Worrying Oblivion preview

[VasikkA]

Watch this video, linked on the IGN page listen above, the question of the "draw distance" problem of trees popping up randomly, ect. Is answered from the horses mouth.

Also they adress the chugging and loading issues as well.

Stupid you are, if you expect Oblivion to run as smoothly as in the videos. Same goes for believing Bethesda doesn't 'doctor' the screenshots, all developers do. At least I hope they do, because the shiny, candy graphics would definitely look annoying. Have you ever seen ugly pre-release screenshots? Every game is an instant classic if you believe everything you see in the screenshots and the feature list. The more gullable the fanbase is, the bigger the disappointment will be. Judging from the TES fans that post here and in RPGCodex, all will not be well in Oblivionville on March the 20th.

I would be concerned about the constant lagging and loading problems in Oblivion as that was a severe problem in the previous TES game and it seems Bethesda can't fix it. You better hope it's not as severe as it seems to be, as that could seriously hurt your trekking simulation experience.

Graphics aside, Fallout didn't impress me just with the post-apocalyptic setting, story and 'humor', but a believable game world that reacted to your actions, if not immediately but eventually in the final slideshow. The same cannot be said of Morrowind. Another thing that impressed me was the turn-based combat; the best combat in CRPGs since the old top-down RPGs. Switching to real-time for the sake of realism and immersion is bullshit as the time flow doesn't have any effect on these two elements. Whether Bethesda decides to make the combat in Fallout 3 compete with other first-person RPGs and generic FPSs, is their choice but it would make the series less unique than its predecessors. Can you honestly say the combat system in Fallout: Tactics was more enjoyable than in Fallout not to mention more tactical? First person view in combat would also contradict with the principles of roleplaying as the accuracy and efficiency isn't based on the character but rather the Player.

[S4ur0n27]

Muh, stop bitching, wait and see.

[MrSmileyFaceDude]

There are a few dozen other previews from this weekend, too. Links here. Some of them mention some of the same issues as this author does, but none of them seemed to be as bothered by them or think they're as severe as the author here does. YMMV, I guess.

edit: Here's another one that wasn't up before the list of links on the main site.

[Mr. Teatime]

There are a few dozen other previews from this weekend, too. Links here. Some of them mention some of the same issues as this author does, but none of them seemed to be as bothered by them or think they're as severe as the author here does. YMMV, I guess.

edit: Here's another one that wasn't up before the list of links on the main site.

Muh, stop bitching, wait and see.

That's what I'll do. It just bugged me because I really wanted to give Morrowind a fair try and this one issue prevented me. Maybe I'm too picky...
I guess it won't be too long before we find out anyway... and then we can start getting some real info about Fallout 3

[S4ur0n27]

Like I've said countless times, I find it weird that so much people had such terrible experiences with Morrowind. I'm not saying it's not true(and the comment's not directed at you personnaly Tea) but most of the time, Morrowind haters had a lot of bugs, lag, etc, when Morrowind lovers had a perfect(technically) gaming experience.

I, for one, didn't have much technical issues with the game, it ran fine and I had no crashes, freezes, etc. I still found Morrowind a bit shallow, but appreciated the huge world and enjoyed the few hours I spent on it until I got bored. And after all, that's all I'm looking for in a game : that it entertains me for a while. May it be 3 hours or 30 or 90 though I hardly ever pay for my games, I must confess.

I think Bethesda will of course release something as good as Morrowind, or it wouldn't make any sense. That review is pretty much the only one I've seen that blasts the game so much. I've just read Gamerevolution's, and they talked about the drawing distance issue, but not a lot. Every game has its flaws, and so Oblivion's is the drawing distance. I'm sure the rest will cover that in an effective way meant to give every statisfaction.

I'm not hoping to convince anyone though, since most people around here are thick about Bethesda.

By the way, any precise release date yet? All I could gather so far are "early 2006" and the like.

[Wolfman Walt]

How much is Beth paying you, Susan, I need to know. If not for me, think of my potential kids futures!

Last I heard about Oblivian, its comin out in March. Amazon has it as March 20th. That pretty much makes me think that they're pretty damn near final build, BUT Amazon is generally wrong about release dates and shit by a week or so.

[S4ur0n27]

It's ironic that I only take time to write long posts about TES, eh?

[baby arm]

Beth is paying Susan enough to give every statisfaction.

I would be surprised if the draw distance, loading times, etc aren't a problem in Oblivion. I would also be surprised if those problems actually drive away very many people. The fanboys will love it, the haters will hate it. and the casual gamers will be impressed by all the 'cool stuff'.

Now more pirate wedding:

[VasikkA]

It's ironic that I only take time to write long posts about TES, eh?

That's exactly what I thought when I read your post. Not the fact that it was complete bullshit, but that you actually wrote more than 2-3 lines of text. It even had 5 paragraphs!

However, your points contradict eachother; You think Morrowind is a good game, but on the other hand you found it shallow and got bored with it after a couple of hours. What conclusions should I make of that? Fuck it, draw me a chart with other RPGs in it(Fallout, KOTOR, Bladder's Gate, Bloodlines...).

[Urizen]

i played through half of morrowind, and i encountered no excessive loading. i enjoyed excellent stability, and i thought the graphics were nice. but i still hated it like vanilla coke.

[S4ur0n27]

I say Morrowind's a good game because I thought it was high quality. I have enough modesty to say that I dislike some games that are, overall, good or well-made. I liked Morrowind for the huge world, the setting, the graphics, also because it was fluid, there weren't much loadings, no lag, no crashes, but the gameplay was shallow. The gameplay didn't appeal to me, I didn't like the dialogue system, though it would have been easily forgiven if the story was interesting. I really liked the part of Morrowind during which you create you character and establish his personality, you join guilds/groups, you complete quests for multiple factions, etc. In other words, you define your character and make him act like you would if you were there. But once you delve into the main plot the gameplay becomes monotonous and I started getting bored. Much like Bloodlines, the more you advance in the game, the more the main quest takes the whole place and side-quests become of no importance. But since that said main quest is boring, well...

The conclusion you should draw is that Morrowind was a well-made game which deserves to be tried and, if it's your spice, played thoroughly.

[Koki]

I say Morrowind's a good game because I thought it was high quality.

FF too

[S4ur0n27]

Yeah but I'm not acting like an asshole and insulting people who didn't like it. I'm not denying other people can have OMG DIFFERENT TASTES!1!. I can very much understand that a lot of people hated it, as it's a very specific and defined genre. You hate or like it.

It has absolutely nothing to do with Morrowind or anything else. I liked Fallout, too. Does it mean anything? No. They're not the same type of game.

[Blargh]

They're not the same type of game.

Not yet they're not.

*DRAMATIC MUZAK*

[Stainless]

I never had a problem with morrowind, I just found it had such a shit immersion factor that I couldn't tolerate playing "wiki dialogue" for longer then 30 minutes.

My one great experiance in morrowind was killing a shop keeper, then selling all his stuff to the other merchants.

[Mister Leckie]

Watch this video, linked on the IGN page listen above, the question of the "draw distance" problem of trees popping up randomly, ect. Is answered from the horses mouth.

Also they adress the chugging and loading issues as well.

Stupid you are, if you expect Oblivion to run as smoothly as in the videos. Same goes for believing Bethesda doesn't 'doctor' the screenshots, all developers do. At least I hope they do, because the shiny, candy graphics would definitely look annoying. Have you ever seen ugly pre-release screenshots? Every game is an instant classic if you believe everything you see in the screenshots and the feature list. The more gullable the fanbase is, the bigger the disappointment will be. Judging from the TES fans that post here and in RPGCodex, all will not be well in Oblivionville on March the 20th.

I would be concerned about the constant lagging and loading problems in Oblivion as that was a severe problem in the previous TES game and it seems Bethesda can't fix it. You better hope it's not as severe as it seems to be, as that could seriously hurt your trekking simulation experience.

Graphics aside, Fallout didn't impress me just with the post-apocalyptic setting, story and 'humor', but a believable game world that reacted to your actions, if not immediately but eventually in the final slideshow. The same cannot be said of Morrowind. Another thing that impressed me was the turn-based combat; the best combat in CRPGs since the old top-down RPGs. Switching to real-time for the sake of realism and immersion is bullshit as the time flow doesn't have any effect on these two elements. Whether Bethesda decides to make the combat in Fallout 3 compete with other first-person RPGs and generic FPSs, is their choice but it would make the series less unique than its predecessors. Can you honestly say the combat system in Fallout: Tactics was more enjoyable than in Fallout not to mention more tactical? First person view in combat would also contradict with the principles of roleplaying as the accuracy and efficiency isn't based on the character but rather the Player.

Well thanks for calling me stupid, I just love being insulted by those hiding behind the great wall of internet anonymity.

I'm not here to call anyone wrong, and I'm not here to make you like Oblivion, or morrowind, or the idea of a first person Fallout 3.

I'm just stating the most probable. It's been years since morrowind was released...and people have steadily complained about the issues at hand for a good while. I just doubt bethesda will release a product that they know people will complain about, escpecially after taking all this extra time to do things right.

From my experience games usually look about the same if not better than the screenshots I've seen. Usually by the time the game comes out things look more polished than they did in the early screenshots.

I have a pretty good rig, not the best, but pretty good. And games usually do run as well as I see in the pre-release videos if not better if the game has been fully optomized.


I'm not here to argue either, there is only one thing we can do, as stated before, wait and see what the outcome is.

And wait I shall.

[Wolfman Walt]

My honest opinion of morrowind is that it isn't a horrible game or anything, it's parts are put together well enough, it's just that the sum of the experience left me wanting more. They had the right ideas in alot of cases, but it just that they weren't executed well enough.

For instance, I liked that they had towns with a large amount of people in them, but they all seemed boring and lifeless with the same dialogue and dialogue options.

Combat seemed like a decent enough idea, but it was poorly executed.

The world was big and wide, but it all sort of blended together in my opinion with all the dungeons seeming boring and like they didn't really pay off alot of the time.

So while Susan's statement in that it was a "high quality" game may be true, they put alot of effort in it, it just wasn't very good. It was high quality in effort, but low quality in fun.

[Koki]

Yeah but I'm not acting like an asshole and insulting people who didn't like it.

But I do

[Thor Kaufman]

I liked Fallout, too. Does it mean anything? No.

WRONG
Liking Fallout makes you a better person.

I could stand Morrowind only for a few minutes, before I had to uninstall it, the character creation was different and okayish, but the rest, with the stupid boring characters and lifeless world was not.

[VasikkA]

Well thanks for calling me stupid, I just love being insulted by those hiding behind the great wall of internet anonymity.

You may take it how you will, but it's the code of discussion here. The anonymity argument is rather pointless, as you know that's not the way Internet communication works. If you want, we can take it out on the street too. Mano a mano.

I'm just stating the most probable. It's been years since morrowind was released...and people have steadily complained about the issues at hand for a good while. I just doubt bethesda will release a product that they know people will complain about, escpecially after taking all this extra time to do things right.

You offer us your belief, even though gameplay issues have been brought up by various gaming sites. Keep in mind that Bethesda has a history of making mistakes and releasing buggy turds of an RPG. Morrowind had problems too, but for some reason, the Oblivion fans expect it to be flawless. I don't know if it's because of the massive marketing campaign that's been going on for some months now or what. They are only game developers. Sometimes game developers have to compromise, whether it's because of the deadline, financial reasons or plain stupidity.

I only brought up game design choices in my comments regarding Fallout 3. My personal opinion, nothing more. At this point one can only speculate.

From my experience games usually look about the same if not better than the screenshots I've seen. Usually by the time the game comes out things look more polished than they did in the early screenshots.

Well, lucky you, but screenshots rarely give much of an insight about overall gameplay.