The problem is probably with the copy protection scheme. Data on optical disks is supposed to be encoded in a specific way to meed the industry standards. Many copy protection schemes essentially break the standards, by writing on nonstandard physical portions of the disc and other methods. Some drives can deal with nonstandard discs and some can’t.
Nonsense. SLI is hardware, not software dependant, however, software can be optimized for SLI, or, it can dothings that mess up SLI.
No performance gain in real-world gaming? Care to provide a review site that proves this with benchmarks?
I’ve seen benchmarks from top gaming and hardware sites, and the performance gain (in the order of 30%-90% with better gains at higher resolutions/image quality levels) is certainly evident.
Heck I can SEE the difference running FEAR or Half-life 2, or 3DMark06 with oen card as opposed to two. Just taking 3dmark 2006 into acocunt I can outperform any single next gen card out today (the x1900XTX and the 7900GTX) by a decent margin.
With all of the bullshit in this thread, and in other threads about plaing this game on a PC, why, when you’ve got a 360 and have concerns about your PC, would you EVAR! consider the PC version? It sounds like nothing but headaches. Compare that with my 360 copy which worked the second I put it in the drive, has worked flawlesly ever since, and looks awesome.
Just MHO, you know.
Well, I understand compatability issues, of course. I can’t play my copy of Tiger Wood’s PGA Tour on a Mac.
The OP mentioned some surface mutilation as well, indicating to me the drive physically damaged the disk. If that’s the case, I’d hazzard a guess that the issue is more with the drive than anything Bethesda is responsible for. That’s why I was wondering what I was missing.
Because in a few weeks, and over the next several years, on my PC I will be able to download player and official mods that will keep me playing the game with new things for as long as I want. Can’t do that on an XBox.
Because I can play with a keyboard and a mouse.
Well, mods were a huge part of my decision to get the PC version. Mods kept Morrowind alive for me for years after I finished the game the first time. Maybe I’m just lucky, but I haven’t had any problems running Oblivion yet. No crashes, hanging, or anything. I work hard to keep my system really clean and stable, so that probably plays a part (and having written this it will probably catch fire tonight). You have a good point about the ease of playing on a console vs PC, but for some of us the extra fuss is worth it for the extra features only available on the PC version.
See, this is why I don’t buy new games until the first patch is out anymore.
Put me down on the PC > Console List. (I’ve just lost all interest in console games since I started PC gaming, there’s pros and cons to both versions, obviously. I’m just more comfortable on a computer, with a keyboard and mouse, I like being able to download mods, patches, etc.)
Well, the short answer is I hate playing RPGs on the console, like I said. Mainly because there’s not enough buttons.
Don’t get me wrong, I loves me some console games. In fact, I mostly play things like first person shooters and survival horror games on the consoles, and I play better at them using the d-pad. But for RPGs, when you need to not only have your movement controls, but things like maps, quest details, weapons, spells, action buttons, etc, etc, I find it’s just easier and more comfortable to have a mouse and keyboard. I can bind things to certain keys, rather than (for example) having to press Right Trigger + B + Up Joystick just to get to one friggin’ spell (I’m looking at you D&D on the original Xbox).
Plus what everyone else said re: mods and patches. They’re part of what make an RPG fun (not paying for Xbox live here, just to get new content.)
And let’s not forget that in a few years, you’ll have a new more powerful PC which will run Oblivion faster and better-looking than any console.
Patches and mods are certainly a good thing, of course, we’ll see if the 360 version actually needs a patch. As for mods, are we sure that there won’t be additional content available on Xbox live?
As for controller issues, I haven’t had any. Everything seems pretty straightforward, granted I’ve got to do a bit more menu surfing to get to what I want. One nice thing for this game is that they’ve expanded the hotkey idea by letting you assign up to 8 actions to the D-pad. That makes switching weapons and spells pretty quick. Obviously, the keyboard gives you a ton more options, but 8 is not too bad for the things you do most.
And another thing, I’ve yet to see any PC gaming setup that has anything approaching my console setup - kicking back on the couch (I can move around, lie down, and I don’t have to stick my ass in a desk chair for hours on end), watching the game on a 65"HD tv, sound coming through my actual stereo (sub, two fronts, center channel, and surrounds in the ceiling behind me). Unlike a lot of people on the PC, I don’t have to turn down draw distance or any other graphics settings to make the game play.
I’m not trying to convert anyone to console, it couldn’t be done anyway. I’m just saying that for this particular person, Sierra, who has a 360, obviously has some financial resources (probably wouldn’t have a 360 otherwise), and admittedly has issues with his(er) PC, just drop the $60 on Oblivion for the 360 and get playing. The enjoyment you’ll get in playing the game NOW will far outweigh any worries that you might enjoy the game more at some unspecified future date when you can play it on the PC.
I stand corrected–the benchmarks where I see SLI doesn’t give much boost are the non-AA, non-AF ones–and since I’m a weirdo who things AA/AF look worse, I ignore benchmarks with them involved so what I was really looking at was CPU-bounded game performance. =P
I played the hell out of a pirated copy of Arena in 1995. It was buggy as all get out (got locked inside walls, stuff like that) but I forgave it since my limited budget at the time allowed only Master of Magic (still a cool game, but it gets old after a while) as an alternative. Then Daggerfraud came out and I snapped it up. Spent a lot of time falling through voids and getting stuck inside walls. I was forgiving, for a while. And then I just got tired of it all and got hooked on Might & Magic 6, 7 & 8.
Based on those two experiences of having a really cool game with a fatally sloppy…what do you call it? game environment?..I vowed to never buy Bethesda again. It’s too painful. The shit is ALMOST perfect, but the little flaws are so crippling that my impression is that they are just unplayable.
I never played Arena or Daggerfall, but I’d guess that maybe you gave up one game too soon? Morrowind was awesome, and Oblivion is even better. If you’re willing to give it another try, you might try picking up Morrowind - you could probably get it pretty cheap. Keeping in mind that its a few years old, of course. However, make sure you get the patches too, from what I read, there was a pretty significant patch that had to go out for that - you know, if you’re one of those people that plays on the platform that requires patches. 
If you have a problem, wait a few months until they patch some things. Bethesda’s optimization is pretty rough, but they are pretty good about overall quality. The only big problem people seem to have here is speed.
Arena and Dagerfall were quite buggy.
They were also fantastic games.
Developing for XBox has greatly helped Bethesda Softworks. Compared to their prior offerings, Morrowind was a breath of fresh, (nearly) bug-free air.
Lastly, if you ever wish to try your hand at Arena again, it is available as a free download on Bethesda’s website.
Official mods from Bethesda, sure, but will it have the wealth of fan created mods that kept Morrowind viable for so long after release?
I don’t mind using the controller, I just like the mouse and keyboard much, much more.
My TV and computer monitor are on the same table. And I’ve got a better sound setup on the PC. Plus, on a beefy enough system (and once my new video card comes, mine’ll be plenty beefy) all that graphic tweaking will likely mean I’m getting better performance on my PC than I would on my 360.
And, just to get some more pit material in here, Daggerfall, even after being patched to quasi-functionality, was one of the worst piece of shit RPGs I’ve ever played. Crap interface, dull story, insanely repetitive quests, an auto-map so totally fucking useless you will generate spontaneous brain lesions… this game was a total fucking abomination. And Arena was worse. Morrowind is the first game from Bethesda that’s actually worth playing. Oblivion is the first one that’s actually really good.
Again, addressed in my last post - I don’t have Live. I never got it for my original Xbox, and I’ve not seen anything yet to make me want to get it for the 360. Especially not just for some mods. Also, what Miller said.
There is a slight financial issue, however - 360 games aren’t a nice, even $60 over here (AU). The big name games, like Oblivion, are up to $119.95. Sometimes you can get your hands on a copy for around about $99, but it’s still big bikkies. True, I have got the money to have gotten the 360, and a couple of games alongside, but it was a very hard decision about which games to get, because of the cost of the games at the moment. Because of the aforementioned issues with patches/mods/controller layout, we decided to get games that we were more comfortable playing on the console. Oblivion on the PC will price-drop a lot quicker than on the Box, so we’ll be able to get a copy of it cheaper than we would on the 360.
Hell, I say all this and we might end up with Oblivion on the 360. Hubby’s been gagging for it, ever since he saw it was going to come out, and I don’t know that he’ll want to wait for the price drop for the PC version, or until we can/will upgrade our system for it. And if we get it, I’ll play it. But I know from my own experience with other RPGs on consoles, that I still do, and I think I always will, prefer playing RPGs on the PC.
Uh…cite? 
Looks like Arena can be downloaded here, with a link on the page for a DOS emulation program as well.