Three years ago, I decided it was high time I got into the habit of parking my arse on the sofa once again for unhealthy periods of time. In other words, get back into gaming. I was so out of touch with what was good and what was, as the buzz word seemed to be back then, next-gen, that I didn’t have any hesitation coughing up £300 to have King Kong bundled with my Premium 360. Needless to say, my introduction to “next-gen” gaming was a sour one. But instead of giving up, I became a regular reader of X360 magazine and recurrent member of their forum, which turned my attention to a little game everyone seemed to be talking about, called The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.

It turned out jumping on the Oblivion bandwagon didn’t pan out so well for me and I was left, you could say, a little less enamored with Oblivion than some. It was my first taster of a real-time RPG, not to mention my first taster of a huge, non-linear open-ended environment. While everyone was raving about what a great game Oblivion was and how many hours they’d sunk into to it, as well as lots of individual tales of merit and what not emerging, I grew bored pretty quickly.

My Oblivion experience went a little like this; run through dungeon with difficulty turned down, slay rats and have trouble seeing where I’m going (my TV was too dark), escape from dungeon and steal some horses, feel bad, try out tricky conversation-facial-expression mini game, fail to master it, repeat several times with different characters, give up.

So I pretty much stuck to my trusty shooter and adventure games from there on in. But fast forward three years and look how things have changed; how my taste has evolved and I’m accommodating genres I once couldn’t. I’m amidst Fallout 3 and absolutely loving it. It reminds me of Oblivion in so many ways. It’s the same engine, yet I haven’t been plagued with the awful frame rate issues and loading times Oblivion burdened me with, but it does have a very similar feel. The characters are so alike in their appearance to Oblivion’s, but are better looking and more polished - as you would expect from a game released over 2 years after Oblivion. The world is just as open-ended and ready for you to explore, and that overwhelming feeling of “what to do next?” if you don’t fancy following or fast traveling to the main quest is present, for me at least, just like it was in Oblivion. It feels like it is Oblivion, but in a post-nuclear war wasteland instead!

Admittedly, I was a apprehensive I would lose interest after I escaped from the vault, which is where your story begins. Like Oblivion, you start off somewhere that’s fairly linear, with no uncertainty about what to do next; it’s all pretty clear cut. However, when I first stepped out from the vault on to the vast and eerily deserted wasteland in front of me, I knew my taste in gaming had evolved so much so that I was going to love exploring and having full control over what went down.

As Bethesda said, there’s no wrong way to play Fallout 3. It’s your game.

So when it came to me accidentally killing my friend’s father (hey, it happens!), instead of reloading my save to erase any trace of evil my pure and uncorrupt character may have caused, I took my mistake on the chin and progressed on with my quest, attempting to win my friend’s forgiveness (still waiting for that to happen, surprisingly).

My enjoyment of Fallout 3 has of course raised the issue of whether I’d actually grow to enjoy Oblivion now my taste has matured. The last time I attempted it must have been about 2 years ago, and I’d certainly like to think I’d get a hell of a lot further. After playing Fallout 3 and reading Loud78’s post on Oblivion and how great it is, I have to admit I’m half tempted to borrow a copy from a generous friend. But I’m also thinking that the wounds are too deep for me to give Oblivion yet another chance. We’ll see how much of a time sink Fallout 3 is, and if I find myself itching for more after I’ve finished it, I may just turn to Oblivion…

I know the ‘it’ game of the moment is Gears of War, but has anyone else played - or is playing - Fallout 3? Does anyone else find themself enjoying it after maybe not liking Oblivion so much?

General Gaming Fallout 3, Gears of War, Oblivion, RPG, The Elder Scrolls IV