ES4: Oblivion - Editoral @ GameGrin

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GameGrin's writer James Furlong has posted a new article where he talks about why he prefers to play Oblivion instead of Skyrim. Here is a small sampleof the article.

Skyrim is bland and shallow. That may seem a very odd statement to a lot of people, but I’ll stand by it. Games as a medium are constantly evolving yet, in another fashion, devolving. The sense that ‘bigger is always better’ is one that has always been in the gaming psyche; even when games just became longer, contained more levels, hundreds of collectables etc, there was always a want for more. This to me, is where Skyrim falls down.

The game is huge and there is a lot to do, but at no point do you have to delve very deep to do any of it. It actively throws activities at you. In Oblivion, when you found something new it felt like you’d walked miles and talked to hundreds of people before getting to this point. It wasn’t a case of going from point to point, but a great sense of discovery. With the latest entry to the series Bethesda managed to make one of its most interesting franchises bland and highly repetitive.
More information.
 
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I think the guy miss the point. TES series are exploration /action RPGs. The gameplay is focused on give the players places to go, cities, dungeons, ruins, caves, etc. So more places, more fun.
So questing in the game was always secondary. Of course every single TES has story, plot, NPCs, etc. but is not what the game is all about.
Lately Bethsoft was focused on give players more freedom, but dumbing down the mechanics. Also the writing in TES:IV is better than in Skyrim.
I agree with him that Oblivion is more enjoyable to play it following the main quest than Skyrim, and avoiding sidequests and exploration. So if he likes story driven RPGs, TES has not much to offer.
 
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I find both games to be bland compared to Morrowind. Athough to be fair, I still haven't got around to playing much of Skyrim yet.
 
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One day, I need to try out Oblivion again with something like Obscuro's Overhaul installed. I never did play more than maybe 20 hours of the original game because of how boring it was...
 
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One day, I need to try out Oblivion again with something like Obscuro's Overhaul installed. I never did play more than maybe 20 hours of the original game because of how boring it was…

Incredibly boring. A bland dungeon after every single corner. And tedious! All the wildlife out to get you...

Morrowind wasn't much better, though it had its setting going for it. It managed to hold my attention a little longer than Oblivion, at least.

I have yet to try Skyrim, but I figure I shouldn't bother if it's more of the same...
 
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When it comes to boredom, shallowness, annoying and dumb content, Oblivion mastered it. As Fungus said, Skyrim is just slightly better.

And while Morrowind can't compete with Skyrim's (modded) graphics, it's superior in every other way to both Skyrim and Oblivion.
 
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I have yet to try Skyrim, but I figure I shouldn't bother if it's more of the same…

Skyrim is the only TES game I've ever managed to get into. Seems like Bethesda is making in effort to shrink the world a bit and concentrate on quest content (even if a lot of it isn't story related). I still never finished it, but did dump about 60 hours into it.

Been meaning to try Oblivion after my brother said it was kind of halfway between Skyrim and Morrowwind, which I just could never slog through.
 
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I spent more than 600 hours in Skyrim. About 400 hours in Morrowwind I think and probably about 200 in Oblivion.

Skyrim is great for people who wants to explore the world, visit new places, dungeons, castles. Talking about Skyrim being boring is just indication that someone has opinion which is different from opinions of millions people. That's OK, but boring as well :)
 
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I spent more than 600 hours in Skyrim. About 400 hours in Morrowwind I think and probably about 200 in Oblivion.

Skyrim is great for people who wants to explore the world, visit new places, dungeons, castles. Talking about Skyrim being boring is just indication that someone has opinion which is different from opinions of millions people. That's OK, but this is boring :)

For a given definition of new, where new means almost exactly the same as the rest. And hell, I have committed bigger crimes against the tastes of millions of people than just finding Skyrim boring. I find watching football boring, too.
 
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I installed Oblivion 3 times and failed to continue with it - just a 'hero that will save the world somehow' followed by ... scenary, kill bandits, and nothing; stopped playing after few hours.

One the other hand, I recently installed Two Worlds and got hooked and can't stop playing, in the same way I couldn't stop playing Divinity II, Gothic 3, and Fallout: NV.

I guess TES games are boring by nature and intended for people to wonder around collecting stuff and experimenting, and hence the modding tools to allow people to make the game interesting because Bethesda can't.
 
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I guess TES games are boring by nature and intended for people to wonder around collecting stuff and experimenting, and hence the modding tools to allow people to make the game interesting because Bethesda can't.

While Bethersda could not save you from being boring with TES games, it provided millions of people with many happy hours.

I know that some people don't like Microsoft because it is just too big, because it is everywhere. I guess some people don't like Bethesda (or any other big company like McDonalds) because it is everywhere and because everyone knows it and a lot of people loves it. Just trying to be different, no?

That's something that I call boring… unlike TES games which are really amazing ;)
 
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While Bethersda could not save you from being boring with TES games, it provided millions of people with many happy hours.

Good for them, whatever tickles their fancy - people have different interests and look at different things when gaming or otherwise.

But millions playing Skyrim or Oblivion does not qualify quality, in the same way millions play CoD, and millions of people smoke; that does not make these habits 'high quality'.

In the end, its different tastes, and Skyrim and Oblivion tastes horrible for me.
 
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But millions playing Skyrim or Oblivion does not qualify quality, in the same way millions play CoD, and millions of people smoke; that does not make these habits 'high quality'.

Some people who do not play Skyrim drink too much and abuse other people. I think that it is not something that good people should do. Drinking too much, abusing other people and not playing Skyrim at the same time is bad, you know ;)
 
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I spent 400 hrs. In skyrim but I must admit it would have been much much less if I couldn't mod it.

I found oblivion and morrowind to both be pretty boring. To be fair though when morrowind came out I was in a TB or RTWP only phase so I didn't give it much time at all. I did try and go back to it years later but the combat was too bad.
 
Last years I pay a lot of attention to hours which I spent in game. The more hours I spent, the more valuable the game is for me. Simple. I don't play the games that I find boring, do I? My absolute winner is LOTRO (The Lord of the Rings Online). It was a perfect combination for me: my first MMO, Tolkien world and a lot of RPG elements like exploration, quests, craft, skills, etc… Skyrim takes second place.
If I spend in game more than 50 hours I can't say that the game is boring. It is just not logical. The game can became boring after 50 hours of gameplay, of course. But it does not make the first 50 hours of gameplay boring.
 
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It's harder for sandbox games to channel your focus along a specific path, so some blandness may be inevitable. Trying to populate a huge setting with a multitude of unique additions and situations is costly.

But I agree that Skyrim seemed less interesting. I haven't been able to stick with it for long, unlike Oblivion.
 
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I spent a lot of time in Oblivion and a ton of time in Skyrim. I never actually finished the Skyrim main story line and every time I go back to try I do get too bored to continue. I think there is quite a bit of repetition in the various dungeon types, even though it was a lot better than in Oblivion.
I think what I really enjoy in these games is the exploring. I'm almost exclusively an RPG player, but when I do venture outside of the genre it's for games like Just Cause 2. I put a lot of time into that game too because I loved exploring that island.
I have high hopes for Frontiers. If that game looks good in the end and has an interesting world, I'll be pretty happy.
 
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If Skyrim devs had pushed through and managed to implement the civil war properly, I think the game could have been far less sleep-inducing. But it's still a good achievement for what it sets out to do - create a world for the casual player to feel special in... at least for a short while until the monotony sets in.
 
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I dunno. I agreed with the article's author, and I'm glad someone said what I'd always been thinking. Oblivion felt so magical to me...I was all alone in this big, colorful, dangerous world. Skyrim disappointed me from the beginning with its desaturated vistas and awkward controls. I always find myself missing Oblivion's beautiful world, and if I go back and play Skyrim from time to time, it's because there's always new content for it.

But everyone's got their own favorite Elder Scrolls title. I guess Oblivion is mine. ^.^
 
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