Call of Duty 4 maps arrive today - but only for the Xbox 360. [link]

Halo maps screens released - Legendary maps shown, set for April 15th release. [link]

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed dated - will hit Europe on September 19th. [link]

Bye bye SixAxis - Sony confirms that the pad will be discontinued. [link]

Home open beta soon - says Susan Panico from Sony. [link]

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Cheating doesn’t pay - Gamerscore cheats get score wiped out by Microsoft. [link]

PS3 updated - new firmware includes Blu-Ray Profile 2.0 support. [link]

GTA IV final trailer - with just around a month to go, the final trailer for GTA IV is released. [link]

GTA IV - reach the top of the online leaderboards in the social club. [link]

Byron report published -  gaming an important part of society; adult content is for adults. [link to full report]

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The idea for this article came from a guy I used to work with. He’d identified business benefits by writing down the unwritten rules of the department in which he worked. As everyone could then see everything about the way they did business, everyone could work in the same direction. Now I’m not saying that writing down these rules will make online gaming even more fun. However, if everyone could stick to these simple guidelines then I can imagine online gaming becoming far less frustrating. So here they are:

Don’t disconnect
It’s not big and it certainly ain’t clever. There’s nothing more frustrating than putting together an awesome performance against a player who is undoubtedly better than you. You’re just about to pull off a memorable win, and all of a sudden you have no opposition. Rather than sully their online record, the other player has quit so that you don’t score a victory over them. Very annoying, very childish and an easy way to find yourself on my blocked list.

No shouting
Seriously, what makes you think that I want to listen to you shouting random words down a microphone at me? Or singing for that matter. Or humming. Or telling your wife what you want when she goes to Taco Bell? If I really wanted to know that I’d of asked (as well as asking you to get some for me). So remember that there is a mute button on virtually every headset I’ve seen, flick the switch, do what you gotta do, and then come back to the game.

Remember what you’re playing
I agree that certain in-game tactics are annoying (I’ve recently witnessed a spawn-camper in Rainbow Six Vegas get booted from the game for that) but seriously people have some focus. Shouting at me because I’ve just crashed my car into your car on Burnout is ridiculous. Would you shout at the console if you were playing offline? Thought not! Also, if I’m in a player match on my XBox 360 and you call me a “****ing noob” then you’re gonna get blacklisted. Everyone starts somewhere, and if you want people with high skill levels then go to the Ranked matches.

“Language, Timothy”
Why is it almost always the 12 year olds (ok so I’m stereotyping here) who fall foul of this one? I remember one particular occasion playing Project Gotham Racing 3 online. I was in second and not too far behind the guy in front of me who had been silent all race. Coming up to the last corner and he completely missed the racing line, slammed into the barrier, and left a nice gap for me to slip past and claim victory. Was he annoyed with himself? Nope. He decided instead that the appropriate course of action was to yell at me “you ****ing ****ing ****-****. You could have ****ing well let me ****ing win”. Priceless. Another member of the blacklist club!

Be a good loser, and a good winner
There is absolutely nothing wrong with losing. Lets face it, a minimum of half the people online at any one time are about to lose. So be gracious about it (see “Language, Timothy”). However that goes for winning too. If you can’t be gracious about winning and thank someone for a good game, then don’t expect not to be taunted even more when you get beaten by them.

Camping vs. Role-playing
Ah my personal favourite. I fall-foul of this one all of the time. There are times when camping is just plain wrong. Camping a spawn point so that none of the opposition team can ever re-spawn is stupid. That doesn’t make for a game! However, finding a strategic point in a map which was put there intentionally, and using a sniper rifle to good effect. Well where is the harm in that? That’s what the level was set up for. If you want to take me out then come and get me, don’t just take the hump and abuse me for it!

Have fun
Whilst not necessarily etiquette it’s probably the most important thing of playing online. Everyone is there to have fun, so don’t try and ruin it for them. Sure there are some instances where things are very, very serious online. But remember when your game isn’t that serious, kick-back, and enjoy what should be an awesomely fun experience.

So this list isn’t exhaustive as to the should and should-nots of online gaming, but they are the biggest annoyances that most people suffer from. At the end of the day, if you’re in any doubt about the way you’re behaving, think how annoying it would be if someone was acting like that towards you. And remember, with the inclusion of blacklists, you may find yourself with no-one left to play with!

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Apologies to those of you who enjoyed the in-character Oblivion posts, but in reality they've become increasingly hard to write. None of the original authors of this blog are even playing Oblivion any more, let alone writing about it.

So the time has come to evolve Oblivion Blog into something new: Obblog.

Obblog will be about more than just Oblivion. It'll be about today's newest games. Obviously we'll keep a close eye on any Oblivion sequels, and Bethesda's new Fallout sequel, but we'll also expand to write about everything else.

I hope you stick with us for the journey ahead, and it's entirely likely that some in-character posts will pop up from time to time too. It's just that there'll be no more tales from Oblivion, for a while.

All the best! 

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This is just a quick post to tell everyone that Oblivion blog will be moving webhost very shortly, and along the way will pick up a forum so fans of the game can interact a bit more. Also, we're thinking of expanding things a little - there haven't been many Oblivion related posts in a while, so the team here thought about including a few other RPGs in the mix.

Tell us what you think in the comments. 

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Four Dremora stood before Hadaster each of them brandishing huge claymores. The blades briefly reflected the light from the Sigil Stone that burned above. A lesser mortal would have run in terror from the sight of the snarling humanoids, but Hadaster could only think about the magical properties of the weapons they carried. "I'm going to have to shed some loads if I'm going to carry that loot out of here" he pondered.

There was no time to pause for thought though. In an instant they were upon him. In an instant they were dead.

Examining the search queries from Google and MSN (I don't get many hits from other search engines) a great deal of people are looking for information on the best items in the Oblivion game.

There's a lot of interest in items. One thing I can say about Oblivion is that there are no ridiculously powerful items, although some are clearly better than others.

Swords - range. Two-handed swords have greatest range, but are clearly heavier and do not do significantly more damage than long swords. For balance I prefer short swords. They don't weigh as much and a daedric shortsword does almost the damage of a longsword. Coupled with a decent Sigil Stone (typically they can add 25 points of fire, frost or lightning damage) and you have a weapon to rival Umbra or Gold Brand.
Armour - This is all a matter of taste. If you're a master of light armour you can have pretty much the same armour rating as someone else wearing heavy armour. At master level the amount of encumbrance is about the same between light and heavy armour. There are a few suits of light armour (singlets if you will) which are good for thief and assassin types. I found that although these armours are very light they don't offer the same level of encumbrance relief as individual items of armour do. Light armour does degrade faster though.

If its sheer protection you want then Daedric armour is the best. Even the Dragon Armour presented to a Champion of Cyrodiil is not as good. It's lighter, prettier and shines well in the sunlight, but it's not got the sheer "hit me again! again! Come on wuss, again!" protection that Daedric offers. At Master level of heavy armour skill the stats for are:

Imperial Dragon Armour
Boots 12 / 5, 20% resist to poison
Cuirass 40 / 12, 11% resist to magic
Gauntlets 8 / 5, 11% resist to poison
Greaves 24 / 7, 20% resist to fire
Helmet 8 / 5, 20% resist to shock

So although lighter than Daedric it also offers less protection. Being loot mad I prefer to keep atleast 150 encumbrance points free for picking up items. There's nothing worse than running out of encumbrance to pick up items.

The locations of some items is generally well documented on a variety of web sites. The Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages has an absolute wealth of info on items and their locations. Generally I find that Marauders have the best loot, especially if you can find a leader. Then bandits, then Goblins. Ofcourse humanoid Daedra also tend to have good items. Conjurers - found in both Ayelid ruins and sometimes caves occasionally have enchanted clothing and are a good source of health potions and magicka potions.

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"There's something out there," The guard turned to Hadaster who had drawn his sword Goldbrand. A look of anguisg came over the guard's face. "I'll go first", the Monk said and stepped off the platform on which stood the Oblivion gate. Hadaster knew he had to keep the guards from the terrors that lurked in this otherwordly realm. He'd faced them several times before and knew that the Spider Daedra were especially deadly, their smaller minions would paralyse from out of sight and a torrent of lightning would surge down from the Daedra itself.

"Charge!" screamed the guard. Hadaster turned in a flurry to see the guard rushing off in the direction of a huge humanoid shape. "No!" Hadaster bellowed, "Get back."

Too many times do you have to do quests where keeping someone alive is the key focus. Anyone who displays a crown on them is a vital character to the plot and therefore cannot die, the simply fall unconscious. Be wary though as this can change through the game. A character deemed critical at one point can be slain just as any other at some points of the game. So be aware of characters that you need to keep alive (especially in Oblivion) and their tendency to leap towards enemies fool hardedly. I found that standing in between an enemy and the character helps as the enemy tends to focus on you if you're doing more damage. It's a bit like drawing aggro in Everquest 2.

Generally my experiences of combat tend to be how the game was intended to be played I think. Having a shield and actually using block is essential for most battles. I found that on the Xbox 360 you could keep the left trigger held down for blocking and then press the right trigger to attack. Once the right trigger was released you'd revert back to blocking. Patience and conserving your endurance in battles is essential. For starters your Armour doesn't degrade as fast if you block and you can take advantage of the 'recoil' to get a good hit in. I've found that Clanfear at any level tend to dish out a lot of damage even if you block, so it's best to take them from a distance.

The guard was dead. A huge Xivilai stood over him brandishing an enormous axe. A summoned Clanfear stood beside the huge daedra, like the master's pet. Only then did Hadaster noticed the lithe figure of the Spider Daedra out of the corner of his eye. All ready the small spiderling was rushing towards him. Goldbrand hummed in his grasp and he thrust the sword into the spiderling. The small creature was caught within Goldbrand's flames and with another swift blow Hadaster killed the foul thing.

Despite picking up Umbra, and keeping the sword, which is said by many to be the best sword in the game, I found that Goldbrand is better for out and out damage. Not many things apart from Dunmer are resistant to fire (and I know, it saved me a few times) so Goldbrand dishes out a lot of damage when charged. I found it much better to cast Soul Trap and then hack away rather than use Umbra and its ability to Soul Trap. Although Goldbrand is good, I found that as I progressed in the game I preferred to wield lighter weapons. My favourite weapon, therefore, is a Daedric Shortsword that I enchanted with a Sigil Stone that adds fire damage. In total it does about 10% less damage per strike than Goldbrand, but weighs less than half as much. Never use two handed weapons. They're just too big and unwieldy and you get a rubbish backstab bonus for using them. Oh and Mehyrunes Razor is rubbish (from the add-on pack). In fighting about 15 enemies it only once killed one of them instantly and then it's charges ran out.

Hadaster pulled his blade out of the lifeless body of the last of the daedra. His ascent through the Tower had been an arduous one, but now the final task stood before him. The Sigil stone burned brightly, hovering in the intense light of the flames that surrounded it. With a swift motion the Monk grabbed the stone and for a moment time seemed to stand still. Then all hell, literally, came apart and the rift between Oblivion and Cyrodiil imploded. After a brief moment of fiery intensity Hadaster stood in the clearing outside the city once again. The Oblivion gate no more than a smouldering piles of rocks.

Oblivion gates. Love e'm, hate 'em. One major gripe that people levy at Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is that the process and frequency of closing the Oblivion gates is to similar and is repetitive. I have to agree, so it's important to break up the activity and spend your time in Oblivion productively and constructively.

Spilt up the fighting with grabbing the resources. Bloodgrass, Vines etc. Once you've closed the Great Gate at the end of the game these resources are not so abundant and are harder to come by (if you have the Wizard's Tower expansion you can get them in the 'garden' that comes with the Tower once it's fully furnished). And explore the caves and catacombs in Oblivion where they're available. Use the map, see where you haven't been and keep your eyes open for doorways.

I tended to always use Nighteye when in the underground or indoor areas of Oblivion. The contrast of colour is lost so it can sometimes be difficult to distinguish a doorway from simply an arch, but it's much better than using light spells or a torch as Nighteye doesn't draw the attention of the daedra. And daedra seem to be far better at detecting you than normal Cyrodiil creatures. Sneak everywhere and use Nighteye and you can get some good backstabs in. Even as a powerful fighter backstabs are a great way of doing a lot of damage.

The 'fleshy pods' and 'Tortured Souls' in Oblivion are storage areas which sometimes hold good items. The only 'Mundane Ring' (one of the best and most valuable items in the game I found was in a normal chest in a cave full of Vampires though - as well as the one that is on one of Mankar Camoron's cronies [his son I believe]. I don't remember finding any REALLY good items in Oblivion apart from a very heavy Warhammer.

Finally the Sigil stones themselves are very useful as they add some magical properties to items and typically have a good number of charges. You also don't need to be at a workbench in the Arcane University, or Frostcrag Spire, to fuse them into your items. I must admit I only used one throughout my progression from no-body to Champion.

[That concludes part two. There's plenty more to come though about preparation and not getting complacent!]

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