The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Review (So Far) - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Summary

Detailed Summary of "The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Review (So Far)" - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Release Date: May 2, 2025

In this episode of the Kinda Funny Gamescast, hosts Andy Cortez, Greg “GameOverGreggy” Miller, and Snowbike Mike delve into their experiences with the newly released The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered. The discussion intertwines nostalgic memories, detailed gameplay analysis, technical evaluations, and lively interactions with the audience through Super Chats.

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1. Introduction to the Episode

The episode kicks off with the usual banter among the hosts, setting a casual and engaging tone. Andy Cortez welcomes listeners, mentioning upcoming content and giving shout-outs to listeners and supporters. The hosts briefly discuss their recent gaming endeavors, including Andy’s adventures in Arc Raiders, fostering a sense of camaraderie before transitioning to the main topic.

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2. Oblivion Remaster Overview

Andy Cortez introduces the focal point of the episode:

“[03:07] Andy Cortez: The topic of the show, it was a big game that released recently and it was Expedition 33, but another game also released and that was the often kind of rumored as of recently, the Oblivion Remaster.”

He provides a concise overview of Oblivion Remastered, highlighting its development by Virtuos and Bethesda Game Studios, the transition to Unreal Engine 5, and the inclusion of original expansion packs like Knights of the Nine and Shivering Isles. Despite a shadow drop that limited early access, Andy expresses enthusiasm for the remaster's potential to revisit a beloved classic.

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3. Hosts' Personal Histories with Oblivion

Andy Cortez

Andy shares his limited history with the Elder Scrolls franchise:

“[08:21] Andy Cortez: I definitely have the least amount of history with this franchise because I was always the BioWare RPG player.”

He candidly admits unfamiliarity with Oblivion, setting the stage for a fresh perspective on the remaster.

Greg Miller

In contrast, Greg Miller reveals his lack of engagement with the original Oblivion:

“[08:36] Greg Miller: None. That's the whole thing. ... I played Fallout 4 and Starfield...”

Greg discusses his first Bethesda RPG experience with Fallout 3, emphasizing his preference for titles that offer deep narrative and immersive gameplay, such as Fallout 4 and Starfield.

Snowbike Mike

Snowbike Mike offers a nostalgic reminiscence:

“[09:29] Snowbike Mike: Yeah, I'm a 360 kid, so this was really special to me back in the day...”

He fondly recalls his early experiences with Oblivion, emphasizing its impact during his formative gaming years. Mike shares anecdotes about struggling with the game’s complex mechanics alongside his brother, highlighting the game's significance in his gaming journey.

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4. Gameplay Experience and Mechanics

Character Creation and Classes

The hosts discuss their choices during character creation in the remaster:

• Andy chose a Dark Elf with a focus on stealth and archery, appreciating the visual enhancements and spell effects.

  “[43:23] Andy Cortez: I love clicking heads. I love being an archer in a lot of fantasy style games...”

• Greg opted for a Khajiit, leveraging their natural agility and stealth capabilities.

  “[44:53] Greg Miller: Khajiit. Hailing from the province of Elsweyr...”

• Mike selected a Dark Elf for his Evil Mike character, experimenting with different weaponry and spells.

  “[41:05] Snowbike Mike: ...I was really role playing this. My goal was to try to kill every NPC in the game.”

Lockpicking Challenges

A significant portion of the discussion centers around the lockpicking mini-game, a hallmark of Oblivion’s RPG mechanics:

• Andy recounts his initial frustrations and subsequent strategies:

  “[20:07] Andy Cortez: I was like, oh, I need these explosive materials...”

• Greg shares his struggles and the discovery of a Reddit workaround:

  “[22:35] Greg Miller: There's just this sound coming from Greg's desk... I started at IGN in 2007...”

They explore how the remaster retains the original’s complexity, requiring players to engage deeply with the mechanics to enhance their character’s skills.

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5. Technical Issues and Remaster Performance

While the remaster boasts enhanced graphics and performance improvements, the hosts acknowledge ongoing technical challenges:

• Mike experiences frequent crashes on his lab PC:

  “[16:14] Andy Cortez: Why is that? Like, you. … running on very kind of janky unstable engine.”

• Andy encounters minor issues but is impressed overall with the visual fidelity:

  “[52:04] Andy Cortez: … impressed by how lightweight it was because the game is massive.”

• Greg discusses the remaster’s engine layering, causing instability but praises the graphical overhaul:

  “[17:22] Greg Miller: … When you level up, … this is like an old engine … adding into the unstableness there.”

Despite these hurdles, the hosts appreciate the remaster’s effort to breathe new life into a classic title, even as they navigate its imperfections.

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6. Community Interaction and Super Chats

Throughout the episode, listeners actively participate via Super Chats, sharing their experiences, tips, and humorous anecdotes:

• Super Chats highlight common issues like carrying capacity, offering solutions such as mods for unlimited weight.

  “[56:30] Greg Miller: … [Super Chat] says got a quest breaking bug that was there in the OG Nice.”

• Fans reminisce about their favorite moments, such as Greg’s humorous lockpicking mishaps and Andy’s adventures in Arc Raiders.

  “[38:00] Andy Cortez: … Simoned Jason frequently in the Twitch chat also mentioned that he had a pretty bad game breaking bug.”

• The hosts respond to these interactions, fostering a lively and inclusive community atmosphere.

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7. Comparisons to Modern RPGs and Other Titles

The discussion evolves to compare Oblivion Remastered with contemporary RPGs, highlighting the evolution of game design:

• Greg contrasts the remaster’s intricate systems with modern streamlined mechanics:

  “[20:09] Greg Miller: … Oblivion's even more egregious about it. … it's just gonna leave them there.”

• Andy reflects on how newer games offer more polished combat and narrative experiences, making his time with Oblivion feel both nostalgic and clunky.

  “[31:34] Andy Cortez: … could have been a Mass Effect remake in this style.”

• The hosts express a mix of admiration and critique, appreciating the remaster’s faithfulness while yearning for advancements seen in newer titles like Avowed and Kingdom Come Deliverance 2.

  “[65:01] Greg Miller: I’m really happy they did this. … How beautiful this game is.”

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8. Concluding Thoughts

As the episode wraps up, the hosts share their final impressions and anticipations:

• Greg lauds the remaster for rekindling interest in a game he previously overlooked, emphasizing its role in bridging past and present gaming experiences.

  “[65:59] Greg Miller: … a great example of how these remasters do matter and can really speak to an audience that you didn't have before.”

• Mike treasures the nostalgic value, considering Oblivion a comfort game that will always hold a special place in his heart.

  “[66:33] Snowbike Mike: … the team did an incredible job. … special to me.”

• Andy reflects on the balance between old and new, expressing mixed emotions about the remaster’s strengths and shortcomings but ultimately appreciating its release.

  “[67:12] Andy Cortez: Wish I could mean it right now. … Kind of sad about the potential for what could have been.”

The episode concludes with heartfelt thanks to the listeners and a tease for upcoming content, including a spoiler cast and the finale of Game Showdown.

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Notable Quotes with Speaker Attribution and Timestamps

• Andy Cortez on Oblivion’s complexity:

  “[16:04] Andy Cortez: … the original engine called GameBrio back in 2006 … adding into the unstableness there.”

• Greg Miller on character role-playing:

  “[27:23] Greg Miller: I have such a love for that.”

• Snowbike Mike on personal connection:

  “[30:37] Snowbike Mike: … factions, the companions …”

• Andy Cortez on modern game preferences:

  “[36:18] Greg Miller: … you slam my sword into them over and over again like die.”

These excerpts encapsulate the hosts’ genuine engagement with the remaster, blending technical analysis with personal anecdotes and community interactions.

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Conclusion

The Kinda Funny Gamescast episode on The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered offers a comprehensive exploration of the game’s revival. Through candid discussions, technical evaluations, and heartfelt nostalgia, Andy, Greg, and Mike provide listeners with an insightful and entertaining review. Their interactions with the audience further enrich the conversation, making it a memorable episode for both long-time fans and newcomers curious about revisiting this iconic RPG.

Transcript

[Andy Cortez]

Foreign, everybody. But also, we'll see you next week. Big ups to Greg Pavlovich, greatest coach of all time. Big ups more playoff Wins than about 28 other NBA teams.

[Snowbike Mike]

Big ups.

[Andy Cortez]

Moving to the team president Mike.

[Snowbike Mike]

Congrats.

[Andy Cortez]

We'll be in our hearts forever. Welcome to the Kind of funny games cast for Friday.

[Snowbike Mike]

Caught that bat on the court.

[Andy Cortez]

Oh, my God. Ginobly dude. Just the goat dude. Welcome to kind of funny games house for Friday, May 2, 2025. I am Andy Cortez and I'm joined by Gregory Miller.

[Greg Miller]

Hello, Andy. It does me well to be here. Can I say one thing?

[Andy Cortez]

Sure.

[Greg Miller]

Yang fam. I see you in the chat when I was. When we were filtering in, Yang's like, I need these guys to do an Expedition 33 spoiler cast. And I'm happy to confirm next week you will be getting that.

[Andy Cortez]

Wow. Wow.

[Greg Miller]

Do not worry about that. We are covering all those bases.

[Andy Cortez]

And I'm also joined by snowbike Mike.

[Snowbike Mike]

Hi, Andy. It's been a great week of a lot of games. Some arc raiders. You and I are enjoy in having fun with that play more.

[Andy Cortez]

Made a friend last night in arc raiders.

[Snowbike Mike]

I'm jealous. I'm not happy about that.

[Greg Miller]

Is there enough Andy to go around?

[Andy Cortez]

I was looking for these goddamn explosive. These explosive materials, whatever the hell they're called. Died about three different runs back to back to back. And I was like, I. Okay, I'm gonna join with a Phil squad.

[Snowbike Mike]

Oh, you filled.

[Andy Cortez]

So I did a Phil squad.

[Snowbike Mike]

Okay.

[Andy Cortez]

Hopped in last night. Real nice. Dude named Turtle. Nice turtles.

[Snowbike Mike]

Just like, it's always good.

[Andy Cortez]

Well, yeah, I don't really need anything nitro, so if you want to, you know, whatever you need to go get. I was like, oh, I need these explosive materials. Like, oh, okay. Yeah, we could do that. Killed a couple squads we exfilled without getting the stuff.

[Snowbike Mike]

Okay.

[Andy Cortez]

And then turtles, we were like, watch. We're like GG's boys. Good stuff, you know. I was like, later, Turtle. And the lobby pops up again. The run's done. We're back at the home lobby and Turtle standing right next to me. I was like, oh, Turtle, you there? He's like, oh, yeah. I was like, another run, man. He's like, yeah, sounds good. Shots of Turtle, man.

[Snowbike Mike]

Did you get it?

[Andy Cortez]

Shout out to Turtle the following run. I did successfully. Got the thing. And then we exfilled without our squad. Made man. We had some great team fights. It was. It was thrilling. I'm really enjoying our creators.

[Snowbike Mike]

Good, good, good, good.

[Andy Cortez]

Sorry, Mike. I'M not trying to, you know, get you jealous about Turtle.

[Snowbike Mike]

I was hoping that Turtle would have failed you because I have one.

[Greg Miller]

How awesome would it be if you were like, you put up like a voice change. You're like, did Turtle sound like this?

[Andy Cortez]

Oh, you do that. This is the Kind of Funny Games Cast each and every weekday we get together to talk about the biggest reviews, previews and topics in video games live on YouTube, Twitch and podcast services around the globe. If you love what we do, support us with a Kind of Funny membership on Patreon, YouTube, Spotify or Apple Podcast to get all of our shows ad free, watch us record them live and get a daily exclusive show for a chance to be a part of the show. Submit your thoughts and opinions as YouTube super chats as we go. Housekeeping. We're just a little baby 11 person business and if you don't want the things that you love to disappear, you gotta support the little baby business.

[Greg Miller]

That's right.

[Andy Cortez]

And so thank you all for helping keep the lights and mics on on Games Daily. Before this, you had the venerable Jeff Grubb unemployed. The honorable Jeff Grubb. Is he the amazing Jeff Grubbing? I was trying to see if you could come up with as many adjectives as I could. I used to have derogatory ones and Tim Gaddis. And they're talking about Grand Theft Auto 6 being delayed until 2026. And today after the Games cast, you have the spoiler cast for andor season two, episodes four through six with Bear Courtney, Tim Geddes, Sage Ryan, Anthony Carboni. And then after that, first off, it's a big day of content. That's because that's already huge. But after that, the finale of Games Showdown. Holy cow.

[Greg Miller]

Can we do it, Andy? Can we finally dethrone Tim Gettys?

[Andy Cortez]

I think we can.

[Greg Miller]

I'm a runaway success this season with stars in the bank. I am Team Blue looking to repeat the championship for Team Blue, of course, but Tim Gettys is Roman Reigns. All right, we got to finish this guy's story.

[Andy Cortez]

And after that, you got more gaming greatness with Snowback Mike and Nick Scarpino escaping from Tarkov the final day of the week.

[Snowbike Mike]

The data proved that we learned the day.

[Greg Miller]

This is the final exam.

[Snowbike Mike]

This is the final exam. Did you see we got a Sherpa. You did shout out to Bacon for.

[Andy Cortez]

Shout out to Bacon.

[Snowbike Mike]

Because, you know, Bacon taught me everything I know. And then I tried to regurgitate that to Nick. He stared at his phone. Didn't. Didn't really listen. So I had to call bacon and get Bacon in there to teach him how to do it. And now Nick loves this game. He played it yesterday at work. He can't get enough off off stream.

[Andy Cortez]

You just hopped in?

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah, well, you guys were filming. It's another show. We were having fun.

[Andy Cortez]

It's been great to see him kind of like absorb information. I thought he was allergic to that. I thought he like was unable to to learn things.

[Snowbike Mike]

You should have saw us yesterday because, like, you know, there's no name plates. So there we are, we load in.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah.

[Snowbike Mike]

I walk up, I start looting a body and immediately sniped out of nowhere I go, I'm dead. Nick starts giggling, goes, that was me.

[Andy Cortez]

God damn it. If you're a kind of funny member. Today's Greg way is I review the.

[Greg Miller]

Ray Ban metas that I've been wearing. I'm not wearing them today because I left in a hole like, oh, I'm later than I thought it was. And then I got in the car. I'm like, right. I was supposed to the metas but I I've been wearing my Ray Ban metas quite a bit and I talk about them.

[Andy Cortez]

Today they posted a big update saying like look into your privacy settings because you know they're doing more things that you need. So look into them. Okay, well, they open up their settings.

[Greg Miller]

I can make videos and I can listen to music through them.

[Snowbike Mike]

Is it like a tap or is it a voice command I turned off?

[Greg Miller]

You can do voice command. I turned that off. I I use the tactile button.

[Andy Cortez]

I love that.

[Snowbike Mike]

That's cool.

[Andy Cortez]

It's a new month with which means a new premium collector's item. Grab your nitro rifle poster from Panda Musk to celebrate our 10 years on kindafunny.com SL premium was had the the honor of watching Panama's kind of work through this because he was just like stoked and he's an amazing artist and I love seeing what he works on. And he made a very like cowboy bebop sort of looking inspired art piece with marching band band major Nick Scarpino as like this sort of God emperor looking dude. You got stone Mike Mike as a as an Android Greg Miller or I guess that's Greg or Nick. Well that guy only has a mustache.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah, I think that's Tim.

[Andy Cortez]

Oh yeah. Tim the blue visor back me and.

[Snowbike Mike]

Roger as you should back. Yeah yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

That makes a lot more sense. Got Joey in the front there blessing.

[Greg Miller]

Sam killing it all all year long.

[Andy Cortez]

Making all These for us looks amazing. Shout out to Panda Musk. You're incredible. Thank you to our Patreon producers, Carl Jacobs, Omega Buster and Delaney Twining. Today we're brought to you by Imperial and Aura Frames, but we'll tell you all about that later. For now, let's start with topic of the show. The topic of the show, it was a big game that released recently and it was Expedition 33, but another game also released and that was the often kind of rumored as of recently, the Oblivion Remaster. They went in there, they remade one of the, you know, highest rated games of all time. One of the most enjoyed RPGs of all time, Oblivion Remaster. Obviously, since that was a shadow Drop, we didn't have a chance to review it. We didn't get early codes, nobody knew about it. We got it when everybody else was able to get their hands on it. So let me just read a little quick little quip from Wikipedia that says Elder Scrolls 4 Oblivion Remastered is an action role playing game co developed by Virtuos and Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. It's a remaster of 20 2006's Oblivion, the Elder Scrolls 4 Oblivion, and includes a full graphics overhaul using Unreal Engine 5 and various other improvements from sprinting to redesigned menus. The original expansion packs, Knights of the Nine and Shivering Isles, are part of Oblivion Remastered. I definitely have the least amount of history with this franchise because I was always the BioWare RPG player.

[Greg Miller]

You looked at this, you're like, get out of here, Bethesda.

[Andy Cortez]

And I only had time, you know, time and money and I couldn't be going all over the place. But you know, Mike, you have a pretty big history with Oblivion. What is your past with Oblivion at like the OG one from 2004?

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah, I'm a 360 kid, so this was really special to me back in the day. This is one of those early RPGs I've ever played. Me and my brother actually had Morrowind and didn't understand anything that was going on in that game. Because when you're so young and like that game, little to no guidance on that one really just let you go off the rails on that one. That was pretty special back in the day. But Oblivion to me was the perfect time.

[Greg Miller]

Right.

[Snowbike Mike]

I must have been that 12 to 14 age range there. And so it was like peak gaming. This was it. I bought my first strategy guide for Oblivion and I was reading up on all the Daedric princes. I was shutting down all of the Oblivion Gates. It was everything to me. And so, yeah, this remaster was really special. The announcement, the Shadow Drop was really fun and cool. And this past week, jumping back in to Cyrodiil and reliving those moments is a special time for me.

[Greg Miller]

So talk me through this.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

You and your brother get Morrowind.

[Snowbike Mike]

Oh, yeah.

[Greg Miller]

And you don't know what's going on?

[Snowbike Mike]

No idea, Greg. Because, like, the compass, if you remember. Remember that tiny little.

[Greg Miller]

I never played Morrowind.

[Snowbike Mike]

Well, yeah, and it's fun. You know, we're so pampered now with this remaster. If you go back to the old school, Oblivion, which is on backwards compatibility, which I did on one of my streams, the compass is this small, Andy. You can barely tell which way to go. And, like, you have no idea. So on Morrowind, there was no real, like, hey, this is a clear defined where you need to go. So we'd get lost all the time trying to figure out, what are the quest objectives? Where should we be going? We were only.

[Greg Miller]

But did you like it? Did you enjoy it?

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah, I liked the freedom. I liked the idea of building out a character. It was kind of new to us, the idea of, like, this true RPG of skill points, stats, what is your character? All these different races. So, yeah, it was cool enough to.

[Greg Miller]

Want to play more. Oblivion gets announced or comes out. Do you get hyped for it immediately because of Morrowind or, like, what drew you into it being this Xbox.

[Snowbike Mike]

Oh, early 360 Xbox games.

[Greg Miller]

Okay.

[Snowbike Mike]

Anything that was big on the 360 back then, Peter Jackson's King Kong, never forget. You know what I mean?

[Greg Miller]

Let's get those thousand chivos.

[Snowbike Mike]

Come on, Cameo.

[Andy Cortez]

Oh, yeah. Okay.

[Snowbike Mike]

You know what I mean? So, yeah, it was just one of the early Xbox360 launch window titles, Right. That I can vividly remember being excited about and thinking, oh, wow, we're going to put this in the360 and just get lost in it.

[Andy Cortez]

It's the one you heard from the nerdiest people about.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

And the one that was always in that, like, greatest hit sort of section, or it was obviously one of those games that has. Has an amazing amount of really high ratings. And I was always scared to even look at it back in the day because I was like, I don't. I don't know anything about this franchise. Do I have to play one through three? I was definitely that dude. And this is King Kong, by the way. Oh, hell yeah.

[Greg Miller]

Never forget.

[Andy Cortez]

And yeah, so Oblivion was always one of those titles for me. That just always seemed a bit too overwhelming. And then Skyrim, once that comes out, becomes the. That, that. That's the more mainstream kind of version of it. Greg, what is your past with Oblivion, if any?

[Greg Miller]

None. That's the whole thing. You know, I. I want to read you a text message from Saturday at 11:43pm I text the one, the only Charles on yet a famed IGN reviewer. All right, from way back in the day. Charles has been gone from IGN forever before I left, but he is of course, the man who reviewed Oblivion on March 24, 2006 and gave it a name. It was a 9.3amazing on the IGN scale back then. And I just texted him at the end of my play session on Saturday night, pretty messed up. You never told me to play Oblivion back in the day. And this is the first time Charles and I have talked in years. He just goes, huh. Hope you're liking it, Greg. Uh, I don't know what's wrong with me in 2006. I really, I really don't like. I don't. I. You figure at 2006, March 2006, when Charles reviews this, I have a 360. I've tricked the Columbia Daily Tribune into buying me a 360 because I'm already doing the Game over column. I'm already doing the Game over blog. So I had a 360. I am religiously reading EGM. I am religiously reading IGN. The only thing I can think is that I looked at what the key art for Oblivion was and equated it more to wow. Not necessarily in terms of gameplay, but in terms of, oh, it's elves and orcs. Which is never a Greg Miller thing. That fantasy thing isn't me, especially back then. I've changed. There's definitely things and I'm enjoying my time here. We'll talk about. But like, I have no definitive, oh, I'm not going to play Oblivion because of X. And then it gets ridiculous because I start at IGN in 2007. You know, March 1, 2007 is my first day at IGN on the PlayStation team. So if you remember, Oblivion comes to PlayStation in 2007. And I don't know what. They had me on review grinding that. I was like, well, I'm not going to touch this game. Old game is old. Or more likely than not, Charles has this covered because he's done it before. We don't need to worry about it. But I have no earthly idea why Oblivion never was something that anyone at IG was like, yo, you got to Play this. I don't know if my palette just wasn't as refined in terms of like RPG meant something different back then. Right. I tell the story all the time being an old fart. That this is, you know, 2007, 2008 is really when people keep coming back from previews and they're like, yeah, I went and previewed X and it's got RPG elements in it. It's like, it's an RPG light. There's a skill tree. There's experience. There's an. There's experience in this action adventure you gave me. I mean, like, that just wasn't, you know, what it was. And now you play something like Jedi, Fallen Order, and you're like, what's the difference anymore between what you think of an old school rpg, what you think of here now? People define it so much more by choice, consequence, you know, changing the story to fit your whim to be an RPG more. Right. But anyways, Oblivion. No, totally went past me. I'm on Game Scoop, making horse armor jokes, I'm sure, because that was such a big deal, but it's just never something I went and picked up. So it's a huge blind spot for me. And it isn't until Fallout 3 that I play my first Bethesda RPG and fall in love. Right. And I play Skyrim and I play Fallout 4 and I play Starfield, obviously, well versed in. So it's a weird one that not only did I never play it in the contemporary time period I existed in, I never went back to it either. I never felt the need to go back to it. So this remaster couldn't be a better entry point for me to get in to see what the hubbub was all about.

[Andy Cortez]

Well, maybe. Greg, in 2007 you were playing God of War 2 on the PlayStation.

[Greg Miller]

I was.

[Andy Cortez]

And reviewing the PlayStation 2.

[Greg Miller]

I didn't review it. No, I was never.

[Andy Cortez]

That's crazy. Maybe MLB 2007, the show. Just looking at other games that came out. Call of Duty, Modern Warfare, of course I'm playing that.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, I did play it. I did play it.

[Andy Cortez]

That's where Mike was on. Yeah. I, I think when it comes to sort of one of those games that becomes a staple and becomes a game that everybody looks at as the big favorite and introducing a lot of us to what Bethesda Jank is, I. I think is another great thing. Where to. To reiterate, Chad, this is a review in progress. This is review.

[Greg Miller]

So far we. We have. I haven't rolled credits. I Don't know if Mike's rolled credits. I'm remastered. I know you've rolled credits.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, I've only put in around three or four hours or so. I want to play more because I enjoyed what I, what I was able to experience.

[Greg Miller]

But Mike, how many hours?

[Andy Cortez]

Such a goofy game.

[Snowbike Mike]

I'm probably 10 plus right now. I've restarted three times already. The true Bethesda game style of just restarting again, I'm probably.

[Andy Cortez]

And why is that?

[Snowbike Mike]

The first time I started a character I didn't like then I made Evil Mike. I had a ton of fun. Cloud save didn't carry over to the work computer here, so I had to restart as Roger. And so I'm playing now Roger over here and I have Evil Mike back at home. So I'm back and forth.

[Andy Cortez]

A lot of crashes as well too, right?

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah. I was unhappy today. The worst PC had a lot of crashes on the game. Crashed 4 times in my hour that I was playing.

[Andy Cortez]

Over the one at your desk or the one in the lab?

[Snowbike Mike]

No, no, inside the lab.

[Andy Cortez]

I was going to say the one at your desk with 1 gigabyte of RAM.

[Snowbike Mike]

But back at home it ran perfectly. Flawless for most of my playthrough back at home. So yeah, just one of those.

[Andy Cortez]

I've only, I've had one crash so far on in my experience because the way this is, this is the original engine called GameBrio back in 2006 or 2000 whatever. And essentially virtuos piling Unreal Engine 5 on top of that. And you know, anytime I was experiencing issues during my stream chat was like, remember this is running twice a not super loved engine running on top of a very kind of janky unstable engine. So you're kind of just adding into the unstableness there.

[Greg Miller]

Quick to get out there before we go too far. I'm probably, I'm. I'm 20 plus hours into this.

[Andy Cortez]

Oh, wow. Okay.

[Greg Miller]

I've been going, I've been going.

[Andy Cortez]

Now how much of that was you hitting the button to level up your lock?

[Snowbike Mike]

Can we talk about that? That was so good.

[Greg Miller]

That was all of what, 15 minutes yesterday while I did work. Explain what happened.

[Snowbike Mike]

There's just this sound coming from Greg's desk, right? It's just a, a tapping sound. And I'm like, man, what's going on over there? And I look over and Greg, the hardest working dude I know, right, he's got two screens full of emails. He's checking YouTube comments on one, but then over on one side he's playing Oblivion. And he's at the lockpick screen and he's just half ass lock picking this thing. And I'm going, what is he doing? In my mind then what's this tapping going on?

[Andy Cortez]

And it's a thing where Mike walked by me and I had noticed this already and I kind of looked at him and Mike walked by me. And me and Mike looked at each other and we both looked. We gave each other look like, what's Greg doing? And we look at Greg. What are you doing? I'm just upgrading my lock picking. But the tapping was going for a while.

[Greg Miller]

So if you're unfamiliar with I would say old Bethesda RPGs because it's not. Correct me if I'm wrong. Chat. Please keep me honest. In. In Fallout, I don't remember it ever being like this. And then because you have like, you know, the special system there. And then of course in Starfield they changed so many different things or whatever. But Skyrim, I remember doing it, but Oblivion's even more egregious about it. Right. Of like you have so many stats of your blade, your she, you're blocking, your lock picking. And the way you upgrade those is by doing that thing more. And I. It's a really beautiful system because it is the idea of like, well, if I play this weapon and I do this in stealth, I'm gonna be a much different character than you guys. If you're using a hammer and you're all about this, like, literally your stats will be built out so much differently and you'll have these really robust characters.

[Andy Cortez]

I love when games have those systems.

[Greg Miller]

Me too.

[Snowbike Mike]

Cool.

[Greg Miller]

And. But it's like the way they do it is interesting. We'll talk about it because it's so classic Bethesda. But like the idea here is that the more you do it, the more you get it. And so when you level up one of you. You do these things to level up your lock picking or your blade or whatever. And then that gives you, when you level that up a level up for your overall character to go in and change your stats, which again is going to change. So lock picking in this game is bad. I don't like lock picking in this. Yeah. And it's like. And it's. And this is, you know, if especially from an the sidelines now participating like this is one of those things that like clearly Bethesda was like, what are we doing with this remaster? And they're like, we're remastering the game. All the things that were Janky and weird and not beloved back then or over time have aged. We're just going to leave them there. Who cares? Like, you know what I mean? We're going to go. We're just going to. This is what people are going to expect out of Oblivion. We're not remaking it.

[Andy Cortez]

Right.

[Greg Miller]

And so as Barrett has pulled up here, what the lock picking minigame is, you know, you take your little lock picker, you push the clip up and they fall down and then. But when they hang for a second, that's when you got to lock them in. But it's like you burn through lock picks so fucking fast. And it's like it was my.

[Andy Cortez]

It was the first boss of the game that I encountered. Like, it was a big. It was a moment of achievement when I finally found a lot more lock picks. And Melissa with a Y in the. In the twitch chat was like, you should go back and try to get that box that you wasted 12 lock picks on. I was like, fucking challenge accepted, dude. My final one. Yeah, like. And I think the thing that bothers me the most about it, Greg, is these little pins vary in speed. So tell me about that.

[Greg Miller]

So again, this goes back to. You see up there it talks about your security level is 16 on this one. Right. And then over there it said average for the lock or whatever. When you increase your security level, the locks become easier. They stick more. You do the whole thing right.

[Andy Cortez]

Is it a timing thing? Does your window get larger? Like a window?

[Greg Miller]

You push them up there and they hang way longer. So anyways, I, you know, I. What I. To start this, my thoughts of playing Oblivion for the first time. It is such an interesting. Even though I didn't live it at that time, a throwback to games of that time because Mikey brings up the strategy guide.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

In the amount of times with this game, I stop and I go, Oblivion. How to care of being a vampire Oblivion. You know, I mean, like, like going in of like the game's huge and obviously you could wander and find all this and stuff, but it's just like I need a. I need a guide. Like, it's that kind of game where they're not telling you thing, which is refreshing and different and cool. Even though back then that's how it was, you know, I mean, but like, whatever. And so like early on when I was doing the. I love lock picking in games. And so I got this and I'm like, great. I'm fail. Clip, clip, break, break, break, clip, clip, break. I'm like, what the fuck am I doing. So I then like, okay, hold on. Go to a YouTube video, watch a guy. Oh, hang for it. Okay, fine. And then you jump in. What? You guys saw me yesterday, which would be basically be 20 hours later. I'm so fucking not good at it. And I'm like, I gotta fucking. There's gotta be another. How do you do it? You know, because at one point I thought when the thing was coming out, I was like, oh, is this another tell for when I should do it? Like, one of my lock pickups it wasn't, but I went to look at another one and I ran into a Reddit thread and it was just like, by the way, they haven't patched this other thing where if you lock in one pin, if you then tap a on it over and over again, it just counts as success. Success. So that's what I was doing is I. I sat there for 10 minutes doing email tapping a. And that just took me to 99 on my every lock. Every lock is easy for me to get into.

[Snowbike Mike]

That's that old school stuff that Greg was talking. You can sneak behind somebody and your stealth continues to increase. So you'll see people constantly walking behind people there to level up.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, I saw it in the chat. Yeah, we have a super chat from Demon hacker. Did Greg rubber band his sticks to level up sneaking? Right. I haven't done that yet, but I will. And it's the thing of, like, for me, that is the story of Skyrim, because I. Skyrim has very similar systems. Right. Obviously a sequel to this, a bit more modern because it was a bit later in the, you know, the timeline. But I remember Skyrim being my first Elder Scrolls and it was that idea, I'll never forget. It was. Colin was doing a podcast behind me with Sin and Mark Ryan. They were recording Washington's beard when they used to do that. And it was me in the living room, TV muted, just with my character and crouched behind a monk in Skyrim, that what you would do is you would hit the monk once and your stealth would go up and then he'd stand up and then he'd sit back down and then you'd hit him again. You had to wait. And I just did that for hours to get my stealth up or whatever.

[Andy Cortez]

To do this power leveling type shit.

[Greg Miller]

Exactly, exactly. I love that. Again, like, I feel like both of these stories are such great windows into what Oblivion is and what kind of game it is and what kind of RPG it is. Like, it is a nerdy ass RPG of like, how do you want to chase this and how do you want to do it? And as somebody who fell in love with Bethesda games with Fallout 3 and has been along the entire ride, it's fun to go back here and have it. Okay, sure. Plenty of things are antiquated in this. Like, right, like I'm in the middle of a fucking Oblivion gate right now. You know, where you go through, you kill everything, you unlock the gate. Congratulations, you did the thing. And it's like, cool, I've leveled up. Well, I can't apply any of these stats until I go sleep. That fucking sucks. Like, what is it? You know, we're so. Everything we play nowadays has been streamlined and to be frictionless, which is always such a great word. And so it's funny to come back to this game and have all these different things of friction and it's the thing of like, cool. I have a healing spell for minor wounds. And I don't understand why sometimes it works and then other times and I'm in boss fights just running around healing when someone no do it. Why is it. Oh, God, all the idea. I was telling Jen about this last night. I don't know. Very romantic anniversary. Very romantic anniversary date where I just talked about oblivion.

[Snowbike Mike]

I had to talk about oblivion where again, it's.

[Greg Miller]

It's.

[Andy Cortez]

I'm doing to warm him up, you.

[Greg Miller]

Know, I'm doing things in this game that I haven't done in forever. And one of those is cheesing where it's just like, cool, go clear out this nest of vampires. Got that. Get there, get my ass handed to me by the. Just get my ass handed to it. And it's that idea of like, okay, well I'm gonna eat, shit and kill every one of these vampires. Like, I'm challenging myself to do it when clearly the game doesn't want me to do it because I'm under level or my blade isn't high enough. So it's like, I start, I go in there and I'll tease one of them out. And they come out, we're fighting on a hillside. So, you know, they kill me and I load the save and they kill me and I load the save. And then it's like, okay, well, I run them down the hill and then I run back up the hill. But you can't run up a hill. So I'm doing the trudgy walk. So then I turn around and I'm shooting arrows at this poor vampire who's slowly trudging up. And then it's like, you know, rope a dope, run him to the side, running back down and go back up. It's like that little. Like, how am I. I was told.

[Andy Cortez]

By everybody to be jumping all the time.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, of course. Acrobatics, is it? Or agility, whatever it is. Up. Yeah. Like there's all that kind of stuff in here that like, is a game unto itself. The top level. Thoughts from Greg Miller on Oblivion. I know I've talked a lot already and I have so much more to say. Right. Is like, what a charming and quaint rpg. Like, I legitimately love it for what it is. Is I've talked at length. I think about this on Greg Way this week of like, I have a lot of gamer guilt right now. Where it is. I wanted to play as much of this to get to this review. Right. And so I think I'm going to put it down now. Not because I don't like it, not because I'm never coming back to it. Because it's like, well, my plan before going to PAX next week, come see me do my PAX keynote Thursday, Ben Starr's interview me, 11am My plan was to go there and on those flights, I'm going to do Outer Worlds again so that we can do the review at the end of the month. Like, we want to do a re. Review. Right? So this is chance to play that, which means putting this down, which I find myself torn about. Right? Where it's like, I would love to keep playing it, but sometimes I'm playing it, I'm like, I should stop playing this. Where it's just like, I'm not getting, like, it's not I. You know, to go through all.

[Andy Cortez]

Why is that? Like, because you're. You're still having fun, you're enjoying it. But is it a. I should prioritize other stuff?

[Greg Miller]

It's the prioritized stuff for sure. But it's also the fact of just like. Like, I love it for what it is. And what it is, is a small, quaint game for me personally. Like, I have run into nobody that matters to me. Like, I have no. There's no. There's no Andreja, you know, I mean, there's no. There's no dog meat. There's nobody. I'm. I. You know, the chat convinced me to make a tiger character. Right? The khajiit, right?

[Snowbike Mike]

Yes.

[Greg Miller]

Where I made. I made a khajiit who made him look like Truman the tiger from the zoo and called him Truman the tiger. But it's like, I don't Feel like I'm role playing as him, right? Like, I feel like this is a game. And back to that being quaint and a product of his time. Like, I feel so much like I am role playing the God, the hero, the swordsman, you know what I mean? Like, I'm just there to do the thing and get the thing. All right, cool. And like, you're presented with funny little quests here and there, but it's like, I'm not connected to this world. I'm not in love with this world. Like, I need to be a part of it. Even going to the Imperial city, right? Which is that you saw in the, you know, the wide shot there, right? You get in there and it's like so laughably small where it's like, oh, yeah, this is that kind of game where it's like, as you come in on this one and it's this giant.

[Andy Cortez]

Like, you know, great title card, let me tell you.

[Greg Miller]

Oh, yeah, great title card.

[Snowbike Mike]

Great title card.

[Greg Miller]

You know, in the round thing, you get in there and it's like, oh, I gotta go into. I gotta go to. I gotta go to the armor. Every one of these, you know, it's just these circles of stone with, like, doors. And I go into them and like, people give shit about, like, oh, man, fucking Starfield's a fast travel simulator. I'm like, motherfucker, the amount of times I'm warping back here, run, load through the door, run into the store, load through the door, sell my shit, fix my shit, load through the door, come out to fast travel back. I'm like, all right, guys, what are we talking? But again, product of its time. Yeah, but it's like, this feels like such a small, lovable. Even though I don't have the history with it, a comfort food RPG where what I think, you know, for me, it'll be. I think I'm going to put it down. And then I'd imagine what's going to happen is I come back on a day where I'm like, man, what I want to play. Oh, you know what? I'm gonna run a couple. I'm gonna run a couple quests. I'm gonna go see what's over there. I'm gonna go do that.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, that's kind of in the short amount of time that I was. I was experiencing it. First off, I was surprised that there was fast travel right off the rip.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yes.

[Andy Cortez]

I was like, holy that. Immediately I was like, oh, that's something that they added for the remaster. I bet that's a quality of life thing. And everybody's like, no, you can just do that. I was pretty surprised by that. But. But I am. So I'm right with you that, you know, I don't know if you eventually meet any NPCs that kind of become a Garrus Vakarian, a Morden Solace, a Rex. You know, I. Mike, could probably be the best one to answer that because I know you have a much larger history with oblivion.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah, well, I'm making my own fun right now with brother Martin. You know what I mean? I've taken brother Martin. Son. Son to the king, heir to the throne. He's supposed to be taken somewhere. I'm taking my. On my own in Jerry, of course.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Snowbike Mike]

So I'm making my fun. And I think you kidnapped him.

[Andy Cortez]

Like, you often try to get me in the car with you.

[Snowbike Mike]

Get ready. We're gonna go to LA together one day in the car ride.

[Greg Miller]

And that's the thing with the vampires, right?

[Snowbike Mike]

Where it makes your own fun.

[Greg Miller]

In a normal, normal game. In a modern game, if the mission was get the vampires to get the thing to go to the thing to fight the big boss, and I got to this vampire cave and I was getting my fucking shit kicked in, I'm like, ah, this fuck. This is a progress blocker. But here in this game, I'm like, well, progress feels like it takes forever anyway. I don't feel like I'm leveling up a lot. Right. I'm using my blade all the time. I'm barely a level 50 blade. I'm like, fuck, come on. I want to kill things with this goddamn thing.

[Andy Cortez]

Now, Mike, with your history of it, do you recollect any moments that you could look back on and be like, oh, that side quest was awesome, or this faction or this npc? I know we don't want to get too spoilery for a game that came out to N6, but it's been a.

[Snowbike Mike]

Really long time for me. So I'm reliving a lot of the wow moments. I think the finale is the biggest part that, like, I would encourage Greg and others to get to because I think that is really special what they did there. But, like, I think when I think of Bethesda games and those, like, really memorable moments, the factions, the companions that started for me back in Skyrim.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Snowbike Mike]

Where it's like, oh, man. I think maybe that's just like a product of the time where I was a little bit older, I cared a little bit more. But for me, it was Skyrim when you really started to dive into. I care about this character that's following me around. I want to be part of this faction or guild. So that's where it kicked in for me, this one. When I'm reliving it, yeah, it seems a little more empty. It doesn't have the, oh, wow, this character's got to ride or die with me forever. It's just not to say it needs.

[Greg Miller]

That again for what it was. I think. What I think is interesting when I think about the game and I talk about the game. Like, for me, I think it exists in this really interesting spot where it feels to me like, obviously you see the seeds of everything Bethesda RPGs become. And there's. And that's in here.

[Andy Cortez]

And a lot of RPGs have become 100%.

[Greg Miller]

But I also feel like, especially when I look at my character or I look at the gameplay or when I'm playing it, right, because combat, come on. Combat sucks. I'm, like, getting. I'm like, why is this guy fucking doing so much damage? I was like, oh, I got to block every shot, then hit. You block every shot. And I'm sure there's other ways and better ways, but that's how I'm playing it. Anyways. Sorry. I feel like in this position that exists in the timeline, it feels to me like so many of the different arcade games we would have played or even like Genesis, whatever games where you are the hero, you're the ax, you're the dwarf, you're the whatever. Right, Right. It feels so much like they took you and dropped you into first person in that game, if that makes sense, where you wouldn't expect to be making choices, but you're fighting these things, you're leveling up, you're getting your things. It's like. It's that kind of like, oh, I got dropped into what an RPG would be at that time period, which is totally fine and good or whatever. And so, again, I'm enamored by it. Like, I am like, oh, man, I.

[Andy Cortez]

Wish I could mean it right now.

[Greg Miller]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

That's how much I enjoyed my small time with it. One thing I do want to ask you all is what classes did you pick and what hardware are you playing on? But first, we got to tell you about a word from our sponsors, because they keep the. They keep the lights and the mics on.

[Greg Miller]

That's right.

[Andy Cortez]

Listen to it right here.

[Greg Miller]

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[Andy Cortez]

Shout out to our sponsors and shout out to you all for super chatting and supporting us.

[Greg Miller]

What a great move right there.

[Andy Cortez]

Like Alex Frazier did with a ten dollar super chat. Thank you. Alex Frazier says playing Oblivion was a fun little jaunt again. But what it really did for me was make me want to go back and play Avowed. Now I can't go back to Oblivion Remastered. It's just not as fun to play.

[Greg Miller]

You're.

[Andy Cortez]

I mean mouth to my ears.

[Greg Miller]

Thank you. Like 100 like when I. That's the one thing when I'm playing it even right there where I'm beating the. Out of the Some guys here the tower where it's just like ah. Avowed felt so good to play. And again is it fair to compare a game you know, 20 years later? No, but it's like. It is like man. We complimented it when we reviewed it. But to be here now playing a game that is so similar. It's like man, if that felt good to play.

[Andy Cortez]

Been a lot of improvements in the. In the gameplay space there forever.

[Greg Miller]

I just whack these guys with my sword. It's like I. It's like playing this. The combat in Oblivion feels like what I imagine. Infinity BL or no. Yeah, Infinity Blade. That was the.

[Andy Cortez]

The phone one.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's what imagine that felt like to play because I never played it but you know what I mean like that it strikes me as how it is. I slam my sword into them over and over again like die.

[Andy Cortez]

$5 super chat from Sims Gaming says birthday tax. Thanks for being a positive force in my life. Well, happy birthday to you.

[Snowbike Mike]

Happy birthday.

[Andy Cortez]

Congratulations to you. Hope you're having a lovely day. Scarlet Libra with a five dollar super chat says getting a sword maiden tattoo finish on my back. Have a good weekend. Damn, that's got to be a. I mean send photos. How do you like sleep? Or I guess you don't. If you sleep on your stomach you'll probably be okay. Tyler Ty Wilkins VO5$Super Jack says also. Oh, let me read the dual super chats from Tyler Wilkins the first one which by the way, thanks for super chatting twice. Very generous. Says I love Oblivion for all of the minutia fact that I can level acrobatics and jump for the tallest tower with no damage or swimming and literally create a wake. Also lockpicking is great actually Gives you pressure and accomplishment. Go to Andy stream at like 55 minutes and just watch his reaction through it. I celebrated the live. This is like the big. It's like beating millennia, you know, it's incredible. We'll. Re. One more super chat and I'll get back to the other one. So thank you, everybody, for supporting. We have Alex J. Sandoval, OMGLX, with a 10. Super chat says my most vivid oblivion memory was firing spells at a barrel until I maxed alteration, then crafted my own master unlock spell called no, it's Not. Find a door that's locked. No, it's not. Oh, I love that.

[Greg Miller]

That's really cool.

[Andy Cortez]

And that's how kind of granular you can get with the classes and with the spells and things like that. So what I.

[Greg Miller]

Audio listeners were, yeah, here's Andy trying to do it on.

[Andy Cortez]

A struggle here with the plastic. You YouTube commentators gave me a. A big tip that, like, if you knock it back up, it stays the same speed. Before it reaches all the way. It stays the same sort of like, it doesn't change in speed, which. Why is it different speeds? I didn't get it. I didn't understand. Why is it different speeds? I. I wanted to shout out the. That's him. Yes. Thank you for bringing that video up, Barrett. The. What I wanted to bring up was classes and how we're playing, because I was super stoked that when you create your character and you eventually go to that little prologue, you're asked, hey, what do you want to be? What do you want to do?

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

And I up, and I picked something I didn't really want to do, and then they give you another chance to kind of re roll it, which I loved, and I appreciated that because I accidentally clicked something that I shouldn't have. I was kind of bummed out to learn that. That there isn't a whole lot of, you know, leveling up your. I don't know, the way that you could kind of coax people into giving you better deals on things or swindle them in certain ways. There. There's a bit of that in here. But a lot of people were telling me in the chat, it's not like Mass Effect with Paragon or Renegade where you're like, hey, I'm gonna be so nice to you. Like, all right, I'll give up where all of my enemies are hiding. Like, it's not. Not quite to that level. So what I was leveling up and what I sort of specked into was, of course, Stealth Archer, but I really enjoyed the spells. And I wanted to be able to conjure a little skeleton who called Boner, and I love that dude. And then conjure up my Theo from the past. And he's like a, like, floating spirit that moves at about, like, I don't know, half a mile an hour. Like, this is the slowest moving spirit you ever seen your life. And I'm always a heavy man. I'm stoked to kind of keep on working through that. What classes did you all pick? Mike, do you remember what you picked back in the day? Differentiated that.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah, I differentiated. This time around, I think I always go to the classic just sword and board in the Bethesda games and Skyrim. I think of we booted up my same from 2008 back in the day. And it was like he just had the male armor on with the blade, katana, and a shield. It's like. Yep, that's what Mike was doing way back in the day. And so I tried my best to do something different for Evil Mike, my character, I wanted to go with a dagger or short sword. No, no, not Steve's. I've gone full away from magic this time around.

[Andy Cortez]

Wow.

[Snowbike Mike]

And so, yeah, it morphed into just running around with a bow. The bow seems to be my favorite. I also, like I said, have Brother Martin, who will do all of his own casting. He one taps a lot of enemies. So, like, I have a companion running with me who just does most of it.

[Andy Cortez]

Oh, nice.

[Snowbike Mike]

And I laugh in the background.

[Andy Cortez]

I take photos of him.

[Greg Miller]

Is this when you kidnap Brother Martin?

[Snowbike Mike]

Yes, yes. So in Brother Martin's quest, which is like the second quest of the game, you're supposed to go find him over at Kavat and then bring him back to go see Joffrey, who is the king's friend.

[Andy Cortez]

Right, right.

[Snowbike Mike]

And then you get that storyline going. And I looked at Brother Martin, I said, you're with me now. And so instead of going back, we just are on our own grand adventure. We go through minds together. We go do awesome dungeons together. It's just a. It's a brotherhood. It's a friendship.

[Andy Cortez]

I love that.

[Snowbike Mike]

And so, yeah, that's been a lot of fun. I chose the snake birth sign this time around. Usually I'll go with, like, the warrior.

[Andy Cortez]

Oh.

[Snowbike Mike]

I was debating between the lady and the snake, but the snake gives me a poison magic spell that I can throw out at everybody once a day. I don't really love that it's once a day. Yeah, it's kind of.

[Andy Cortez]

That bummed me out Initially with. With as much struggle as I was having with these lock picks, I was like, oh, one of these skills gives me the ability to unlock things better or unlock more things even more difficult locks.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

And I guess I just sort of gloss over the once a day. And once Chad pointed that I was like, I don't really know if I want that. So I lean more towards. I mean, I love clicking heads. I love being an archer in a lot of fantasy style games. And especially because this game does not have. Because it is so dated in its combat and it's very much a product of its time. It doesn't have, you know, the way about has an incredibly rewarding parry or dodge and all that. This game does have a dodge. It doesn't feel awesome and you're not gonna. You'll be able to get away from enemies. But it wasn't. It doesn't. It doesn't feel like modernizing the way that I would prefer. So I chose to go archer along with some sort of like either it's necromancy or just going with. With intelligence to kind of have fire spell. So I'll shoot an arrow at a dude and then fire spell. Having a blast with. With sort of the. The variation in combat there. Because I like the way the colors will look on the screen when you're doing cool spells. Especially with how awesome the game looks. The lighting is fantastic. I created. What class did I create? Oh, I did a. I think I did a dark elf.

[Snowbike Mike]

Me too.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah. Because the first one I selected, I popped in there and was all kind of geared towards only magic.

[Snowbike Mike]

Okay.

[Andy Cortez]

So I immediately kind of restarted and re rolled my character. What did you go? Dark Elf?

[Snowbike Mike]

I think usually I go Argonian. I love the lizards. Yeah. But I went with dark elf this time for Evil Mike. I was really role playing this. My goal was to try to kill every NPC in the game. There's definitely some railroads. There's some restrictions on that. You're not allowed to just start murdering everybody. And so yeah, Evil Mike has been kind of held back a little bit on that. But I love the freedom of these games. I think that's what Oblivion showed me way back in the day was the idea that you could equip the bow, use the bow all day long or all of a sudden you're with a mace or you're with a claymore. It doesn't really matter what you have. You can do anything and have fun any way you want. Every time you turn it on.

[Andy Cortez]

Which is cool and.

[Greg Miller]

But don't you feel committed at some point?

[Snowbike Mike]

Never. No, no, never.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Snowbike Mike]

I mean, except for when I get the blades katana once. It's pretty messed up that they took the katana away from me early on.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah. The dungeon. Yeah. The sewers, they. I was so mad on stream what they're taking away. I got it pretty quick when I got to be a blade, of course. And then I was upset when I found a sword that was way better. And I was like, well, sell this katana. I don't need this.

[Andy Cortez]

I saw a cool TikTok saying that if you go Argonian with the lizard guy, your poison, poison won't hurt you.

[Greg Miller]

Oh, yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

So there's like a couple moments where, you know, there's all this poison in the room and they're just kind of tanking all of it and allowing the poison to kill the enemies, which I thought was really neat. Greg, what class did you go with? I know you already mentioned kind of sword fighting, but what class, what race did you pay you went khajiit.

[Greg Miller]

Khajiit. Hailing from the province of elsewhere. They are intelligent, quick and agile. They make excellent thieves due to their natural agility and unmatched acrobatic skills. A khajiit can see in the dark. That's my power there. And it is the thing.

[Andy Cortez]

How does that.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah, what does that look like?

[Greg Miller]

It's a spell I can cast, like, over and over again.

[Andy Cortez]

That'll give me predator vision type.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, I forget what they call it called. There's an actual.

[Andy Cortez]

Does it outline enemies or does it just make the screen brighter?

[Greg Miller]

It makes the screen, like, purpl bright. So you're kind of getting like night vision out of it. Yeah, I've never seen that.

[Snowbike Mike]

That's cool.

[Greg Miller]

It's not. Yeah, it's not too shabby. When I was like, I was playing a dungeon and I was like, all right, is this a Bethesda bug or am I missing something? So I was like, like the. I'm using clairvoyance to see where I had to go eventually. And it's just running me to a dead end. And then enemies are appearing. And I can hear, like, the enemies I'm supposed to fight. Like, I'm like, all right. Did they spawn in the walls? As I use the night vision, I'm like looking all around like, no, this is a broken dungeon. I'll come back. And come back.

[Andy Cortez]

I was having some struggle with speech crafting.

[Greg Miller]

I did that. I'm born under the tower as my birth sign the class I rolled was Bard. Intelligent and personable. They prefer to accomplish tasks with their words. First and sword. Second specialization stealth. And I'm currently level 15 right now as I play through it. Yeah, I'm using sword and board as well. You know, I'm not a creative person so I jumped in and it was like, I'm going to kind of let the game come to me on what I want to be. But you know, usually I end up being bow and arrow and being very stealth or daggers. You know, that's why I like using that a lot too. And I've been just very open to letting the game tell me what the best weapon I have is and then going with it. So right now I'm running a glass long sword. You know, it's doing 12 damage, which is what I wanted to be like, these vampires can't be fucking killing me. I need dps. I need to be owning their ass, you know.

[Andy Cortez]

And that's a big reason why I love summoning a homie in a game. We watched the Borderlands for preview or whatever that reveal was seeing the Vex lady class that you can summon your little spectral tiger or whatever the hell. I loved always having something that could grab aggro and pull aggro as I'm trying to get these critical headshots. So I summon my little skeleton guy and I really enjoy it. And Greg, I noticed you're playing on little Rog Ally right there. Your Rog Ally.

[Greg Miller]

That's right, everybody.

[Andy Cortez]

Not sponsored Rog.

[Greg Miller]

No, but if you want to. Yeah, actually I want to get a. This is, you know, again, Greg way. I've been talking at length about this like. Like doing the Outer Worlds replay and so doing a re review of that. And so I want to. I'm gonna get my playing time in with it this way that I have even more to say about it. And I want to do like a review or my thoughts on it later because top level, I love it like Rog Ally X and the. The Rog Ally Exit partnered with Xbox Play anywhere is fucking choice. Like it's exactly what I wanted. Where I've complained before about Steam Deck, but I want to be able to boot multiple things, blah, blah, blah, blah.

[Andy Cortez]

But like, like not having to do these weird installations and boots and stuff.

[Greg Miller]

But in like. And that you know, I'm a big baby obviously about PC gaming as you know. But like, you know, I got the Xbox app and I got Steam and I'm just in there doing the damn thing. And so the ability of Playing this on the Series X at my desk or the Series X at home on the giant screen, right. And then having it ready to go here is just so amazing. And it's to the point that I was talking about this like it is actually happening. What I've warned the world about for so long, where. No. Where it's making me, I think, an Xbox gamer. This isn't a bit where, you know, I started Expedition 33 with the steam code they gave us, right? And then I was like, okay, cool. And I was playing on the Rog Ally X and then fell off. But I want to get back to it. I'm like, you know what? I'm gonna restart this and I'm gonna restart it on the Xbox version of the game so that I can play it on the Xbox Series X at home and have the big TV experience I want, which I know I could plug and play, blah, blah, blah. You know, there's a million other things to get a PC that would be not handheld quality, plugged into a tv, but that's just not my scene. Do that over there. And it's the same thing with blueprints. I started blueprints on Steam. I'm like, no, no, no. I'm gonna do. I did that when we first got code. I put two hours in. I'm like, all right. When I come back to that Xbox as well. So I'm becoming an Xbox gamer strictly.

[Snowbike Mike]

On the fact that I want in the ecosystem.

[Greg Miller]

Wow. I want to be able to take the game locally. I mean, I love my remote play, you know, portal, don't get me wrong, but I'm getting on a plane this week. That doesn't help me. So, like, having everything ready to go there is where it is. However, though, performance wise, I assume is why you were asking, right? Like, yeah, like, Series X has been awesome. I haven't had any crashes. I love the way it all sinks and saves. I think it looks gorgeous. It's so nice to play it there.

[Snowbike Mike]

Beautiful.

[Greg Miller]

And then over here on the rock. Ally. Yeah. I'm running it at. I went and watched. I went and watched a PC video.

[Snowbike Mike]

Whoa.

[Greg Miller]

So that somebody. I didn't want to. I didn't. I don't always have to drop it on Andy's desk and say, make it look good, please.

[Andy Cortez]

I love doing that, though.

[Greg Miller]

I know you do. And it's one of those. Even when I didn't, I jumped through a bunch of hoops because the Rog Ally's got a bunch of like. Like different settings. And this person was going through doing exactly that. I didn't even think it looked that good. So I think I am just running it at basic. Yeah, I'm just running on BASIC low right now.

[Andy Cortez]

Of course, you know, that's kind of the handheld life.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, exactly. And it looks. It looks fine. It doesn't look great. Obviously. You know, frame rate's not amazing. What am I running? I think I limited the frame rate.

[Andy Cortez]

Probably 30.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, no, I saw. I'm running uncapped on frame rate right now. I don't know what I'm getting. I haven't thrown it up, but it looks good enough. And again, when I. It's good enough for. Especially this game, you know, an older game that is new again. And then the fact of, like, when I want to just throw it up on the TV when I can. But I think it. It's an interesting one where it fits so well on the handheld. Like, again, I think I'm even more forgiving of the shortcomings, the dated things when I'm playing it on the handheld because it feels like, okay, cool, I'm playing in a giant RPG on my handheld. It's fun.

[Andy Cortez]

What's the accessibility like with text? Is there any text that's way too small for the screen? Oh, not.

[Greg Miller]

Not in my. Not for me. No. I've been able to read everything fine on the rag.

[Andy Cortez]

I was doing a blueprints run last night and just like, man, I would.

[Greg Miller]

I can see where that those words.

[Andy Cortez]

Are real tough to read on. On the little like map layout or whatever.

[Greg Miller]

It's more like, you know, like, I'll jump in and like, with it being on low settings, like, I'm like, all right, I need to go to one of the merchants and I run over to these blurry signs and I'm like, ah. Are you the armor or are you.

[Andy Cortez]

The sword beam selling me Mike, do you think you're going to keep on continuing with Oblivion?

[Snowbike Mike]

Oblivion and a lot of Bethesda RPGs will always be my comfort food game. I think I'll always be able to jump back into it. I don't see myself running through this one anytime soon as a priority, but it will always be there, which is what I appreciate. I think Grand Theft Autos and old school Bethesda games are always like my. Just go to. These are my favorite games from my childhood. And I'm so happy that it got the remastered right. Like we talked about it. We haven't really talked. How beautiful.

[Andy Cortez]

Dude, it looks incredible.

[Snowbike Mike]

This game is Unbelievable. When you turn it on and like for me, right, I go back to my old save on my old. On the original file of the game game. It's like you look at that and then you look at it. It's like, man, how blessed am I to have one of my favorites of all time, get this uprising, this treatment and look so good.

[Andy Cortez]

Especially damn. Because I always saw these games even at the time as ugly. Like I was never a fan of the art direction or art style and. And a lot of that just kind of like compounded when even you know, Fallout New Vegas and then Skyrim and I was like, God, they just. I don't want to exist in any of this.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

And so to have virtuos, I do a pretty killer job making. Remaking all these assets from the ground up. Making. Using Unreal Engines 5 is just like super goated lighting system. It. It runs. It also runs really great when it doesn't crash. I was impressed by that.

[Greg Miller]

I'm surprised you guys are having so many crashes.

[Andy Cortez]

Well, I only had. I only had one crash. But I, I don't want to speak for everybody and make it seem like the game is perfect because I know other people are having issues out there. But I was very impressed with how amazing the game was looking running in 4K. Super high, you know, really good frame rate and it looking as amazing as it did. And it was only using like 50 of my GPU. So I was pretty impressed by how lightweight it was because the game is massive. I mean it's 100 plus gigs, right Mike? Like it's.

[Snowbike Mike]

It's 11 to download. Yeah, I believe it's very big.

[Andy Cortez]

You want those high 4k res textures. You know, it's going to be a.

[Snowbike Mike]

Big ass download and it's just one of those. It's so beautiful and it's just fun to walk from point to point, explore the map. There's so much to find and see, just like any other Bethesda game. But yeah, it's wild to think here we were 20 years ago and here we are now getting to re, you know, enjoy this all over again. I love it.

[Greg Miller]

And again, I think something I talked about a little bit back that I want to call out is the fact that there's so little hand holding which I know is an off putting to people. Right. Maybe you don't want to Google or have a strategy guide or whatever. But it also was awesome for me of like, you know, one of the early quests I was on was like, all right, cool. You Know your next clue is gonna be where the river meets the bay. And like, you know, and it doesn't like drop the pin where you need to go. So it's like I look at the map like, oh, I go down there, I get down to where the river meets the bay or whatever, and I look across the way. And granted, again, I'm doing this all for the first time. I look across and there's an island out there with this like, weird statue. I'm like, oh, cool. So I swim over there and I get off there and I'm like, oh, it's a three face statue. And like, oh. And then it was like I ran into the just the Shivering Isles dlc. That was shit. And I started that and I was like, damn, this was really cool. And a nice emergent gameplay moment of me just finding it. And then of course, when I was done with that and I came back off, I'm like, all right, well, I'll go to this town. And then I went there and I found the thing and it's like, okay, cool. I like, again, like, I know you're gonna get to super chats, but if I can pull one out here. Dean Brown, super chat, it said 19 years later, the Dark Brotherhood and Thieves Guild's questlines in Oblivion are as fun as ever. Maybe Bethesda's best. So fun to revisit this game.

[Andy Cortez]

It's funny because I've heard so much about these things in just gaming culture.

[Greg Miller]

But again, like in a. You know how video games are constantly waiting for you and you know, you're gonna. They're. They're there for you nowadays. They want to meet you where you want to be. I started the Thieves Guild questline. I was like, okay, cool. And immediately like, all right, there's two other thieves here. You guys gotta go get. One of you has to go get this, the McGuffin or whatever, right? And maybe this is how you do it and there's no thing on it and talk to the beggars. I was like, all right. And I walked in the city and there were no beggars there. And I was like, oh, all right, well, I'm gonna fuck off and do something else. And I did. And I got the message of like, all right, the other person's already found. Oh, this is a race. I didn't realize it was like a quest. You know what I mean? And I was like, I came back and. Or slept or whatever. And then they came back. Well, my character was like, well, the other person got the MacGuffin. So maybe there's another way for me to get like damn shit. I didn't. I didn't expect it to be a timed. I was going to miss this if I didn't do it.

[Andy Cortez]

Shout out to Miguel Kicks for becoming a 30 month member with using their Twitch prime member. Did you know that if you have.

[Greg Miller]

Amazon prime, you have Twitch Prime?

[Snowbike Mike]

Wow. Wow.

[Andy Cortez]

That harmony was fantastic.

[Greg Miller]

It sucks you got to work with Nick so much.

[Andy Cortez]

It really does. It truly does us.

[Greg Miller]

Let's get to some more my pants last night.

[Andy Cortez]

Get some more super chats. Mellow fellow. Two dollars Super Chat. Two two dollar Super Chat just says oblivion. In all we got Omega buster with a $10 super chat. Thank you Omega Buster. Very generous of you. Says so. Andy and Turtle are best friends. Mike's on the street. Damn.

[Snowbike Mike]

I made Andy run into the middle of a battlefield with no cover to res me. And he's still mad at me for that one.

[Andy Cortez]

Still pissed off.

[Snowbike Mike]

We had a lot of gear. We were looking really good.

[Andy Cortez]

I had so much good. Good stuff. Great moment in Arc Raiders. Go check out the VOD if you want to check it out. It's near the end of it. It's pretty much the very end of it because it ended the game. End of the night of Mike being like Andy Raspy. And I'm like, mike, I'm not gonna get to you.

[Greg Miller]

It's.

[Andy Cortez]

It's running out. You can res me. You can. Don't you walk on me. Make it, Andy. Make it. So I'm running out there, middle of nowhere to go. Res Mike and I kneel down. We just start getting shot by all these other raiders. What a good time. What a great. That brings me back to flashbacks of.

[Greg Miller]

Playing Fortnite with Kevin.

[Andy Cortez]

Oh my God. You just gave me so much PTSD right there. Yang fam. $2 super chat says thank you, Greg. You deserve those three stars.

[Greg Miller]

Oh, thank you. I'm glad you. I look forward to that.

[Snowbike Mike]

I'm excited to see that.

[Andy Cortez]

That's your alternate account or one.

[Greg Miller]

No, that's so I remember. We're going to give him the Expedition 33 spoiler cast.

[Andy Cortez]

Joseph park with a five dollar super chat asks what's yalls opinions on carrying capacity. I'm enjoying the game, but I've been so sick of carrying capacities in open world RPGs. I'll tell you what, Joseph. When it's a game that I don't care about being roasted by the community on because there's nothing I would ever do in an Elden Ring or in a souls game. I don't want to get blasted by the community.

[Snowbike Mike]

Wow.

[Andy Cortez]

But a game like this is definitely one that I would go download a mod for. And I did it in Dragon's Dogma 2. I never did the Dragon's Dogma 2 mods where you get the unlimited fast travel crystals because I still enjoyed the traveling aspect of it. And that's why they wanted you to not. They wanted those things to be in much higher rarity. But I downloaded the quality of life things that I wish it had. Which one of them that was very important In Giant Dogma 2 was unlimited stamina when you're not in battle. And I downloaded that mod and it made the game so much better because you're not constantly like, all right, my guy's tired. Let me keep on running. When you're not fighting, you have unlimited stamina. This is definitely a game. The Oblivion Remastered is definitely a game that I would be super down to go look on Nexus mods and go, unlimited carrying capacity. I don't want that part of the game because that's not really something that's hurting the experience where it's like, no, you gotta. Man, it makes the experience so much better. You gotta really deal with that sort of. In, you know, being encumbered. I don't want that. Get it out. Like, you know, that should be somewhere else if you. That should be an accessibility thing now in games like Starfield did toggle that shit.

[Greg Miller]

Which I thought there was not a chance they would do. I remember when Gary was bitching about that at launch of Starfield. I'm like, dude, that's how Bethesda makes their games. They're not going to change that. And they did. It's interesting for me with Fallout 3 and on, I've never had a problem with carrying capacity. Like, I do think it's a fun, like, oh, I got to decide what I want to put down. What. Blah, blah. This one, I have an issue with it where it's like, you know, when I did the lock picking, it gave me so many points that I leveled up my strength all the way. So I have 500. I can. I can carry a lot, but it's, like, still annoying because it's a little bit more cumbersome to get right. Like, fast travel is restricted when you're inside the dungeon or whatever. Right. I also feel like I'm always hurting for coin in this. Like, I haven't gotten to where I can't get a bed or I can't repair my Things, but it's like I run into this thing and it's like, oh, like one of the quests for one of the other things is like, you can the vampire sanctuary or whatever down south. Anyways, it doesn't matter, but like, oh, you can fix this place up. And I'm like, oh, that's cool. Maybe it'll be like my HQ if I fix it up. And so I went to talk to the guy, he's like, yeah, it'll be 2,000, 3,000 for everyone. Like five of these things. I'm like, Bro, I got 185 gold. Like, I got to figure out how to, you know. So it's like right now I'm in the dungeon and I am over encumbered. And it's like I got three weapons that are all like, I just picked up that are 500 gold or 400 I don't want to drop. Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

As if he was summoned from the shadows, Gary Widow pops in and says encumbrance should be banned in all games forever.

[Snowbike Mike]

I have a problem in Bethesda games. I like to collect all the books. I find it fascinating that they, like write these little novels and these books. So I have a big problem of I like to collect every single book. And then do I ever read them? Of course not, Andy. Well, of course not, but you know what I mean. And then like, where do I put them? I have nowhere to put them either, but just my back pocket.

[Andy Cortez]

You got to put them in your Zoom Call background whenever you. Whenever you're doing a Zoom Call interview.

[Greg Miller]

Well, that's why I thought it was like so interesting in this one. Like they have the bookshop guy.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

I was like, oh, I've always been looking for you in like a video game like this. I pick up all the books, I just turn them in. Just go ahead. I read them real quick to make sure I'm not like gonna miss a quest tournament chat.

[Andy Cortez]

Correct me if I'm wrong. Was it Patrick Gilbert, formerly of Polygon and now Brian David? David Gilbert who? Brian David Gilbert read all the Skyrim books.

[Snowbike Mike]

That's cool.

[Andy Cortez]

Read every book.

[Snowbike Mike]

That's my dream. But I'll never do it like that. That's like secretly like I want to do that.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, that's Brian David Gilbert. Child Brian Amy Gilbert.

[Snowbike Mike]

I have so many questions.

[Andy Cortez]

I. I also wanted to call out another game that gives you way too many things to be picking up in and that encumbers you as well is was Ballers Gate 3. That's another one where I Downloaded the unlimited weight mod because I just. I'm picking up so much stuff and I don't feel like it's making my. I don't feel like it's lessening my experience to have more things in my bag. But you're making this a worse experience by encouraging me to not loot everything. I just want to be clicking on and not have to worry about it. You know, that should just be a passive thing that gets forgotten about. Another super chat from Jacob Cody. Two dollar super chat says got a quest breaking bug that was there in the og Nice.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah, I think I was in when I was playing today I was in the Oblivion gates and I got stuck. I looted one of the guys. Yeah and then I couldn't open doors because it still thought I was looting. So every time I would press a it would just bring back up his body and have me continue to loot. Had to turn it off restart the whole.

[Andy Cortez]

I think the homie Jason frequent frequently in the Twitch chat also mentioned that he had a pretty bad game breaking bug and then tried to go back to an old save and it was all just like the save. It was all corrupted. So it seems like maybe some of the old Bethesda quirks may still be there.

[Greg Miller]

Quirks.

[Andy Cortez]

Jen's FC with a two dollar super chat says Evil Mike or Caesar source for mvp.

[Snowbike Mike]

Steve's a source of course. So many adventures, so many journeys. Evil Mike's just finding his way.

[Andy Cortez]

Alex his way out there too early.

[Greg Miller]

Baby bird trying to find his way.

[Andy Cortez]

We got John Sim with a five dollar super chat says no need to rank up. Just hold the controller when the lock moves slow and then click A to set lock. Just hold up and see for yourself. Super easy. Hold up. Okay. Okay. I did this because this is definitely a game that I really don't necessarily don't even want to try to stream a whole lot. It seems like a game that I want to play at night by myself where I'm just adventuring and I found myself not wanting to fast travel because I am finding cool along the way. And it's those reasons why I loved game more modern games like even Elden Ring or all the you know the recent Zelda games where you have that what the hell's over there? Let me go check it out. Out. You can walk on that now.

[Snowbike Mike]

You should come join me and brother Martin on our adventures co op.

[Andy Cortez]

Oh my God. That would be incredible. We have a couple more super chats before we round out the show. Super chat from Michael Gardeness with A five dollar Super Chat says, having played the Oblivion remaster, how is your excitement for the Fallout 3 remaster changed? And when would you want slash hope they drop it?

[Greg Miller]

What a great question. Fallout 3 and I've had this conversation on shows before where I think, you know, most people's first Bethesda game is their favorite Bethesda game. And I'm talking about modern ones. Obviously I can't speak for a Morrowind, right. But it is that idea of like, what the Fuck? Like Fallout 3 coming out of the vault like that moment and be like I go anywhere incredible. And like it's so seared into my brain in gaming history.

[Andy Cortez]

Imagine virtuos getting their hands on that.

[Greg Miller]

And that's the thing. I can't wait. You know, do I want that 1000%. When do I think it's smart to drop that? I think it's smart to drop it right around either the season premiere or season finale of Fallout Season two. I think they saw so many numbers spike, Obviously for Fallout 76, Fallout 4, Fallout 3, Fallout New Vegas last time around, season one. You want to ride that again? Drop this right then.

[Snowbike Mike]

Oh, and I saw New Vegas remaster. Though the matchup of season two would be nuts. Yeah, it's fun because Oblivion will always be my favorite Bethesda title because it's my first one.

[Greg Miller]

Right.

[Snowbike Mike]

So I have such a love for that. But when I think of Fallout 3, I have so many good memories of that. That was college year freshman. We were in the dorms watching Matt play and we'd all switch off deaths. Seeing the vat system and laughing and what a great time. Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

Dc, come on.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

A big super chat from Gator Mashed potato.

[Greg Miller]

Good name.

[Andy Cortez]

20 super chat says playing the remaster was a nice throwback. But I also agree that it's hard to go back to it after playing modern games that really iterate. That really iterate on the on Bethesda game studio style like Avowed for the combat or Kingdom come deliverance 2 for the immersion and story. Man, just a. I know we get a lot of criticism here for not giving Kingdom Come Deliverance to its time or flowers and. And I completely agree. I wish I could freeze time and just main and no life that game because it has so much of so many things that I enjoy about RPGs and it was just couldn't have come at a worse time.

[Greg Miller]

Bad timing for us.

[Andy Cortez]

Riley with a big 20 super chat says, I agree with Greg's feeling on living being a comfort food rpg. I played for many hours and love my time. Yet I'm not compelled to play it. Instead, it's made me appreciate and kind of fall in love with avowed very simple. A lot of thought. Very similar thoughts today. Five dollar super chat from X Box. That's funny.

[Greg Miller]

That's funny.

[Andy Cortez]

I like that it's th into that next I the irony of people judging Aoud for not feeling like a true Bethesda game but now disappointed that Oblivion doesn't feel like aow. Yeah, I mean I think the. The we're always looking at certain points of criticism because my issues with Aoud were never that it's combat wasn't fun. In fact that was the main well.

[Greg Miller]

He'S not talking about you, right? He's saying people. Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. Just in general the the temperature of chats madecpock.

[Andy Cortez]

Watch your ass.

[Greg Miller]

Don't fucking come at us. Mike.

[Andy Cortez]

Thank you. Thank you for supporting us very, very nicely. Any final words today on Oblivion remaster?

[Greg Miller]

I'm really happy they did this. I think, you know, it's one of those. I would have probably never played Oblivion and gone back to it. When I mentioned doing it, Mike stopped me. He was like don't bother. It's an old game. Don't worry, it's not going to work the way you want it to. And so the fact that they did this, I think I'm so glad they did. And I think it speaks to the fact that it's resonating with me. A 20 year old game from for somebody who never played it let alone then for it resonating with Mike and the audience. Audience people who have these cherished memories of it. So I think it's a. It's a. It's a great example of how these remasters do matter and can really speak to an audience that you didn't have before but has found out about you since then.

[Andy Cortez]

Mike.

[Snowbike Mike]

It's a special one for me. Having a childhood game come back up and get the glow up and just get the love and care that it deserves and to have it at the forefront this year with all these other great games and people celebrate this and going back and seeing people streaming it live on Twitch, seeing people in our live audience talk about their memories and how much fun they're having with it right now is special to me. I think the team did an incredible job. How beautiful this game is. It runs well, there's bugs, there's problems. But like when you. When it's really going it's a great time and an awesome experience. And so I'm just very happy and lucky to have a game that I love come back into my life like this.

[Andy Cortez]

I think what makes me super sad about it is just the, the potential for what could have been a Mass Effect remake in this style. Right. They came out with the Mass Effect trilogy remaster Mass Effect collection remastered. And hearing about the development cycle there, it sounded very troubled because it's an Unreal Engine 3 game that is stuck on Unreal Engine 3. The people who have all the coding and the knowledge of it don't work here anymore. So we're going to update the lighting as best as possible and we're going to give remastered textures. But it's still going to look the way it does. As opposed to what, you know, what a gargantuan task this was to remake this many assets and have them look so high res and so amazing. And I, I like, man, I wish that we could have gotten not even just a trilogy remake that's like pie in the sky. I wish we could have gotten like a Mass Effect 1 remake in this style with full art assets and everything and have virtuos pop off and you know, it does bum me out and I, I hope that maybe we can revisit those RPGs sometime soon with a better coat of paint. We do have a couple of last second Hail Mary's always broken. Huh?

[Greg Miller]

My apparel is always broken. Really? When I get into fights with people, it's immediately breaking.

[Andy Cortez]

Another mod you can download legitimately. Like that's something you could just be like, oh, make apparel break less. A couple of Hail Mary last second super chats from Robbie. Rob says, what's the funniest moments you've had? Bad.

[Snowbike Mike]

Oh my God.

[Andy Cortez]

Watching Greg do something silly recently was funny. No, if you're talking about in the game, I think the conversations are hilarious. The. The Speechcraft moments of how's it going? I sell the best gear and you go into Speechcraft. I don't want nothing to do with you. All right. Thanks for seeing you get out of my face. Like, it's like, I love how just goofy it is.

[Snowbike Mike]

I love having someone come and follow you as like a short term companion and then growing attached to them and then they die in front of you. And that feeling of like, damn, I didn't want you to die. Wanted to make it all the way with you.

[Andy Cortez]

Last second super chat from volk. Dasher with a 10 super chat. Thank you. Volk says this game and Skyrim with Fallout 3 is why I'll Never be mad at Bethesda. Never give us an elite game again. Most devs can't say they have three to six. Three or four legendary level games.

[Snowbike Mike]

One down. He's closing an Oblivion.

[Andy Cortez]

Wow.

[Snowbike Mike]

Nothing cooler than seeing the first Oblivion Gate in this remaster and how gorgeous that is with the color and the darkness in the background in front of that castle is like, oh my God, this is crazy.

[Greg Miller]

I really enjoyed it. On the stream when I ran into the first Oblivion Gate, somebody made the comment of like, imagine just running straight into an Oblivion Gate with no fear. I respect it because I was like, is this supposed to be tough? Because it didn't feel tough.

[Andy Cortez]

Thank you everybody for watching and listening to this episode of the Games Cast. Let us know your thoughts in the comments below on Oblivion Remastered. Do you plan on hopping in or are you still knee deep in Expedition 33? Because I'm. Let me tell you, I'm replaying it from. You know, after beating it for the review. Watching these cutscenes, it's crazy what re watching these cutscenes and the amount of stuff and knowledge that they're dropping, that meant nothing to me back in my first.

[Greg Miller]

It's wild.

[Andy Cortez]

Holy. Eddie, you ready for this? Spoiler cast, baby? So excited. Thanks for watching everybody. Have a lovely weekend. Take care of yourself, take care of each other, and we'll see you back on Monday. But stick right here because there'll be an andor spoiler cast followed by the finale for Game Showdown.

[Greg Miller]

Can I do It? The underdog story of Greg Miller, constantly shoved down into a pile of by Tim Gettys in Game Showdown. Can I finally right those wrongs? I successfully cashed in Stars in the Bank. Can I do what God and or Satan wants me to do and win this?

[Andy Cortez]

We'll see you next time. Goodbye, gamers.