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The end of an (Oblivion) Era

  • Posted by Paul November 2, 2011 - 625 views

    Earlier on today I had a spare half hour, and I fired up Oblivion.

    Although I've played for hundreds of hours, including dabbling in many of the fine mods that have come out since the game was released back in 2006. But for some reason, I've never completed The Shivering Isles. So I made it my goal to do that before the release of Skyrim. A couple of months ago I took my Breton mage through 'the strange door' and started working on the main quest over in The Isles.

    What with all the work that has gone into this site I never got around to completing it - hence the motivation to load up the game earlier.

    But, you know what, I just couldn't get into it. I was noticing all the flaws in Oblivion that I feel confident will be addressed in Skyrim. I was looking at the jerky animation and thinking 'that will be smoother in Skyrim'. I listened to yet another example of the same voice actor and thinking 'there'll be a lot more voices in Skyrim'. I battled another Grummite whilst thinking 'I'll probably hit a cool finishing move at this point in Skyrim'....

    After half an hour of this I came to a weird kind of realisation. I'm pretty well done with Oblivion.

    I'm not sure I can find the motivation to finish The Shivering Isles even though I'm two thirds through the main quest. And there's no way I can see myself ever loading Oblivion again once I have my copy of Skyrim.

    It feels like end of an era.

    A game that has been part of my life for five years is now probably going to get put in the drawer to gather dust. It's shiny, sparkly new replacement will be here in just one week!

    What about you? Do you still think you'll play Oblivion. What about once we have Skyrim? Is the end of an era for you as well, I wonder?

Comments

108 Comments
  • Kynareth
    Kynareth   ·  November 5, 2011
    I have not finished The Shivering Isles, yet either, but it is more or less do to my character being faced with a choice that does not really jive with her internal motivations.  I am still emotionally invested in the journey of my Champion of Cyrodill, a...  more
  • Hrolf Krake
    Hrolf Krake   ·  November 3, 2011
    I had the exact same experience a month ago...
  • Piper Jo
    Piper Jo   ·  November 3, 2011
    Detonation 51:  That is a very sad ending.  I am sorry that your khajit could not find the help he needed after clearly crying out like that.
  • Detonation
    Detonation   ·  November 3, 2011
    I went to Video Games etc. to buy Oblivion. I found it, gave it to the cashier and he said, "I'm sorry, but the used copy of this game we have is to badly damaged for use, but I very much recommend this game." And he gave me a copy of Dragon Age, said he ...  more
  • Piper Jo
    Piper Jo   ·  November 3, 2011
    In fact, I think I'd rather play Redguard or Daggerfall than Morrowind or Oblivion, simply because I don't have any expectations of the graphics.
  • Piper Jo
    Piper Jo   ·  November 3, 2011
    Paul, it's possible that the anticipation of Skyrim has ruined your Oblivion experience, but that at some point years in the future, you'll be able to run through Shivering Isles and get real pleasure out of it, just as so many people report that they go ...  more
  • Seth R.
    Seth R.   ·  November 3, 2011
    I just finished my 3rd run through (or so) of Oblivion. I tried to go through Morrowind again after going through Oblivion and I just couldn't do it. I think the same will hold true on Oblivion.
  • Rob Robinson
    Rob Robinson   ·  November 3, 2011
    Over the summer with all the new Skyrim news emerging I fired up Oblivion for what I thought of as my last play through. It was quite sad really, found myself thinking "that's the last time I'll see Uriel" and "last time you'll die Lucien" as well as "las...  more
  • Daniel Robinson
    Daniel Robinson   ·  November 3, 2011
    The ironic part is though, that whilst i can't see myself ever returning to Oblivion once Skyrim is released, I'm quite confident that I'll still be playing Morrowind.
    Maybe because, for me at least, Skyrim seems to the game Oblivion tried to be, bu...  more
  • Marcus Hultman
    Marcus Hultman   ·  November 3, 2011
    no, its not the end of oblivion for me, look at me, i still play Morrowind ,i love all tes games ,but you right Skyrim will take alot of time of oblivion and the other tes games, but i glad i grew up with these amasing games, Thanks Bethesda!
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