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Gamers have long-awaited the release of Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

Readers were absolutely delighted when we reported that Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion went gold several weeks ago.  Many questioned whether or not Oblivion would be able to surpass the quality gaming environment that Morrowind had to offer -- according to the buzz from the gaming world, it has.  The game is currently available for PC and the Microsoft Xbox 360 game console.  According to Bethesda Softworks:

In keeping with the Elder Scrolls tradition, players will have the option to experience the main quest at their own pace, and there will be plenty of opportunities to explore the vast world and make your own way. Numerous factions can be joined, such as the thieves or mages guilds, and each contains its own complete storyline and the chance to rise to the head of the faction and reap further rewards.

At DailyTech we managed to collectively burn about 40 hours on the game this weekend, and aside from some load time issues Oblivion is quite possibly one of the best games we've ever played. Roundup of several reviews of Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

GameSpot
IGN
TeleFragged
GameDaily
GamePro
Ars Technica

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A bit of advice....
By stupid on 3/27/2006 12:25:20 PM , Rating: 3
Being a fan of Morrowind, I was really anticipating the release of Oblivion back in 2005, but it got postponed to this month. However, there seems to be a lot of hardware issues with the game. On the PC and Xbox 360. I don't own a Xbox so I tend to skip those threads so my comments will be focused primarily on the PC version.

First off Bethesda really need to change their hardware requirements. While the minimum CPU requirement of a Pentium 4 2.0GHz or Athlon equivalent seems to be fine, it is the graphic cards section that should be updated. I think that the GeForce FX series should be dropped from the list of supported GPUs because they really provide horrendous performance and players will need to settle for mediocore graphics quality and resolution to be able to play. That's on top of installing the latest GeForce drivers and manually tweaking the game, including the *.ini file to get that mediocore performance. I suppose people forgot that the FX series implemented DirectX 9 very poorly.

However, don't expect exceptional performance even if you have a highend card like the 7900GT or X1900XT. People have been reporting about 30-40 FPS even on relatively low resolutions like 1280 x 1024. Also, the game doesn't seem to be optimized for certain resolutions, I think one of them is 1024 x 768 which has the lowest performance with a highend GPU, dropping it to 800 x 600 or increasing to 1280 x 1024 seems to improve FPS by a few frames.

The game also puts the GPU through it's paces. I recall reading a thread about the GPU being overheated by Oblivion, thus causing the PC to crash or restart. Taking off the side panel of the case has releaved the problem, but it never occured with games like F.E.A.R, or COD2.

My best advice is to go to the official forum or the PlanetElderScrolls forum and read the "Hardware Section" first before running out to buy the game. For now I'm just sitting on the sideline until Bethesda releases a patch that will improve performance and fix bugs.




RE: A bit of advice....
By segagenesis on 3/27/2006 12:41:04 PM , Rating: 2
No kidding. I thought it was pretty ridiculous that I have to run the game at 1024x768 to get acceptable performance. I can only hope that they will improve this in a future patch but I am also not holding my breath.

Releasing a game that requires an extreme top end computer just to run it acceptably isnt a good way to win customers.


RE: A bit of advice....
By masher2 (blog) on 3/27/2006 1:38:37 PM , Rating: 2
> "I thought it was pretty ridiculous that I have to run the game at 1024x768 to get acceptable performance"

This is an excellent example of the attitude thats ruining gaming today:

"Expansive, immersive world? Yawn. Good physics? Could care less. Great AI? No way. All I care about is an insane resolution and frame rate, that contributes nothing whatsoever to the realism of the game."




RE: A bit of advice....
By segagenesis on 3/27/2006 3:00:20 PM , Rating: 3
Yeah you say that when you have a decent computer and a new game that runs terrible. Get back to me then. We dont buy 1680x1050 monitors to run them at 1024x768. And the necessary video card(s).

It doesnt bode well for PC gaming when the 360 version runs alot better and would have cost me less in hardware.

Where you get off we should accept pitruid performance from a PC game is beyond me. Did you ever play Tresspasser when it first came out? What about Ultima IX?


RE: A bit of advice....
By masher2 (blog) on 3/27/2006 3:13:03 PM , Rating: 2
> "you say that when you have a decent computer and a new game that runs terrible"

You miss the point. I don't consider maximum resolution the sole factor on judging a game. I don't even consider it a major one.

Your average Hollywood movie is far above even the best games in realism. Yet those films run at 720x480 resolution...and a mere 24 FPS. Think about that a minute.

Perhaps you're focusing on the wrong issues eh? Instead of insane pixel counts, why don't you demand better gameplay from a game? Good AI? Realistic physics? Advanced shading and lighting effects?


RE: A bit of advice....
By segagenesis on 3/27/2006 4:16:59 PM , Rating: 3
Yay. Lets stay in the dark ages of PC gaming then when all we had was 320x240 and 640x480. Some people might be comfortable with that, but I kind of liked being able to run previous games at 1680x1050.

Elder Scrolls 4 is not a bad game, I just hate how the performance somewhat sucks compared to games of similar graphics detail. Thats what I cant understand here. One really annoying aspect is when the FPS drops below 20 I get horrible mouse lag. Bah! Even at 1024x768 I have some issues with low framerates, and thats with some details turned down. I thought my 7800GT could handle this? Do I need SLI just to run one game now?!


RE: A bit of advice....
By masher2 (blog) on 3/27/2006 5:16:27 PM , Rating: 2
> "Yay. Lets stay in the dark ages of PC gaming then when all we had was 320x240 and 640x480"

Once again, you miss the point. I would say we are STILL in the dark ages of gaming, because a game at 1680x1050 @ 100 FPS has the same AI and physics we've been using since the days of Ms. Pac Man.

Whereas a game at 640x480-- with advanced shader effects, ray-traced lighting, intelligent AI and detailed physics-- would be far more realistic and visually appealing than your high-res pixelfest eye candy. And it'd be a lot more fun to play as well.


RE: A bit of advice....
By wileec on 3/27/2006 4:33:03 PM , Rating: 3
quote:
Your average Hollywood movie is far above even the best games in realism. Yet those films run at 720x480 resolution...and a mere 24 FPS. Think about that a minute.


DVD resolution: 720x480, yes.
35mm film: much much greater in terms of digital resolution. Compositors typically use 4K compositing for this "old" 35mm analog format. Yet 4K is still not enough to resolve the film grain.

The only reason we are stuck with 24fps , is because of expense in changing all projectors in the whole world to run faster. Plus lighting issues, cameras need more light when shooting at a faster framerate. 24fps is the minimal framerate needed for the human eye to perceive "fluid" motion . Go read up on the invention of the motion picture camera. They chose 24fps for this very reason, because it used less film and it was the slowest tolerated by people.

Today there is no reason we should be limited to 24fps in theaters. Here is a bit of a read for people.... 48fps that uses only a third more film. This would get rid of the flicker, no more choppy pans, and give movies lifelike fluidness.

www.maxivisioncinema.com


RE: A bit of advice....
By masher2 (blog) on 3/27/2006 5:48:05 PM , Rating: 1
> "35mm film: much much greater in terms of digital resolution"

But the point is even a low-res DVD looks better than a game running at 6 times its resolution and three times its frame rate. Resolution it itself is a very poor metric of judging overall image quality.

> "Here is a bit of a read for people.... 48fps that uses only a third more film"

Ah, interesting concept, but 35mm itself is going to be supplanted by digital technologies, not a more advanced film technique.


RE: A bit of advice....
By Fnoob on 3/27/2006 8:24:35 PM , Rating: 2
Someone please explain to me how you double the framerate and yet only increase film use by 1/3?

24 frames/sec uses 24 actual frames of film per second. 48 frames/sec is gonna use, um, 48.... which is double.


RE: A bit of advice....
By wileec on 3/28/2006 12:26:17 PM , Rating: 2
RE: A bit of advice....
By Sureshot324 on 3/27/2006 10:21:32 PM , Rating: 2
The problem isn't that we need resolutions that high, the problem is that large lcd's have very high resolutions and look crappy when you set them below native res.

If you set your lcd monitor to native res, and watch a dvd on it, it will look good, even though the dvd is actually a lower resolution. The dvd software upscales the dvd to fit the screen. However, if you set the monitor resolution lower than native and play the dvd, it will look crappy, even if the monitor resolution is still higher than the dvd resoltion.

What we really need is a way to upscale games in a similar way. That way we can set our giant lcd's to native resolution, but the video card wouldn't have to render every pixel.


RE: A bit of advice....
By masher2 (blog) on 3/28/2006 3:24:28 PM , Rating: 3
> "The problem isn't that we need resolutions that high, the problem is that large lcd's have very high resolutions "

If you're saying the only reason people want high resolutions and frame rates is to match their LCD monitors, this is incorrect. Even CRT-based gamers are trying to play at resolutions well above 1600x1200.

> "What we really need is a way to upscale games in a similar way"

There is no reason an LCD's internal scaler can't perform as well as the software in a DVD player. Some actually do...but most monitor makers (especially the budget ones) skimp here.


RE: A bit of advice....
By Lakku on 3/28/2006 3:47:15 PM , Rating: 2
I own a 1680x1050 monitor, 7800gt and an X2 CPU, 2 gigs of RAM etc., and the game runs fine at max settings. By 'fine', I mean 25 to 30 something FPS. This is an RPG, and you don't need 60FPS to experience the game as it was intended. Sure it can get a bit choppy in dense forests or when lots of characters enter the screen, but it doesn't affect the slow and deliberate gameplay that an RPG offers. I have a 7900gtx on the way, and can only assume it will play the game at least 10 to 15% better. Maybe its the dual core CPU and the fact the game was designed for them, but it runs fine for me, except for a possible memory leak as after playing for awhile, the game will hang for a few seconds periodically and access the HD.


RE: A bit of advice....
By MrHanson on 3/27/2006 1:47:28 PM , Rating: 2
Another reason why PC gaming sucks.


Wow
By SEAWOLF607 on 3/27/2006 11:50:25 AM , Rating: 3
I've got this game and all I can say is WOW! Everything is amazing from the graphics to how open ended it is. If you see a mountain in the distance you can reach the top.




RE: Wow
By kalaap on 3/27/2006 11:55:48 AM , Rating: 5
I finally found an use for my $400 paper weight. This game is beautiful.


RE: Wow
By Xenoterranos on 3/27/2006 12:33:53 PM , Rating: 2
2.2ghz turion (check)
2 gb uber-fast OCZ ram (check)
100GB 7200 Rpm HDD (check)
Radeon Xpress200M integrated Graphics (sigh...)

Ah, well, maybe this summer I'll be able to afford an upgrade to my desktop with it's blazing fast 1.8 ghz Semperon 2800+ and a TOP OF THE LINE 5900 ULTRA!!!!
(I hate me)


RE: Wow
By stupid on 3/27/06, Rating: 0
RE: Wow
By tuteja1986 on 3/27/2006 1:02:34 PM , Rating: 2
amm gamespot review link to gamepro review

http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/rp g/theelderscroll...


RE: Wow
By h04x on 3/27/2006 2:22:35 PM , Rating: 2
I think you somehow managed to miss completely the OP's heavy use of sarcasm in your brief scan of his post. He meant that he has a 5xxx series GPU and feels that it's performance is less than desirable and would like to upgrade it soon.


RE: Wow
By sxr7171 on 3/27/06, Rating: 0
RE: Wow
By casket on 3/27/2006 3:05:07 PM , Rating: 2
I was going to rate it a 5 out of 10. Loading time on the xbox-360 was 3x longer than gameplay... trying to view the map took 3 minutes... so did searching a body for gold.

Basically every place the game says loading (every 20 seconds) was taking a minute... or sometimes longer. I felt the game was practically unplayable. My rating was generous.

Then I found this article, which fixed my problems....
http://support.bethsoft.com/asp/re solution.asp?sid...


RE: Wow
By NateSLC on 3/28/2006 2:54:35 PM , Rating: 3
From the article, "3. Determine whether the Xbox 360 console is overheating. Make sure that the console is not in a poorly ventilated environment or near a heat source. Heat sources include TVs, computers, monitors, and other electrical devices. "

I was going to buy an X-Box 360 until I read that it shouldn't used be near a TV.

hehe


By kilkennycat on 3/27/2006 12:31:35 PM , Rating: 2
By far the best action-AI in an open-environment of any first/3rd-person computer-game BAR-NONE. Non-scripted *Radiant-AI*(C) is a winner. Quite unnerving experience to have a zombie chase you out of his lair and then around the multiple broken levels on one of the open-air ruined castles and having to leap levels to keep ahead of him .. then continue to chase you all over the countryside... No scripted zone-limits here, no pre-set paths... Or how about 2 zombies, each deciding to attack you via different paths? Or how about leading a zombie past a bandit about to attack you and see the zombie attack the bandit instead of you. Watching them fight to the death while you pick a flower or two to make some new potions and then casually finishing off the winner of the battle.... What glorious fun....

The days of scripted-AI in action games are finally numbered. Certain high-profile developers -- please take note.....

PC Oblivion also makes effective use of Dual-Core CPUs. Checked with Task Manager on a sample run. CPU usage typically in a 40/60 ratio. For the (outdoor) sequence that I used to check dual-core activity, neither core exceeded 50% load (AMD X2) Using Set Affinity to turn off one core (and repeating the sequence from a save-point) increased the peak activity on the second core to > 80%. The particular sequence I used did not stress the AI significantly - no battles. I must repeat the same experiment during open-air high-AI-activity (lots of bots). I suspect a single-core will peak near 100% at times. If so, it will be interesting to see if such peaks cause observable hiccups in the game's activities.




By AppaYipYip on 3/27/2006 1:44:15 PM , Rating: 2
The examples you mentioned have been used in games for years now. Nothing new or extraordinary.


By Jackyl on 3/27/2006 1:55:53 PM , Rating: 2
No! It doesn't make affective use of dual-core! If it did, it would max out both cores. Instead it uses 50% of each core. This is the same load as one CPU. True multithreaded apps will use both cores to the max. There is currently a discussion on this topic in the official forums.

The RAI is not all that either. It is good, but the monsters still use a path finding system. In the TES Editor, you have to create a grid layout path, telling the characters/monsters the paths that they can take. This is path finding not true AI.


By masher2 (blog) on 3/27/2006 2:30:53 PM , Rating: 2
> "No! It doesn't make affective use of dual-core! If it did, it would max out both cores"

Lol, where did you get such a ridiculous notion? A game isn't like a media encoder, that can "complete faster" by running at 100%.

A game has a certain fixed amount of work to do per unit time. If it splits that work fairly evenly among two cores, its using them effectively....whether the resultant CPU load is 10% or 100%.

Downclock the CPU and you'll see the load figure rise-- the game has the same amount of work to complete, but less cpu cycles to do it. Put in a faster graphics card and turn up the video settings and the workload will rise also.

> "This is path finding not true AI."

I wonder at what you call "true AI". Selecting the best route from a fixed set of possibilities is certainly AI....what other method do you use when finding your own way home every day?



By wileec on 3/27/2006 4:11:41 PM , Rating: 2
Masher, please quit spreading nonsense on these boards and stop bashing people. Everytime someone disagrees and posts something a little negative you go off on a tangent and saying they are wrong. No one likes a player hater on these boards.

Jackyl is right for the most part. At work we have done extensive tests with dual-core 3800+, 4400+, 4600+ X2 procs and the Oblivion game. Guess what...it stayed at 50/50 workload for each processor, regardless of video card in the system. If there was a slower dual-core, I suspect we would still see 50/50. This is not right. Either Bethesda reached a limit on what the Gamebyro engine can handle, OR there is something wrong with the code and/or drivers, OR this game is CPU limited.


By masher2 (blog) on 3/27/2006 4:20:04 PM , Rating: 1
> "This is not right. Either Bethesda reached a limit on what the Gamebyro engine can handle, OR there is something wrong with the code and/or drivers, OR this game is CPU limited"

Agreed. However, none of which implies the game doesn't "make effective use of dual core". If a game can use two cores semi-equally, then its making effective use of a dual core machine. It may be cpu-bound, it may be throttled in some manner, or it may have driver issues...but its still making effective use of two cores.

Now, you disable one core and it still runs at the same speed on the first core-- and remains at 50% utilization on that single core-- then I'll accept your point.

However, the original poster's statement that "it should run at 100% to use both cores efficiently" is still incorrect in either case.

> "Everytime someone disagrees and posts something a little negative you go off..."

No, only when they're wrong.


By dead1ne on 3/27/2006 4:46:47 PM , Rating: 2
The only reason that you see it split between two cores is because Windows is bouncing the thread back and forth off of each core. This can be seen in many applications. The easiest way to identify that this is occuring is that the utilization percent on each core will add to give you close to 100%, which is what you describe. I'm not sure the exact reason that Windows does this but I suspect that it was done to spread the heat generated by the thread across the entire CPU die. However, even if it is multithreading(which it isn't) if the using doesn't sum to a number significantly higher than 100% then it isn't any better than a single core anyway.


By JarredWalton on 3/27/2006 10:57:29 PM , Rating: 2
DING DING DING!

Yeah, Oblivion definitely isn't doing much (if any) SMP stuff. I've run it on an X2 3800+ (@2.6 GHz) and an A64 3800+ (@2.4 GHz), and by and large there was no difference. Perhaps the game is totally GPU limited... but more likely it's just another single threaded game - any other threads are so trivially simplistic that they don't really matter.


Xbox360 vs PC
By j@cko on 3/27/2006 1:19:50 PM , Rating: 2
Who all has Oblivion on 360, and who on PC? I am curious as to how well the X360 version compares. It looks OK to me but it isn't the "most visually stunning game ever" like some people are saying.




RE: Xbox360 vs PC
By KristopherKubicki (blog) on 3/27/2006 1:23:08 PM , Rating: 2
I've got both but I am only playing the 360 version for now because the temptation to edit the hell out of the ini files is too tempting.


Ehhh
By michal1980 on 3/27/06, Rating: -1
RE: Ehhh
By stupid on 3/27/2006 2:36:59 PM , Rating: 3
The problem is with the Gamebryo Engine. It is designed for cross platform implementation so that it can run on Xbox and PS3 (I assume). I forgot how many platforms are supported by this engine, but it is Oblivion's Achille's Heel. The engine is a "Jack Of All Trades, Master Of None".

I can't say that I'm surprised about the low performance. I can only hope a patch will be released to optimize the PC version. I guess it can be argued that Oblivion sucks because of the Xbox 360. If the Xbox never existed then it could be argued that a different engine could have been used like Source or Doom/Quake, or whatever.


RE: Ehhh
By Lakku on 3/28/2006 4:05:22 PM , Rating: 2
I can see the difficulty that you are having, especially if you haven't played an Edler Scrolls or honest D&D based game before (and I am not saying ES is D&D based, just comparing the 2). However, it tells you how to level up during the tutorial if you read everything that pops up and it is stored in the completed quests. I do agree the interface leaves something to be desired and it is VERY clear its designed for multiple platforms without keyboards. However, true to D&D, you CAN'T cast a chain of spells (generall speaking, you only have certain amount of actions per round), do 10 things at once, or remember an infinite amount of spells. It's meant as a check to a player characters power and amount they can do in a SINGLE action round (you have to have knowledge of pen n paper RPGs). As for items, almost any true RPG will not allow infinite items, as that is completely unrealistic, though its unrealistic with what you can carry as is. That's what Bags of Holding are for. ;) Anyway, this game isn't for everyone, and true RPGs can be tedious, but to me, that = fun. But I agree, it needs a new UI or a customizable one (modders out there?)


RE: Xbox360 vs PC
By HardwareD00d on 3/27/2006 3:25:44 PM , Rating: 2
odd, I made that post, but it says it is from J@cko


RE: Xbox360 vs PC
By HardwareD00d on 3/27/2006 3:24:33 PM , Rating: 2
I've played Oblivion for about 8 hrs so far, and I do like it a lot. I think it is a bit over-hyped though.


I don't know what all the complaints are about
By psypher on 3/27/2006 2:55:02 PM , Rating: 2
I don't have a x1900 or a 7900gtx or anything... given my x850 still isn't terribly slow, but i get totally reasonable framerates... between 40 and 70 with all the bells and whistles turned on except for self shadowing. This game is amazing.




By cyberguyz on 3/27/2006 3:08:53 PM , Rating: 2
Same Here.

My system is not totally bleedin' edge rig, but my parts are reasonable for a game like this - X2 4200+ (non overclocked), single 7800GT video, 3Gb of fast memory and SATA1 drives. I have had no problems with lag, stuttering or quality. The game runs smooth as silk and has fully playable framerates with the res set at 1280 x 1024 (Native for my TFT monitor). I have all the quality settings pegged as well. Maybe it's boatload of the memory...

I couldn't be happier.


By dilz on 3/28/2006 2:03:20 AM , Rating: 2
I would describe your system specs as "enviable." I just need to get out of school so I can upgrade!


RE: I don't know what all the complaints are about
By porkster on 3/28/2006 7:28:36 AM , Rating: 2
Same here but I'm running a x700pro on a pentium 4 based system, and it runs nice. I haven't noticed any slow downs at all. I don't have AA on and run at 800x600 with most features on to high settings.

Only one crash in the game so far and that was at a time shortly after a few lost window focuses from ICQ and MSN messages. I soon turned msn off.


By rchiu on 3/30/2006 3:08:38 PM , Rating: 2
I have a modest system with ~$100 cpu (A64 3000+ oc to 2.5GH), 1GB of $80 memory, regular 120GB Maxtor IDE HDD, and an ATI x800GTO card (oc'ed as well). With the system, I am able to drive my 24 inch HP CRT monitor at 1920x1200 at a playable framerate. Around 25~45FPS at outdoor and 30~50 FPS indoor.

Yes I don't have AA on but what's the big deal. What I don’t understand is people trying to compare Oblivion with stuff like HL2, don’t they know the difference between RPG and FPS? I mean what else dose FPS games like HL2 do other than graphics? Do they have a spell system with different magic schools and hundreds of spells to choose from as well as make your own spells? Do they allow you to build any type of characters you want? Do they let you develop your characters into any character they want? Do they have hundreds of ingredients that you can make into potions or poisons? I mean, I can go on for days. Oblivion is an excellent RPG game. The graphic is top-notch compares to other RPG games. The freedom your character has is unbelievable. The content in the game, be the places you can discover, the people you can talk to, and the item you can use, is amazing.

I mean people can complain about Oblivion, hey it’s their money and they can complain about what they spend on. But if you wanna complain, at least complain intelligently and don’t complain just because you really need to be playing FPS games and not RPG’s.


Complainers are minority!
By igloo15 on 3/27/2006 4:32:01 PM , Rating: 2
I just want to make this apparent the people complaining about this game are most certianly a minority. Here at college everyone I know has this game and is loving every minute of it. I have a modest PC system and I go max with nearly everything I pushed out the grass and ground textures using ini tweaks and I might say that the ini has the most indepth control over game graphics I have ever seen. Running fine with 20 fps outside and 40 fps indoors on my amd 64 3000+ gig of ram and 6800gt. No overclocks nothing plus my load times are great no load time at all roaming the land and going from indoor to out is like 1 - 2 seconds. People that are complaining about performance definitly have something wrong with their system.

I will note that this game is extremely hard, not hard to level but hard to play vampires and oblivion gates are almost impossible for me to live through but I am going and slowing finishing quests. The game also has alot of conflicts with various software and hardware on computers but if you fix these conflicts you will be playing great!




RE: Complainers are minority!
By wileec on 3/27/2006 5:52:26 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
Running fine with 20 fps outside and 40 fps indoors

20fps is not fine in my books. If a game engine can't sustain at least 30-35fps , it looks and plays choppy to me. Mouse input is affected when framerates drop. I like smooth mouse movement. I didn't buy a $300 video card to have this game that has been in development for the past three years, to run slow. The GameByro engine needs some work. We should have saw this coming, since Morrowind used the previous version of it.


RE: Complainers are minority!
By igloo15 on 3/28/2006 1:07:22 AM , Rating: 2
First off this isn't an FPS if you have 20 constant FPS then your fine. Secondly I am running at high settings on a medium computer if I wanted to I could drop the draw and change my res to 1024 by 768 and get 30-40 fps no problem. Also never had a problem at all in my game with a mouse not registering a click! I am glad that I can run at high settings with far draw and 1280 by 1024 on my 6800gt with 20 fps outside and 40 fps indoors. those are the minimums of course sometimes inside I can reach 60 depending on number of npcs same with outside I can reach 30 sometimes.


RE: Complainers are minority!
By Lakku on 3/28/2006 4:13:32 PM , Rating: 2
Agreed. Most complaints I have seen are from people who don't play a lot of RPGs (and no, WoW is an RPG but I mean in the spirit of D&D etc.). 20 to 30FPS is adequate for a game world this large. I prefer the around 30 mark, but if it DOES drop, well, I can still fight and cast spells. Performence could be better, but I guess thems just the breaks, so to speak. I dislike the far off land looking very bland, but you have to remember that part of the world is not really LOADED, as in the objects and detail are not in memory but are vaguely represented to give a general indication. It's not great, but if it was not like this, no home PC on earth would have enough memory to have every object, tree, NPC, mob, etc. loaded at one time for a HUGE world such as this.


THE ONLY BAD POINT
By porkster on 3/28/2006 7:20:20 AM , Rating: 1
The only bad thing about the game is that the PC version has been limited to XBOX360 style controlling.

The game has no key board mapping and you're stuck with the layout given, being w-up,s-down,a-left,d-right and other locks keys.

With all the work that went it the game, they couldn't spend less than a day's code on making a DirectInput interface profile key map, or made another type interface.

Also I hate how you can't change weapons during a fight, so if your staff runs out of charges then your are swinging it with no effect or damage. That's if you're a fighter-mage.




RE: THE ONLY BAD POINT
By broly8877 on 3/28/2006 8:17:07 AM , Rating: 2
i'm pretty sure you can change in a fight, just not while attacking.


Step back for a minute, don't attack, then switch weapons


RE: THE ONLY BAD POINT
By igloo15 on 3/28/2006 9:11:56 AM , Rating: 2
You can change weapons in the middle of a fight i do it all the time just make sure you are not in the middle of a swing. If you are swinging your sword or other weapon and then click tab to go to menu and switch it won't let you but if your weapon is in the idle mode and you back away from enemy you can select a new weapon. Also you can remap any of the keys ingame from the ini or the interface by clicking options controls and then i think controls again.


Xbox 360 version is deserving of its merits
By SurreDeth on 3/28/2006 1:58:18 PM , Rating: 2
I bought and sold the PC version of Morrowind three times. The game looked odd, performed poorly, and while I appreciated the open endedness of us I usually was sitting around wondering what the heck I was suppose to be doing next. Oblivion, on the other hand, has been completely enjoyable to play. I elected to get a Xbox 360 for this game, because I imagined my x800 pro wouldn't handle it and for the cost of a X1900XTX I could get a complete console instead.
The only drawback I've seen is that sometimes after playing for a few hours the game slows down whenever the loot menu is displayed or dialogue begins. After finding the instructions on clearning the game's cache, and clearing everytime I load the game I haven't noticed the issue return.

The Bethesda software site is a little lacking in the support area and it can be quite difficult to find any useful information on it, so here's the full article dealing with slow performance on the Xbox 360 version of the game:

quote:

OBLIVION : XBOX 360 : RESOLUTION 23515

Q: I am experiencing long loading times, slowdowns, or sluggish menus in Oblivion on the Xbox 360.

A: Oblivion uses the Xbox 360 hard drive extensively to cache (copy and reuse) game data. This is done to optimize all loading the game does. It has been found in rare cases on some Xbox 360s that the cached data can get overly fragmented. This exhibits itself by the game taking a long time to load anything from menus, dialogue, sounds, objects, levels, and more.

To solve this problem, reset your Xbox, and hold down the A button as the game is booting up. If any button is held while Oblivion is loading, it will clear its hard drive cache, and create a new one. Once you see the “Bethesda Softworks” logo video, the game is already loaded, and the cache should have been cleared.

Note, this does not effect your game in any way other than loading. You will not lose any saved data.

If the problem still occurs, try the following troubleshooting steps from Microsoft:

1. Restart the console.
2. Determine whether the issue has occurred more than one time. If this case is the first time that you have experienced this behavior, the issue may not occur again.
3. Determine whether the Xbox 360 console is overheating. Make sure that the console is not in a poorly ventilated environment or near a heat source. Heat sources include TVs, computers, monitors, and other electrical devices. If the Xbox 360 console is in a poorly ventilated location, move it to a location that has sufficient ventilation, such as on top of a table or on the floor. If the issue is resolved, the previous location likely did not provide sufficient ventilation for the Xbox 360 console to correctly function. View the Xbox 360 instruction manual for information about correct placement of the console.

4. Make sure that the Xbox 360 console is set to the correct time and date.
5. Remove all unnecessary peripherals, and then test to see whether the problem still occurs.
6. Determine whether the disc that you are using is the cause of the issue by testing several similar Xbox 360-compatible discs in the console. If the problem occurs with only one disc, search the Microsoft Knowledge Base to determine whether the particular disc has any known issues. Use a disc of the same type, such as a game disc, a DVD movie, or a music CD, to test whether the problem is the specific disc.
7. Consider exchanging the disk or try the game in a different Xbox 360.
8. If these steps do not resolve the issue, contact Xbox Customer Service. To obtain support in the US, Canada, or Puerto Rico for the Xbox, please call 1-800-4MY-XBOX (469-9269).




By Lakku on 3/28/2006 4:24:01 PM , Rating: 3
This happens on the PC as well. I mentioned it above, but to say so again, I think there is a memory management issue. After playing for awhile, the game will lockup for about 3 to 5 seconds and access the HD, then go on about its business. It gets progressively worse, but never constantly or permanently. In this case, I close it down, and restart the game. Fixes the issue for another hour or two. Morrowind did things like this as well, so it's no suprise as this is built on the Morrowind engine essentially. However, to help the game, I suggest using DXTweaker to enable Triple Buffering for those using VSync and nVidia cards. This has helped my D3D games quite a bit, but I only suggest it for 256, or better yet, 512mb cards.


Buh-Bye Weekend
By Phynaz on 3/27/2006 1:11:18 PM , Rating: 2
This game ate my ENTIRE weekend.




RE: Buh-Bye Weekend
By gooser on 4/5/2006 12:06:11 PM , Rating: 2
shiz, I called in sick on monday and Tues cause In could'nt stop playing it after the weekend.
And yes, Oblivion Does appear to have some SMP. with my opty 165, oblivion can at times draw more than 50% cpu ussage.


Load times?
By kextyn on 3/27/2006 1:19:04 PM , Rating: 2
I thought the load times were pretty good actually. Maybe my 2x74GB Raptors in RAID 0 is finally paying off.

Gorgeous game though. I can't get enough of it.




RE: Load times?
By Lakku on 3/28/2006 3:56:55 PM , Rating: 2
Agreed, even though I don't have Raptors, I have two Diamondmax Plus 10 drives (250) in Raid 0, and load times hover around 5 seconds, except initial game load which, and I used a stop watch, was 9.4 seconds. Going through doors, into new areas, and the like, were all 5 seconds or under, and new area loads just feel like a hiccup (around 2 seconds or less). I can't speak for others, but try turning off everything in the background, defragmenting (it actually helped load times a bit, but not much), or look on MS site to see how to do a clean boot of XP soley for playing games. I would figure everyone here knows this already, but apparently people are having issues that not everyone is having.


PC version doesn't deliver.
By Jackyl on 3/27/2006 2:05:27 PM , Rating: 3
The PC version just doesn't deliver, after all the hype over the graphics and Radiant AI. First, the grass draw distance is very limited, like 50ft in front of your character. Even with all sliders max, grass pops in, and all distant land looks like one flat bland texture ! The LOD sucks, that's the problem. There is an INI Tweak for this, but it messes up the reflections in the water.

The engine is not efficient . There has to be something wrong with it, because even on a dual-core Athlon 64 X2, ATI X1900XTX, the frame rates do not go up. If you lower the resolution, the frame rate still doesn't go up very much. They used GameByro engine that was used in Morrowind. It is not efficient and smooth running like Source engine .

Please don't say the slowdown is because of the huge forests and extra amount of detail in the game. The game was developed during the time of ATI 9800Pro and other low end cards. All of their previews look smooth. Yet no one is getting a constant 40FPS+ in the game, at ANY resolution. It dips down to the teens. It is either driver problem or engine related problem.




By BenSkywalker on 3/27/2006 2:19:16 PM , Rating: 1
quote:
It is not efficient and smooth running like Source engine .


Sure- if this game was running on Source the system requirements could be changed to a cluter of Opteron rack servers each packing a couple hundred GBs of RAM..... Source couldn't dream of handling this engine- not that it should be expected too. You can walk for several [i]miles[/i] in one direction without hitting a load screen- Source can't come remotely close. Also- all of the characters in Oblivion are doing things even when you are not around- the processor is running AI scripts for hundreds of NPCs in the background all the time. Again, Source couldn't do this in its' wildest dreams. Then you get in to Source's dated graphics, they would have been really cool if they launched years ago, but stacked up against titles like GRAW they are very, very weak.


By Saist on 3/27/2006 4:02:03 PM , Rating: 2
Okay, 2 major problems.

First, for a game that got delayed... how many months? Why exactly are there constant 30 second plus long load times in the game? Seriously. This is 2006, not 1996. Any game that has that long of load times is an automatic 8, period.

Then, how about the looping audio problems? Oh, yeah. try lock picking often and get greeted with a stuck audio sound.

That's what I've encountered on 4 different copies of Oblivion, on 4 different Xbox 360's. And quite frankly, I'm not willing to play the game any more after that.

I have no idea what the other reviewers are smoking, but no thanks, it's probably illegal. Oblivion is just another Halo. Built up to be more than it actually is, but if you take the time to ignore the hype, ignore the Microsoft purchased press. It is nothing special.




By JarredWalton on 3/27/2006 10:59:41 PM , Rating: 2
With 2GB of RAM, the only 30 second load time I get is at the start. Switching towns generally has about a 5-10 second load time, and walking between rooms/areas has at worst a 3 or so second load time.


Performance problems?
By GodLovesPunk on 3/27/2006 4:39:01 PM , Rating: 2
My Renegade runs this game just fine =)




RE: Performance problems?
By ohnnyj on 3/27/2006 5:45:30 PM , Rating: 2
Did you have to morgage the house?


game rocks
By poohbear on 3/28/2006 12:34:45 PM , Rating: 2
this game rocks, the graphics are the best ever for an RPG. Sure they're demanding, but i'd expect no less considering they're jaw dropping. btw u dont need high fps to enjoy an RPG game like this, I sometimes get down to 15fps w/ my 6800gt but its still smooth.




RE: game rocks
By poohbear on 3/28/2006 12:35:42 PM , Rating: 2
and to clarify it rocks cause of the gameplay, not just the graphics and AI.


Seems like most of the complainers...
By killerroach on 3/27/2006 7:08:49 PM , Rating: 2
...are X360 owners. Let's face it, games like this aren't particularly suited to a console. However, I am a bit surprised that it is that bad on that platform... either that or the X360 is a finicky piece of hardware (which wouldn't surprise me).

I own the game for PC, and my system is nowhere near anything significant (Athlon 64 3000+, 1GB RAM dual-channeled, GeForce 6600 with an overclocked core), but it runs just fine at 1024x768 with Medium detail (and some things bumped up from where BethSoft recommended them be at)... at the lowest the game seems to dip down to around 20 FPS, and peaks around 60. Considering this game is nowhere near as demanding on frame rate as, say, an FPS, even 20 FPS is quite playable (I figure it'd still be quite playable as long as framerates stay above 12 or so). The world has decent levels of detail, looks pretty bland in the distance due to draw distances, but load times are very minimal and not very common (not to mention rarely taking longer than five seconds). All in all I've been quite impressed with the level of presentation, and would highly recommend this game to anybody with a PC containing a video card at least in the same league as mine (and maybe even telling people with Radeon X300 or X550 cards to at least give it a shot).




By HardwareD00d on 3/28/2006 10:34:04 AM , Rating: 2
I have the XBOX360 version, and it is very playable. I haven't seen a lockup or stuck sound effect yet. Other than the initial startup, load times are usually only 3 or 4 seconds and don't seem too frequent or annoying. I am really enjoying the game. Too bad they couldn't allow a USB keyboard to work with it... It's single player afterall.


By DarthPierce on 3/27/2006 12:05:12 PM , Rating: 2
Bugged links.....




By Steve Guilliot on 3/27/2006 12:16:16 PM , Rating: 2
I didn't like the game at all on the xbox360. The texture maps are nice, but the gameplay has a cheap feel to it (I don't want to write a book, so I won't expand on that).

The UI is the worst I've ever used. Getting to the myriad of items and spells is very tedius, and after hours of play is downright frustrating. The "hot button" feature is laughable as you can't effectively use the diagnal assigments with the D-pad. Most of my UI complaints are due to the PC to xbox translation, which went poorly IMO.

The "cities" are great looking, but get boring after you discover there is little going on. Maybe if I have drudged through a few more hours of tedium, I would change my mind on this. Maybe not.

Lot's more to say, but so little time. I just couldnt' get into it and got bored after 5 hours. Going to sell it back.




its trully something to behold
By kattanna on 3/27/2006 12:34:47 PM , Rating: 2
caveat..IF you have a nice system, as i do.

the game is fluid and fun to play.

now as to lower end systems..LOL like has been said the FX line of cards from nvidia really needs to be dropped from the supported list. my girlfriends computer while meeting the recommended specs..except for having a fx5600 with 256mb ram, ran so horridly that you couldnt even really create a character. the mouse was in a slideshow of its own..was simply horrid.

now my system on the other hand is running on ultra high settings at 1280x1024 and the game plays great and looks simply stunning. i even spent some time one day on top of a hill over looking the imperial valley and watched the sun rise and fall

so far..im loving it





The Game
By xxenmgamerxx on 3/27/2006 12:36:35 PM , Rating: 2
I love this game! I have little issue though some glitches... The games is elcelent. It is not as vast as the past games but still VERY awesome. The game is short i basically beat it if you have any in game questions e-mail me

Janej1108@twmi.rr.com

This game alsoi has hidden passages in the caves check for them nirnroot are common around legwinn and the imperial city. The main quest line leads to deadric items bow and curasis and greaves all in one cave... the kill the 5 vampires to get the artifact.... the game is highly recommended.




Quit WoW for this.
By Nocturnal on 3/27/2006 2:14:24 PM , Rating: 2
I know a few people who have put down WoW for this and are enjoying it like a mofo!




By casket on 3/27/2006 3:10:21 PM , Rating: 2
I tried to barter with someone.... couldn't sell any items... and dialogue took 15 minutes... very frustrating.

For any frustrated gamers, Here is the fix:

"It has been found in rare cases on some Xbox 360s that the cached data can get overly fragmented.
...
To solve this problem, reset your Xbox, and hold down the A button as the game is booting up."




Mediocore?
By Westfale on 3/27/2006 4:08:54 PM , Rating: 2
it's mediocre, not mediocore. everyone makes spelling mistakes (or forgets to captitalise lol), but 3 times "mediocore" in 2 different posts is sad.

that said, what is the game actually like? i quite enjoyed morrowing until i figured out how static the world is (nothing ever really changes in the world, in one instance i had to obtain a title so someone could build an extra [ier or dock, yet even after completing the mission the dock wa never built). is oblivion the same or do the characters actually have lives of their own now, does the world evolve even if you're just standing there and watch?




Dont know what your talking
By smut on 3/27/2006 6:43:27 PM , Rating: 2
Dont know what your talking bout man. I have an Opteron at 2.8ghz and a 7900GT and the game runs great. Im running at 1440x900 (I love widescreen monitor) too. Graphics are bumped up. That was running at 6XS AA, 8AF and everything maxed pretty much except shadow filtering, I dont think the performance/eye candy ratio for that setting is worth it. Anyway im sure it will run even better if I took AA off and put HDR on back (thats what I was playing at most of the time, I just wanted to try it with AA on earlier) Anyway my game runs great and im having alot of fun with it.




a
By Yaos on 3/28/2006 9:22:00 AM , Rating: 2
Radiant AI has nothing to do with the monsters, only the playable races use Radiant AI. If you load up an NPC in the editor and click on "AI" you'll find that there is not path scripting. You tell the NPC what you want it to do, such as go to this point and wander, at this time go here and eat, at this time go here and sleep. You can even be more general, just say "find something to eat within 10000 units (don't know how big a unit is though)of this marker". Radiant AI makes the game designers job easier and I have no clue why they made such a big thing of it.




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