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Dhruin
Stranger In A Strange Land
Joined: 20 May 2002
Posts: 1825
Location: Sydney, Australia |
| Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion - Review @ Four Fat Chicks |
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For those looking for a different perspective on Oblivion to the usual, Four Fat Chicks has quietly published an interesting <a href="http://www.fourfatchicks.com/Reviews/Oblivion/Oblivion.shtml" target="_blank">review</a>:<blockquote><em>Oblivion is awesome ... and it sucks. There's such a split personality associated with this game that it almost feels like two titles, not one. The first is an incredibly engaging and well-designed roleplaying experience with stunning visuals and fascinating technology. The second is a frustrating and obnoxious pain that goes out of its way to constrain your actions, sacrifices gameplay to show off cool tech and includes "features" that make you feel like you're part of a secret government experiment to see how infuriated people can become before they explode.</em></blockquote> |
Fri Apr 28, 2006 9:11 am |
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Finally a review that has at least a little realism to it. The truth is.. that it's a bad game. Everyone who loved it agrees with me now, beucase they spent some time playing it. I hope they'll give up the elderscrolls series now. |
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Fri Apr 28, 2006 9:16 am |
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Rendelius
Critical Error
Joined: 06 Jul 2001
Posts: 16
Location: Austria |
quote:
Originally posted by Anonymous
Finally a review that has at least a little realism to it. The truth is.. that it's a bad game. Everyone who loved it agrees with me now, beucase they spent some time playing it. I hope they'll give up the elderscrolls series now.
*lol*
_________________
Rendelius
former Senior Editor RPGDot
now at http://www.theastronomers.com |
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Fri Apr 28, 2006 9:38 am |
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Father Omally
Guest
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| How the light of reason shines upon the rotting slime of sin |
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Praise be! The Four Fat Chicks speaketh the gaming truth! The mighty aroma of sacred sweat which exudes with joyful revelation from these Sisters of the gaming faith tells it as it is! Great jumping Jehosophat! It makes me want to dance a wild irish jig at super human speeds to see so many walking in the deception destroying light of the great rpg Avatar! 
 Let us all pray and hope Bethesda shall release a sorrow filled patch of true repentence so we may all welcome them back as true Brothers and Sisters of the rpg faith!  |
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Fri Apr 28, 2006 9:45 am |
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Guest
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quote:
Originally posted by Anonymous
Finally a review that has at least a little realism to it. The truth is.. that it's a bad game. Everyone who loved it agrees with me now, beucase they spent some time playing it. I hope they'll give up the elderscrolls series now.
Yes, but they bought the game, so Bethesda will make another one, OB sold more than real good games... and that is what pisses me off.
The first five hours are fantastic... the other 200 hours are identical to the first 5  |
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Fri Apr 28, 2006 9:57 am |
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abbaon
Head Merchant
Joined: 05 Feb 2006
Posts: 64
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quote:
Originally posted by Swelter
The characters with whom you interact are very much on the wrong side of the Uncanny Valley (that means they're ugly)
No, it doesn't. The Uncanny Valley describes emotional reactions to degrees of realism, not beauty. And it has no "wrong side"; stylised representations of reality work as well as perfect reproductions. If it weren't high on either side, it wouldn't be a valley. The characters of Oblivion lie well to the left of the Uncanny Valley and look ugly because they look ugly. |
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Fri Apr 28, 2006 10:35 am |
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ikbenrichard
Guest
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this is the first review i completly agree with for 100%.
dont get me wrong i enjoyed the game but in a way morrowind was for me better. i still get the strong feeling that the "console interverence" is part of this problem.
also the 6 actors doing 1000 npc voices is one thing i really hated.
i truely hope fallout 3 will not be the same. |
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Fri Apr 28, 2006 10:57 am |
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abbaon
Head Merchant
Joined: 05 Feb 2006
Posts: 64
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My Oblivion characters:
1, 2, 3
Behold! I have scaled the sheerest cliff of the Uncanny Valley and returned with the Holy Grail of CGI realism! Or have I spent five more minutes than Bethesda's artists did and made some vaguely-human marionettes? Either way.
I didn't realise how unhappy they looked. |
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Fri Apr 28, 2006 11:21 am |
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ikbenrichard
Guest
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quote:
Originally posted by abbaon
My Oblivion characters:
1, 2, 3
Behold! I have scaled the sheerest cliff of the Uncanny Valley and returned with the Holy Grail of CGI realism! Or have I spent five more minutes than Bethesda's artists did and made some vaguely-human marionettes? Either way.
I didn't realise how unhappy they looked.
nicely done, looks alot better then the blownup faces of OB original. what filter and did you used.
btw i think the faces look rather ugly because of framerates issues (too keep them in tone) |
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Fri Apr 28, 2006 11:33 am |
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Dajjer
Eager Tradesman
Joined: 10 Jul 2005
Posts: 49
Location: Los Angeles area |
This review pretty much sums up my eval of the game. Fun to play and beautiful to look at but ultimately, I was more blown away by Morrowind. I'm undecided at the moment if Oblivion constitutes a step back in the Elder Scroll series. But clearly the game contains a lot of numskull design decisions. Still, even with some of its dumb play, I'll be back at the game later today. |
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Fri Apr 28, 2006 4:44 pm |
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fatBastard()
Eager Tradesman
Joined: 05 Feb 2003
Posts: 40
Location: Denmark |
quote:
Originally posted by Anonymous
Finally a review that has at least a little realism to it. The truth is.. that it's a bad game. Everyone who loved it agrees with me now, beucase they spent some time playing it. I hope they'll give up the elderscrolls series now.
Yeah I know what you mean. I felt the exact same way about the Grand Theft Auto games. GTA3 sucked hard, Vice City was even worse and San Andreas was just unbelievably bad. I couldn't for the life of me understand how so many people could be so incredibly stupid that they not only bought the damned things but even expressed positive sentiments after playing them ... then suddenly a strange thought popped into my head: Maybe, just maybe, by some weird twist of fate there is actually people out there who doesn't know the Truth as I know it ... and perhaps they've ... they've ... oh I can hardly say it ... perhaps they've actually formed their own opinions and developed a taste for games outside the boundaries of good and bad as dictated by me.
I know it is a terrible idea to contemplate but perhaps my nightmare is happening to you as well and there actually ARE people out there who like Oblivion.
P.S. You might want to wipe your screen to get rid of all my sarcasm oozing down the sides before you leave 
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Signature? ... erm ... nope, can't think of one. |
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Sat Apr 29, 2006 1:47 am |
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Guest
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Totally off topic but is it only me?
quote:
It's good. It just could—it should—be a lot better.
The reviewer says that Oblivion is good but could have been better while some posts seem to be pretending that the reviewer wrote it was bad.
Now on the review. Like the reviewer, I liked Morrowind than Oblivion but, interestingly, the reviewers pointed out some parts I don't like as good.
For example, the reviewer seems to have found the main quest is good. Personally, I found guild quests are more interesting than the main quests and I liked some sub-quests more than the guild quests. About the main/guild quests, there seem to be clear definition of good/neutral/evil like we see in most of generic fantasy world while some of sub-quests are just side-stories which are relaxingly neutral. In Morrowind, I didn't I feel pressed to side with good or evil, which I liked about the game. Of course, I could choose a political or a religious faction, which fit the image of my character and let him act according to his motivation, which compensated the lack of concrete conversation in terms of role-playing to some extent. Thinking of this, my imagination seems to have filled the blanks given by abstract conversation in Morrowind. In Oblivion, I needed to choose mostly two concrete options, neither of which fits, I found, my character. I almost felt like playing a simplified version of games with morality meters such as BG series, KotOR and Fallout. This tendency was intensified by the lack of more politically interesting factions. |
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Sat Apr 29, 2006 8:26 am |
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Guest
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In short its a disater a overly hyped extremely boring dull rpg with pretty graphics.
The screenshots are alot more fun to look at then actually playing the game pretty much sums this up.
If you love trash then this game is for you
If you dont love trash have a brain and arent easily impressed then stay away  |
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Sun Apr 30, 2006 6:34 am |
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Priest4hire
Head Merchant
Joined: 08 May 2002
Posts: 52
Location: Slocan, BC |
No doubt it is a great boon for all those lacking the time to peruse the review that this guest has so kindly provided a lucid, articulate, and well balanced summary. How black a mark it must be upon those who enjoyed Oblivion that they are deemed lacking in brain matter by one for whom the creation of coherent sentences is so challenging that of the four not one passes muster.
Speaking of the actual topic this a solid review that feels honest. I think it also illustrates some of the interesting elements of game criticism and taste in general. Consider this remark:
"In Oblivion, the world is literally going to hell. From a roleplaying perspective, there's no practical reason not to deal with it immediately, which creates an unpleasant sense of tension and exigency that made me feel very rushed. It disconnected me from the world, made me unwelcome. Morrowind absorbed me. I was part of Vvardenfell. It became my home. I never felt that way in Oblivion. I felt hustled along by an impatient tour guide, because ignoring the main quest would be like playing DOOM and choosing to explore the Martian surface rather than fight the monsters."
It was not long ago that I read, in these forums nonetheless, that Oblivion had no sense of urgency. Yet here we are finding out it has too much urgency. So which is it? The change from Morrowind was probably in response to criticism regarding a lack of urgency and a general air of aimlessness. But it is interesting to see people claiming to seemingly contradictory qualities in the game. Personally I'm in the middle. I think that there could be more urgency but at the same time I feel that having a strong plot right from the start is a good thing. It's writing 101 to get a story off to a strong start.
If anything I think this demonstrates that Oblivion is a fairly complex game. It also shows quite clearly that to a great extent what we bring with us into a game determines what we in turn get out of it.
_________________
Watch your back. Shoot straight. Conserve ammo. And never, ever, cut a deal with a dragon.
Grammaton Dragon
-==(UDIC)==- |
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Sun Apr 30, 2006 11:27 am |
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txa1265
Magister of the Light
Joined: 13 Apr 2004
Posts: 390
Location: Marlborough, MA USA |
quote:
Originally posted by Priest4hire
It was not long ago that I read, in these forums nonetheless, that Oblivion had no sense of urgency. Yet here we are finding out it has too much urgency. So which is it?
I think that the game has almost no sense of global urgency, with occasional local urgency. However, it allows a gamer to imbue that urgency because it is a fairly open canvas. The reviewer sees what is happening in the main plot and takes that on as a personal mission, which does create urgency. But there is tremendous cognitive dissonance created by the fact that there are Hell-gates opening in people's backyards and people are still wondering about daily trivialities. It is *that* that separates the gamer from the world, and is anti-immersive.
Mike
_________________
Dopelar effect (n.) The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.
Check out my blog. |
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Mon May 01, 2006 12:57 pm |
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