Month: January 2018

Oblivion: Try #2

As you may recall, I never got into Oblivion the same way I did Morrowind and Skyrim. I had assumed this was because all the characters look like weird squishy lumps that are all closely related to each other – regardless of what their race is (every race is squishy lump race). So, I installed Oblivion Character Overhaul to address this issue, and I am pretty happy with how everybody is looking now.

However, this has highlighted what is perhaps the real reason I didn’t get into Oblivion: the tutorial is a million hours long and it is super boring, which is actually foreshadowing for the game that I have yet to play. It seems obvious now, but I suppose when everybody is a horrifying uncanny valley clay monster, that can tend to obscure some lesser issues.

I don’t feel at all engaged or motivated in the whole run around the sewers while the Emperor is being attacked. The call to action is too blunt and faux-grandiose, the setting is uninteresting, and you are forced to spend hours running around on rails against your will.

Morrowind had an interesting setting and a mysterious slow build with a pacing that really drew you into the world and you started to feel like you lived there, and almost no tutorial to speak of. Skyrim had a rails-y tutorial much like Oblivion, but it was (thankfully) much shorter and it at least felt exciting.

So, I don’t know, we’ll see if I ever get around to playing Oblivion in earnest. The character overhaul was an improvement, and people *say* they love Oblivion and its quests, so maybe it just starts out rough and I’ll feel engaged eventually.

The Silver Staff of Peace

AND THERE IT STAYED FOR ABOUT A YEAR.

OK I know it seems bad and that Steen is really giving Master Aryon some mixed signals, but I had a very good reason for doing this! You see, the place where I store all my sentimental Morrowind items is… on Aryon’s floor. Sooo, it was only logical that the Silver Staff of Peace went straight there. And I really was super stoked to receive it. So there, no mixed signals after all! The Silver Staff of Peace got treated with deference after all. As to whether Aryon saw it that way… well…

Additionally in my defense, when I had to give the staff to Fast Eddie when I named him my Mouth, I knew exactly where the staff was. Unlike all the multitudes of people that sold/lost it. They kind of have my sympathies… but not really.

Going to pick it up to give to Eddie was probably pretty awkward, though. Imagine:

Aryon: Oh, Steen! You’re back!
Steen: Oh, hey Aryon, I’m uhh… just here to pick up some of my stuff.
*Steen fidgets around a bit, then picks up the staff*
Steen: Ah, there it is… right where I left it.
Aryon: … What are you finally going to do with that staff?
Steen: Oh, uhh, oh. This? Yeah. I’m just gonna give it to uhh, Fast Eddie, you know. He seems like a cool guy and all. It’s like, the traditional gift for a Mouth.
Aryon: So it is.
Steen: Anyway, so yeah, I’ll see you around?