It’s days like this that I wish I had a car at home. I have to wait on my husband to get off work, and I fear that all the copies of the CE will be sold out. There are 3 Best Buys, a CompUSA and at least 2 Gamestops/EB Games within a five-mile radius of me, though, so I won’t give up hope.
Now I am pissed. I pre-ordered both the Collector’s version and the Prima Guide weeks ago, on Amazon. Now, suddenly the price goes down, so I cancel the pre-order and re-order at the new prices. I notice that the Prima guide is no longer due out today, but in 4-6 weeks!! WTF?
I got my Collector’s Edition copy for the Xbox 360 last night. It’s the most beautiful game I’ve ever played. I keep being stunned by the graphics. I hadn’t read many of the previews because I wanted to be surprised when I got the game. I love the character customization. I spent over an hour just creating my character’s face. I also like the fact that real world animals often appear outside. I kept getting attacked by wolves, and I tried killing deer, but don’t have my aiming down yet. And I love that you can ride horses! The unfortunate part is that I’m stuck at work all day.
Lately I’ve been fairly impressed with Best Buy’s “order on-line and pick up at the store program.” So you could buy it on-line right now, and then go pick it up when you have the car. You might try that as a way to ensure yourself a copy.
Of course, if you were a true fan, you’d get your behind out of the house and start walking to the nearest retailer!! 
Hmm, possible death and dismemberment from walking along interstates, being fired for not being at my computer if my boss calls and not finishing my novel edits today…or Oblivion.
It’s tempting.
I looked into in-store pickup and none of the nearby stores show it in. They show it in Arlington, though, but it’s about 15 miles away. I’ll give it a couple of hours and then see if the local places have it.
Well, once you get the game, you’ll be fired by Friday anyway. As for the death and dismemberment, I don’t know, you’re going to pick up an action/adventure RPG, maybe you should have a little action/adventure IRL before then.
Plus, as I sit in my office in Dallas, I can see a ways out on I-30 and could probably see Arlington if it weren’t for the stupid curvature of the Earth - traffic doesn’t look to bad.
Good luck to you. I’m going to pick it up at the GameStop after work (reserved it about, oh, five months ago). The wife made some snide comment this morning along the lines of “I suppose you’re going to want to monopolize the big tv tonight.” To which I replied, “Well, duh!” Tomorrow I have jury duty and we are waiting to have a new washer and dryer delivered. If I get dismissed from jury duty, there is a chance I could combine waiting for the washer & dryer with playing Oblivion into one sweet excuse for being out of work!
Well I hear reports of it being sold out everywhere - that they can’t even fill the preorders. Good. I hope this game is wildly succesful for a few reasons. 1) They deserve it. 2) If dumb ass hokey games like doom 3 can rake in cash, it would be really nice to see quality games be able to hit a big payday. 3) If every man, woman, and child buys their own copy of Oblivion, then TES:5 will have a development budget bigger than the GDP of Brazil.
HOT DAMN!
The video game store just called and told me my game was in-- I wasn’t expecting it 'til tomorrow. I called Hubby, elated and asked him to pick it up for me.
Then they called back and said my hard drive was in, too!
Woot woot! does happy dance
Fare thee well, my friends and neighbors. You probably won’t see me for a while!
Couldn’t get the Collector’s Edition, but picked up the standard at the EB Games beneath Radio City Music Hall.
I took rpinrd’s advice and now I’ll be picking up my copy at the Best Buy closest to me as soon as my husband gets off work!
Like Lissa, don’t expect to hear of me much for a while. 
Actually, I was using it in from the lexicon of a table-top gaming system, where the game mechanics are known as rules, and the backstory is known as fluff. Fluff can be very deep and interesting, but it doesn’t really help when you want to know about the rules.
Can anyone who gets the special edition post here and let us know if the history book is worth the extra trouble? I dig the lore of the Elder Scrolls so I want to know if it’s worth it. Thanks!
I went for the Collector’s Edition myself. Normally I don’t bother because it’s usually just a soundtrack, which will be ripped by somebody anyway, and some other junk. But they can get me with the right gimmick. The Septim coin and the 110 page book on the campaign setting did it.
A few years ago, whenever a new game came out, online companies would compete for pre-orders, and I would shop around for the pre-order deal I liked the best. My pre-order of Arcanum came with a Tribes 2 t-shirt, for some reason. My pre-order of Fallout Tactics came with a mini camo bag. I missed the opportunity to get the free frost giant miniature for pre-ordering Icewind Dale, and I’ll always regret it.
Just finished installing it. It’s nice working 100 yards from an EB Games.
I would like to know how well the game plays on an ordinary system. All I’ve got is 2 ghx, 512 meg ram, and a radeon 9600 128 MB. Does anyone with a similar system have a report on how well it plays?
Damn you Senor. You got me so panicked about not getting my preorder that I just left work and drove to the Gamestop to get mine. Good thing my job allows me to do that.
I happen to have the little book right here. It is 5"x7" and covered in brown paper which is embossed and crinkled to look like leather. The pages are all edge stained to look older. It is 112 pages, about half text/half images. The text is very small, so there is definitely a lot of info packed into those 112 pages. If you dig the lore of the Elder Scrolls, it is definitely worth the money.
Just in case you didn’t know, you can also purchase the game as a direct download from Direct2Drive.com. I have never used the service, but I know it’s the same price as buying it in the store (which is a bit of a rip-off. It should’ve been at least a little cheaper since they don’t have to pay for packaging, shipping to stores, or the manual.)
I have the same setup, essentially, but 1GB of ram. It plays fine, as long as the resolution is low (640 by 800). Any higher and my mouse gets all jumpy. I didn’t have to turn down draw distances or anything, and it still looks great even at such a low res.
I’ve been playing for about three hours now. Of course, one of those hours was character creation. If you don’t like your character after the first scenes (with the emperor and such in the caves) you can change it before leaving the sewers. I was glad, because I made a redguard just to fool with and didn’t want to go through all that exploration again just to make an argonian.
I think I’ve got the minigames figured out. Lockpicking is kinda fun, if really odd, but persuasion is harder. I guess I need more practice with facial expressions. 
–Weldon, Female Argonian Scout.
Uh. I’ve got the same setup as Smiling Bandit, just so we’re clear. My video card is an ATI All in Wonder 9600 (128 MB).
If you want games for less than the price of the actual experience, I suggest buying a console.