The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Collector's Edition, PC)

Pros: Looks beautiful, excellent character customization, arrow ballistics!

Cons: Boring voice acting, irritating interface, lack of aesthetics, puzzling AI at times

Summary: First, of course, the pros. I was very excited from the get-go about Oblivion's development and eventual release. As a fan of the previous installment of the game, Morrowind, I looked forward to a continuation of the quality I found. Morrowind's dismal exteriors and mind-numbingly lackluster AI, I was certain, would be amended in Oblivion. And oh, was I right. Mostly.

Let me say that Oblivion is one of the most beautiful games that I have ever seen, even with a computer that isn't capable of running at "Very High" settings. The environment itself is captivating; the fauna, terrain, and the layout of the worldmap is wonderful. At higher settings I see even more, and to stand at the top of a high hill and see far out into the distance is breathtaking.

Also fantastic is the ability to *deeply* customize the way your character looks. While baffling at times (why would anyone want a purple-foreheaded Dunmer?) it is fun to play with. I can play a lanky orc or a fat-faced Bosmer, should I like. And it's those choices that make me a happy gamer.

Thirdly...the ability to recover most fired arrows (and any arrow that doesn't hit a creature) is just fantastic. The arrows fly true to reality (though I haven't tried shooting straight up...need to do that, since in Morrowind even a slow arrow would never stop travelling upwards).

And now...the cons. Since most of them do not have to do with the game's actual structure, I'll go over the ones that do.

The interface. Why must I access everything through Tab? Why not make it so that (by default) 'M' will bring up my map, 'I' my inventory, so on and so forth? Maybe there's some fantastic reasoning for making everything accessed through Tab, but I'm not seeing it.

The AI does really strange things at times. Maybe it's just me, but if a Khajiit appears out of nowhere just as a dead body goes flying over me...and I *WATCH* it go over...I would probably do something other than look at this mysteriously-appearing Khajiit than ask it how it's doing. It's not really a problem, I suppose, but maybe Bethesda could have added some kind of AI reaction to dead bodies? Just a thought.

Now for the aesthetic complaints.

One is a lack of medium armor. I've heard people say that it had no point, but I happen to think that the best-looking armor sets in Morrowind were medium (such as Royal Guard, Gha-Julan and Armun-An Bonemold, and the Ordinator suits). It would have been nice to see it again.

Lack of architectural uniqueness. Maybe it was because the setting is in Cyrodiil and not Morrowind, but it was boring to see Medieval-looking cities, rather than the fascinating differences between Redoran, Hlaalu, and Telvanni architecture. No interesting Daedric ruins, either, just the ones that look like any old Greek ruin. At least the dungeons aren't so boring.

My biggest aesthetic complaint is the voice acting. Particularly the voice acting of the races that aren't human. The Argonians, Orcs, and Khajiit are especially disappointing. What happened to the *character* that they had in Morrowind? Now they sound like humans with nasal congestion, at best, and completely human, at worst. I haven't noticed any particular snobbishness in the Altmer or a quirkiness in the Bosmer. Also sad is that lack of gruff sarcasm that Dunmer had. What was more unsettling than running off with half of the contents of the High Fane, successfully sneaking out the door, and then hearing "Justice never sleeps" as soon as the exterior loads?

All in all, Oblivion is a great, fun game. But it lacks those little touches that made Morrowind so fun, even if it does look and run better overall.