March 20th

[Spriggan]

The gaming gods are mocking me.  On March 20th both Oblivion and Metriod Hunters comes out, I guess its a good thing I'm getting a large tax return so I can actually afford both.

[Parker]

I know what Hunters is and am hyped for it, but I never really got into Elder Scrolls that much.  Care to say why it was so good?  I only played III for about fifteen minutes someplace.

[Spriggan]

There's lots of things about the Elderscrolls that make them some of the best games ever.

Game wise you've got worlds that are as big or bigger then most MMOs with an actual beginning and end but with some many different stories, paths and options its almost impossible to have the game play out the same way twice.

World wise you've got a company that has crafted a very realistic fantasy world where NPCs seam real (especially with the radiant AI on Oblivion), the stories are good and you can tell everyone working on the games love and respect the history they've created.

Though my words don't do the game series justice, head over to www.elderscrolls.com and watch all the Oblivion E3 demo movies found at http://www.elderscrolls.com/downloads/media_movies.htm.

[Parker]

Why did I have to find out about this just as I was getting my life back in order after letting my WoW account expire?  Sigh.  Looks really cool.  I'll probably have to try it.

[Fellfrosch]

On this topic, I just got the press release:

(edit: man, the text is all skeewampus, and I don't want to fix it. I will, though, sooner or later.)

Bethesda Softworks and 2K Games Announce

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion to Ship March 20

Quintessential RPG for the Next Generation Coming to Xbox 360 and PC  

Rockville, MD – March 2, 2006 – Bethesda Softworks® and 2K Games, a publishing label of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTWO), today announced that the highly-anticipated role-playing game, The Elder Scrolls® IV: Oblivion™ has gone to gold master and will be available in stores in North America and Europe during the week of March 20. Oblivion will be available for Xbox 360™ video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and PC in both regular and collector’s editions.

“Our most ambitious project ever is finally done,” said Todd Howard, executive producer of Oblivion. “We’re excited to get the game into everyone’s hands and let them experience it for themselves. We hope they enjoy it. I think it’s our best game yet.”

Oblivion is an epic, open-ended single-player RPG for the next generation providing gamers with one of the most life-like gaming experiences to date. The powerful combination of unprecedented graphics and freeform gameplay allows gamers to unravel the main quest or explore the vast world at their own pace. Oblivion is the fourth chapter in the award-winning Elder Scrolls series that includes Morrowind® (2002 RPG of the year – Computer Gaming World), Daggerfall™ (1996 RPG of the year -- PC Gamer), and Arena (1994 RPG of the year – Computer Player).

“Oblivion will set the new standard for next generation gaming and change the way role-playing games are viewed forever,” said Vlatko Andonov, president of Bethesda Softworks. “We set very high goals and ensure they are reached because that is what our fans deserve and have come to expect from Bethesda Softworks. We are very proud of our team’s accomplishments with respect to Oblivion.”

Oblivion has already garnered numerous awards and an impressive collection of accolades, including being voted “RPG of Show” in 2005 by the Best of E3 Game Critics Awards.  Oblivion ranks as one of the “Most Anticipated Games of 2006” according to PC Gamer, GameSpy, IGN, and Yahoo Games among many others, and has been featured on nearly thirty magazine covers worldwide.

“Oblivion is one of the most anticipated video games of 2006 and its release will be a milestone for the Xbox 360 and PC,” said Christoph Hartmann, Managing Director, 2K Games. “A shining example of next-generation role-playing, Oblivion breaks new ground in the genre with unparalleled graphics, revolutionary gameplay and an expansive RPG world.”          

Oblivion for Xbox 360 and PC, co-published by 2K Games and Bethesda Softworks, has been rated “T” for Teen by the ESRB.  For more information on the title visit the official web site at www.elderscrolls.com.

[Spriggan]

Here are the sys requirements of Oblivion, and the recommended is pretty hefty, though Morrowind was the same way.  Here's hoping I won't have the same experience with that I had with MW, ie having to wait 2 years after buying it to actually be able to play it without horrible frame rates.  Funny thing is if I had a better video card I could run this on the Lappy, my radeon mobile 7500 is starting to show it's age with only 16mb of memory.

Recommended:
3 Ghz Intel Pentium 4 or equivalent processor
1 GB System RAM
ATI X800 series, NVIDIA GeForce 6800 series, or higher video card

Minimum System Requirements:
Windows XP¹
512MB System RAM
2 Ghz Intel Pentium 4 or equivalent processor
128MB Direct3D compatible video card and DirectX 9.0 compatible driver;
8x DVD-ROM drive
4.6 GB free hard disk space
DirectX 9.0c (included)
DirectX 8.1 compatible sound card
Keyboard, Mouse

[Robert_Boyd]

I wonder if Oblivion fixes any of the problems that I had with Morrowind.  I couldn't stand Morrowind at all - I thought the combat was attrociously unpleasant (felt like someone took the worst parts of an action game & combined it with the worst parts of an RPG for a thoroughly unpleasant concoction), it took forever to get anywhere, and it felt like the I'd get 10 seconds of loading for every 1 minute of gameplay.  I felt like there were a million of NPC clones everywhere (what's the point of making a huge world if everyone acts the same?), etc.

Then again, I played the X-Box version of Morrowind; I imagine playing it on a good PC would at least mostly eliminate the loading problem.  I ordered a pretty good new PC this week (it should come in sometime tomorrow or the day after); I wouldn't be adverse to giving the sequel on my PC a try.  Not sure if I want to spend $50 on it though.  

The size is actually a detriment for me these days.  Back when I was in high school; I loved humongous games, but now that I've got a full time job and other activities to occupy me, I prefer 20 hour of awesome to 100+ hours of pretty good.

Does Metroid Hunters use the stylus for aiming?  If it does, I'm getting it no questions asked.  If not, I'll consider it, but probably pass.

[Spriggan]

combat in oblivion is non-rpg and more action game like, meaning if your weapon hit it deals damage none of the you can still be hitting the model and missing since it had an RPG percentage chance to hit.

There's now instant travel to any city via the map.

all the NPCs have their own AI pattern.

All of these things were addressed and demonstrated in the videos I linked earlier.

As for metroid, there are like 5-6 different control schemes some of which use the stylus to aim though most people say not using the stylus is easier.

[Robert_Boyd]

It sounds like they fixed a bunch of the problems I had with its predecessor so I probably ought to take a look at Oblivion.  The problem wasn't that attacks had an RPG chance to hit, it's that they had a D&D chance to hit (am I the only one who thinks that all the luck involved with D&D makes it an awesome tabletop RPG system and a horrendously stupid system for any PC or console game to use?). My problem with the NPCs was that you'd ask somebody a question in one part of town and get an answer that was exactly the same as someone on the opposite side of town.  I'd rather have a few important unique NPCs than a million of clones.

I'm a master of Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan! (that's the male cheerleading music game for the DS).  After the stylus gymnastics necessary for that game, I'm afraid using a stylus for Metroid will make the game too easy.