Second Oblivion Expantion

[Russian Mafia]

Another expantion is on the way.

- British gaming mags PC Gamer and PC Zone have spilled the beans on a new Oblivion expansion titled The Shivering Isles. The new content will let players explore The Isles, which are divided into northern/southern areas titled (not too invitingly) Mania and Dementia, respectively. Players will be able to reach the Shivering Isles through a door on an island that appears in Niben Bay near Bravil.

Source

 

[Steel.Inferno]

Yawn...

 

[Atomic_Piggy]

I have info! Bow before me! From PC ZONE:
"There is a Gatekeeper golem of sorts - comprised of bloodied spare legs, arms and heads you can find lying around..." "Elsewhere, they'll be Knight's of Order to battle, creatures comprised of tree roots and some green chaps called Grummites."

It apparently has 30 hours of gaming time, branching quest lines and a land you can watch change based off your actions.
And from here: http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Shivering_Isles
"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 classic 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".

Oh yes and from PC Zone, the entrance to the isles is comprised of linkied faces, one sullen the others a bit mad, all in a circular pattern. The one in front has his mouth open and a portal inside leading the realm of madness. There is also a map of the isles and a screenshot of hundreds of butterflies. Finally the it is rumored that the questline end's with your upsurtion of Sheogorath...

 

[Tagaziel]

Another shitty addon to another shitty game, which was led by a man to whom RPGs are...

Oblivion is a sword-and-sorcery-epic-role-playing-game, you know, the thing you see in Lord of the Rings or stuff like that and at it's heart, you know it is... this run through dungeons and kill things game... and all these features and it's all kind of ... there're so many things you'll get attach to... but at it's heart it's run through dungeons and kill creatures and take good stuff and buy bigger weapons and kill bigger creatures, and thats kind of layered in on top of this, wow look at these flowers, can i pick that? you know, it's almost two things sitting on top of each other, here's that game and then here's the virtual world.

 

[Acepilotf14]

Hehe... the key illusion sounds funnhey..

 

[Max35]

Another shitty addon to another shitty game, which was led by a man to whom RPGs are...

Yes, because this new expansion is sooo lacking in originality *rolls eyes* You can't call it shitty until you've played it, that's a little illogical, if not necessarily improbable. I admit it has the high possiblity to be shitty, but you never know.

It's called progression. Oblivion didn't live up to most expectations. While KOTN didn't either, it was said to have better quests than the original. I would have to agree. Bethesda made a good decision, dipping into the lore, as that is what makes TES so interesting. Hopefully Shivering Isles will improve still on the formula.

 

[Tagaziel]

I'll showcase Bethesda's ability of being consistent with the lore. I'm not an expert, but I have a friend, who is:

[21:51] Esce Erminea: Finally my job as a lore scholar comes to use >3 sithis is the name given to the chaotic period in the creation time, before any spirits were capable of stasis! In Sithis, everything was constantly made and remade! then Akatosh made time, and yet still Sithis is one of the driving forces of the world, constantly chaos changes things, this is the essence of Sithis!
[21:52] Esce Erminea: In Oblivion?
[21:52] Esce Erminea: Sithis is uhm this Dread Father who has a living Night Mother and the Dark Brotherhood kill because uhm killing somehow makes the Dread Father really happy
[21:53] Esce Erminea: Now, on the forums, everyone talks about worshipping the Dread Father, and it's like saying Gravity is their master
[21:53] Esce Erminea: well, a state of matter more properly
[21:53] Esce Erminea: but yeah D: it's pretty freaking awful
[21:54] Esce Erminea: Like saying the Gas State of Matter demands people be MELTED!

[21:55] Esce Erminea: Another of my favorite is the more subtle saying that the Amulet of Kings supports the empire due to a bloodline to Akatosh and as long as a Dragon King is on the throne the gates to Oblivion will be shut which makes no sense because for 400 years there was no one on the throne at all and there was no invasion
[21:56] Esce Erminea: It's like saying "This rock, worn by an Emperor, keeps baddies out D:" even though it is obvious it wasn't like that. Even FPS gamers just strolling through Oblivion complain about how it makes no sense ;D it's so awesome that Bethesda in shame is releasing more plug-ins with more accurate, deep lore and stories
[21:57] Mikael Grizzly: How "more" are we talking?
[21:58] Esce Erminea: Two have come out right now, well, one has been released going into depth of a character MK has only written about unofficialy which is awesome that he's now in a game (MK is one of the main lore writers and he writes alot of "unofficial" stuff on the lore forum that we consider lore but Bethesda doesn't really include it but due to fan complaints they seem to have gone pretty heavy with his invol

[22:04] Esce Erminea: A list of quotes they said on the forums about Oblivion D: about its features or stuff, and so many of them are clearly talking about stuff that wasn't even honestly planned for Oblivion
[22:04] Esce Erminea:
[MrSmileyFaceDude] "I know you don't want to hear it, but you're just going to have to trust us that the dialogue is better than Morrowind's."

Note: Most of the NPC's say the same 10 phrases, and say so with no care about context or reason
[22:04] Esce Erminea: I also have a number of my own comments at the end which are so cruel >3
[22:05] Esce Erminea: [Pete] "Honestly, and this is just my opinion, I think the hardcore RPG guys are going to love what we have in store for them in Oblivion. The depth, the level of polish...it crushes Morrowind. That doesn't mean that other people won't want to buy it and play it because it's a beautiful game that has fun combat and cool quests. We'll make enough copies for everyone."

 

[Max35]

"it's so awesome that Bethesda in shame is releasing more plug-ins with more accurate, deep lore and stories"

This is all that I want, honestly. That they continue to improve. Oblivion wasn't accurate lore-wise from what I've heard elsewhere. I'll agree with you on that. I simply care about them getting better at sticking and interpreting the lore.

 

[Warbie]

Add me to the swarm of gamers who couldn't give a crap about lore

I had great fun being an assassin Vampire in Oblivion. Sure, after a while the illusion of a vast, living gameworld wore off and tasks became samey, but I got a good few weeks fun out of Oblivion.

 

[Mutley]

I would play the first one if the story was good, I hate those stupid Oblivion gates. Ruins what could be a good game.

 

[Warbie]

I played Oblivion for a good 20-30 hours without touching the main story. Being able to do that is what made the game enjoyable.

 

[Mutley]

But you still get Oblivion gates, the sky goes red and all you think of is "FFS have to close ANOTHER gate", where you go through the most repetitive and boring map ever just so the crap annoyance isn't ruining the landscape anymore.

 

[Gargantou]

Daggerfall will always be the best Elder Scrolls game imo.

 

[Warbie]

But you still get Oblivion gates, the sky goes red and all you think of is "FFS have to close ANOTHER gate", where you go through the most repetitive and boring map ever just so the crap annoyance isn't ruining the landscape anymore.

heh true. There are only a few you have to close, though, the majority you can completely ignore.

 

[Atomic_Piggy]

Well, at the start there is only the Kvatch gate. If you bring Martin to Weynon Priory some others are triggered, and after the Dagon shrine all of them open, then after paradise they go back to teh origonal level, then they all get slammed shut when you complete the main quest. As long as you don't touch Martin (or Kvatch even) you needn't worry about gates.

 

[Murray_H]

Well, at the start there is only the Kvatch gate. If you bring Martin to Weynon Priory some others are triggered, and after the Dagon shrine all of them open, then after paradise they go back to teh origonal level, then they all get slammed shut when you complete the main quest. As long as you don't touch Martin (or Kvatch even) you needn't worry about gates.

After uni, when I play it again, I'm definitely avoiding Martin for aaaaaaaaaages.

 

[Mutley]

Is it possible to kill Martin? I guess you could just sell the thing the King gives you.

 

[DEATH eVADER]

Is there anychance the PC version will come with a DX10 patch

 

[Qonfused]

Wait.

When was the first?

 

[Adrik_Senturu]

Knights of the nine is pretty good..and hell I actually enjoyed it more than alot of the main quest missions :x. I'll probably buy (torrent) this one.

 

[Core407]

Morrowind > Oblivion

They took out everything that made the game so enjoyable and replaced it with a simple and dull experience.

 

[Unfocused]

Story was mediocre, mob leveling was dumb, but overall the game was great and I spent about 200 hours with it I guess. Big, beautiful world, lots of stuff to do and ways to deal with things. Very good game, IMHO.

 

[VictimOfScience]

Once the mods came out that fixed the UI and the leveling, Oblivion rocked imho. Can't wait for the expansion, as it sounds like it is full of absolute hilarity! (Just read all about it in some PC Gamer mag, though I don't remember if it was actually PC Gamer or not).

And Todd Howard should most definitely not be dissed Grizzly. He is a very sweet, very smart guy who above all else loves gaming.

 

[Atomic_Piggy]

OOO was my personal favourite mod, but there are loads others. On the subject of Oblivion, and to save starting a knew thread, I let one of my mate's borrow it a few weeks back, and now it won't unistall of his comp! D: Any ideas how to get it off? Next time I see him I'll ask what happen's when he tries, becuase some text comes up.

 

[Tagaziel]

Victim, I *will* dis Todd Howard, for the most important thing that he does not have a damn *clue* as to game developing.

Gabe Newell loves games *and* has a clue. Toad does not.

Wasn't the quote that RPGs are essentially "killing stuff and... stuff" enough?

EDIT: Actually, I'll quote Roshambo, a person who has years of experience in the gaming industry and has a rather large array of clues:

- rant -

I've been coming to this site for god knows how many years... and fallout 1 & (especially 2 are my favorite games of all time. hell, my knowledge of the f2 game world is so extensive it's a little embarassing. i have the game installed on my work laptop so i can play while i'm in the office, to this day.

So everyone claims...right before they make the most uneducated comments, ever. Hell, you'd know what was coming if you had bothered to read the site, don't even bother whining now.

but i registered to say that the hate a lot of people on this forum have for bethesda is pretty ridiculous. i read the other thread on duck and cover as well and some of those people need to seriously get a life and perhaps turn their ignorant and misguided hate into something productive.

So we're not supposed to have standards of what we, as Fallout fans that have been lied to numerous times before, will and will not accept?

So what will your clueless whining do, but waste bandwidth? Well, other than label you as a whore that will lie down and take it like a bitch...

We're actually trying to fight for a GOOD GAME, so excuse us for working on the behalf of the lazy whores like you, who would likely buy anything if it had Fallout slapped onto it.

i for one am glad that bethesda is making fallout 3;

That's nice, you're special, don't breed, ever.

at least SOMEONE is making a sequal to our beloved fallout.

I'm sure you'd suck D.W. Bradley off if he bought the license, too, even if you're too stupid to see that the design of Fallout and that of TES are LEAGUES APART in construction, complexity, and with how Todd and Co have treated TES, quality. The only thing they care about is making the game shiny for the mentally insignificant like you, their target console trash audience.

there are a hundred mods and spins off coming out from every other group of polish developers everyday.

Relevance? None.

no doubt it won't be as amazing as f1 or f2, but that's how i feel about most current games. i loved my classic 486 / pentium games... newer games, not so much

So instead of standing up for quality in games, you'll lie down and take it like a bitch. Noted, new avatar assigned to the troll.

i absolutely LOVED daggerfall, liked morrowind, and enjoyed my 30 or 40 hours of oblivion... true it wasn't as deep as i wanted it to be, but it was an amazing experience.

Irrelevant. Morrowind was ass compared to Daggerfall, and Oblivion wasn't much better. So what makes you think they can do Fallout when they have yet so far been unable to speak with any coherency about the subject? You kind of forgot the part to have a point, unless we're supposed to take your verbal fellatio of Bethesda as said point.

anyway, sorry to rant like this...

Liar.

but i'm so sick of seeing everyone just bitch and bitch on this forum about beth and the fact that they're making f3. it's quite unmerited.

With what Bethesda has said, we have a right to bitch, you little retard. Amusing that you come onto our forum and decide to tell us what to do, after we've had a history of...you know what? It's now quite clear you're a lying shitbag. You obviously have no clue about the franchise, and to make this whorish remark you'd have to be wholly ignorant about FOT and FOS. Yet someone bastardizes TES onto a console and you're instantly throwing your face into their lap.

Whore.

Your idiocy is just like excusing Fountain of Dreams, because "someone is making a sequel to Wasteland". Yet that game sucked so much, Fallout had "Remember Wasteland?" on the inside flap. And yet again, for the insipid, inbred little shits like you, we'd rather see a "Remember Fallout?" than YET ANOTHER "Fountain of Dreams" for Fallout. We're past Fountain of Dreams. We're to WHAT THE ****?! For you to not understand this makes you to be a clueless idiot that not only lied about having read the site, but also missed the numerous Wasteland/Fallout historical mentions.

Yes, you truly are stupid.

patience, willow.

I'd say that you only have one chance to explain yourself, otherwise you're banned.

Source: One of many NMA topics about announcing Fallout 3

Second, here's a little comparison.

Taken from their official site for the console shooter than was neither good nor true to Fallout.

Now, compare it with Toad:

Oblivion is a sword-and-sorcery-epic-role-playing-game, you know, the thing you see in Lord of the Rings or stuff like that and at it's heart, you know it is... this run through dungeons and kill things game... and all these features and it's all kind of ... there're so many things you'll get attach to... but at it's heart it's run through dungeons and kill creatures and take good stuff and buy bigger weapons and kill bigger creatures, and thats kind of layered in on top of this, wow look at these flowers, can i pick that? you know, it's almost two things sitting on top of each other, here's that game and then here's the virtual world.

There are disturbing similarities, especially in the notion that both think RPGs are "kill stuff'n'crap".

Not to mention that Gothic 3 bests Oblivion in every imaginable aspect.

 

[Jintor]

Even bugginess?

 

[Tagaziel]

Even that. The only bug that constantly pisses me off in Gothic 3 is the inability for the program to register that I had learned the "Make poison" skill.

Plus, it does not try to put on an illussion of a vast, mighty central province of the empire that measures an outstanding! 16 square kilometers! GASP!

 

[Jintor]

And for a central province of the empire it was frigging empty. And the inhabitants of the central city was probably less than 100.

 

[Atomic_Piggy]

Even that. The only bug that constantly pisses me off in Gothic 3 is the inability for the program to register that I had learned the "Make poison" skill.

And the terrible first-person view (though that's not a bug.)

 

[CR0M]

Not to mention that Gothic 3 bests Oblivion in every imaginable aspect.

Now I was all for agreeing with you right up until that last... little... line.
I'm not defending tod or oblivion because they are indeed both smaller than their over inflated sum of parts, but saying a game that developers notoriously and spectacularly admitted was released in an unfinished state with numerous bugs that to this day still haven't been fixed, poor performance for very little graphical luvliness, models that a 'special' child made with play-doh, sound that only works with 2 speakers, and no more intelligence than oblivion's to justify sticking an 'A' in front of, discredits your argument completely. Do not pass GO, do not collect 200 bucks.

While Oblivion is one big marketing lie, Gothic 3 is a benchmark in just how much shit consumers can be fed and expected to continue to chew with their mouths closed.

 

[Dalamari]

I read about this in OXM a few days ago, looked pretty cool

If anybody wants scans I will in no way send you the link should you PM me, in no way WHAT SO EVER

 

[VictimOfScience]

Victim, I *will* dis Todd Howard, for the most important thing that he does not have a damn *clue* as to game developing.

You meanie! :frown: He's a genuinely nice guy (with a really interesting backstory) who did a great job with Morrowind and (imho) with Oblivion, imperfect as it may have been upon release.

And Gothic 3 blows in comparison to Oblivion (+ Mods of course). The performance is absolute pants!!

No worries though, Two Worlds should blow them both away!!! (That's my hope at least.)

 

[Krynn72]

While I dont have the same level of hate as Mikael Grizzly (im impartial, I enjoyed Oblivion, but think they could do better), I do agree that Gothic III very much wins over Oblivion.

 

[Tagaziel]

That's not hate, that's "ultimate dissatisfaction". Fallout 3 will be Oblivion with guns, which will be the ultimate disgrace to the name.

And VoS, if by "great job" you mean raping the lore, gameplay, world and the genre, then by all means he did a good job. The notion that he's a nice guy is irrelevant. Chuck Cuevas was a nice guy too, and he butchered Fallout into the horror that was FO:BOS.

And CR0M, I see not being able to run Gothic 3 on lowest details does terrible things to a man.

 

[phantomdesign]

They need to make an official plugin (not one of the mods that are available on the net) that completely redoes the character levels, difficulties, item levels, etc. Make newbie areas & really difficult areas. There needs to be more consistency. Also dungeons need to be more unique, with unique hidden objects and weapons.

Basically Oblivion, Morrowind Style.

Oh well, we can all hope that TES5 is like that.

 

[Tagaziel]

Ah, the famous, immersive, believeable opponents levelling up... suddenly you're fighting teh lions in teh wilderness!!! Such ingeniosity, nobody has come up with that completely unrealistic and stupid concept before, except for Toad Hubbard!

 

[Atomic_Piggy]

No sarcasm in that post. None at all.

 

[VictimOfScience]

And VoS, if by "great job" you mean raping the lore, gameplay, world and the genre, then by all means he did a good job. The notion that he's a nice guy is irrelevant. Chuck Cuevas was a nice guy too, and he butchered Fallout into the horror that was FO:BOS.

Wow, I am glad I don't take things quite so seriously as you.

I understand where you are coming from, though, when I put myself in the position of loving the crap out of a franchise and having it be totally screwed up (one way or the other) upon release (see the Monkey Island series or maybe the broken promises of Black & White and Fable). I just never got that into the lore, etc. of the previous Elder Scrolls games having only played Morrowind for maybe 20 hours or so. Taken on its own, Oblivion was not a bad game (with the mods of course).

Still, even for a Grizzly, your anger is disturbing....

 

[Tagaziel]

You know how long we wait? We wait NINE YEARS for a sequel. That's HALF of my life!

So, we wait nine years, hoping that someone competent will make Fallout 3. Black Isle was so close... but the Interplay bastards ruling at the time canned it in favour of FO:BOS.

Now, we hear that the developer of games that DO NOT RESEMBLE FALLOUT even remotely got them, and what's worse, the developer's crew screwed up the lore of the series THEY PRODUCE! We have reasons to be worried.

War will be waged as soon as the crap hits the fan.

We forced Interplay to shut down their FO:BOS forums, you heard of that?

 

[Jintor]

or maybe the broken promises of Black & White

I went into Black and White with no knowlege of the hype, and was impressed... until island 4. Whose decision was it to take away your creature or severely disable it for half the game?