Monday, February 9, 2009
Hello. I am happy today. SO HAPPY. Actually, not just happy. Happy is too general a word. I'm feeling euphoric. Yeah, that's better. I just feel like laughing and screaming and hitting something. Ok, I think I better stop there. I'm supposed to be happy, not high.So why am I so happy? Well, the reason behind my happiness also happens to be the topic for today:
I finally have it. "it" being The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. "Yeah, it's just another game. What's the big deal?" you may ask. I would be thinking the same thing half a year ago. But not anymore. Not after what I've been through on my quest for the game.
First of all a little history about the game. It was released during in March 2006 for the Xbox 360 and PC. The Playstation 3 never had the original game, but it got the Game of the Year edition of Oblivion, which shipped one year later. The Game of the Year edition of the game was available on the Xbox 360 and PC as well, and it consisted of Oblivion and an expansion pack.
Every review the game received was reviews, scoring an average score of 9.4/100 (based on 102 reviews). It is no surprise that the game received the coveted Game of the Year award from nearly every game related website, trumping other great games like Gears of War and Dead Rising.
As far as game play is concerned, Oblivion is an Open World Role Playing Game. You have to create a character before starting the game. You can choose from a variety of races, choose the primary skills of you character, as well as choose the type of character he/she is going to be. The game can be switched from first person to third person view at any point of time.
Once you get out of a sewer, which serves as the tutorial area of the game, the entire world is yours to explore. You can steal a horse for faster travel, kill anyone who irritates you, explore dungeons and sewers, become a member of a guild, participate in a fight to the death at the Arena, or even search for the unicorn in the game and try to ride it.
Yeah, there is a unicorn in the game. There are minotaurs, skeleton warriors and zombies too. You can even become a vampire yourself.
I first got to try Oblivion at a friend's house. I liked it, so I borrowed it. I played it for a while, then I forgot about it. I didn't find it that great at that point of time because I was pointlessly wandering around in the game. I only played it for about a week before returning it.
I didn't really bother about the game until about August last year, when I stumbled upon a bunch of Oblivion videos. Only then did I realise the abundance of interesting things to do in the game. Become a vampire and suck some one's blood? Awesome. I started to regret not exploring the world.
It was then that the quest to obtain Oblivion officially began!
I thought that it would be easy when I first started looking, but soon I realised how screwed the situation was. It's like this. Since most people here already have the game, and those who didn't have it probably never will buy it anyway, Oblivion stopped selling in Singapore.
You can try this out if you don't believe me. Go to any game store in Singapore and ask for the Xbox 360 version of Oblivion. Chances are they won't have the game. No one knows better than me. I've been to half of the game stores in Singapore asking for the game. Most shops still have the Ps3 and PC version, but no 360 version.
Not only did I have to deal with the disappointment of not being able to get the game, I also had to deal with the asshole shop keepers. Such low levels of game knowledge, and yet they insulted me. You know how that feels? It's like a retard calling you stupid and laughing at you after that.
It's not as if I never saw the game after I began my hunt. I did. Twice. Once at Cineleisure when we went to watch Twilight. Another time at Funz Centre. Then why didn't I buy it? Well, I didn't have enough cash on my at that point of time, and my father didn't want to buy it for me because he found it ridiculous that an old game can still cost $69.
I was starting to give up hope after I consulted several specialist stores and even they didn't have the game. I started considering buying Oblivion online, and I didn't even mind if it was second. I even changed my msn message to "If anyone knows where to buy Oblivion please tell me" for a period of time. I was honestly prepared to treat anyone who actually knew.
Then, just as I lost hope and decided to wait until the game becomes available as a download onto Xbox Live...
It is today that the quest for Oblivion officially concluded!
I found it at Harvey Norman at the Central of all places. I guess it's probably because no one goes there for games, so they still had one copy left. I was walking to Harvey Norman with Say Yin, because that's probably the only shop there that sells games.
As we got closer, I managed to see the shelve where they kept the games. It was a weak collection of games. There were about ten different games on display, and none of them were particularly new. So I didn't hope for much.
Then as we got closer, I saw it. A single copy of Oblivion. At first I couldn't believe my eyes, so I asked Say Yin to confirm it. Our whole conversation was something like that:
Me: OMG Oblivion!!
He: Huh what?
Me: There Oblivion!!
He: Oh yeah it is.
[We get closer to the case]
He: It is $70.
Me: Buy. *Power of the ATM card*
Yeah. I already swore to buy Oblivion without hesitation if I ever saw it again, and that's exactly what I did. I even got a 10% discount. Harvey Norman is the best store ever!! If you ever see one, remember worship it, or at least try to look at it adoringly. Awesome store.
So now, I have Oblivion. I'm still a little awestruck actually. But the point is, I finally have it. Now that I think of it, the chances of me actually getting a copy in Singapore is so slim, I think I'll have better luck getting raped. It's almost as if that copy there was meant for me. It was waiting for me. I am so happy :D
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Today we went to the Central, which is at Clarke Quay. It's a nice place. Nice in a quiet way. Not like Vivocity or Orchard Road, which are bustling with people at all times. The Central is a peaceful, relaxing place on weekdays. The shops there are mostly food and clothes shops, with a handful of electronics stores and travel agencies.
I met Say Yin first, and I got my game :D, then later on we met Yan Ming and his wife Vanessa. We just slacked around, then we went to sit by the Singapore river, and we finally walked to Funan. Yan Ming is now on his quest for the SkullCandy headphones that he wants. It wasn't there, but I got to find out a few things.
One, Vanessa is much cooler than I initially thought because she is a girl who plays games, and we all know how awesome gamer girls are.
Two, some people just can't play games. There was this guy playing the Ninja Blade demo, and he could even complete the first one minute of it. It's a button pressing sequence which just requires you to hit the buttons as they appear on the screen, and he could even do that. By the time we lost interest in watching that epic failure, he has screwed up more than ten times. And it's just the first minute of the game. It blows my mind.
Three, Ninja Blade, on the other hand, is an epic win, unlike the guy who was playing it. It is going to be cool cool, if the trailer is of any indication:
Ok, I'm done for today. Now I need to go and sleep, so that I can wake up early tomorrow to play Oblivion :D Anyways, thanks for reading. Ending off, see you tomorrow.
posted @ 11:31 PM
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