in the shell

Have any of you gotten a chance to play Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (the sequal to Morrowind). I was able to play it for a little while at the Game stop at the mall and it blew me away.

For starters, your character appearance is much more customizable, you make the face rather than choose one.

You don't have a class, you just use your skills and get better at the ones you use.

The magic system has improved tremendously, it seems to no longer suck. You can cast spells while holding weapons and shealds, the casting times are faster, your mana not only recharges constantly, but it does so at a decent rate, and the spells actually deal enough damage to kill enemies before they get in your face (which isn't as much of a problem now because you will already have a weapon in hand and your armor skill can actually advance now that there are no classes holding your development back).

As an added bonus, Patrick Stuart does the voice of Emperor Uriel Septum.

I pre-ordered mine way back in november and finally got it the other day. i'm still waiting for my xbox360 though...my console is suppose to get here next friday....so for the moment, all i can do is look at the game.

Is this the game where Patrick Stewart plays the king? if so I'd buy it just for that. I think it's Patrick Stewart... maybe it's Gandalf... wasshisname.

I fail at my geekiness for forgetting who played Gandalf.

Jean-Luc it is.
got the x-box, plugged in the game.
it rocks.
now i just ned to plunk some
extra quarters for an HD plasma,
for the best results.

I was wrong about the class thing. You don't start of with a class, but you get one later on.

Playing it on occasion (I play on a friend's console) and loving it. What a time eater though....

it's a memory eater as well--the world is just huge and insanely detailed! i guess it's crashing xboxes left and right. you can clear out the HDD cache if you hold down the A button while the disk loads. this should help long loads or "disk unreadable" failures. oh yeah, new or future x-box owners...DO NOT vertically incline your xbox...it will scratch your game disks!!!

other than that oblivion is so cool. you can totally customize your character like never before.

GhostLine wrote:DO NOT vertically incline your xbox...it will scratch your game disks!!!

...but it looks so cool. I don't think I've ever felt more conflicted...

Doesn't it only happen when you move the box while the disk is inside?

Lightice wrote:Doesn't it only happen when you move the box while the disk is inside?

while i've read that's a DEFINITE NO-NO, many people on the xbox boards have complained of scratched disks by just having the xbox erect from the get-go. i first had my xbox stand vertical, then discovered lots of minute scrtaches on my oblivion disk. my local gamer dealer replaced it for me (because we bpought them all starbucks when the console came in ) afterwards i have kept my xbox horizontal and no scratches at all.

I played it on my high end PC and it looks amazing, the character customization is vast and the outdoor environments are huge open spaces.

Is this the game where Patrick Stewart plays the king? if so I'd buy it just for that.

Patrick Stewart has so much class I didn't know he was now appearing in videogames though!