Well the 360 has been out for about 5months now, and there have been a handful of great games for the system since launch.
Yesterday I picked up one of the most anticipated titles for the 360, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. For anyone who has not played an Elder Scrolls game, this series is know for its wide open story/quest line, and gives the player the ability to play the game any way they choose.
While in other RPG series’ the only “open” ended feeling you have is getting into random battles to level your character or party, Elder Scroll allows the player to not only follow a main quest line, but also find new quests from npc’s and follow up on “rumors” in each town. The openness of Oblivion continues in your character’s life, and skills. While some races (there are 10 in total) are more apt/suited for classes you are never pigeonholed into a class. If you don’t like being a warrior, just start focusing on spells, join the mages guild and your on a new track. If that doesn’t suite your fancy, join all the guilds in the game and become a Thief who can blast anyone who discovers you picking a pocket or breaking into a house.
Game play is the heart of Oblivion and allowing you to choose how you complete the game is where Oblivion just plain opens up!

Before you start Oblivion you need to create a character. Character creation is full of options, you need to choose a race , and from there you can modify almost any aspect of your appearance. Once your character is created the main story begins (i will not go into the story details, but as always you start in jail).
The first dungeon you enter is an escape from your captors, this dungeon gives you a good amount of training on movement, spell casting, using a bow etc. The controls on the 360 version are good but take some getting use to, a nice feature is you are able to map spells and gear to a quick select menu using the d-pad. Spells can then be selected, and are mapped to the right shoulder button.
By the time you exit this training dungeon you are fairly familiar with all the different skills there are in the game…and that’s saying a lot. I spent a majority of my time practicing my lock picking skills, and spell casting.
My only complaint about this part of the game is there are some moments when you “lock” yourself into a role. This feeling comes from choosing a astrological sign (these give you a selected bonus to mana, or hp, or agility…) and choosing a main line class. The coolest thing however is before you leave this dungeon YOU CAN choose to re-create the entire character, before you enter the world.

The world of Oblivion is massive is scope, detail and feeling of life. Trees move in the wind, blades of grass sway back and forth, and woodland creatures run back and forth. The world itself is 16sq miles when your on foot moving from town to town its a bit boring. The game allows you to “port” to any town you discover so if you are in a a hurry travel can be quick when you want. I decided to huff it to the first major town, on the way i had to fight my way through highway robbers, wolfs, and this one deer who pissed me off!.
In my travels i happened upon two abandoned forts. Rather than continue onto town I decided to explore these dungeons, one was suited for a thief, with lots of locks and traps to disable, while the other was suited for a warrior, because it was early in the game both were are blast, and breeze.
2hours later i arrived at my destination, and dropped off a quest item since i was sick of walking i decided to “liberate” a horse for the greater good, and continued onto a major city. By the time i got there the city streets were barren. In Oblivion all the NPC’s run on a real time clock, if your looking to sell gear or stop into the local alchemist shop you can only go during business hours (hehe unless your a thief). This NPC day to day cycle will also play out in things like assignations, you’ll need to follow your mark for a day to see what they do and when they are most vulnerable.
So far I am 4 hours into Oblivion, and I am actually going to start over again with a new character, only because i now know i want to be a thief/mage. The funny thing is i am excited to start all over again because i know things will be different this time around.
If you are looking for a game that will allow you to do almost anything you want Oblivion is the game for you. If your looking for a compelling RPG with a solid main quest line and story Oblivion is the game for you. Oblivion hits all the marks on what a game should be “F-U-N”, and with content downloads from Xbox live I can only imagine how the world will change and grow.