Oblivion + bioshock = good value gaming, 19 Jan 2010

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C. Downes “caffeinated_c” (UK) – See all my reviews

  

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Bioshock: (4/5)

Beautifully portrayed shooter set in a steampunk-esque 50s enviroment, graphics are fantastic and don’t require a supercomputer to run (I had this working with full visuals on an older dualcore 2.1Ghz AMD system with 2GB of RAM and a mid-range ATI 256MB card). Enemy AI is challenging, weapons are varied and the inclusion of puzzles (though not necessary for the majority of gameplay, just beneficial) makes for a cracking experience. Not great re-playability as you know where enemies are, solutions for puzzles etc. Definitely a good game though

Oblivion: (3/5)

You will need a supercomputer for this one. Graphics are spellbinding (especially with some user-mods that tweak wilderness visuals and lighting), though I often get the feeling with this (as well as with Morrowind and other Bestheda games) that a little more time in production would have turned a very good game into a phenomenal one. It’s only little niggles; minor bugs, the occasional AI glitch, remainders of abandoned ideas (usually in the form of discovered quest items that aren’t implemented at any point) and the vocal acting.

The latter is actually quite a major niggle. This could have been an incredibly immersive game, if only for the wholly inconsistent dialogue. Efforts have been made for NPCs to converse “spontaneously” but with a limited bank of dialogue, they are often nonsensical and you can hear the NPCs switch voices like a schizophrenic with head trauma most of the time. You’ll have walked out of a particularly hard dungeon, walk into a town feeling like a triumphant hero with enough loot to start a small colony of your own…then have this moment of immersion unwillingly tugged away by having a beggar switch from gravelly street urchin to well-schooled peasant with a couple of clicks of the mouse.

Character customisation is bananas, you can sculpt a persona as you please. And with the amount of enchantable armour and weapons in this game, this is a continuous thread.

One huge huge huge problem with this game though is the levelling system. It is frankly bonkers. In order to create a strong character you have to jump through some serious hoops. Let’s say a sneaky archer type in this instance. If you simply chose skills and attributes to support this initially, playing through (not surprisingly) as a sneaky archer type, you’d assume that the game would allow you to build up your character suitably and although you wouldn’t be a tank, you would still be on-par with enemy NPCs in terms of attack and general survivability?

No, you would wind up at around level 30 (with no more scope for character growth) with far lower health/attack than enemies and have an initially fun game turn utterly infuriating. In order to not end up being repeatedly eaten alive by frickin wildlife, you have to take your stealthy character and spend a multitude of in-game hours endlessly buffing their meleé combat statistics so they have slightly more health than a passing gnat (“but I thought I was a sneaky archer type?!” I hear you think), which makes for some serious tedious gameplay. Worse than that, this sneaky archer type is now brandishing an axe and clumping about in heavy armour; forcing you to play distinctly differently to how you wanted to…until you’ve maxed your warrior skills THEN you can carry on with your notions of being a stealthy character…which rather defeats the idea of choosing any attributes in the first place, as you’ll have to go completely against them initially to make any headway.

This was, thankfully, resolved in Fallout 3…but until a mod comes out that fixes this reliably, I would have to say this was a major downer on this otherwise good game.

The two together are a steal at this price, both are good fun and despite my grievances against Oblivion’s inane levelling system, it more than makes up with a compelling storyline, more quests and playable environment than you can shake a stick at.

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Brilliant Value – Good packaging, 3 Feb 2010

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D. McIntosh – See all my reviews

  

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Just a quick note about this. The games are fantastic, so not much to say there.

The Package comes in a jumbo sized dvd case (double-thickness) with the 2 discs on one side, and BOTH, yes both manuals and the Oblivion map on the other. I was very pleasantly surprised by this as I was fully expecting pdf manuals. Old school possibly, but I still like having a booklet with my games.

Thoroughly recommended – if you haven’t played either of these grab the package now. Both have a brilliant story and gameplay, but also look amazing.

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Two fantastic titles in one box, 6 Oct 2009

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Mr. Steven Williamson “Steve Dk2l” – See all my reviews

  

  

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To begin i cannot convey what good value to believe this box to be, it contains two brilliant games namely bioshock and oblivion.
In bioshock you play as man who cannot remember his past, and slowly unlock it in this masterpiece of story telling, really all of the elements that make a game are here in top trumps for bioshock , visually it is of a very high standard , the story telling is excellent , the gameplay is great , the atmosphere is very eerie and it captivates the player and brings them in making it hard to stop playing it. It honestly in times is a little spooky and is a great game to play in the dead of night when alone on the house in the dark. The upgrading part of the game leads to great enjoyment as nothing can be more satisfying than killing your enemies by shooting wasps and fire out of your arms. 5/5
Onto oblivion which is my 2nd favourite game ever outisde of the final fantasy franchise , but this game is huge and i mean truely huge the map is huge it would literally take hours to walk from one side the other, but there are so many missions in the game to keep you going and stop it becoming stale. Unfortunately this is the maiin game on its own and doesn’t contain the expansion pack, but still it will keep you going for a good 50-60 hours if you want to do the bigger missions and the guilds in the game. It isn’t anything like as immersive as bioshock but it makes up for it with enjoyment overall. The only gripe i have with the game is that to level up you have to find somewhere to rest which can be a pain when you are surrounded by hordes of enemies or some that you can’t find but the game assures you are there. If a fan of fallout this is a must have because its very similar but swords and magic rather than guns and explosives. Overall 5/5
This pack is a must have for someone who is looking for many hours of pc gaming pleasure and doesn’t want to spend £30 on a newer game.

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