I have been playing Oblivion again recently and have enjoyed it more this time than when first started it a few months ago.
I went back to it after reading Tom Francis's fantastic diaries about his adventures in Skyrim in PC Gamer magazine. They made me smile from beginning to end and I recommend them to all. They are in issues 243-245 of that excellent mag.
These pieces made me think that in games of this kind, if they are well made, you can play your own game in your own way. TF had played as an illusionist in Skyrim and had made rules for himself about only using illusions and no other magic or weapons. A tough a ask. I decided to lay down my own rule; less tough but difficult to keep to. I would not help anyone.
I had made up my mind from an early stage that I would be an nasty piece of work and previously when playing games and trying to be evil I have found myself slipping in to the role of helpful citizen because badness goes against the grain (aren't I boring). This time it would be different. I would help no distressed individuals with their stupid everyday problems. Sadly, almost all side-quests involve doing exactly that. I am seriously considering amending it to "I will not help anyone except for a named reward", but I feel slightly as if I will just be playing the exact same game as anyone else. We'll see how it goes.
I have bought GTA III for the PS2 and am enjoying it. It is slightly harder than I remember (having played some of it on the PC in the dim and distant). I have had to repeat all quests, except the obviously just story-telling ones, on more than one occasion. There has been one race so far and the number of times I tried it and lost was miserable.
Usually I came a distant fourth out of four. This would be either because of wrong turns taken or my car getting so badly damaged that it caught fire and exploded - or a combination of these two. My competitors were insanely aggressive and seemed to care far more about knocking me out of the race than winning it themselves. They all drove sports cars which seemed never to crash and burn however stupidly they drove them. I had to drive whatever I could find.
The large charcoal car of the Mafia guys had a high top speed but being heavy was slow to reach it and awkward in cornering; the Stallions of the Hispanic gangs accelerated well and were fast but lived up to their name and were a nightmare to control. In the end I usually drove the most common type of taxi which reached an okay speed and handled well.
On many attempts I did not see the finish line and for ages did not know how long the race was or where it ended as only the next two checkpoints appeared on the map. I just saw a message appear on the screen about 3 minutes in saying " You couldn't win a raffle, loser". Then an occasion came when I was actually in second place on a long straight, just behind the leader and gaining on him (I was in the charcoal car this time). I realised that we were approaching the place where the race had started and it struck me that of course this must be the end. On the map the next checkpoint was straight ahead Might I actually win this time? Suddenly, my rival took a sharp right turn and, not knowing this part of the course I followed him. I knew my mistake immediately. I had seen the checkpoint ahead. I knew this was a straight road. I was in a car park and while the other car was recovering quickly from his error, I was floundering. I came fourth.
In the end I did win one. I blew up a taxi and had to switch to another car during that victorious race but I didn't loose first place while I was doing it. It was almost worth the misery and squeaking impotent rage of all those previous attempts for the glory and joy of that final one.
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