I wish I could consider this game complete because it's very special to me. My journeys through Tamriel throughout the early days of COVID is where I can pinpoint the cause of my infatuation with RPGs. The world doesn't just feel large, it's genuinely fucking huge, my world map is almost filled out at nearly 200 hours, but there remains hours of exploration worth of unreached corners, and a plethora of incomplete questlines. The Thieves Guild, Dark Brotherhood, random city quests, the Arena, there are so many fun, interesting quests with often simple storylines, but distinct identities that make them uniquely "Oblivion" quests. It's hard to explain why they work so well, with so many reused environments and repetitive objectives, but the exploration that takes place during and between pursuing quest objectives is where the player's primary source of agency stems from. This game is not a good RPG in the pen-and-paper sense, builds are pretty homogeneous, as all skills can be maxed out and specialization is a choice, not a framework that players structure their character around. Where it excels is in adventure, atmosphere, combat, and creativity. All objectives may or may not be pursued for completion of the game, and if a questline is uninteresting to the player, they won't lose much by deciding to focus on something else. Open-world fans can find something they love in this game and focus on it, not compelled to fulfill the gargantuan task of completing everything unless their heart desires it. The voice of Bethesda's writers and developers shines through the charm of the NPCs, the uniqueness and depth of cities, and the mood established through the tranquil OST and sound effects numbing the sense of "epic adventure", a symbol of a bygone era of being a traveling adventurer, enjoying the journey. Unfortunately, the innate need for modding represented by the multitude of bugs and graphical shortcomings, supplemented by visual and gameplay overhauls (including one with Arthas' Lich King armor and Frostmourne) has caused my save to break. I'll have to retire this game, but I'll always be thankful for the joy and appreciation brought to my life while pretending to be a Breton saving Tamriel from the jaws of Oblivion.

I haven't played the bowser map yet, but based on playing the others, this is a really nice Mario Party game. The mini-games are not the highest quality, but there are plenty of fun ones, and the boards help make up for it (though some are too linear and lacking in unique mechanics). Easily prefer 5-7, but this game has its own value as one to play from time to time and mix up the rotation. Some of the gamecube mario party games have a problem with their mini-games where it boils down to button mashing, button inputs, or luck, rather than unique, trainable, gameplay mechanics. Despite being clunky, the dimension added by motion controls help alleviate monotony. That's why this isn't higher than a 6. Shame Mario Party 9 was so bad, because this was a great beta test to eventually make a really fun Wii Mario Party game. The worst part of the game is the declined quality. In many ways, the graphics somehow look worse than 6 and 7, and it was clearly rushed by Nintendo to have a flagship party game for their new console. The best part is probably the presentation, love the entire vibe of the game from the board theming, to the character roster, and the carnival setting.

For GCN/Wii MPs, 6 > 7 > 5 > 8 > 4 > 9