Alliedassault - The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion................[spoilers]

One week away:

Yes this next bit was blatantly lifted from another site - as if Im gonna go and redo all this myself:

[quote:c785d][img]http://www.topconsoles.com/thumb.php?image=bilder/Xbox%20360/The%20Elder%20Scrolls%20IV:%20Oblivion/logo.jpg&x=161[/img][img]http://www.topconsoles.com/thumb.php?image=bilder/Xbox%20360/The%20Elder%20Scrolls%20IV:%20Oblivion/logo.jpg&x=161[/img][img]http://www.topconsoles.com/thumb.php?image=bilder/Xbox%20360/The%20Elder%20Scrolls%20IV:%20Oblivion/logo.jpg&x=161[/img]
[quote:c785d]Oblivion is a single-player game that takes place in Tamriel's capital province, Cyrodiil. You are given the task of finding the hidden heir to a throne that sits empty, the previous emperor having been killed by an unknown assassin. With no true Emperor, the gates to Oblivion (the equivalent of hell in the world of Tamriel) open, and demons begin to invade Cyrodiil and attack its people and towns. It's up to you to find the lost heir to the throne and unravel the sinister plot that threatens to destroy all of Tamriel.[/quote:c785d]

Oblivion- Plain ol Plane (thanks Wiki!)
While Oblivion is most often described as "a version of Hell," the metaphor expressed in the game actually implies a more relativist ethical cosmology than is usual in most video games and Western fantastic literature, in which morality and the gods are often portrayed as simplistically dualist.

Oblivion is the void surrounding the mortal plane of existence in the world of The Elder Scrolls. The stars in the sky are the mortals' view of the spheres of the Aedra and Daedra floating in that void.

The spheres (or pockets) that make up Oblivion are each ruled by a different Daedric Prince, with each sphere manifesting the attributes of the ruling Prince’s personality. The 17 Princes are: Azura, Boethiah, Clavicus Vile, Hircine, Hoermius Mora, Jyggalag, Malacath, Mehrunes Dagon, Mephala, Meridia, Molag Bal, Namira, Nocturnal, Peryite, Sanguine, Sheogorath, and Vaernima.

To categorize these beings as good or evil would be inappropriate. Daedra act according to their natures. Mortals perceive Daedra as good or evil depending on their view of this behavior.

It should also be noted that within TES lore, mortals do not die and go to Oblivion. Souls are reborn back into their own realm. In much the same fashion, a Daedra will not die, but is banished back to its own sphere in Oblivion - the difference being that a Daedra's identity and form are retained.

The gates connecting the mortal realm to Oblivion have been protected in the past, and prevented from opening so long as the emperor's bloodline controls the amulet which binds the pact between gods and men. The main plot of the game involves the death of the Emperor and the subsequent opening of the gates.

With the gates of Oblivion open, the most aggressive of Daedra will invade the mortal plane. So while there are many realms in the vastness of Oblivion, the part that will be shown in The Elder Scrolls IV is the most "hellish" of all; that is, the most reminiscent of hell and its contents as some real-world religions conceive of it.

What is the size of Oblivion?
It has been confirmed by producer Todd Howard that the world will be larger than the previous installment in the series: The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind.

For comparison the total above-ground area of Morrowind's game world was roughly 10 square miles, but the actual landmass was only around 6 square miles and then surrounded by water; not including either of the expansions.

With Oblivion the above-ground areas are approximately 16 square miles, considerably less water coverage; plus more than 200 underground dungeon areas and the realm of Oblivion.

"The realm of Oblivion" in lore is described as infinite; in game terms youll be exploring large randomly generated (similar to random dungeon generation of The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall) sections of extra-dimensional terrain every time you enter a portal and leave the normal world behind you. There have been no official size estimates for the playable sections of "the realm of oblivion".

Voice acting!
The game, featuring the voices of Patrick Stewart, Lynda Carter, Sean Bean, and Terence Stamp. Top notch, really. You can also eavesdrop on characters to gain new information which ultimately leads to a quest.

Radiant AI! (Thanks Wiki!)
[quote:c785d]Oblivion boasts a new artificial intelligence system, fully developed in house by Bethesda, codenamed 'Radiant AI'. It is a major source of excitement for many of the fans of the series as it aims to counter what was believed to be one of the major flaws of the previous installment (The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind): the lack of 'life' of the NPCs in the game. Radiant AI gives every NPC a set of 'needs' (such as hunger) that they will need to fulfill, thus creating a more lifelike world.

Radiant AI works by giving NPCs a list of goals. Nothing else is scripted. They must decide how to achieve these goals by themselves based on their individual statistics. A hungry NPC might compare his current gold against his moral values to decide whether he will walk to a store and purchase food, or just steal it; a skilled archer can choose to hunt his own deer.

This has required massive testing, but has even greater long-term flexibility for future NPC AI as well as testing with PAC AI for further developments.

The following are examples of unexpected behavior discovered during early testing:

1. One character was given a rake and the goal "rake leaves"; another was given a broom and the goal "sweep paths," and this worked smoothly. Then they swapped the items, so that the raker was given a broom and the sweeper was given the rake. In the end, one of them killed the other so he could get the proper item.
2. Another test had an on-duty NPC guard become hungry. The guard went into the forest to hunt for food. The other guards also left to arrest the truant guard, leaving the town unprotected. The villager NPCs then looted all of the shops, due to the lack of law enforcement.
3. In another test a minotaur was given a task of protecting a unicorn (there is only one unicorn in the game). However, the minotaur repeatedly tried to kill the unicorn because he was set to be an aggressive creature.
4. In one Dark Brotherhood quest, the player can meet up with a shady merchant who sells skooma, an in-game drug. During testing, the NPC would be dead when the player got to him. The reason was that NPCs from the local skooma den were trying to get their fix, didn't have any money, and so were killing the merchant to get it.
5. While testing to confirm that the physics models for a magical item known as the "Skull of Corruption," which creates an evil copy of the character/monster it is used on, were working properly, a tester dropped the item on the ground. An NPC immediately picked it up and used it on the player character, creating a copy of him that proceeded to kill every NPC in sight.

Bethesda has been hard at work to fix these issues, balancing an NPC's needs against his penchant for destruction so that the game world still functions in a usable fashion.[/quote:c785d]
Example? http://bethsoft.com/redirects/video5.htm

Engine? (thanks Wiki!)
The Gamebryo engine is both powerful and flexible enough to suit the needs of any type of game, demonstrated by the range of major games that use it: Sid Meier's Pirates!, Civilization IV, Dark Age of Camelot, and Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, to name a few. Gamebryo runs on every major platform, is already in use for Xbox 360, and will be optimized for use in PlayStation 3. It boasts outstanding, reliable performance, and includes the rendering, animation, and special effects features needed to create any game.
The Gamebryo run-time engine is a C++ API that features a hierarchical scene graph structure. Multiple culling and sorting techniques are available to reduce CPU usage by drawing only visible objects. The engine's flexibility allows simultaneous use of different sorting techniques in different parts of the scene graph.

Mounts
A mount is a horse that a character can ride upon. They can be used for travelling quickly across the land, however, a character must dismount and leave his or her horse at the city stable before entering a city. A character can be attacked while on a horse (and the horse itself can be attacked as well), but must dismount in order to actually fight an opponent. Horse armor may be purchased from vendors.

Construction Set (PC Only!)
TES Construction Set: The CS has been improved to be simpler for the developers and modders. Dialogue, landscaping, quests, scripting and more have all been made easier to use. Modders will still need a separate program to create objects, and another for skinning (just like for Morrowind). Here is a quick rundown of some improvements to the scripting:

▫ Ability to call functions on any reference anywhere
▫ If statements can use the full range of logical operators: &&, 7C7C, >, !=, etc., as well as nested parents
▫ Integration of script functions with "conditions" in the editor -- basically, any function that returns a value will be available to conditionalize dialogue, etc.
▫ Variables can be used as parameters for most function calls

Races?
Four of the races are classical human archetypes:
Breton (Descendants of humans and elves, predisposed toward healing and other magical arts)
Imperial (The reigning race of Tamriel; similar to classic Romans)
Nord (Fair-haired survivors)
Redguard (Dark-Skinned, Skilled fighters)

Three types of Aldmeri (Elves):
* Altmer (High Elf)
* Bosmer (Wood Elf)
* Dunmer (Dark Elf)
And two beast races:
* Khajiit (A Feline biped race)
* Argonian (A reptilian humanoid race)

And also:

* Orsimer (Orcs, were once elves but Boethiah, a Daedric Prince, ate their leader Trinimac and turned him into Malacath.)

Travel?
New fast travel system allows you to instantly travel to all major cities from start of game. Minor cities/towns will be available for fast travel through discovery.

You can also acquire a horse mount. Armor will be available for the horse [img]http://img63.imageshack.us/img63/4864/elderscrolls4horse800x600thumb.jpg[/img]

Arena
There is also an Arena which you may join as a combatant. Though it's not called the "gladiator's guild," in practice that's what it is. So when you "join the Arena," you are joining an elite group of warriors who fight in matches in the Arena. Winning matches in the Arena can earn you gold or new equipment. You work your way up a circuit (with ranks), all the way to the top. Your arena faction standing is your rank within the competitions.

Vampirism (courtesy of pauseinhell of the TES forums)

[quote:c785d]You can Catch the disease by fighting with vampires or as part of a quest

Once you have the disease you have 3 days to heal yourself after that you will be a vampire

Advantages:

+5 in Strengh Willpower Speed Acrobatics Athletics Destruction hand to hand Illusion Mysticism and sneak. You will also be more resistant against paralisis and sicknesses and also a bit better with melee weapons. With each day in which you don't feed on blood these attributes will rise 5 points as well as your resistance to melee weapons

The bad news:
With every day without blood your apparence will change you into a horrible monster.

At the beginning of the sickness you only have a slight weakness to fire, however every day without feeding will raise this weakness and bring other disadvantages. If you feed on blood you will be safe from sunlight for the next 24 hours, if not you will catch fire in the sunlight (it also says that Rain and Clouds will help a bit) The worst disadvantage comes after 4 days without feeding. Your face will become hollow and pale, you will grow long sharp teeth and your eyes will become red, as a sonsequence most people will have nothing to do with you and you won't be able to do (most) quests. Another power you will get however is to raise disposition towards you to 100 for 20 seconds.[/quote:c785d]

What are the stats?
----------
[code:c785d]____ STR__ INT__ WILL__ AGL__ SPD__ END__ LUK__ PER__
Nord 50/50 30/30 30/40 40/40 40/40 50/40 50/50 30/30
Redg 50/40 30/30 30/30 40/40 40/40 50/50 50/50 30/40
Brtn 40/30 50/50 50/50 30/30 30/40 30/30 50/50 40/40
Impr 40/40 40/40 30/40 30/30 40/30 40/40 50/50 50/50
WElf 30/30 40/40 30/30 50/50 50/50 40/30 50/50 30/40
HElf 30/30 50/50 40/40 40/40 30/40 40/30 50/50 40/40
DElf 40/40 40/40 30/30 40/40 50/50 40/30 50/50 30/40
Khaj 40/30 40/40 30/30 50/50 40/40 30/40 50/50 40/40
Argo 40/40 40/50 30/40 50/40 50/40 30/30 50/50 30/30
Orc_ 45/45 30/40 50/45 35/35 30/30 50/50 50/50 30/25[/code:c785d]

Class list?
You can either choose basic, or create a custom class.

Basic class list:
Acrobat
Agent
Archer
Assassin
Barbarian
Bard
Battlemage
Crusader
Healer
Knight
Mage
Monk
Nightblade
Pilgrim
Rogue
Scout
Sorcerer
Spellsword
Thief
Warrior
Witchunter

Birthsigns
* The Apprentice
* The Atronach
* The Lady
* The Lord
* The Lover
* The Mage
* The Ritual
* The Serpent
* The Shadow
* The Steed
* The Thief
* The Tower
* The Warrior

Guild List (thanks Wiki!)
* Fighters' Guild (Mercenaries and paramilitaries; Imperially chartered)
* Thieves' Guild (Criminal monopoly, drugs, smuggling, burglary, extortion; illegal organization)
* Mages' Guild (Academy for the preservation and study of the esoteric arts, magic, alchemy, chemistry, humanities, sciences; Imperially chartered)
* The Dark Brotherhood (The evil counterpart of the honorable Morag Tong Assassins Guild)
* The Arena (Gladiatorial combat, has religious significance; Imperially chartered)
* The Blades (Spy network; Imperially chartered)

Stealth
Think Thief/Hitman.

Jail (courtesy of TES forums)
Interactive Jail (Escaping): Picking the lock, stealing the key from the guard when he walks by, starting a fight with the other prisoner so the guard investigates, bribe the guard (possibly), wait until another prisoner is to be released and then run out of the cell, etc.

Changes from other TES games. (jesus! thanks wiki!)
Changes from Previous Elder Scrolls Games

* Bethesda has plans for downloadable content via both XBOX Live and a standard internet connection for PC users. The only concrete downloadable content at this point is Horse Armor. Plans for Holidays were cancelled by the Bethesda team.
* Horse riding has returned, but not carriages. You can purchase different breeds of horses in the game
* You may once again travel via the map; though in a more limited form than was present in Daggerfall. A compass is also avaliable.
* You now play as the Cathay-Raht breed of Khajiit, who are nearly elven in appearence, and can wear boots, rather than the Suthay-Raht who were the playable breed in Morrowind.
* Bethesda had plans for a downloadable holiday patch via Xbox Live/internet connection, but they have expressed some ambiguity over the current state of this additional content.
* Dual-wielding is not included in Oblivion, and has yet to return from Daggerfall.
* Nudity from both the player portrait and creatures has been removed.
* There are no children present in the game world.
* Levitation, Mark, and Recall spells have been removed.
* Enchanting items/weapons is now a perk of membership in the mages guild, and not a player skill.
* Every NPC will include full voice acting (With Patrick Stewart playing the voice of Emperor Uriel Septim, and Sean Bean playing the voice of the Emperor's illegitimate heir).
* The Dark Brotherhood is the predominant local assassins guild, rather than the Morag Tong, which was native only to Morrowind.
* You can now purchase homes in each major city, as well as decorations.
* Crossbows, throwing weapons, spears, and their respective skills have been removed.
* Bows have been improved in many aspects, including the use of physics on arrow flight. You can also zoom at higher levels and set off traps with arrows.
* Were-wolves/creatures have not returned (though even for Morrowind, these were included later in an expansion).
* Magicka (mana) now regenerates over time.
* Stamina does not drain from running, but plays a more vital role in combat tactics.
* The skills list has been condensed into 21 skills.
* The Medium armor skill has been removed; the actual armors which were previously considered medium-class have been moved to the heavy or light armor skills.
* The Unarmored skill has been removed since you can now dodge with the Acrobatics skill, which allows rolling moves.
* The combat system has changed. No longer the player has access to the previous "Chop/Pierce/Slash" combat system. It has been replaced by a newer combat system similar to action RPGs such as Fable: The Lost Chapters, with one button for attack and another for block. Blocking is no longer automatic, but player controlled.
* The player can now use weapons and cast spells at the same time.
* Now all hits connected to an enemy will do damage, the amount depending on the player's skill with the weapon. The previous dice based system has been removed.
* Lockpicking is now a minigame similar to Splinter Cell

Skills(courtesy of Wikipedia)
[img]http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/4880/safsdfasd7sf.jpg[/img]

What are the system requirements?
Recommended:

* 3 Ghz Intel Pentium 4 or equivalent processor
* 1 GB System RAM
* ATI X800 series, Nvidia GeForce 6800 series, or higher video card

Minimum System Requirements:
Windows XP

512MB System RAM
* 2 Ghz Intel Pentium 4 or equivalent processor
* 128MB Direct3D compatible video card
* and DirectX 9.0 compatible driver;
* 8x DVD-ROM drive
* 4.6 GB free hard disk space
* DirectX 9.0c (included)
* DirectX 8.1 compatible sound card
* Keyboard, Mouse

Supported Video Card Chipsets:

* ATI X1900 series
* ATI X1800 series
* ATI X1600 series
* ATI X1300 series
* ATI X850 series
* ATI x800 series
* ATI x700 series
* ATI x600 series
* ATI Radeon 9800 series
* ATI Radeon 9700 series
* ATI Radeon 9600 series
* ATI Radeon 9500 series
* NVIDIA GeForce 7800 series
* NVIDIA GeForce 6800 series
* NVIDIA GeForce 6600 series
* NVIDIA GeForce 6200 series
* NVIDIA GeForce FX series

http://www.srtest.com/referrer/srtest (pretty buggy- your system rocks lolol)[/quote:c785d]