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

Manufacturer: Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. Part number: 21896

Compare with most popular

$39.99 - $59.99 at 3 online stores

CNET Editor rating:
4.5 stars Spectacular
Average user rating: 4.0 stars out of 13 reviews

More product information:: Editors' review; User reviews; Specifications; Manufacturer info

Bottom Line:: Gameplay and graphical enhancements. Over 200 hours play time.

Where to buy

store customer rating inventory tax & shipping price

store	customer rating	inventory	tax & shipping	price
RadioShack.com	Rate this store See store profile	In stock	Enter zip code to get total price: Price +Tax +Shipping =Total price	$59.99 Shop now as of 10/10/2008
Amazon.com	Rate this store See store profile	In stock	$39.99 Shop now as of 10/10/2008
Amazon.com Marketplace	Rate this store See store profile	In stock		$49.99 Shop now as of 10/10/2008

RadioShack.com

Rate this store
See store profile

In stock

Enter zip code to get total price:

Price

+Tax

+Shipping

=Total price

$59.99

Shop now

as of 10/10/2008

Amazon.com

Rate this store
See store profile

In stock

$39.99

Shop now

as of 10/10/2008

Amazon.com Marketplace

Rate this store
See store profile

In stock

$49.99

Shop now

as of 10/10/2008

*Total price for the The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - Collector's Edition ... are estimated and may vary slightly based on exact tax, shipping, manufacturer rebate or any sale/promotion on the merchant site.

show

Gamespot editors' review

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

price range: $39.99 - $59.99

Reviewed by: Greg Kasavin
Reviewed on: 03/25/2006
Updated on:05/26/2006
Released on: 03/20/2006

The bottom line: Gameplay and graphical enhancements. Over 200 hours play time.

Read full review

This is a rare and remarkable achievement--a huge, open-ended, complex, detailed role-playing game that's fun to play and a pleasure to behold. Oblivion not only delivers everything that earned the Elder Scrolls series the devoted loyalty of a huge following of fans, but also significantly improves on the weaknesses of its 2002 predecessor, Morrowind. Morrowind earned recognition for being one of the best role-playing games in years, but the immersive and long-lasting experience it provided wasn't for everyone. Oblivion is hands-down better, so much so that even those who'd normally have no interest in a role-playing game should find it hard to resist getting swept up in this big, beautiful, meticulously crafted world.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivionscreenshot

Morrowind was a tough act to follow, but Oblivion isn't just better--it's a lot better.

The Elder Scrolls series is known for its sheer size and depth. These are games that you could lose yourself in, spending hours exploring a fantasy world, traveling for miles, or just looking for minutiae, such as rare plants or hidden treasure. Oblivion lives up to this pedigree, putting you into a massive, cohesive, highly immersive world. You get to create your own character--the possibilities for customization seem limitless--and then explore the world as you will. There's a compelling main quest for you to follow, which takes about 40 hours to finish the first time through, but the majority of the game's content is peripheral to that main quest. You can root out evil in hidden dungeons, join and climb the ranks in a number of different guilds, visit all the different towns and try to solve everybody's problems, compete in a long series of gladiatorial battles to the death, break into someone's home and rob them in their sleep, get caught and face the consequences, contract a disease that leads to vampirism and then try to find a cure, buy a house, steal a horse, invest in your favorite shop, and, if you can believe it, there's much more.

So the breadth of content is as remarkable as ever, but the most important thing is this: The many types of gameplay in Oblivion are well-designed and deeply satisfying, even when taken on their own. That's the main difference between this game and Morrowind. This may be a role-playing game, but you could play it like a pure action game, or like a stealth game, or like an adventure game, and it'd still be at least as good as, if not better than, games that are specialized in these regards.

Oblivion does a great job of quickly introducing you to all these different aspects of play, successfully engaging you rather than overwhelming you. You see the world through your character's eyes, but a behind-the-back perspective is also available. Initially you just pick a name, race, and gender for your character, and the game opens with you stuck in a dungeon cell, being taunted by a fellow inmate. Somehow, though, you get swept up in a desperate escape attempt by the emperor and his loyal retinue of protectors. The emperor, voiced unmistakably by Patrick Stewart (Star Trek: The Next Generation, X-Men), recognizes you from a portentous dream and entrusts you with the search for his illegitimate heir. But first, you'll need to escape from the Imperial City's sewers. As you make your way through this basic dungeon crawl, you happen upon ill-fated adventurers, their stuff, and some ornery goblins, so you immediately get to play around with close combat, ranged attacks, magic, sneaking, lock picking, equipment repairing, and more. How you survive is up to you--it's just as viable to kill your enemies with destructive magic, weapons, or bare hands as it is to sneak or run right past them. And even though the sewer setting might sound unimaginative, the quality of the game's visuals, the exceptionally good atmospheric sound effects, and the realistic physics all serve to quickly draw you in.

Not only is there a huge amount of great content in the game, but you can also experience it in all kinds of different ways depending on the type of character you create.

Toward the end of this sequence, the game does a clever job of recommending a character class to you based on how you've been playing. For example, if you've gone toe to toe with every goblin you've seen, hacking them up with an axe, you might make a good barbarian. But the game's numerous premade character classes aren't nearly as interesting as the ability to create your own custom class. The choices are numerous but clearly presented, and while you could go out of your way to create a fairly useless character, your intuition will easily guide you through what's a complex process. You choose an underlying specialization--combat, magic, or stealth--then you choose a couple of primary attributes, seven major skills, and even a birth sign. Basically, you're choosing your character's talents. Every character can use every skill; it's just a question of how well. Ultimately, this character-creation process is much like Morrowind's, and it shares the same ingenious design: You get stronger in this game by practicing and improving your primary skills, not by killing stuff and earning generic experience points.

See pricing

show

User reviews

Write Review

Average user rating: 4.0 stars out of 13 reviews
My rating: 0 stars

Showing opinion 1 to 10 out of 13

Sort by:
7 stars

Looks pretty, but lacks substance

by Jagoroth on May 2, 2006

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

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

Summary: First, of course, the pros. I was very excited from the get-go about Oblivion's development and eventual release. As a fan of the previous installment of the game, Morrowind, ...

Read more

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Now for the aesthetic complaints.

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

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

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

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

Show less

4 out of 5 users found this user opinion helpful.
10 stars

one word.....addictive!!!

by martrmachine on June 18, 2006

Pros: where to start? graphics settings, weapon selection, armor classes, and in depth story line

Cons: some invisable walls....uhhh there's not much else lol

Summary: say good bye to the family for about a week and say hello to a graphically stunning first person rpg that is sure to grab you dangly-doos. i bought this ...

Read more

Summary: say good bye to the family for about a week and say hello to a graphically stunning first person rpg that is sure to grab you dangly-doos. i bought this game 3 weeks ago and have already spent 175 hours on this game.

Show less

2 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
9 stars

Fantastic, addictive RPG

by pelowell on May 1, 2006

Pros: Great storyline, awesome graphics, immersive gameplay. NPC's are so realistic you miss them when you're not playing.

Cons: Magic and potions are, of course, a steep learning curve. Occasional system hangs.

Summary: This game is by far the nicest RPG I've ever played. The look and feel of everthing is nothing short of stunning. When I was riding horseback on my ...

Read more

Summary: This game is by far the nicest RPG I've ever played. The look and feel of everthing is nothing short of stunning. When I was riding horseback on my way to the Temple, between the realistic bounce and jitter and the sounds of the horse's hooves and leather and tack noises, I felt like I was back in the saddle high in the Chilcotin in British Columbia on the pack trip we took last summer. The dungeons and towers in Oblivion are top notch, and it looks like I'll be wrapped up in this one for the whole summer and probably into the fall the way the game plays. Well done Bethesda!

Show less

2 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
9 stars

The future of gaming

by Crunchy Frog on July 7, 2006

Pros: Incredible depth and detail, decent replay value

Cons: Lots of bugs that still need patching, no multi-player or online options

Summary: This is a game I can play and enjoy. I love non-linear games that let you do what you want, go where you want and not follow the main story ...

Read more

Summary: This is a game I can play and enjoy. I love non-linear games that let you do what you want, go where you want and not follow the main story if that's what you desire. The Elder Scroll series has always had this in mind and has improved it over the years. This is the biggest leap yet in game play and performance yet in any game of this kind.
Character creation is extremely detailed and could take quite a while depending on how detailed you want to craft your character. The game always starts you in the same dungeon which you have to crawl through and sets up the crisis in the game. After that, you can completely ignore the main game and live a life of your choosing or complete the main quest or a combo of both.
My hope is that there will be expansion packs and mods for this game since it has massive potential. I love the fact that you can buy houses and own horses and be as good or rotten as you want. The NPC's speak full dialog now which is a welcome change over having to read everything like earlier versions.
Biggest issue for many is that the game pushes hardware to its limits and can slow even the fastest computer to a crawl with options turned on. Myself, I have experienced frequent lockups despite patching the game and updating drivers. I hope that a new patch will address these issues soon so I can keep playing.
When it runs, it is the best of all games so far in this genre. I highly recommend it.

Show less

1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
9 stars

Astonishing game play and graphic effects.

by jojesa on April 26, 2006

Pros: Nice story lines, characters, landscape and virtualy realistic scenery.

Cons: Demanding on your system and could maxed out your system depending on game settings and hardware.

Summary: When using this game at its maximum settings, a Radeon X1900 XTX or equal card is required for fluid game play since Oblivion uses many shader effects.
Using my Radeon
...

Read more

Summary: When using this game at its maximum settings, a Radeon X1900 XTX or equal card is required for fluid game play since Oblivion uses many shader effects.
Using my Radeon X1800XT, I was able to use the game at is maximum setting but I experience some lag and glitches.
Hard drive performance may increase frame rates (3-5 fps), since the hard drive is accessed a bundle during game play, especially when loading landscapes. In addition, disabling grass shadows improves game performance.

Some folks might complaint because their system might not have what it takes to play The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

Show less

1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
8 stars

Breathtaking graphics 8/10, but quirky 2/10

by PegasusOrion on May 13, 2007

Pros: Graphics and graphical battle sequences

Cons: Buggy under XP, fine under 2000, design of game lacking in key areas

Summary: Now the graphics are awesome and gives the game an 8 in spite of the problems I've encountered. Which are:

Crashes to desktop under Windows XP frequently and at

...

Read more

Summary: Now the graphics are awesome and gives the game an 8 in spite of the problems I've encountered. Which are:

Crashes to desktop under Windows XP frequently and at the worst times (with or without the latest patch). However, it works fine under Windows 2000 as most games do I've found. To me this game would have been perfect had there been hit points awarded to your advancement upon killing an enemy creature (hint: Blizzard did awesome on this in Diablo; so why ruin a good thing?). The graphics are kickin' during the fighting sequences, but your ONLY real reward is watching the pretty graphics. The most irritating thing I discovered is a bug in what it takes to kill an enemy creature. You can fight the same exact creature the same exact way and end up killing it in 5-7 fireballs/weapons hacks one time then run right into the same creature again and find out now you need 70-80 fireballs/weapons hacks! There's no uniformity in what it take to kill a creature. I found myself having to fight a creature for 2 minutes one time and the next time almost an hour to finish it off. This takes a lot of patience when you really want to get to the next part of your strategy guide. Also, some items do not work as advertised i.e. you'll don a ring of invisibility and the graphics will "cloak" your character, however upon strolling through a dark forect chock-full of enemy creatures you discover they all have no problem in detecting your presence.

Show less
10 stars

Greatest Game Ever!!!!!!!!!!!

by blue whippet on October 12, 2006

Pros: Awsome graphics and so big

Cons: its so adictive, once u sit down to play u never get back up

Summary: this is one of the greatest games ive ever played, its graphics are so good and the world is huge. ive been a big fan of the elder scrolls series ...

Read more

Summary: this is one of the greatest games ive ever played, its graphics are so good and the world is huge. ive been a big fan of the elder scrolls series and this is the best of them.

Show less
10 stars

OHMYGOD!!!

by ilikeme25 on September 6, 2006

Pros: everything

Cons: nothing: everything's perfect

Summary: I. LOVE. THIS. GAME.

Summary: I. LOVE. THIS. GAME.
9 stars

As close to perfect as they come!

by Paladin252 on July 6, 2006

Pros: Super graphics, amazingly addictive, good story, easy to learn

Cons: Too good of graphics for my pc, not long enough, not enough weapons

Summary: I have been addicted to the Elder Scrolls since Daggerfall first came out, and this is again an amazing game. Everywhere where Morrowind disappointed, this game is great. Fast travel, ...

Read more

Summary: I have been addicted to the Elder Scrolls since Daggerfall first came out, and this is again an amazing game. Everywhere where Morrowind disappointed, this game is great. Fast travel, easier menus.

Show less
9 stars

Amazing RPG, Coodos to Bethesda

by McViking on May 8, 2006

Pros: Beautiful Graphics, Seemless AI, and Incredible Gameplay

Cons: None that I'm aware of

Summary: This is by far one of the greatest games of all time and should be bought by anyone who is even remotely interested RPGs.

Summary: This is by far one of the greatest games of all time and should be bought by anyone who is even remotely interested RPGs.

Showing opinion 1 to 10 out of 13

See pricing

show

Specifications

Manufacturer: Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc.
Part number: 21896
Bottom Line: Gameplay and graphical enhancements. Over 200 hours play time.

Product Basic Spec
Platform PC
ESRB rating Mature - Nudity,Violence,Language,Blood and Gore,Use of Alcohol,Sexual Themes
Genre Role-Playing
Number of players 1 Player
Difficulty Medium
Learning curve About 1 hour
DirectX version v9.0c
Operating system Windows XP

Game
Developer Bethesda Softworks
ESRB Mature
ESRB descriptors Nudity,Violence,Language,Blood and Gore,Use of Alcohol,Sexual Themes
Release date 03/20/2006

See pricing

show

Manufacturer info

Share
- Digg
- Del.icio.us
- Reddit
- Facebook
Print

Similar products

Crysis (PC) $36.99 - $52.81
- CNET Editor rating:
  4.5 stars Spectacular
- Average user rating: 4.5 stars out of 9 reviews
Mass Effect (PC) $36.99 - $60.74
- CNET Editor rating:
  4.5 stars Spectacular
- Average user rating: 4.5 stars out of 4 reviews
The Orange Box (PC) $29.79 - $39.99
- CNET Editor rating:
  4.5 stars Spectacular
- Average user rating: 3.0 stars out of 5 reviews
Guild Wars (PC) $22.99 - $29.99
- CNET Editor rating:
  4.5 stars Spectacular
- Average user rating: 4.5 stars out of 17 reviews
World in Conflict (PC) $29.79 - $29.99
- CNET Editor rating:
  4.5 stars Spectacular
- Average user rating: 4.5 stars out of 4 reviews

Shopper.com strives to provide the best price, review, user opinion, and product information on the The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - Collector's Edition .... Shopper.com updates pricing for all products multiple times each day. If you find a price, link, product specification, review, user opinion, or any other error for the The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - Collector's Edition ..., please notify us through our support form.