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

[Space Pirate Roberts]

So, after dl'ing the Knights of the Nine, I made a new character to play it (since my existing character was a thief/assassin and I had already read that you couldn't feasibly do both since the KotN stuff requires 0 infamy) and started into the KotN questline first thing. Big mistake. Not that it was hard mind you - just the opposite. The quests were all balanced to my low level, allowing me to basically breeze right through the whole thing and leaving me unsatisfied about the experience.

[Melf]

Adjust the difficulty slider. That worked for me when I was one hit-killing everyone.

[Melf]

IGN has some hands-on impression of Shivering Isles. Apparently, it will include 10 achievements worth 250 points!

Still no release date though.

[StriderKyo]

This game is really starting to wear on me. The scaling enemies thing is so out of wack it's gotten to the point where every single thing I face is more powerful than I am.

It's like, beat enemy > heal > go watch tv while mana regenerates > save > fight enemy. It takes forever just to get through a dungeon.

I'm going to try and start figuring out ways to break the game, because that's the only way it's going to stay any fun for me. I'm playing as mainly a stealth character, but after a while that's pretty useless - daggers can't hold enough charge to be truly useful as magic weapons, especially given that you need to hit more with them than other type. They just run out too fast.

[JefmcC]

This game is really starting to wear on me. The scaling enemies thing is so out of wack it's gotten to the point where every single thing I face is more powerful than I am.

It's like, beat enemy > heal > go watch tv while mana regenerates > save > fight enemy. It takes forever just to get through a dungeon.

I'm going to try and start figuring out ways to break the game, because that's the only way it's going to stay any fun for me. I'm playing as mainly a stealth character, but after a while that's pretty useless - daggers can't hold enough charge to be truly useful as magic weapons, especially given that you need to hit more with them than other type. They just run out too fast.

At some point you will be able to dominate most creatures in the game, no matter the scaling. Until then, you can always adjust the difficulty down.

I like the scaling enemies. I think for an open ended game it's a viable solution.

[Nash]

This game is really starting to wear on me. The scaling enemies thing is so out of wack it's gotten to the point where every single thing I face is more powerful than I am.

I've never had this problem. I play the game at the default difficult and I'm just cruising. It's difficult enough to be a challenge, but not to the point where I ever find myself struggling against anything.

[Prince Planet]

This game is really starting to wear on me. The scaling enemies thing is so out of wack it's gotten to the point where every single thing I face is more powerful than I am.

I generally liked the scaling enemies, but it's true that a stealth based character gets hit the hardest with this system since you are often leveling up non-combat based skills. Beefing up illusion (night eye, invisibility, and chameleon) and marksmanship should help.

[StriderKyo]

My character's basically a nightblade. I've got destruction spells instead of marksmanship. It sucks, even though I've got decent stats my spells seem to have little effect on anything major. God forbid I see an ogre, I spend an hour running around in a circle while he chases me as I intermittently fire off ineffective ice spells while my mana restores. Storm atronachs are epic 20 minute battles.

Alot of it is that I'm using lower tier spells because I just don't have enough magicka. However often I ramp up my intelligence it never seems to add up to enough to cast more than a couple of spells before I'm dry.

Sneak attacks do a good amount of damage, but it's tough to consistently backstab - I end up having to change out of all my good armor, praying they don't turn around, hitting them, then changing it all back. It's kind of a huge pain.

[Nash]

Strange. I'm a nightblade too, but I'm kicking all sorts of ass. My lower-tiered spells do a decent amount of damage, but I also mix it up with a lot of sword play. If you've completed the Dark Brotherhood questline, you get a lot of cool stuff that enhances your stats, particularly blade and stealth stats.

[StriderKyo]

Strange. I'm a nightblade too, but I'm kicking all sorts of ass. My lower-tiered spells do a decent amount of damage, but I also mix it up with a lot of sword play. If you've completed the Dark Brotherhood questline, you get a lot of cool stuff that enhances your stats, particularly blade and stealth stats.

Heh, yeah, see I'm kind of playing a good guy, haven't done a single thing wrong. I'm trying to tackle Mehrune's Razor right now in an attempt to become more powerful, but that might be too much for me.