I liked Oblivion and then loaded Morrowind which is also very good, spotted Gothic3. Which is nothing like the movies you might have seen. Which is handy because I can now see how the BoB ‘movie’ will be nothing like BoB. In the game you’re in the world. Tiny movies are just that, tiny movies. Must try Ben Hur/2001 at 320x200 
If you have a powerful machine this must be one of the most imaginative games this year and it’s certainly utterly gorgeous, making Oblivion look like Oblivion makes Morrowind look if you’re still awake at the back
I don’t mean gorgeous in the usual sense of gorgeous I mean absolutely fecking gorgeous see there’s another level of gorgeousness hitherto unimagined. In this realm lies hang about let me look is it Pangaea no Myrtana. Remember that ‘RPG’ some years back (demo I tried but wasn’t convinced) where you had still frames and there were puzzles. You lurched from locations still frame to still frame. Lighthouse figured in that one, not called Myth but something like that. It’s more beautiful than that but at 30 fps at 1600x1200. German designed game and it’s a thoroughbred racer
In Morrowind/Oblivion I rarely needed healing and although rats could do damage early on, very soon the game became a doddle and if in trouble you could run away and heal up by resting until healed. I haven’t found that button yet and trust me I’m not looking for it - the game is almost real time and if you meet something that can hurt you you will be damaged and trampled on. Couple of days in now and I’ve learned to avoid contact with the enemy. For now. I will be back and then there will be a reckoning. Anyone who’s tried the Oblivion ‘Meet the store thieves at night in the shop’ quest knows what I’m talking about. I enjoyed meeting them again much later on more equal terms after being slaughtered the first 40 times
Hugely intriguing is the gameplay and with no walk throughs out yet and no spoilers from me. From Morrowind I’ve learned not to rush into things but to take time in the early stages to find every little thing that might help me in my quest to er, get all the rebels organised into a fighting unit or units and strike back at the Orcs who’ve got a bit above themselves - it appears, to begin with. They aren’t stereotypical Orcs though, these guys are more like Klingons (the creator says that this is what he had in mind) and every character has his own story and his own attitude - hands on hips is big with them, loads of expressions it’s a bit YMCA at times On the other hand the characters I’m meeting now seem really threatening and I know I have to bite my tongue or I’ll get a good kicking
Straight out into the meadows and forests I went knowing that those piquant (must stop saying gorgeous yep) flowers that show like jewels here and there will be useful. I picked some flowers in Oblivion. Is a title of a song isn’t it? I picked up some vegetation in Oblivion but this is altogether a new experience. I’ve never followed tracts of land over- it looks like an allotment that’s been left to go to seed, cultivated once but now fallow. I have not had a drink I promise but this game is a real simulator of real terrain if that’s a reasonable statement. The place IS real you are definitely in this movie… millions of twigs and stones all fully 3D, trillions of leaves in the dapple, pushing through bushes and so on, absolutely convincing. Yes I know it sounds over the top but if you have the system you will be some time
Lots of tricky bits like the console-oriented first-person third-person switching on opening chests and other actions, your man has to go to the chest and open it it’s a simulator Bit annoying that is but views and graphics and that seem to be ini-file editable and anyway the gameplay is so much fun I’m able to ignore stuff that would drive me mad in another less realistic game. Oblivion had the ‘I’ll sit here and watch the sun go down…’ thing but this has the ‘I’d better find somewhere safe to run to if I need it and THEN sit here for a bit etc’. This is where the ‘realistic’ thing I mentioned comes in
NPC behaviour: Oblivion seems a little tragic now in hindsight, these people are fairly interesting in their own light and the towns are full of people rebuilding and going about their real business. On guard duty mostly I’d hoped for that in Oblivion but in that one all the NPCs just sit around waiting for something to happen. In this one it’s quite interesting sitting around in town catching some rays Donald Sutherland
Mark/Recall is taken care of with a teleport stone that takes you back to the village you found the stone. I haven’t found any proper Mark/Recall kit but again, it’s not Oblivion it’s a more natural progression. Oops now I’m wondering if I can sleep in the village I’m at right now or will I have the long slog back before night falls
You’ll see the wolf packs and wild boars described but until you’ve been found and hunted by a real wolf pack or sniffed out by a wild boar you’ll not get it. The animals are scratching their arses and btw so are the people they all have their own natural behaviours if you’re not engaging them
You jumped in Oblivion when the torch went out or on a sudden noise. In this one you will jump too but the land is full of wolves and wild animals and the jump will be over a cliff like the revolver in the cockpit of a WW1 plane. Better get it over with quickly if it’s going to happen and it is going to happen over and over
Really bad save system - no named saves that I can see yet but it’s early yet there might be a way to do that. You don’t need too many saves though and too many saves probably encourages laxity Colonel
My first true RPG I’d call it, roleplay is there in bucketloads. No horses spotted yet. For the allotment. Keep up
Ming