G-pinions

Take a guess how long Nick and I played Oblivion yesterday. Keep in mind that I didn't actually get to his house until just after noon and retired to my boudoir just after 1 in the AM. We put in ten and a half hours of uber-geekage time. And it was all fantastic. If you factor in my Oblivion-related dreams... I have logged 17 man years into this title. Man oh man is this a great game.

Scott wanted to know a little about our character and I am happy to oblige. First of all, despite my persisting, we have a male character. Nick wore me down by telling me we would have to flirt with women to advance in the game, and neither of us really wanted to make too much nice with the creepy gentleman in this world. However, after 630 minutes, we haven't actually hit on anyone, and if we have, well, it would be easier to flirt with the unsightly men than their broad-faced female companions. We did spend a good twenty minutes morphing our Dark Elf to be the most rugged monster this side of the Potomac. I like a game where I can joke "We should give him one of those sexy Neanderthal eyebrow ridges" and, not five minutes later, our character is sporting one you could balance a tea cup on.

As far as stats, Nick mentioned our character class is Blind Puma (we couldn't fit Disembowlmage) but skimped on the details. We decided to make, what we guessed, would be the greatest character class ever. Of course, if we could go back and tweak it, I would be quite pleased. Anyway, we were given 25 different categories to focus on and we could chose 7. The only two really legit things we took were Blade and Marksman. Though the satisfying "Thunk" of a well placed swing of a War Hammer against a tiny Imp is oh so tempting, Nick and I enjoy the fine "Clink" of a sword. Clearly, Blade is a necessity. We chose Marksman because it seemed like something that would be cool. We didn't actually realize just how fun Bow and Arrows are in this game. We enter every battle with Bow drawn, and there is something so fulfilling about hitting a goblin square in the chest and watching him flip backwards, slide down a hill, and descend to Goblin hell.

Our other five skills - Alchemy, Alteration, Conjuration, Destruction, and Mysticism - were favored by me and, in hindsight, are a little ridiculous in conjunction. At least at the 10+ hour point. I really wanted to focus on Alchemy, though I have to admit it is a skill that has not exactly paid off thus far. It is true that I was ransacking people's homes last nights with the expressed purpose of taking their food. I did not even want their crappy "valuables." My modus operandi is to get as many foods as possible and, as Brendan once said, "Mix them." It produces lame potions and even lamer poisons, but it's well worth it to me. Take some Rat Meat, add some stinking Zombie Meat, and you have something you wouldn't feed to Joe Rogan. After all my tinkering, though, we haven't actually found a legitimate use for Alchemy yet. I'm hoping I can make a Sorcerer's Stone eventually.

The other stuff just makes our magic go boom. We do use an awful lot of Magic - anytime we're hurt we use this puny heal spell to up our Restorative powers - but, at this point, the spells are no stronger than our steel weapons.

In hindsight, I wish we would have spent a skill point on Sneaking. I know, Tom is into Stealth now? Who is this masked man? But it's actually really great in this game. If you crouch before a battle and pluck an enemy with an arrow unseen (both the arrow and your person should be in this state) you do more damage. Right now, Nick and I cause 2X the damage. Our buddy who focuses in this trait, though, is doing 6X the damage. Clearly, we are envious of him.

Ok, enough about our character. We'll give you some of our silly stats later (want to know how many jokes we've told? Tune in later today) but first some highlights from our adventure.

First, as you can see, we prize magic above all else. Clearly, we would love to join the prestigious Mage's Guild. Well, after very little haggling we entered their ranks, only to lose it shortly thereafter. At the six hour mark, Nick and I finally figured out that the Left Bumper lets you grab items and fling them around the room. So Nick, still giddy with this knowledge, decided to trash the Mage's Guild, throwing their books to the ground and throwing scales at those trying to study. Needless to say, they were pissed. We were accused of stealing (I guess you can steal one's dignity in Tamriel) and now we have to find all these rare herbs to get back in. Ugh...

At one point, I exited an Inn and could not find my horse. I'm a lazy man and walking around on foot after a long day does not appeal to me. With my keen eyes I spied another horse, with his owner right next to him. I wanted to yank the horse, but this is not the world of Fable. Being an ass in Oblivion means you go to jail. So I just hung around for awhile, seeing what the guy was up to. After a minute, he went around behind the barn and, though it was raining quite hard, curled up on a dirty mat to sleep. Ugh! I was so disgusted I stole his horse, only to jump off after a mile when I found my own horse. Stealing is more fun if you don't even need what you take. Bonus points if the object has a soul.

I'll leave you with this - Nick was just swarmed by a flock of Zombies and has contracted Droops and Rockjoint. Needless to say, I'm worried.

We're about six hours in, and it's exponentially more insane than I had expected. And amazing, of course. Everything is just really well done, and you can feel the 3+ years of work in every inch of the game. Walking around dungeons doing nothing but sword fighting could easily be a game on it's own, a first person Norrath of sorts. But there's spells, and alchemy, and all sorts of ridiculously fun physics to play around with. The physical presence you have in the world is second to none, in a game where it isn't even a necessity. I saw a small shiny stone on top on a granite structure that I couldn't reach, and decided to shoot it down with an arrow. It worked, which doesn't usually happen in video games. In general, the physics are the best they've been in any game, ever. Seconds ago, as I was typing that, Tom just found a plate of gems on a box. He pulled out the plate, spilling some of the gems onto the floor. I dropped a potion on a hill and watched it roll around every nook and cranny on the way down to a beach, where it settled in the water. More soon...

Edit: For the record, we're playing as a dark elf named Elsz Dykr, custom class of Blind Puma.

Update:

Been running some real quests instead of just exploring, and things can get pretty complex. We were just tasked with watching three different individuals suspected of conspiring against the man who tasked us with it, one of which I watched for a full 18 hours (about half an hour in-game time). She left her house, strolled to the vineyard, harvested grapes for about half her day, took a break, went and swept behind the church (or harvested the cement, more specifically) for a few more hours, and wandered back home. I watched the others for a bit, but realized they weren't doing anything shady and reported back to my employer. By the third time he figured I was involved and came after me; I let him chase my right into the presence of a city guard, who promptly killed him with a couple of arrows. When asked immediately afterwards what happened to the man, the guard replied "I guess he turned up dead". Mere feet from the scene of the crime. What a great game.

Side note: Tom is risking jail time and stat point loss by breaking into people's houses to steal their carrots and blackberries at night. He in insane.

If anyone is interested, Dr. Mc Shea and myself (potentially Wil as well) will be having a 48-hour insanathon of Oblivion starting Tuesday at noon, with assumably regular updates of our increasing enjoyment/madness. So if you have plans to sit still for two days refreshing a website, you know....stop by.