No one who has seen my previous posts is unaware of my apprehensiveness towards Skyrim's capability to run well on 360, and how much it worries me.
I just conducted a console experiment, for those interested in the running capability of the system.

I booted up Oblivion, and fast traveled to Cheydinhall, where I would walk, weapon raised to decrease speed and allow the game to load things better, to Bruma.
I would then tally up the amount of hiccups I encountered. A hiccup is a noticeable clink in the game's chainmail, no matter how minor. It has to be noticeable. It includes, framerate dips, pop in, stutters and glitches. From minor to major, all of these were noticeable, and I let around 4 go because they may not have been noticeable to everyone.

I counted 32 hiccups in performance walking from Cheydinhall to Bruma.
I was expecting around that number. Most of these hiccups were EXTREME pop in at close distances and stutters that lasted about a milisecond. and by stutters I mean pauses. Framerate dips are included in there, and usually prelude stutters. I encountered one glitch among those 32, which was a rock floating outside of the hillside it was supposed to be attached to.

I then put in Fallout 3. This time I walked from the RobCo facilities to Hallowed Moors Cemetery. I had to be relatively harder on Fallout 3, because to be honest hiccups are far harder to notice. I encountered 9 hiccups. This high a number actually surprised me because I rarely notice so many when I play, but I was actively looking for them this time, and most of them are pretty forgiving. 6 of them were pop in, but they were at a very far distance from me, and relatively confined to popping in textures, not entire stuctures and pieces of nature like Oblivion did, and the fact that it occurs far from you and generally out of your field of focus, its easy to miss. I encountered 2 stutters though. They were not preluded by framerate dips however, and lasted less than Oblivion's, though some may not be able to perceive it that way. The final hiccup I encountered was actually a common glitch in the game, a bandit raider was sliding across the landscape while shooting at me, instead of walking. The game's UI and Slow mo kills actually work well combined with the huge game world. I can get in and out of them without lag or any framerate dips when I get back to the gameplay environment. Still, I am disappointed that I found 9. I guess I remember the game holding up better in the past.

So basically, if Skyrim can beat Fallout 3, I will be INCREDIBLY happy, but if its anything like Oblivion......32 is just unacceptable for such a deep game world that focuses on immersion. That's borderline a broken game. I won't be buying it. Guess I have to wait and see....

I don't know what you consider a "hiccup" because I haven't had a single problem running Oblivion on my X-Box 360.

If you're seriously not gonna buy Skyrim over what I think you're referring to as a "hiccup", then I really feel like you're way too picky. There's nothing about my experience with Oblivion on X-Box 360 that was anything close to a "broken" game.

You are completely paranoid. Relax.

I actually posted an in depth explanation for what I consider a hiccup, above. Yuo should've read it. No, it doesn't ruin a game, but honestly, it effected my Oblivion experience. 32 hiccups in between towns is just unacceptable. Would you buy a poster of your favorite film if there were 32 flicks of [censored] on it? And that's just ONE time going in between TWO towns. WALKING. I should re-do the experiment on horseback.

I completely acknowledge my own paranoia, btw, and it won;t stop until I receive some kind of confirmation that it runs well. It;s like a paranoia avalanche. It happens with a lot of things. I may have a mental disability....

Its called Skyrimatosis. It will go away when Skyrim is released. Btw, nice avatar. Mecha-godzilla ftw.

On my PS3 it does slow down and even stop sometimes when traveling to say "Loading area" or whatever.

I would be very happy if Skyrim didn't do this as much or at all.

If your so worried about performance, wtf are you doing on a console to begin with ?
I know skyrim isnt out so your bored like most of us..but cmon man

I have Oblivion on PS3 as well and that never happened to me. Never.

oblivion runs on ps3,didnt have much problem except theres sudden loading or slowdown,other than that i dont have problem,its an open world game afterall

I'm sure skyrim will beat fallout 3 considering it was released 3 years ago

Thank you! Its always great to run into a fellow Godzilla fan! We're a rare breed these days....

But when I think about Skyrim being released, I juts get panicky at the thought of constant hiccups in performnce. And its worsened by how beautiful the game looks, and how deep and real everything is trying to seem. It like, makes issues like screen tear, pop in, and framerate dips waaaay more apparent, you know. Bigger they are, harder they fall, I guess. So [censored] worried. I'm banking on install helping...

http://youtu.be/HIAql1AfSSU. No but srsly man just relax and look forward to having a new GAME!

What you call a "hiccup" isn't anything close to "broken", in my opinion, nor does it detract from the gameplay experience. In my humble opinion.

No, a single hiccup isn't "broken". 32 in a consecutive row during a relatively short walk in one area, however, is. Do you know how infuriating that is?

We're not that rare, really.



The hiccups in Oblivion were noticeable, but to be honest they never once bothered me.

Don't feel bad my Oblivion on 360 flashes like there is constant lightning, and it also crashes alot. It think mines because I downloaded it from Xbox Live or its my 360. It doesn't do it on the PS3 one or PC.

I do still feel bad, because I only own a 360, and Skyrim has the potential to run like garbage on it, as did Oblivion...>.<
You have had it worse than me though.

Obviously not, because Oblivion's "hiccups" on the X-Box 360 didn't / don't bother me in the least bit.

So that's YOU, but it did bother ALOT of people, media outlets, fans, and myself. Just because something didn't effect you, doesn't mean it isn't a problem. Maybe you should broaden your perspective?

I just think it's extreme that you wouldn't buy a game over hiccups, that's all.

But as I said earlier, that's just my own humble opinion.

Also, you asked me a question: "Do you know how infuriating that is?" and I answered it. I don't know how infuriating it is, because it didn't infuriate me. svcks that it did to you. But considering that Oblivion was designed without them knowing what kind of technology they were working with, and Skyrim is now their 3rd game on that technology, I'm sure that the hiccups won't be as severe.

I love Fallout 3, and that game has hiccups, but when it gets to the point where it is in Oblivion, its just unacceptable really.

It happens when your speed is high enough that you move to an area before the further areas have had time to load.

If you have a character with 100+ speed, it becomes a major problem. Lower than 80 and you hardly ever notice it.

Try Fallout NV and you will find a new acceptance for those older hiccups. Here's the thing man, they have Id now. They have come a long way since Oblivion and now they understand the 360 a lot more than they used to. They have new compression methods and everything. You are worrying about something that isn't even an issue yet.

Um... Oblivion was almost a launch title and Fallout 3 is a few years old now.

I'm fairly certain one of the reasons Bethesda undertook Skyrim on 360 primarily was because they now understand the hardware so well.

I would be surprised if it was any worse than Fallout 3, TBH.

Honestly I expect it to be better then Fallout. I expect that 3 years is enough for those kind of problems to be solved. How ever the only reason I would not get this game is if I can't play because the game has some sort of severe glitch.