Everything about this game thus far is just spectacular. The production qualities are just top-flight; truly cinematic is an accurate description. The graphics, the soundtrack, character settings, everything has been just awesome. I have a feeling I'm going to be playing this one for a long time. If all of you don't hear from me for a while, I might just be lost in Oblivion... :)

I have never even heard of this game. What is it about?

@Harbourboy

Disable your spam filters and see the link to order it :)

The Elder Scroll games have been around for a long time, perhaps close to 12 years. They have been great, first person RPGs, known mostly for being huge, open-ended quest games. This one lets you flip between first and third person with a touch of the mouse. You start the game as a prisoner (again), and witness the escape of the king from his own palace. The king recognizes you from his dreams. You follow behind him and his guards - and the fun begins...

Man... can't wait for my copy to get here! What kind of character you going to use?

I'm playing an Imperial, and my strategy will be to use a stealth-fighter, with some magic support.

Hey Chandos! You're taunting a desparate man! The only comp I have that would be able to run the game is actually company property and they've gotten really tight about any installed personal software! Facists!

I'll have to wait a while before I can actually try it. Meanwhile...send screenshots and I'll live vicariously through you ;)

How can there be an RPG that has been around for 12 years that you guys all seem to love, that I have never heard of? All I ever read on these Boards is people complaining that the only RPGs worth playing are BG and BGII (and maybe PST, NWN, IWD and IWD2) and why aren't there more good RPGs and here you are saying there is another whole series of them?

Um... well, this entire forum is dedicated to this series of RPG's that you've never heard of, and there are now 59 topics...

You have never heard of Morrowind?

Daggerfall I can understand since it's older and by all accounts I've heard, pretty buggy.

HB - The Elder Scrolls: Arena, Daggerfall and Morrowind. You've never heard of any of these? Also, there is the Might and Magic series, which is also good stuff and has been around even longer...

Daggerfall was really buggy, but nevertheless a great game.

/me notices new forum. How long has this forum been here. I apologise for not noticing, but I still have not heard of any of the games you have mentioned. How come everyone complains that there are no good CRPGs any more, if there are all these other games available? How come these games don't seem to show up on all those top 5 best CRPG lists that crop up from time to time around here?

You mean like this one where they're (mostly Morrowind) mentioned in at least a half-dozen posts? ;) http://www.sorcerers.net/ubb/ultimatebb.php?/topic/15/1453.html

Keep in mind, HB, that SP was dedicated to D&D based CRPG's until Tal, in a stroke of brilliance, created this forum.

I might be dreaming, but I can't see the words Elder or Morrowind on that whole page, BTA.

Sorry, start on the second page of that thread. There are references on both the second and third page...

Someone on the internet who's never heard of Elder Scrolls before?
Now that's a first, well, a first for me.

I want Oblivion real bad, but unfortunatly my computer wouldn't be able to run it at all. Oh well, in the future perhaps, hahah.

Same here, want to play a decent RPG again, also feeling nostalgic from Morrowind :)
My computer is far below minimum specs though. Kinda considering buying a new monster of a computer. Besides Oblivion, Black&white 2 and Call of Duty 2 will run smooth on it, which is quite a bonus.

/me goes to check the prices

I've already pre-ordered it. I'm getting it on Friday as it arrives here. If CtR likes it I hope I will too. Gonna play me a Nord Battle Cleric - think Priest of Tempus :)

I'm hopefully getting it on Friday...and I pray to some higher celestial entity that my computer can run it! :p If not I'll cry...and then quite possibly get over it and upgrade my computer :D

I'll post my first views on this game as soon as I can!

Hopefully my paycheck comes in later today, or at least tomorrow, because right now it's available in stores, but i have only a lousy handful of €'s in my bankaccount. After buying a new comp, new speakers, and preordering a new 19 inch wide/flatscreen monitor, in completely broke. The good news is that my new comp can easily handle Oblivion in it's highest detail settings.

Chandos, that's the same kinda character I was thinking of trying. Lemme know how it goes!

My impressions so far:

Runs smoothly on my x850XT @ 1280x1024 but I havent made it outside yet. Textures are nice. Combat is about 1/2 way between the mushy disconnected combat from Morrowind and the crisp melee of Gothic 2. The addition of shield blocking adds some much needed depth.

Graphically its unrivaled for an RPG. However, the much heralded character animations and realism have a way to go to match Half Life 2.

Thankfully character controls, movement and running speed are a big improvement over Morrowind. The 3rd person option is better implemented as well - should you opt for that. Running feels like running. Strafing is improved, stealth/sneak is nicely implemented.

The biggest shortcoming of Oblivion is the interface. Fonts are WAY too large and distracting. They are so large its ludicrous. The interface is very consolish and in my opinion poorly implemented. Its far too large and does not scale with resolution changes. This means it will take up > 50% of your screen whether you run at 640x480 or 1600x1200. The interface amazingly lacks a paper doll. It uses a bunch of icons instead of text with no tooltips. Clearly it was designed for the XBOX360 - so console users can see it clearly from a couch sitting position. Big icons and big text. Thats bad for PC users. The result is that it feels like a port to the PC. I feel it severely interrupts gameplay and immersion but your mileage may vary.

Like I pointed out - I havent gotten outside yet so I havent really tapped into the best part of the game. So far its only an average improvement over Morrowind - essentially in melee combat and graphics. If I ranked those features as 50% or so improved the interface is 80% worse.

Its a net positive but I'm really not digging the interface.

I completely disagree. The interface is very easy to use. And I'm a bit tired of straining my eyes on the tiny resolutions in most game menus anyway. The graphics in HL2 are a bit better than Oblivion's - if only HL2 had a game to go along with them, I may have been a bit more impressed with it in the long run.

To each his own. And I was only comparing the HL2 graphics for character animations - specifically facial animations - certainly not gameplay.

There is no getting around the interface design though - its intended to be console friendly at the expense of the PC. Compare it to the Morrowind interface. The biggest backlash Oblivion has gotten so far has been that interface.

Oh, I agree - to each his own. But I've never really played a console game in recent years, so the comparison, at least for me, is meaningless.

Wow - you guys seem to think this game is going to be the next big thing. How have I missed all the pre-game hype of this one? It seems like all I read is the endless speculation over BG3 and NWN2. I've never seen anyone talking about the long wait for Oblivion, which is probably why I have had never heard about it.

HB: there's an advert for Oblivion 1 inch below your post. You have ads blocked or something?

Anyway... the beauty of Oblivion (at least on the PC) is that the player community will most assuredly modify it. So the interface is too big? Fonts too small? Imperials too ugly? No shurikens? Wait a couple months and you'll see mods to adjust/add all those things and more, I am certain.

And waiting is exactly what I'll be doing as my current PC won't be able to handle Oblivion. And I probably won't be upgrading anytime soon. So maybe in 6 months I'll be getting it at which point it should be properly patched and have loads of cool mods.

HB: there's an advert for Oblivion 1 inch below your post. There are no ads below my post (or below your post) on my screen.

One of the optional benefits of an SPS account...

Harbourboy, in all my years of prowling the Alleys I have never been so shocked and appalled as to read that you have never played, much less heard of, the Elder Scrolls series. And you call yourself a CRPGer!

Get thee to the SP link and order Oblivion today. And if your computer can't handle that, pick up Morrowind. Better, get them both. Lock the doors, unplug the phone, and start playing these games. The Black Isle games are good but they are NOTHING compared to the wonder and glory of the Elder Scrolls series.

How would I have ever heard about it? I don't go to computer game shops and I never read computer game magazines and I don't have any RL friends who play computer games. Other than a random purchase of Icewind Dale II when I was bored and needed something to do, the only place I ever hear about computer games is right here - and until very recently, you never talked about this game.

Got my copy and my new video card yesterday. I tried to run it on my old video card (FX 5600) and wow, that wasn't working. So I popped in my new one and got to playing. The game is awesome so far, I'm using an imperial spellsword character.

How do you rate my chances with Celeron 2.4 GHz, 512 MB RAM (400 MHz), FX5900XT? As in, is there any sense trying?

I'm using an imperial spellsword character. Yeah, I chose the spellsword also. I also switched to a Breton, since I'm leaning more towards spellcasting now. And I just wanted to also leave a few tips after playing the game for a few days - not really any spoilers, but a few things that might help when starting the game:

1. After installing, go back and defrag your HD. I was having stutterings and slowdowns in the Imperial City, and I discovered that the install left files fragmented all over my HD. And the defrag really helped performance in the game.

2. You will get the chance to edit your character before leaving the first level, so don't sweat your initial picks too much. You will get to choose your sign before leaving also. I chose the sign of the Lady: +10 endurance for combat and +10 for willpower in spellcasting.

Last: and may be a small spoiler for anyone who likes to find every single ruin/dungeon on his own. Because you have the chance to "fast travel" to your first Fed-Ex quest in the main plotline - but:
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3. Once leaving the dungeon/sewer head into town and sell-off your items. If you need fast exp and treasure, go back to the same sewer entrance/exit and swim across the river to the ruins, there is an old goblin fort (of course!) just up the path, you can get fast treasure/items and exp. Hope this helps...

[ March 24, 2006, 02:33: Message edited by: Chandos the Red ]

How do you rate my chances with Celeron 2.4 GHz, 512 MB RAM (400 MHz), FX5900XT? As in, is there any sense trying?Nope, time to upgrade mate. ;)

Oblivion is released here today (it's 1am)! I'm very excited. Going down to the campus site office at 9am to get it. I'd only have one lecture, but that's going to be skipped. I'll have better things to do than algorithms.

Bought the game yesterday, now I need a new videocard, bye bye my dear TI 4200 :sosad:

Played for 6 hours last night - till 3AM. Oh boy, this one is addicting. I still hate the interface but the game overall is excellent. Very addicting.

The combat is alot more improved than I first gave it credit for.

Started playing. This is an amazing game! I'm currently exploring the mind of a mage trapped in a nightmare, and I have to defeat two minotaurs at level 1, which is a little challenging. As a mage, without the ability to use his spells here. Ouch. But this is a beautiful game. I love watching corpses flying away at a fireball.

Well I already made another character. I do this quite often with most games. I made a custom class which is pretty much a thief with a little magic mixed in. I got him to level 2 and I'm still playing around in the imperial city. I love the graphics in this game! The interface really doesn't bother me at all.

I probably won't bother. It's taken me so long to try and work out the main rules that are used in the BG / IWD / NWN games and from what I gather above, this uses a completely different set of rules. I'm not sure I want to set aside everything I learned about those other games and start all over again learning about a whole different set of rules. At least the BG / IWD / NWN games use the same basic rules (even if there are subtle differences between the way they are applied, Magic Missile is still Magic Missile).

@ Harbourboy

Don't worry; you don't necessarily miss anything. They have heralded "Star Wars: Empire at War" and "Galactic Civilizations 2" as 10/10 super-hits too. It's just hype before the crash. ;)

Hopefully, though, ES4 does fare better since the markets could use a really good RPG among the cadre of mass-produced FPS/RTS games. I'm a bit curious: if the graphics are almost as good as in HL2, then why the requirments are so much higher?

I've been playing or rather 'trying' to play the game. It appears that even though on the box the game 'supports' the FX series of video cards - it doesn't.

After playing around with the ini. file I got the game running yet my water is 'purple', there are no dark areas, no shadows, everything is illuminated, no reflections and occasionally the game resets my computer. I think I'm going to need to buy a new card and I think come next week, I will.

Best game ever.

I've played it for almost nine hours so far today; it's 7:25pm. So far today, I became a knight-errant, entered the nightmares of a mage, explored a shipwreck, was selected for the thieves' guild, protected some rats from mountain lions, raided the home of a drug-dealer, killed a "vampire hunter" who was actually murdering people, and acquired my first magic weapon. That's not mentioning the less intriguing sounding things of exploring ancient ruins, destroying bandit gangs, putting a man's soul to rest and others. The quests have a lot more story to them than in Morrowind; far less "Escort me here", "Deliver this shirt", "Kill this man" and all that (although those do still exist).

The game rules are very simple. If you swing and it looks like the blow connected, it did. If you've swung swords a lot, you'll do good damage when you hit. If you've thrown lots of fireballs around, you'll be better at casting destructive spells. Simple, and it works well.

The compass system works far better than I'd imagined, but it's a little hard to describe and do it justice. When you're near somewhere of significance, an icon appears on the compass with its direction. The closer you are, the less faded the icon. You also get pointers about where to go next for your current selected quest. Fantastic.

At first I was overwhelmed by how much there is to do. I haven't even touched the main quest apart from the intro, but it's been amazing fun. It's far more stable than Morrowind; one CTD over the past two days. One too many, but about fifty less than Morrowind would have had.

This game pwns so, so hard.

EDIT: Have to mention the load times. They're shorter than in Morrowind on the same system. There aren't any loading screens in the same area, although the words Loading appear every now and again for some reason, despite there being no slowdown when they do. There aren't any slowdowns or jerky bits at all, despite my AGP graphics card.

Bought a ATI x800 videocard just for the game, last time I will buy anything ATI.

The game is awesome, I'm playing a lvl 3 spellsword currenly exploring Fort Ash northwest of the Imperial City. The Imperial City is somewhat.. boring, like Mournhold was, mostly because the only guild there is the Arena.

Good going Alavin!

I've decided to try and play it on my computer barely reaching minimum requirements. Athlon 2000+, GF 6600GT on AGPx4 and 512 333mhz RAM.
I play on 800x600 with as little graphic-intense options enabled as possible, except for viewing distance of general objects.
It's fairly smooth in wilderness, with occasional lag. Suprisingly, the fps are quite good there, i'd judge 40+. Cities are another matter. Freezes for a second or two, otherwise around 10fps.
All in all, playable, if you've the patience to wait ;)


Otherwise...
Currenty around 13h playing time, lvl11 mage. Traveling around the cities, earning my station with fighter's and mage's guilds. Explored some ruins for dwarven heavy armor and Feather boots, extremely useful. Otherwise, i'm not too keen on dungeon delving. I spend a lot of time roaming around the country, looking for alchemical components. Currently skill of 85, expert. Alchemy is in fact easier to advance, as you progress in it, since you identify more properties in the various plants and components you come across. As two of these properties from at least two components must match to create a potion, there's a higher chance to find matches, when each component has more properties.

I'm still getting impressed by the game. Ownership for example. In most places, taking anything is stealing and you're getting harassed by guards at every turn, until you pay the fine or go to jail. In other places, food and alchemical components are available for the take. Right now, in any mage or fighter's guild house in any of the cities, any item can be taken without consequence, probably because i've advanced far enough in the guilds.


The only shortcoming so far is the interface. Console influence, i really dont like it, it's too simplified and limited.

Are the guards spammed or can you just slay them and then loot the towns?

Hate spam.

Wow, you've been going fast. I've been playing for the same amount of time and I'm level 4... I've been taking it really slowly. I haven't bought any training, and I've walked around a lot.

Dungeon crawling is too tense for me. I did one, but I was inching through (as a thief) paranoid about traps.

The traps are amazing. Not like in (for example) BG where a trap is a red rectangle on the floor. These are proper traps. Tripwires and big spiky balls on chains. The best one yet was the floor panel with small holes in it. When someone steps on it, it falls down onto a bed of spikes which come up through the holes. If I hadn't fired an arrow at some skeletons who then charged and stepped on it, it would have got me.

AI in combat isn't fantastic. If you attack someone, a person standing 10m away won't notice unless they can see you. AI out of combat is fun, though. Watching people training their skills is nice. Part of my time-wasting involves shooting arrows into every target I find, and also into anything with physics applied to it, like the bucket in the tutorial. Such fun...

Just entered Oblivion for the first time, and I'm surprisingly not being totally pwnd. I've reached one bit where I've died twice though. I keep neglecting to buy healing potions, so dremora churls aren't fun; especially when they summon scamps.

One thing I like about the combat is that fighting two people is so much harder than fighting two people in sequence. In Morrowind, and in many RPGs, it isn't like that at all. But when even blocking a foe only reduces the damage you take, and enemies like nothing more than to let you get occupied with someone else then stab you in the back, it gets much harder.

Second rant about how great this game is in only a few hours.

Regarding spamming guards, I don't know; but I suspect there's no spamming. Bethesda have made a lot of their radiant AI and NPC scheduling, and I think they applied it to their guards as well. But I haven't gone on any killing sprees, so I can't say for certain.

I typed like a page of text, but then pressed ctrl+a, and another a. Replaced it all with one a. :bang:

In short...

One level higher (did sleep for 3 hours after all), with alchemy maxed at 100 skill. Master level enables you to make potions out of a single component. Doubles the money income. Currently i have 14k, but with this new improvement, i could easily double it in an hour or two. All potions sell for same money, just depends on the quality, so i dont have to see what kind of an effect the potion will have, i just brew and sell it.

My high level is a consequence of having all mage skills as Major ones. I cast spells all the time, for exploration, sometimes for training, so i have Conjuration and Destruction colleges at journeyman levels (50-75 skill range) with Alchemy at 100, this formed the bulk of my advancement. I've yet still only explored three dungeons, and i like it that way. I'm more of a scholar, and i'll go to the dungeons for rarer alchemical components, armed with my spells to the teeth.

Magic skills combined with Alchemy is a real killer. Restore Magicka potions are fairly easy to make, and spells do a lot of damage, add these two together and you rock. For any tougher fights, you always have a million other spells and potions to back on.

I'm still annoyed with the inteface. I use it a lot, and every time i do, i have to click one, maybe two extra times, for no good reason. It may not sound much, but it's constantly.
Ever more so irritating are the hotkeys. There's 8 of them. Hugely 8. Lets do the math for a spellcasting explorer. 2 or 3 for damage spells. At least one conjuration spell (provided you dont use conjured armor), 3 or 4 protection spells and about 4 exporation ones (Detect life, Feather, Light,...). That's just for spells. A spellcaster need potions for harder fights. It kinda disrupts the atmosphere, when you interupt a hard intense fight to go browse your inventory to find a bloody restore magicka potion :nolike:

Ok, my views are wow...this game is awesome, unlike morrowind I haven't even restarted my first character, a hunter I made myself, and I am prone to doing that in sooooo many games! :D

I've actually made some progress through the main quest, and am enjoying it, and I think its because its such a gripping storyline. Action was something Morrowind lacked for me, but Oblivion has it in bucket loads! :p

My hunter is pretty awesome, he wields a nice Fine Steel Bow, an enchanted Dai-Katana, and wears fur armour. I think this games character creation is awesome, I spent about an hour or two just making my guy look cool! :p

My GeForce 6600 graphics card doesn't run the game on full graphics, but even so it comes close, and this game looks fantastic even on the medium/custom settings I have it on. I don't think the CD has left my CD tray since it first got put in there!...thats how awesome this game is :D

EDIT: New Gem yay!...another reason why Oblivion Rocks! :p

This game is awsome! I'm playing a wood elf thief and I love sneaking around sniping baddies with my bow :)

You can even ride horses!!

Do anyone know where the thieves guild can be found? I also saw a house at Chorral that had a for sale sign outside, is it possible to buy it?

[ March 26, 2006, 16:43: Message edited by: Elvenblade ]

Elvenblade: Beware, *spoiler* ahead:
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/
/
The entry to the Thieves Guild is connected to the posters of the Gray Fox. There are posters around the Imperial City, and if you start searching for him, you will find someone who will ask you if "you wish to work for him." Say "yes" of course.

I got the game on the 23rd, any time I haven't been spending playing the game I've either tweaking the .ini file (I might post a guide on this as it does improve graphics), finding mods (I'll start making some when I've completed the game) and of course some essentials of life.
The game really is amazing, I've been playing as a MagicThief (damn character limits). Almost everyhting about Oblivion is just brilliant, the only real complaints I have is the UI (although this (http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=OblivionMods.Detail&id=25) is really an improvement) and an occasional sound glitch which makes certain sounds very fuzzy.
Overall, as many thumbs up as I can find. :)

That UI fix looks really good!

*downloading now*

Until now, blood sweat and tears. It all started when my bios changed overnight in a spontaneous way. No big problem. so I was al ready for big saturday to hit the shops. I live in a county which has stores, but the special edition is a myth.

It took me 9 stores to find it. It was sold out whitin a day, thy said but I found it at the most unlikely place. A store wiht overpriced PC's and lots of experts in suits still had one behind the counter. so far so good.

At home my dvd player refused to play the dvd. i played the other disk with the extra's, I played other games, movies you name it. But still no Oblivion. Open with the case and look for a hidden problem. Lastly I took out the dvd player.

Sunday, thankfully some store are open in Rotterdam so I went again to the far and big city to fullfill my addiction and got my a new player/burner. I build it into my pleasuremachine and found out it did not work. It took me an hour to realise someone had switched the drives. My old one was in the pc and not the new one.

Well, it runs now. I have an amd ahtlon xp2600 with 1,5 gig memory on an asus socket A board and an ati 9800 pro, and it looks good. The game suggested a resolution of 480 with the other specs on medium/low.

Have fun, and know that it is worth it.

Got my thief character up to level 6 now. I'm in the thieves guild and im about to join the dark brotherhood.

Finally got the game working on my FX card. Had to download some guys .ini file and a program he designed specifically to remove the 2.0 shading. You can get all the info on it here: http://www.elderscrolls.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=296049 and the modified .exe file can be found here: http://www.elderscrolls.com/forums/index.php?s=f9273a689b4adc7d327bc63389a833de&showtopic=296049&st=40 look for oblivion.rar and download it but be sure to BACK UP YOUR ORIGIONAL OBLIVION in case they release a patch.

Take note that after applying these changes the game will run very smoothly yet will be more ugly than Morrowind. At least it's playable though.

I have my Hunter up to level 7 now, and I just joined the Dark Brotherhood...but I need lockpicks! I can't get a missions until I find some...dammit, I know there's a thieve's guild guy who sells them, but I haven't joined the thieve's guild so I don't know where he is...so I'm off to become a thief :D

I also pickpocketed the key to the "A fighting chance" shop in the Imperial city, now I get discount weapons :p

Ahaha! This game is most awesome. I've only got three characters so far primiarily because of the Byzantine character creation process (the face making takes forever). One an Imperial mage, one a dark elf thief-type, one a Redguard warrior. Great game. It's most tempting to use fast travelling, but...

Is it just me or does this world seem a bit smaller than Morrowind's? I certainly hope not. Also, I seem to be experiencing a bit of lag in the initial part when the assassins die and they spray blood everywhere. Didn't have this problem before, only got it when I turned all the graphics setting higher. Any ideas on what it might be?

The world IS smaller than Morrowind's if you measure it in distance but that's because it's simply more crowded.

One of the main beefs people had with Morrowind was that it just took so damn long to get anywhere. With Oblivion they have MORE places for you to go to but they've just compacted it into a smaller space.

Its 16 square miles...if what they said on the trailers is to be believed.

I think joining the Dark Brotherhood should become a law, they're so damn awesome! Man I can't wait to play tonight when I get back from my guitar lesson, and have my dinner.

I have decided the sneak system is awesome, probably because its done by the guy who helped on Theif, but having to stick to the shadows makes it so much more atmospheric, as well as slightly more realistic. I've also decided to give up on lock picks, I'm just raising my Alteration skill to max and using the unlock spells :p

I experience quite a few slow downs when stuff happens, and especially at the beginning with the assasins but I think its my system just not keeping up:

P4 2.8GHz
512Mb RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 6600 256Mb Graphics Card

Finally got it, but unfortunately the first impression was this:

"Bleeeeeep!" *Crash* *BSOD* *Reboot*

And none of the tips (disabling certain filters) thus far have worked, forcing me to wait for the first patch. :nolike:

Right - that settles it. I'm definitely not getting this game until it work properly. I hate the way games don't work properly until a year after release. It's as if all the people who paid good money for the game are actually unpaid beta testers.

Wordplay, what are your specs? Have you tried downloading and using the stuff in the links I've provided?

Harbourboy,
Most of the bugs are from people trying to run Oblivion beyond their PC's means. Oblivion on an FX card? Exploding PC's? Take the "autodetect" settings and if anything, turn the down a bit further. The game is perfectly playable if you have the "recommended" specs. Some people are having legitimate troubles but that's not the norm.

All you are accomplishing by waiting is missing out. This game is simply amazing.

I just became a vampire. :( I didn't notice when it said I first contracted it, so I didn't heal myself in time. So now I need to go running around the world to get the parts for a cure.

I also spontaneously became powerful... It's strange. Before, I was level 7 and unable to kill a troll. Now (level 9) I can kill 3 and barely feel it.

Game still has only crashed once for me, and I've found no other bug, as far as I've noticed.

@ Abomination

Sure have and a few more besides. (Like THESE. (http://www.elderscrolls.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=274228)) Didn't work and neither did playing with the options. I'm pretty sure that the error is somewhere in the sound-drivers, but since everything else works just fine I can only assume that Oblivion needs patching.

SPECS:
-- WinXP, SP2 + some extras.
-- AMD64 3500+ (Venice).
-- 2x512 DDR400 RAM.
-- GeForce 7800 GT.
-- Audigy 2 ZS.
-- Abit nForce 4 mobo, Seagate 7200 RPM 160 gig HDD.

Etc tech-whiz stuff... They all work fine with everything else.

I haven't had any crashes yet. I'm running on an Athlon XP 3200, 1 gig of ram, and a GeForce 6800GS 256mb vid card. Playing on high settings with HDR and it looks amazing.

I had several crashes in the Imperial City. I downloaded the latest reference drivers off the nVidia website and have not had a single crash since. My advice to anyone having crashes: don't use the drivers from the OEM of your video card, but directly from nVidia. It worked for me.

I have a socket A with an Amd xp2600, 1,5 gig ram
radeon 9800 pro 128mb 256bit, and it runs. ok it is the lowest resolution, and mny other fancy things off and low, but still it looks great and did not crash once. Can there be a difference in the european , asian or american versions?

Does anyone run oblivion with a weaker pc?

No crashes at all here, game runs smooth as a baby's skin. :D And i'm well on my way with my level 16 battlemage.

I chose bad skills :( I chose blade, light armour, conjuration, alchemy, illusion, speechcraft and something else. I've used an illusion spell once and a summoning spell twice, and I've never drunk a potion I made. I use sneak constantly in dungeons, and it's my highest ranked skill, but I neglected to choose it as a major. I also use restoration a lot. I'd start again, but I've done too much. And it's not like I'm not having a load of fun... I'm just level 11 after playing it solidly since friday.

Thank god for SP! I've been visiting the elderscrolls.com forum for a while now and all they do there is whine, whine, and whine.

No crashes for me either.

AMD Athlon XP 2800+
2.13 ghz, 1gb of RAM
Palit Radeon X800
256 memory size

The games runs great, the graphics are good (no shadows,though) some very crowded areas slows down the performance but nothing I can't live with.

And the loading times are so short!

[ March 29, 2006, 11:24: Message edited by: Elvenblade ]

Well I bought it, it arrived, I installed it, it fell over :lol: haven't looked at it since :lol:

I think time for a new graphics card is drawing nearer and nearer...

Well... it took long enough for Amazon to get it to me, but all I can say is WOW...WOW....WOW. Absolutely outstanding in every respect....I've never seen graphics like this before -- the emperor's eyes looked REAL. In fact EVERYTHING looks real....absolutely amazing what they've created. And the music....I've been letting the load screen just sit for a few minutes, as that music plays. I've played Morrowind all the way through, so I'm familiar with the so-called "style" -- but I never expected the NPCs to look as lifelike as what I'm seeing. It's everything and then some...from what I was expecting. Runs smoothly too.

:thumb: to Bethesda!

If the graphics are that good then there's no way that my PC will run it. I'm still blown away by the awesome praise you guys are giving this game, which has come out of nowhere to be everyone's favourite. I'm looking forward to playing it in 2008.

HB -- your PC may still be able to handle it. There's different levels of graphics capability that the game can set...high all the way down to low. Even at a low setting, you'll still see most of the effects I think.

I still can't get over the EYES. All the NPC's eyes look real! They move and actually turn and look at something if they're talking about it....they even have different expressions, depending on the dialogue. They look like real eyeballs...lol.

And... I just made it outside of the sewers -- my god -- the countryside! So beautiful....

I've heard it's so addictive and I think that's an understatement...I've been playing for hours and I really don't want to stop -- it's the openness that so intruiging -- a whole world waiting to explore -- we can go anywhere and do anything -- nothing is more appealing. :D

Just looked at what this Elder Oblivion thing sells for here: $99.76! I really have a spare $100 just lying around. I'll have to wait until I can get a cheap one second hand one on Trade Me.

$100?? Yikes! You certainly can get it way cheaper than that -- have you checked on any online stores?

HB: GPstore offers it for $89.95, if you're interested. http://www.gpstore.co.nz/Games/1470838.html

I preordered and got the special collector's version for that price, which comes with a Tamriel coin and a DVD and a little booklet on the history of Tamriel and whatnot. Quite neat.

$89.95? That's so much better. But still out of my price range. I have no idea how all the kids on these Boards manage to have so much spare money. Maybe next year.

What kind of a sucker pays ~90 euros of one game? That's even worse than in the 80's and then they were still a brand new thing.

I think he's meaning NZ$, not US$ ;)

That's probably around 50euros, at a guess.

Yes, Deathmage and I are talking in New Zealand dollars.

Don't scare me like that.

Looks like the game is pretty cool, if you guys are to be trusted ;) (well, asides from the ridiculous computer power requirements; I feel HB's pain :) , I'll need a new computer if I am to play this game). I also read a glowing review on slashdot, so it seems that many people like it.

So, I understand that the magic and fighting systems are different from D&D. How does it compare, in terms of complexity (and fun)? Roughly how many spells (as many as Baldur's Gate, or more like Diablo)? That magicka stuff sounds like a mana system.

oh yeah, and can you form a party with NPCs ?

@HB: What sort of specs are you running? I highly recommend getting this game...I'm running it at pretty crummy graphics...but then again, the graphics are just the tip of the proverbial iceberg!

I'd been saving up money for a PSP actually...and once I gave this game a go at a demo they were having at EB...WOW! I was just blown away.

And though I don't have those shiny graphics at the moment, the gameplay has me playing it for 16-18 hours straight! Unbelievable! Just what I needed till NWN2 gets out! :D

Edit: @khaavern: TES games run a system different from DnD. Yes, its a mana based system...but I've yet to come across a system as flexible as this one. Have you played Dungeon Seige? The improve-as-you-use system they tried to implement there is something like what they have here...only its like a hundred times better! Its really feasible, with all sorts of levels and skill perks to keep the munchkin in you satisfied! And the roleplaying...OMG the roleplaying you can do here is enormous.

Also..no, you cannot have any NPCs in a party with you...atleast I don't think you can based on how far I've come in this game. Usually, TES games dont work that way I guess.

What else...oh yes, the variety in spells is not quite what you would be used to from games like NWN and Baldurs Gate...but its MORE than adequate, and you will definitel be fully into it.

Guess what? You can make your OWN spells! Of course, the cheesier the spells, the more expensive it is to cast them, or get the required reagents etc. Its too much for me to go into detail here..but I'll just stop with saying get this game.

I've never been fanboy'd like this since I played Baldurs Gate 2... :D

@khaavern: As to the NPC parties, the answer is a yes and no...every so often you meet people willing to follow you, or you will be required to take someone somewhere or you will get to fight along side NPC's. But you take no "responsibility" for them, they are completely AI controlled. So yes NPC's will follow you and support you by killing enemies, but no you cannot form a permanent party nor take responsibility for their actions.

Hope that...err...makes sense, but thats the best I can explain it...yes I suck at explaining :D

Just done with my first full week without Oblivion, and I miss it so. Only two more weeks left... Never before have I loved a game as much as I love this. But at least when I get back to it, there'll be a good amount of mods to download.

I can't wait till September when I finally have enough money to upgrade my PC! Every upgrade has been because of the release of a new Elder Scrolls game so this time it's no exception, although it will cost a lot more this time. It plays on my brothers PC and I've watched him play it for quiet some time and it looks awesome! He even found some programme which you can use to scan pictures of yourself and it translates it into to the percentages you use to create your characters looks. You can play looking like yourself! Freakin' awesome! Can't wait, can't wait!

This game was insanely good. Been playing it on and off for the last week now, and I am hooked. Haven`t really been hooked on anything this bad since BG2.

I did however have an insane amount of luck in the game. I stumbled into a small dungeon south of the Imperial city (was level 3 at the time), and ran into a chic named Umbra. She had an Umbra sword + a full ebony armour. Naturally I tried to kill her and got beaten up badly. So I tried again, and ran off. Fortunatly for me she followed me for about 3-4 kilometers, and we ended up inside the imperial city, where she killed 8 guards before they killed her. I looted the lady and the guards and got lots of cash plus a very nice armour and sword.

This has of course made things very easy for me. Takes me 1 chop to kill 1 enemy. I am now done with the mission where I had to kill some spies in Bruma, and I`m just level 5......

Has anyone else had bigtime luck like this?

PS if anyone wants to know where the dungeon with the Umbra chic is, PM me for spoilers

I'm surprised you managed to escape from her; she's actually very fast. She's able to keep pace with some of the slower horses. For someone who uses heavy armour and blades, that's one of the best bits of luck you can have.

If it only takes one swing to kill an enemy though, you're going to find it takes an age to level your blade skill though. ;) I've never had anything that good happen to me.

Ohh she kept pace with me alright. Got chopped in the back alot. I ran and healed the whole way hehe. Was down to 10 percent health when I entered the imperial city.And completely out of any healing.

I found that "Umbra" woman too. Tried a few times to kill her, but apparently she is even harder than steel; my blade broke before she did. And since I thought she had been brought in by a mod, I removed the mod in question. Bleh. :nolike:

Of course, it might be a different matter now, after removing fatigue and improving power-attacks. Anyone else noticed that the enemies do not play by the same rules as the player?

Umbra?? Meh...with my Assassin/Mage, first thing I did was sneak into the room and JUMP onto one of those platforms...

Then I made 3-4 poisons which had Damage Health, Frost Damage and Paralyse effects on them...

Then I sneak attacked her for a big chunk with Hatred's Soul, then I hit her again with 2 more of those poisoned arrows...

After that, it was just a matter of jumping down, chipping away at her with lightning bolts and paralyse spells...easy as pie! :D

Of course, I was lvl 16 at the time...

My PC meets all the recomended specs except it is only a P4 1.6 gig machine. Has any one tried with a slower processor, and if you did, how did it run?

@Brallrock: IMO...you have to take those recommended specs with a bit of salt...

With a 1.6 GHz CPU, you're looking at a bit of stuttering during combat and in the city...anything that is CPU intensive. Of course, if you want to stand around looking at the trees...that should be fine!!

Anything below 2.0 GHz is going to be painful at medium to high detail graphics...

I geuss I'll have to wait until I can upgrade my PC then, thanks for the info.

Not necessarily, since there are those tweaking guides that can help you to make it run smoothly if you don't care for the shine. Have to say, though, that my AMD64 3500+ and GF7800GT haven't produced any stuttering as of yet -not even with the multiple-enemies/no-scaling mod. :cool:

@Wordplay: For shame!! Its not very nice to rub it in for us poor commoners with Radeon 9800s and what not... :shake:

Hey, I'm a poor communist too. At least you got a card with a bigger number: 9800 *has* to be better than 7800, no? ;)

I've got this on the XBOX360 today. I only played it for about 30 mins but it seems like it could be a decent game.

Using a bow is a right pain in the ring though!

Plus, the first level through those dungeon things, then the sewers, is really boring... I want to be out in a big city by now!

I'll give it another thrash tomorrow and see how I get on.

@Barmy: Have you finished the tutorial dungeon yet? Because from your post it sounds as though you have not...trust me...the second you leave the sewer and get a look around takes your breath away! :D

This game is great stuff...I've clocked 300 hours plus and I'm still going strong... :D