I've finally turned a complete 360...

[AnubisVonMojo]

With the wait for more great Wii games extending till November (MARIO GALAXY!) and December (SUPER SMASH BROS. BRAWL!) and no interest in playing Metroid Prime 3 until I beat the first two (which could take a while considering I don't often play fps titles and haven't even started Prime 2 yet...) I spent some inheritance money on a new XBox360 Core system, a used 13 gig hard drive, a second controller and barely used copies of Lego Star Wars 2, Dead Rising and Elder Scrolls: Oblivion. I figure the thing's only $30 more than a Wii right now, plus the cache of cheaper used games is so much more readily available (because some people buy the game, download all the info onto their computer, then sell the like-new disc to recoup a few bucks within 24 hours)... so if I disappear from the board for days or weeks at a time, everybody knows why... 

[indianasmith]

I think you will love Oblivion, if only for its graphics.  The Mainquest story line is not as good as the one in Morrowind, but it is still entertaining.  Both the Thieves Guild and Fighters Guild quest lines are great, as is the Dark Brotherhood if you're into assassinations.  BTW, the Shivering Isles Expansion is a blast, too.  Sheogorath is a hoot!!!!!

[DistantJ]

I had an Xbox 360 for a while. Naturally, Oblivion was AMAZING but I didn't play much else on it. I played Perfect Dark Zero and Kameo a lot, and some Quake 4, but in the end I got rid of the thing because I don't spend so much time on videogames anymore and games themselves are getting harder and harder and need much more skill and dedication which I don't have (Gears of War I hated because I got so frustrated and angry, I never swore so much in my life!), so I sold it off and got a Nintendo Wii instead, and I love the thing.

The Xbox 360 was still great, though. I wouldn't mind being able to play Oblivion again someday but I ain't paying that much. PC upgrade perhaps.

Oh, and like Indiana Smith said, Shivering Isles is awesome.

[AnubisVonMojo]

Okay, so, I've been playing Oblivion for two days now, and here's what I've accomplished so far:
-created myself as an Argonian (lizard man) named Anubis who was born under the sign of the Shadow (I can turn invisible once a day) and specializes in the customized warrior class known as the "Motherf*cker"
-joined the Mage and Fighters guilds
-joined the Thieves guild and promptly took every material possession from several chapters of both the Mage and Fighters guilds before promptly fencing them to my new friends in the Thieves guild
-purchased a run down shack in a riverside shanty town for 2000 gold
-proceeded to decorate the floor of my shack with pick-axes, sickles, a scythe, and numerous skulls, rib cages, pelvises and random bones as well as slabs of rat meat...
-been approached by authority figures for theft, breaking & entering, and assault seven times
-resisted arrest for theft, breaking & entering, and assault seven times
-was killed for resisting arrest twice, escaping into the surrounding forests the other five times
-stole a city guard's horse, rode it into a river and left it there
-killed four minotaurs and took their horns to sell
-was killed by a unicorn who was immune to my weak magical attacks and limp-wristed short-sword attacks
-cleared out several dens of goblins and imps
-killed a gang of marauders who were setting up a base of operations in an abandoned fort, rewarding myself with their impressive supply of cheap wine, half of which I sold and half of which I drank
-undressed each of the marauders and left their clothes in neatly folded piles next to their bodies like some kind of serial killer...
-attempted to kill a little bald weapons shop owner so I could make his store the base for my plans of world conquest... unsuccessfully... six times
-broke up a grave-digging crime wave with the help of my faithful sidekick the summoned skeleton I refer to as "Herb"
-dabbled in alchemy... then quickly sold my alchemy tools in an attempt to buy a $4000 sword

I did some other stuff, but these are the highlights. I think I've lost 10 hours or more of my life to this game already... 

[indianasmith]

All that and you're not even on the main quest yet!!!!  Hee hee . . . .

BTW, if you want to really level up and enjoy the thing, you need to acquire two artifacts -

the reusable soul gem called Azura's star

and a magical sword named Umbra.

You have so much fun ahead of you!

[AnubisVonMojo]

I know Indy, I think I literally spent 100 or more hours just exploring and leveling up in Morrowind without even bothering with the main quest. Of course, by the time I did get to the main quest, I was cleaving my path with a huge ebony claymore enchanted with the ability to set people on fire, steal their lifeforce, drain their endurance and paralyze them in place while it was happening, as well as a big warhammer that shot blasts of lightning and made me faster and stronger while I was equipped with it. I named them Stormbringer and Mjolnir respectively and embraced my geek side with reckless abandon. 

[Mr_Vindictive]

I've been considering either building a new gaming PC or getting a 360 for a while now.  I think I've finally settled on the 360.  It seems that whenever a good title gets released on the PC, it's also on the 360.  That way, I'm able to buy the 360 and not have to upgrade it every few months as I would a gaming rig.

I'll probably wait till around the holidays to pick one up.  Hopefully the price will drop by then.  I'm buying a 22" HDTV for our bedroom this weekend so I'll probably get the 360 Premium just for the new HDMI output and the newer, cooler, low profile processors.  I'm considering picking up the add-on HD-DVD drive as well just to see how good HD-DVD actually is.

[dean]

  I'm considering picking up the add-on HD-DVD drive as well just to see how good HD-DVD actually is.

Oh it'll be good if the TV is good.  We had Blu Ray playing at work the other day and it's very nice...  Not really essential but hey, if you can go the quality why not?

[Ash]

Hey Anubis...

If you've got Xbox Live, feel free to add me as a friend.
My Gamertag is ASHTHECAT3.
Spelled just like that in all caps.

You'll have to add me soon though because my Xbox Live time will expire on Sunday Sept. 9th.
Don't worry, I plan to get a new timecard next week sometime and renew it.

Mofo Rising is on my friends list and he & I have already spoken through voice chat.

I look forward to hearing from you.  

[AnubisVonMojo]

Hey Anubis...

If you've got Xbox Live, feel free to add me as a friend.
My Gamertag is ASHTHECAT3.
Spelled just like that in all caps.

You'll have to add me soon though because my Xbox Live time will expire on Sunday Sept. 9th.
Don't worry, I plan to get a new timecard next week sometime and renew it.

Mofo Rising is on my friends list and he & I have already spoken through voice chat.

I look forward to hearing from you.   

Groovy Ash, thanks for the invite! I'm not on Live yet and truth be told I'm not a very social gamer (too many hyper 14 year olds who like to throw slurs around for my liking), but I'm finding myself interested in trying out, so if I do you'll be the first to know. 

[AnubisVonMojo]

Okay, it's officially the end of my first week cruising the lands of Oblivion. As it stands right now, I've played for over 25 hours and here's where I currently stand:

- I'm a member of the Mages Guild, the Thieves Guild, the Fighters Guild and the Dark Brotherhood (i.e. the Assassins Guild)
- I've killed something like 50 goblins, 25 vampires, 18 wolves, 12 ghosts, 7 pirates, two minotaurs, an ogre and any number of mud crabs
- I've taken down four city guards and hocked their armor at a second hand shop
- I've uncovered a number of enchanted items with fantastic powers that I also hocked at the same second hand shop
- I've killed the second hand store owner and was disappointed to find that the contents of his shop were mostly junk and bags of flour... I miss the days of Morrowind when the shop keepers would actually retain all of the items you sold them so when you killed them you could take all your stuff back and sell it to someone else...
- I've purchased a number of cool summon, healing and destruction spells that I'm currently unable to use because my spellcasting level is still too friggin' low...
- I spent something like $2500 to decorate and furnish a moldly old beggar's shack that I paid $2000 for...
- I killed an old man by dropping a decorative minotaur head on him, then got my ass handed to me by his beefy bodyguard when I tried to pickpocket the brute while he was checking on his now dead ex-employer
- Oh yeah, and I'm not only a lizardman now, but a vampire lizardman, as I was infected by vampirism and didn't realize it until my skin turned pink and white and I suddenly have the eyes of a human crackhead... It's cool to get the additional magic powers and stat increases, but if I don't feed on anyone for days at a time, I start to get really gaunt and hideous and no one will talk to me. Apparently there's a cure for vampirism, but I don't think I'm anywhere near that part of the game yet...

[indianasmith]

I returned to the world of Oblivion today, after I had given it a break for a month and half to play Warcraft III from start to finish again.

Listen, if you'll go ahead and do the first part of the mainquest, you will soon find Oblivion gates opening all over the land . . . there are a total of 93 of them, and the planes of Oblivion ROCK!!  If you are into dark, hellish imagery and killing tons of grotesque monsters, you will love it!  The ambience of the Oblivion towers is one of the truly well-done aspects of the game.  Not to mention the Sigil Stones enable you to make cool enchanted weapons and armor.

[BlackAngel75]

You may not have much experience with fps, but I will recommend one game I'm getting into right now, BioShock.

[Mr_Vindictive]

You may not have much experience with fps, but I will recommend one game I'm getting into right now, BioShock.

I second BlackAngel75's recommendation of Bioshock.  I have played a bit of it on my PC.  Seriously unique.

[Ash]

I've been thinking about buying Bioshock.  It looks totally badass!

Check out this cool video review:

http://www.gamespot.com/video/931329/6177093/bioshock-video-review-	Small | Large