So finally got around to installing Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion last night. Before the install, I decided to clean up my system by removing old games that I do not use and running a scandisk check along with defragment of the system. Only took about 30 minutes before I was ready to go and then updated to the new nVidia beta drivers and was ready for the install. When I opened the box I immediately freaked out because I didn't see the disc right away. I thought "Oh great, now I have to take it back and then am going to look like I stole it". But luckily, I found the disc, which didn't have a jewel case and thought "What in the world? This whole game fits on a CD?" then I looked closer and found it was actually a DVD. Ok, cool. So I put the disc in the drive and started the install. The install went totally smooth and took about 5 minutes or so. Once it completed I opened the software and it ran the auto detect on my system. It auto set my graphics to "Ultra Settings". I simply changed the resolution to 1280 X 768 (widescreen) and enabled 4X AA with "Bloom" effects enabled. Launched the game and immediately went into the options screen. I went through all the graphics settings and disabled some of the shadows and increased the draw distance to their maximum levels. Ok, then I went through the keyboard options and bound my keys and increased the mouse sensitiviely from about 1/10th to 1/4th down the slider bar. Ok, all set to play the game.
Started a new game and was set for the character creation. In my opinion, the creation creation needed some work. But, since I don't spend time looking at my character, I didn't mess around with it much. However, the "randomize" button just seemed to do very minor changes to the face. So it always looked like the same person within a specific race. So, that was sort of a dissapointment. I ended up picking the Nord race, because I am a hardy viking myself, being in the Minnesota deep freeze every year. Clearly the Nord race is a spin-off of Norse race, especially since they are resistant to cold. Another feature I was not happy with was the texturing of the face itself. There were two sliders for age and complexion. Both of them had points at which the textures really looked horrible. It seems to me that the facial textures at some points are really lacking. But, it isn't bad enough to the point where I would really slam the game for it. It is a minor dissapointment.
Warning ** spoiler ** Warning
Intro to the game
After that I started the game in my cell. At this point I actually get the see the game in action. I fool around with the controls, get used to way things are working. Picked up objects, threw them around and so on. The physics of some of the objects were very well and very impressive. Eventually I walked up to the bars where I was locked up and someone from the cell across from me was taunting me and telling me that the guards were coming for me and will execute me! Actually, it was convincing. In games, I rarely get involved with what an NPC says, because it is never convincing... But this was! So, the guards come and tell me to move back against the window and stay there or they will kill me. I move back, they open the gate and come on in. You get to hear more of the story here as you interact with the starting main character of the story. It is very convincing... I don't want to give anymore than I should away, so I will just say that you then move into a dungeon area and become aquainted with some vermin and orcs for the most part. You find a lot of weapons and other useful items... Very cool, very impressed with the game. It was as if I was really there! I was really getting into this game! The physics are the monsters is just wow! Then, the graphics and models alone on all the characters, monsters and vermin were just great. The lock picking is so cool! Much to difficult to describe, but just trust me on that one. Finally after about 90 minutes of taking my time, exploring and going through and enjoying the game for all it is worth, I come upon the start of the main quest (the point of the game, I suppose). After I was instructed on what to do, I decided to save the game and call it a night.. Only because my wife was yelling at me. Since she let me buy the game in the first place, I decided I should listen to her and turn it off. Of course the whole night I was trying to sleep like a little kid the night before Christmas... I was tempted to set the alarm get up early and play it even!
Combat
I had read in another post here on these forums that someone said there were no special fightings moves and it was essentially "block, swing, block, block, swing, swing" type game. Though that is true to a certain extent, there are a few special moves. For instance, if you hold the forward key while attacking, you will make a lunge forward with a huge swing of your weapon. If you gold the back key, your swing from a different angle and if you don't hold any key, it is a basic attack. Using the forward lunge attack uses quite a bit of your endurance. If you just use a 1H weapon without a shield or a 2H weapon, your block move turns to a parry instead of a block. When you parry, your sword is basically moved to the fighting position that you would use to parry a blow. The blocking and parrying in this game is very convincing and feels authentic, as if you were there. Overall I think the combat is absolutely great and I am sure there are many more things I will learn about it.
NPCs
The NPCs are very convincing... It feels like you are talking to an actual person, at least, as much as possible. Facial expressions are done very well, voiceovers seem to be synced properly with the lips thus far. I believe Patrick Stewart did the voiceover for the Emperor, which was done very well. People move about convincingly... No awkward walking or anything like that, at least none that I noticed.
Inventory
Inventory can be accessed through the TAB key by default, or by doing F1 and then selecting the bag. It is done very well. Instead of looking at everything in your bag, there are certain things you can look for, such as armor and weapons only, or other options and so on like that. Inventory is done very well in the game. Just like most games of this type, you have a maximum amount before you are encumbered. It is easy to see the weight of the items in your back, and the value of them. So you can ditch the heavy worthless items to make room for the more valueable lighter items. Once you are encumbered, you cannot move at all.
Graphics
The graphics were great, what can I say? I didn't have one complaint really, except that possibly the textures, when up close are rather low resolution. But for the most part, you are not going to be staring at wall 2" from your face. So, I really don't see this as a problem personally. The lighting, without HDR looks great. On a personal note, I am not a big fan of HDR in the first place, it just doesn't seem to do it for me. I was using the newest beta release of the nVidia drivers.
Performance
The game did not experience any slow-downs for me. Mind you, that I havn't been into the vast outdoors as of yet. There is no doubt that the framerate will drop once I am outside. But so far, in the indoor environments of the game are purring along at 60 FPS solid, vsync enabled, of course. I am running at 1280 X 768 (widescreen) with 4X AA without AF enabled. I didn't have a chance to enable it, as I was too busy enjoying the game as it was. Using an AMD Athlon 64 3500+ @ 2.53 Ghz and a Geforce 7800 GTX with default clock speeds.
The load times on my system were absolutely perfect. When loading from one area to the next, it took litterally less than 2 seconds each time. The loading is very fast, at least from what I have experienced so far. I am running a 74 GB Raptor drive with 2 GB of ram.
Final Note
I still have more to play and only just scratched the surface here. But from what I have played so far, I can tell you without a doubt that this purchase was one of the best I have made in a very long time, regarding video games, that is.
Started a new game and was set for the character creation. In my opinion, the creation creation needed some work. But, since I don't spend time looking at my character, I didn't mess around with it much. However, the "randomize" button just seemed to do very minor changes to the face. So it always looked like the same person within a specific race. So, that was sort of a dissapointment. I ended up picking the Nord race, because I am a hardy viking myself, being in the Minnesota deep freeze every year. Clearly the Nord race is a spin-off of Norse race, especially since they are resistant to cold. Another feature I was not happy with was the texturing of the face itself. There were two sliders for age and complexion. Both of them had points at which the textures really looked horrible. It seems to me that the facial textures at some points are really lacking. But, it isn't bad enough to the point where I would really slam the game for it. It is a minor dissapointment.
Warning ** spoiler ** Warning
Intro to the game
After that I started the game in my cell. At this point I actually get the see the game in action. I fool around with the controls, get used to way things are working. Picked up objects, threw them around and so on. The physics of some of the objects were very well and very impressive. Eventually I walked up to the bars where I was locked up and someone from the cell across from me was taunting me and telling me that the guards were coming for me and will execute me! Actually, it was convincing. In games, I rarely get involved with what an NPC says, because it is never convincing... But this was! So, the guards come and tell me to move back against the window and stay there or they will kill me. I move back, they open the gate and come on in. You get to hear more of the story here as you interact with the starting main character of the story. It is very convincing... I don't want to give anymore than I should away, so I will just say that you then move into a dungeon area and become aquainted with some vermin and orcs for the most part. You find a lot of weapons and other useful items... Very cool, very impressed with the game. It was as if I was really there! I was really getting into this game! The physics are the monsters is just wow! Then, the graphics and models alone on all the characters, monsters and vermin were just great. The lock picking is so cool! Much to difficult to describe, but just trust me on that one. Finally after about 90 minutes of taking my time, exploring and going through and enjoying the game for all it is worth, I come upon the start of the main quest (the point of the game, I suppose). After I was instructed on what to do, I decided to save the game and call it a night.. Only because my wife was yelling at me. Since she let me buy the game in the first place, I decided I should listen to her and turn it off. Of course the whole night I was trying to sleep like a little kid the night before Christmas... I was tempted to set the alarm get up early and play it even!
Combat
I had read in another post here on these forums that someone said there were no special fightings moves and it was essentially "block, swing, block, block, swing, swing" type game. Though that is true to a certain extent, there are a few special moves. For instance, if you hold the forward key while attacking, you will make a lunge forward with a huge swing of your weapon. If you gold the back key, your swing from a different angle and if you don't hold any key, it is a basic attack. Using the forward lunge attack uses quite a bit of your endurance. If you just use a 1H weapon without a shield or a 2H weapon, your block move turns to a parry instead of a block. When you parry, your sword is basically moved to the fighting position that you would use to parry a blow. The blocking and parrying in this game is very convincing and feels authentic, as if you were there. Overall I think the combat is absolutely great and I am sure there are many more things I will learn about it.
NPCs
The NPCs are very convincing... It feels like you are talking to an actual person, at least, as much as possible. Facial expressions are done very well, voiceovers seem to be synced properly with the lips thus far. I believe Patrick Stewart did the voiceover for the Emperor, which was done very well. People move about convincingly... No awkward walking or anything like that, at least none that I noticed.
Inventory
Inventory can be accessed through the TAB key by default, or by doing F1 and then selecting the bag. It is done very well. Instead of looking at everything in your bag, there are certain things you can look for, such as armor and weapons only, or other options and so on like that. Inventory is done very well in the game. Just like most games of this type, you have a maximum amount before you are encumbered. It is easy to see the weight of the items in your back, and the value of them. So you can ditch the heavy worthless items to make room for the more valueable lighter items. Once you are encumbered, you cannot move at all.
Graphics
The graphics were great, what can I say? I didn't have one complaint really, except that possibly the textures, when up close are rather low resolution. But for the most part, you are not going to be staring at wall 2" from your face. So, I really don't see this as a problem personally. The lighting, without HDR looks great. On a personal note, I am not a big fan of HDR in the first place, it just doesn't seem to do it for me. I was using the newest beta release of the nVidia drivers.
Performance
The game did not experience any slow-downs for me. Mind you, that I havn't been into the vast outdoors as of yet. There is no doubt that the framerate will drop once I am outside. But so far, in the indoor environments of the game are purring along at 60 FPS solid, vsync enabled, of course. I am running at 1280 X 768 (widescreen) with 4X AA without AF enabled. I didn't have a chance to enable it, as I was too busy enjoying the game as it was. Using an AMD Athlon 64 3500+ @ 2.53 Ghz and a Geforce 7800 GTX with default clock speeds.
The load times on my system were absolutely perfect. When loading from one area to the next, it took litterally less than 2 seconds each time. The loading is very fast, at least from what I have experienced so far. I am running a 74 GB Raptor drive with 2 GB of ram.
Final Note
I still have more to play and only just scratched the surface here. But from what I have played so far, I can tell you without a doubt that this purchase was one of the best I have made in a very long time, regarding video games, that is.
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