Today's game is Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, a fine game all around and Eric's 2006 Xbox 360 Game of the Year. Well, depending on who you ask it's a fine game. It is also a fine example of hardcore gamer gate keeping and trying to keep sacred PC-centric games away from the unwashed mainstream console masses. They failed, thankfully, but to this day any discussion about Oblivion will likely be dominated by trolls and a-holes. Watch gameplay and read more inside!
Try talking about the Elder Scrolls RPG franchise and you'll almost certainly get shouted down unless your opinion is that Morrowind was the best. Sorry duders, Morrowind sucks. It's ugly, janky, clunky, awkward, obtuse, and not fun. Those same dudes will screech at you just as loudly is if you dare to claim that Oblivion is in any way shape or form a good game. Oh, Oblivion streamlined things too much and level scaling sucks and it wasn't as deep and mysterious and wonderful, they'll say. How dare regular-ass mainstream console peasants play a sacred PC RPG like Elder Scrolls. They had to dumb it down for piss baby console idiots to play and the hardcore real gamers prefer Morrowind. Bah. Utter nonsense.
At least we can all agree that Skyrim sucks, right?
I freaking loved Oblivion back in 2006. It looked so good at the time and offered a level of freedom and exploration I had never experienced before. I loved that I could play however I wanted and do whatever I wanted and just have fun with virtually no restrictions. I played it across several characters for easily 200+ hours and it still stands as one of my most played games of all time.
I admit that I have a hard time going back to it, though, because it hasn't aged particularly well. Newer Western RPGs have really cleaned up the rough edges and are much more fun to play now and makes Oblivion (and Morrowind, ya nerds) feel pretty dated.
I did have fun goofing off in this video. I screwed up, though, and went into a dungeon right at the start and ended up getting lost and running out of lockpicks so I couldn't get out. I re-loaded the save in the middle, which is why I'm suddenly outside again. I end it up with a little NPC murder and a bit o' stealing, just for funzies. This isn't how I normally played at all - I was always a straight arrow and didn't want the hassle of getting in trouble, but since this was a one-off video I decided to just be bad. And it was fun.
