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Oblivion Polymorph Mod
Via Kotaku, a post on the Oblivion forums on a polymorph mod for Oblivion. The Kotaku story has a video attached, showing the shapechanging in action with a rocking musical background. The mod seems awesome, but I'm not sure I agree with poster Eckhardt's commentary: "This could be just the thing for me to forget how unbearably stagnant and boring I ultimately find Oblivion to be: the ability to transmogrify into huge ogres, gigantic walking sticks and carnivorous cephalopods."
No. The game IS boring. And it's got nothing to do with what you mentioned. The reason Oblivion is boring (and why I stopped playing after having put about 100 hours into sidequests alone) is that nothing. really. happens. Become arena champion? Mud crabs can still kick your butt (I'm playing that gimp of all classes, archer thief). Save children, families, farms? They briefly will mention it when you come back, but otherwise, nothing. Wipe out entire villages, restore rightful leaders to their position, save entire cities? Some characters might change what they say, but otherwise, nothing. As you get more powerful, your enemies get more powerful, which means you're just as sucky as you were 10 minutes into the game. Except you wear more shiny. And don't get me started on the leveling scheme. The more you advanced, the better you got - until the enemies caught up with you, at which point you sucked again. This was a system that actually rewarded munchkins - no, it basically made it necessary for my poor archer.
Someone likened playing Oblivion to paddling in the middle of the Ocean. You do stuff, you exert yourself, it looks like stuff is changing.... but really, nothing's changing significantly. The reason I loved Baldur's Gate, or even Skies of Arcadia, was that stuff changed. Things got wiped out. Enemies that would chew me up within seconds at the beginning would at some point fall to my attacks. There was a feeling that the world was changing based on what I did. In Oblivion.... well, sometimes guards would attack me. Sometimes they wouldn't. Other than that.... it was like reading a giant book. Where it would take 10 minutes to turn one page, and where each story would be 1.5 pages.
yeah, I plunked 100 hours into a game that I decided sucked. Unfortunately, it took that long for me to realize that the initial problem would never go away. And that the side quests did nothing to help the main problem of pacing and actual story. Yeah, there's some cool moments in there. I'd say I've seen about 30 minutes total of them. That's just too much filler to qualify as a good game.
Those who can, do. Those who can't, sue.
I guess I'm just the type of person they were targeting with this game, because I absolutely love it.
I just got done with another 2 hour long session... which brings my total game-play hours up to 112! Yes, that's what it actually says on the save game loading screen... I really have played that long, just with one character... and _no_ I haven't finished the main storyline yet (in fact, I didn't start it until I was _90_ hours into the game!)
So what the hell have I been doing with my time? Mostly working my way up through the fighters guild and the mages guild (I'm a custom class WarMage)... and doing every damn side quest I can get my hands on. I've also (of course) fought through the arena. I also enjoy working on obscure skills (alchemy?) and becoming expert/master with all kinds of weapons.
I guess I just love the open-endedness of it all. If I want to run around and pick flowers for a while I can do that. If I want to go climb that mountain over there (and discover another shrine with its own quest line) I can do that too.
I know I'm probably in the minority on this... but I love being able to be a packrat. I have chests _full_ of gear (where it even takes a couple of seconds to open the chest because it's trying to load the list!) and more chests full of ingredients... and still more chests full of books and scrolls.
Sure the NPCs aren't much to talk to, but I do enjoy the fact that they have much more realistic daily routines (sleeping, waking, eating, working, eating, sleeping etc). They might not be perfect, but I believe they add just that little bit extra.
But I'm not going to convince a bunch of people on slashdot.... I just thought there should be someone to post a positive experience with the game.
If you are looking for a world to explore, and love open-ended games then you really should check this one out....
Friedmud