Oblivion

Shizelbs

I started playing this game last night. I can tell I am going to like it a lot. Very nice graphics.

Question, am I going to regret going the magic route? I usually do the warrior choice for my RPGs, so I thought I would mix it up. Can anyone tell me if the magic is going to be fun to do? My sign is battlemage, just to even it out. I just got out of the sewers, so its not too late to start over.

Demiurge

It doesn't matter, the game is incredibly easy, which is my only beef with it.

I became the Grand Champion of the arena as a Thief, so...anything is possible. You can join all the guilds, and I have completed all of the quests in 2 of the 4 guilds. Just have the last 2 guilds to finish up and then the main quest line....which apparently you can do at any time.

The magic route is fun and more involved. Makes you think a little bit more than just going in and bashing the crap out of people.

avelanchefan

I made myself into a Swordsspell, or is it Spellsword? Any ways it is even in both battle and Magic.

Demi If you finish the Guilds, and the main story you are about half done. The side missions are long and expansive. I have the stategy guide just so I can keep track of it.

Shizelbs

I think I'll start over tonight and do the first go round as a warrior.

Demiurge

I go by achievements, because you can play that game for eternity without 'beating' it. But achievementwise I am more than half done with the game.

Shizelbs

Anyone having problems with their console reading the disc?

avelanchefan

one time it froze for me in a loading sequance....other than that no.

Shizelbs

I finally got fed up with it and sent the disc back to Gamefly. It would spaz out on me every 5 to 10 minutes. Too much time lost reloading the dang game.

bankshot

Shizelbs wrote:

I finally got fed up with it and sent the disc back to Gamefly. It would spaz out on me every 5 to 10 minutes. Too much time lost reloading the dang game.

The developers of the game made a statement about it.
They said you have to reset the 360, then hold the (A) button while you boot up the game.
I tried it and it worked perfectly.

Shizelbs

Awesome. I wished I had known about that earlier. Thanks.

jhermance

So am thinking about trading ghost recon advance warfighter for it.

Sami

Demiurge wrote:

High Definition will make it better than PC.

360 max for oblivion is 1280x720 while the PC version goes up to 1600x1200...

My friend bought this game and was showing it to me but I just can't seem to get into computer RPG's. AD&D played with a good/great DM is still the way to go but unfortunately there isn't as much time to kill as 20 years ago. I did enjoy Baldur's Gate but WOW and Dungeon Siege didn't get me hooked at all. Maybe I will give this one a try, maybe not.

Mazeroth

Yeah, a good PC will kill the XBox 360, however, for $300-$400 the XBox is a killer deal.

My computer has an Opteron 165 dual core overclocked to 2.4ghz (roughly a 4800+ Intel P4 times 2) and an ATI X1900XT video card. I'm playing the game in 1600x1200, everything completely maxed, and it runs unbelievably good. This is, by far, the best looking game I've ever played. My wife absolutely hates that I got it

Demiurge

M'kay, we'll try it like this:

I like it better on my 360, my TV, and my sound system.

Better?

Sami

Demiurge wrote:

M'kay, we'll try it like this:

I like it better on my 360, my TV, and my sound system.

Better?

Is it going to be any different if you hooked a good computer to your TV and sound system? Your TV would be the weak link unless it's 1080p, in that case it would be the 360.

If you do nothing else than play games then a 360 is a better option, but obviously all in this forum have a use for a computer or otherwise they wouldn't be here.

Mazeroth

I *could* take my computer across the street and hook it up to my brother's 65" Hitachi G700 (I think that's it) HDTV and play the game in 1920x1080 with his surround sound, but I prefer to play on my Sony 21" with headphones

Demiurge

Sami wrote:

Is it going to be any different if you hooked a good computer to your TV and sound system? Your TV would be the weak link unless it's 1080p, in that case it would be the 360.

If you do nothing else than play games then a 360 is a better option, but obviously all in this forum have a use for a computer or otherwise they wouldn't be here.

Well, I am not going to ask you to dig up old threads, but I have always been a 'computer is better' person. I still am, but unless you have a decent PC there is no way that Oblivion will run better than it does for me right now. Having been a huge PC gaming advocate I know one of the dirty little secrets is that you have to have the best in hardware to claim the PC is the better gaming experience. The incredible gameplay and graphics that the 360 gives you are rivaling the PC experience, especially in the arena of cost.

The cost effective option is to get a gaming unit if you're worried about games. I've realized that constantly upgrading to have the latest and greatest costs you in upwards of thousands of dollars more in the long run than just sticking with conventional console systems.

I think PCs are great, and I have a home build that I use for graphic design and gaming, so I need to keep it high end when running Adobe Photoshop CS2 and the older versions of the programs to keep performance high when running multiple applications.

Shizelbs

I'm with Demi. I've always preferred the PC over consoles, but I was at the point where if I wanted anything like 360 performance on the newest games, it was time to build a new $1000 computer. I'd rather take the console. I spent the last few years wishing every few months that I had purchased an Xbox instead of upgrading my graphics card.

What used to keep me on the PC was that I would obtain my games for free. I realized its total BS, and sinful, and plain wrong, but I justified it by the fact that I was in college and not making any money. Now that I don't do that anymore I prefer to purchase console games and also I can rent for the 360. No renting for PC games.

Sami

Well, for $300-400 you'd get something like a 3300+ Sempron, 1GB of PC3200, DVD burner and 6600GT. That would be enough to play games no doubt. Not sure how it compares to 360 in performance but when you look what it can do in addition to playing games then I'm not so sure the 360 is a bargain. As for constantly upgrading, not necessary, I have had my P4 3.4GHz system for almost 2 years now and yes, it did cost me around $800 to build back then but it still serves me well for the latest games (running at 1600x1050 which is my monitors native resolution). I'm a software engineer so not having a decent PC is not an option.

I have played XBox, PlayStation etc. and they are ok but there is one major thing I do hate, the controllers. Keyboard/mouse combination is light years ahead of the pads on consoles, luckily you can get wheels and pedals for both.

Oh well, didn't mean this to turn into computer vs console war again.

Mazeroth

My computer, which is pretty much top of the line:

DFI Lanparty Motherboard: $110
AMD Opteron 165 Dual Core: $320 (overclocked from 1.8ghz to 2.6ghz)
1 gig Corsair: $70
Antec P180 case: $110 (overspent here, but it's sick)
Thermaltake Liberty 500w power supply: $110 (overspent, but well worth it)
Sound Blaster Audigy 2: $20 (used)
ATI Radeon X1900XT video card: $430

Total: $1170

The nice thing about my computer is processors haven't got much faster over the last two years. Two years ago my friend purchased an Athlon64 3500+ (2.2ghz), which is still being sold today. The fastest single core chip out now is only a 2.8ghz version of his chip. We've pretty much reached our max need for CPU power with the current crop of chips. How much CPU do 90% of people really need? A ghz, maybe. Games today are very GPU (graphical processing unit) intensive and not so much CPU intensive. Heck, my last computer was an Athlon XP 2800+ that was four years old and that chip is 90% as fast as my current chip, in single threaded processes. Since the recent push for dual core chips game developers are now starting to program for dual core optimization, even though it's really not necessary, yet. I have complete faith that my new computer will last at least another three to four years for gaming. Yes, I will upgrade my video card another two to three times over that course, but I will, undoubtebly, get a 70-80% return on my video card investment. It's amazing how well video cards are holding their value. I did have a GeForce 7800GT for about two months that I paid $250 for, but with Oblivion coming out I decided to sell it for $230 USED and grab the X1900XT, which was a very expensive decision

With that, I will probably throw $100 into my computer each year for the next 3-4 years and I will continue to have a near top of the line gaming machine for that time. Right now, there isn't a game out that I can't play in 1600x1200 with everything maxed, which is absolutely amazing.

Gah, I could go on and on. Yes, I spent $1170 on my system, but you could get 80% of the gaming performance out of a computer that would only run you $500-$600. You can get a QUALITY case, motherboard, psu, sound card, cpu, and RAM for $400. Then throw a $200 video card in there and you're set to game at 1280x960 or higher in any game out right now. Sell the video card in a year for $100-$120, throw another $100 into your video card, and you'll be set for another year of killer gaming.

Ok, I gotta get back to work...

MrNightly

Man Maz, you have it figured out!

Question for ya? I have bought Dell's for the last two computers and they have lasted great. My last Dell is about a year old. It's a P4 3.4gig, 1.5gig memory, but what I'm running into is it only has 2 PCIe slots and one PCI slot. Not alotta rom for upgrading. And the case is small. Can't even add an additional DVD drive in it. Sucks I have the Audigy zx SC, and need to find a good PCIe Graphics card.

But can you just buy a new motherboard, and throw everything else on? I now that memory is made differently, and doesn't fit every motherboard. Personal experience, bought the wrong type and had to put it into the other computer. How do you know which to buy if you aren't a total computer genius?

And how much does a good mother board run ya?

avelanchefan

Well my two friends both have a 360 and are huge cpu gamers. Both are constantly upgrading their PC's in a every 6 month cycle. Trust me I get great deals from these guys when it comes to memory and storage. Any ways they are both playing Oblivion on the PC, and they are averaging about 40fps on their PC's. One had to dumb it down a bit to run it more smoothly, the other is running it at full. Both said it looked fantastic on thei PC's but they seem to be buying more 360 games as of late.

polkatese

So, I borrowed this game from BB, out of curiousity. I just started playing it a couple nights ago. I have to say that this game is not my cup of tea. Other than clubbing Goblins and rats, is it to get any better?

Btw, graphics is awesome, also the sound. Of course, on XBOX360.

Demiurge

avelanchefan wrote:

Well my two friends both have a 360 and are huge cpu gamers. Both are constantly upgrading their PC's in a every 6 month cycle. Trust me I get great deals from these guys when it comes to memory and storage. Any ways they are both playing Oblivion on the PC, and they are averaging about 40fps on their PC's. One had to dumb it down a bit to run it more smoothly, the other is running it at full. Both said it looked fantastic on thei PC's but they seem to be buying more 360 games as of late.

That's my take on it. I still play PC games, but I like the 360 a lot, and I am glad you guys talked me into getting it.

Demiurge

polkatese wrote:

So, I borrowed this game from BB, out of curiousity. I just started playing it a couple nights ago. I have to say that this game is not my cup of tea. Other than clubbing Goblins and rats, is it to get any better?

Btw, graphics is awesome, also the sound. Of course, on XBOX360.

It does get better. It's an RPG, so you've got to invest time into it. I can see that a lot of people wouldn't like it. I have found that the game is way too easy, especially if you know how to make good use of their map system. I still love the game and look forward to finishing it.