You might recall that I was playing Oblivion as an Axe-Wielding Barbarian, which was quite a shift in character for me.

Well, in the past year (60 game days) I have tracked down the king's heir; Tiber Septim. I located the Amulet of Kings, relit the Dragon Fires, and enabled Tiber to vanquish the evil Lord Dagon. I have cast evil back into the shadows, and was treated to a lovely extended battle animation sequence, then proclaimed a Champion of Tamariel.

In the process, I joined a dozen secret societies, shut 14 oblivion gates, and killed off 1062 beings.

Oblivion has now been added to my list of completed video games.

Oblivion was simply a fantastic game from start to finish. A complete world to be immersed in, and do whatever you please, regardless of the world-ending plot hanging over you. In fact, after defeating the Evil To End All Evils, the game does not stop. You could continue on and help out each and every person with a problem, or kill every living soul who crosses your path. The expansion packs: "The Shivering Isles" and the "Knights of the Nine" (which will be realeased in the Game Of The Year edition soon - Yes, Oblivion was Game Of The Year last year) means I can continue on my rampage of Killing For The Greater Good with new locations and quests, if I so choose.

Smashing Graphics, and a fantastic plot. So many quests, that I finally had to be picky with whom I aided, and in the end, I had to forsake all other quests and focus on the big one...

"Sorry about those rats in your basement ma'am, but I have to go close some interdimensional rift in the time-space continuum..."

For the record, Oblivion has replaced F.E.A.R. as my vote for Best Video Game. Here are my previous favorites:

Quake I (1996)
Half-Life I (1998)
F.E.A.R. (2005)
Oblivion (2006)

The game Deus Ex was in there between Half-Life and FEAR, it was pretty good, but I lost interest in the game very near the end and never finished it.

It took a long time for anyone to beat the original Half-Life, and FEAR only did it by taking Half-Life and adding in some great level design, audio environment, spooky paranormal events, and the kick-ass effect of "Bullet Time" where you could slow time down momentarily and take out a roomful of bad guys by yourself.

Oblivion topped them all by creating huge, GPU-melting environments, and a open world, where you weren't locked into a linear plot. You choose where you want to go, and what you want to do. If you want to take up a skill you don't have yet, just start doing it. The more you do, the better you get.

Now, I'm on the lookout for another game to sate my trigger finger, probably something SciFi, now that I've quested as an axe-wielding barbarian for about a year now. Tabula Rasa looks promising, as does Crysis. But, what I really want to do is fly and X-Wing online with a squadron of online gamers against the Death Star...


KTHXBYE,
-CZ

Labels: Video Games