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[Skyfly]

_r.u.s.s. mentioned Wasteland, and some might chalk it up to nostalgia, but I think it's something to consider.

With the older games, like Wasteland, you weren't overwhelmed by OPENNESS, the grand views and limitless potential. Oblivion is a huge mansion, but it feels somewhat empty... Wasteland is a cozy cottage and you feel at home.

With Wasteland, some might pooh-pooh the limitations, but, as a good book, it is up to the player to flex his/her imagination.

With Oblivion, with the grandness, we expect more grandness. We expect a lively world with limitless potential, yet we soon experience the blandness. Our senses, eyes and ears, tell us we're in a vast realm, but our interactions don't match up with the grandeur, there is an imbalance... That could be remedied, in one fashion, by including a chatty companion to break the monotony. Baldur's Gate II nailed that aspect.

At least in Fallout 3, we're traipsing around a desolate waste, so we shouldn't expect to find much hustle and bustle. In Oblivion, the world is teeming with life, but it doesn't really feel like it as we play.

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was similarly wide open and it had something to add spice to the recipe, a variety of cutscenes. These helped to give the world something to which we could relate, they helped create drama, I guess you'd call it. They're snippets, representative of what is actually going on around us in the homes and businesses, something we didn't have in Oblivion.