Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Shivering Isles March 27 for $30)

[Opaque]

If you liked Oblivion at all you should get Shivering Isles.

It's the best the game has to offer in every respect.

[bbobb]

Does it fix the shitty ass leveling system?

No?

Then the game is still ass then.

[bVork]

lern 2 level properly lol

[bbobb]

You mean grind on stats so you get exactly what's needed to level? And be sure not to pick any skills you'll actually use as primary skills?

The Elder Scrolls games have been shit since the first game, and Oblivion just continues to prove my point.

[bVork]

You can (and should) pick skills that you use as primary skills. The idea is to pick ones that let you control the advancement. Don't pick Athletics or Acrobatics or any armour skills - those level up with basically no way to control them.

Keep a notepad handy and just put a tick by the appropriate statistic when a skill associated with it increases. If you're smart, you should have picked a wide variety of primary skills and thus shouldn't have to worry too much about all the points going towards just a single stat. When you're just about to hit 10 primary skill increases, just swap out which skills you use and wait for three statistics to get 10 skill increases each. Swap out your sword for an axe, and so on. Grinding is completely unnecessary.

I'm not saying that the leveling system is perfect, but I think it works quite well. Morrowind's system, which allowed you to train and practice skills to increase multipliers even if you had already hit 10 points in major skills, worked better. But Oblivion's system works fairly well. The major problem isn't with your own leveling, it's with the way everything else levels alongside you.

[Melf]

I've never had any problem leveling up, aside from sometimes forgetting to rest to do so, lol.

Now that I've beaten Knights of the Nine (which was awesome), I can finally dive into SI.

[epmode]

You mean grind on stats so you get exactly what's needed to level? And be sure not to pick any skills you'll actually use as primary skills?

The Elder Scrolls games have been shit since the first game, and Oblivion just continues to prove my point.

The Elder Scrolls games are flawed. VERY flawed. They have been from the very beginning.

They're still among my favorite games ever.

Though I must admit that the level scaling introduced in Oblivion is a huge mistake. Keeps me from wanting to play the expansion, honestly.

[bVork]

Yeah, I have no argument that every ES game has been a buggy, bloated, totally unbalanced mess. The skill and leveling system just happens to be one of the few areas where I think the game does a very good job.

The expansion is more and better Oblivion. More unique locations and artwork, same Oblivion gameplay. It almost - but not quite - reaches Morrowind's level of amazing artistic design.

[StriderKyo]

Now that I've beaten Knights of the Nine (which was awesome)

I concur with this, Knights of the Nine rocks - it's nearly as substantial as the main quest. The items and abilities you get in it turn you into Superman too, so it's worth downloading.

Been playing the PS3 version for the last week - it's real purty. Looks a bit better than the 360, even with the updated shaders. Don't notice a big difference with draw distance (although I've read there's supposed to be one), but mountains etc. in the background have textures instead of just being shapes, and the textures on everything look really nice. Framerate doesn't chug as much either. The only downside is that it has a 4 gig (!) install, but the silver lining of that is the load times are really quick. Early in the game when it doesn't have much to keep track of, it loads so fast you can't even read the hints on the loading screen.

Decided to start as a tank instead of a stealth class. The game's alot easier now, and I honestly don't find it any less rewarding; sneaking & personality based skills are kind of worthless at the ned of the day. Enemies are still a freaking bitch once you start nearing lv 20 though, I need to track down a killer weapon. The only thing I really miss in terms of DLC on the PS3 is Mehrune's Razor, I hope they start putting some of that stuff up but I'm getting the impressions their energies are being put into Fallout.

[dakidski]

When will the next Elder Scrolls be published? Also Bethesda should release a GOTY Oblivion with all patches, mods and expansions.