If anyone can help, I'll greatly appreciate it. I've tried every trick I know to delete these darn temp files. I've gotten rid of almost everyone, but Norton states there are a few left and for some reason it won't delete them.

#!%! I thought I figured out the problem. I found the numbered files in Windows' temp folder. I deleted them. I'm still getting the ATI Catalyst when I attempt to autoplay the DVD for this game!

Crap. I've had the same problem before and fixed it, I just can't remember where the files were that I had to get rid of. It is always ATI drivers, too.

Wow... what a great game. Graphics are top notch. I'm running it on Very High with a resolution of 1280*1024 and it's running really nice.

The 'realistic' lighting is from HDR. Though using that means I can't use anti-aliasing, and I'm going to play around to see what looks the best. Though I think just having HDR rather than AA will make it far more impressive.

The gameplay is similar, but the Imperial City is freaking awesome! Much bigger and better than any city in Morrowind. I'm exploring that rather than doing my main quest at the moment ;). Lots of shops and lots of people around (each with great facial graphics and voice acting).

With the main menu screen and the beginning of the new campaign it also makes it FEEL like you are walking into something EPIC. The music, the Patrick Stewart voice over, the ancient looking menus. Just wonderful.

I'm impressed so far.

I cannot wait to get this for my birthday (Friday). Woot!

Easy fix

goto start/run and type msconfig

Than tab over to startup and uncheck anything to do with ATI and then click on apply.

restart computer

I like the fact that you can't sell stolen goods to just any store. You have to find a fence to sell them.

Really tried to resist this one, but I might as well just give up.

I'll likely get this in the next couple of days.

I'll try that to see if it works in a little bit, jbmagic.

Here's a nifty program to get rid of ATI drivers:
http://www.drivercleaner.net/professional.html

Uhmmm, this might be a stupid question, but will that uninstall them or just get rid of the installation files that are hanging around. Am I wrong in assuming I need the ATI drivers to remain installed for my ATI Graphics card?

Aestus the Master Thief has risen. Oh yes.

Hint to all those who follow in my footsteps....stealing wine rocks.

Ooops, sorry about this. I should have read the page previous to this one to see what the original problem was. Well you can just cancel autoplay and install the file directly from the CD. Right click on that drive, select Open, look for the setup.exe file and it should just install.

So no it was not a stupid question. I just should have went back a page.

I'm still not sure if jbmagic's solution will cause the same problem..

I'm going to try it once this virus scan is done.

Edit to add: I don't even want to play anymore tonight, I just want it installed. By the way, I know I could have done that workaround (like I did for my last 2 games), but I'm determined to figure out why the ATI files keep trying to install.

Sorry, if I had an ATI card, I could look more into it. Unfortunately I don't have that type of card.

Eaglefan27

Yep

You will be good to go once you do it.

This might be a stupid suggestion, and sorry if you've already mentioned this, but you did uninstall the Control Center, correct? There is an ATI Software Utility Uninstall in the Add/Remove programs list on my computer, and I believe you can selectively uninstall components of the Control Center from there.

And yes, That ATI Control Center software is friggin' obnoxious. I made the mistake of installing it by mistake thinking that I was just updating my drivers and it prompty took over my computer. Bloatware deluxe.

If I remember correctly, I just ran an uninstall on it and got rid of it. There were options to remove the Control Center extras but not the video card drivers, etc.

That is an excellent suggestion. I see that as a seperate program under add/remove program. My virus scan is almost complete. I'm going to try this first. If this still doesn't work, I'll try jb's suggestion.

The ATI Software Utility is running in the background when starting your computer.

My solution will not have it load up on startup.

After that you will be good to go. It won't affect your video card at all.

You can always get to your ATI Software Utility by going to program/start anytime you need to access it.

Well darn. I uninstalled the Catalyst control center, and it still tried to install it when I put in the oblivion disc.. Trying jbmagic's recommendation now.

Dola -

Even after altering the msconfig file and rebooting like jbmagic said, it still tried to install the catalyst file :(

I give up. I'm just going to try the workaround.

I'm sorry to hear that. I had the same problem in the past and like I said before the only way I got rid of it is erasing the ATI instal files, but I can't for the life of me remember where they were.

Dola: There might have also been a registery change necessary.

Damn

This is very odd.

I've always used this:

http://support.ati.com/ics/support/D...737&deptID=894

Try looking (with hidden files viewed) at C:\Documents and Settings\*your profile*\Local Settings\Temp, and see if there is still an ATI install there.

For some reason, when your computer is running the Autorun, instead of going to the setup.exe file on your CD, it sounds like it's being redirected somewhere else....that's just weird.

Do a search on your C drive (and other hard drives) for any setup.exe files and see what comes up. You should be able to delete any that come up. (But, just on the safe side, I wouldn't delete anything in any WINDOWS\ folders)

Try this.

Right click on your CD/DVD Rom and select Properties. Click the Autoplay tab. Go through the combo box to see if somehow ATI is being activated.

Trying these suggestions now, and I really appreciate them. I'm frustrated by my lack of ability to solve this problem, but when I clicked on the setup icon, the game installed very smoothly.

The search detected 106 files called Setup.exe! :eek: :o

12 of them were ATI related. All of the ones that aren't in a windows folder are now getting deleted. Then, I need to find a game I haven't installed on this new computer just to see if that cured the problem.

Double Dola -

Thanks everyone. I can go to bed in a bit knowing the problem is solved. Deleting all of those setup files seems to have done the trick, and I'm a bit embarassed I didn't think of doing that search myself. I just installed Real War (one of my worst purchases in the past few years.) At least the game was useful for this test, as it installed with autoplay without a problem.

I just tried 5 minutes of Oblivion and the game looks incredible on my computer, but I don't dare start for real this late as I have to get up early and I'm sure a "half hour" session could quickly become a 3 hour session.

Question,

Will Oblivion's PC version work with some type of gamepad? If so, what one?

Well, I played briefly yesterday, and was pleasantly surprised. My computer is on the lowest setting right now and sometimes "hiccups".

I hate when you have to accompany someone, they always hop in front of you when you melee attack...it's more fun alone.

Just made it to the sewers and I'm quite happy so far...but I know it'll be important to take a disciplined approach so that I don't lose days from work, eating and sleeping.

Btw, anyone experiment with HDR vs. Bloom & 4x AA? I tried the later, but didn't play enough to notice how much better the graphical quality was, because I missed the cool lighting effects of HDR too much.

I have a 6800 and the game recommended Very High, and is running brilliantly. Once in awhile, during battles with several NPC's, it might lag slightly...other than that it's great though.


BTW, anybody else a bit dissapointed that horses can't be moved like your character? I was hoping that I could just turn the mouse which way I wanted to go and be off...but you have to use the 'A' and 'D' buttons instead to turn it...I just find it annoying and don't ride my horse as much now.


But as for the rest of the game, it's awesome so far. I agree that some tooltips would help understand the interface a bit easier, but after looking through the manual (a rare thing for me) I figured it out, and now I quite like it. Combat is still taking some getting used to, but I think I like it overall. I especially like spellcasting, I've been blowing rats and scamps away all night with my flares, yay fun.

I should have called in sick today, :(

I picked up the game for the 360 last night. Played an hour or so and I am very impressed. Graphics are top notch and I like the voice acting. I still haven't made my way out of the dungeons yet. I can't wait to see the town.

FWIW, I grabbed the game for the 360 because I stare at a computer screen 8-10 hours a day and really would rather stare at the 51" HD if I'm going to have extended sessions with a graphics based game.

Btw, for those wondering how the game will play, check out this link from the official forums (2nd post in):

http://www.elderscrolls.com/forums/i...ic=270923&st=0

It is comprehensive look on how you'll be able to play with different video cards.


Well horses can't exactly walk sideways that easily, can they? ;)

I actually like it. It feels more like riding a horse (like the A and D keys are you putting your leg on the horse in that direction).

Riding the horse I can't imagine that I walked (well, ran) everywhere in Morrowind!

In morrowind I ended up ruining the game for myself because I played all the side quests and then when I went back to the main one, I was too powerful and got bored of all the quests.

That's by the by but re: trasportation, I fashioned myself a super powerful amulet with that special soul trap thing that makes the effect be permanent (as opposed to a limited quantity of uses). Anyway, the effet on the amulet was a major big jump and I could literally jump about one third of the map in one go. With a runny, I'd jump and see clouds and then just sort of fog and 'loading' screens for a minute while my map showed my speeding.

eventually i'd land with a crunch but no major damage cause at that point i was quite well built up.

LOL! Man, reading the official forums are a TRIP! There is as much whining over unfinished game and needs patches than any other game I've seen (and I thought complaints about SMAC and CivIV were the top end!!). And you have people RETURNING the game because they think the interface is to 'console like' and hate it because of that. I'm utterly amazed. People are so strange.

Most official forums are like that, I avoid them like the plague.

I only played VERY briefly last night, but I loved the interface from what little I saw.

Blizzard is the only instant buy for me. EVERY one of their games is top of the line...i really didnt think WOW would be, but it has blown by expectations to become by far the most popular MMORPG...SI is up there nowadays, with FM and EHM...gotta wait to see on OOTP before i declare them #2 though

Same here. It takes a bit to get used to it, but its really nicely done... and I love the 'ancient document' feel to it.

To answer the question of HDR vs Bloom and AA. My nice almost new ATI card doesn't support HDR apparently :(

Therefore, I'm using Bloom with 6x AA and it looked great in those few minutes I played tonight. I can't wait to get home from work in a few hours and play some more since Mrs. Eaglesfan has to work late tonight.

I am swamped with work, so of course I went and bought it this afternoon.

Loaded it up this afternoon and just spent a half hour exploring the first dungeon.

So far it seems to run great on my modest set up:
P4 2.6
Radeon 9800 Pro 256mb
2gb RAM

Detected Medium settings. I turned up the resoltion to 800 by 600, and turned off shadows altogether.

Very quick initial impressions:

Wow! Very impressed.
Beautiful graphics and rich gameplay.

Interesting....

They have this game available for direct download at Direct2Drive. Has anyone ever used this service?
http://www.direct2drive.com/376/prod...vion-w/-Manual

Good and bad - I love the graphics, everyone's right when they say that they're amazing. I haven't really noticed any lighting problem. Although I haven't made it out of the sewers yet.

Still, there are a number of rather annoying niggles. Like not being able to turn off head-bobbing, for example. Or the inability to map turning to keys. And why did they limit you to eight hot-keys? Hasn't anyone figured out yet that sorting save games by character is a *good* idea? Etc...

In spite of any lingering annoyances, though, I'm sure I'm going to be playing this for quite a while. If only I could stop playing with the character creator long enough to make it out of the sewer...

Just got it, and played for an hour before dinner.

Holy crap. This thing is rocking my world already.

Is the game challenging? how good is the AI you fight?

I picked HDR. 4x AA looks really great, but HDR, while perhaps not as smooth, has a WOW factor that is hard to beat. The lighting does look very realistic. It's amazing.

Just played for about 2 1/2 hours before I got the call that my wife will be home in 10 minutes.

The graphics are amazing. The head bob is a bit annoying and will probably limit my length of sessions. However, the physics are great. Watching a rat fly through the air after being blasted by a flare spell and then bounce off a wall in a believable way is more fun than it should be. I think when I finish the first dungeon, I'll probably be recommended to be a Battlemage which would suit me fine :)

Can't wait to play more this weekend.

Yeah, wtf... damn all of you!

I didn't even notice the "head bob" until you guys mentioned it.

Bastards.

I just ran into a really wierd situation, that may or may not be a bug. I was walking the streets of Corrall, when an assassin appeared. Dressed just like the guys in the sewers. I assumed he was after me, but before I could even draw my sword three NPCs in the area jumped the guy and killed him. Now thats pretty impressive, here comes the weird part. I hear "Murder, Murder, there's been a murder!" Four guards come running and another NPC with her two dogs. They commence to mutilating these three guys that just saved my bacon. Unfortunately they aren't too careful and hit each other a bit in the skirmish. Once the three original vigilantes have been downed the guards turn on each other. In the end there are four dead citizens and two dead guards.

I continued on my way and visited a shop to sell a few things, when I returned to the scene the bodies were still in the streets, so I looted them.....

Very strange and you would assume the guards would have trusted each other enough not to turn on themselves and the town folk. I just hope none of the NPCs were involved in the plot.

Sorry, I didn't notice it when sneaking or walking, but it is very noticable when running. It doesn't bother me too much since I don't run too much, but it will limit my gameplay slightly. Then again, I played 2 and a half hours with no headaches, so that is a good sign..

I can't wait to use some more fire magic :) However, I also want to wear armor and be good with the sword. So maybe, I didn't really mean that I want to be a battlemage. Can't wait to maybe find some time to finish the dungeon tomorrow and see what class it recommends...

Just got this and it is alot of fun. The graphics are amazing once evrything is tweaked and stuff. That is if you have a fairly impressive rig or at least graphics card. My wife even saw the game and once to start up a character and she doesn't even play any games.....................well except an occasional mind game or two with her husband:)

Note for everyone. When you get done with the tutorial, you'll go to a gate which leads you out of the dungeon you're in. (You'll see a gate with a tunnel behind it and light at the end.) Save your game before you use the gate because when you click on the gate, you'll get a chance to change your character - Race, class, appearance, the works. You'll never have to go through the tutorial again (it takes about an hour to do so).

I wouldn't put too much weight in the computer's recommendation, it's basing it off of the skills you use in the tutorial, ignoring the fact that there are skills you *can't* use in the tutorial.

That said, Battlemage or Spellsword sound like good options for you - that or my favorite, the Custom class :)

I've already made three characters and none of them were pre-designed classes...

Played for about three hours tonight. Loving the game. Some minor complaints, but overall this seems to be an excellent game and an incredible accomplishment.

Created a custom jack-of-all traits character that is mostly mage/warrior.

I'm a monk Breton...

Today I get my new monitor and Oblivion, oh joy!!!

Just as a FYI, I saw this post over at Octopus Overlords and thought it might be useful to some of you with Nvidia cards (especially the 6600). It sounds a little too good, but I've also seen other posts where people are getting much better performance using the beta drivers from Nvidia.


He posted a screenshot and it looks very impressive for a low end system like he has.

Some interface thing got to me last night (as I stayed up to 3:00 AM to play the game when I had to get up before 7! :eek: ). The lockpick mini-game. I can't find a way to 'Auto-Pick' or, more frustratingly 'Close'. If I get into one too hard, I have to break all my lockpicks to leave :mad:. The other annoyance is with dropping items. Frankly, you can't, unless you have a chest where you can 'store' unneeded stuff. That is a pain when you are given something by a character that puts you over your limit. I had to drink a potion of feather, so I could move to reach a chest to dump my stuff in.

Btw, found the perfect use for fast travel: escort missions. :D They loose all the frustration of your ordinary escort missions, because of the fast travel.

Also unlike Morrowind, the main quest is REALLY compelling (at least so far). That's why I stayed up until 3 in the morning. I wanted to finish that section of the (early) main quest.

May I add.. the Planes of Oblivion are very nicely done. Some where scared that the screenshots indicated another Red Mountain. This far exceeds that.

Sounds like a formatting issue on your screen. Both AutoPick and Close are at the bottom of the minigame screen.


Manual, Page 10, 80% down: Shift and LMB. (On 360, probably a shoulder button and the equip button).

Um.. yeah... but I can't get there!


Thanks. You'd have hoped the in game tutorial would have been able to specify this...

Shift + Click on Item to drop them, iirc. Though you can try to place them on a shelf or something like you could in MW, you just drop them.

As for Auto-Pick/Close...just move your mouse over to it and you can click on that. You might have to move the mouse around to find your cursor of course, thats slightly annoying. Oh well.

And yes, when I first experiemented with fast travel to see if the NPC would follow me...I was overjoyed that they did. Yay for fast travel! :D

What, downwards? Because you can't really go left, right, or up to find a cursor... it'll go left, right, or hit a tumbler. I wish you could just hit Esc for your cursor :(.

It is a bit awkward, but I haven't had any real trouble finding the cursor. Just move the mouse around and basically downward, yeah.

Also there is a mention of how to drop things in the tutorial. It doesn't come up until you are carrying too much, though. I had actually been slightly overencumbered a few times, and I don't think the tutorial window about how to drop popped up until I was several pounds over my limit. That is probably something they should fix in a patch cause I was stumped on how to drop stuff for a while, too, and had to check the manual.

I should add, on a seperate note, that I had no interest in buying this game until I saw this thread and checked out the videos, and it is really sweet.

One minor annoyance and question.

The speechcraft/persuasion little mini-game seems a little boring. Very easy to tweak the characters you are dealing with up to their max plus, as a bard, it is one of my major skills so, seems like an easy way to level up.

The creatures that you fight, any way to see how strong they are or is this just a have to figure it out yourself or do they get stronger as you get stronger? I seem to remember that the older games, the creatures were just seeded and if you happened to run into a super stronger creature accidentally, you could.. it wasn't by level. I could be wrong...

I don't understand the speechcraft thing at *all*

Does game suggest or recommends what level you character should be when doing a certain side quest or main quest?

4 segments, wheel spins clockwise. Each segment has a specific reaction - Really +, +, -, and really -. It's just a task of making sure that when you select the negative area the segment is not that full and the segment is as full as possible in the positive areas to get the biggest benefit. (The more full a segment, the bigger the affect)

Easiest thing is to just figure out which areas are positive and negative beforehand and then plot your moves.. The positive and negative areas don't change for the entire time you are persuading that specific NPC.

Its pretty intuitive and easy to do.. just very repetitive... Just remember that you don't HAVE to have the most filled in segment in the positive area.. and you just need a little forward thinking to what segment will be where as you have to select each quadrant once.

As you level up, some NPC/Creatures level up with you. Also, while at first if you go into Oblivion with a low level you'll fight mostly Scamps, later on as you level up you'll see less of them and more of the big baddy types.

edit: Beat me to it.

Nope. It's mostly trial and error, but I know that the 'level' of your opponents scales with your level.

I found it a bit frustrating to get to the autopick as well, but once I figured out that I just had to move my mouse downward until the cursor appeared that wasn't bad. Autopick is much better than I am at this point :(



My wife just called me about 5 minutes ago. A very good friend of hers who had evacuated just returned to New Orleans. She asked if I would mind if she went and visited her for a few hours after work tonight... guess what I said ;)


I should be able to finish the dungeon tonight :) Also, I agree that I won't put too much weight into the recommended class. I'm just curious what it will suggest. I expect a Spellsword will be what I pick or maybe a custom class that is similar to a Spellsword. I also expect I'll probably play a few different characters early on to see which one I enjoy the most. A pure warrior, mage/warrior, and thief all appeal to me at times right now.

Some more notes and tips - some of this may be spoilerish in terms of the mechanics of the game...:

On the conversation game - I like to think of it in terms of the four actions having multipliers associated with them (*2, *1, *-1, *-2), with the wheel having four values associated with it (4, 3, 2, 1). A very simple but effective way to play the game is to always make sure that your first priority is selecting the smallest value on the wheel (1) with the negative actions. Focusing on that seems to be an effective way to get ahead in the disposition game.

Haggling is still difficult for me. One trick, though, is if you have a lot of low value items (like arrows) to sell, is to sell one, crank the haggle up a notch, and repeat. As soon as your offer is refused, crank the haggle down two notches, and that should be your best price.

Getting money to start: If you have trouble getting money in the beginning, an easy way to build up a little cash is through alchemy. Go around buying up the 2 gold reagents, make simple potions, and sell them back for anywhere from 6 (starting out) to 14 (if you buy some advanced alchemy tools) gold. You turn at minimum a 2gp profit, and also work up alchemy, speechcraft, and mercantile while you're doing it.

Game mechanics: Stores are open from 9 am to 9 pm. Time compression is 30:1, so a day lasts 48 minutes. Time is, however, frozen whenever you're doing something (making potions, conversing, etc...).

It's been so long since I played an Elder Scrolls game that I'd forgotten one of the things that bugged me the most about it - the skill/level system. If mobs are based on your level, then you had better make sure your level is based on your ability to defeat mobs. Acrobatics, Athletics, Speechcraft, Mercantile, Armorer and similar skills are useless in a fight - so if you have those as major skills, you're going to be at a disadvantage if your level is heavily influenced by those. Most of the stock classes have one or more of those skills, though, so a *little* fudge factor is built in. Just don't gain six levels in town by running around in circles. The only thing your character will be built to do then is run away. Very, very fast.

Magic - if you choose/get a magic skill as a major skill, you'll get new spells, don't forget to check the magic tab. Don't think that this is all you can get though, if you check in the Imperial City, you'll find lots more spells that you can use (and probably can't afford ;)) even at the basic level of skill. And if you want to work up those minor magic skills, don't forget to shop!

"Rough leather cuirass" v "Leather cuirass" - I have no idea. One costs more, but they have the same armor rating and weight. My *guess* is that the "rough" version of items loses durability faster. Anyone know for sure?

Item durability loss is based on its class (heavy/light) and the player's skill. There may also be a factor based on the material (glass, for example). At any rate, I'm sure the only difference between a rough leather cuirass and a regular leather cuirass is the price for which merchants will pay for the item.

Oh, and of course how well the chicks dig you. That's why I always keep my blue suede shoes around.

One question how do you sleep or make your character rest to get back health?

You need to find a bed. Either buy a house or find a inn while in town or in the wild find a random bedroll

Bedroll in the wild?

Yeah outside of the cities, in caves and so on when you run into small camps(Usually occupied by people who will try to kill you, but I haven't been out in the wild yet so I'm not sure what is out there.) they will have a bed roll that you can sleep on.

Thanks that is all useful.

Every character has the minor healing spell to regain health... sleep is for the weak!

More on the item quality issue. I'm more convinced now that it does affect item wear. I took a "Rusty Iron Bow" vs a "Iron Bow". They have identical stats except for merchant value. Both were repaired to 100 condition, then I fired 20 arrows with each (into the ground, heh). After 10 arrows the "Rusty Iron Bow" was condition 94, the "Iron Bow" condition 95. After 20 arrows, the "Rusty Iron Bow" was condition 89, the "Iron Bow" condition 91.

More on lockpicking - there seems to be three speeds with which the tumbler moves - medium, fast, and stupid fast. It seems like the key is to use your lockpick and only try to lock the pin on the slower speeds. Trying on stupid fast seems to require either absurd twitch speed or just plain luck.

I know the gameworld on this game is huge.

Is it easy to find things you need to accomplish when doing the side quest and main quest?

Yeah, there are little pointers on the main map that identify where you need to go for a quest. So you won't get lost. Now if there are any situations where you have to hunt down "tiny quest object" in "big huge dungeon"... that I don't know, but I haven't seen it yet.

You were right about the recommendations. I received a very odd recommendation of a Bard! That was odd since I had hardly used the main skills of the Bard. I had primarily used my Destruction and Blade Skills, along with heavy armor. I ended up making a custom class that had a lot of features in common with a Spellblade. Just saved the game before I exit the Sewers. Time to explore the world! :)

Dola -

The game runs amazingly on very high settings for me except I get some terrible slowdown when scripted combat events happen with a large number of NPC's at once.

I'm playing on high with a system I bought 1.5 years ago. Bethesda sure did a hell of a lot better job on the tech side this go around. Still getting to the meat of the game.

I'm just about finished with the thief guild quests

Dude. Stop with the questions.

Read the fucking reviews. Buy the game or don't.

Sorry if that was harsh and unfair (and it was), but I swear that 90% of your posts are questions, many of which are repetitive. Read their (Bethesda's) forums, as I'm sure that all of your specific questions are there.

Posted these on Octopus Overlords, but thought they would work here as well...

Random initial Impressions after six hours of play…

The good:

A lot of people have mentioned how pretty they think the game is, but the thing that stands out most in this game to me is that the graphics and physics of the game world combine to impart a strong sense of realness to the game environment. When I drop a weapon and see it roll down a hill before settling against a log, I feel as if I am really part of a virtual environment rather than simply playing a game. There is a “thereness” to Oblivion unlike any other gaming experience I have had, and the direct result of this is that the game oozes immersion.

Gameplay (leveling, combat, NPC interaction, skill improvement, quests) seems well done. The fun that comes from seeing your character improve is not groundbreaking, but is quite solid. Combat (especially involving fire) is engaging and exciting.

The game world doesn’t seem to be huge geographically, but is clearly huge in terms of available experiences. There are tombs, forts, wildlife, towns, quests all over the place, and the paths you can take your character are varied and interesting. For players who enjoy exploring and open-ended games, this will not disappoint.

The bad:
Characters are ugly. They nearly all look pasty and fat. It’s as if everybody is British. :) To be honest, it’s worse, as I keep wondering if most of the NPCs have Down Syndrome. It’s great that there are ugly and old people, but I’d like some bodacious wenches and dashing heroes as well. I hope someone can do something with this with a mod. There have been a couple of scary moments where I’ve approached women with lithe bodies from behind, then been revolted by their faces when they turn around and engage in conversation. And at times, I've caught myself thinking, "Why should I hunt all over the countryside for bottles of wine for you, when you are SO DAMN UGLY!" It's hard to get excited about saving an entire kingdom of bloated, pock-marked muffins.

After watching the GameSpot opening night streaming video, I thought that the low level of activity (people visible and doing things) in the game might bother me. Well, it’s better than I thought, but I still feel like it’s a gameworld filled with perhaps a few hundred people. The game’s main quest line loses quite a bit of its epic feel with so few people in the world.

But so far, so good. Having fun just wandering around the city and nearby countryside, and feel that I've gotten my money's worth already. Highly recommended.

One other thing that has struck me is to what degree the voice acting and lip syncing will limit people’s abilities to make mods.

Schmidty: Dude. Chill. He's just asking some questions - if it bugs you that much, quite reading the thread. And it keeps the thread bumped.

Some general notes on combat - block/counter-attack seems to be the way to go for melee combat, although I've gotten pretty beat up *through* the shield by some beefy dudes with 2-handers. It also took me the longest time to figure out that the melee combat is pretty range sensitive, and that just because the 2-hander was in range, that didn't mean *I* was. Doh!

They make a big deal about the Mage's Guild outlawing Necromancy, yet half the conjuration spells are summoning undead. Hmm.

My characters keep getting side-tracked (side-quested?), I need to focus. Dammit.

GB: Yeah, for such good graphics, the people look, hmm... "unrealistically weathered"? As far as the lack of people goes, I suppose it cuts both ways, if they had a realistic number of people wandering around, you'd have an even tougher time finding the people you wanted to talk to. Still, a few more folks around would be nice.

Just got the game last night, and it is brilliant. BTW killing vampires = good money!

Personally, I'm glad all of the characters aren't buxom lithe women. I've always felt games that have too much of that are pandering. However, I agree a bit of variety would be nice.

The physics engine is what really amazes me. Things fly through the air, bounce appropriately, and roll/slide down hills some realisticly. I can't wait to play some more this weekend.

I agree, but even with the old/ugly ones, the eyes seem off. For some reason, that old movie "Deliverance" keeps popping into my head. Of course, with only a few of hundred people in the gameworld, I guess a bit of inbreeding is to be expected.

Fouts: You just got the game last night and you're killing vampires already? What level did you reach to do that? I've played six hours and I just reached level 3.

Stopping to read the books probably hasn't helped me much, though.

I think the Vampires will be at the same level you are so its possible to kill them at any level if you run into one.


I finished the thief guild quests, and have now moved on to the Dark Brotherhood.

4 hours into it and I am loving this game. This was one of the reasons I built a new machine (P4 dual core with a Radeon X1900) and it runs smooth on ultra high settings but...

The characters are plain ugly. They all look like they're from the same round faced family no matter what race they are. Terrain looks good at close range but I don't like the look of the distant hills... looks too flat. I've been reading the official forums and hope that some tweaking of the .ini will maks things look better.

I've started out in the fighters guild and played in the Arena a bit. Really impressed with the size of the game world and how easy it is to travel now.

I've historically defended the guy a LOT, but recent happenings have made me leery, and quite frankly more annoyed (like the majority of others) by him.

You must have not been around much recently.

My crusader is level 4, and somebody approached me to kill vampires. The irony was that I am one and actively seeking a cure (at night). I just assumed the vampire story was part of the storyline. Maybe I slept in the wrong town.