The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion for the Xbox 360 and PC released to dazzling reviews. The most interesting was Gamespot.com’s Greg Kasavin’s non-stop, 12-hour Oblivion Gameplay Marathon, which gave an in-depth video report of the game before they leaped into Oblivion’s extremely open world for themselves, myself included. I played night after night, for 1 – 3 hours, and marveled at the sights and sounds. But then a curious thing happened, after 20+ hours in. I got kind of bored. Or if not exactly bored, indifferent. I wanted a break from the slow pace of Oblivion. So I popped in Quake 4 and beat a boss that had been busting my ass the last few times I played, then played on a bit more before hitting the sack. This weekend my pal Jim Mainiero mentioned he’d gotten sort of bored with Oblivion, too. A few other friends reported the same. So, curious, I Googled “Oblivion+bored” and came up with some interesting results. Some got bored 4 hours into it, while others felt ho-hum after tens or hundreds of hours. Obviously I’m not alone in my temporary disinterest in Oblivion, but at the same time I expect I’ll jump back into the game with renewed interest any day now. Talley ho.
Update: On second thought, I should have titled this entry “Obliviyawwwn.”
Couldn’t agree more. I’m with you. Oblivion ennui. Maybe it’s the fact that there are only about 3-5 different voices in the game or that fighting ultimately isn’t that compelling… Achievements to me are what make it interesting at this point.
Completely agree, I have loved all the elder scrolls games but this one is different. I have a 2.4 pentium and while playable, the game is still slow which may account for some of my boredom because I hate slowdowns. Also I think the game has taken on a medieval feel to it. I got board with it after a week or so. I just don’t feel like exploring it like I did Morrowind. Incidentally, I didn’t think Morrowind was as fun as Daggerfall. I see a trend here I don’t like!
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Thanks for the nice words, Florian. I have to admit I have not posted nearly as much as I’d imagined I would when I launched the site, and I’m hoping to correct that in 2007, with more entries on the gadgets and gear that I get but don’t cover in my published stories for MSNBC.com or TV Guide or others. Stay tuned. And thank you again for the post. Joe
Well, can’t say I agree with you in particular. The first time I played I did, in fact, burn out after a certain point, but it was more due to life circumstances than the game itself. I’ve been playing TES games since Arena, and I feel the franchise is doing just fine. The pace of Oblivion doesn’t have to be slow. Last night, in fact, I was going rather breakneck through a lot of stuff. I felt pretty tired. The game is very… I’m not sure how to say it. It’s easy to play in a way that slows it down, I guess, but after you get the rhythm, I don’t think it’s a consistent issue. Also, I thought Morrowind was a wonderful improvement over Daggerfall. I’ve been playing through Daggerfall again recently now that I’ve managed to get it working on XP, and while it’s every bit as fun as I remember (it even distracted me from Oblivion for a bit), I still think Morrowind was an improvement. None of the games are perfect, and there are elements that were dropped that I don’t think needed to be dropped, but the evolution has been an amazing ride.
Hey, Quemaqua, thanks for the comment – nice to get some thoughts on the subject. I have dipped back into Oblivion a few times, and always feel tempted to spend more time with it, but then I always wind up back into Gears of War or lately, Crackdown. Though I do see getting back into Oblivion at some point, and thanks again for the thoughtful comment! Joe