Is Oblivion worth it right now? Options

[Chumbaniya]

I was excited to find my copy of Oblivion delivered today - everything on and in the box looked promising, but when I entered the game, I found that playing it was way beyond anything that my system could run - unless I decided on a total overhaul costing hundreds of pounds. I'll be the first to admit I haven't got a great PC, but I meet all of the system requirements, in some areas by a good margin, and as such I expect the game should be playable - not with high resolution and graphics options, but at least on the lowest possible settings.

I feel cheated that I'm not going to be able to play the game for at least a year, even though, according to the manufacturers, I should be capable of doing so. The amount of money I will need to spend, judging by what I've seen in the technical forums, is so much that I may as well buy an Xbox 360 instead, and believe me, I don't have the money for that. So, it looks like I'll have to wait at least a year, probably more, until the hardware I'll need is cheap enough to buy. Instead of costing me the £25 I paid for the game itself, it's going to cost somewhere in the hundreds if I want to play now. Anyone else having trouble playing the game who simply won't spend huge amounts of cash to make it playable?

I'm sure that, when I'm able to play it, Oblivion will be great fun, but right now it's just not feasible. I don't think it's a particular problem with game, but I wish it could have been a little more realistic about what's needed to play.

[MerGirl]

Oooh! I know the feeling... sort of, since now I can sort of play it... until I get near the end of the dungeon (or try to change something in video options), then the game would freeze and crash-to-desktop every time at that point, which is not good. Not to mention, on my PC, the graphics are not really the highest of high quality, but I can live with that. The crashes on the other hand. *shakes head*

In terms of crashing, it's worse than Morrowind. But, it is really fun, though.

Chumb, is your video card up-to-date, or is the game crashing on you alot or something?

[RobRendell]

I get near the end of the dungeon (or try to change something in video options), then the game would freeze and crash-to-desktop every time at that point

I was having some strange graphics problems when I got outside (in 1st person, my arms (plus anything in them like a sword and/or torch) would started flashing on and off). It was extremely annoying to watch, and I was worried that I'd be unable to play the game.

Then, I remembered that the readme had recommended upgrading your graphics card's drivers, which I'd ignored at the time. I chased up new drivers, and the problems went away.

MerGirl, do you have an up-to-date driver for your card? If not, it's entirely possible that the CTD is connected with the game trying to get your card to do something that isn't handled properly in your old driver...

Just a suggestion.

[MerGirl]

MerGirl, do you have an up-to-date driver for your card?  If not, it's entirely possible that the CTD is connected with the game trying to get your card to do something that isn't handled properly in your old driver...

Just a suggestion.

If you're talking about the video card, then you were right... My dad and I found out our card is kind of under what Oblivion's recommended specs, so he bought a slightly more better card, and now the game runs more smoothly, though it is not at the very highest in terms of graphics, but it is decent enough now and barely any crashing.

As for the game, now that I'm not having any problems anymore, I would say it is a really good game and worth the trouble we went through. I enjoyed stalking and talking to NPC's. The world felt alive.. I even liked fighting goblins for once! I actually wanted to fight in this game. (unlike Morrowind). In fact, I had Celia join both the mages guild and the fighters guild (which is a group I didn't like joining in Morrowind).

[RobRendell]

If you're talking about the video card, then you were right...

Well, I was talking about the drivers for your existing video card: software that you get along with the video card that you install on your system. When a game tries to perform some graphical operation, the driver is invoked and it translates the command into something that is correct for the video card hardware. This additional layer means that developers don't have to explicitly account for every different video card out there when writing their program.

Like any software, however, the drivers can contain bugs, and so you can sometimes correct problems with a given card/game combination by updating your drivers.

Anyway, glad to hear that you've got it running better now Replacing the card not only gets away from any bugs your old card was having with Oblivion, but gets you better graphics, too, so you win!