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Oblivion To Be Patched, Sells Well
Gamers with Jobs has word that a patch for Oblivion should be expected sometime in the near future. The future official content downloads, at the same time, should be cheaper to obtain. Meanwhile, the game has been burning up the charts, according to Next Generation: "The title has become the fastest-selling Xbox 360 game in North America, and according to The NPD Group, it's currently the best-selling PC game, with the Oblivion Collector's Edition following behind at number 2. NPD also reports that the RPG made up 13 percent of PC game sales during its first week on the market -- more than four times the sales volume of the next best-selling title."
"Let's not make it perfect, we can always patch it later!" 3
It's no shocker that Oblivion is selling well for Xbox 360. There hasn't been much else for 360 owners to buy, and I'm sure many 360 owners bot the console for this game in much the same way that PSX owners bought their units for FF7 (albeit Oblivion has probably lead to fewer sales than FF7). The fact that Oblivion is doing well for both 360 and the PC is pretty damn impressive, though. Just goes to show you that not everything has to be a MMOG or have multiplayer features to be fun.
The manual was a guide on how to avoid bugs.
Take this excerpt from page 53:
You may be tempted to enter the ancestrol tomb of C'Baothag, which holds silks, spices, and unimagineable riches beyond measure. DON'T. Entering this cave will cause the game to crash to your desktop, erasing all your saved games. You have been warned.
Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
Wow, that's pretty impressive. All I can say is: "Away from me, housecat! Look at that fur, what a disgrace!"
Hehehe.
Comment of the year
I wonder if their future patch plans include the creation of a sort of online marketplace for paid add-on content for the PC similar to what is offered via Xbox Live.
Now granted this may not appeal strongly to those of us in the community that can go out and get our own free content, it could certainly be of some benefit to a standard, non-power user.
Anyway, I'd be interested to see what this company may try and do to bridge the gap and bring in additional incremental revenue.
Just exited Oblivion now, the game is very good but it's too easy in the endgame. I've made myself a spell called "Death Incarnate" which gives:
100/1 Fire damage
100/1 Shock damage
100/1 Frost damage
100/1 Drain Health (will return if it doesn't kill the creature)
Almost anything falls to the first hit of that combo, which eats 250 of my 340 SP. Then wait for me to recharge, spot the next enemy on the horizon, BAM! I finished all the Arena quests today without breaking a sweat. Did Necromancer's Amulet and Bloodstained Helm, all necros die before they even spot me. Haven't run into any quest bugs either yet, but I wish they'd fix the Z-axis detection.. if you're in a cavern one level down, and it circles so you're "close" but in a completely different tunnel, they detect you. Very unrealistic unless they all have Life Detection (magic).
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
Game developers make a good game, and people buy it? Whodathunk?
In all seriousness, this is the only X-box 360 game most people BOUGHT their 360 for. Personally as a big fan of Morrowind, I wouldn't be caught dead with anything other then the PC version simply for the mods. Don't know why any Elder Scrolls fan could do without the mods.
The game is really quite impressive too, and if you crank the settings you can get a very pretty immersive environment. Too bad you can't @#$!@#$ levitate anymore.
From their forums:
Todd and I wanted to give everyone an update on a number of things we have in the works.
Patch/Update
We are working on a patch/update for both the PC and Xbox 360. It will address a number of issues that we have found and ones that have been reported to us and confirmed. It is our plan to first release it as a beta patch for the PC when it has cleared our initial testing cycles internally. Since its a beta patch you should be aware that issues may come up that we havent found yet and we strongly recommend you backup save games and understand it may be necessary to reinstall the game when the final patch comes out.
We are also looking into the localization issues that have come up in Europe and are working to address some of those issues. A European Patch/Update will be available after the English versions.
Were doing both of these things as fast as we can and will let everyone know as soon as they are available.
Downloadable Content
We have been working on downloadable content since we finished the game in February, and we continue to feel this is a great avenue for us to continue to add to the Oblivion experience.
We have already announced two of them:
The Orrery
The Orrery allows you to help the Mages Guild of Cyrodiil repair the Imperial Orrery, an ancient dwarven machine with mystical properties. Bandits have stolen a shipment of parts destined for the Arcane University; if you can return them, the Orrery will function once more.
Features
* A new, full-featured quest, including dialogue, journals, and rewards
* Access to the Imperial Orrery in the Arcane University, an incredible mechanical marvel
* New powers available for your character based on the phases of the moons
The Wizards Tower
Located high in the Jeral Mountains of Cyrodiil away from prying eyes, this Wizard's Tower, Frostcrag Spire, will become available. Packed with numerous useful enhancements, this structure will prove invaluable to magic-oriented characters.
Features
* A fully detailed tower for you to explore
* A breathtaking view of Cyrodiil from the highest point in the land
* Simple furnishings including a bed for leveling up
* An indoor botanical garden with over 130 specimens... including Oblivion-native herbs!
* Summon Atronach Familiars that obey your commands
* Instant teleports to every Mages Guild in Cyrodiil
* New Spell and Recharge vendor in the Imperial City
* Fully upgrade the furnishings in your lair to suit your needs
* Upgrade to a fully functional Enchanting and Spellmaking station with no need to join Mages Guild
* Upgrade to a laboratory that buffs your Alchemy skill
We hope to have The Orrery available for purchase next week. This plugin will cost 150pts on Xbox, and $1.89 on the PC. The Horse Armor Pack has been very popular, and exceeded what we thought it would sell. Despite that, were still trying to find the right spot, so were putting a much larger plugin out for less than the last one and we'll see what happens. Your feedback as we move forward in this is invaluable. Tell us what you want to see, how much of it, and what it might be worth to you. No, dont say you want it free, because these plugins take a surprising amount of time to create, polish, and test (much more then Morrowind's).
Finally, thank you to everyone who has supported not just Oblivion, but Bethesda Softworks over the years. Oblivion has been a tremendous success for us, and we thank you all for making that happen. We hope we continue to earn your gaming time.
Pete (and Todd)
too bad for the XBOX owners
***Is there anyone here playing Oblivion that can tell me why level scaling doesn't suck???***
i went through the first 'main' mission with a level 1 fighter with no problem. level 9 thief and i cant get past the first guy. its even that much more impossible with my level 33 mage.
i did find a mod that tries to remove the traditional RPG where gaining a level will help you rather than hurt you (oscuro), but its not perfect and i'd rather have an official fix from bethesda, cause as far as im concerned its broken as it is now.
(and its pretty easy to power-level... just set up a spell, then find a heavy object (in real life, not in game) and place it on the 'c' key on your keyboard. i got to level 33 in less than a day. but it didn't help as the enemies were just that much more powerful (and yes I do know how its important to have a well rounded character.... but thats only because of the level scaling.))
again, I'd love to know why level scaling doesnt suck because I haven't seen any reasons yet.
I overheard an employee attempting to sell a middle aged woman a 360 with the line; "Your kids are going to love this thing. It has a ton of great games like Oblivion!" I realize it's a bit off topic, but how true is that statement? I'm not interested in a 360, so I haven't been following any releases.
In regards to the horse patch..."selling well" without stating a number is a marketspeak trap. For example, if they only expected to sell 2 and they sold 3, then the product is selling well. It doesn't really MEAN anything....The fact they are releasing the second pack at a lower cost would lead me to believe that "well" in this case = not well enough.
Does anyone know what this patch is going to fix/alter? Is there going to be at least an option to get rid of the weirdness caused by the level scaling monsters and in particular the scaled stuff that causes roadside mobs to be equipped with überloot while they're still blackmailing you for 50gp?
If the patch fixes this (or makes it optional) I might actually consider buying Oblivion...
I want to play Free Market with a drowning Libertarian.
So, any word on how much the patch will cost? =P
I...I'm attacking the darkness!
Turn down the difficulty slider. Simple as that.
Take-Two's stock climbs 5%.
Who are these people that find that Oblivion just does not have enough content and they must buy even more addons? From my view, it looks like you'd never even, in imaginable life, even if you were playing hours upon hours a day, really come across everything in Oblivion it is so big, and you need more? Then you wanna complain about high prices? Anyone dumb enough to need more content in that game deserves to pay.
Judges and senates have been bought for gold; Esteem and love were never to be sold.
... let me be the first to say that this is one of the most trouble-free games I have ever used out-of-the-box. (The sole exception to that was due to an old *.ax codec file on my PC, which caused crashes very often, but was not the developers' fault, and was quickly addressed in a FAQ.) The only bug that I'm aware of is that shopkeepers' gold on-hand doesn't decrease when you sell them things. Whoops!
:) I use a tweak which speeds up magical projectiles to provide a bit more of a challenge, and a mod to make the zero-mana cost Night Eye "power" available to the Khajit an on/off item rather than a free "spell" with a set duration.
I'm aware the parent post was just a quick blurt out to get a comment up, but Oblivion has been a great example of what a PC game should be.
Additionally, good luck getting all the free, fan-made content on your XBOX!
I hope they fix the slowdown in the Hackdirt/Weynon Priory area....
I really enjoyed this game and the previous game "Morrowind".
That said, the biggest annoyance was the lack of decisions you can make during a quest. The quests and dialog choices are on rails. If a quest has an objective, often you have to perform that objective to the letter. There were many times during the game where I would have liked to betray someone, perform a quest in a different manner or just flat out refuse to do something. Each time I found the game pushing me down a specific path. While I love the world exploration aspect of this game, it lacks some of the role playing experience I've had in games like BG: II or Planescape Torment.
Put off doing the main quest until you are a few levels up, then go into "hellish" area.
The monsters have scaled up to match your level.
Your allies have NOT!!!!
Allies die quickly, you are stuck alone fighting the hordes.
(of course if you decide to play the game casually, do a bit of thief, do a bit of combat, do some magic, you know... have fun..... then you will be screwed as you level up! Exploring the average dungeon soon becomes a massive chore of running and healing from every single creature.. UNFUN).
Because when the X-Box 1 was launched, it was stated Live wouldn't be used for patches. And with the exception of one patch for online play on Unreal Tournament, it wasn't. X-Box 1 games were pretty bug free because the makers couldn't patch them later. The 360, on the other hand.. well, Microsoft seems to have ignored what they said and about a third of all 360 games released so far have had big bugs in them. Dead or Alive wiped your save, Call of Duty 2 stopped you progressing and so forth..
Oblivion runs decently on my 3 year old machine with a fairly low end graphics card (radeon 9500). I run it at a mere 800X600 resolution to keep the frame rate decent but it's such an old system. I don't have any hdtv's so it'd be pointless really to have a slightly higher resolution on my xbox.
Hmmm... Pie...
Brilliant. Why don't you go over to the BMW forums and tell them all how you can't buy the sweet new set of 3rd party tires for them because you won't buy a German made car. I'm sure they'll all be interested in that insightful comment.
The industry term is 'timeboxing'. You don't release when you're ready. Instead you set the date when you want to have the money rolling in, and you release what you have.
(Actually that's the worst case description. Normally, as the deadline looms, you decide which features you ditch in order to meet the deadline. Testing still occurs.)
You might also call it 'banana software'. It ripens at the customer's site.