I've only been playing Oblivion for about 3 weeks, when I came on here and read about this problem, I wasn't that worried, they'll release a patch right?

All of the posts I was looking at about it were sometimes years old.

Now I've just got up to date..... annoyed, certainly, I'm on xbox360, so no hope for me.

I've really enjoyed the game up to date, totally immersed. Now do I carry my character on and hope that by the time the bug shows itself I've had enough of the game anyway? Or do I carry on and then get really really annoyed when it shows.

I love the game, but would I have bought it in the first place had I known it was impossible to finish?

I don't think that the game is ever really "finished". I have been playing it for years, with multiple characters, and I STILL find things that I haven't seen before.

Also note, that the anim bug isn't universal, some experience it, others do not. Some at 200 hours, others as far as 400 hours. It is rather random. You might experience it on one game, and not on the next. Enjoy the game. If you get hit by the bug, just start a new game. Or, get the game for PC, and not worry about it.

man because of this bug im thinking of trading oblivion.

game breaking bug need to be the first thing to fix. so they either need to make a patch o rerelease a version of the game that dont have it.

and lose alot of hours for nothing? no thanks.

You don't want to start over but trade the game. What you going to get 5 dollars for it. 5 dollars vs starting over......hmmm.....start over, wins for me. You'll waste more gas going there than the trade value. Thats all gamestops gives for used games.

Umm, this might be because of vista or something, but I backed up all of the stuff in the Oblivion folder and then uninstalled then re-installed oblivion and for some reason all of my saves and mods were there and the saves did not have the bug. So, re-installing the game seems to fix the bug.

Oblivion does not clean up after itself well. It doesn't remove any files that it did not install, and also tends to leave a fair few files that it DID. If you are on pc, there are mods that can fix it, and a utility or two as well. Wrye Bash being one of them.

It leaving its stuff behind was a good thing in this case. (Unless it causes other problems.)

Today decided to play some Oblivion after couple of months break. One of my main characters with 290+ hours was in Cloud ruler temple. After some running around I saw fires around the door to the temple moving very slow or not at all. Traveled to Bruma, same thing. First I was frustrated, because I changed my video card to new one recently and thought the problem is in it. Good that we all have these nice and helpful forums, so I found this topic. Probably I had this bug for some time, but I was busy playing and not paid attention to fires. Another thing is my chars rarely use magic, so missed the bugged spell effects too.
Downloaded Oblivion Animation fixer V1.2 and fixed my save file, now everything is working ok.
Thank you Robert K. Guy for making this program and thank you to all the posters and players on the forums.

Woah! I was just reading this, and there has not been a post in here for a while...

Hey, the search button worked.

This hit me after I migrated to a new computer. Downloaded the fix and I'm up and running.

Grazzi

I've had this problem on my PS3. Contacted Bethesda about it and pretty much received the same reply. They have no intentions to fix this. After the first crash and then over the past few years, I've been able to replay Oblivion several times on at least two different PS3 consoles on three different copies of Oblivion (2 original, 1 goty edition). And the A-bomb bug or whatever always occurs at exactly 459:59 hours or gameplay. No matter what level my character's at, what quests I've completed or how much I've freely explored in the game. It always starts at 459:59. Now all through the game, every time I played and replayed, I've seen all the graphical, audio and other glitches players have talked about. But once that hour clock hits 459:59, it's game ending. Because aside from the graphics and animations, you can't reload games after this. And everything you worked to accomplish is gone. I used to think that sense leveling (if you really dedicate yourself to it) takes probably over half the allotted time, that I could use a cheat device to make up some time. But it doesn't look like that's gonna happen with the next gen consoles despite that fact that would increase sales. I shelled out good money for all this and got screwed. Because of this and because of Bethesda response, I came to the conclusion that why should I spend money, especially on any other Bethesda products, on games and then not only have them not to work but then have them tell me how to enjoy it (...We're not going to allow cheat devices...you're going to play our games the way WE intended for you to...). That'd be great if they worked. So as of today, I haven't purchased or played any video games for almost two years now, and just like Bethesda, have no intentions to.

But then again, why should Bethesda or Sony worry. They got their money. Oblivion received top reviews everywhere. I loved it, it was to me a perfect rpg game. But since this game has been revealed as a fraud, I've haven't seen nor read any "official" comment about this anywhere aside from forums like this. Not even on G4TV's X-Play. The supposedly *no mercy* Adam and Morgan have even whispered about this. And I think this is big enough to warrant such a thing. A lot of people...A LOT...of people paid lots...LOTS...of good money, some buying the PS3 just for the sake of Oblivion (me included), for this game and it didn't deliver on what was directly advertised about it. 459:59 hours may seem like an ungodly amount of time spent on one game to your average preteen FPS player with too much time and money suffering a wicked case of ADD. But in Oblivion, if you want to finish all quests (including the add-ons), explore everything and everywhere, max out your character, plus all the screwing around you can do during or after all that, 459 hours doesn't even come close to the time needed. I mainly blame Bethesda. Mistakes can happen, but when you refuse to do anything about it for the sake of those who made you rich, THAT'S what really bad.

In a way I suppose I have been lucky. my game started to play up at the 750 days mark, not long after reaching level 19. Considering some of the other posts on this topic regarding the hexidecimal code, when the "professional" cheat systems came out for the ps1 they allowed the alteration of the codes allowing you to have infinite lives ,ammo etc.so is there a similar system available for ps3?. My theory is if you can find the hexidecimal code using one, (it should not be much different to the code that appears on the first post of this topic) you should be able to keep playing. On another note, has anyone tried to keep sleeping for a hundred hours or so to see if that cures the problem, or does it make matters worse? I have spent too much time and effort on my character to just give up on it,and from what I have read it's not worth starting again as the same thing will happen every time

After reading trough some posts in this topic, i have no hope left for a fix.
Still i wanted to add my story to this list, just to show there are still people getting this problem.

I'm playing on the Xbox 360, day 470 with this character. Level 28 and Save 6081. Play Time: 620:55:02.
Everytime i pass the 621 hours mark the glitch happens to me, no mather what i do. Loading a save game after the 621 hours mark usually results in a crash.
This is such a let down for me, as it is for alle the people who posted here. I havnt even finished Shiverin Isles, and i am feeling kinda sad that i will never be able to finish the game on this character.
After so many hours i dont feel like starting all over again just to complete the game.

Finding this for the first time. I'm on a PS3 with about 750 hours in. Actually it's more if you count all the time I've spent trying to work on some fix for this "A-Bomb" thing. Heartbreak. I don't give a damn about the glitch, it's the fact that after the glitch surfaces it's freeze city. I'll have to admit, a game this open-ended seemed to me from the start to be too good to be true. Now I see that I was correct in that assumption. Could it ever be possible to do everything in the game? Theoretically, yes. Realistically, we may never know...

Oh and what's that I hear? ES 5 is on the way? How heartening. Thanks for the BS...BS.

I think it might be safe to say at this point that this bug woun't resurface again in future Bethesda titles. Fallout 3 was pretty well-optimized and certainly didn't have this bug. Fallout: New Vegas seems to be ok on that front too. But yea, all is pretty much lost on Oblivion if you're a console player and you run into this bug.

Nice of you to reply so soon. I guess the lucky thing for me is that my son has Fallout 3 and New Vegas. He swears by them and constantly tells me to give FO3 a try. Maybe I'll do that. Thank you.

Got the bug at just over 200 hours. The OAF seems to have fixed it. Wonderful! :clap:

OMG! I though this was resolved years ago.

For shame Bethesda. Not even a reason why you couldnt fix it? For SHAME!

Resolved for PC....X360 and PS3 owners are still screwed.

Ok PS3 users, I may have found a fix. Based on my experiences with the big "O" I'm theorizing that it's the opening of new Oblivion Gates that impedes the graphics engine. If you are like me you've been a PIG when it comes to Sigil Stones. I have entered more than fourty Oblivion Gates just for the stones. This while mastering all of the guilds and side-quests. I've played oved 700 hours. When I went back to a previous save and finished the main quest, everything just fell together. Incidentally, I also finished the KOTN and started SI. I am using a PS3 slim 250GB. Anyone care to comment?

I've just found this problem at the 245hours limit, and I'd love to try the solutions provided, but I'm completely lost downloading/installing the programs. To be exact, I cannot seem to find the "save game" folder. Where do I go to find this, as it doesn't show in the Bethesda>Oblivion GOTY?

I apologize in advance for my blatant idiocy, but I am really not looking forward to just starting over, and then worrying about hitting this glitch again, merely because I can't figure out how to use the solution provided. This is extremely frustrating.

Typing "save game" in the search line brings me to a few of the save games, but it is a "ess" program, and can't be opened. Now I'm really confused.

EDIT: Okay, I'll leave this for any other "incompetents" that are having trouble. The explanation is provided in the "read me" text file that accompanies the downloaded program. I am happy to report success, which means that this is extremely easy to do.

I think there's some substance to your theory. I am using the same PS3 unit you are. While not really a solution to the bug, perhaps this info will help others to work around it for a longer period of time. My first 3 games all terminated at about 420 -450 play hours. Sounds pretty normal.

During the most recent game I created a divergent play line at Cloud Ruler temple when it comes time to take Martin to Cyrodil, once I'd finished doing the other guild quests,and Knights of the Nine. (Probably worth noting I closed only the gates required to complete the main quest and I had 408 hours on the clock) On one path I held off taking Martin to Cyrodil and just roamed the country closing gates grabbing them stones and jumping over to the Shivering Isles periodically for some variety. This path died at 609 hours via the bomb, a new personal record for game longevity though I'd wished it never occured of course.

For the second path I went ahead finished the main quest, thus preventing any more Oblivion gates from spawning . I never did get hit with the bomb! However I was unable to load my saved game at 670 hours, an unexpected occurence. Regrettably ( perhaps foolishly) I'd just cleaned out some of my saves and there were none left on this pathway, so it means re-starting this path anew at the 400 hour branch point. I've shelved the game for now though, and am looking forward to ES V -Skyrim. 1000 hours of Oblivion is probably enough of a warm up :goodjob: