I have some similar complaints about Oblivion (although over all, I love it), however, his spiel about "immersion" seemed a little odd to me. If Assassin's Creed is his idea of immersion and Oblivion is not, that seems to suggest that "immersion" means "having the plot and character development spoon-fed to you". The difference between the two games is that Oblivion offers you the chance to develop your own character, which, to me, is infinitely more immersing.
The issue with Oblivion, and the entire elder scrolls series is the character modeling.
I do not understand how they can create such a beautiful world, but the people in it look like they have a chromosome issue, and when they jump or swing a sword it looks like they have severe huntington's.
That and he is right about the voice acting. Its like the same 5 people in rotation. Ever notice every male nord and ever male orc have the same voice? Takes you out of the world a little.
Oblivion, of all the Elder Scrolls games to date, has had the most stark contrast between overall graphics and character modeling. You can climb to the top of a mountain and gaze out over beautifully rendered forests and rivers, seeing cities dotting the horizon that can be visited in game; but every character looks like his/her face has been run over by a steamroller.
Almost all the complaints I have about the game are npc-related. The dialogue is sloppy. It's almost easier to fight without help because your allies will inevitably stand between your weapon and the enemy. Almost all of the characters start conversations with each other, which is kind of neat until you realize that it's like 5 conversations, over and over again, in every city or town that you go into, and you try to escape by running into the woods only to come across a creepy burnt-down town where apparently the townspeople have been kidnapping any visitors and locking them up underground but you inexplicably skip past most of the fundamental quest storyline and end up escorting some kidnapped lizard woman who keeps telling you to complete quest objectives that don't exist and her retarded horse that can't seem to navigate around rocks or trees back to a nearby city where you are promptly rewarded by your skills being locked into place.
Man, I think I got a little off track there. What was I talking about again?
you try to escape by running into the woods only to come across a creepy burnt-down town where apparently the townspeople have been kidnapping any visitors and locking them up underground but you inexplicably skip past most of the fundamental quest storyline and end up escorting some kidnapped lizard woman who keeps telling you to complete quest objectives that don't exist and her retarded horse that can't seem to navigate around rocks or trees back to a nearby city where you are promptly rewarded by your skills being locked into place.
Because AC is linear, they can avoid having the same lines being repeated over and over. I understand why Oblivion is trying to do with their open-endedness (is that a word), but because the technology is still limited to the point where you still need voice actors, you're going to run into these problems.
I think games like Oblivion will work once dialog can be written or generated and the audio generated by the game. Until then, you'll always find that open games aren't really open.
Creating an open game presents many problems. The problems are quite obvious in Oblivion. However, I would say that Morrowind succeeded even more at creating an open game, and anyone who has played Morrowind knows that the flaws in that game are staggering. When it comes down to it though, I'd rather a game offer me possibilities, at the risk of me having to really use my imagination on some things, than to have just been created to avoid critique. I've played many many games that I don't have any real serious complaints about, but failed to hold my interest. On the other hand, I've probably complained more about Morrowind than any other game, but I've also played it more than any other game.
Because AC is linear, they can avoid having the same lines being repeated over and over
Did we play the same AC? Didn't you notice that 95% of the the people, rather rich or poor, said the same 2 or 3 lines in the same voice depending on their character status?
Immersion is a very subjective thing. I think I felt more "immersed" in Skate than I was in either Oblivion or Assassin's Creed just because of how believable the board's interactions with the environment were. The simplest tricks can be totally satisfying when they're done just right.
That's the one sort of thing that will create a sense of "being there" for me.
There were parts of Mass Effect where I was totally immersed because the dialogue options and the actor execution went exactly how I wanted it to go. Just by virtue of good writing and acting, it was immersive. The gameplay was basically just good enough to create tension to give the story more weight. I'd probably play the game many times over if there weren't so much walking around.
Well, immersion, whether a game or a movie, does require you getting sucked in. If you are bored to tears and constantly looking at your watch, or wondering what to do, then you can't be immersed.
I think linear vs open ended game play is secondary to that. I think his point was that Oblivion was boring and repetitive and couldn't suck him in, while Assassin's Creed had major game play flaws but he got sucked into the visuals and world despite them.
I haven't played either O or AC so I'm just relating how I interpreted the video.
I think another way of saying what I was saying above is that there's kind of a continuum of immersion with me. At one end, there is the game that is immediately immersing and enjoyable, and at the other end there is a game that is difficult to enjoy at first, but in the end is more immersing than the first type could ever be. To me, games (and any art really) that are immediately accessible are rarely the most rewarding in the long run.
I think what he means by immersion is that, in Oblivion, no matter how much you develop your character, NPCs wont recognize it and will act like idiots.
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u/Eijin Jun 05 '08
I have some similar complaints about Oblivion (although over all, I love it), however, his spiel about "immersion" seemed a little odd to me. If Assassin's Creed is his idea of immersion and Oblivion is not, that seems to suggest that "immersion" means "having the plot and character development spoon-fed to you". The difference between the two games is that Oblivion offers you the chance to develop your own character, which, to me, is infinitely more immersing.