Oblivion Takes Top Honor At Spike VGAs

Last night was the taping for the 2006 Spike TV Videogame awards, and Bethesda Softworks' Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion took best game. Gamespot reports on the rest of the pack, which saw the Critic's Choice going to Twilight Princess, and Epic's Gears of War pulling down several top honors. For a blow-by-blow, Joystiq's event liveblogging post might interest you. It sounds ... pretty awful. From that article: "9:25: 50 Cent intros the 'Best Human Female in a Video Game' in a sort of slurred 'here's my drink' English. We'll have what he's having. It's unsure if he even knows what he's talking about."

hmmm

[nomadic]

The VGAs are definitely better than the CGAs, that awards show is only in 4 colors, all of them ugly.

Now we wait...

[vga_init]

I'm waiting for posts about Twilight Princess to start. I can't wait to see what kind of flame wars could arise from such an occasion. :D

who cares?

[crossmr]

Another "me too" awards show. Following the crowd. We all know oblivion was a shiny turd and if people are still patting it on the back it shows they've learned nothing.

thank you

[Nasarius]

It's disappointing how many people have given Oblivion absurdly overblown praise. What does it say about the current standards for greatness when such a flawed game averages 93% on GameRankings? The UI, the hand-holding quest system, the idiotic conversations and behavior caused by "Radiant AI", the lack of any kind of meaningful choices...and on and on, not even including the bugs. TES was so promising; I played Daggerfall for years. And this is the direction you decided to take the series? A mediocre game system with tons of *stuff* thrown in? Sigh. Maybe someone else will make the series that TES could have been.

Re:

[crossmr]

That is what gamers want now I guess, and reviewers. I recently read a review on gamespot on Vice City Stories. One of the reviewers complaints was the lack of hand holding the game did. He was concerned that it wasn't popping up arrows showing you where to turn and mapping out the best routes to take for missions, etc. I guess as a developer in that environment you give them exactly what they want.

Re:thank you

[Jace of Fuse!]

I guess as a developer in that environment you give them exactly what they want.

Maybe if you're just in it for cash, sure.

If you're making great games, and absolutely want to do things right, you include such a system, you disable it, then add a cheat code to turn it back on.

Everyone wins.

or better yet

[Travoltus]

an option to include the hand holding, and a reward system that encourages avoiding that option.

Perfect scalability.

Re:

[StillAnonymous]

I really enjoy Oblivion (still playing through it). However, a friend of mine bought it before I did and told me about the goofy "levelling" system they have and it really turned me off of the game. When I heard there was a patch available (Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul) I picked up the game and installed the patch before even playing. I'm glad I did. The game is a lot of fun.

On the other hand, I didn't care too much for Morrowind. Wander, wander, wander, nothing happens.. yawn... Maybe I'll give it another sh

Re:

[SScorpio]

I have to agree with you on Morrowind. One thing I've noticed is that a lot of the people who praise Morrowind as the best game ever hate Oblivion. But the people who hated Morrowind love Oblivion. One of the best features of the past two games have been the ability to design plug ins to customize the way you play the game and fix issues with it.

Morrowind in its original state was just a huge empty world though plug ins made it feel alive. Oblivion kept me caring about the main quest throughout the whol

it wasn't even shiny

[idlake]

Not only was the gameplay worse than Morrowind, I thought the graphics also hadn't improved much, given how long the company had been working on it.

Re:

[MrHanky]

Perhaps you should try playing it with a more modern video card. The graphics are superb (well, for the scenery, that is -- the characters aren't that special up close).

Personally, I like many things in Oblivion. The negatives that stand out are the voice acting (you'd expect better not only after GTA: SA, but also before), the dialogue, the "AI" and the bugs. It crashes far too often, and strange things happen in-game. The levelling system didn't bother me too much at first, since I'm not a regular RPG gam

Oblivion takes first place?!

[ZDRuX]

My god! With so many bugs, I`m impressed that they even had the game running long enough for the judges to see what they're judging.

Re:Oblivion takes first place?!

[Aladrin]

I played it on the PC and XBox 360, all the way through both times. I even got the full 1000 points on the 360, and I completed 2 guilds and the main quest on the PC. I did not encounter a single bug. I don't find it hard to believe they played it 'long enough for the judges to see what they're judging'.

It had bugs, there's no doubt. But they were most out of the way things and the majority of gamers did not experience them. Don't be fooled by the vocal minority.

The game was enough fun that I spent over 100 hours on it without getting bored. Not many games can claim that for me. It's easily first place.

Why the Oblivion hate?

[Sciros]

Oblivion might not be the best game to come out this year necessarily, but even saying that is still my own opinion. Twilight Princess, Gears, FF XII, and Oblivion have all set some sort of standard and that says something. Debating which is the best boils down to taste and privileging of some features over others (multiplayer, graphics, engaging puzzles, etc). From joystiq's report it appears the award show was overall quite terrible, and I wouldn't have been surprised if Best Game had gone to Madden NFL. At least we were spared that :-) Certainly there are other things to be upset about than Elder Scrolls IV getting *yet another award.* Such as maybe all the really tasteless humor.

Farce

[Terminal Saint]

I love Oblivion as much as the next guy, but honestly, the Spike VGA's are a damn farce.

Meaningless Awards

[Anonymous Coward]

Remember folks, this is the same advert--I mean awards show that gave awards to Resident Evil 4 (PS2) for game of the year without mentioning the superior Gamecube version and King Kong the video game before it was even out on store shelves. Oh and who can forget the award going to the 'Most Addictive Game Fueled by Mountain Dew' /rolleyes

I wonder...

[Vo0k]

Did somebody pay somebody else to have this terrible game given the award or are simply all the others even worse than Oblivion?

Before you mark this as flamebait:
If you compare Oblivion with its precedesor, Morrowind, which was good but not ultimately great, Oblivion has -everything- worse than Morrowind, with exception of graphics. Worse gameplay, more shallow plotline, smaller quest tree, lower quest variablity, fewer guilds, worse stability, fewer skills, spells, cities, NPCs, and above all no point in advancing the character, because the enemies are chosen depending on your level and growing harder faster than you gain advantages from high levels, meaning you are punished for progress, the longer you play the harder it gets.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Morrowind, which was good but not ultimately great

On the contrary - vanilla Morrowind is good, but what the modding community has done to it is simply incredible, and I would argue does earn it the "great" moniker. The graphics have got constantly better with re-texturing and re-meshing efforts, the gameplay mechanics can now be as deep as you want (hardcore RPer? Make it so you have to eat and sleep, and try going out catching and cooking your own food), and so on.

Recently some clever guy even modded Morr

Re:

[a_ghostwheel]

He is talking about Morrowind FPS Optimizer - I'm sure Google will point you in right direction. On the same note, I will agree with grandparent - modding scene for Morrowind was plain incredible - I enjoyed it much more than the game itself.

Re:

[Vo0k]

Blah, FPS optimizer maybe doubles view distance but then square borders start showing up (are clearly visible when set to max), and that's not very immersive. I'd love if Morrowind could create something like LOD far landscape from Oblivion, where you could see both Vivec and Dagon Fel from top of Red Mountain after finishing the main quest.

Re:

[Petrushka]

The AC wasn't referring to FPS Optimizer [lanior.ru], in fact, but to Timeslip's Morrowind Graphics Enhancer [timeslipped.co.uk]. As of version 3, MGE can indeed render landscape to the horizon in the same way that Oblivion does. Yes, you can see all of Vvardenfell from the top of Red Mountain. It's not by any means perfect -- it doesn't render objects and buildings nearly far enough away (they pop into existence about 30 metres away) -- but it's still a very impressive achievement, and regularly updated.

Re:

[Vo0k]

I thought the enemies that level up with you were a masterstroke. The execution left something to be desired, but they essentially eliminated my number-one RPG gripe: grinding.

Are you sure we're talking about the same vanilla unmodded Oblivion?
Essentially they removed artificial block of grinding, but instead introduced a natural "grind or die" difficulty-based one. And what's worse, you can't go back and grind more, if you skip some grinding you're screwed.
Scenario 1: Pick a custom class with major skills

Re:

[Mr_eX9]

Scenario 1: Pick a custom class with major skills of Sneak, Security, Speechcraft, Alchemy, Conjuration, Alteration and Illusion. As soon as you exit the sewers you can start using your skills as much as you can, increasing your levels really fast. In matter of 4-5 hours you can be a level 40 character. But the moment you exit the city you'll be totally obliterated by the first enemy you find.

Doesn't it make sense that this sort of character would be very weak in direct combat, assuming it only develope

Re:

[Knightking]

The character in Scenario 1 wouldn't be "weak" in combat. It'll be completly unable to survive an encounter with a random wolf that's supposed to be a trivial fight. At level 40, you probably wouldn't be able to survive one hit with the difficulty at the minimum (1/6 incoming damage). With the exact same character at level 1, the fight would be no problem. After playing Oblivion for a few hours, I realized that just never sleeping would make the game a completly joke, as you never level up if you don't

Re:

[Mr_eX9]

Straw man [wikipedia.org] logical fallacy.

Not all creatures you encounter are leveled. Wolves certainly are not. My level 47 Nord Spellsword can take out all manner of forest wildlife with a few swings (if not one swing) of his sword. A great deal of the enemies begin to appear when your character reaches a certain level (like Brown Bears) but do not get any stronger as the player continues to level. The enemies that I really need to watch out for are the ones that are actually leveled--clan/tribe leaders, Ogres, Mi

Re:

[Vo0k]

Doesn't it make sense that this sort of character would be very weak in direct combat, assuming it only developed its major skills, even at level 40+?

Yes, but a well-ballanced game would make it still possible, even easy (level 40!) for such a character to finish. An alteration 'shield' spell that wouldn't be useless. Sneak that actually works and is possible to pull off in most of quests. Speechcraft allowing you to bluff and befriend most of essential enemies.

Actually, if you really wanted to finish the g

Re:

[Mr_eX9]

"The main gripe is that the result of the 'levelled everything'..."

I stopped reading there, because not everything is leveled.

Re:

[Vo0k]

Yep. The list of unlevelled items that are not a part of level-dependent quests is about 10 positions long. Including items like Fin Gleam (a helmet somewhere far off shore on the bottom of the ocean, no hints as to location or even existence of it) or a ring lying on top of a fort wall somewhere in the wilderness.

Re:

[popo]

Agreed. 100%.

Morrowind was creatively gorgeous. Oblivion was generic fantasy crap for first time RPG'ers.

Re:

[jools33]

Personally I prefer games to get harder the longer I play them than for them to get easier - a boring game is an easy one - and for me Oblivion would have been a let down if the leveling system made things easier the more you advance your character - where's the challenge in that? Surely the more you play the game - the more you want it to challenge you. I just don't get why the Oblivion leveling system is so despised - and I hold with another comment here - its the vocal minority. Personally I found Morrow

Re:

[Vo0k]

The problem is that in a good challenging game you can scale the difficulty, take a hard challenge, fail, then step back to easier areas to beef up your character and try again. In Oblivion there's no scaling back. You can't pick an easier cave or less difficult quest to make your character stronger, and you won't face a surprise battle against overwhelming odds which would force you to retreat - at given time every enemy in every location all over Cyrodiil is about as difficult, sometimes too difficult, so

Oblivion isn't great at all.

[Anonymous Coward]

It really isn't. Just read the only honest review on the net: The Review [rpgcodex.com].

Re:

[kionel]

Yuh-huh. The reviewer's admission that he'd been a critic of Oblivion's design since before it was released said more about his attitude than that lengthy diatribe.

Oblivion is a terrific game, IMO. Lots of people agree. Leave it to Slashdot to harbor the demographic that would whine about its quality.

Final Fantasy XII

[balthan]

I did not like Oblivion at all. I liked Morrowind and spent countless hours playing that, but gave up on Oblivion after just a few hours.

I consider myself a PC gamer. I prefer games on the computer and have played very few console games since the NES. That said, Final Fantasy XII is the best RPG since Baldur's Gate II. I'm not even a Final Fantasy fanboy, having only played VII all the way through, and a little of VIII.

Re:

[Oniko]

I did the same thing at first... but then I found mods that made the menus much more computer-friendly and adjusted the difficulty slider (to make my poor little theify not go splat all. the. bloody. time). And then it became much, much better.

There's a lot of things Morrowind did a lot better, hands down. But Oblivion has it's charms, once I got past that initial "it's pretty but doesn't feel like I expected" hump. I think the Dark Brotherhood questline is a really well done mindgame. Many of the other

Pathetic

[MWoody]

The first time I looked at this years' entrants, it took all of 5 seconds to dismiss this entire contest as irrelevant; namely, it just took a quick glance at the "best soundtrack" category. GTA? Scarface? Guitar Hero 2? MADDEN!? This, when this year celebrated one of the most outstanding soundtracks in a game that I've heard in years: Bully, from Rockstar Games. The music accompanying your schoolyard antics is outstanding, managing to be original, appropriate to what you're doing in-game at the time, and non-intrusive while still having enough of a melody to keep you humming it hours later. How do these other canned collections of whatever random crap was cheap to license even belong in the same category? Perhaps what I'm really lobbying for is a seperate "best original soundtrack" group, but frankly, I don't see why any of the four games actually up for this award deserve any sort of recognition at all. Honors like these should reward the best examples of creativity in an industry, not just pay lip service to who chose the best trash to recycle from other sources.

Mod Parent Up....

[MWoody]

...and mod grandparent down. I am, you see, either retarded, blind, or both. In my defense, I was searching for "soundtrack" and didn't realize it was called "score" - a paltry excuse for not moving your eyes two inches down, I know, but there ya go. Still, I stand by my statement that these awards are stupid, based largely on Bully not winning for its score. I turned off the canned, annoying music in Oblivion very early on; it was boring and added little to the game.

Wish I installed...

[SIInudeity]

Gothic III, so that I could have added a meaningful comment here.

VGAs

[PingSpike]

The spike VGA were awful the first time I tried to watch them for 15 minutes. 70% commercials, 15% people that have nothing to do with video games making noise, 10% T&A and 5% showing a developer standing there while loud shit and flashing lights drown them out. It was such utter garbage I couldn't believe it was actually allowed on television. Its the television equivilent of a failed abortion.