OK, I have finished both Fallout 3 and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and the question is: Which one is better?

Atmosphere

Fallout: Fallout achieves a good variety between being extremely spooky especially if you are in a long tunnel or cave and you can already hear ghouls screaming at you and the outside where everything is just deserted or destroyed. Well, it remains a good variety for a few hours because after that it becomes extremely boring. The only colors you will really see is a grayish type of everything and it's always more gray than the actual color. Boredom and tediousness is pre-programmed. It is such a relief when you get to a place called Oasis that actually presents a real green and actual good-looking trees. You can play this game as a good guy or bad guy: until you get to the really good weaponry. At the beginning I was the good guy who couldn't help but to support the poor people since their misery is so big already but when it comes to choosing really good stuff over morality the stuff is usually the better choice.

Oblivion: Oblivion achieves a much better atmosphere over a long period of time. The colors range from pitch black over extremely nicely looking green and red of trees over red and yellow or other house colors to a good white. You will never get sick of the graphics. Yes, the caves and Planes of Oblivion (the hellish area of the game) become as boring as in Fallout but at least you know that there will be better times as soon as you get out of the place. It's one of the most beautiful games I have ever seen.

Main Quest vs. Side Quests

To put it short: the side quests are much better than the main quest in both games. Fallout's main quest gets boring really fast and also has the horrible downside of ending the game ultimately. Oblivion is a bit interesting but can make playing annoying since there are many gates to Oblivion (hell) opening soon after the beginning and it can be annoying to go through those gates to find the sigil stone to close this gate again.

Audio and Graphics

Fallout: Fallout does something I have longed for a long time: put weapons in a game that feel and sound like they kick some booty. Explosions sound really good but an annoying downside of the audio is the lack of many good voiceovers. Too many people have the same voice and also look the same. And as I've pointed out already: the colors are ALL THE SAME!!!

Oblivion: Again, Oblivion does things better: there seem to be more voices and faces look different, just because of the variety of all the races (Orks, Elves etc.). What looks especially great are the destruction spells that look like cool flashes.

Character Development

Fallout: You receive experience points (EP) for almost everything you do: killing enemies, hacking computers, completing quests. After you gained enough EP you level up and can invest into your abilities - as you wish. So even if you only use small weapons you could just distribute your points among other categories (which would be stupid but possible).

Oblivion: The levelling system is much more realistic: whatever you train will be developed. But in order to level efficiently you need to keep track of what you've just leveled because all your skills play a role for your main attributes and you need to level correctly to get the most of the attributes. This is EXTREMELY annoying and tedious. The problem als is: you often get levelled items as quest rewards and that's why you should reach a high level very soon in order to be able to use these items later on in the game. Is it an interesting way to level? Yes! Is it fun? Not for me!

Replay Value

Fallout: There is the problem that once you end the main quest your game is done. All you can do is load a previous save that starts before the last main mission or you can just start over again. Starting over again is a story for itself: why in the world would you want to travel for hours and hours again just to see the same boring-looking cities and landscapes again? Paying for the DLC will give you nice weapons but, e. g. one hour worth of playing time for Operation Anchorage for 10 bucks is a RIP-OFF!

Oblivion: Tons of fun, over and over again. You have different races to choose from with different birth signs which all will affect the way you'll play the game. The only issues that lower the repeated fun is the levelling system and the console mages. If you want to play as a mage then get the PC version of the game for which there are enough mods to increase your magicka (available points to execute spells). On the console version you won't get enough magicka to create a good mage that can breeze through opponents with destruction spells only.

Conclusion

Don't get me wrong. Fallout 3 was a really cool game that gave me an enjoyable time for 40 hours. But after that I just wanted to get all the achievements and leave this boring place. But even if there are more bugs in Oblivion and even if it is older the greater value rests with this game. It is beautiful, provides variety in graphics and quests and there are enough reasons to play through it again.

Fallout 3:

Graphics: 7/10
Sound: 8/10
Gameplay: 10/10
Longtime fun: 8/10
Replay Value: 9/10
Overall: 9.1

Oblivion:

Graphics: 9/10
Sound: 10/10
Gameplay: 10/10
Longtime fun: 10/10
Replay Value: 7/10
Overall: 9.0

EDIT: I've changed the Replay Value of both FO 3 and Oblivion. I bought FO 3 for PC now and the first four DLCs and paired with all the mods FO 3 really does have a lot of replay value, but the vanilla game still only gets a 2/10 from me

Most games of 2008 are out and 2009 is about to start. Sports games have been published annually probably since the start but none of the games seems to be perfect after oh-so many years. Don't developers get enough fan feedback or is it just too difficult to program? I don't know but here is my take at the perfect baseball game.

I haven't played other baseball games apart from MVP Baseball 2004, 2005 and some free online baseball games. MVP Baseball did a good job in some areas. But excuse me for leaving info out that has been in other games already. I have been very nitpicking in sports games and don't own too many.

GAMEPLAY

You know, I like 2K Sports' idea to move the controlling to the right analog stick. It seems to feel more natural. The problem is that you need to make it very responsive. From what I've read pitching was horribly difficult because you often didn't have control over your pitches. I love the approach and hope it can be refined over the next years, or more hopefully, next months. Make it more responsive and easier to pick up. Voilà, a very good control scheme. But for people who like button pressing and timing the old timing bar scheme as a second option wouldn't be bad.

Hitting should be done in the same way as 2K has done it: Pull back the analog stick and fling it to the front to hit the ball (I just read that EA did it the first time in MVP 06 NCAA Baseball). The problem I had with hitting in MVP 2005 was that it seemed to be to pointless. Either you hit flyballs/home runs or you hit ground balls. The only difficulty was to figure out the right pitch speed and location and then hope for your player to swing at the right time.

Fielding. Erase all the glitches! You are the developers. You should know how. You shouldn't lose games because you can't pick the nearest person to the ball and especially on line drives pick the right player fast! But using the face buttons for throwing to the respective bases is perfect. As in 2K8 and MVP 2005 it should have a throwing meter but you should also be able to perform quick throws so you don't have to load it up for too long. Lastly, your basemen shouldn't take too long to tag somebody. MVP was lacking a good amount of sense and speed there.

Baserunning: Use the D-Pad for the bases and one of the stick for slides (same for fielding: use one of the sticks to climb the wall, dive etc.)

GAME MODES

Game modes seem to be a weakness. There's so much possible in the world of baseball and all varieties could be implemented: Home-Run Derby, Pitcher-Showdown, Baseball darts (or Baseball Bull's-eye) for arcade game style. But more importantly: Career/Franchise/Owner Modes:

Career Mode: Build up a specific player. Road to the Show Mode (MLB The Show 08 ) seems to be perfect.

Franchise Mode should be all about your favorite team: Play with them for seasons and have fun. You should also be able to take over managerial roles (selling tickets, advertisement etc.). But there's no need in building a franchise like the Red Sox (as you had in Owner Mode in MVP 2005)

Owner Mode: Now here is my ultimate suggestion. It's nothing new, it just seems to be forgotten. In my opinion, you should start from the very beginning as an owner: Building your own team (NOT buying one because that's franchise mode!): Choose your own name, location, and create your own jerseys, shoes etc., font type of your team's name, logo and yes, ballpark!

You could almost entirely "create" your own jerseys in Saints Row 2 why not in a baseball game? Select if you want pinstripes or not, whether it's short- or long-sleeved, what and where colors are to be placed, what is written on your jersey (complete team name or just an abbreviation etc.; can you only see the number or also the player's name) and in what font type everything is written. It shouldn't be too difficult: NBA Live 2000 or NBA Street Vol. 2 offered team creations why not new games, especially baseball games??? You should be able to create 4-5 jerseys and determine up to 4 different colors for your jersey colors at once.

Next up: Ballpark creation: Nice start in MVP Baseball 2005, however it was anything but deep. You should be able to draw your own outfield dimensions. You want to create Polo Grounds yourself? Heck, it should be possible! You should also define what the seat capacity is about. Of course, you start with a small amount, but same here: you should be able to decide where the seats are and how many of each type is available, luxury boxes more expensive to build, of course. The more money you get the more you can upgrade your ballpark. Furthermore should you not only be able to choose your seat color but also special paintings (e.g., your seats painted so your team name or logo can be seen if the ballpark isn't sold out.

Now to building your team: You should be able to decide if you want to create an A, AA, AAA or MLB team. Rather start out small and work your way up. But for all of the leagues you should have your own team. The higher your team the better your availability of ballpark upgrades (coach staff, training centers, equipment etc.).

Yes, it's becoming a baseball simulation, but this is what the perfect baseball game should be all about: You can choose what game modes you can play. If you don't want to own and create a team just do other game modes. And if you only want to create an MLB Team and leave the rest to the CPU? Fine, so be it!

GRAPHICS

The perfect game has perfect graphics, duh! No clipping issues and the people in the crowd should look differently, also with various t-shirts and jerseys or the crazy fans who have painted letters on their bellies. And what about all the K's coming up at one spot of the stadium for every strikeout of the home pitcher?

SOUND

It would be cool to be able to have your player come into the game with a specific soundtrack, e.g. Mariano Rivera with Enter Sandman. The licenses are too expensive? Make custom soundtrack available and editable!

OTHER THINGS in short:

- be able to choose what sequences you want to see (do you want to see a batter warm up and how they are preparing to bat or do you just want to rush through the game and garner wins?)

- realistic signing and trading system: 3-team-trades should be possible with up to 6 players from every team (wasn't Miguel Tejada traded for 5 or 6 players?); have humble players in the game who are organization-loyal and don't care too much about money but rather staying on the same team as free-agency nears!

- player development shouldn't just say "5 stars" but rather be divided into categories which are more likely to be developed faster (speed, stamina, power etc.) and have the stats updated after every week and not after an entire year – players progress during the season, too

- give the player options: be able to cut teams from divisions, games from the schedule (162 games is too many – this should definitely be editable), send teams to other divisions (what about the Red Sox in sunny California in the AL West?), be able to edit how many innings you want to play in season games!

It sounds like too many demands, but hey: developers have had a long time to make great to perfect games already!

Have a good one