Oblivi-addict

Hello, my name is corwin, and I have an addiction. With little in the way of tabletop role-playing games in my future, I decided to turn to the next best thing: game-console based RPGs. I had heard a lot of really good things about the Elder Scrolls games, particularly the latest, Oblivion. Not too long ago I heard that Bethesda Softworks had decided to end production of the numerous add-ons to the game so they could concentrate on their next product. That sounded like a good time to jump on board, with all of the add-ons complete, and a finite amount of downloadable content to buy. I also timed things right so I could by the "game of the year" edition, which included the two biggest add-on packages, The Knights of the Nine and The Shivering Isles. The game is fantastic! It starts out pretty standard, selecting your race from one of the many available, each with different bonuses and weaknesses. Instead of selecting your class right away, though, you run through the introductory adventure that also serves as a tutorial to the game itself. This is pretty much the only place the game feels like it's 100% on rails, as you must navigate through a single set of tasks that will put you on the track of the main story quest. During this adventure, you also select your class and birth-sign (which gives additional bonuses to certain attributes). After that, you're off and running. You can go pretty much wherever you like in the game world of Cyrodiil, and do pretty much whatever you want. Every town has a huge pile of quests you can take on, as do each of the factions like the Fighters, Mages, and Thieves Guilds. There's an arena where you can fight for gold, or just bet it on a fight. And the countryside is filled with beautiful locations and exotic fauna which will try to kill you. Many of the quests are actually pretty interesting, and I found myself really wanting to see how they played out. My favorite thus far is the one that plays on the old fantasy gaming trope of having to fight rats at the early levels. To say more would be a spoiler, but it's very well done. It should be noted that, to date, I haven't bothered with the main storyline quest at all. I'm a 14th level thief who has already managed to close one Oblivion gate and spends most of his time running about the countryside taking care of side quests. The main storyline will wait until I'm ready for it. I find I really get into these quests, too. There have been two occasions when I took on quests in which it turns out to be impossible to save one of the principle characters. I actually felt bad in both occasions, and when one of them presented me with the opportunity to get revenge on the killer, I fought like a demon and wished there had been a way to take the killer's head back to town. I'm having an absolute blast with the game, even if it is eating the majority of my free time these days. As a matter of fact, I am looking forward to getting an hour or two of game play tonight when I finally get home and get settled in. It is so addictive that I literally forgot to watch Lost a couple of weeks ago, and had to rely on my media center pc to record it for me so I could watch it later. I have never forgotten Lost before. I put part of the delay off to computer issues, which did play a big factor in when I could make my recap post, but I also didn't watch the episode right away either.