A quick scan of my previous posts shows me to be quite a negative chap, doesn't it? I'm not all like that, and to prove it, I'm going on a praise-a-thon. As any sex therapist might just tell you, it's good to gush once in a while.
So, today I'm going to talk about Oblivion. Or, to be more precise, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. For PC. Collector's Edition! Not that it makes any real difference to the gameplay, but if I clutch my collector's coin while playing I can pretend I'm really in the game. What? Doesn't everyone do that?
Anyway, the game. As you may have heard, it's rather marvellous. Unless of course you read EDGE, who gave it a good write-up but were so damned grudging in doing so they may as well have just given it a low rating and absorbed the hate mail (I actually quite like EDGE, but they're about as hard to please as... Oh, I don't know).
Anyway, the game. Argh, what happened to "short and concise"? I'm like some kind of digress-o-matic here. Oblivion. Yes, it's good. Very good in fact, and despite having some problems getting it to run stably and with a respectable framerate on my machine, I think it's safe to say I'm enjoying it more than I've enjoyed any game for many months. Yes, World of Warcraft and Battlefield 2 are both quite wonderful games, but the fun you can have playing with other people is inconsistent to say the least, because, and I'm sure many of you (who am I kidding? About three people read this) will agree, most people playing these games are arseholes. Not so in Oblivion. Well, some of the NPCs can be pretty rude, but it doesn't matter so much because they're not real. And because they're not real, you can kill them without reprimand from real people. The guards (in their oh-so-cool armour) will hassle you, sure, but then you can always get a friend to pay them off, provided you're in the Thieves' Guild of course. Or you could run. Become an outlaw. Live in the shadows. It's not very advisable of course, but the point is you can.
On the other hand, you could make a living out of killing. Chances are that snooty shopkeeper you chose to off earned you an invitation to the Dark Brotherhood. Accept, and you become a member of what is essentially the Tamriel Mafia, performing "contracts" and various other nefarious deeds at the behest of a shadowy God.
Of course, that might just be a bit, well, evil for you. The Fighter's and Mage's Guilds are there for those who prefer to be a bit more honourable. Alternatively, you could play the nomad. Wandering the land (and with a game world as beautiful as green Cyrodiil, it's a joy to do so), discovering caves and ruins, taking quests as you find them. One time I discovered a shabby settlement full of hostile villagers, nestled in a densely-wooded valley south of Chorrol, and spent the next hour or so discovering the story behind it. I've forgotten it, mind you, what with my turbulent life as an assassin and thief, flaming portals to Oblivion opening up all over, and a necromancer waiting in a cave somewhere south of Cheydinhal, occupying my thoughts.
That's what I love about Oblivion, the feeling that I really am living in another world, doing incredible stuff that I could never do in real life. It's a geek's paradise. Plenty of games in the past have purported to transport me to some fantastical place, and many have, to a certain degree, but Oblivion is the first to really make me feel it. Ironically, Oblivion's worst feature is the Plane of Oblivion itself. An odd artistic mix of Mordor, Xen, and the Temple of Doom, it's painfully linear and repetitive. Painful, because the rest of the game is anything but.
But this is meant to be a positive post, so I'll end on a cheerful note. Oblivion is very, very, very good (sorry, I'm low on decent adjectives).