The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Xbox 360, 2006)

It's an unfair trade, but we can't have it all. Some in the east call it "Yin and Yang". Everyone else calls it "give and take". Unfortunately Oblivion follows both rules regardless. As glorious and magnificent as Oblivion looks and plays, it still has it's faults. For starters the voice work is seriously lacking, badly. All NPCs sound rediculously the same. You'd swear they got just 3 people doing all the voice overs.

The "price" as stated before is the glitches and loop holes. A game of this scale is bound to have them, its actually expected and it happens. More often than not, you'll find you can't complete certain quests because of a bad glitch. If you don't do a certain quest just right, you can pigeon-hole yourself into unescapable limbo. Thus forcing you to start all over again from an earlier save. Lesson #1 with this game...SAVE OFTEN! Anyone who's had to do the Vampire Cure quest will know exactly what I'm talking about.

Glitches aside, this game brings something awesome to the table. With 100+ hours of standard gameplay, not counting downloadable content. Right out of the box you'll be busy for weeks on end. If you're a casual gamer, months. I love the pure open ended gameplay, real freedom to do what you want when ever you want. Much like GTA3 gave us back in 01'. Only now it's next gen. Want to further the story by traveling to the next town you were directed to? Great, have at it! Don't feel like it? Even better, explore the country-side instead. It's all up to you. Either way, you'll notice how lush, detailed and beautiful the landscape is. Everything from the trees to rocks look insane. Than there are the native people and animals. They live everywhere. Often times you'll encounter grazing deer or bear, which you can hunt...yep, you can use their meat and hide. Other times you'll encounter bandits who'll want to bully you into paying a toll to cross a bridge or road they hang out at. You can pay it and move on peacefully or fight it out to save some gold. It's up to you! It's little things like this that separate this game from the others. Nicely implemented.

Nearly everything can be manipulated in the Oblivion Universe. Want to steal something off a shelf in a shop, take coins from an NPC's pocket?...go ahead, just don't get caught! Pick some flowers to make some medicine? Welcome to the world of Alchemy! Scavenge a fallen enemies personal effects, loot a bandits camp? It can be done! Again, that's the beauty of this game. Nearly anything can be done. All that aside, we can't forget about leveling up as a character. Through out the game you'll encounter guilds and Quests that will help you grow as a character. Take on a guild quest and level up in that guild skill. That simple. It'll be harder to change up your skills as you progress, but it can be done. Start out as a strong Melee character? Not a big deal, you can still do magic, but it'll come at a cost. You'll have to work twice as hard, but it can still be done. What ever you decide early on with your character, I suggest you stick with it, but you won't be forced into it.

Oblivion is probably the most fantastic RPG you'll play to date. There is no equal at this time, not even Final Fantasy can touch this when it comes to things to do. You won't get the amazing cinematic cut scenes like FF, but Oblivion makes up for it with huge content. I've already logged 118 hours and I'm barely into the Main Quest.