Yesterday I got the February 2007 issue of PC gamer, which had a two page preview of the Shivering isles. I figured I ought to put a paragraph by paragraph summary up, so here you go. Although this has a fair amount to do with the pre-existing Shivering isle thread, I didnt want to put a bunch of text in the middle of that. The article appeared on pages 46-47m and was written by Ryan McCaffrey.
"Oblivion - Shivering Isles" - Nuttier than a medieval Fruitcake.
Expansions are always difficult for a developer, as giving the same is boring, and departing from the established too much alienates fans.
In an attempt to avoid this conundrum, the expansion for the popular Elder Scrolls IV will add a unique twist to the established formula - it changes little gameplay wise, but adds a whole lot of totally new and unique content.
Rather than expand into another province of Tamriel, Bethesda dipped into the lore and decided to transport players to the 'Shivering Isles' known also as 'The realm of Madness', the daedric realm ruled by the prince Sheogorath. (Just on a side note, if anyone has the played the Sheogorath Shrine Quests, they should set the tone for the expansion - twisted and at times sadistic humor).
The god Juggalef is preparing his 'once-in-an-eon' Greymarch - a cleansing of the land and everyone within, including, by extension, Sheogorath himself. With this premise you are allowed entry to the shivering isles, a place where everything is a bit off - including the plants, landscapes, creatures and NPCs.
The strangeness of the Shivering isles creates a lot of humor - "Not only are a lot of the NPCs downright hilarious, thanks to the insanity that permeates the land, but the humor also lends something of a clasic LucasArts adventure game bent to the Quests you'll embark upon. You'll laugh more in 10 hours with Shivering isles than you did with 100 hours with the parent game".
One quest has you deciding the fate of a group of adventurers who have strayed into a dungeon in search of great riches. You, along with one of Sheogoraths minions get to decide the fate of said adventurers, as Sheogorath has already decided that they are to die. You can kill them outright, or use traps and illusions within the dungeons to drive them insane (ie the adventurers see a locked cage filled with unimaginable riches - you can opt to electrify the cage, killing anyone who touches it, walk in and kill them yourself, or drop thousands of key in the room, driving them insane as they search for the real one).
You will be able to move between cyrodiil and the Shivering Isles at will, and the expansion will be suitable for all level ranges (I guess this means leveled content), with the entrance to the isles located on an island in Niben bay, near Bravil. Ill close with this quote - "If you're still pursing your lips at the thought of playing Oblivion in a land filled with a pink night sky and trees that look lifted from an acid junkies sketchbook, ask yourself if you really wanted more of the same".
You'll laugh more in 10 hours with Shivering isles than you did with 100 hours with the parent game
Ok, that sounds awesome as hell. Might have to reinstall Oblivion for that.
Count me the hell in.I knew you'd like the news of a new Oblivion expansion. :)
Well wing-dang-doodle! I'm glad Bethesda is going ahead with these mini-expansions! Especially considering their initial stance on the probability of expansions for Oblivion.With all of their Oblivion DLC stuff every few months, then deciding to releasing it all on disc for another good 5-10 hours of Oblivion stuff w/ the new Knights of the Nine content in November '06, plus now news of a new expansion by Spring '07, I think Valve and anybody else who wants to think about doing some sort of "Episodic gaming" or "Expansions galore gaming" should look at what the hell BethSoft is doing.
Man, I can't wait till my PC arrives (I shipped it), so I can get back into Oblivion! Oh and I finally got to see what the game looks like with HDR!
By the way, that Mystic Elf custom race that's been around the net is pretty sweet!
What is this new custom race, X? :PWell, it's not really new :P but it's very well crafted! With some tattoo options too.
Oblivion expansion: First concrete details
Thursday 4-Jan-2007 10:14 AM 30-plus hours of new adventuring and encounter with mad god promised in Shivering Isles
First concrete details have emerged on Shivering Isles, Bethesda's first expansion pack for its RPG epic The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.
Revealed in the latest edition of PC Zone magazine, word is that the expansion will offer 30-plus hours of new adventuring, features new quests, monsters, expanded freeform gameplay - quest lines that branch more than before, for example - and a new land "that you can watch change according to your vital life-or-death decisions".
Setting the scene, it's explained that an ominous-looking gate has opened in Nibben Bay, the portal leading to a torn realm - the Shivering Isles - ruled by Sheogorath, the god of madness and dementia. Apparently, adventurers will meet the god and "plough through his trials", but it's additionally hinted that ultimately we may well be usurping the deity. A ETA of Q2 2007 has been given.
PC Zone #177, which hits shelves today, has first screenshots from Shivering Isles and further information on the expansion - so, go grab it Oblivion fans.
Just realized something. The expansion needs to raise the skill cap to work well. :)
Maybe it's because he's all alone in Tamriel.. No companions.. No multiplayer.. Utterly alone.
I remember in ES III: Tribunal (Morrowind expansion #1), that added that you could bring one companion along w/ you -- a mercenary, who you paid.There are a couple of companion plugins out there, some are pretty decent with a lot of options (some sexy options too :P).
It'd be cool to have an Oblivion expansion where it concentrated on the story having you bring even one companion w/ you for the whole ride.
Press ReleaseCool.
Source: Bethesda Softworks
Bethesda Softworks Announces The Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles(TM) - Official Expansion for Oblivion
Thursday January 18, 8:00 am ET
Spring Release Planned for Official Expansion for 2006 Game of the Year as Oblivion Sales Top Three Million Units
ROCKVILLE, Md., Jan. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Bethesda Softworks®, a ZeniMax Media company, today confirmed the upcoming release of The Elder Scrolls IV®: Shivering Isles(TM), the official expansion for the award-winning The Elder Scrolls IV®: Oblivion(TM). Shivering Isles will be released for Xbox 360(TM) video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and Windows this Spring. Details are presented in the exclusive cover story for Official Xbox Magazine's (US) February issue, which hits newsstands this week.
Shivering Isles features more than 30 hours of new gameplay and allows you to explore an entirely new plane of Oblivion -- the realm of Sheogorath, the Daedric Prince of Madness. Shivering Isles adds to the existing world of Oblivion so you can continue playing with your existing save game/character, or create an all new character just to explore the new content.Cool.
"We're thrilled with the response that Oblivion has received to date and feel that Shivering Isles will offer a whole new and different experience to anyone who played and enjoyed Oblivion," said Todd Howard, executive producer for The Elder Scrolls.I hope there's a lot of new unique loot in this expansions....Oblivion could ALWAYS use MORE unique loot.
Within the Realm of Sheogorath, players can explore the two extreme sides of the god's madness -- the sublimely creative and the completely psychotic. Something is happening to the Shivering Isles and Sheogorath himself looks to you to be his champion and defend his realm and its inhabitants from destruction. Do you have the strength to survive his trials, tame a realm fraught with paranoia and despair, and wear the mantle of a God?
The Shivering Isles features a bizarre landscape split between the two sides -- Mania and Dementia -- filled with vast, twisting dungeons mirroring the roots of the trees they are buried within. You'll encounter more than a dozen new creatures including hideous insects, Flesh Atronachs, skeletal Shambles, amphibious Grummites. Throughout your adventure, you will discover all new items, ingredients, spells, and more, and have the talented craftsmen of Crucible and Bliss forge new armor and weapons just for you.
"The enthusiastic response we've received to our downloadable content has been overwhelming, and we're excited to bring Oblivion fans a full expansion," said Vlatko Andonov, president of Bethesda Softworks. "The world we've created for Shivering Isles is unlike anything you've seen or played in Oblivion and we can't wait for folks to play it."I can't wait, either. :)
Released in March 2006 for Xbox 360(TM) videogame and entertainment system from Microsoft and Windows, Oblivion sold more than three million units in 2006. Among the countless awards and accolades it has garnered to date are Game of the Year and RPG of the Year honors from numerous outlets, including Spike TV's 2006 Video Game Awards, G4's G-phoria, the Golden Joystick Awards, GameSpot.com, ShackNews.com, Voodoo Extreme, FiringSquad.com, and many more. Oblivion received the #1 ranking on PC Gamer's (UK) list of the top 100 games of all time and is the highest rated Xbox 360 game of all time according to Gamerankings.com.Sweet.
The Windows version of Shivering Isles will be available at retail and is co-published by Bethesda Softworks and 2K Games, while the Xbox 360 version is currently planned for release through Xbox Live® online entertainment network by Bethesda Softworks. For more information on Oblivion, Shivering Isles, or The Elder Scrolls, visit the official web site: www.elderscrolls.com.Ahhhh......so X360 gets this as a DLC, while PC'ers can get it at retail stores.
When will Shivering Isles be available?Cool.
The worldwide release will be this Spring. We’ll announce the specific release date as we get closer to release.
Is it just for PC, or for Xbox 360 too?
Shivering Isles will be available for both Windows and Xbox 360. The Windows version will only be available in stores. The Xbox 360 version will be available for download via Xbox Live. A retail version is not possible for the 360 at this time. Both versions will be released simultaneously, worldwide.
Will localized versions be available?Ok.
Yes, it will be localized into French, German, Italian, and Spanish.
Is this just another gate to Oblivion like the ones in the main quest?Cool.
No. Oblivion is made of lots of planes, one for each Daedric Prince. Oblivion featured the fiery realm of Mehrunes Dagon. The Shivering Isles is the realm of Sheogorath, the Daedric Prince of Madness. It’s a place unlike anything you’ve seen in Oblivion.
How big is Shivering Isles?Good to know.
Shivering Isles is about ¼ the size Cyrodiil, where Oblivion takes place.
How many hours of gameplay should I expect?Count me in.
About 30 hours of new content, including an all new main quest -- in addition to miscellaneous quests you can complete, lots of landscape to explore, dungeons to discover, etc.
Do I have to create a new character to play Shivering Isles?Sweet.
Shivering Isles works with your existing save game/character from Oblivion, or you can start a new game of Oblivion and create a new character just for Shivering Isles.
Can I continue my quests in Oblivion once I start Shivering Isles?Just like Morrowind + its expansions -- sweet.
You can go back and forth between Oblivion and Shivering Isles with your character whenever you like.
Will it be available for the PLAYSTATION®3 system?Ooooh....so I bet this is why the PS3 version of Oblivion was delayed -- to throw this Shivering Isles piece ALSO into the PS3 version of Oblivion.
It is our intention to make it available for PLAYSTATION 3 this year, but no release date has been set.
Price Point, Further Oblivion Add-Ons?
However, when asked as to the possibility of releasing smaller add-on content specifically on top of Shivering Isles, the Bethesda representative [Pete Hines] noted that this was not planned.
“I don't know that we would ever release downloadable content specific to Shivering Isles,” he responded. “However, we do have one or two new pieces of content planned for the future for the main game, though these are obviously not of the scope of Shivering Isles.”
Not bad. Though I'd really love to see a full expansion along the lines of Tribunal or Bloodmoon, and hopefully Shivering Isles will be just that.W/ 30 hours of new content and a new land-mass, sure looks like it to me. :)
By the way, Knights of the Nine is pretty great! It's not quite as grand as the main quest of Oblivion, but it has its charms and amazing moments.I ain't touched OBlivion since I installed Knights of the Nine. All I did was boot up Knights -- and then put it on hold, since I was playing NWN2.
2006 was a huge year for Bethesda Softworks as they released their best selling fantasy RPG Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. This spring a full fledged expansion pack, Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles will be released as a PC retail product and as a downloadable expansion for Xbox 360 owners. FiringSquad got a chance to chat with the expansion's lead designer Mark Nelson to find out more about their plans for Shivering Isles.I figured as much
FiringSquad: First, when did development of Shivering Isles actually begin? Did id start right after Oblivion was released?
Mark Nelson: Yes. We started the development right after we released Oblivion.
FiringSquad: How hard was it to create a new land for the expansion when the original game was already so big?Very true.
Mark Nelson: Creating a space that big is always challenging, as you don't want to create a world that's big and empty. The world needs to be filled with things to see and do. That's what Elder Scrolls games are known for, though -- huge, open worlds that give the player room to explore.
FiringSquad: Will the art style of Shivering Isles be radically different than the original game?Sounds cool to me.
Mark Nelson: Absolutely. We always want the player to know that he's playing in the expansion material. The Shivering Isles has a very different feel. It's much less of a traditional medieval fantasy look, and has more of an exotic feel.
FiringSquad: What sort of new character options will the player have when creating a new character for Shivering Isles?Okie.
Mark Nelson: The character creation system from the base game hasn't changed for the expansion. Still, there are tons of new clothing, armor, and weapon options in the expansion to allow the player to further customize his character.
FiringSquad: What are the dev team's favorite new monsters in the expansion?Sweet.
Mark Nelson: There are so many, it's hard to choose. The Scalon is one of my new favorites. They're large, hulking, amphibious creatures that can really startle you. It doesn't hurt that they have the ability to become invisible when they are about to jump out and attack.
FiringSquad: What other content and gameplay elements have been added to Shivering Isles?Got to love having side quests. :)
Mark Nelson: There are a ton of new quests for the player to experience in the Shivering Isles. In addition to the main quest, there are a bunch of miscellaneous quests spread throughout the world. I'm very proud of the quests. I think they're among the most expansive, interesting quests that have ever appeared in an Elder Scrolls game.
FiringSquad: The decision was made to distribute the expansion via Xbox Live for Xbox 360 owners, rather than a retail expansion. Why was this decision made?That's Microsoft for you....
Mark Nelson: Right now, a retail expansion isn’t an option on the 360. We’ve talked to Microsoft about it, and continue to do so, but our ability to do that isn’t up to us at this point. Certainly it’s an option we’d like to have, as you tend to sell more games when you make it available in as many places as possible.
FiringSquad: Will there also continue to be smaller content updates for the game or has that program now ended?Sweet. More DLC stuff, eh?
Mark Nelson: We're considering a couple more right now, but past that, we have no definite plans.
FiringSquad: If Shivering Isles is successful will there be more expansion packs for Elder Scrolls IV or is the team moving on to other projects?I could go for more Oblivion expansions. :)
Mark Nelson: Currently, we have no plans to release another expansion to Oblivion.
FiringSquad: Finally is there anything else that you wish to say about Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles?Sounds good.
Mark Nelson: We're very excited about the Shivering Isles expansion, as we feel it really represents the best of what Oblivion has to offer. As always, I’d like to thank our fans for the support they’ve given to us over the years, and for their support of Oblivion. They are a passionate group, and we don't always see eye-to-eye, but we listen to what they say, and we try to respond to them as best we can. Hopefully, this expansion will bring them many hours of enjoyment as they explore the world of the Shivering Isles.
With a string of popular packs, Oblivion set the early example for what can be done with console downloadable content. A diverse collection that covered everything from Horse Armor to the completely integrated quest series in the Knights of the Nine kept fans happily adventuring in the realm of Cyrodiil. But for an expansion pack, developer Bethesda Softworks wanted to step out of the "more of the same" mold and go beyond just adding to its traditional fantasy world of stone castles and verdant forests. Just getting to the new Shivering Isles rips you completely out of the mundane domain of Cyrodiil, to be deposited in Sheogorath, the plane of the Daedric Prince of Madness.Okay.
Well, that's not entirely correct. Before you can play with madness you must pass a little test to gain entry. It all begins when an island mysteriously appears in Niben Bay a couple days in game time after you install the expansion (yes, you can just rest and skip right to it). On said island, a glowing portal in the form of the gaping maw shared by two maniacal looking faces carved into either side of an enormous stone head beckons. Inside waits Haskill, Chamberlain to the Prince. He explains that this is an invitation to the other side, one you're not forced take, one that could leave you stumbling around a mindless vegetable like an NPC you might encounter when you first hit the island, and one that being an intrepid adventurer you of course can't refuse.Interesting.
Once through you find yourself in a walled-in little village known as the Fringe that sits outside the gates to Sheogorath. Here's where the test comes in: to gain entry you need to defeat a grotesque giant gatekeeper that resembles a certain boss out of Resident Evil 4. While challenges like this in the original game had specific solutions, for the expansion Bethesda wanted to open up freedom in solving quests to match the open feeling you get roaming the world. So, you're welcome to try to charge in, sword flailing, but the developers let you know this might be a little difficult by having NPCs lead you to watch the gatekeeper handily wipe out a team of knights in plate mail.Okay.
By poking around the village some, and talking with the locals, a couple of options present themselves. You can recruit an archer to fight with you by helping him take out the crypt guardians protecting bones he can use to make magic arrows.Nice.
But poke around a little more and you'll run into the apprentice of the sorceress who created the gatekeeper. A little carefully applied speechcraft later, you'll know that the sorceress visits her creation every night at midnight, and that the tears she cries during these rendezvous are poison to her creation. Collected from a handkerchief she drops, they can be applied to your weapon to give you the upper hand against the giant. Or, do both: get the archer to help and gather the tears to poison your sword. When you do face the monster it certainly won't hurt to have every possible advantage.Awesome. I like options. :)
Choice figures prominently throughout the expansion. The gate itself even offers you two doors from which to choose. Both lead to Sheogorath, but depending which you chose you'll either set foot in Mania or Dementia first. Imagine the realm as the projected psyche of the Prince of Madness, divided somewhat like what Freud described as the id and super-ego. In Mania excesses reign supreme; it's a bacchanalian celebration gone awry and everything glistens with an unbelievable sheen. Head to the other side and you get the baser side, and a real sense of descending into Dementia. Everything is dark and foreboding creating a twisted landscape Tim Burton could be proud of. Nowhere is the difference more pronounced than in the main city of each side. Guards in gilded armor patrol the avenues of Mania's Bliss while over in Dimentia the buildings seem to be closing in on you in the dirty narrow alleys of Crucible.Cool.
A visit to the Prince reveals the reasoning behind his invitation. Just as Cyrodiil faced the end of an era, so too does Sheogorath. It passes with an event called the Greymarch that wipes the slate clean, including the Prince, for a new beginning. But this Prince hopes to defy the progression by finding a human champion capable of halting the Greymarch. As you adventure in both aspects of Sheogorath, completing quests will help you rise in favor with the residents to become that champion. Before reaching the ultimate showdown you'll also have to take out your competition in court, the Duke of Mania and the Duchess of Dementia. And again there isn't one set way to take care of them. For instance one way to eliminate the Duke avoids direct confrontation, instead letting you help him to a fatal overdose.Nice!
One of your first tasks from the Prince will be to get the gatekeeper for the realm back up and running. But there are already some issues to deal with that need to be taken care of right away. Before there was a gatekeeper, mundane folks were discouraged from entering by the legend of the Xedilian dungeon. Its riches lured many, who then perished never to be heard from again. With nothing to stop them from coming, mundane adventurers have already shown up there, but the dungeon hasn't seen any action in a long while.Sweet.
You'll have to help its caretaker get the place back up to snuff again, and in so doing enjoy the wicked delight of getting to take out the adventuring party, Dungeon Keeper-style. With that out of the way, you can get to working with the sorceress to create a new gatekeeper. From a gory collection of body parts including arms, heads, and hearts -- each with unique special traits -- you select the ingredients used to conjure up the new gatekeeper in a suitably spectacular summoning ritual.Okay.
After passing the gate from Fringe, head into the northern hemisphere and you find yourself in fanciful Mania, home to places like the Laughing Coast and Saints Watch; take the road south and you enter the darker realm of Dementia where you find Shallow Grave and Heretics Horn. And there, right where you can picture it all coming together at the stem of the brain sits New Sheoth, capital of Sheogorath, and home to the court of the Daedric Prince of Madness.Okay.
Along with the serious stuff, you're bound to run across many situations along the way that lead to a chuckle or two by virtue of being in a world entirely constructed from a collection of neurosis. Because the expansion features fewer NPCs the team was able to go into more depth with each, fleshing out their personalities more completely, and with that giving them more to say. This figures directly into the quest design that aims to take advantage of these eccentric characters and their unique situations. Their warped psyches present plenty of convoluted, entertaining problems to solve, but it's not a direct attempt to be comedic. Bethesda feels that jokes never work well in games, so don't expect to see any sort of wink-at-the-camera stuff.
Besides plenty to keep you busy you'll also find ample rewards for your efforts. Crafters will want to seek out the smiths in Bliss and Crucible, each of which will be able to create a powerful new set of armor. In Bliss you can put together a sleek suit from amber collected around Mania. In Crucible you can, of course, forge a more sinister looking set of plate from madness ore collected around Dementia. And in either case matrixes found throughout the realm can be used by the smith during the process to imbue your new gear with additional magical capabilities.Cool.
The new Dawnfang sword is also sure to be sought out by many. Get 12 kills with it and it becomes more powerful, leveling up in a sense, but the catch is that it resets every 12 hours with the cycle of the sun. But as the only item in the game that does anything like that, its appeal is undeniable.Ooooh......interesting weapon.
With so much to play with, you're sure to want to get to it right away when you get Shivering Isles, and the way Oblivion handles character progression lets you do that. Because the enemies all scale along with you as you progress, you can start a new character and almost right away head into the expansion. While that might not be completely realistic -- there's a few basics you'll want like a better weapon, or a new spell -- you can make a quick run through Cyrodiil and be on your way in good time.Cool.
That's a good thing because you'll likely be pretty anxious after waiting for the expansion pack to finish downloading. From the amount of content on display it's sure to be huge, and, at least presently, the only way it will be available is as a download. That also means that this expansion will require the hard drive. It's a tough pill to swallow for Oblivion fans who own the core 360 system, but, for the 30 or so hours of new questing alone, one that will be hard to resist. From how strong a pull to return to Oblivion just this short time with the expansion exerted, don't be surprised to see its name popping up on your Friends List all over again in 2007.Good thing I got the PC version of Oblivion. :P
Lookin' good!
Games Radar has video too. (http://www.gamesradar.com/us/xbox360/game/movies/index.jsp?releaseId=20070105111951637017)I can empathize! I really want this now too! I may have to buy it online though, it might be a while before it hits store shelves here.
I want this thing so fucking bad right now.
Originally appeared in GFW Issue #04Great, gives me less reason to buy Games For Windows, if they gonna post all their stuff on 1Up's site. :P
Scan shots from Bethesda's Shivering Isles and you'd be forgiven for blurting jargon like "brillig," "mimsy," and "Bandersnatch." "Goodbye idyllic climes," tease the screens. "Hello madness, mirth, and Jabberwocky." Talk about trading spaces. Gnarled landscapes bend back upon themselves and tree roots dangle from cavern tops while strange three-legged stick creatures scuttle, crab-clawing and probing the air with alien eyestalks. Elsewhere, coiling rainbow-colored foliage nestles below towering mushrooms, each one collared with tiny bulbs--a psychedelic version of Morrowind's Bitter Coast region where iridescent celestial objects paint the night sky in heliotrope slashes over backplanes of starry silver. Welcome to Dementia and Mania, psychotic and sublime halves of "madgod" (or is that "maddog"?): Sheogorath's realm, and your new playground when the official expansion for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion hits this spring.Okay.
As if grappling with the Prince of Destruction wasn't enough, Sheogorath--the Daedric Prince of Madness--needs a hero. "Basically, there's an impending threat to Sheogorath's realm, and because of the nature of that threat, he needs a mortal's help," explains Shivering Isles' lead designer Mark Nelson. "Players will need to rise in the ranks of the Court of Madness in order to earn the respect of the citizens of the Shivering Isles and eventually repel the threat."Everybody always needs a hero, in an RPG....
Adolescent power fantasy redux? Maybe not. While Nelson admits you'll still engage in a healthy amount of "find this" and "kill that"--"Let's face it," he argues, "The Lord of the Rings was really just one big FedEx quest."--the ambience sounds delightfully demented. "The 'creative' and 'psychotic' themes gave us lots of room to create interesting characters with sometimes bizarre motivations," Nelson says. Meaning that, while ticking off your checklists untangling conspiracies and rebuilding broken artifacts, you'll be dancing toe-to-toe with some of the looniest clucks in The Elder Scrolls coop.Wo0t for the crazies!!! :)
Then there's the whole "special trials and powers" thing. "You'll need to complete Sheogorath's first trial just to enter the realm," Nelson says. Thereafter, you'll be intermittently asked to prove yourself worthy to serve as Sheogorath's champion. As you progress, you'll be granted some of the mad god's powers. We're not sure what they are, but we're pretty sure a deranged deity won't be diddling around with "magic missile."Very nice......I wonder what the heck some of those powers will be, as well....
"The main thing is to keep the experience engaging," Nelson says, outlining a design philosophy that keeps things A-to-Z but jumbles up as much as possible between. "That is, if I have to get something, are there interesting ways to do it? Can I persuade a guard to let me in? Can I sneak in behind a servant? Are there obstacles in my way that are unlike what I'm used to seeing? As long as the player can make meaningful choices along the way, there's nothing wrong with questing for a sword or lopping off some heads."Ahh....multiple ways to finish quests....I like, I like... :)
ISLE OF STYLECool.
How big are the Shivering Isles? According to Nelson, Sheogorath's madcap realm adds roughly a quarter more real estate via its own pinched-off plane. "The realm of Oblivion comprises many different planes of existence--each of the Daedric Princes has his own," Nelson explains. "In Oblivion, the player was only able to explore one (Mehrunes Dagon's plane). The Shivering Isles is another plane belonging to Sheogorath." But where Dagon's plane was fragmented and often randomly generated, Sheogorath's Shivering Isles is one contiguous land mass. "It's a completely new world, with settlements, a major city (New Sheoth), large regions of wilderness, and many residents."
And don't forget the whole "bizarro Elder Scrolls" theme. "Alice in Wonderland was definitely one of the inspirations," Nelson admits when quizzed about the expansion's quirky aesthetic. "The lands of Mania are bright, vibrant, and colorful. It's quite a departure from the woodlands of Cyrodiil, and we wanted to evoke a bit of that Lewis Carroll feeling." Dementia, Mania's twisted twin realm, is by contrast dark, dank, and "a bit spooky." "Those areas have much more of a horror theme," he says, adding that the plants, creatures, and architecture in Dementia will be appropriately creepy.Very cool.
Creepy indeed, thanks in part to critters named "Flesh Atronach" and "Shamble." "One of my favorites is the Grummite," says Nelson. "They're a race of creatures that infest the Shivering Isles, found in many of the dungeons where they gather to worship strange idols." They're smarter than the average bear, too: Semiaquatic, they'll often run toward water to heal when damaged. "Trust me," Nelson says. "It's much better to fight them on dry land." Or, if the spirit of Monty Python moveth thee, run away!Ooooh.....more monsters. Sounds good.
Throughout the course of your journey battling the Greymarch, Jyggalag, and the Knights of Order, you'll be given a significant amount of choice. The decisions you make regarding how to comply with Sheogorath's wishes have substantial and permanent effects on the game world and storyline, including determining which major NPC players live or die, what titles you receive, and ultimately what kind of specialized armor set you're rewarded with later on. By giving the player choices with real consequences, the game manages to captivate like no linear game possibly could. It works to make the virtual world seem more realistic, and make you, the player, relish a greater sense of power and individuality. Once finished with the quest line, you're also rewarded with a few interesting abilities and responsibilities which should keep this content fresh for at least a little while longer.Freakin' awesome!!!
The Shivering Isles have their own version of Oblivion Gates, called Obelisks of Order, which turn out to be far less frustrating to deal with. Here the main plot doesn't require you destroy excessive numbers like with the Oblivion plane dungeons. Instead, it's just a simple matter of killing a nearby Priest of Order and dropping three Hearts of Order into the Obelisk. Throughout the course of the main plot, the number of these you're actually required to deactivate is minimal.Ahhhhh......I did like the numerous amount of Oblivion gates as "side quests" for namely their "leveling up" purposes. 'Cause that's basically what they are there for.
We have a few gripes with the expansion, though they're relatively minor. The game's menu system still needs some tweaking, particularly the alchemy interface. It still requires far too many button presses or mouse clicks to add, remove, and determine what reagents go together to the desired potions. Like in Oblivion, NPC faces still look jarringly unnatural, which detracts from the otherwise eerie beauty of the Shivering Isles. We were also hoping for a sweeping new orchestral track, but alas, no such luck. The surprisingly catchy Oblivion theme and other existing scores will have to suffice. A few crashes were encountered here and there, but didn't significantly detract from the experience.Nothing too major.
Man now I wish I hadn't gone overboard on the games purchasing. I completely forget about this one. Good thing I returned S.T.A.L.K.E.R.; I am going to buy this instead.
I skimmed through that review, but it didn't seem to have any mention of the expansion lifting the visuals to that of the PS3 level. Is that happening with the expansion or a future download?
To combat all those enemies, you will get new weapons, armor, and spells. If that's not enough, you can make your own weapons and armor by collecting materials and recipes. You can collect amber or madness ore and take it to the blacksmith in Mania or Dementia, respectively. Using the material, you can have the blacksmith forge powerful weapons and armor. The items might not replace your current gear, but at the very least, these forged items will fetch a high price from any merchant.Good. Oblivion does need MORE loot.
Of course, in addition to forged items, there are plenty of treasures for you to discover in the Shivering Isles' many dungeons.Sweet. The more loot, the better for Oblivion.
By the time you're ready to leave the Shivering Isles for the greener fields of Tamriel, you'll likely be a very wealthy hero.Good!
In addition to the new items, there are a few new magic spells in the expansion, including an amusing spell that lets you summon Chancellor Haskill to ask him for advice.What the heck?!?!?!?
I want this so badly, but really can't afford it for a while.
Okay, so I put a few more hours into SI tonight and I have to say that it's incredible. I won't go into detail, I won't post screens, I won't do a damned thing. I'll just say that if you ever loved Oblivion, this is going to do it for you. It's Oblivion with all kinds of extra spice and humor, very different in feel while still maintaining the stuff that made Oblivion good times. If you don't like this, something is wrong with you and you shouldn't be allowed to reproduce. Obviously I can't give a "score" to it since I've only put in a few hours, but my impressions so far are all in high 9 territory.
I had about the worst fucking birthday in the history of lame birthdays today, and an hour and a half of SI had me forgetting about it completely. That's powerful stuff.
Thanks, D. The birthday kind of sucked, but hopefully the post-birthday week will be a good one. Week of vacation! OWmeet! Beer! Pizza! Woo!No prob.
And that's a pretty sweet deal on SI. I may well have to check that out. I could swing that much cash...Yuh, $17.99 for an expansion that looks to give me at least another 20 hours of open-ended RPG gameplay, sign me up.
Calling it a new game is a bit of a stretch... I mean, it's Oblivion from top to bottom. All the systems are the same, the gameplay is the same, everything is the same. The big difference is that there's more stuff, all new art assets, new things to screw around with, and new places to explore. And, of course, it's got an entirely different feel than Oblivion in terms of atmosphere and stuff. But yeah... they're saying there's closer to 30 hours here, and my guess is it will take me even longer. I play these games very, very slowly. I'm at over 200 hours I'd say on my current game of Oblivion, and I haven't finished any guild questlines or the main quest. And now they give me SI to go explore? Awesome. This game is going to last me just as long as Morrowind, and I didn't think that was possible.
Click here if you're a Cheapassgamer Forum member.
In short, rumor has it week of 4/8/2007, Shivering Isles will be $17.99 at Circuit City (http://cheapassgamer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=132910)
I gave in to temptation and bought Oblivion for the 360. Oh, so this is what it's meant to look like and to perform like. Nice. Plus now I've been honest and settled up with Bethesda. They deserve it. (Don't care about MS, though. Hehe.)I have Oblivion on the PC; it run and looks great. :)
So, about Shivering Isles, should I spend a few dozen hours leveling up my new character first, or can I jump right into it? I have not downloaded that yet.Keep in mind, I don't have Shiv yet. But, I know some answers, from previews I read and all.
Hey did the expansion increase the skill cap?
Well it was 100 and annoyingly enough I was the best archer I could be without barely scratching the surface of the game. I'll probably download Que's recommended slow leveling mod.
OK, so now I have. My character is Level 3. The first thing I did there is get a complete set of steel armor from one of the party that gets killed fighting that big guy. I also went the colorful route. Alice in Wonderland. Whee.Oh, that's a load of crap.
On the bullshit side of things, I played 360 Oblivion for over a dozen hours without a problem, and now it's crashed on me twice in the couple of hours since I've added Shivering Isles, once shortly after I launched the game the first time with the new stuff, and once after I went through the portal. Nice. I have to play this now the way I play buggy PC games, save every 5 minutes.
I know it. Just my luck. I'm looking around for any wisdom I can find on the issue. All I get so far is the typical support-drone crap--go through hours of deleting, cache clearing and redownloading. If this were file corruption, I really don't think it would be an intermittent issue. It would screw up right away every time. But I'm more than willing to listen to suggestions. It's almost a 1-GB download, and I really don't want to go through it again just to follow someone's support script.
Pug:That sucks that you can't burn that to a CD/DVD, in case something happens.
Right. I can re-download anything that I paid for at any time. There is a problem, however, if your system gets replaced, even under warranty. The whole thing is locked to the original system. As I understand it, the solution isn't complete unless you get MS support to refund you all the points, then use them to re-purchase the content. Otherwise, you have to be tethered to Xbox Live in order to play the stuff you bought. (You don't have to be online normally to play downloaded content you bought.)
Que:I save more often than that "every 5 mins", in most of my PC games if they have a quicksave -- regardless of buggy-ness! :P
Thanks. Your post is remarkably soothing for some reason. I get in these paranoid moods when I have unexpected problems like this, and the standard response is "it's only your problem, mine works fine". I do hope they fix this before I no longer care. In the meantime, as I said, buggy-game rule: save every 5 minutes. Heh.
That's wrong. My Oblivion directory is at around 8 & 1/4 gigs, but the shivering isles BSAs total less than a gig. And, remember, I have a lot of mods. My data directory is over 7 gigs now. I also have 1,215 screenshots totaling just under a gig inside there as well. So... yeah, I don't think SI needs that much space. They must just be listing Oblivion's stock requirement or something, unless there's a bunch more added info somewhere that I don't know about. Which I suppose is possible, but I dunno'.Yeah, wow -- you've got 8 1/4 gigs for one game -- including mods and all the expansions! DAMN!!! hehe.
EDIT - So I got up earlier than everybody else today and played some more... this expansion continues to impress. The capital city, while far from "huge", is really, really cool. Just fun to explore, all kinds of neat stuff. There are unique spells, summons, lots of side quests, the usual stuff, just all unique to SI. I'm impressed with the content. You could get well beyond 30 hours with this thing if you like to do side quests, raid dungeons, wander around a lot, etc. I've only carved a swath of about 1/4 of the entire map in my travels, and I haven't really "done" most of what I've discovered... but I can see how much is there and how much there is to do, and that 1/4 has at least 5 dungeons, two towns (aside from New Sheoth), and plenty of random stuff scattered around the wilderness.I can't wait for this.
Well Shivering Isles was the reason I got back into Oblivion. I had lost all my saves and had to restart the game, but I always had issues with the leveling process.I can understand a beggar capped at level 1.
Well two things have made it a non issue and Oblivion a near perfect experience. The first is a mod that caps how much each NPC will level up with you. For example a beggar will be capped at level 1, while a guard will be at 10 etc.
The second is that level slow mod, that has pretty much changed the game for me. I was frustrated at having reached the limit of my marksmen skill without even completing 20% of the game.One thing that makes The Elder Scrolls (recent) games great is The TES Construction Kit. The "plug-in" method is great, as it makes it EASY for even modders to say fix a bug themselves, if they find it and know it can be easily done. It also makes it EASY to change the game itself, too.
All that has now changed. Wheeeee.
Shivering Isles Bug [April 09, 2007, 11:01 pm ET] - Viewing Comments
Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages (http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Shivering:Reference_Bug) reports a critical bug in the new Shivering Isles expansion for Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (thanks Joystiq), along with advice on workarounds. Word is:
A very serious bug has been found with Shivering Isles that will render the game unplayable in many ways after about 50 to 120 hours of play (better FPS means bug hits earlier). The bug will occur regardless of whether you access SI content or not.
The bug is thoroughly confirmed on the PC. It is not known whether the bug affects Xbox users as well -- it is reasonable to assume that it would, but might not hit until around 150 hours of play assuming 30 FPS on Xbox.
While the situation appeared quite bad initially, a patch mod is now available for the PC and a tool is available to repair savegames that are affected by the bug or that are likely hit by it in the near future. Moreover, there is an official response from Bethesda:
Regarding the issue in which Form ID's are being used at a high rate in the Shivering Isles content; we are aware of the issue and we are currently looking into a solution. We appreciate your patience, especially from those of you affected by this issue, as we carefully work out a fix that will correct this problem without adding any new issues. --NothingCatchy, Developer
Yeah, this is a bug that already existed. I don't know who's smoking what, but I hate these fucking idiots that comment on this shit. Of course Bethesda tests. They test the living fuck out of their games. But what, you think they have the manpower to test a single savegame for 200+ hours? You're fucking kidding me, right? Admittedly I'm not happy that they've yet to fix this one as it was an issue with the original game, but still... give me a break.
No, that doesn't work. It affects the save file somehow, not your install. It's tied to your character. You have to use a hex editor on the save to get rid of it.
Beta patch that fixes the problem is available here (http://www.elderscrolls.com/downloads/updates_patches.htm).
Can you buy a house in Crucible and/or Bliss?
I really need to store my stuff in the Shiv Isles somewhere.
I don't wanna go back to Tamriel to do some storage.
Awesome question. I bought the house in . . . damn my senility . . . the town nearest the SI portal, just so I could store my stuff. I do go back and forth. Haven't found a way around it yet.Yeah, I forget the name of that town.
Which I think is completely stupid. Where's the incentive to get new stuff? There's already so little equipment variety in TES games compared to, say, Diablo, so why shoot yourself in the foot and give yourself even *less* to do equipment-wise?
It's not complete. It's at least missing the "Chalice of Reversal quest is impossible to complete because no creatures EVER FRIGGIN' DROP FELLDEW THE WAY THEY'RE SUPPOSED TO!!" entry.Sheet.. That sucks man.. You're killing the ones that are kinda glowing greenish right?
I keep hearing rumors about green-glowing critters. So far, they are completely unfounded in my game.When you go to the area surrounding Dunroot Burrow, you should see one Elytra that kinda has a greenish glow.. Kill it and you can loot some Felldew from it. You have to ingest the Felldew in order to enter the burrow.
The chalice is in Dunroot Burrow, north of New Sheoth. Take a nice walk there
and enjoy the scenery, or fast travel. The cave door cannot be opened until you
ingest some Felldew, luckily, you can find some on the Elytra right outside.
This will open a membrane which previously blocked the entrance.