I was a devoted fan of Morrowind when I learned Oblivion was being developed. I was excited to explore the homeland of the Empire, but for various reasons I didn't get my hands on the game until two years after its release. Unfortunately, I experienced what many other Morrowind-lovers reported: disappointment. Sure, a lot of the gameplay had improved, but Cyrodiil utterly bored me. I dinked around in the Dark Brotherhood, powered through the Main Quest with the help of cheats (just to get the story), and experimented with a life of thievery, but I couldn't stomach much else, so for the last few years I left the game unplayed.

Now I own an Xbox 360 for the first time, and I bought Oblivion on a whim. (I own it on the PC, but my PC will hardly play it anymore.) I am eagerly, but cautiously, awaiting the release of Skyrim, so in the meantime I am occupying myself with giving Oblivion a second chance.

This time around I am going to focus on improving the roleplaying experience. You know, immersion, feeling connected to your character, and all that good stuff. I have some basic rules like avoiding fast travel, taking time for the little things, etc.

My character is Ronan, a 19-year-old Breton and "mage." That last part is debatable. His mother taught him some basic spellwork growing up, and he's certainly a highly cerebral kid, but he's not one to lock himself away in a study measuring the magical properties of corn. Don't get the wrong idea though: Ronan isn't some budding adventurer who's only happy when fighting monsters or roaming the countryside. He definitely appreciates the quest for knowledge. Maybe he'll even "get serious" about his own and join the Guild.

Who knows? The possibilities are nearly endless now that's he out of prison. Speaking of that, how did I neglect to mention that he will make for Chorrol in a few days? Of course he'll obey the commands of the Emperor. How could he not? Anyway, it's all he can think about as he tries to fall asleep in his room at The King and Queen Tavern (pretty sweet digs compared to the ones he had 24 hours ago). I guess the fact that this is not my first playthrough made me forget how big of a deal this would be for Ronan. It's not every day that one gets pulled into the events that make history.

That's all for now. Thanks for reading. I'll share more as I go along.

Interesting that you are giving it a second chance on the Xbox, as opposed to the pc, since the pc has many mods that add to the immersion and remove much of the blandness from the game. That being said, nice read. Its always interesting to read the accounts of someone's character.

Unfortunately my computer doesn't render a great gaming experience anymore. The graphics are horrible and the game crashes a lot. The console gives me flawless play and pretty graphics. (A big HD TV is a plus.)

Good luck with Oblivion.

I know some people that feel the same way, and plan to go straight from Morrowind to Skyrim. I never quite felt like that myself, but I do remember playing Morrowind and enjoying the whole lore and factions thing. Oblivion is a great game to roleplay. It has heaps of opportunity to immerse yourself.

The archery combat is awesome. Try mixing bow and illusion. It is great fun.

I too went from Morrowind to Oblivion, but I had never read about what other players didn't like about Oblivion. So I played it, and found myself to enjoy it. It wasn't until I joined this forum and saw several topics about design problems and how boring the world looked and how lore didn't match up, and then I started getting disappointed in the game.

I'm still wary of coming back to the forums when Skyrim is released, to avoid seeing things I wish not to know.