Happy 9th Birthday, Oblivion!

[Jpot]

Today's the day. This anniversary always manages to make me feel pretty old. I haven't been here in a while, but if not for this game, I never would have been here at all. Oblivion was my first open-world RPG. I remember the first time I rented it from Blockbuster. I didn't leave Imperial City for the first several days, at least, because it just didn't occur to me that it was possible. It blew my young mind when I realized I could run all the way to that place, waaay over there, and there were no invisible walls to stop me! I must have spend hundreds, if not thousands of hours lost in Cyrodiil, hiking to the frosty peaks of the Jerall Mountains, slogging through the muggy marshes of the Blackwood, wandering through the speckled shadows of The Great Forest, and marveling at the rolling hills of the Gold Coast. It will always be one of my favorite games of all time.

[Dark Spark]

One thing I did was stand at the shores of the Imperial City Island and look north.

"Those are some pretty mountains."
"You wanna go up there?"
"What do you mean, 'go there'? That's just a backdrop, right?"
"Hold on. And wear something warm."

[Snake]

I love Oblivion. Can't believe it's been 9 years...

[Gandoril Spellbinder]

Today's the day. This anniversary always manages to make me feel pretty old. I haven't been here in a while, but if not for this game, I never would have been here at all. Oblivion was my first open-world RPG. I remember the first time I rented it from Blockbuster. I didn't leave Imperial City for the first several days, at least, because it just didn't occur to me that it was possible. It blew my young mind when I realized I could run all the way to that place, waaay over there, and there were no invisible walls to stop me! I must have spend hundreds, if not thousands of hours lost in Cyrodiil, hiking to the frosty peaks of the Jerall Mountains, slogging through the muggy marshes of the Blackwood, wandering through the speckled shadows of The Great Forest, and marveling at the rolling hills of the Gold Coast. It will always be one of my favorite games of all time.

Oblivion was my first RPG ever, as well as my first Mature/17+/18+ game (and I was only like 14 or 15 at the time!). My best friend in grade-school introduced me to it when I went to a friend's house for the first time in my life (which, by the way, happened to be his own home). He showed me the day/night cycle, tried to get a guard to yell 'Why won't you die?!' (which failed miserably), showed me the difficulty-slider, and, finally, showed me a beautiful medieval castle-town that looked like it could've come straight from real-life, with a castle and its keep perched on a hill and the actual town in a valley below (can anyone guess which one I'm speaking of? Here's another hint: the local warriors love the smell of goblin-blood in the morning, and try to get you in the same boat if you join their faction . . .). Oblivion is, by far, my favourite video-game of all time, though Skyrim is a very close second (I just love being able to yell enemies to death!), with Morrowind (because of its wide array of weapons and truly alien atmosphere) following closely behind that. Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning also comes closely behind in fourth-place (because of its basis in real-world mythology for its monsters and races, as well as the wicked weapons and armours and class-progression system, the latter of which could've been better if it was easier to play as mixed-specialty classes, such as Battle-mages (my favourite because of their ability to wear plate-mail, wield axes and maces, and burn enemies to a crisp, freeze them solid, or send enough electrical energy through the bodies of their enemies to kill them in an instant from hundreds of metres away!), Spell-swords, Night-blades (which, for some reason, were considered master-Rogues in Amalur), Rangers, and Jacks-of-all-trades; the way it stands, you can only fully level-up every ability in a single ability-tree as either a Warrior, Mage, or Rogue), with Dragon Age: Origins rounding out the top-five (because of its unique system of multiple beginnings; it would rank higher if Elves weren't treated like they are. I love Elves!).

[noobishlord]

Oblivion is 9 years old already? Wow... Oblivion is what got me into the Elder Scrolls series. And it's still so much fun to play, even after all these years. That really says something for this series, doesn't it?