Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion PC

Just to give you an idea how huge Oblivion is, after all these hours of playing I’ve only done the first two quests in the main story and explored less than a third of Cyrodiil. Think about how many games you’ve played that went from peeling the shrink-wrap off the box to the closing credits in less than one fourth of that time. Most of my time playing Oblivion has been spent exploring, looting dungeons, doing optional side quests and picking my jaw up off the floor.

Bethesda Games has proven beyond any shadow of a doubt that they truly are master craftsmen of video game development. After a lifetime of playing video games, if I had to give out awards for all the games I’ve ever played, Oblivion would win hands down for graphical beauty, enemy animation, overall depth of game play, balanced combat, playability and probably any other category I could think of. Just about the only thing it would take second place in is variety of mission types which would go to GTA: San Andreas and that may change because I obviously have not played all the missions in Oblivion yet.

One of the great things about Oblivion is the way the difficulty level ratcheted up without me ever being aware of it. In the beginning of the game I was slicing and dicing enemies almost effortlessly and having a blast doing it. Now that my character has leveled up every enemy encounter turns into an epic and brutally barbaric all out war with me and my combatants struggling for survival and looking for any weakness in the others defense and I never noticed the change happening.

Probably the thing I will remember most months after playing Oblivion is a simple thing in gaming that I call “moments”. You know a video game moment when you have one. It’s something that occurs during the course of a game that you know you will never forget. It can be something that scares the crap out of you like the first time you fight the Flood in Halo or something more sublime like in Grand Theft Auto when you realize that you are in a living city and you’re free to go anywhere and do anything. Anyone who comes across the Unicorn while exploring the woods in Cyrodiil and isn’t awed by the “moment” is missing out on one of the best parts of video gaming. The part where you get to leave your reality behind and immerse yourself so deeply in a beautifully crafted fantasy world that you can allow yourself to be so blown away by something so simple.

The most important thing I want to say about Oblivion is that you absolutely must play this game. I don’t care if you have to beg, borrow, steal or rent. If you don’t you are missing out on something spectacular. Some of you have X-Box 360s and all of you have PCs so you have no excuse not to. I honestly can’t wait to see what happens next in Oblivion and so far at this point…

I’m giving Oblivion a 10

In0x NYC

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hmmm
By Imaginary on Sunday, April 2, 2006 (EST)

Sounds great and all, but it sounds like a really generic game..You're a knight fighting demons.

- I have watched several demo videos. This game is truley amazing. I'm not crazy about knights killed demons because it lacks imagination, but this game brings it to a whole new step. Everything is interactive, you choose who you are in a different way. More by your actions (from what I see by this). Now, I've watched a combat scene, this game is incredible. I'm going to watch more..One last thing to say. Although I can't afford the game, I want it really bad now, I hate you.

But that's not what I meant to say for my last thing..This game hits a new generation of games.

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Here's a link to the videos
By Imaginary on Sunday, April 2, 2006 (EST)

videos:

http://browse.files.filefront.com/Elder+Scrolls+IV+Oblivion+Media+Videos+and+Trailers+Official+Videos/;1326109;/browsefiles.html

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