The list of side quests is enormous! However, the way in which it is set up makes managing them a breeze. We loved having a list of current quests, as well as active ones. Tired of working on the main quest? Put it on the back burner and work on any number of side quests that one of the NPCs in the game provides. You can switch back and forth at any time. These side quests are fun and often profitable, ranging anywhere from helping a bitter women recover the money hidden by her now-incarcerated husband, to cleaning out the ghosts in a haunted mansion. If the main quest and these side gigs weren’t enough, you still have the varying guild quests left as well.

There's no sense in splitting hairs -- the performance on the Xbox 360 version is in serious need of a tune-up. The experience isn't uniformly bad, but frame rate problems pop up frequently enough that you'll wish Bethesda had taken more time to smooth out the kinks. We tried everything we could to improve the game's performance: even playing at standard resolution (480i on a regular, non-HD TV) offered no benefit. Overall, the performance just doesn't match what you'd expect out of a $400 console and a $60 game. It's unfortunate, but not ruinous.

If you had anything particularly pressing to be doing at any point over the next few months, it's time to cancel it. Bethesda's much-anticipated fantasy action RPG Oblivion is every bit the game it promised to be, with stunning visuals and vast amounts of engrossing, well-designed gameplay. Lovers of its predecessor Morrowind will be delighted; new addicts will find it as easy to play as it is to like. The only problem with Oblivion is putting it down.