|
| 
 enlarge | From: Bethesda
Category: Video Games
List Price: $59.99
Buy New: $52.91
You Save: $7.08 (12%)
New (16) Used (8) from $42.91
Avg. Customer Rating:  43 reviews
Sales Rank: 436
Format: Playstation
Platform: Playstation 3
ESRB: Mature
Media: Video Game
Edition: Game of the Year
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Batteries Included: No
Age: 17 - 20 years
Operating System: Playstation 3
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 8 x 10 x 6
MPN: OBLIVION PS3
Model: 12610
UPC: 093155126107
EAN: 0093155126107
ASIN: B000TVT7U4
Release Date: October 16, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: BRAND NEW , SEALED GIFT READY , , IN STOCK
|
| Customer Reviews:
 A sprawling epic, held back by the forced ventures into Oblivion Gates July 28, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Others have written volumes on the merits of ES4:Oblivion. Instead I will provide bullet points
Pros
- Something for everyone. Alchemy, hack and slash, exploration, fetch questing, summoning, lore, etc... play how you want to play
- high quality art design and technical graphics
- many lines of unique spoken dialogue
- AI characters interact with each other, including fighting each other in the wild
- emergent gameplay, AI reacts to what you do
- customize your own weapons and spells
- choose your own adventure, quest in the fighter's guild, or join the dark brotherhood and become a murderous assassin
- hundreds of hours of gameplay
- difficulty slider, want to be an unstoppable god? slide it down to easy
cons
- scaling items and monsters. As you level, monsters level, items level, and the difficulty levels. Essentially this defeats the purpose of leveling and reduces combat to action game style hack and slash.
- some items do not level, if you obtain them early on in the game, they become weak and outdated items
- depending on what skills you level, the mid game (Levels 12-20) can become unbalanced. Enemies gain health and deal massive damage at mid levels. Easy 1 on 1 fights become loading screens when its 3 on 1.
- without max STR, END and the right custom spells closing Oblivion gates can become tedious due to the need to wait to regen magic
- once you "figure out" which spells work the best and max the right skills/stats or obtain the correct gear the game becomes too easy for 90% of the monsters.
- basically it's tough to find the right balance w/ the slider. At some levels the default difficulty is either far too easy, or in some cases too hard meaning closing a single oblivion gate can be a 25 minute chore of grinding on the same monsters over and over again.
- once you get 80+ in blade or blunt or block and get a few reflect damage items , normal enemies die at your feet.
- however if you do not go that route, prepare to load up on restore magic potions and scrolls because
- there is no spell to restore magic, yet there is one to restore health. This means if you try to play as a pure mage you still need very high STR to carry all those potions
- the deep enchanting system results in sub par gear compared to what can be found elsewhere, rendering the entire enchanting system somewhat pointless
- for self enchanted items, sigil stones from the oblivion gates have the greatest power, again rendering traditional enchanting moot.
- certain spells are locked out of enchanting
- many glitches and places to get broken quests (I ran into a quest where i needed an 2 items that were supposed to be next to each other. When I arrived, only 1 item was there... breaking the quest, turned out minor as the quest resolution allowed you to use cash instead of the 2 items)
- frustrating escort missions. Friendly AI is flat out broken and the CPU will jump in front of your attacks causing you to attack them by mistake, they will do this constantly.
- because everything around you levels, that makes all areas equal. There are no "high level" areas that are scary, or "low level" areas that are fun for farming. Every area levels with you, from level 1-30 the gameplay only changes in terms of which items or spells you have. Trolls hit hard at level 1, and hit hard at level 30. The only difference will be what gear and spells you have.
I.e. if you have nice gear and spells even at level 10 you can fry them as easily as you can at level 30. Unless you dont have a fire based damage attack.
 The love-hate relationship continues... June 16, 2008
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
I've always wanted to just dive into the PC RPG experience, but every time I have (usually with the "Ultima" series, but there have been a few others), I've left with a lukewarm feeling. I had hoped that "Oblivion" would finally be the game that got me over the hump. But alas, while "Elder Scrolls IV" is a very fun and engrossing game, it still suffers from many of the pitfalls of its PC predecessors, and also has one more wrinkle to boot. But let's begin with:
The Good:
Story: Non-existent. Now, why is that good? Because the player isn't forced to follow some silly linear quest for the duration of the game. Yes, "Oblivion" has a sort of main focus, but it really can be pushed to the sidelines, sue to the incredible amount of other things to do. I mean, seriously, one can
1) Join a Mage's/Fighter's/Thief's/Assassin's guild
2) Run around as a hero-for-hire
3) Attempt to make money to buy houses and the like
4) Hunt in one of the uncountably infinite number of ruins/forts/caves/mines/dungeons to be found in the game
5) Become a gladiator
etc. etc.
This game is HUGE. And I love it for that.
2) Battle mechanics: I've rarely been a fan of the first person slash game, but "Oblivion" gets it right. Enemies move fast, and while some enemies act remarkably stupidly, others will fight well. You can devise your own style of play as well. Are you one that likes to run into the fray screaming? Do you like to fire off spells or arrows from afar? Do you prefer to stalk your prey and slash in the darkness? Take your pick.
3) Character development: I spent an hour just designing my character's physical appearance. Yet "Oblivion" allows you to also develop their traits, their race, their skills - heck, even their birthsign is a big deal. And the game allows you to expand on their abilities, creating a very personalized character. I myself prefer slinking around in the night, and killing my prey up close. Thus, instead of using one of the many pre-made character classes, I instead created the "skulk". You can do whatever you want. Want to be a reptile that breathes underwater, is an incredibly wizard, and can wield a mace? be my guest. Want to be an elf who fights with a sword? No one's stopping you. Want to be a vampire? You can even do THAT in time.
Sounds great, right? In short, the world of "Oblivion" is huge and varied. You can play for days without ever touching the main quest. Heck, I haven't even bothered with the expansions.
Unfortunately, not all that glitters is gold. Here's the bad:
1) The levelling system: Without a doubt, this has taken the most heat, and it is ALL deserved. Mostly, the reviewers here have complained that whenever you level, so too does the world around you. But really, this doesn't fully explain the trouble here. So, instead, I choose to give an example (apologies: I will expose one small end to a large quest).
While advancing in the mage's guild, I noticed that I hadn't been levelling up. Not a big deal, as my character was an assassin mostly, and so level should matter that much (if a child sneaks up on you and cuts your throat, you're still going to die). However, I was faced with the so-called King of Worms, and lord of all necromancers. He saw me, and there was no way my level 1 character was going to win. Right? Ummm, no - he brandished a dagger, I sported a sword, and the battle lasted a little over 30 seconds. I had vanquished arguably one of the most powerful denizens of the world, and was rewarded greatly.
This in and of itself is really unbelievable, but it gets worse. Afterward, I decided, "What the hey?" and leveled myself to level 10. And as it turns out, I couldn't even beat the guardians of the king, let alone the master himself. That's right - leveling my character actually made me WEAKER in the end.
And that is the rub. "Oblivion" is simply broken. Keep your character at level one, and you will ensure that you clear pretty much any quest in the game. Level your character normally, and expect a real challenge. It's not as bad as some have mentioned, but it certainly makes for a longer and more tedious game, as you must recollect armor, weaponry, etc. This is a MAJOR weakness. It is silly that a level one character can defeat anything thrown at him. It is even sillier that a level 10 character suddenly cannot.
2) Graphics: It's like looking in a funhouse mirror. I despise the creepy figures with which I am accosted in every town. It is obvious that the developers spent a lot of time and effort in designing the most realistic-looking people they could find. It is also apparent that we have a LONG way to go. I would have preferred more canned people to the horrors in the game.
3) Voice acting: Ugh. Painful. There are like 5 voices used for the plethora of characters you will see throughout the game. It is a horror. Moreover, because of one particular skill (speechcraft), you can bet that you'll hear these voices saying the SAME lines, over and over again. How many times I've heard "Blah blah blah - what a bore" from some incredibly lame voice, I can't even count. And the nonsense they blather - you would think that americans would write better conversation. It would seem that they spent their time writing tomes and tomes of useless books rather than spending quality time developing the characterization of the NPCs inhabiting "Oblivion".
4) Glitches: Bad ones. One time, the load screen appeared, and the PS3 simply froze. I actually had to unplug the system to unfreeze it. That's really bad.Clipping issues abound, particularly when swimming in caves, but this is to be expected. Sometimes, weird stuff happens (a soldier walking on air attacked and killed me, because I couldn't guard from his attacks). This is expected somewhat - I've never found a PC game without such glitches, and in the end, mostly nonfatal. However, I don't like anything that freezes up my entire system.
While a couple of the points might be nitpicky, the first is not. The leveling system is an abomination. I can't fault the developers too much for this - they were trying to make a truly non-linear experience, the holy grail of RPGs. But, the leveling system is a complete and total failure. The fact is, there is NO reason that my character should be weaker because he levels. None. And yet, here we are.
Long story short - this is a fine game, and one of the best for the PS3. But it isn't without its major problems. A player might become overwhelmed if he isn't careful with the leveling.
AN ALL-TIME GREAT June 15, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I just recently bought the Game of the Year Edition for PS3, and to answer the burning question, YES, YOUR SAVED GAME FROM ELDER SCROLLS OBLIVION WILL TRANSFER OVER TO THE GAME OF THE YEAR EDITION. The GOTY edition contains Shivering Isles and Knights of the Nine. To play Shivering Isles, all you have to do is WAIT or SLEEP for 24 hours and a quest is updated and a marker on your map will appear. How easy is that! And Knights of the Nine, I'm told you are to talk to the prophet outside the chapel in Anvil. Sorry for all that, just trying to help out some of the Oblivion fans. As for my review of the game, AMAZING, UNBELIEVABLE, AWESOME. This is the best game I've seen since Zelda Ocarina of Time, and YES, I have played GTA IV! Just pick this game up, although I reccommend getting the Game of the Year Edition for the extra content. AND PLEASE, get the game for PS3! I've played both versions, 360 and PS3, and the PS3 version just looks fantastic. The 360 version, alright, but pails in comparison to the PS3 version. 5 out of 5! GET IT!!!
Very addictive May 28, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
This game is incredibly detailed, with lush visuals, atmospheres, and music. You can complete quests at your own whim, without any restrictive rules or measures that are usually a part of RPG-type games. This is probably the best game I have played besides Dragonquest VIII, which is a bit more fun and whimsical. It is easy to play this without realising how much time has actually passed by -- very addictive.
Get This Game! May 3, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This game is vast with a huge array of characters to interact with and quests to undertake. I bought it for my husband as a birthday present but we try to share it equally in order to to maintain a stable marriage! I love this game, the detail is remarkable - in the variety of buildings, the scenery outdoors, the plants and the people/creatures along the way. My husband, who has been a Dungeon Master in D&D, is more interested in the stats than I am, I'm just in it for the ride and find it very entertaining and hugely enjoyable - I strongly recommend this game!
|
|
|
Copyright action-web.net 2007 | |
