This Week in Xbox:

This Hell is Heaven

If you haven't bought it by now, you've at least heard of it … "it" of course being the Xbox 360™ second triple-A juggernaut in March, the next-gen role-playing masterpiece The Elder Scrolls® IV: Oblivion™. Maybe you've read our exclusive review in the April issue of Official Xbox Magazine or seen any one of the other glowing write-ups from around the Internet, but you can't say enough about how brilliant and fun this open-ended RPG is.

A new quest around every corner.

I'm now on my second Xbox 360 character and have, at the time of this writing, put about 60 total hours into the game. Two things jump out at me when I type that. First, after 60 hours, I feel like I'm still only scratching the surface of what's inside the meticulously crafted world of Cyrodiil. Second, after 60 hours I'm having more fun than I did during the first hour. There are so many quests, with plenty of variety amongst them, that for every quest you complete it feels like you get three more to replace it.

Redefining the Genre
There's no doubt that Oblivion raises the bar for other role-playing games and our expectations of them. Most titles in the genre would be satisfied with doing one fully fleshed-out city and a bit of surrounding wilderness. Oblivion has nine!

Other RPGs would be content to offer mage and fighter play styles. Oblivion mixes in stealth, diplomacy, and all combination thereof. A few voice actors would suffice for most games, but Oblivion gives vocal chords to all characters.

Enter the world of Cyrodiil.

Between lockpicking, detective work, spellcasting, spell creation, swimming, persuasion, bartering, there's never a shortage of fun and varied activities in Oblivion. It's become clear to me that Oblivion is one of those once-in-a-blue-moon games that you find yourself enthusiastically repeating, "Damn!" every time you play it.

I don't think I've had this much fun since Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell® Chaos Theory™ a year ago. So if you haven't given into the temptation yet, do so. There's not an Xbox 360 game, on a pure dollars-per-hour-entertained ratio, that's a better buy. The hard-working folks at Bethesda Softworks and 2K Games deserve every sale it gets.

Livin' Live
I have found a bit of time outside Oblivion to check out the cooperative campaign in Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter™. The second mission "Wharf" feels so classically Ghost Recon that it brought a big grin to my face for the duration of my playtime with it. Check it out.

Tip of the Week
Use the Back button between battles in Oblivion to wait one hour and fully recharge your health, magicka, and fatigue. If it says you can't because enemies are nearby, just backtrack a bit (or exit if you're near the dungeon entrance) in order to get clear of the enemy radius and replenish your stats.

By Ryan McCaffrey, Senior Associate Editor, Official Xbox Magazine