f13.net

They are still in the promise the world phase but I can't help but get excited every time I see some new info on this game.

Game Banshee Interview (http://gamebanshee.com/interviews/oblivion1.php)

I STILL have Morrowind on my hard drive and even fired it up a few days ago (though only for a few minutes to check out a mod).  If Oblivion can live up to its promise and is as modable as Morrowind I am sure it too will spend years on my harddrive.

If the game offers me a large world like Morrowind did but without the need to jump a million times to increase my strength, and added likable characters and a story I actually give a rats ass about this game could be really really good.

The screenshots are pretty though.

Edit: While not vital, here's hoping it won't crash every 15 minutes either.

Here's hoping they adequettely tweak it this time.    Morrowind was missing a complete rebalance or three to really be all that enjoyable.   Good thing they included the world building kit.

Morrowind sat on my hard drive for years until last week. Intensely boring, empty, and depressing would describe that game for me.  As open ended as Grand Theft Auto with the vast emptyness of space.

Bo-ring.

Somehow, I'm excited about Oblivion. I don't understand it myself.

(http://www.ccisd.net/schools/schoolwebs/101/spell.jpg)

adequately.  I imagine if I type that about 50 times my fingers will remember that well enough.   Ah well, at least I didn't flub an easy word.    My spelling is, if nothing else, adequate.

On second glance, that image I posted is blatantly pedophilic... and it's hosted on an elementary school's website!

In my opinion, while there were other flaws with the game, the only thing that kept Morrowind from being a good game was the godawful NPCs, and hell if they can fix that but keep the huge gameworld then I'd be pretty happy.

Yea that dress is way too short. Maybe she isn't a kid though, just a midget (this is how i plan to excuse myself, yes).

 - meg

The amount of running around didn't help much either.  Bad quest journal, crappy combat, stupid mob AI, bad skill buiding, quests that go nowhere..

Game just needed a lot more polish and a hell of a more interesting main plot to be worth it.  I think everytime I ended up trying to dive into the main plot, I'd make it a little past getting cured then just give up in boredom.

The level of freedom and diversity in play style, however, was amazing. I wish more games would leave it as up to you as Morrowind did.

Gothic was a better Morrowind.  Worse graphics, but it managed to weave a good story into an open world.  And you could buy weed.

Always wanted to play that.  How was Gothic 2 as well, and would you recommend playing them both in order?

They better choose a readable font for the in-game text this time. I mean, good Christ, what were they thinking??


(http://www.bestgameshots.com/images/gameshots/crassius.jpg)

Um...  I can read that font just fine.

The gazillion bugs I suffered from in Morrowind made me cry.

I was given the GoY Ed. and was really hoping to like it. So far it just hasn't really grabbed me. The amount of background/world detail was also overwhelming and I kept thinking -- which of these things should I feel like paying attention to? Am I expected to hold any of this in my own mind/memory or just completely forget about it between play sessions? In the end, there was no real drama -- nothing pushing me forward, nothing to compel me to move on.

And looking at that screenshot -- yikes! Talk about designing in a million shades of brown.

Morrowind had a similar effect on me.  I think part of it is their skill/stat/level system.  It blows.  Lots.

Alkiera

I loved morrowind, but the first development of a character nearly killed me everytime. I'm not a powergamer who has to power a character through a game unless I desperately want to be in the endgame (UO when I restarted ages ago for instance). But I have to make sure that my character isn't permanently weakened ever, and that they don't miss anything I might regret later. This made morrowind hell because you get HP as per your endurance, and you cannot retroactively get HP through endurance gains. This meant every damn character had to spear enemies, and have fishies beat on them while wearing medium and then heavy armor in order to raise endurance the max amount evey level. Then I had to raise the other 2 stats by 5 every time. It was muder, and I couldn't stop. That's why it's on my harddrive but I never use it. I want to play it, but I can't bear making a new char and going through all that shite again.

That sounds like a problem with being obsessive, not necessarily with the game itself  ; )

Morrowind was basically a huge solo mmrpg. The world was very similar to most mmrpg in size and things to do but running around all by yourself you quickly can see the gaping nothingness of it.

Also I cannot believe they spent that long making the world pretty and had the most asstastic character models I have ever seen. It says something when the first thing people mod are faces that don't make you want to stab your eyes out.

kaid

Morrowind was fun for me since being a thief/assassin was pretty cool in a world where you could steal pretty much anything. My main gripes were the sucky map, the selling cap issues, and the overall story line being too easy to complete. The world was really cool and immersive, and the thieve's guild missions were by far my favorite.

I went through exactly the same thing. I threw out my first character when I realised how the level-up worked. The second character was made in the way you described. However, I soon discovered that it was wholly pointless, as a few choice items were all an ordinary character required. The next time through I just went and picked up the good items, as I knew where they were. You also don't need to spend weeks standing at the vendor buying and selling so that you can make a fortune, although you do the first time you discover the trick.

I do think that both the character development and vendor limits are things that should have been changed. I did enjoy the game, even though I hated the palette, and wasn't enamoured with the graphics.

I really liked Morrowind. I enjoyed just exploring the countryside and taking over houses and redecorating them with odd items.... it was relaxing in an odd way.  I never got too far in the main quest and eventually just got bored. Really looking forward to the sequel though ... with this and Battlefield 2 it may be time to finally get a new PC.

Fun fact:

You can make millions upon millions of gold making and selling potions at lvl 1. You can also drink down a whole bunch of INT potions, make more powerful INT potions (INT increases potion effects), drink, make more potions, etc. Then you make some END potions that boost your endurance by multiple thousands and last for weeks. Then you level up and gain thousands of HP per level. Then you can use your money to make spell effects that can cover whole towns and do enough damage to kill everyone living there several times over, and have the mana to cast it.

Unfortunately the character is then worthless for play beyond a few gankfests so it defeats the point. But it's fun the first time.


EDIT: Oh, and my point. If Oblivion is setup in such a way that I can just play the game without having to worry about gimping my char (whether this is true ot not my mind wont allow me to let it go), then I'll definately get it. Otherwise it's not worth my sanity.

I dug Morrowind. I am EKA, so the big ass map was interesting to me. Trudging to the same town for the 400th time was a bit less so, but it sounds like they have addressed that in Bolivia (as Mike Tyson might say). I will buy it on day one.  As long as there are no fucking cliff racers.

Have not played it.  The reviews are baddish, for what that's worth.

I still have to get back to finish Gothic II, it's a fun game. The engine holds up better, I have it drawing out to an absolute sick distance. I'm about a third of the way into it, many, many hours. I'd say it's as good or better than the original so far.

In hindsight, it's one of my favorite franchises of all time, since Garriot apparently forgot how to make good games back in the 90s and Reynolds is making RTS.

If anyone hears of a an english version of the expansion to Gothic II, please let me know! I'd love to get it. And Gothic III is in the oven (http://press.jowood.com/html/News/news_details.php?id=272&title=NEWS%20Int.&bereich=61). And looks great. Some really good development coming out of Europe last few years.

While I was grabbing that jowood press release, I didn't realize Nival (evil islands, etherlords) made Silent Storm. Coolness.

Based on that paragraph, yes you are a power gamer.

Most of my characters have never had above 30 endurance. If I want to play a tank, I make an orc and start with high end. If I play a mage, I don't care what my hitpoints are, the plan is to never let anything get close enough to hit me.

If balance is a worry, there are tons of mods available to make the game harder, easier, whatever floats your boat.

Aren't you the one that called Morrowind a "walking simulator"? Maybe that was Haemish.  

I too had Morrowind sit on my hard drive for years never getting enough ambition to play it more than in bits & pieces.  It seems to be a nice, open-ended game for those that enjoy that sort of thing.  I found many of the quests to require endless strolls in the countryside unless I was willing to look on some hint sight... which I wasn't.  That and the dark tone of the game made me move on to new things.  

On the whole, I really enjoy games that are social or test my puzzle solving skills... this game seemed to offer neither. It's very well made.  I just never got sucked into it.  I'll wait and see what the rest of you say about this expansion before I reinstall the game.

No, I called Project Entropia a walking simulator, because that was all you could do without spending money.

I misquoted Haemish about the wrong game while managing to say something stupid.  

Quick, what do I get for hitting the trifecta?

We'll start calling you a bisexual furry.

All I want to know is, will pixelized boobs be making a comeback?  That's why I never bought Morrowind; they cheesed out on including the nudity.

....

No, I'm not kidding.  Pathetic, is it not?

Other people added it back in, quite well too.

I have a love/hate relatiosnip with Morrowind.

The world is loads of fun to explore. You can find things to do in the weirdest places. The expansions added alot more as well. I also enjoyed alot of the fan made mods.

However, the NPCs were boring. The world really felt like an MMO in its death throes. I kept expecting to run into one or two other people somewhere.

I am tempted by Oblivion but they have to make the NPCs actually seem something vaguely like a person. If they do that I'll give it a chance.

Morrowind is fun if you don't play it like the designers want you to. I view Morrowind as a gigantic world of bugs to exploit and do weird shit in. I'm betting money you can play the game nearly backwards in its unpatched state.

Also, you can kill Dagoth Ur (last boss guy) with one hit at level one by getting a shitload of money (easy to do) and slamming down alcohol. BEER MUSCLES.

I cheated to try and finish Morrowind but before I could I stopped caring.  I'll get the new one when it is released, though.  It looks good.  I hope it doesn't force me to resort to using save game editors this time.  Thinking about it still makes me feel ashamed.

Morrowind was fun not because of the game, but because of the TES editor.  I wasted many happy hours making changes to NPC dialogues, and creating amusing companions to fight for me.

I had to cheat to finish the main quest too, Signe.

I will certainly be buying Oblivion if it has a game editor.

Oh I know I'm a munchkin/powergamer at heart, that quote was taken out of context by you, though it was mostly my fault. "I'm not a powergamer who has to power a character through a game" is the full context. I should have said "I'm not the kind of powergamer who has to power a character through a game" for better clarity, but oh well.

Basically what I'm saying is that I'm not the kind of powergamer who has to power through content or find the very fastest way to level. What I do like to do is be as powerful as I can be, or at the very least leave open the potential to be as powerful as I can be. Most games allow me to slack off on that department because I know I can always change my char into a more powerful version when needed, or I don't need to go out of my way to become as powerful as I can be. Like Diablo 2, I'd always have my talents planned out, but I didn't have to do anything special to be powerful, I just had to click the right buttons when I leveled.

I grew bored and knew I would quit before finishing, so I cheated and finished the game.  It was fun being in basically god mode for the last half of it and the ending was...ok.

I'm not ashamed for doing because I still would have stopped playing it either way.  I wanted to see the whole game and I did.  I give it a D- for fun though....too barren and too tedious to get your char to the level you needed to finish the main quest.

I'll still try Oblivion too if it hints to be anywhere near evolutionary as Morrowind.  If it is just Morrowind II, no thanks.

*Edit: Spelling*

Hell, I loved Morrowind, and even spent enough time to beat it without cheating. It's still fun to cheat and beat it though, so I did that too. Even with a maxed character without cheating, I still ended up having to beat on the final boss in Bloodsomething with my fists as all my weapons had worn out and all my repair hammers were used. It was a lot of damn werewolves...

Plus, I catassed my way to grab all unique items and store them in some huge building.

Wish I had thought of it, but some guy on another board was talking about how he made a building out of pillows for shits and giggles.

Yeah, one of my favourite things is to get all the unique things I can get my hands on, grab house and manequin mods and go-a-decorating with my millions of dollars in unique loot.

It would seem Morrowind is a litmus test for whether or not you're a lewt-whore.

I"m glad I stopped 2 hours into the game. But then, I was lost for 75% of that time.

I quit Morrowind when I discovered that my lizard-race guy wasn't particularly adept at swimming when that seemed to be the whole point of that race.

If you haven't seen it yet, check this out:

http://canadianice.ufrealms.net/Morrowind/IcesHideaway.html

Most impressive house mod I've seen yet.

My biggest disappointment with Morrowind, as a fan of Arena and Daggerfall, was the dungeons. They sucked ass. I remember many a snowy weekend afternoon working my way through the gargantuan labyrinthine dungeons of Daggerfall, filled with all kinds of mobs.

I did end up cheating, but still never finished it, I got bored about 3/4 of the way through. My only cheat was a stamina regenerating amulet. Boing boing boing.

And those damned cliff racers...how did they make it out of QA??

Holy crap. That person should be playing with dolls or the Sims or something.

Hmmm - I think I forgot Rambo 15 - Rambo in Elder Scrolls.

I see that no matter what clothing looks ass on characters.

I'm still a bit ashamed.  I cheated and then didn't even finish it.

I suck at games.  All of them.  CRPGs, MMORPGs, whatever it is that GW is labeled, RTSs, etc.  You cannot name a sort of game I don't suck at.   I find it strange how much I enjoy them.  I have to say, however, that I always enjoy a game  the most when I'm just starting it.

That's because games get harder as you progress, suckzilla.

And re-working my way through them several times trying to figure out what was wrong, only to discover that the damn dungeon was broken.  Happened in several instances.  In a couple cases I think I had to wait for patches, while in some of the more randomized dungeons if I re-loaded it enough times it would eventually give me a solveable dungeon.

Ultimately it was one of those buggy dungeons that kept me from finishing the game.  I got sent to one with a quest item stuck behind a door that (so far as I can tell) was literally impossible to open, I think due to my high level screwing up the difficulty scaling.

Don't get me wrong; I loved Daggerfall.  God only knows how much time I pissed away on that game.

I think they overreacted to the complaints about Daggerfall dungeons being too big.



Does no one remember Affa's posts on Waterthread about making Morrowind? Haven't seen him post here so I guess he wandered off but his description of the development process at Bethesda left me with no qualms about using mods to "finish" the game, as the developers obviously didn't have time. That included faster stamina regen and the no agro healthy mob patch among others, including mods to slow down skill gains and toughen up faction and guild joining. Made the game much more fun.

I still enjoyed the plot but understand people who didn't as it was hard to find, what with having to pick up so much of it from reading the books lying around.  Still it's the only single player rpg that had me playing solidly for 3 months and replaying the moment I finished it the first time.

I think the best part about Morrowind was the editior, allowing users to fix and expand on the game, and I hope the new game includes one too, though I didn't see any mention of it in that interview. As the editor was a huge part of Morrowind, I think the interview not mentioning one is a bit scary though.

Yeah the story was good. I never got people not liking the story but I guess it must have been not following it well enough when you lay it out like that. I personally read every book I picked up (even though it often wasn't worth it). It's pretty cool, especially with tribunal. They dropped the ball with bloodmoon though.

So... a demon makes like... were-wolves and stuff for a hunt? And I like... kill him? So... what does that have to do with being the neverine? And what God do I kill? No God killing? Yeah... ok. No thanks.


EDIT: Yeah that house looks cool, if I load up morrowind again I'll check it out.

I can't believe Rasix called me Suckzilla.  I'm glad his camel died.

Ahh, Daggerfall.  $65 worth of what started me on the path of exploiting, memory editing, and trainer madness.  Arena?  You could win the game by opening the first dungeon's chest 8 times and it would have the next piece of the staff thing with each opening.

Oblivion looks cool, but if it's anything at all like Morrowind, I will probably not get it.  I would rather tell Sony that I would like my own private EQ2 server.  Single-player RPGs are fun.  Single-player MMORPGs are not.

I miss my Ultima Underworlds.

Yes, but I could fix all that by making a Ring of Fixall +1 in TESCS.  To me, the Construction Set was the best part.

Or else she should make a mod that allows the characters to act like fucktards and piss themselves when they forget to hit the head.

This screenshot is impressive. I hope this is a player character. (http://media.pc.ign.com/media/702/702491/img_2533502.html)

Light Bloom + Normal Mapping for the win. That's going to get old so so so so so so so so so so so so so fast. And none of it looks as good as Guild Wars.

Did we play a different guildwars or something? I wasn't impressed by the graphics in that game all that much.

Yeah, that 'every object has a miniature sun inside and the light is leaking out the edges' look is most of what I recall about the graphics in Guild Wars.

Too glowy.  Yick.

Alkiera

That'd be the Bloom effect. It's the current graphics "fad" for developers to over-use. It looks good when used properly and in moderation, but GW is guilty of using it perhaps a bit too much (fun game though) and it looks as if Oblivion will do the same. Normal mapping, on the other hand, is just plain smart. With the proper specular highlights, the game'll look damn good, with or without Bloom (let's hope they let you turn it off in the graphics options).

Normal mapping makes me kinda hot. I like the bloom effect, I miss it in WoW (enabling bloom in wow disables your FSAA/AF settings from display props...I'll take no jags over bloom). If not overused, of course.

Bethseda games have struck me as an overblown character generator since Arena. They make this very flexible, but totally unbalanceable, player progression. And then they sort of make a world to wander around in while you level up. I don't think I've ever been actually interested in what I'm working towards in any of their games.

The idea of them doing the next version of fallout is depressing.

To me it a wonderful dream come true.

Fortunately, my point of view is the only one that matters.