is often done by creating dialog trees. (Oblivion has none, it's a nearly straight line not a tree that branches. 90% of the NPC have had their voice done by 2 people: 1 male 1 female, on top of that all have nearly exactly the same dialog. they'd have been better off without voice, but with just a few more alternative conversational options)

it's of course deeper & more complicated than this, but i dont have time to type more than this (at work). if you want a taste of what a true cRPG is, check out Fallout 1 & 2, Planescape: Torment or Arcanum. Hell, even Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines was ten times more an RPG than Morrowind & Oblivion will ever be...

it is safe to say both games contain RPG elements, but thats not enough to qualify. sadly, good cRPGs are extremely hard to find, which is also the reason why many people (such as myself) get pissed off when the media (and marketing whores) once again mislabels games. most truely memorable RPG games are 7 to 12 years old now.

I'm a noob, what makes a game into a RPG ?

do a check here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_role-playing_game

where does Oblivion not fit the description?

euhm, you should say "IMO I wouldn't let the opionions of others stop anyone from trying this game if they dig action and hack&slash games", not RPG.

i understand a lot of people get spoonfed wrong info by the media, but a stats system, a class system and leveling doesnt make an RPG.

if someone starts playing this game, in the expectation of playing a true RPG, he'll be disappointed. if he wants to play action/adventure meets hack&slash, he'll be moderately happy.

sadly, this game was marketed as the best RPG ever!!!!one!1

Unlike some people I was just hoping for better then Morrowind 3. I thought it was a great game, apparently so do alot of other peopleif you check most reviews. Eh to each his own, IMO I wouldn't let the opionions of others stop anyone from trying this game if they dig RPGs.

or when you retire in a few years...

I would play this kind of game, if I had one year off...

well; I can really add much valuable comments here; not really my kind of game.

in Morrowind I ended up killing every NPC I came across, in all cities... then I got bored

"The quests are better than ever, the story is well thought out, the incredible graphics speak for themselves, and the game is more compelling than ever. Negatives? Well, I'll tell you one thing, it aint going to help your social life any."
thats kinda fanboyish imo, jmke

the game is full of gamestopping bugs on a CONSOLE for ****s sake. it's not an entire disaster for PC's since they can patch, but you'll have a lot of pissed off console jockeys.

the Ars article is not fanboyish at all imho. quite honest actually

meh, dont be so fanboyish

first (random) impressions:

- dialog: wtf? does it REALLY matter what i say? i mean you could have dialog loops in FO, but in this game it hardly looks necessary to choose what you say, you end up at the same place anyway... (might not be true, but thats how it feels the first hour or so)

- loading times: people whine about this, but for me it loads so fast that i cant read the info on the loading screen ffs.. (as for 'outdoor' loading does not make me freeze or anything, i can just keep on running)

- skill increase: lollerball, hop around like a bunny -> skillup in acrobatcrap. fight a mob without hitting it & simply use block every time he tries to hit -> blocking leveling for the win. this is kinda true for all skills...

- faces: omfg... i take you all played Arcanum? well, all these mofos have been hit with the ugly stick for sure...

- interface: pure console port crap... didnt even bother to remap stuff for PC. very sad. it's 'mostly' logical, so it's not as bad as announced by the big critics, but i can see me getting irritated by it if i play it for a prolongued period of time. no description, so you have to try out everything to find out what exactly the spell does. (how am i supposed to know 'shock' requires to be in HtH range, unlike 'flare')

- inventory: no doll to pull things on diablo style, just a render of your char. click an item & it's equiped. however with armor it looks easy to forget to equip a small item. really isnt use friendly. the inventory is restricted by weight only, not size. this is fine, except you go from normal to immobilized for 1 pound of extra gear... cant move an inch.

- i'm also finding immersion nill in this game... cant take revenge on the other prisoner, everyone in the world knowing the emperor died when you just left the ****ing sewer (ok, the dagon lights or whatever go out, so the city knows, but how the **** does every peasant & hillbilly know?), the captain of the guard giving away his armor while his town is crawling with baddies (yeah, he's grateful, but still, sjeez), imperial guardsmen patrols SMELL that you are carrying stolen goods & take you to jail unless you can pay the fine... your actions are just so limited...

- ow yeah, the faces, did i mention this before? ofc it did! ... GOD! THE FACES... i dont care that much that they're ugly, or that their lips arent synched, BUT FOR ****S SAKE, DONT MAKE THE FACE SMILE BLISSFULLY (as if he just had a blowjob) WHEN HE'S PISSED OFF (at you & threathening to roast your nuts over the campfire) & DONT MAKE THE GUY LOOK SAD AS **** WHEN YOU JUST SAVED HIS PUPPY, HIS WIFE, HIS GRANDMA & HIS ****ING ASSDILDO FROM A BUNCH OF KIDNAPPERS...

- ragdoll: now, i like corpses falling in a 'lifelike' fashion instead of having them float in mid-air. however, when killing a mob on a slope full with vegatation i dont like to see it glide off until the bottom of the goddamn mountain. if it would tumble off, ok, i could live with it, even if the grass shouldve stopped him, but just slide off? bleh. there goes my loot!

i suppose this all isnt too bad if you dont have high expectations, however with a game hyped this hard, how cant you have high expectations...