Talshuler said:
Okay,
I'm going to get myself ready for the barrage of flames on this, but I really need some feedback on this. I've seen a huge amount of resentment to Oblivion here, with most people completely writing it off before it has even released.
My question is, what is so bad about the game? I loved DF and MW and can completely understand the arguements for and against both games, so I've obviously been waiting for OB to come out for a while.
Upto know I know the following about OB that I like:
- Radiant AI seems like it can really breath life into the world, something that both DG and MW lacked.
- Combat seems to be much improved - The fight with the elven fighter in one of the movies seemed to play like no other fight seen I've seen - much better
- It keeps to the fairly big world theme, but with more of DG's fast travel.
- Good physics engine again helps the atmosphere.
- Good character customisation - different builds seem viable (I'm looking at MW as a bad example of this)
The only thing I can't find much about is the quests - if they were very involved/different outcomes/not FEDEX etc. then I think that would clinch it for me - has anyone found out any good/bad news on this? Is there any other bad news that I've missed in my rush to want this game?
Regards,
Tal
I think its safe to say that yes Oblivion is going to be a further dumbed down vanilla dungeon hack distant relative of DF. They have to do this though. They have figured out that money keeps them in business and theres not enough hard-core rpgers (even if every single hardcore rpg fan bought oblivion and loved it out of the box its not enough) out there to keep Bethesda afloat.
So what they have to do is appeal to a wider audience but still remember the reason why they want to design cool rpgs (in a loose sense) in the first place.
So they'll release a dumbed down version of OB with fancy graphics physics and many casual gamers will buy OB because of this and will appreciate it because of this. Albeit it will be a shallow appreciation but as i said Bethesda need to grab more of the gamer market.
You will get at least 3x as many casual gamers buying OB than just RPG fans.
However Bethesda won't forget (or this is what i would hope) their real fans.
This is why they include the TES: Construction Kit. In theory they should be aiming to make this let the enthusiast mod the game to include many things that were in Arena, DF or MW i.e. to let the real fans of the heart of the game adjust the game themselves.
So, in summary Bethesda have to prostitute themselves in this way so they can gain a wider audience. Even if Bethesda included every single detail that everyone on this forum wanted in OB you would barely get an increase in sales. Its all about the money.
We've all heard about the brilliant games that have crap sales...devs get very disheartened when they put sweat, blood and tears into a game to make it as individual and unique as possible and then it barely sells!
Because you see whether OB is crap or brilliant most fans will still buy it.
But casual gamers wont buy it if it looks too hard-core for them.
Bethesda basically found a way to appeal to both sets of gamers and yield the maximum profit which keeps them in business to develop future games
Of course none of the above applies if the Construction Kit itself is dumbed down! (a massive missed opportunity to Bethesda if they dont give users the tools to re-make OB as they wish)