Gaming Signal: Elder Scrolls: Oblivion

Elder Scrolls: Oblivion - PC vs. XBOX 360

So here I was playing Elder Scrolls: Oblivion on the PC and I have to admit, I got bored. So out of the blue, I call up Gamefly.com and notice my queue is empty and there is really nothing I want to rent. So I decide that I'm going to rent Elder Scrolls: Oblivion for the XBOX 360 and do a little visual comparison between the two. So three or four days go by and the 360 version finally makes it to my house. I figure that just going through the begining tutorial should be sufficient for me to understand the differences between the PC and the 360. Next thing I know, it's 6 hours later and I'm still playing, totally immersed in the game and having a blast! What happened to the game I was bored with? When did my "meh" PC opinion turn in to "got to play more... so sleepy.." XBOX 360 opinion?

So here I was playing Elder Scrolls: Oblivion on the PC and I have to admit, I got bored. So out of the blue, I call up Gamefly.com and notice my queue is empty and there is really nothing I want to rent. So I decide that I'm going to rent Elder Scrolls: Oblivion for the XBOX 360 and do a little visual comparison between the two. So three or four days go by and the 360 version finally makes it to my house. I figure that just going through the begining tutorial should be sufficient for me to understand the differences between the PC and the 360. Next thing I know, it's 6 hours later and I'm still playing, totally immersed in the game and having a blast! What happened to the game I was bored with? When did my "meh" opinion turn in to "got to play more... so sleepy.."?

So I figure its like this. This game was meant to be played with a joystick. So I break out the "wired" XBOX 360 controller and hook it up to my PC, download a few drivers, BAM, I'm playing Elder Scrolls: Oblivion for the PC with a joystick. But the controls are now kind of sluggish and dont really feel (sync'ed?) with the gameplay. You guys know I have a PC with pretty decent specs. I can play Elder Scrolls: Oblivion at 1280x1024 and keep a good 35 to 40 fps. So now I'm really confused.

Am I becoming a console convert?

At this point I'm really confused. There are definate downsides to the XBOX 360 version of the game. When you are in a cityscape like "Green Emperor Way" the load times are CRAZY LONG, but for some reason I don't mind? There are clearly some texture differences, especially regarding the players character.

I thought it my have been that I was playing Elder Scrolls: Oblivion for the PC on a 21 inch 4:3 aspect ratio monitor and Elder Scrolls: Oblivion for the XBOX 360 on a 30 inch 16:9 aspect ratio LCD monitor. But "lo and behold" a closer inspection of my Olveia 30 inch LCD revealed a VGA port that was unlisted in the manual so I have port 2 on my PC's video card using that input on my Olveia 30 inch LCD so I was PC gaming at even output with my 360.

It's not character selections either, I recreated my custom Spellsword "like" class, so in effect I'm playing the same character on both versions of the game.

To sum up: I can not explain why I'm having more fun playing Elder Scrolls: Oblivion on the XBOX 360 than the PC. Anyone care to pontificate on the reason, or am I on the slippery slope to becoming a console zealot?!?!

Zealot!!!

Honestly, I don't know Trent. I find myself having less of a desire to sit at my PC keyboard of late, and it may simply be due to the fact that I sit at a keyboard all day at work. The other thought I have had is that console gaming is there to do that one thing - gaming. There is no web surfing, no chatting via instant messenger and there is no email really. My consoles are purely gaming entities and they offer me the ability to turn on and play and then turn off when I am done. They bring a focus to my gaming - if that is even possible. I know that Scott has indicated that is how he is able to play so many different things, and I guess I find my focus when I fire up a console...

Then again you could probably be a zealot, but that is coming from a quasi-zealot himself...

Posted by Tim on Wednesday July 05, 2006 at 7:15 PM

Scott is a gaming machine, no explanation needed. He interacts with the game at the binary level. I've seen him do it. Although I was a little disconcerted when he opened his mouth at a funny angle and a DTMF "handshake" tone escaped from his maw. It explained at lot.

I like your theory on consoles being a pure gaming entity. That kind of makes sense. And you are correct, since purchasing a dual core AMD proc I do have my PC doing a great many things even while playing games on it. I still think it come back to Elder Scrolls: Oblivion itself though. In playing the game even more last might I am truly convinced that it was designed with the handheld joystick in mind.

Posted by tditto on Thursday July 06, 2006 at 9:24 AM

A few thoughts on this...

The game was definately designed to play on the 360 - no question about it. The PC game suffers in comparison, imo, because of that. I was able to download a great mod (thanks to a note in CGW) that expands the map to fullscreen and makes nearly all of the menu screens (including inventory) use more PC screen real estate and a more PC-friendly font.

I think Trent's gaming location is the same between console and PC, but in general I can certainly see people enjoying the 'gaming from the couch' more than gaming from a chair.

Finally that console experience often brings a simpler play experience - just fire it up and you're playing, with an easy way to put it down. PC games lack these things - you frequently have to mess around with video drivers and audio drivers to get a game playing, have to sit through an hour long install and then potential conflicts with other software to mess with, and finally games themselves that aren't meant for a quick 10 or 20 minute experience but designed for you to play for a long time. I think I see Tim losing his patience with this type of gaming, but that's just a guess.

Posted by Scott on Saturday July 08, 2006 at 12:38 AM