Me = Gaming Mode

Monday is here once again. For me, still holiday-ing.... For my girl, SPM Trial. Girl don't so stress ya, it's just an exam, don't be so worried, you have done lots of revision and I trust that you can do well. All the best to you! Good Luck!

For some who might have visited, I wasn't busy or anything just got so caught up with a game that I kind of forgot to post, LoL XD. This game was none other than The Elders Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Well here goes my first ever game review, from now onwards the rating system will be base on a scale of 1-10 and the overall rating will be base on the average score of the 4 aspects of the game. These aspects will cover, Graphic, Gameplay, Sound, and Learning Curve.

Okie starting off with the graphics, for all you graphic WHORE ( this reminded me of the scene in Rush Hour 3, "it's spelled with a 'W'!") out there, this game would definitely satisfy your "urge". The game is just beautiful and everything is just so detail. From giant castles, to the grass that you will be encountering while journeying through the world of Cyrodill. Everything is made so believable, that I could not stop taking my eyes off it. Sometimes it just feels good to take a sidetrack to see a breathtaking scene in game. You could almost smell the fresh pixel-ated lavender.....

I dare you to look me in the eye, and say this ain't pretty.

The effects of spells and some visual effect are just awesome. Bethesda Softworks really did a good job of rendering the graphics in the game. Well, the graphics are arguably the best of it's time (after all it is released March of 2006). Of course, current games like BioShock and Crysis would eventually show this game who's boss, but how much would you need to fork over to get a GPU( Graphic Processing Unit aka Graphics card) which is powerful enough to enjoy that kinda graphics? RM2k maybe?

Moving on to gameplay, well Oblivion has all the ingredients you need to make a MMORPG ( Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game, don't ask me where people find the time to come up with lengthy abbreviations such as this). The only missing piece being there is no MULTIPLAYER support, which is really sad in some way. Besides that, Oblivion has an interesting main plot, where the current emperor is assassinated. Thus, posing a threat to the entire kingdom and you are given the responsibility to locate the heir to the throne and hopefully save the world from utter destruction by a demon lord.

Besides the main plot, you can choose to take up optional quests and sidequest which makes this game really free for you to explore, no fixed storyline, no exact path for you to follow, just let your imagination run wild. Join the fighters guild and work your way up to Master rank. Join the Mage Guild and be allowed access to a wide range of spells and enchantments for you to feast on. Join the Thieves Guild, and start out as a little thief and eventually making your way up to become a notorious Master Thief which is hot on the wanted list. Well, for all you fantasy fan out there, this game has all sorts of races you can choose from such as elves, orcs, human, feline and also the lizard race. All with their own unique skills and abilities.

A face only a mother could love

Oh did I mentioned this game is seriously massive in proportion, you could take a few hours just walking around the whole map! They probably should have made a marathon for players to run in, take a walk into the forest and find yourself being chased after by a minotaur, swim around and you might uncover some hidden treasure underneath the river bed, just taking a stroll on the countryside and you might run into bandits which will try to harass you for money( I usually send a lightning blast in their face to show them what I think about their scam).

It is all up to your own imagination of what you can do in the game. If you are the DIY type, you can even create custom mods to put into your game, perhaps design a house for your character to store loot from dungeons and caves. Of course, the editor is not user-friendly enough for you to be able to accomplish this complex task in minutes. Or you can always download additional mod online and use them in your own game. If you're lucky, you might just find an awesome mod that will make the game even cooler, like a mod that allows you to fight while riding on a horse.

If this does not spell 'kickass', what does?

Although mainly everything is fine, there are still some minor glitches occuring once in a while. For example, a map might not generate properly or maybe NPCs are not responding. But, would you expect a game of this size to have no bugs in it?

The sounds in the game include the voice acting and also the soundtrack. For voice acting, every dialog that you have with a NPC( non- player character) suit the character well. But I notice once in a while, a NPC which might be really pissed at you(perhaps you trespassed into his house, but when you click on a certain dialog which is related to something else, they actually sound friendly. For soundtrack, the background music are all made to suit a certain event and location. A soothing melody might play while you are just strolling around town dealing with merchants, whereas another music might play when an enemy has spotted you and would easily warn you to be well prepared for the encounter.

As for the learning curve part of the game, well usually most average gamers would easily pick up this game in maybe an hour or two. They use the standard WSAD control for movement and allow fully customizable hotkey for spells and such. For the more casual gamers, a lot of self exploration is definitely needed, the learning curve might take from a few hours to a day depending on how fast you learn.

The game does provide tutorials for most actions, but once in a while you will find yourself running around wondering how do you travel from one city to another which is virtually on the other side of the map, only to find out there is a "Fast Travel" button for you to do so. ( That was what actually happened to me when I first played the game, feeling kinda stupid right now. I took half an hour to walk from one town to another and eventually knowing that using this method, I could have done so in a matter of seconds.) For anyone who has decided to pick up this game, here's a helpful wiki site dedicated to the Elder Scrolls genre " UESP Wiki ". The difficulty of the game is actually really flexible, players can adjust it, at anytime they feel the game is either too tough or too easy for their capability. Which is really good if compared to some game where you practically have to restart the whole game when you encounter a hard boss, lets say in the middle of the game.

Okie so to sum it all up, for Graphics I would give it a 9/10 for amazing visual and special effects but on the downside it does require one heck of a GPU to unleash it's full potential. Gameplay wise, I would give it a 10/10 for giving a broad and free ended game for player's to explore. The game is said to have over 100 hours of gameplay but I'm sure hardcore gamers would spent much more time than that to experiment with the game. For Sound, a 9.5/10 seems fitting for the audio part of the game, voice acting is simply perfect but they are still improvement in the implementation of the appropriate dialog. Soundtrack is also marvelous and blends in well with the whole mood of the game. For Learning Curve, a 8.5/10 is given. Although tutorial and all are good enough for gamers. Beginners and casual gamers would still have difficulty picking up the game immediately and mostly have to go through a lot of trial and error. The overall rating is then 9.25 / 10 and I personally recommend this game to any gamers our there who are looking for an epic RPG game or for anyone who wants an alternative over online games(No bots and Noobs here XD).