I am not your average gamer. I am not male and I am not in my teens. I am
a 40 something mother of 2 sons, who both enjoy gaming.
I first discovered gaming as a teenager in the early 80s. At school, during
the lunch hour, a game called Translvaynia. A kind of Dungeons and Dragons for
the computer, no aninmations, just pixelated still white and black pictures with
text under them explaining the situation, you had to tell the computer what you
wanted to do in just 2 words, eg ‘take bullet’, ‘shoot warewolf’, kind
of like those Twist a Plot books you used to get. The computer was the size of a
beer fridge and was as slow as anything, but that is all that was around when
I discovered games.
Since I had my kids we went through various games on the computer –
Hexen, Doom (gosh they were good but the graphics were seriously bad), then the
consoles – Crash on PS1, Spyro in the PS2, The Sims 1 and 2. All were
pretty good. Then came the PS3 with Drakes Fortune which I loved until the
zombies showed up. On researching the top 10 games for PS3 I discovered
Oblivion.
I LOVED it from the very minute I turned it on. Naturally I had to be a
female character, but she was pretty cool, a Wood Elf with plenty of skills.
I played this game till midnight every night for months, (I even recorded
Greys and Desperate Housewives to watch later so I could play Oblivion
instead.)
I love the game because you don't run round shooting everyone (instead you
kill them with your sword or magic powers but always in self defence, UNLESS you
are in the Dark Brotherhood – a quest I hate and don't do because you don't
have to) and it is in a very lovely world with animals running round and
changing weather with night and day.
I love how it is open ended and you can play the game in any order you like
and go anywher you like. The first time I played the main quest first which
meant I closed all the Oblivion gates early on which was a shame because you
get some good stuff in Oblivion. I would recommend playing the side quests
first such as the Guild quests so you level up and thus get better stuff from
chests and better stones from clising Oblivion Gates – the higher your level
the better the stone and the better you can use it to your advantage to make
magical weapons or enchanted items. And I have read there are as many as
60 gates in Oblivion, and they aren't always in the same place for each new
game you play. But it your choice, do the main quest first and close only the
ones you have to, then you won't have to worry about running into them on your
travels around the world.
A tip: The only thing I hated was when I got bitten by a vampire I didn't
notice the message that I had contracted the vampire disease and failed to use
my cure disease potion. If you want to avoid having to do the ‘cure
vapirism’ quest which literally take hours then keep an eye on your active
effects especially when you have been around vampires. Also if you are kicked
out of the Mages Guild for stealing then it takes hours to find the required
flowers that you have to find as redemption for your crime so try to avoid that.
I usually save my game twice, and alternate each save between the 2 saves so
if I stuff my game up I can go back to the alternate save point.
The game has over 150 hours of game play, at an hour or so a day that is
3 – 6 months of game play – well worth it and if you are like me you will
want to play it all over again.
I LOVE this game and would recommend it to everyone, especially people who
don't like those shoot em up games, driving games or war games. This game puts
you in another time in another world with beautiful scenery and hundreds of
quests – I think it is a game that older people will also enjoy,
also women.
There are only 5 stars to rate here, I'd like to give it 10 if
I could.
Have fun
Bronwyn, Dunedin