Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

[Armin]

What are some of your guys' thoughts? Is it living up to the hype surrounding it, your preconceptions/expectations? I know it has for me so far since I have loved the series.
[right][snapback]105326[/snapback][/right]

Bringing this up from the dead, here is one pretty dead-on-the-spot review:

http://www.rpgcodex.com/content.php?id=129

Frankly, Oblivion is nothing but "Morrowind Light" with shinier graphics. Once you get over the admittedly incredibly stunning looks, there's really not much substance behind it. All the fears of them "dumbing down" Morrowind for the console crowd were, sadly, 100% justified.

Apart from the graphics, everything else is worse than it was in Morrowind (and Morrowind certainly was improvable).
- The interface is a disaster, ported from the XBox 360 to PC the cheapest possible way
- the RPG system is stripped to almost nothingness (only 2 armor and 2 weapon types left, alchemy and enchanting skills basically removed, character customization nerfed, unnerving minigames instead of persuasion and lockpick skills etc.)
- the scaling world is the most fake, ridiculous and hokey thing I've seen in a long time.

I've finished it, and I admit, Oblivion is still entertaining and quite addictive, but it's a mile away from the hype and then some.

Personally, I'm looking forward to Gothic III ;)