excellent game, but buggy and resource hungry
Firstly, the resources the game uses are immense...unless you have a top of the line computer, there is no way to truly enjoy oblivion. Older cards like the 9800 ultra and especially the geforce fx series 5900 ultras, which were top of the line only 3 years ago, deliver sub par performance even at the lowest settings, at which obvilion looks worse tnan morrowind. Even high end $600 cards cant play morrowind smoothly in hectic scenes.
Secondly, the bugs are numerous. While it was more or less expected of a game with its scope..some bugs break rather major quests (like the guild quests). The PC versions have an advantage, as most of the time, a solution can be had with the console...but the xbox ppl dont have that advantage. The thieves guild quests are especially buggy.
Game balance is also skewed. Obvilion tries to modify game balance by levelling up monsters and npc's equl to your level, inc equipment, which not only always leaves you somewhat mediocre, but as you go higher in levels, the game gets harder, making levelling up an actual detriment. What's more, the main quest, which involves a number of "protect" missions, becomes unplayable at high levels, as ironically, the guards and the npc's you are supposed to protect dont level up as much..or get equipment upgrades. As a result, its nearly impossible to win at higher levels.....so much for balancing.
Other rpg's which use balancing always provide for a certain edge ffor the player gained by him through levelling or equipment. However, unless you are extremely careful about levelling up, you will find that enemies become too strong...as you can max out your main damage dealing attribues early on.
To be fair though, oblivion does include a difficulty slider, that affects the game greatly. Turn it all the way down and you are god, able to 1 hit kill most enemies and take barely any damage. turn it up.......and the game becomes challenging, though never impossible, save for the main quest.
Ironically, the difficulty level does little to help the main quest.
Oblivion is a great game, though, and 100% worth the price, even despite these complaints. I only described a few problems in the game, describing what the game does right could take ages.