Anyone still play Oblivion?

I put over a 100 hours into right when it was released but haven't played it since. I never played any of the expansion packs but am thinking about picking up the GOTY edition and having another play through. I'm worried that it hasn't aged very well though. What did you think?

I saw a friend playing Oblivion a while ago. It hasn't aged well at all in terms of combat and frustrating leveling choices, but everything else is still pretty solid.

I've always loved elder scrolls clunky combat, but god the graphics look soo washed out!

I replay it from time to time, usually once a year.
For me, there is a certain charm to this game, it has plenty of soul

One of these faithful days I will go back and play it and its' expansions just so I can get max achievements.

Graphics aren't too bad if you get the more recent ENB presets, such as:

but otherwise it's the same game you remember. Skyrim really didn't improve combat all that much. Really, outside the deathblows Skyrim didn't improve the combat at all. And many would say the guild quests and story quest were better in Oblivion.

Only with mods.

It's funny that you bought that up because i just re downloaded the game on steam and starting modding it.i haven't played it in years.

I must have like 500 hours on it,more than skyrim and morrowind combined.

i started ps3 version i love oblivion i beat xbox 360 version about 130 hours

All the acclaim the game received back in 2006 persuaded me to get it for PS3 ,but I never managed to complete the first mission of the game.It sent me beyond one those gates of oblivion to find and rescue some people,I managed to save one ,and found another one in a cage.There was no clue how to rescue him or where to find others.

The amount of time some of you guys had to spend to beat the game is petrifying.A hundred hours ?

vanilla oblivion is dated and clunky, particularly on console. mod the hell out of it on the pc however and it's still really good and well worth jumping back into. can't say i was much of a fan of the shivering isles but i thought the other expansions were pretty good. horse armour was obviously some of the greatest dlc of all time ;)

lol, absolutely. i do DiD runs and play it for some time every year, throughout the year. "dated?" give me a break about the graphics and its faults: it's a great game. just like all tes games i create specific characters and play with many self-imposed rules and restrictions, since, i'm on the 360.

goto the tes websites and see if morrowind and oblivion are still being played, lol.

I just bought the GOTY edition for PS3 the other day. It still looks decent.

yup.. played through it on PC a few months ago.. i prefer it to Skyrim

@elkoldo: The main storyline is not that big. Thing is with TES games you never just stick to the main quest(unless it's your decision to ignore everything else), there are numerous distractions like exploring, sidequesting etc. And if you find yourself enchanted by the game's world(happened to me with Oblivion, not so much with Skyrim) then a 100 hours won't be enough for you.

I had the game for the 360 but recently bought the GOTY PC version from steam as I plan to get back to it at some point, about time I try the DLCs as well especially Shivering Isles which I've heard is pretty solid.

I can't imagine myself playing a game for 100 hours.That's insane ! However I can understand what you mean about getting absorbed to the game's world ,which one way or another will lead to spending more time within the world.I took over forty hours to beat Last of Us ,a game that anyone else would beat in 15-20 hours.

i'm still playing and its cool,with many mod!

@sandmand12: lol, i've ONLY played all the tes games on console and when i get my gaming computer i'll be re-buying them all and installing tons of mods!

and, getting witcher3, of course...

I loved Oblivion at the time but I don't think I could go back and play it again after Skyrim.

I played Oblivion for a few months this year. It's a lot of fun, especially with mods. There are a lot of great UI mods along with Better Cities, which, true to its name, makes the cities of Oblivion way better. Also, there are a lot of great quest mods out there (Verona House Bloodlines, Reclaiming Sancre Tor, etc.). After about 75 hours I got tired of the game and moved on, but I have it installed and the save files kept because I know I'll probably want to play it again in a couple of months.

Not since playing Skyrim.

At their respective times I preferred Oblivion to Skyrim (the latter felt way more drab and "been there, done that") but Skyrim is the better game overall.

If you want to play Oblivion, then you must get the GOTY and research the best mods to play it with (PC is the only platform you should play an ES game on). It's a very dated game in terms of design (it pushed graphics more than anything else, and it shows) and I personally couldn't see myself playing the vanilla version of the game again and ever enjoying it (I put over 600 hours into the PC and 360 versions total, at least).

Personally, if you don't already own Skyrim, get that instead and wait for the Skywind project to come out. Then you get two ES games for the price of one (although I think you need to own Morrowind for the mod to work).

Skyrim made the combat worse, actually. Spells taking space in one hand (=two handed made pointless, dual wield made pointless, shields made pointless, blocking made pointless).

@Archangel3371: having played all the tes games from morrowind up for thousands of hours on xbox consoles only i can easily say the smartest change i made to my gaming style was implementing hardcore and strict rules/restrictions on each and every character i create. and, adding intense DiD runs, of course, lol.

it completely changes the game into a more meaningful, difficult, immersive and enjoyable experience.

in fact, i actually thank the dumbing-down of skyrim in helping me to better perfect my restrictive gameplay and truly wish i'd have been gaming like i do now since morrowind.

truly revolutionary gaming for me.

(big props to BigWooly- the standard hardcore rules and the character-to-character DiD idea)

I prefer the melee combat, if only because of deathblows and mods that let me score a deathblow with each kill. The spectacle wins me over. But TES combat has always been pretty shitty anyway.

It is annoying that I can't do things like go from a two-handed grip to one handed grip, like in dark souls (there are valiant attempts at this with skse, but ultimately failures). Or that I can't use spells while holding a 2 handed weapon. No spears. The fact that I can't block while dual wielding, but I can block while carrying a torch is moronic. Some of the mods out there help by treating weapon configurations as stances and buffing those configurations so that I can do things adopt a swashbuckler stance where I have one sword and an empty left hand and get stat bonuses for that loadout. There's a lot of good ideas in the modding community. Maybe Bethesda will actually listen to them. Combat needs a huge overhaul in the next TES game.

I was actually considering picking up Oblivion GOTY until I saw some gameplay vids. I will say the Oblivion guilds (Thieves and Dark Brotherhood)have better stories and more interesting quests than Skyrim but Skyrim's combat, leveling system and unique dungeons trumps Oblivion imo.

It will get it, at least in one key area: we will get a quick spell button once again. It was in Oblivion, but in Skyrim they had to dedicate a button to dragon shouts, so the quick spell button had to go. The next TES game will not have shouts though (they would make no sense outside of the Dovahkiin story), so we'll get a mappable spell button back. That means the spells will not be handled via the triggers animore and LT/L2 will once again be used to block, as it should be.
Hopefully they will also implement some sort of timing to the blocking mechanic. The way it has been so far blocking has simply been a "reduce damage by 50%" thing, while it should have been a "deflect/parry incoming attacks" mechanic.

how bout not getting poisoned or diseased through a shield? That'd be nice start.

I think Oblivion did leveling much better, actually. Sure, it has that bone-headed "you need to sleep in a bed you own to level up" mechanic, but it increases your stats in a balanced way instead of telling you to pick between A, B or C like Skyrim does. In other words, each level granted you a little more health, a little more stamina and a little more mana instead of having to pick one and leave the other two unchanged like in Skyrim. It gave a realistic sense of getting allround stronger.

@Black_Knight_00: lol, i'll say any leveling system that takes attributes into account is fundamentally superior to those without. throw in the redundant and useless perks and skyrim's actual level-up mechanic (as opposed to how one levels up skills) is a perfectly dumbed-down system.

I originally played Oblivion on my xbox 360. I had a lot of fun in the game. But I haven't actually played it since i got it which i guess was 2006?

I bought the game again a couple years ago for PC, but only installed it briefly to test it... but never played through it again. But i'm sure if i do, i'll tinker around with some mods for it like I did for Skyrim.

Great game overall, I really liked how you could create your own magic spells powerfulness depending on how much mp and stuff they would use... really left for some interesting combinations. I remember having to create a powerful healing spell to run around during the day as a vampire to keep my health up and prevent death in the sunlight.

@Old_Gooseberry: i and many others are with you in your spells/magic viewpoint, lol. guess what? twoworlds2 has an unbelievably great alchemy and magic system that you get to experiment with and create.

if you're unsure, go youtube the concoctions, brews and spell combos, lol.

Yes and it's idiotic, because in real life there is no way that a guy who works out to "increase his health", or muscular resistance, won't increase his stamina in the process. Skyrim makes you choose either one instead.

They also need to figure out a way to prevent people from farming skills: whenever I start a new character in Skyrim I have to resist the temptation to just play a movie and keep pressing the L1 button for a couple hours as soon as I get the most basic Illusion spell so that I can boost the skill to level 80 immediately and be able to buy the master spell Invisibility on level 1.

@Black_Knight_00: use that ability to your advantage: i and others do DiD runs and we dictate the "start" of the game. just have a backstory, put the difficulty down to puzz level, do all you need to do to get your skills/perks, level, starting city, whatever (i'm on the 360) and then bump the difficulty up to your level and THEN the game starts.

big wooly's character to character DiD journal actually blew my mind and the next second i was kickin my azz for not verbalizing it myself. his writing skills are superb.

my point is: with the tutorial, you can start at whatever level you want for a character. THAT ability is something almost every single game in existent won't allow you to do.

don't get me wrong: i've been arguing against skyrim and oblivion for years. ( i give morrowind a slight pass because it's the fin building block and does too much better anyways.) certain people hate bigwooly's journal and my "hardcore" rules/restrictions. f em.

give me mod-like capabilities on my console games and i'll shut up. otherwise, tell me how the 360, ps3, ps4 and one can't do it, lol. tell me how not allowing one to swim in armor is tough or whistling my horse over is tough (2worlds1 got it) or, etcetcetc.

Yeah, I'm not really a mod person, but console ports need mod support, though i can see how it could be complicated, not being able to access installation folders.

i played it again a few months ago loved it, then replayed Skyrim and really loved it...not sure why but even with the bugs I still always will love Bethesda games

You made a valid point right there. Hopefully, Beth will get it right for TES VI.

I think they will and the reason I do is Dark Souls: in Skyrim, Bethesda simplified the character sheet to the bone because they evidently considered today's average gamer to be a drooling imbecile who has trouble counting to 3, but Dark Souls became massively popular pretty much across the board of gaming demographics, from CoD kids to hardcore RPG fanatics, and that game has 10 separate attributes to manage. Hopefully that's a signal for Bethesda that they don't need to make their games monkey-proof in order to sell.

Bethesda should just cut out even more of their lame rpg elements and focus on the gameplay/combat. (we know they can't write/do good 'story elements') At least maybe they could make a fun action/adventure type game with some magic possibly, instead of this game that tries to do everything and appeal to everyone, but falls flat because it really doesn't have any strengths. (besides having this pretty open world to wander around in)

I installed the game recently but didn't play it. What's the best mods to get for it?

@blangenakker: http://www.moddb.com/mods/nehrim-at-fates-edge

Indeed, one of the best mods I've ever played

@Black_Knight_00: unless, i'm being totally blind, they actually DID do away with the "character sheet", lol. there is no "character sheet" page anymore that gives you basic, fundamental info.

on one hand, you have the fools who hate "too many menus." though, accessing those menus is a choice and not a requirement. ie. they like less choice and option.

on the other, you have the fools who think the skyrim meny graphics is a grand phenomenon. though, they fail to realize it wastes money and space and takes away from what the game could have been had that money been spent elsewhere.

btw, for fun, no attributes means less options and less development for the, gasp, developers.

Well, the stats are there, there's 3 of them. That's a (very) simplified character sheet.

@Black_Knight_00: ya, i gotcha. i just remember trying to explain some things on a few different occasions and noticing there was no basic "character sheet" on one page with all the basic info, lol. i know it's nitpicking, but, as i think about it more and more, it makes total sense in this dumbed-down age.

in fact, if it were me, instead of wasting half the page allowing us to rotate that salt and read what it does i'd add an interactive and meaningful character sheet that would be a history of my character of sorts.

Not recently, but it still holds a spot as one of my favorite gaming experiences as well as one of the games i've spent the longest amount playing overall. It was one of the first games I bought when I purchased a xbox 360(along with Gears of War), which was my first next gen console at the time, and man did it blow my mind! Granted, it was one of the first games I played where NPC's had a schedule and where the world just felt alive so I didn't really care about how the combat was. All that mattered to me was that it worked as I explored what was a beautiful world to me which was filled with enemies, dungeons, quests, and essentially a living soul.

I stopped playing it a year after Skyrim came out to check it out and nothing really click about it the same way Oblivion did. The world felt desolate and empty. Yeah they were dragons, but they didn't feel as epic after you fought them the fith time around. I don't know, something about Skyrim didn't give me the same feeling Oblivion did.

@Darkmoone1: i suggest, with all sincerity, that you read bigwooly's skyrim journal. for many, it's revolutionary. and, rules can always be changed to fit you and your style. his second journal, (without giving spoilers) is truly revolutionary and i want to see it on all future games as an option. ALL.