Why is Oblivion so popular?

[MiracleOfSound]

If you notice the only reason they last so long is because of modablility. No one praises oblivion for consoles for this reason. If they stopped mods being made Bethesda would be called a crappy developer.

Not really. Fallout 3 is my favorite game of all time, I've spent over 400 hours on it and I only played the 360 version.

 

[T8B95]

Beatiful visuals, massive world, and ridiculous amount of NPCs, as well as an open-ended storyline that lets you choose your own path in life and play the hell out of it.

It's also one of the most immersive console RPGs I've ever played.

 

[chickenlord]

idk cause is fucking awesome, openworld,super fun glitches,easily mod-able, tons of great side quests, an okay story quest, an action game, a stealth game, has a ton of items and has a world that seems living.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

You cite reviewers who are notoriously one sided.

gamespot = money whore.

IGN = fanboys.

Never cite reviews, only cite opinions from people. Opinions from people can't be bought.

GASP! But I did!. And finding a dissenting voice from the industry would be difficult when the game's metacritic rating was 94. The one professional reviewer I am aware of who has stated a dislike of the game in a public capacity is Joystiq's Ludwig Kietzmann and even he never said it in a review.

Of course, I have indulged you enough in this regard. You open with trolling remarks and counter with <a href=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_hominem>fallacy. I will respect that you do not like the game but your attempts to demonstrate that people in general hate it or that without mods the game is wretched and universally panned is all but doomed.

 

[maninahat]

Because it's open-ended and is easy to play. I for one think it's utter shit, especially compared to Morrowind.
The landscape is just trees, grass, trees, .....
The level scaling is just plain horrible.
The quick-travel and the compass is what kills the charm of exploration.
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I agree that the quick travel does damage the exploration, but it is one of the best anti-tedium devices I have seen built into a game. I hate backtracking in any game, and in Oblivion, it would be a nightmare. Plus, if I jsut want to walk anywhere, I will, and I'll just not use the fast travel system. I tried playing the modded version of Oblivion called "Nehrim", and found it's severely restricted teleport system to be horrible.

I'm currently playing Nehrim and I find it way better than Oblivion in every possible way. It's very well made for a mod. As for the backtracking, it was a little annoying in the begining, but now I don't have any problems with it

It is way better than Oblivion in a number of ways, but the long treks got really tedious for me, especially as the bows were so over powered I could one hit kill everything; taking away any challenge. Also, I had to run the game on absurdly low settings to stop it crashing at certain parts. All of this ruined the exploring aspects, which is a shame, because I understand that on a higher end machine it all looks great.

Nehrim is am imcredible effort and I'd recommend it to anyone who has Oblivion - but I never finished it. One of the quests didn't work, impeding any possibility of me completing the main quest. Further more, another major quest I spent ages doing wasn't even finished (so I received no pay off for wasting hours of my life). Frustated, I gave up.