Oblivion

[Smooth*{MEOW}*]

Once in a while I get bored with the first person shooters and tactical games and pick up something else, like a sim or a rpg.  I had this rpg, Oblivion, or in full, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, recommended to me.  It's not your typical click-click-click kill-kill-kill rpg, it is much more story and character development driven.  It's a medieval type setting.  Single player only, no mp.  There is a main storyline, reported to take 200+ hours to complete.  But you don't have to stick to it.  You can just go out and explore, do side quests, collect things, etc.  You start off by choosing your type, everything from knight, assasin, theif, mage, barbarian, merchant, elf, etc.  All the typical rpg types, plus some gameplay specific ones.  For instance, if you choose theif, you can completely ignore the main storyline and just go around stealing stuff.  You can pick locks with some practice, get into houses, grab whatever you want, pick-pocket people on the street, rip off store owners, then sell it all to a merchant in the next town.  The world is absolutely huge, practically limitless.  You can go out into the wilderness to hunt, collect furs to sell, gather plants to mix up potions.  If you stick to the roads you will inevitably run into thieves and bandits that will attack you and try to extort cash from you.  You can go off the trails and track down deer to hunt for a meal.  They're tough to get though, I tracked one over a whole mountain range once.  The game makes very heavy use of lighting effects, with options for normal, bloom, and HDR which is a system killer.  The min specs on the box are off.  Here are some pics I've taken so far.

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One of the main towns, Imperial City

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A trader's ship in the dock.  I tried to sneak aboard it and got atacked by pirates.

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A guard on evening patrol.  If they catch you picking a lock, entering someone's house, assaulting someone, or stealing something, they will give you the option to pay a fine, go to jail, or resist arrest.  Every NPC in the game is interactive and has his/her own individualized speech.

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[Smooth*{MEOW}*]

You can also join "guilds".  They give you a place to stay, food to eat, access to weapons, and training opportunities.  Contracts will come in for jobs to be done which you can accept for a cash reward.  For instance I joined the fighter's guild, kind of like a local militia.  I accepted a job to transport some weapons to a nearby mine.  It required me to take a long walk through some forests to get to the mine.  So along the way I did some hunting for furs to sell back in town.  Here is my character waiting for some deer to come down through the trees and get a drink.

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[NighEve*{MEOW}*]

That looks kewel. 

[KitKat]

My kind of game. I love the RPG's that take a long time to beat. Took me 114 hours to beat final fantasy X on the ps2! How much did that game set you back?

[Smooth*{MEOW}*]

49.86 at Wal-Mart.  I had the day off yesterday and played it for the majority of the day.  I don't think I even made a dent in it.

[Smooth*{MEOW}*]

http://www.elderscrolls.com/games/oblivion_overview.htm

Movies:

http://www.elderscrolls.com/downloads/media_movies.htm

[THE PEARL]

RIGHT HERE IS A PERFECT PLACE FOR ME TO PUT MY NAME TO REMIND EVERYONE OF THINGS THAT HAVE TRANSPIRED WITH THE SQUAD AND ITS AFAIRS LATELY.

  THE PEARL=MEOW-

[Smooth*{MEOW}*]

Huh?

[Gunner{MEOW}]

dont worry about it he is losing it 

[Smooth*{MEOW}*]

Couple more shots:

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Another:

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[VooDoo]

There is also a new D&D game out that not only has the above game play, but the fights become real-time FPS type fighting. Only, instead of aiming your assault rifle, you aim your +10 Vorpal. Healers will run around like a medic, while also bashing orcs on the head with their staff, and Elves can aim their bow, sword, or toss a spell. I'd be real interested in seeing some multi-player action in that.