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"GAMING - OBLIVION"
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 | Picked Up A Copy Of Elder Scrolls Oblivion
Posted: Apr 22, 2006, at 11:42 AM
Stored Under Topic: GAMING - OBLIVION -GUID-
Posted By: Infymus |  | |
On direction of a good friend good friend Zerk, I picked up a copy of The Elder Scrolls Oblivion this weekend and I am getting ready to install it. Zerk raves about it and he has never led me astray on a good game.
First impressions are that this game is done very well. The graphics are superb and the visualizations in the intro were exemplary.
The controls at first were difficult to master. I am very used to third-person MMOG and FPS games, so going back to a FPS was a little difficult at first. Oblivion has a third-person view, but the camera does not move smoothly with the character and if you are in tight spaces, you see places outside the walls of your area. Finally I switched to first-person view because third was just not going to work out well - for now.
Right now I'm moving my way through what appears to be catacombs and smacking down rats and an occasional zombie.
Onward.
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| | Elder Scroll And The Over Heating Video Card
Posted: Apr 22, 2006, at 03:43 AM
Stored Under Topic: GAMING - OBLIVION -GUID-
Posted By: Infymus | | |
I just spent two hours taking my machine apart and changing the fan system. I did note that there is a FAN power lead off the power supply for fans only. When I removed the fans from this lead and put them on regular power leads, their power output increased by at least 200%.
When I was playing Oblivion I began to notice that my GForce 6800 ULTRA PCI Express x16 was running at about 85C. That is only partial in the yellow zone for this kind of card, but when it hit 80C, water began to flicker. When it hit 84C, textures began to flip out, change, and have spastic graphical lines that connected everything in every direction. I knew immediately this was a sign of video card over-heating.
So I pulled my rig down and re-arranged my fan system. I have one fan on the side near the video card, so with twist ties I mounted an extra fan pointing directly at the video card fan. Then I jury-rigged my own funnel system from the outside fan pointing down and directly into the fan sitting on the video card.
After about two hours of changing fans around, I finally put the system back together. Now in the same place I was getting 85C, I didn't go over 68C. At rest with no games playing the video card is sitting at 50C and the system core temperature is at 73F.
Good. Now I can go back to playing.
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| | Tweaking The Shit Out Of Oblivion
Posted: Apr 26, 2006, at 06:14 AM
Stored Under Topic: GAMING - OBLIVION -GUID-
Posted By: Infymus | | |
I have been playing Oblivion in 1024x768 on my rig to try and keep the framerates above 27. I have been failing at those framerates recently and so I went on a quest to try and figure out how to increase the framerates.
I now am playing on 1280x1024 and getting 30+ FPS with many of the items on. The most obvious tweak that really helped was "weeding" out the grass, per-sey.
I modified my oblivion.ini file and changed this:
iMinGrassSize=200
Set it to 200 and now your grass will be sparse and look great. This alone increased my framerates by a great deal.
I also found three great MODS to Oblivion that really helped me go back to 3rd-person view. They are as follows:
SWClock that puts a clock on your screen so you always know what time it is.
Third Person Crosshair that allows you to go into 3rd Person view and still retain your crosshair.
Chase camera Mod that removes the camera swing and camera delay on 3rd person view.
Of course on 3rd person view walking sideways looks like shit - but they didn't code for it so there is no graphics - it looks like you are walking forwards.
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I'm lost in Oblivion.
The landscape is large, but as you play the game you find the landscape isn't that large.
I rescued the Emperor's son from Kvatch and took him up to Bruma. Then I started to get bored. I traveled down to Anvil, and did a quest concerning a gang of women - it held absolutely no challenge. I easily took the person down and completed it.
I walked up through the Kvatch forest up to Chorrol, through the Country down to Bravil, and then down to Leyawiin. Then I walked throught he Blackwood up to the Panther River and through Lake Conulus, all the way up to County Bruma. I found dungeon after dungeon. Cave after Cave. Ruin after Ruin.
And I found nothing of interest.
I have found no better armor than what I'm wearing, and no harder enemies than what I've fought before.
The game - seems to have no direction to point you in. I'm just wandering around in a land that has 7 small cities, 1 destroyed, and one large main city. Sure there are quests here and there in cities, but nothing seems to
Excite.
The game has completely failed to convey to me what it's all about. With being able to fast-travel anywhere I want; there is no reason to go into the dungeons, caves and ruins outside the cities.
I walked from Choydinhal to Leyawiin through the forests, found lots of caves and ruins.
It seems to me the Emporer is at fault for not keeping up his kingdom. There are hundreds of places to visit, and all of them are nearly the same. Dungeons filled with little traps, either gas or hanging stuff that will slap you. But nothing of interest. A few skeletons here and there, a couple trolls, and some bandits on bridges.
The landscapes are filled with rats and wolves - easy prey to slap down, except when I have to get off my horse. There are no trolls wandering the forests, nothing else of interest. Rinse and Repeat: Get off horse, kill, loot, continue.
I feel like I'm just wasting my time - doing.. What?
So there is a central quest, I suppose that I should return to that. And the city quests? Nothing seems compelling. It's like this game is here, but it's too goddamn late for it to be here. Without multiplayer, this game just doesn't mean jack shit. I mean, who the hell cares about a gazillion different little mines and ruins and old broken down forts if you can't share it with someone?
If I want to be a Wizard, then I have roll a new character and play in a new world. I can't create multiple characters that can exist and transact in the same world. Because of this, creating mule characters that can do specific jobs is pointless. One character that does it all just isn't realistic.
I'm really starting to think I wasted $44 bucks on this game - but I'll continue a little longer, join a few guilds, and see what else is there. I want to see if any of the main quests tie in to the countless crap that is lying around the countryside.
Big games with lots of landscape filled with nothing doesn't appeal to me. I learned that quickly with Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. A big city doesn't mean anything if all that vastness has little impact on the game. I've been in the realm of online gaming for over a decade now. Just because your game has a lot of land doesn't mean shit. In all reality, it's like this game has no meaning and no clue - absolutely nothing that has garnered my attention. The main quest is lame. The characters are dry. The challenge is moot. The dungeons, ruins and caves are all the same - you have seen 2 or 3, you've seen them all.
When I close the game down and go watch a movie, you know it's a bad sign.
It's a bad sign.
After a while I just gave up on Oblivion, deleted it and stored it away. I was utterly bored. After closing about the 30th Oblivion Gate, I just couldn't stand it anymore.
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