Others say...

"Almost really fun"
I loved Morrowind so was very excited for this game. While the graphics were excellent and the game play itself was smooth, I was somewhat disappointed. The leveling in the game was a surprise. As you level, your enemies level too. I understand why they did it that way, so as to not make the game too easy too quickly, but for me one of the rewards of putting in the time and effort to level up is to get stranger, faster, better than opponents. I also found the missions somewhat boring, but the addition of the Brotherhood was fun even. The world itself is smaller. And, its not as much fun to be a thief. There is no place to go for training and buying/selling if you are a thief, and merchants won't buy stolen items. There were things I really liked. I love that there are horses in the game and you can get armor for them. The expansion packs that give you hideaways and extras like the horse armor are worth it in my opinion. Overall, the game wasn't bad.

"Simply stunning and vast"
What makes this game so great is the incredible level of flexibility it (and its predecessor "Morrowind") allows. First you can choose your race (10 choices) and configure your appearance to match yourself or your favorite star. Then you can choose your character's class from over a dozen standard classes (sorcerer, barbarian, bard, etc) or design your own. After that, while there is a Main Quest providing the narrative backbone to the game, you are free to go off and explore ruins, join guilds, and pick up minor quests from characters you meet.

The world of the Elder Scrolls is vast, complex, and incredibly rich (even more so if you played "Morrowind").

When this game came out, it required top-of-the-line hardware because of its beautiful (and CPU-intensive) graphics. Today, you should be fine with any relatively recent computer with a good graphics card.

For $45, Oblivion GOTY is an incredible value - you will get months (years?) of playtime out of this. Perfect for those of us without a life!

Oh, and did I mention that the game includes a kit for developing extensions to Oblivion (new quests, dungeons, monsters, treasures, cities...)? There is an active community creating new content all the time, so you may never be free of this game...

"GOTY"
I've played Morrowind, and now Oblivion for 4 years and enjoy it every time. Probably since I'm an over-50 gamer, I don't rush through it, but take my time and savor the awesome graphics.

"What a wonderful world."
I liked this game a lot. i don't usually play these types of games, as i enjoy more FPS action than collecting items etc. but for a good while about ten hours i had a lot of fun with this game, now i feel largely on a quest to simply raise levels and explore which is fun but i get bored running around after a while. i need things to explode, thats just me. the world is amazing, and it makes you feel like you're really there. the game is monumental, i just like explosions.

"Outstanding, well deserved GOTY categorization"
Oblivion most certainly lives up to its reputation as a Game of the Year for 2006/2007.

The interface is very easy to manipulate. The combat system is intuitive, and I found the regeneration of fatigue and magicka/mana to be quite unique to the RPG environment. I often found myself lugging around potions for regenerating mana and hitpoints in other games. This is not the case with Oblivion! My dark elf character regenerated fatique and magicka, while it was extremely easy to cast spells that restored health.

The game crashed to desktop only a handful of times out of the dozen or so days I spent playing, so I'd say it was above average in terms of reliability. The game runs smoothly at 800x600 with a P4 3.0 GHz CPU and an ATI Radeon X1950 GT 256MB AGP video card.

The most noteworthy aspect of this game is the sheer number of quests and the "sandbox" aspect of exploration and character development. I did not have to stick with the main quest, but I often found myself sidetracked with various quests that lead to additional quests! It is not uncommon to have a dozen or more active quests in your log!

The second most intriguing component of this game is the ability to manufacture potions, spells, and enchantments for your items. This is quite a unique feature! No longer is the player restricted to cookie cutter items and equipment. You can enchant armor to provide chameleon (invisibility), while you can enchant weapons to suck the life out of your opponents with each strike.

One "mini-quest" even allows you to play as a vampire, whom must feed on sleeping victims or else you begin to lose hitpoints under the sun (complete with smoke rising off your skin).

I must say that Oblivion is one of THE most innovative games I have played in the recent years. This special GOTY edition includes Knights of the Nine and the Shivering Isles expansion, providing months upon months of playability. I have spent over 50 hours and have not even started the main quest.

Pros: Intuitive interface for exploration, enchanting items, and making spells. The combat interface is exceptional for a RPG. I recall the days of text-based RPGs and RPGs like Final Fantasy II for the SNES where you were always forced to take damage during turns. Oblivion is a mix of a first-person shooter and RPG. Godfather fans will probably see quite a resemblance, with the exception that Oblivion is far more fleshed out and involved than Godfather.

The GOTY edition includes the latest patch and I have not run into any problems with the quests that were previously found in earlier versions.

Cons: The voice acting gets repetitious since they keep recycling voice actors for the minor NPC's. This is also a pro because this allows for a bigger budget in developing the game itself. I find myself reading the text more than listening to the NPC's whining that someone stole their ring, or they need some special wine.

I found that not being able to fast travel to marked locations was annoying. Fast travel is useful because you can go from one location to another without being forced to ride a horse or run on foot. Unfortunately, fast travel only works if you have explored the region and found the location. In addition, fast travel only works if there aren't enemies attacking and if you are outside in an open area. You can't fast travel from the inside of a cave or inside of a building. This can be get rather boring at times.

While you can develop your character by improving his or her skills, there isn't much development in character interaction. For example, when you join the Dark Brotherhood, almost everyone is open and receptive. It felt like this was the friendliest faction. Antoinetta Marie seemed to have more than a friendly disposition towards your character, but it never developed any further than typical banter with NPCs. I feel this is a major flaw in many of the games today, but it is most likely a technical limitation more than anything.

Bottom line:
Oblivion Game of the Year Edition gets a 10/10 rating from me based on being an overall excellent game. Very rarely does a game get almost everything right, and still be able to run smoothly on budget PC hardware. There is simply so much to accomplish in this game.