ES4: Oblivion - Review @ GCC

Dhruin

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Posting a link to a review of Oblivion with a score of 9.5/10 brings back some memories...here's a rather belated one from GameClubCentral but the score remains 9.5/10. Here's an early excerpt:
When you first walk your character outside, you can’t help but stop and look around at the world around you. It’s like the developers after watching the Lord of the Ring’s movies said ‘You know we need to make our game have some scenic sweeping vistas like that!”. As you stand there in the grass and wildflowers that sway in the wind, you can see the walls of a far off town cradled by tree covered hills and mountains. The game draws into the world as soon as you start looking at it! Did I mention the lighting too? Torches flicker and drop embers occasionally as you hold them in your hand. Luminescent fog hovering over a dungeon floor casts a pale and eerie glow just right for that ‘cold as death’ feel. Good stuff!
More information.
 
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As we all know, torches flickering and dropping embers is what rpg's are all about.
 
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You'd be amazed how late things come around - there was a VtM: Bloodlines review a couple of months ago ...
 
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Exactly DarNoor, depth, roleplay and development has nothing to do with it.. :p
 
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HI :)

Apparently,. all review for Oblivion I've seen or read did mention the stunning beautiful visuals, flickering torches and the grass etc. However, somehow they forgot to mention the gameplay, the story, especially the last-minute ushered in main quest (or so it felt, at least to me) and the interface etc.

How Oblivion got 9.5/10 is beyond me ???

IMO, the game is good, but not great....and should stand about 8.0/10,
maybe 8.5/10 --- for this game.
 
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Reviewers like to award high scores for games that break new ground. Certainly, Oblivion was revolutionary when it game out in terms of graphics, world and open-ended gameplay, so that alone makes it a memorable achievement in their eyes.

Then, if the rest of the game is not horrible (face it, it isn't) the end result will be a high score.
 
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Oblivion is not revolutionary in openended gameplay. The games Bethesda released before that, Morrowind and before that Daggerfall, were just as open but a lot larger, and offered more joinable guilds, quests, factions, more skills, more armor and weapons, the list goes on.
Olblivion is pretty, but the gameplay in the TES series gets watered down in favor of graphics with each release...

other games, like Gothic, offer just as much open ended gameplay, and a lot more real choices, a more believable world, and so on.
oblivion is eyecandy, once you get past that, it is a mediocre game, more FPS with swords then RPG, in my opinion.
 
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The only thing they can comment on in the game is the "Graphics" yeah lets take a look around oh pretty graphics but lets talk about the actual gameplay *cuts all that out now Bethesda hands you a nice bribe"

9.5 out of 10 perfect game in every way!

Oops they forgot to mention:

1. 1500 npcs wich are all dull look the same with the same clothes no memorable npc's all generic.

2. 5 or 6 voices for the whole game every race has the same voice they are very boring and phony.

3. Lifeless boring world their radiant ai is laughable all they do is talk nonsense over and over like we have seen in other games.

4. Terrible boring generic quest every quest you just go into a cave kill everything pick something up gets boring EVER QUEST.


Oops but none of that exists and cant be mentioned in reviews! 9.5 out of 10 for sure lol...

I finished Gothic 3 and was disapointed in alot of things and didn't live up to Gothic 1 or 2 this was because they dumbed it down for Americans and doing so ruined it a great deal.
 
I've actually KNOWN game critics...

I used to know a few people who wrote these reviews (no names; They know who they are) back in the early days of the 'Net. It's all a sham. If you don't give a good review, you don't get the free copy for the next game. It's just that simple.

I was going to bite the bullet & get this one when it finally broke the US$39.99 level but seeing as how they're now going to be releasing an expansion (which they claimed they were never going to do originally), I'll wait until the bundle is US$39.99. No sense wasting money on a 'Casual RPG.'
 
I used to know a few people who wrote these reviews (no names; They know who they are) back in the early days of the 'Net. It's all a sham. If you don't give a good review, you don't get the free copy for the next game. It's just that simple.'
That simply isn't true on a widespread basis anymore.
 
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I remember a guy made a little review complaining about how the game looked or something on a forum and a whole bunch of people couldn't handle that and "flamed him" even that fat slob from 3d Realms (Duke Nukem Forever) George posted a flame lmao (shows hes hard at work on Duke Nukem Forever eh posting on forums lol)
 
There are a lot of corrupted reviews out there, but I don't think bribing is the biggest issue. I think the copy-paste syndrom is worse nowadays, where people get paid to review a game and all they do is google it and re-write what they find, hence why so many reviews are all the same.

There are still decent people out there though, who write good reviews. You just have to find the sites that provide solid reviews and stick to them.
 
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The only one I know of is RPG Codex, and they don't review enough games to make it worthwhile waiting for them to review something. ;)
 
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I don't think G3 was dumbed down for the Americans. I think maybe the gameplay was changed and the combat was changed because the G3's devs., Piranha Bytes, wanted to sell more copies, both in the US and in Europe. So you could argue PB now (also) caters more to the mainstrean audience than they did before. (which, in today's computer gaming market simply is somewhat of a must, imo, since it cost so much nowadays to develop games).

However, imo, PB has made a decent, well-founded, well-rounded and good game which has stayed true to the Gothic universe, while they've added some (minor) chnages in gameplay and interface to satisfy the mainstream market. This means, imo, that Gothic 3 is not for any one, but just for the fans of the rpg genre.

To me, this is very good thing :)
 
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