Old Games That May or May Not Suck - V1

The video game industry is very “flavor of the month.”  What’s hotly anticipated one week is old news the next.  Obviously, disappointing titles suffer this fate of obscurity (e. g., The Force Unleashed), but so do many other good titles.  If you’re like me, you can rarely afford to purchase the games you want fresh off their release dates, so you wait a while till they come down in price.  But how do you know what’s still good for a purchase?  You could read the old reviews, of course. However, time is the ultimate test of a game’s true greatness.  It’s neither wise nor professional to post newly written reviews of old games.  So where’s a cash-strapped gamer to go for the latest opinions on quasi old games?

My blog, naturally!  My opinion matters to you, right?  Henceforth, from this moment, my blog will contain a new feature:  “Old Games that may or may not suck.”

Issue 1 -  Elder Scrolls IV:  Oblivion (XBox 360)

RPG’s are supposed to be about developing a role.  Well, in games like Final Fantasy, Suikoden, DragonQuest, or  Grandia, players’ roles and the associated stories are usually set in stone.  Face it, you’re just going through the motions.  Sure, fans are still going into epileptic seizures out of anticipation for those future installments, but Bethesda’s 2006 release of Elder Scrolls IV undeniably altered the RPG landscape.  
    
Oblivion did a lot of things right and pushed RPG gameplay to new heights.  The world was massive and rivaled any MMORPG.  Side quests galore ensured hundreds of hours worth of gameplay.  It was a persistent, believable world that was yours for either the saving or plundering.  

Now, I’ve lavished it with much deserved praise.  But is it worth buying three years later?  What would it be like to go back in time from post apocalyptic America back to a medieval fantasy setting?  Sorry Bethesda fans, but Oblivion has not aged well.  If you haven’t played Fallout 3, perceptions may differ from what I’m going to present.  But if you have played Fallout 3 extensively, take it from me: going backwards will cause you to stumble.

One of the more notable narrative differences between Fallout 3 and Oblivion pertains to the dialogue branches.  Fallout 3 featured diverse, sharply written, and downright bullyish response options for players.  They gave Fallout 3 a biting layer of character entirely unique to its universe.  In comparison, Oblivion’s pale.  Oftentimes, your options are no more than mysterious sentence fragments.  Consequences of selecting one over the other are murky at best.  

Visually, Oblivion is a mixed bag.  Indoor and town environments still look clean and polished, but the outdoor world, the landscape in between locales, is deplorable.  It’s almost as if a cat swallowed Azeroth and barfed up Oblivion’s countryside.  Rampant pop-up, ugly textures, buggy frame rates, and occasional game crashes ruin exploration.  It’s clear the developers recognized this deficiency; players can instantly “speed travel” to any major city regardless of whether or not the player has been there before.  No sense in traversing a visual swamp any more than necessary.

I know, I know; graphics don’t make the game!  Yeah, and drywall doesn’t keep a house upright (that I’m aware of), but how many people own one without it?  In any case, Oblivion has some gameplay issues too.  Unlike many RPG “grinders,” Oblivion’s combat is in real-time, which is great - unless you want to go Gandalf on your enemies.  Many spells are available, but only eight can be mapped to the D-Pad.  You know, the bumper, the part of the 360’s controller Microsoft had to slap together because all the other good D-Pad patents were already filed.  You can comfortably cycle through only four spells.  Forget about switching to spells located between the four cardinal directions in the heat of combat.  You’ll only select the wrong spell; instead of changing to a mana drain spell, you’ll get hit in the face by a bludgeoning tool.  This may sound trivial, but not being able to take full strategic advantage of my spell inventory was a real downer for me.

Thin dialogue trees, muddy visuals, and poor spell control are Oblivion’s only real letdown.  And please keep in mind, these opinions are expressed solely from the experience with the XBOX 360 version.  If you’re wishing to relive the magic of Fallout 3, you may be better off just buying expansions.  However, for those truly interested in seeing the evolution of Bethesda’s development process, sure, go pick up a copy of Oblivion.  Just don’t get too disappointed.

Don’t like what I have to say?  Well, shoot over some hate comments.  Then, at least I'll know somebody's reading.