HF Retro Game of the Year - 2006 - Oblivion Wins

[YoSoyLalo]

WW is the best 3D Zelda.

It definitely isn't

 

[bambamcam4ever]

Oblivion really isn't a good game.

 

[Aladyyn]

Episode One is extremely underrated.
Lowlife is way better than Ravenholm and I will fight anyone who disagrees.

 

[Commander Clueless]

Write me down for Medieval II.

Great game, and the only game in 2006 to pull me away from my World of Warcraft addiction.

 

[SniperHF]

Write me down for Medieval II.

Great game,

At the time I didn't think it added enough on top of Rome. Still very good.

I loved how moddable it was though. I used to mess with the siege unit stats all the time because the balance on them was always way out of wack.

 

[Xelebes]

Best Video Games for 2006 as per Metacritic

Tried to find a game I could vote for as a write in......I don't think I played anything but FIFA and Tetris DS in 2006.

One of the worst years of all-time in videogames.

Agreed. Did not play a single game that came out that year. Half-Life 2: Episode One is the closest I can say I thought about playing but no, all the rest of them is uninteresting.

 

[Aladyyn]

Lego Star Wars 2 is another fantastic 2006 game that comes to mind.

 

[Bjorn Le]

Oblivion really isn't a good game.

You're right, it's a great game.

 

[bambamcam4ever]

You're right, it's a great game.

When was the last time you played it?

 

[Bjorn Le]

When was the last time you played it?

A few years ago. After Skyrim came out. The main plot is weak but they did guilds, side quests, the world, are all fantastic. The expansion is also excellent.

 

[Blender]

A few years ago. After Skyrim came out. The main plot is weak but they did guilds, side quests, the world, are all fantastic. The expansion is also excellent.

I thought the main quest line in Oblivion was better than the one in Skyrim honestly. Despite both having the world be threatened, Skyrim never actually feels like it's in any danger while in Oblivion the consequences feel more real. The main quest line has never been the strongest part of an Elder Scrolls game though.

 

[Aladyyn]

Can we talk about how UGLY Oblivion is? I can't stand looking at that game.

 

[tacogeoff]

Can we talk about how UGLY Oblivion is? I can't stand looking at that game.

SuperUgly. that being said I didn't play it upon release. I picked it up over a year ago for 3$ and tried it on the 360

 

[NyQuil]

I modded the hell out of Oblivion like I did for Skyrim and the Fallout games.

Fixed a lot of the issues.

 

[bambamcam4ever]

The funny thing is Oblivion was hardly considered for GOTY in 2006 (Zelda, then Gears seemed to have the most support) and it has aged horribly. It looks like this subforum on HF will just vote for any open-world game.

 

[Blender]

The funny thing is Oblivion was hardly considered for GOTY in 2006 (Zelda, then Gears seemed to have the most support) and it has aged horribly. It looks like this subforum on HF will just vote for any open-world game.

Oblivion wasn't considered for GOTY? It won a bunch of awards in 2006.

Oblivion won a number of industry and publication awards. In 2006, the game was awarded the title "Game of the Year" at the G-Phoria Video Game Awards and at the Spike TV Video Game Awards.[146][147] At the 24th annual Golden Joystick Awards, Oblivion was awarded "PLAY.com Ultimate Game of the Year", "Xbox Game of the Year", and "ebuyer.com PC Game of the Year".[148] The game was titled the best role-playing game of 2006 by 1UP.com,[149] G4,[146] IGN,[150] GameSpy,[151] GameSpot,[152] Game Revolution,[153] and the Interactive Achievement Awards.[154] The editors of Computer Games Magazine presented Oblivion with their 2006 "Best Technology" and "Best Role-Playing Game" awards, and named it the second-best computer game of the year. They summarized it as "an unforgettable masterpiece."[155] In 2007, PC Gamer magazine rated Oblivion number one on their list of the top 100 games of all time.[156] In addition to the awards won by the game itself, Patrick Stewart's voice work as Uriel Septim won a Spike TV award,[147] and the musical score by composer Jeremy Soule won the inaugural MTV Video Music Award for "Best Original Score" through an international popular vote.[157]

 

[Bjorn Le]

Yeah, there wasn’t many more games more critically acclaimed than Oblivion.

I thought the main quest line in Oblivion was better than the one in Skyrim honestly. Despite both having the world be threatened, Skyrim never actually feels like it's in any danger while in Oblivion the consequences feel more real. The main quest line has never been the strongest part of an Elder Scrolls game though.

It was, but I think that’s more a criticism of Skyrim than Oblivion. Just as Oblivion was accused of being more shallow than Morrowind (true in some senses), Skyrim is more shallow than Oblivion in some senses. While I think Skyrim got the world, crafting, magic, combat, and others right, it doesn’t do main stories or guilds as well as TES IV.

 

[Osprey]

I went with Oblivion, since it's my favorite of the lot and because it's the only one that feels worthy of being Game of the Year. The only other one that I gave some consideration to was Wii Sports, but that wasn't so much a great game as it was a great marriage of game and hardware, and its legacy is diminished a bit by the fact that motion control slowly died out, while Oblivion continues to influence open world games.

Oblivion really isn't a good game.

You make a compelling argument. My counter argument is that it is a good game, and I think that my case is stronger.

When was the last time you played it?

That's not a good measuring stick for games that have had equally good sequels, IMO. I haven't played Morrowind or Daggerfall in over 10 years. That doesn't mean that they weren't good games. Rather, because they were such good games, I've continued to play the series to death to this day. Similarly, it's probably been over 15 years since I played Civilization I, II or III, but that doesn't mean that they weren't good games, since I've played IV, V and VI since. When a series maintains its quality, there's less reason to go back to get one's fix. You can get your fix with more modern visuals, UI and gameplay, instead.

 

[Blender]

It was, but I think that’s more a criticism of Skyrim than Oblivion. Just as Oblivion was accused of being more shallow than Morrowind (true in some senses), Skyrim is more shallow than Oblivion in some senses. While I think Skyrim got the world, crafting, magic, combat, and others right, it doesn’t do main stories or guilds as well as TES IV.

I put way more hours into Skyrim, like a ridiculous amount over the years, so I definitely love that game and it did a lot of better things than Oblivion did. I do think the main story in Oblivion as well as the guild quests were just better written and you actually felt like you were having some sort of impact on the world with them. The Skyrim main and guild quests always felt kind of empty, as if never doing them wouldn't have made any difference to anyone.

 

[MetalheadPenguinsFan]

Bully

 

[KingBran]

I put way more hours into Skyrim, like a ridiculous amount over the years, so I definitely love that game and it did a lot of better things than Oblivion did. I do think the main story in Oblivion as well as the guild quests were just better written and you actually felt like you were having some sort of impact on the world with them. The Skyrim main and guild quests always felt kind of empty, as if never doing them wouldn't have made any difference to anyone.

I agree in a sense. I never felt the ES games as a "consequence" type games where what you do makes big changes to the story. I don't see that as a fault though. They are just solid dungeon crawler / open world fantasy games that are done very well. I personally liked Oblivion more maybe because it was the first one I put tons of hours into. I think most of all though it was just the atmosphere and music that I enjoyed more. There were many more environments too I think.

 

[Commander Clueless]

At the time I didn't think it added enough on top of Rome. Still very good.

I loved how moddable it was though. I used to mess with the siege unit stats all the time because the balance on them was always way out of wack.

I didn't play Rome until later, so at the time I was fresh from Shogun.

 

[NyQuil]

I think Skyrim did quite a few things better than Oblivion, which was vast but lacking a lot of depth. The fact that Skyrim could focus on mainly one ecosystem I think helped with the level of detail.

Imperial City in particular was vast but with very little to do aside from talking to people about quests. The size of the cities in Skyrim fit the engine a lot better.

But Oblivion was the first one I played and I really enjoyed the various quest lines and the Oblivion plane visits (which were far spookier than anything in Skyrim).

I agree that the main story/Mage Guild storyline was better than Skyrim, but the DB and Thief's Guild quests in Skyrim were pretty amazing. Dawnguard and the Dragonborn DLC were solid as well.

When I look at the other games listed, I don't see a lot of games that I put a lot of time into besides maybe Wii Sports. Company of Heroes was OK, Gears of War was overrated (as most console shooters are), I preferred the more tactical original Rainbow Six games, and my first TW game was Shogun 2.

I can't speak to the Zelda games because the last one I played was Link to the Past (which was excellent).

Not a particularly great year for gaming IMO.

 

[Blender]

I agree in a sense. I never felt the ES games as a "consequence" type games where what you do makes big changes to the story. I don't see that as a fault though. They are just solid dungeon crawler / open world fantasy games that are done very well. I personally liked Oblivion more maybe because it was the first one I put tons of hours into. I think most of all though it was just the atmosphere and music that I enjoyed more. There were many more environments too I think.

In Oblivion at least, the longer you left the main quest the more oblivion gates would open up. It would physically change areas of the map. With Skyrim the rare dragon attack never felt like much of a threat, as even the city guards would take them down eventually.

 

[KingBran]

In Oblivion at least, the longer you left the main quest the more oblivion gates would open up. It would physically change areas of the map. With Skyrim the rare dragon attack never felt like much of a threat, as even the city guards would take them down eventually.

True. I never felt threatened by a Dragon. An Elder one killed me once early on but he had a Priest with him... I just randomly ran into them while exploring. But I agree.

EDIT: And the only thing that REALLY bugged me about Oblivion was repairing. I hated repairing everything all the time.