Preview THE Oblivion article

[tanjo]

Why have crenellation on the city walls and castle walls if there is no way for archers to scale said walls and defend the city/castle?

'

So tell Bethesda to take them off, then you can whine about how city walls and castle walls have no crenellation.

Good suggestion and thanks for contributing ideas, but I think I would rather them just build some doors.

 

[corvax]

Question: the gates of Oblivion are made to look like gates to traditional Judeo-Christian 'Hell', ie all fire and shit. Was this what the original writers had envisaged for Oblivion? I thought it was more ambiguous, more an emphasis on duality, rather than a cliched 'hell' type place. It's certainly being translated as 'hell' for the dumb masses, too - the caption says "Oblivion, ie Hell"......

You have to make a distinction between the gates, which are only a mere portal therefore allowing for stereotypical "fire and shit", and the Oblivion itself. The latter is according to TES lore not really a hell but a different dimension where Daedra (gods) reside. This dimension is often viewed by the common folk as hell because most, not all, of the Daedra aren't on good terms with the Tamriel races. Hell, they aren't even on good terms with themselves. Overall I don't think that the lore is being changed in favor of simplification; it's just that it's easier to describe and write about Oblivion without explaining the often complicated inner workings of the lore, which in the end would only raise further questions from those not exposed to it previously.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Question: the gates of Oblivion are made to look like gates to traditional Judeo-Christian 'Hell', ie all fire and shit. Was this what the original writers had envisaged for Oblivion? I thought it was more ambiguous, more an emphasis on duality, rather than a cliched 'hell' type place. It's certainly being translated as 'hell' for the dumb masses, too - the caption says "Oblivion, ie Hell"......

Answer: the marketing focus group thinks that hells are fiery and flamy. Further researches have indicated that 9/10 Bethesda customers are more comfortable with cliches, but easily confused by duality.

 

[Twinfalls]

Thanks, Hussar, well put.

The gates themselves are hellacious and fiery as fuck. Oblivion itself had better be way sophisticated and arty, and totally unlike some dumb hell. I want the closing scenes from 2001. You emerge in a pristine yet creepy hotel room and see yourself age 120.

Or a giant pair of boobs wrap themselves around your face, I'm easy.

 

[Tetragrammaton]

Battlespire showed several different areas of Oblivion, all of which varied drastically with each other. I'd expect them to do the same.

Check the Battlespire quest walkthrough: http://www.uesp.net/battle/quest/batquest.shtml

 

[Gwendo]

The downloadable content is only for the XBOX 360? If not, will we have to pay anything to get it?

I mean, games are getting more and more expensive (and add 15-20$ to the price, here in Europe), and now Microsoft (and the game industry) want us to bleed more money, by not completing the game, saving some features to make us pay to have what should always had been there?

The world is about to enter in an enormous economy crisis (some countries already are), and they expect people to spend more and more money in leisure vices.

 

[Chefe]

hello world

 

[Tetragrammaton]

I'm pretty sure the "downloadable content" will be like the official mods released for Morrowind, except perhaps more numerous. I doubt that they'd add entirely new systems.

 

[Balor]

Yea, right, that's would be up to modders, heh.

 

[Section8]

Heh, that caption of "Admit it, you'll buy this game just to use this sword" reminds me of why I used to play a bright pink paladin in DAOC.

 

[Roger P]

"And when one quest we played resulted in an angered god raining burning canines down from the clouds to frighten his insubordinate worshippers, we realized that the world of Oblivion was alive." (From OXM) Sounds pretty good. A good deal darker and more interesting than MW. Sorry if already posted.