Thanks to a lack of funds I have been going over some of the games I have. This would occur even with money available since I like to go back to most games I have played to see if I wasn’t beside myself with stupidity when I got them in the first place. With Oblivion I am still on the fence as the second time through I find myself more annoyed than I ever remember being. This might have something to do with the system it was on.
   

    In the first place I was playing Oblivion on the PC. However since my PC isn’t the rockstar of all gaming PCs out there (more like the butt biting little groupie of the true rockstars) I decided that this time I would play it on my 360. It looked better, played better, and confirmed for me what I suspected in the first place. I didn’t like it and I was likely to throw the controller soon in hate.

    Why did I like it on the PC you say (or don’t, I don’t really care since I am basically talking to myself)? Well simple. It is really pretty and of all the games out there that try this “Make-fantasy-make-sense-and-look-real-in-a-really-real-looking-real-world-where-everything-is-REAL-and-reall- happens… ok maybe I taking that a bit far. Games like that for the PC never really happen in an RPG setting. Thoes kinds of games always arrive for the console. The idea you can put on heavy armor and jump your way to the next town to improve your endurance is really loved the nerd in me. The fact that the combat is an excessive dance in what I call “extreme back peddling” is what chokes the life out of the gamer in me.   

    Yes it is true there is a block button in the game but fact is if you run up wack and then run back the AI pauses to try to figure you out. In that space you can run up and back peddle again like you were fighting lepers between breaths. Since this is a "really real" game blocking hurts you, hurts the weapon, costs money, and awkwardly jerks the camera around from being struck. Worse you can keep this fighting style going the whole game. Want to win in the arena when you should clearly lose? Summon something and run in circles. The AI will chase you getting colon poked unless it is ranged. In that case because you are running in circles it will never hit you while Slappy the ancient ghost makes mush out of their face.
   

    That is another thing the AI gets wrong, ranged attacks. If you have this game go into any one of the identical ruins around the city, run down and range someone in the chest by arrow or spell, then, you guessed it, back peddle past several doorways. Eventually the monster or bandit will come to a stop and admire you from said doorway while you fill it with little sticks at near point blank range or set it on fire.
  

Your Leap away from the bear while face bashing skill has improved!

    In a game this heavily complex where any action is cataloged into effecting the world there have to be bugs. Every game that tries it has them so you just have to take that up front (see Fable and exploding textures, waist level ground planes, and the fact that you can have as many wives equal to the number of homes you own with out consequence). However Oblivion knows only its high level quality look and feel, so screw ups are also of such high calibur. They are enough to make you go take a nap from mental strain. One example was this:
   

-Walking down a open road because I can’t afford a horse.
-Walk past a guard going the same direction. I am attacked by bandits.
-Guard jumps off horse to kill bandit. Horse ALSO starts beating on bandit.
-In the course of the fight I think the guard actually hit the horse in one of the swings.
-With the bandit dead the horse begins beating the ever loving crap out of the guard.
-I walk up behind the horse to kill it and notice that I can just mount it now as the red “Steal” button is gone.
-I do so just as the guard dies. Woot! New horse I think.
-I dismount at the next town, dismount, enter the local inn and get some quests.
-I exit the building and the horse kills me and leaves.
-I drink a pint and go to bed.


    For the most part it is easy to see why I had forgotten all this trouble. The game is ultra pretty, the open world is yours to get lost in (and you will) and if you really don’t want to play like that just skip all the story and do your thing. The learning curve isn’t hard at all and you can play this game for a very long time before realizing more than a week has gone by. When you do run into that random assassinating mode of transportation just do what I do. Put your hands on your ears, hum to yourself, have a pint and go to bed. The world will be horse free tomorrow.

Or just kill it.

Alex
-My Chi ragdolls for pretty games

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