Nearly four years into this console generation, the greatest game remains in Oblivion...

I challenge you to find a more believable game world than this.

There are so many reasons why people play games. To have fun. To escape from reality for a short time (or long time). To imagine and/or live in another world. To see a great story. To have a ton of fun fighting and kicking ass. To marvel at amazing graphics. The list goes on and on.

As we approach November of this New Year, we will also be approaching the four year anniversary of this generation of consoles. Yes, hard to believe, but it's almost already been four years since the debut of the Xbox 360.

Countless great titles have released of all different genres imaginable. Yet three years after it's debut, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion still remains the single most outstanding, definitive, and complete game of this generation.

I know it may seem curious as to why I would be writing a blog about a game that's three years old. Perhaps it is because while most of the gaming world saw 2008 as one of the greatest gaming years in a long time, I found it to be rather disappointing. All the major titles that released with huge hype ended up falling well short of expectations. GTA4 had clear story and gameplay inconsistencies, along with blatantly broken sandbox mechanics when it came to missions disabling you from completing the mission your own way. Metal Gear Solid 4 was an example of how to take a great build up of grand story ideas and then run them through a meat grinder and see if people can still make any sense of it (that, and the game wasn't really a game). Fallout 3 took everything that made the Elder Scrolls series great, and shaved off all the icing and toppings, leaving only the dry bread of the cake for us to have trouble swallowing.

Which brings me to Oblivion. Simply put, Oblivion still remains the greatest game of this generation because it fulfills all the reasons anyone would want to play a game (see list in first paragraph). Somehow, through it's blend of fantasy RPG/Action/Sandbox gameplay, Oblivion succeeds wildly in giving any gamer, regardless of taste or purpose, a reason to love it.



I think it goes without contention that Oblivion achieves a true otherworldly sense of place and time that is more convincing than any other game has to date. Cyrodil wasn't a game world, it was simply a real world. Sprawled out with diversity, locations, mystery, people, stories, and ideas, Cyrodil was a living, breathing character all on its own. And it wasn't just that it gave you so much to do, as many MMORPG's have done. It was that it gave you things to do that were actually intriguing, intricate, complex, and extremely detailed. Every side quest was brooding with conflict, and a real sense of character and purpose.

No, Oblivion wasn't perfect. The combat system definitely let me down at times, particularly in huge battles when it became very difficult to attack an enemy while making sure not to hit friendlies. And the facial animations definitely left a bit to be desired.

But to this day, I continue to find myself sinking back into Oblivion's game world, devoting hours and hours to exploring a world and game that never ceases to penetrate to that core of us that can't help but admire the amazing beauty and solitude of a great landscape, or symphony, or story.

Oblivion gives us everything at once.