Metal Reviews

Yeah, the recent cut-price is tempting.

I'm so tired of waiting fucking Skyrim. I'm thinking of re-installing Oblivion with a shitload of mods to kill the wait. And it seems I received Divinity 2 : The dragon knight saga, can't wait to be home to try this.

I managed to get one for about what the new RRP will be, and will be quite merrily claiming the games they're giving away to people who buy one and get it online before the 12th of August.

Divinity 2 : The Dragon Knight Saga. Good game so far, the mind-reading ability is fun. Loading times are a real PITA, however.

I don't suppose somebody here would sell me a PAL copy of The Legend Of Dragoon for the PSX at a sane price??

I seriously doubt that happening any time soon :(.

Unless they FINALLY put it on the PSN, but still.

Sony did recently decide to do away with the region restrictions on PSX games, so US and japanese PSX games might start popping up on the EU PSN pretty soon hopefully. One of the titles i very much would like to see is TLOD, because PAL copies of this game is usually very high in price on ebay, whilst NTSC copies seems to be pretty cheap and NTSC-J copies often even cheaper. Were there really so few PAL copies printed?? I would also like to see more SHMUPS like Raiden and Donpachi and RPGs that never made it over to EU would be nice as well.

Sorry, I don't own that game

Here are some news on Skyrim (yeah, I'm obsessed with it. The website is Russian, but the video is in English, fear not) : http://www.rpgnuke.ru/2011/08/07/the_el ... nutes.html

Near 40 minutes of gameplay at the QuakeCon. The quality is mediocre (taping was strictly forbidden), and we've already seen half of the demo, but there is also a lot to discover. Just be aware that the character is overpowered (level 34), so the game feels easy but probably is not. I can't wait to play this. What is shown is... I don't know... tremendous?, but we have yet to see whether or not there is much to do in the game. Todd (the lead) promised 300 hours for the full experience. I frankly doubt it, but 150 hours would already be awesome. The game boasts 150 "unique" dungeons, but we have yet to see what they call dungeons, and whether they are that unique or not. Plus, he stated that expansion packs are going to be fewer and more expensive, but *worthwhile*.

And he also stated that we should see this in HQ at the end of the month.

Currently I'm playing Oblivion (I didn't own it per se, so I bought the complete pack with Shivering Isles and KotN for 14,99€ on Steam). With (a lot of) mods, it really is a good game. I love the Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul mod, which makes the game MUCH more tough, and adds a trillion well-balanced and well-thought things (e.g. bye-bye stupid level-scaling). Mods enhancing graphics are also a big plus. And of course, the ones adding quests. The ones adding erotic/porn stuff are enjoyable for 5 minutes, but in the end they feel dull and out of place.

I hope my PC can stomach Skyrim, because mods are a must. If not, I'll get the xbox version, wait until I can afford a PC better than the recommended config, and buy the game a second time for the PC.

If the game is good, of course, and not your usual casual gamer's turdfest video games seem to be these days.

Better quality there, don't know how long it will last : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_lchwsINqM

I saw a copy of it for £60 in a shop the other day, the bastards. And it wasn't even the most expensive PSX game on display. I'm hoping that they do start bringing over the Japanese/American games soon. They've been saying about it for ages :/.

Just download any game you want, plug in your ps/xbox controller and play it on your computer. I don't see what the problem is.

Well, there are some issues when it comes to this. The game has to be compatible with the emulator and then i need to find the right BIOS for the region that i need. I have a US copy TLOD but i don't have anything to play it on. I have been debating whether or not i should pick up a NTSC PS2. Maybe later...

I'm gonna do the same thang, but on a PS3. I'm playing Oblivion too, with a lot of modding (around 120). Check this site, it might interest you. It's like the best guide to mod Oblivion and make it into a more hardcore RPG, very realistic.

http://amito.freehostia.com/Oblivion/OB.htm

Two questions for my Xboxing chums.

1. Is Oblivion a lot better than Morrowind? Tried the latter, got bored very quickly, but been hearing lots of good things lately about both and thought I'd give the series another go.

2. Call Of Duty Elite - spreadsheets for nerds who like to analyse how they play games scientifically? Not sure I see the point, not being THAT obsessed by it.

@Alex : 120 mods. Wow. And I thought I was going to far with my 15 mods... Thanks for the link, I'll probably find a mod (or 30) in that list.

@Zad :
1. Oblivion is not better than Morrowind, IMHO. Morrowind first bored me as well, because you have to find what to do (and because there is no fast travel system, you have to walk... A LOT.) But when things are getting in shape, the game is great. It is barely watchable nowadays, though.
As for Oblivion, without mods it is a flawed and barely enjoyable game nowadays. Too many issues and poorly designed mechanics (the worst of all being the scaled leveling system : your foes, their equipment, and loots level up as you do.)

So here's my humble opinion:

- Oblivion for xbox (no mods) : save your money and wait for Skyrim.
- Oblivion for the PC (vanilla and without mods) : Good back in 2006, not anymore.
- Oblivion + Shivering Isles + mods (PC) : very good. And cheap these days.

2. I don't even know what you're talking about, sorry mate. And I'm very glad to read you again BTW

Sorry for being a RPG n00b, but so what if your enemies get harder along with you? Does that make for more of a challenge, or less, or is the challenge exactly the same all the way through?
*confusion*

And cheers, good to be back! Nice to see you're still here...

Well... let's say you make a character with proficiency in athletics, acrobatics and other silly abilities. The only way to level up in Oblivion is to gain ranks in your primary abilities. So with the level scaling that means when you level up your athletics, acrobatics and so on, your enemies are leveling up in awesome stuff like blades, blocking and all that jazz. This can lead to you not being able to finish the game.

Of course, this is a worst case scenario where you fall way behind your enemies because you made poor character creation choices. But problems like this do make the game worse even when playing a balanced character. In the end, level scaling is just stupid. Thankfully it can be fixed with a simple mod.

No problem Zad. In truth, it is a matter of taste, and of "what-do-you-seek-when-playing-a-The-Elder-Scrolls-game". Challenge is an asset of level scaling, it is even the very reason Bethesda implemented it in the first place. But, imho, it just kills the game because:

- So much for credibility and realism. Where you could find rats at the beginning of the game, you find Daedric beasts when hitting say level 20 or 30. It would be OK if you could still find rats somewhere but, too bad: you don't. They just all vanished. And the same goes for many other foes.
It doesn't make sense to me.

- Loots. The same chest will offer much, much more valuable items after having leveled up. Again, it doesn't make any sense to me. Getting rich is far too easy.

- Immersion. The main asset of The Elder Scrolls series is the freedom to to roam in an open world the way you like, in first person view. You can (and should !!!) completely ignore the main quest if you like. Immersion is key. But level scaling kills it completely. Seeing skeleton warriors wearing glass armors (whereas they're suposed to be über-rare and expensive) often made me quit the game out of rage.

Anyway, I could go further on on the matter, but you get my point. To sum up : if you're OK with what I described (if you're not used to play RPGs you probably are), go for it if you can find it cheap. If not, well you have two choices : 1) play it on a PC (with mods), 2) but if you can't, wait and see if Skyrim is worth the try.

EDIT : Yeah and, what EdgeofForever said.

Cheers guys, interesting.

With all that said, I think Oblivion is an epic adventure with the right mods. I played it with a collection of mods that made it really hard right from the start and removed the level scaling and added more monsters, dungeons and items. There were still some issues that couldn't be fixed. For instance, the ability to fast travel anywhere in the world killed the sense of immersion very early on. Plus, whenever you get a new quest, all you have to do is look at the map and there will be a marker that shows where you need to go to finish the quest. The marker even shows up on the compass which is on your HUD (so you're always looking at it). It's possible to remove the marker, but because the game expects you to use it, there are usually no hints as to where you're supposed to go.

In the end, I lost interest in the game because of fast travel and the quest marker. It might sound like a dumb reason to quit playing, but I always thought Oblivion's greatness was in its feeling of discovery and adventure. Without those two, there is just the lackluster battle system and poor overall game play mechanics.

I'd recommend you get both, but begin with Oblivion. When comparing the vanilla games, Oblivion is much more accessible than Morrowind.