I was excited to find my copy of Oblivion delivered today - everything on and in the box looked promising, but when I entered the game, I found that playing it was way beyond anything that my system could run - unless I decided on a total overhaul costing hundreds of pounds. I'll be the first to admit I haven't got a great PC, but I meet all of the system requirements, in some areas by a good margin, and as such I expect the game should be playable - not with high resolution and graphics options, but at least on the lowest possible settings.

I feel cheated that I'm not going to be able to play the game for at least a year, even though, according to the manufacturers, I should be capable of doing so. The amount of money I will need to spend, judging by what I've seen in the technical forums, is so much that I may as well buy an Xbox 360 instead, and believe me, I don't have the money for that. So, it looks like I'll have to wait at least a year, probably more, until the hardware I'll need is cheap enough to buy. Instead of costing me the £25 I paid for the game itself, it's going to cost somewhere in the hundreds if I want to play now. Anyone else having trouble playing the game who simply won't spend huge amounts of cash to make it playable?

I'm sure that, when I'm able to play it, Oblivion will be great fun, but right now it's just not feasible. I don't think it's a particular problem with game, but I wish it could have been a little more realistic about what's needed to play.

Get a job...?

I'm a 17 year old working towards 5 A-levels. Not only do I have little time for a job, but I'm just not comfortable using what little free time I have earning money so that I can play one game. There are plently of great games that don't require so much hardware, and most new releases are playable on my PC with it's fairly slow upgrade rate. I'm never going to have a really top-end PC unless I find myself with excess cash. I've no problem with games requiring high specs, but I'd appreciate them detailing realistic minimum requirements. While some might be happy to perform serious system upgrades for individual games, I'm a casual gamer and I don't want to be paying out any more on games than the list price and occasional system updates so that my PC is at an acceptable level to play most new releases - I have plenty of other hobbies and I don't spend enough time gaming to warrant such spending.

I´m very sad to hear that Chumbaniya.....I do not know if I´ll be able to play it either....my comp is almost two years old, so....

Now I haven´t got mine yet, but I must say to you I won´t be able to upgrade my comp excessivly either....EVEN though I do have a job!!! I have a family to support as well, and I don´t think my hubbie likes me to spend my salary only on videogames and upgrading computers.....

So all I can hope for is that my comp will be good enough!

Not much of a comfort to you, but I want you to know you´re not alone in this!

Same situation as me. Looks like i'll have to overhaul this puppy sometime soon. Using my flatmate's monster PC at the moment - and God DAMN does Oblivion looks good!!

Oooh! I know the feeling... sort of, since now I can sort of play it... until I get near the end of the dungeon (or try to change something in video options), then the game would freeze and crash-to-desktop every time at that point, which is not good. Not to mention, on my PC, the graphics are not really the highest of high quality, but I can live with that. The crashes on the other hand. *shakes head*

In terms of crashing, it's worse than Morrowind. But, it is really fun, though.

Chumb, is your video card up-to-date, or is the game crashing on you alot or something?

My video card isn't top notch (Gefore FX 5600 256mb I think). If it were the game crashing I wouldn't mind so much as it could be fixed eventually, but the problem is that the game runs amazingly slowly - as soon as I reach the character creation screen, I'm getting about 1 frame per second even with every option as low as possible at 640x480. It's so bad that getting the mouse to move to one of the buttons takes a few seconds, and you have to wait about a minute after clicking until it registers it. If it's like that it a quiet dungeon area, I can't imagine what it would be like outside while moving or fighting.

Still, all is not lost. I'll just have to make friends with people who have very powerful PCs

Im very sorry to hear that. I hope Ill not have the same problem. ( Ill buy the game 4-5 days later and my video card is GT 6600 128 mb )

good to have you back mergirl, havent seen any posts from you for a little while.
i dont have oblivion yet, i was going to get it for computer, but i decided to get it for xbox360 (which i dont have) but i get paid on Apr.1 so i will probably get it around there.

'ey welcome back, and I agree it does crash alot but it is fun. The 5 second intervules(sp?) are great (I've learned to save every 2 seconds, a great habit acctually.


But yeah... My computer is just barly hanging on handling it (2.20 Ghz)... and I think my ATI is arguing with it somehow though....

well with 2.4ghz, 128 gfx, 1Gig ram, and other such middle of required and recomended stats, the game lagged but in the hours I played it never crashed once, and I played about 6 hours straight the one night.... there were other people who needed the computer that I didn't own.

anyway I think that if you can run the game it is worth buying.

Bah, I have a Geforce 4600 or something rubbish like that. It passes all the requirements EXCEPT video card i'll have to beg my parents to upgrade, or try and persuade my rich (has over 700 quid in the bank, pretty good for a 11 year old) brother to lend me some money. Wah.
I haven't got the game yet, by the way.

Well your exams will be over in about 2 1/2 months so after that there'll be plenty of time for getting a job and playing oblivion!

This game is definently worth buying. Even if you can only play it on low settings. The story is very good. Sometimes I find myself playing from 10 PM to 5 AM. It's really fun! I only did the Kvatch Oblivion Gate so far. I'm a Champion in the Arena. I'm a Knight Brother in the Blades. Associate in the Mages Guild. I'm about to join the Fighters Guild. This game is seriously kickass.

I was having some strange graphics problems when I got outside (in 1st person, my arms (plus anything in them like a sword and/or torch) would started flashing on and off). It was extremely annoying to watch, and I was worried that I'd be unable to play the game.

Then, I remembered that the readme had recommended upgrading your graphics card's drivers, which I'd ignored at the time. I chased up new drivers, and the problems went away.

MerGirl, do you have an up-to-date driver for your card? If not, it's entirely possible that the CTD is connected with the game trying to get your card to do something that isn't handled properly in your old driver...

Just a suggestion.

If you're talking about the video card, then you were right... My dad and I found out our card is kind of under what Oblivion's recommended specs, so he bought a slightly more better card, and now the game runs more smoothly, though it is not at the very highest in terms of graphics, but it is decent enough now and barely any crashing.

As for the game, now that I'm not having any problems anymore, I would say it is a really good game and worth the trouble we went through. I enjoyed stalking and talking to NPC's. The world felt alive.. I even liked fighting goblins for once! I actually wanted to fight in this game. (unlike Morrowind). In fact, I had Celia join both the mages guild and the fighters guild (which is a group I didn't like joining in Morrowind).

Well, I was talking about the drivers for your existing video card: software that you get along with the video card that you install on your system. When a game tries to perform some graphical operation, the driver is invoked and it translates the command into something that is correct for the video card hardware. This additional layer means that developers don't have to explicitly account for every different video card out there when writing their program.

Like any software, however, the drivers can contain bugs, and so you can sometimes correct problems with a given card/game combination by updating your drivers.

Anyway, glad to hear that you've got it running better now Replacing the card not only gets away from any bugs your old card was having with Oblivion, but gets you better graphics, too, so you win!

I bought a new GeForce 6600 GT 256MB for £109 and the game now runs at about 40 - 60 fps on the highest settings, there was no way I could have run the game at all without that, Although I still would've bought it... just for show

i have 2 slow of a proseccor so since i have a laptop im just gonna get a 360 instead of spending a LOT of money 2 fix my laptop.

Its my problem too, though I haven't buyed the game and I know my computer isn't strong enough. It is totally strange that, if you have the system requirements, you can't play the game. Maybe you must check out the latest drivers for your video card?

Ummm buy it now if you have a 360!!!!!!

Clearly, from the proliferation of pc-based threads, you'll want to be careful. But on 360 despite the loading screen times, it's absolutely amazing.

-He already buyed the game
-He doesn't have the money for an Xbox

Chumb

So sorry that you haven't been able to run the game on your PC. My own PC is being replaced (by sheer chance), but doesn't arrive until next week, so the Gates haven't opened for me yet. I've watched it being played on my son's computer (he's home from university for Easter). I don't want to start a character on his and have the hassle of moving it across.

The game looks totally awesome, though I think the levelling system means it will get progressively harder, and I'm not that experienced at gaming (Morrowind, mostly).

Assume you have Morrowind? Yes, it's a bit old now, but if you haven't played it, it is wonderful and there are aspects of it that are better than in Oblivion. I can't play obsessively, due to the demands of my lifestyle, but it is so easy to resume the game when I'm ready.

Good luck with your A levels, sounds as if you have a lot on your hands right now.

Well, I've made the only cheap upgrade I can to my computer (doubled the RAM with another 512mb DDR, bringing it to 1 gig) but it's no improvement. Rather than worry about it, I've gone back to playing some older games (they're still extremely good fun to play) and I guess I'll wait for a few years and play Oblivion once it gets to the point that bog standard PCs have the right requirements.

this is why i bought an xbox360, I have a computer well capable of running this game but playing on 360 is the only way to go, you say you dont have enough money to buy one, Go here, then buy one and stop complaining about your computers

Heheheh, my next system will probably end up..

Oncoming socket AM2 Athlon 64 3000, 208 dollars (Yes I have found out the price)
120-150 dollar motherboard
7900 GT.
2 GB of RAM (2x 1 GB sticks)


Should run oblivion max graphics, and compare, probably beat the Xbox 360 By the time I get the money, It should beat it. Im at 360 dollars, and need about 900. Going to start mowing lawns, babysitting more, and finding other junk.
Its hard to make money when you're 13 XD

Have you ever tried playing past the character creation bit? Because I know that I got amazingly bad response times during the character creation screen (5 seconds ish for the mouse to move). After i got out of that, it worked perfectly fine; occasional slowing, but not at all bad. I haven't the foggiest idea why, but the creation screen seems to be the most demanding part of the game. Hope yet exists; you might still be able to play!

I have almost the exact same situation. I know exactly what you mean by feeling cheated. Bethesda has to be crazy to make a game that very few people can play without driving themselves to the point of insanity upgrading (or in our cases, wishing we could upgrade. I'm fourteen, so there's really no chance of an upgrade, and my peeps won't let me get the 360).

According to the official system requirements, I should be able to play the game on low settings without a problem. This is not the case, however. I get absolutely crap frame rates, and the graphics look worse than Morrowind's (this isn't to say that Morrowind's graphics were bad). I feel really cheated, especially as I was really looking forward to Oblivion.

Hopefully Microsoft will lower the price of the 360 so you can get it (technology these days is too expensive), although I may never play Oblivion in all of its glory for another 4 years when I go to college. I totally sympathise.

I'm glad I have a monster PC But it's pretty sad that great graphics and gameplay comes with the price that either you need to have a pretty good PC to play it or you need to spend a lot to upgrade it...

It runs really well on an Nvidia 6600GT 128MB. My CPU is just average AMD 3200 Athlon.

It would probably look better with a high end card though. Performance is good.

But I'm playing the game on my 360, as it looks really great on that.

do you have high def tv?