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The gates of Oblivion opened
| The gates of Oblivion opened |
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The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (commonly known as 'Oblivion') is a fantasy-themed action oriented role-playing game developed by Bethesda Softworks LLC for Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360. On September 27, 2006 it was announced as a PlayStation 3 launch title, and a PSP version titled The Elder Scrolls Travels: Oblivion.[1] The Playstation 3 version, however, has since been delayed.[2] It is the fourth installment of the Elder Scrolls series. The game was released March 21, 2006 in North America, and March 24 in Europe. By April 10, Oblivion had sold 1.7 million copies for both Windows and Xbox 360[3] and by January 18, 2007, the game has sold over 3 million copies.
The development of Oblivion began in mid 2002 shortly before the release of The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind and took roughly 4 years to make. In addition to the standard release, a "Collector's Edition" is available for both platforms which includes the 112-page Pocket Guide to the Empire, a Bonus DVD containing concept art, renders, and an approximately 45-minute long documentary on the making of Oblivion, and a coin replica of the in-game currency of Tamriel.[5]
The game features the voices of Patrick Stewart, Lynda Carter, Sean Bean, and Terence Stamp.
Oblivion features a custom version of the Gamebryo game engine, a character face modeling system based on the FaceGen software, a combat interface utilizing the Havok physics engine, state-of-the-art graphics (using True HDR) with realistic procedurally generated forests created with the aid of SpeedTree Technology, an improved magic system, and a more interactive stealth system, along with many additional features not seen previously in the series. The player is meant to play in first person view, but can also play in a third person view found in many other action-adventure games.
The Microsoft Windows edition of the game also supports a new version of The Elder Scrolls: Construction Set that is available as a free download on Bethesda's website. The Construction Set allows for extensive expansion of the game and includes the entire basic world building tools used by the designers, giving users many of the same opportunities to create original game content as the designers.
As of June 6, 2006, when Bethesda released the first official patch, the current version of the game is 1.1.511.
[edit] Gameplay
Main article: Gameplay of The Elder Scrolls series
Oblivion is an example of open-ended or "sandbox" gameplay. The main quest may be delayed or completely ignored as the player explores a game world, consisting of approximately 16 square miles (according to Bethesda programmer Todd Howard),[4] following side quests, interacting with NPCs, and developing a character according to their taste. Many enemies, quests, and treasures are "leveled" or become increasingly difficult, as the player gains levels (this can lead to some problems, however; see the "Reception" section below).
Most quests are fairly linear and independent from each other, with some players stating that the gameplay has been tailored for the casual gamer. They state that the dual-development of Oblivion for the Xbox 360 console probably weighed on this design decision. Others respond, however, by pointing out that many of these decisions stem from fan response to earlier Elder Scrolls games. In response to many players being unable to find quest objectives in Morrowind, Oblivion marks all locations on the player's map, showing them exactly where to go to continue the quest.
Critical reaction to the English version of Oblivion has almost been entirely positive with an average review score of 94% for the Xbox 360 (2nd highest game of 2006 and the highest rated Xbox 360 game released to date) and 93% for the PC (5th highest game of 2006)[30]; PC Gamer UK, PC Gamer US, GameSpot, IGN, Electronic Gaming Monthly, and OXM have all awarded the game 9/10 or more, and praised the game for its immersiveness and scope. The television program X-Play, citing similar reasons, awarded the game a rare 5/5 with Eurogamer awarding it a perfect 10/10. GameSpot cited the game as "simply one of the best role-playing games ever' with a score of 9.6 for the Xbox and 9.3 for the PC[31]. PC Gamer UK did, however, criticize the game's repetitive and occasionally absurd nature of conversations between NPCs, saying that it broke suspension of disbelief, but still awarded the PC version a high 93%. OXM also said that the Xbox 360 version of the game suffered from occasional frame rate drops, though they were not as frequent as the Windows version, and also slightly longer loading times on a Core system which lacks a Hard-drive making the Xbox 360 version slightly more favourable with critics.
There have been complaints that the scaling system, used in Oblivion to ensure that all the player's foes remain equally challenging throughout the game, is excessively difficult by default, and makes the world non-sensible, with new creatures appearing out of nowhere. The system makes enemies weaker or stronger based on the player character's master "level". However, characters with the same "level" can have different skills. There has been response to the criticism, however: that common sense dictates that players who focus on non-combat skills would have a hard time anyway. This has spawned the creation of many game modifications to make certain areas inherently easy (or inherently difficult), or to completely eliminate the game's level-based auto-scaling system, making the game world more varied, unpredictable and realistic. Another solution, of course, is to simply reduce the difficulty setting in the options menu. However these flaws still being pointed out, IGN cited that "none of those criticisms hold back Oblivion from being a thoroughly enjoyable, user-friendly, gorgeous experience with enough content to keep you returning time and time again", rewarding it with a score of 9.3[32].
The voice acting received mixed reviews in the game press. While many publications characterize its voice-acting as "uniformly excellent and star-studded,"[33] "generally excellent,"[34] and "solid,"[35] others find its repetitiveness as a flaw, even where the general quality of the voice acting itself has been commended.[36][37] The repetitiveness' cause has been attributed to both the small number of voice actors[38] and the bland written dialogue.[39] Although some have awarded lead voice acting roles like Patrick Stewart's role as the Emperor at the Spike TV awards[40].
source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elder_Scrolls_IV:_Oblivion |
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| Date: |
06.02.2007 00:20 |
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