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Live 12-Hour Oblivion Marathon
HarvardFrankenstein writes "Gamespot's Greg Kasavin will be playing The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion for 12 straight hours tonight (Monday, March 20th) and the entire marathon session will be broadcast live. Kasavin will be 'offering commentary about the experience as it transpires. Subscribers will see a picture-in-picture view of Kasavin as he spends an increasing number of successive hours playing the game, and they will be able to chat with each other over the course of the event.'" The event starts tonight at 6pm PST, if they get started on time.
It's a sad, sad world when people will pay to watch someone else play a game over the internet.. ...unless of course it involves porn :)
12 WHOLE hours? Wow what a hardcore gamer...
But seriously, making this sound like an achievement is an achievement...
50 hours
http://www.geek.com/news/geeknews/2005Aug/bga2005
Second gamer dies after massive binge
http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2120472/second-
etc.etc.
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
David Cross has seen remarkable success in his business model of eating barbeque pork ribs and describing the experience to Orthodox Jews.
"Mmm, this is delicious! Falling off the bone! Too bad your God won't let you eat this, mine doesn't give a crap!"
Seriously. I want to PLAY THE GAME, not watch some media guy play the game (and almost certainly ruin the plot for me in the process). What kind of masochist would watch this?
We've been watching sports for ages. It's only logical that the same happens with games.
Today it might seem strange. Watching someone play a game, I mean duuuuh? Can't do it yourself?
This might change. Let's go into the realm of sports, let's go to American Football. Sure, you can play it yourself. But will you ever catch a 80 yards pass? Will you ever kick a 50 yards field goal? Or baseball, will you ever throw a ball in curves like the pros? Or hit for a killer homerun?
Today's computer games don't really lend themselves well for "pro-gaming". They're too easy. Everyone can play them at a decent level. After all, that's what they're made for: For the general audience. They have to be playable for everyone, at a more or less decent level.
This might change, we might see the advent of "pro games". Games with a difficulty that scales up with the skill of the player, where the game doesn't "level off" at a certain point where more skill does not automatically mean better playing.
And a more interesting game. Watching a game can be more interesting when you actually get to see something you won't see at home, because the pro player can do stunts you won't ever be able to copy. Current games don't offer this kind of experience.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
I've got the wrong job. 12 hours Oblivion? Before it's released? And being paid to do that? Where can I apply? :)
Seriously, I guess it stops being fun when you have to do it, and can't go "'nough for tonight, I need some sleep" when you feel like it.
errrr... not that 12 hours is that long. I think I've had longer sessions myself...
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
because there is nothing more frustrating then watching someone else play a game you'd love to be playing yourself. It's a frustration and anger that can be tied directly to road rage. You just want to take a tire iron to someone who just can't make a certain jump or keeps shooting the enemy in the feet instead of the head. I think I'll wait until I can pick up the game itself, save myself the consternation.
Controller-wise I agree with you completely. The mouse and keyboard combo blow away any gamepad for 1st-person games.
Visually speaking though the 360 version of the game will allow both HDR lighting and anti-aliasing. The PC version makes you pick one or the other. I'm sure none of us will be able to tell either way considering the quality of your average webcast.
"Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest." - Denis Diderot
Bethesda Nightmare Scenario #1:
T + 1:00:00: Oblivion.exe has experienced a problem and needs to close.
T + 2:20:54: Oblivion.exe has experienced a problem and needs to close.
T + 3:54:29: Oblivion.exe has experienced a problem and needs to close.
T + 7:32:47: KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED
Bethesda Nightmare Scenario #2:
T + 9:29:30: "Done!"
This sig intentionally left blank.
I don't see how using a comfortable wireless controller that fits nicely in your hands while relaxing on the couch is less comfortable than hunched over a keyboard and mouse, less than 2 feet from the screen. Especially for 12 hours.
The PC version makes you pick one or the other.
I'd like to see it try. The game doesn't have to know you turned on AA. It can't force you to pick "Application controlled".
Wow, you and others are really bitter about this for some reason.
I don't think the point is that playing for 12 hours is an achievement of note. I think the interest comes from the fact that a game reviewer is playing a game and, essentially, demoing it for folks for 12 hours live on the Internet. I can see where people might find that interesting, especially if they're one of the people - the many people if online talk means anything - who are considering buying an Xbox 360 or new PC components specifically for this game. For those people, the cost of a month's subscription to the site in order to watch the proceedings (perhaps not all 12 hours) might be well worth the money. It could also provide some insight into the thinking of a professional game reviewer while he's actually playing a game.
Again, playing for 12 hours is no achievement at all. Like many, I've done 24+ hours stopping only to let caffeinated liquid out of my body. But that doesn't mean that this event isn't worthwhile or interesting.
12 hours?
My grandmother could play 12 hours straight... Get back to me when you've played Elite for 2 days straight you damn toddler!
[...] while relaxing on the couch is less comfortable than hunched over [...] Especially for 12 hours.
It's the "Especially for 12 hours part that really kills any chance at a point that you may have had. I can see that somebody's parents didn't teach them about proper posture.
Nobody will be comfortable in the same sitting position for 12 hours, so I assume a few well timed breaks for a stretch (and maybe a bit of exercise) are to be included, but if you're not more comfortable sitting up straight in a proper chair than you are slouched in a couch after more than a few hours, you're doing something seriously wrong/bad for you.
As for fitting nicely in your hands, well, the way it looks to me is that you're still controlling everything with only four fingers on the 360. I've done marathon gaming sessions both ways, and I've never gotten a thumb blister from PC gaming.
> I'd like to see it try. The game doesn't have to know you turned on AA. It can't force you to pick "Application controlled".
Perhaps it uses a floating point frame buffer that the hardware can't anti-alias?
I looked into it more.. The HDR lighting and AA combo restriction is only on older cards and nVidia cards because both functions use the same hardware. If you have a Radeon X1xxx you should be able to enable both.
The consensus seems to be that the maximum view distance is farther on a high end PC though.
I replied again to the parent after more research. You're exactly right.... for older ATI cards, and nVidia cards. The Radeon X1xxx series cards (which is what is in the 360) support both at the same time, and should allow both at the same time with Oblivion. When the restriction was originally mentioned it was that the GeForce 7800GTX wouldn't support both, not that the PC version wouldn't support it.
Can you explain to me what features are not included in the xbox 360 game?
Would you kindly mod me +1 insightful?
does anyone have a direct link? that site makes my eyes sore with content. i tried to look around for about 10 minutes but couldnt see any link to the video feed anywhere. Might be interesting to check out for 10 minutes or something.
Anyone got a direct link or could point me in the direction of the video feed page?
I'll just use my special getting high powers one more time...
Most people don't watch TV for extended periods. The majority of most people's day is taken up by work/school, and sleep, where you are sitting/standing up, and lying down respectively. I won't deny that for short periods, the relaxation of a couch is more comfortable than sitting up, but after a few hours your muscles (if you have any left) should be starting to tell you otherwise.
Nobody will be comfortable in the same sitting position for 12 hours
Hi, I'm Nobody. Pleased to meet you.
Reinvent the wheel only at either a lower cost, greater effectiveness, or your own personal enrichment and satisfaction.
Do you want the list that matters for this particular purpose, or the complete list? How about both:
For the purpose of this particular marathon, the ones that seem to matter are the increased progressive scan resolution, view distance, and just about everything that requires the input of more than one word of text. (For example, in the PC version of Tribunal, you could add textual markers to the world and local maps, but you couldn't in the Xbox version. There's probably a similar distinction for Oblivion. We'll know tomorrow.)
In general, though, the features you lack are the Construction Set (a full half of the game), free downloadable player created content, the ability to buy expansions without having to re-buy the whole game, a whole slew of graphical options that *aren't* exported in the game menus (what did they disable in the PC version so they could say the Xbox version is the same?), and, if Morrowind is anything to go by, the features that they added in the patches, Yes, the differences between the two are being played down by everybody right now, but that's probably because the only people who have played the game at this point derive some portion of their income from Microsoft.
I want to discover the first 12 hours of the game myself, not let some game media bozo do it for me.
Blessed are the 1337, for they shall pwn the earth.
I can't say I'm surprised. The big advantage a console has over a regular PC is that the hardware is more predictable, so there are fewer bugs.
"They redundantly repeated themselves over and over again incessantly without end ad infinitum" -- ibid.
As opposed to what, a decreasing number of successive hours?
I think a demo of the game would be much more useful that watching some 'professional' game reviewer play. Most 'professional' game reviews suck. Games get a 7 out of ten even if they are complete crap. Does anyone give any real credence to 'professional' game reviews anymore?
Bethesda Nightmare Scenario #2:
T + 9:29:30: "Done!"
Morrowind 5 segment Speedrun in 00:07:30, and that for a game which you can play for days and weeks without ever touching a story quest.
The grass is always greener on the other side of the light cone.
Exactamundo. Someone mentioned in another thread that their nightmare scenario was the game crashing for twelve hours or running into gamestopping bugs.
On a console, chances of that go waaay downhill.
You never played Morrowind on Xbox, did you?
Huh? What's that?
http://outcampaign.org/
Would have been nice to know from the summary that it's being broadcast to subscribers only.
Arguing about vi versus Emacs is like arguing whether it's better to make fire by rubbing sticks or banging rocks.
I think it's even more impressive that a bovine was able to handle a mouse and keyboard.
Ok, I understand the NYTimes Free signup, but I'm not going to pay $4 just to watch this video. I think that this would be great if it was free, but forget it now.
First, I haven't played a game for 12 hours in years, and I'm certainly not going to watch him play for 12 hours, just to get my appetite up to buy a 360 and a $70 game.
Tibbon
tibbon.com
Marathon 1, 2 or Infinity?
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
Yep, that's what I had last night - right after I purchased the game.
The 12 hours are up, and everything went perfectly. He hit a few difficult snags in gameplay here and there, but came up with some neat ways to solve the problems. The Xbox 360 hung up one time during loading, but it seems to have been the console's fault, after 10 hours of straight use.
I have to say, I was not impressed with the game until I watched this marathon. Now I'm seriously considering buying it for PC.
Last I heard, it crashed twice on his Xbox. I certainly hope that the PC version isn't worse than that. (I'm not holding my breath though)
As much as a I loved the Xbox version...I had to come up with specific strategies to keep it from locking, and saved like every 5 min, just to be safe
Mr. T carries a postage stamp in his wallet at all times on the back is a list of all the fools he doesn't pity
I might watch this, for the same reason I'd watch an auto race. Not for the game, not for the sport. I just want to see the crashes. Looking at the history of the elder scrolls series, I don't think I'd have to wait 12 hours...
You can get 15 minutes of fame, but you can go down in history for infamy.
The draw distance doesn't really matter: You're gonna see it eventually, may as well make it shorter so it runs faster. I, for one, did not need downloadable content. I had the PC version for about 3 years (Wow, time flies!) and can honestly say that the only mods I used were the ones Bethesda released (Such as the Master Propylen Index, which I never quite got; and the Marksman shop, which I used...twice.). The only advantage I saw of having the PC version versus the original Xbox version was the health bar that was added. But that wasn't too important to me. I knew the guy who made the GIANTS mod, but it didn't interest me much. You see, for some people, the downloadable content just isn't attractive.
I eventually got the Xbox version (and eventually the GotY edition as a gift) for the simple reason that a) it was much more stable than the PC version (Which crashed...a lot.), b) it was far more comfortable to be able to sit on a couch and not have to reach and move my hands all over the place, and c) it looked better (The water was reflective!). Bethsoft made it so that you could use your old save with the new disc (they were converted to the new save file upon loading for the first time).
Besides, Oblivion is confirmed to have "Downloadable Content", whatever that meants.
Would you kindly mod me +1 insightful?
I for one, have been looking forward to Oblivion since I heard it's annoucnment, and the only picture was that silly little picture of the name.
I've been holding off watching videos because I remember running off the ship in morrowind and standing with my mouth agape looking at the fucking amazing water. I jumpped right in that, and ran around in it for a good 15 minutes watching it splash and move around different ways.
Then I remember picking up and throwing silverware and forks and all the "junk" all over the freaken world. It was as cluttered as an ultima game, but in 3d!
So I want that again with oblivion. I want to crawl out of the dungeon and just gape at the amazing world they created.
But, I cracked last night, and watched him play for a bit.
I enjoyed it a lot. I watched for maybe 15 minutes or so. This really reminded me of playing the game with my buddies. It was sort of like we all got the game, unwrapped it, and started plowing along with one guy driving and the rest of us commenting.
I honestly could see myself leaving the window up last night while I was surfing the web and doing other things and watching the wonderful game that is oblivion. I just wanted to save the exploring for myself, so I turned it off.
I enjoyed the reviewers little comments as he played, and I could see him really getting into it, and doing a great job showing off things in the game. It was probably the best type of review you could EVER get for a game.
So I think this was a really cool idea, and wouldn't mind seeing more of these types of things going on.
Hehe, I bet there's at least one "supported" hardware configuration that renders it unplayable.
Most people don't watch TV for extended periods.
You're kiding, right?
No. seriously, all ironic social commentary aside. Most people do not sit in front of the TV for 12 hours in a row on a regular basis, or even close. They get up, eat, use the facilities, sleep, go to work, mow the lawn, fisit friends and relatives, shop, and do all sorts of other real-life stuff that puts a cap on typical consecutive TV time around the four hour mark. Again, I'm talking most people, there are plenty of lazy slobs outside the norm.
I'm curious to see what his shot and spell accuracy looks like after 12 hours.
Hi comic book guy.
You're saying that of using a controller designed to fit well in your hands, designed solely for games, you should use a keyboard designed for typing, not playing games? Whereby using it for games requires awkward unnatural positioning of your fingers and wrists? Or a mouse which puts undue stress on your wrists?
Instead of sitting on a sofa, you should sit at a computer chair?
Instead of sitting 10-feet from a large TV, you should be hunched up in front of a 17" monitor?
Now Bethesda can move on to full production of Fallout 3. Hopefully, it will retain the spirit of the Black Isle originals. The bleak setting, humor, nuanced characters, and option rich gameplay made the game remarkable.
HINT: To please fans, all they have to do is add an OPTION for top down view of turn-based action. Yeah, sure, make it a tactical, story-rich FPS in the Fallout universe. That's fine, BUT include the OPTION for old school play.
I've done 24+ hours stopping only to let caffeinated liquid out of my body
Pff, hardcore gamers don't stop for such trifles.
hey, you forgot that the xbox 360 version is $10 more than the PC version :D
http://gamestop.com/productmerch.asp?groupid=421
Yeah, plus when expansions come out they have to pay $59 for the whole game+expansion instead of just the expansion... I don't want to get into an argument about how much more a computer costs than an Xbox 360 though.
:)
I will say this though: At least I can buy a computer.