Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Message Board  

I would love to play this game since I adored Dark Messiah and this is the only other first person medieval game I have been able to find, but we cannot get it to work no matter what we try. We are using a computer with plenty of power and a great graphics card...running Windows XP (according to my hubby who is the computer wizard in the house). We have tried every patch we can find, stopping the hp stuff that can cause the game to lockup, patched it with every patch we were able to locate, deleted the game and run CCleaner to clear the registry and reinstalled the game and still, when I try to kill the first undead and a few rats the game freezes up requiring a complete shutdown of the computer and rebooting. We have tried all of the suggestions in the readme and even put in on my newer laptop running Vista and still the game will not run. If there is someone out there who can help us figure out what is going on, we would really appreciate it.
Best Wishes,
Celeste

By the way....if you liked Oblivion, you will probably love Might and Magic's Dark Messiah. There is nothing like kicking a few bad guys off a cliff or down the stairs to relieve the stresses in your life. If you do try it and love it, please email the company and request a sequel. Hopefully if they get enough requests, they will consider doing a sequel...it really is a fantastic game and deserves to be continued. I just think their advertising and promotion of the game wasn't very good and that is why it wasn't a great seller. I found it on a discount shelf and by far, it is one of the best games I have ever played...not so much for the story but for the more realistic physics reactions...and the ability to kick the Orcs off of a cliff.
If you have any suggestions for other first person medieval games, please, please, please let me know. I would love to find another one.

If you are using a crack of an incorrect version, then it might lead to such freezes.

Installing mods that require 1.2.416 update or later on a previous version may hang the game.

So make sure you have these things checked.

Also there may be a problem with your graphic card drivers, update them. Also update DirectX, and Sound card drivers.

Hi,
Thank you for the very quick response. Nope...not a cracked version though I did think of that. Bought the copy at the store. I hate to sound like the dummy I am about computers but would you explain what "Installing mods that require 1.2.416 update or later on a previous version may hang the game" means? I am not certain what version of the game I have...probably an earlier one, but the game never did work out of the box so I'm pretty certain we didn't install anything that would have messed it up until after we couldn't get it to work. I really appreciate you trying to help me out. I've read such good things about the game, I hate to just give up on it. Particularly since there are so few first person medieval games around.
Best Wishes,
Celeste

First things first, if you have no idea what he means about the "mods" then chances are this is not the issue. Mods are scripts written for the game by a third party. Sometimes they add additional story elements, inventory items, etc. You would, in most cases, download these from fan sites or project sites devoted to the particular game.

Second, it could be that your graphics card is "too nice." I know that sounds ridiculous, but Elder Scrolls IV was released nearly four years ago. That is light years for PCs. Ultimately, the game may not support the newer graphics card you have. If this is the case, you may be able to find people who have encountered (and hopefully fixed) the same problem on the manufacture's forum site.

Finally, you may want to try and utilize a "No/CD Crack." This is a file that enables you to run the game without using the disc itself. Of course, this will only work if the game is installing correctly. From the little information that you have listed it seems possible that your disc itself is bad.
Good luck. I believe you will truly love the game. I also recommend checking out The Witcher.



[Edited by kevinpiatt, 1/23/2010 8:07:11 PM]

Hi,
Thank you so much for the suggestions. I have printed out your ideas for my hubby to try for me, since I am still at the 'amazed by all the things a computer can do' stage of computer knowledge. Hopefully something you suggested will make the game playable for me. I have heard such wonderful things about the game and really, really want to get my copy to run.
I picked up The Witcher at the used bookstore and have finished it. Even though it really wasn't a first person game like Dark Messiah, it was an interesting game. I just wish the 'bar' language, which really added nothing to the game, had been left out or amended. Maybe it is just my age but that kind of language was neither necessary nor cute in my opinion. I was just really glad my kids weren't small and watching while I played. It would have been nice if they had allowed you to tone down the language a bit. It was really strange, the tavern was the only place I found the language was that deplorable. Having been in several taverns and bars in my youth, I can tell you that had someone said that in a challenge to fight to another person, they would have had their tails whipped, not only by the challenged person but by every other person in the bar within earshot . Oh well, times' they are a'changing . Anyway, thank you again for the help...I will let everyone know if it fixes the problem and pass the suggestions along to the other folks on other boards who are having the same problem with the game. Any more suggestions for good first person medieval games are always welcome. Right now, I am playing Divinity 2...a really great game. I have found a great hint site and have been making notes to help upgrade their walkthrough (which is pretty good, good maps, etc. but missed a few things I have run across). Can't get past the old beta-testing days of walking all the walls:-).
Best Wishes,
Celeste