The Game of the Gods has descended upon us!!!!

[Imran Siddiqui]

I junked the preorder. I figure it'll come a few days after release... or later. Much easier to go down the EBGames and buy it on the 21st (I figure shipped on the 20th, will be there next day).

[Solver]

I would though think that anyone who didn't like Morrowind is probably not going to like Oblivion. Oblivion is definitely an evolution of the concept, but not a dramatic change. It's still an open-ended RPG that is ultimately about doing whatever you want to.

[Solver]

Given fan input, Bethesda decided that they're not going to use Starforce for Oblivion.

[Skanky Burns]

Originally posted by Solver
I would though think that anyone who didn't like Morrowind is probably not going to like Oblivion.

QFT

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Originally posted by Solver
I would though think that anyone who didn't like Morrowind is probably not going to like Oblivion. Oblivion is definitely an evolution of the concept, but not a dramatic change. It's still an open-ended RPG that is ultimately about doing whatever you want to.

Well, I didn't like Morrowind, but that had nothing to do with the game concept. What I hated was how incredibly tedious and intellectually uninvolving (and interchangeable) every quest was, and how boring and humorless (and interchangeable) the NPCs were. You wouldn't have to change the game concept to fix those things. Did they?

[Dis]

It might be tough to make the quests more involved, and yet keep such a large game world.

It took me 3 attempts to finally get into Morrowind. My first 2 attempts I played for a little while but grew bored of it. I just didn't like the game much. But my 3rd attempt I finally grew into the game.

I'd say the most fun I had in this game is just travelling through the game world. It's so large, you almost feel like you are in a real world. It's fun finding ships crashed into land and exploring. Even if you don't find anything much of value.

but yeah I'd like the quests- esp the main quest to be more involved. And have some of the major NPC's be more lifelike and more detailed.

[Solver]

Well, quests and NPCs are supposedly two big areas that have been improved in Oblivion. Yes, Morrowind quests had a few big problems. The worst thing was that by far the most were either:

1) Go to place X and kill or persuade Y
2) Go to place Q and bring me item Z

More involved quests are possible, though, and in fact, there were such in Morrowind, only far fewer. Examples are investigation (Morrowind had a murder investigation in Balmora), quests with mutliple possible outcomes/paths (like the Bloodmoon main quest), etc.

While Oblivion apparently does have a few simple quests, it would seem that most, especially those in the guilds, are far more involved - you have a choice of several options, there can be different outcomes, and the quests themselves are supposed to usually be more detailed than just killing a NPC or opening dialogue with it.

[DrSpike]

I've read a bit more on this game and it still sounds boring.

[Qilue]

Originally posted by DrSpike
I've read a bit more on this game and it still sounds boring.

Now I haven't read a thing about the game, yet I am goin g to buy it.

Why?

Daggerfall - 3000+ hours
Morrowind - 2000+ hours

Bethesda makes the kind of crpg I like to play.

[Solver]

Yeah, Elder Scrolls games can surely provide MANY hours of entertainment. Which is great. I am, most of the time, left disappointed if a game can't provide me with 50 hours.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Indeed... I love the exploration of the game world, and going from one area to another and seeing the differences in architecture and land. Just a fun and immersive experience. With the dialogue being upgraded, I'm sure it'll be even more immersive .

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Originally posted by Solver
Well, quests and NPCs are supposedly two big areas that have been improved in Oblivion. Yes, Morrowind quests had a few big problems. The worst thing was that by far the most were either:

1) Go to place X and kill or persuade Y
2) Go to place Q and bring me item Z

Exactly. That became so tedious after a while. The character I finished the game with ultimately joined only one guild and no great houses or any other groups, just because I couldn't bear the to-do list nature of the quests.

While Oblivion apparently does have a few simple quests, it would seem that most, especially those in the guilds, are far more involved - you have a choice of several options, there can be different outcomes, and the quests themselves are supposed to usually be more detailed than just killing a NPC or opening dialogue with it.

Well, that's good to hear. They'd also do well to create quests that actually required some thinking or decision making (as the murder investigation did, a wee bit). And it woudl be nice if either the quests got harder, or levelling wasn't quite so overpowering; even joining only one guild and not powergaming at all, I was pretty much a God about halfway through the main quest.

But the big thing they need to do is learn from Baldur's Gate or Fallout -- and add humor and surprise. Morrowind was the most humorless, least surprising RPG I've ever seen, and that contributed greatly to my sense of tedium with the play (admittedly, they fixed this somewhat in the Tribunal expansion). The endless world was great, but in the end Morrowind was actually less amusing, surprising, interesting or diverse than my actual life -- which is not what I want from an RPG.

[Nostromo]

Yes, it feels like a huge clockwork world, filled with soulless automatons. But it seems they tried to inject some personality in Oblivion.

[snoopy369]

Perhaps they could hire Bioware to help make the next game

[Nacht]

Originally posted by Rufus T. Firefly
The endless world was great, but in the end Morrowind was actually less amusing, surprising, interesting or diverse than my actual life -- which is not what I want from an RPG.

Do you really expect a computer game to be more diverse than your real life