The Elder Scrolls 4 Oblivion is a beautiful game that can be made even more beautiful thanks to mods.
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I install Oblivion on my comp (Specs at the bottom of review) and load it up (now it's modded to kingdom come :) but I'm talking about the original work)
The graphics are beautiful, and very lively, the bushes sway in the wind and so forth, then the clouds roll in and it begins to rain. The first person animations are beautifully done and looks great to boot. The weapons look gorgeous and shine in the light. Lighting can't be beat (Unless your comp has HDR, which mine doesn't, which is odd, cause my card handled the HDR in HL2 just fine) and the night sky is beautiful, this game is the second game where I can stop and stare up at the sky for a while at night and enjoy the stars (The first being Harvest Moon A wonderful life).
The sound is nice and the music sets the mood (though it is fun to add your own music into it too :p ). I love the sound of my sword cutting through a daedra.
The controls are well done and keeps me playing, the battle system is well done and simple. That was one of the turnoffs I had for morrowind (Still a really good game though) I didn't like how I would face a rat, and click the mouse button repeatedly, doing the same motion and missing 99% of the time, with oblivion the battles are more realistic. The game has some lag, but nothing that would stop me from playing. I run the game with all features (except HDR) on at 800x600 and I'm fully happy with the results. MY framerate takes a few hits sometimes but I don't care, cause they aren't as big as the hits the rats in the sewers I face do.
Bottom Line: Morrowind is a great game with a great story, but I felt overwhelmed and the combat wasn't as great as it could be. Oblivion does what Morrowind couldn't... Keep me playing after 15 hours. I reccommend this game to anyone who has a good rig.
MY RIG:
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3000+
RAM: 512MB
Video Card: Sapphire Technology Radeon x800 GTO 256MB PCIe
Mainboard: K8N NEO4 Socket 939