» Wed Aug 29, 2012 5:23 am I detected another opportunity to speak out against Oblivion. JUST IN THE NICK OF TIME.
Visually speaking, Oblivion has a sort of oddly out of place surrealistic, uncanny valley approach to everything. It looks GOOD, but in that strange sort of way where you're very much convinced everything down to the specks of dirt on the path you walk was recently pulled out of celophane. It's very "fake." Not to say that Morrowind, or even Skyrim, is the height of realistic quality, but seeing equipment on the glossy haired, oddly textured bodies just made it look like you sort of stuffed half a wad of play-dough beneath a period piece plate helmet and called it a guard.
Voice-acting-wise, Oblivion suffered greatly from being one of the first forays into full voice acting, with a very limited stable of voice actors. It was very hard to lose myself in the countryside when I could hear three people all with the exact same voices talking about one another. Had I not turned around to witness the conversation, I would have been very much convinced that I should be slowly walking away from an obvious sufferer of multiple-personality-disorder. Morrowind was not voiced outside of greeting text and the occasional quest snippet in the later expansion packs, so it's kind of an unfair comparison, but those greeting voices became somewhat endeared as "the standard sound of [Race]" and hearing the majority of them get shuffled around and re-arranged was a jarring transition.
Storywise, Oblivion tried too hard for the epic, obvious, save the world type motif. There was very little opportunity to logically step off the rails and get some side-questing done without feeling like you were carelessly endangering the known world, due to the fact a psychotic cult of mages and daedra worshippers was in fact trying to destroy said entire world. Taking missions to clear rats, bats, elephants, and go exploring for the city guard while being confronted with giant hellfire spewing, demon spawning stone monoliths is a little strange at the best of times. You are introduced to the most powerful man in all of civilized Tamriel within the first three minutes (after character generation), seen him cut down, given a carte blanche pardon and then told to go find the secret grandmaster of the secret organization, all within the first 30 minutes of the game.
Morrowind, by contrast, dumped you in an alien land, full of an alien people, with alien culture. You aren't even really aware of what the main storyline is until halfway through it, you aren't even ever formally confirmed to be The Hero, you just kind of clumsily stumble into a set of convenient parameters that make you sound kind of like The Hero, which I have never seen a game do again.
Even Skyrim doesn't grab you by the daddy-bags and throw you into the Save The World motif as fast as Oblivion did. I originally thought - incorrectly - that the Civil War was the main questline, as did several of my friends, and several people I had discussed it with, due to the fact none of us had treated ourselves to any pre-game spoilers. You're never really ordered to follow the main quest. You're given "false" information as to who would be the best authority to speak with concerning the dragons. You're only sent to Whiterun as a very polite request. Even after you're outed as the Dragonborn, no one tells you it's time for you to go end the Big Bad Dragon, they just say you're the best equipped to fight dragons in general. Even when you go speak to the Greybeards they don't rush you or reveal the Big Bad Plan, you're encouraged to find your own destiny, on your own time. The only way you get that "locked" sensation during the main quest is if you actively pursue it.
Meanwhile, Oblivion shoves the entire premise down your throat harder and faster than the original Mass Effect, with the same end result : How are you supposed to justify wandering off and exploring, or doing anything, while you're faced with the world destroying Oblivion Crisis.
Visually speaking, Oblivion has a sort of oddly out of place surrealistic, uncanny valley approach to everything. It looks GOOD, but in that strange sort of way where you're very much convinced everything down to the specks of dirt on the path you walk was recently pulled out of celophane. It's very "fake." Not to say that Morrowind, or even Skyrim, is the height of realistic quality, but seeing equipment on the glossy haired, oddly textured bodies just made it look like you sort of stuffed half a wad of play-dough beneath a period piece plate helmet and called it a guard.
Voice-acting-wise, Oblivion suffered greatly from being one of the first forays into full voice acting, with a very limited stable of voice actors. It was very hard to lose myself in the countryside when I could hear three people all with the exact same voices talking about one another. Had I not turned around to witness the conversation, I would have been very much convinced that I should be slowly walking away from an obvious sufferer of multiple-personality-disorder. Morrowind was not voiced outside of greeting text and the occasional quest snippet in the later expansion packs, so it's kind of an unfair comparison, but those greeting voices became somewhat endeared as "the standard sound of [Race]" and hearing the majority of them get shuffled around and re-arranged was a jarring transition.
Storywise, Oblivion tried too hard for the epic, obvious, save the world type motif. There was very little opportunity to logically step off the rails and get some side-questing done without feeling like you were carelessly endangering the known world, due to the fact a psychotic cult of mages and daedra worshippers was in fact trying to destroy said entire world. Taking missions to clear rats, bats, elephants, and go exploring for the city guard while being confronted with giant hellfire spewing, demon spawning stone monoliths is a little strange at the best of times. You are introduced to the most powerful man in all of civilized Tamriel within the first three minutes (after character generation), seen him cut down, given a carte blanche pardon and then told to go find the secret grandmaster of the secret organization, all within the first 30 minutes of the game.
Morrowind, by contrast, dumped you in an alien land, full of an alien people, with alien culture. You aren't even really aware of what the main storyline is until halfway through it, you aren't even ever formally confirmed to be The Hero, you just kind of clumsily stumble into a set of convenient parameters that make you sound kind of like The Hero, which I have never seen a game do again.
Even Skyrim doesn't grab you by the daddy-bags and throw you into the Save The World motif as fast as Oblivion did. I originally thought - incorrectly - that the Civil War was the main questline, as did several of my friends, and several people I had discussed it with, due to the fact none of us had treated ourselves to any pre-game spoilers. You're never really ordered to follow the main quest. You're given "false" information as to who would be the best authority to speak with concerning the dragons. You're only sent to Whiterun as a very polite request. Even after you're outed as the Dragonborn, no one tells you it's time for you to go end the Big Bad Dragon, they just say you're the best equipped to fight dragons in general. Even when you go speak to the Greybeards they don't rush you or reveal the Big Bad Plan, you're encouraged to find your own destiny, on your own time. The only way you get that "locked" sensation during the main quest is if you actively pursue it.
Meanwhile, Oblivion shoves the entire premise down your throat harder and faster than the original Mass Effect, with the same end result : How are you supposed to justify wandering off and exploring, or doing anything, while you're faced with the world destroying Oblivion Crisis.
i agree with pretty much all that except for the fact that none of it has anything to do with anything i said. did you miss quote?
