Oblivion gone gold

[doc_bean]

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.

I figured a few people here might like the news

[Dutch_guy]

Great !

Always do like to hear exact dates as to when it's released

[Lemur]

Yeeeee-haaaah. Me and my Radeon 9700 pro are going to bring the noise. Let's hear it for low resolutions and close draw distances!

[edit]

Okay, to make my post slightly less calorie-free, here are a couple of links:

IGN review of Oblivion on the Xbox 360
IGN review of Oblivion on the PC

[Steppe Merc]

Gah... well at least by the time I have enough money, there should be some mods out...

[Bob the Insane]

Argh....

PC or 360, PC or 360...

And only a couple of weeks left to decide!!

[TinCow]

I guess it's about time to order those upgrades.

[Nelson]

I guess it's about time to order those upgrades.

Not 'til M:TW2 arrives! Then I'll accommodate them both.

[Slyspy]

Argh....

PC or 360, PC or 360...

And only a couple of weeks left to decide!!

PC surely since Oblivion is going to be as moddable as Morrowind.

[TinCow]

From what I have read, the 360 version of Oblivion struggles with the graphics.

[Steppe Merc]

Deffinetly get the PC. It's moddable, and also you can change the settings based on your system.

[Vladimir]

Huh, so they're actually going to release it? Oh well, no crossbows or spears makes Imperial a dull troll.

[[DnC]]

Sooooooo neaarrr!!! I am very eager to play Oblivion, it just looks awemazing!
It comes out, according to the site where I pre-ordered the game, on March 24th, two days before my birthday. I got myself the collector's edition, anyone else is getting it aswell?

[TinCow]

I'm itching to play this... have been all week. What do you think the odds are that my local EB will get it in on Monday the 20th? I know it says it ships on the 20th, but I'm hoping that they'll get it a day early and keep it behind the counter or something.

Ug... I feel like a kid waiting for Christmas.

[phred]

I'm itching to play this... have been all week. What do you think the odds are that my local EB will get it in on Monday the 20th? I know it says it ships on the 20th, but I'm hoping that they'll get it a day early and keep it behind the counter or something.

Ug... I feel like a kid waiting for Christmas.

My preorder shipped last night (March 20) and will be delivered today.
I asked for 3-day shipping, and it's getting delivered overnight - that's a nice bonus for living in a large city.
I imagine some stores will have it today.

[Zalmoxis]

I'll wait until it's cheaper.

[Proletariat]

Alright, come clean. Who here called in sick or blew off school today for this?

[Lemur]

I'd love to, but I can't. I got the game last night, and I'm still stuck in the cycle of work-family-sleep. I managed to get one hour in before bedtime. One hour! As if that can sate my need.

I'm pinning my hopes on this weekend. Maybe I can get 6+ hours in a row of pure Oblivion bliss. That would be nifty.

Edit: Don't try for high resolution with a Radeon 9700. I'm just saying.

[Xiahou]

I dunno, I like the game, but I think Im just a little disappointed. The game is a system hog (no one should be suprised by that though), and it seems more like an Xbox360 game that's been ported to the PC than an actual PC game. The menus are clunky and all seem to be setup like they're designed for a controller. The mini-games are just annoying- especially the persuasion one, which imo does far more to damage immersion than help it. Also, while I can understand the desire for map travel, I dont really like how it's implemented- I think I'd like it better if you were forced to walk to and discover all locations the first time and then able to map to them subsequent times.

Its not that it's bad, it's just that for supposedly being so cutting edge- there are so many other games that have done it better. Obviously, Mount&Blade blows it away combat-wise and while playing, I find I keep drawing unfavorable comparisons between Oblivion and games like Gothic2.

[screwtype]

I dunno, I like the game, but I think Im just a little disappointed. The game is a system hog (no one should be suprised by that though), and it seems more like an Xbox360 game that's been ported to the PC than an actual PC game. The menus are clunky and all seem to be setup like they're designed for a controller. The mini-games are just annoying- especially the persuasion one, which imo does far more to damage immersion than help it. Also, while I can understand the desire for map travel, I dont really like how it's implemented- I think I'd like it better if you were forced to walk to and discover all locations the first time and then able to map to them subsequent times.

Its not that it's bad, it's just that for supposedly being so cutting edge- there are so many other games that have done it better. Obviously, Mount&Blade blows it away combat-wise and while playing, I find I keep drawing unfavorable comparisons between Oblivion and games like Gothic2.

I simply can't understand all the fuss about this game. The Elder Scrolls series has no combat worth the name and the interface is terribly clunky and old-fashioned. Even the fonts they use look like something out of 1989.

Apart from the pretty graphics (which aren't that good, especially after you have to turn the gamma way up just to see what you're doing) there really isn't a lot to recommend it, except perhaps for the fact that the game world is so big. But IMO, big is not necessarily beautiful anyhow.

[TinCow]

I would have agreed with you on the combat for Morrowind, but Oblivion is much different. Combat can be very tactical if you plan it that way. You can still charge in and bash on each other with no tactics or blocking, but you'll get seriously hurt and your armor will break fast when you have low skill levels. I personally have gotten the most fun out of doing stealth kills. Ranged weapons work fabulously if you can get a stealth hit on your enemy.

The graphics are far better than any other RPG ever made. They're slightly lower than Doom 3/Quake 4 but the huge open nature of the world more than makes up for that. I can't count the number of times I stopped just to enjoy the view during my play last night. While I'm sure it is a spec hog, the game runs flawlessly with no bugs or slowdowns at all on my machine in 1024x768 with all effects on except AA (though I may try it with some low AA, since it needs it). I've even bumped the draw distance of everything up to the max and still experienced no slowdowns outdoors on those grand vistas. For reference, I'm running a p4 3.0ghz, 1gb ram, GF 6800 256mb.

Yes, both my wife and I considered calling in sick today.

[TB666]

Well managed to play it on 800x600 and medium settings.
I got 2.3 ghz Celeron
512 MB RAM
Radeon 9800 Pro 128 mb
It runs pretty smooth(around 15-10 fps).

Created a nice Nord warrior..


^Yeah I look cool

^Damn goblins

^nice

^Very nice

^Nice and very easy to lockpick now

^Going shield to shield with a goblin

^Finally out in the open air

[Ja'chyra]

Please stop with the screenshots, I'm skint and now I really want to buy it

[Xiahou]

The graphics are far better than any other RPG ever made. They're slightly lower than Doom 3/Quake 4 but the huge open nature of the world more than makes up for that. I can't count the number of times I stopped just to enjoy the view during my play last night. While I'm sure it is a spec hog, the game runs flawlessly with no bugs or slowdowns at all on my machine in 1024x768 with all effects on except AA (though I may try it with some low AA, since it needs it). I've even bumped the draw distance of everything up to the max and still experienced no slowdowns outdoors on those grand vistas. For reference, I'm running a p4 3.0ghz, 1gb ram, GF 6800 256mb.

Yes, both my wife and I considered calling in sick today.

My system is similar to yours AMD64 3200, 1gb ram, ati800xl(overclocked). It runs acceptably(Ive been checking my FPS with fraps), but generally under 30fps. When I turned on 2xAA it would run ok- except it turned into a total slideshow whenever the assassins died and exploded (or whatever they do) in the sewers. That was totally unacceptable to me, so I decided I was better off with no AA.

My draw distances arent maxxed on everything either, maybe I'll turn em up and see what impact it has, if any. I'd sure love the grass draw distance to be longer- it looks like it's growing before my eyes as I walk along currently.

[TB666]

More screenshots.


^Man I want his helmet.


^The Imperial city looking gloomy


^nice


^A bandit that ambushed me


^Well a pretty night sky


^A nice view from a church tower


^A nice statue and my newly purchased claymore.

[Lemur]

Only two and a half hours 'till work is over ...

And then only three hours until the baby lemur is in bed, asleep ...

Then I shall get my one or two glorious hours with Oblivion. Then I have to start all over again. Yowza. I hear people complaining about their framerate -- hey, mine just dropped below 30 frames per hour. It sucks to be a grownup.

[Geoffrey S]

Would Oblivion run decently on a computer with 3 GHz, 1024 Ram and a GeForce FX 5200? Not that I've got any time to play for some time yet, but it'd be nice to know if I have to upgrade at some point; I've heard the game is pretty scaleable.

[Xiahou]

Please stop with the screenshots, I'm skint and now I really want to buy it

Here's one of my Redguard as dawn breaks high in the Jarrell Mountains (maybe the one's TB666 sees from his tower screenie? )

click for full size

Of course, I wont say what I found up there.

[TB666]

(maybe the one's TB666 sees from his tower screenie? )

Yes it is .
You can see the great tower in Imperial city to the left. The tower I was on should be somewhere in the direction you are looking at.

[TinCow]

Would Oblivion run decently on a computer with 3 GHz, 1024 Ram and a GeForce FX 5200? Not that I've got any time to play for some time yet, but it'd be nice to know if I have to upgrade at some point; I've heard the game is pretty scaleable.

No, people with GF 5XXX series cards have reported at best running on the lowest possible settings while many get 5FPS even then. However, the rest of that looks fine. You can get a decent card that will allow you to run Oblivion on high settings for under $200 now.

[Proletariat]

No, people with GF 5XXX series cards have reported at best running on the lowest possible settings while many get 5FPS even then. However, the rest of that looks fine. You can get a decent card that will allow you to run Oblivion on high settings for under $200 now.

Hrm. Heard anything about the 6600gt folks? I get the feeling I'm right where 'it would be stupid to upgrade, but the graphics will still suffer.'

Edit: Reading on the elderscrolls.com forums that folks with 7xxx cards are getting 8fps outdoors.

Edit: Fantastic link for folks who have system requirement questions.
http://www.elderscrolls.com/forums/i...ic=270923&st=0