The Elderscrolls 4: Oblivion

Whoa, I finished this game.  I don't know if it's my girlfriend or what, but I finally finished it after two years of buying it.  Really, it's a good game for cinematics and I think that's why its on CNN's list.  Like I trust CNN for anything newsworthy these days.

Oblivion was put out by Bethesda Softworks, or Bethesda Game Studios like about 3 years ago.  There was some controversy when a young woman retextured the female body to be bare chested.  The agency that handled video game ratings were in an uproar.  And really, this whole thing should tell you why having ratings on video games is a hypocrisy (actually, I think the ratings exist to prevent Censorship, but censorship is still censorship).   The game ended on a high note; but the Empire that Uriel Septim's ancestors built is in danger of crumbling.

The best part about the game is that it can be modified by its players.  Both Oblivion and Morrowind are the only PC games that have the distinction of actually being modified by its players to produce unique game experiences.  There are many outfits available for the game for free for download, and there are many overhauls.

The Mods I use are Robert's Male Body and Exem's Eye Candy body (soon to change to Robert's female body), Ruin-Tail's Tale, Battlehorn Castle, The Knights of the Nine, Shivering Isles, and Spell Tomes.  I was thinking of getting Kvatch Rebuilt but being the Earl of Battlehorn Castle and the Crusader of the Nine is more than enough, thank you. I have never played a vampire, however.  I really do not like vampires.

This is Bethsoft's second best game, mostly because on how it handled mods or plugins.  The story isn't all that great, and the quests are something to be desired.  But the game still lets you be what you want to be.  That's the whole point of the game in the first place, and why there are player-made mods.

A game built on that philosophy that lets you do what you want to do in the World is probably the best thing a company can do.  BethSoft should continue to make games that are capable of being modified by the players.  However, alas, no more single player CRPGs.  The ES are the last of the single player as MMOs are the in thing now.  TES V is going to be an MMO, and MMO's are harder to be modified by player content than Morrowind or Oblivion.

That's the last I'm saying about it.