If you’re a regular to this site, you may be wondering, “Where the hell is my freakin’ combat prototype? I thought you said you were going to finish it last week!”

Um…yeah. About that…see, IplayedOblivionallweekendinstead.

BUT! I have now completed the main plotline and a good chunk of the side quests, so once I write this post about how awesome Oblivion is, it’ll be out of my system and I can get back to work. Really!

So, how awesome is Oblivion?

Truly awesome. If it’s not the best game I’ve ever played, it’s damn close and definitely the best I’ve played in years. Its only flaw is its levelling system, which at later levels just requires too much work…it’s almost as if the game punishes you for both powerlevelling and getting to level 20. I ended up fixing that problem with judicious use of the player.setav console command. Once I did that, Oblivion was pure, sweet RPG goodness flowing directly into my veins.

Okay, I have to stop writing stuff like that or I’ll just fire it up again and waste another evening. I still have over 20 unfinished quests…no, no, I’ll be strong.

So what was wrong with Oblivion? (Other than the levelling, which we’ve already covered?) Why, Oblivion, of course. The planes of Oblivion start off looking and playing really cool, but it quickly became clear that because those planes are meant to be closed, nothing can happen in them. No plot points or scripted sequences can happen in a plane of Oblivion because players might miss them. Thus they very quickly began to feel like busywork and I eventually started avoiding combat and just running straight to the Sigil Stone as fast as I could to get them over with. You don’t even get any decent loot in them…Daedric weapons can be pretty powerful, but they are also really, really heavy. Better to sell them to recharge my Mace of Shocking Woe, which is a glass mace I enchanted to do 35 points of shock damage on hit. That thing kills everything dead, I love it.

The other thing I wanted to mention was the ending. The ending has a serious plot twist in it that changes the Elder Scrolls universe forever (and no, I’m not going to tell what it is, no matter how you beg). I really, really liked the ending but I’ve heard tell that lots of other Elder Scrolls fans are pretty outraged. All I can say is…guys, grow up.

Overall, it’s the best $50 I’ve spent in a while, and I know I’ll be going back to it…after Star Revolution is finished.