XBOX 360 Gamers: Elder Scrolls: Oblivion - Shivering Isles expansion

[Newc]

For those 360 owners who have Oblivion and have been awaiting the Shivering Isles expansion, it was orignially due to be released tomorrow (27th) but due to scheduled downtime for XBL tomorrow, they released Shivering Isles today.

[Somnuszoth]

I dont know, wasn't really too impressed with oblivion........ill have to check it out first.

[Newc]

It does take some getting used to, as it's more of a hack-n-slash than many RPGers prefer. I personally didn't like the turn-based stuff like FF and the 3/4 isometric stuff like Diablo and World Of Warcraft were just "meh".

Although I should say that Shivering Isles requires the new Shader Update patch, which also removes the Duplication Glitch, so if you're a heavy duper (like me), I'd say stock up on whatever you dupe the most (lockpicks, Sigil Stones, Varla Stones, etc) because once you get the patch, you're screwed.

[DonP]

I'm a big Arena series fan (the only games I've ever purchased), but I haven't bought Oblivion yet. The main issue, the best video card I have in any system is an ATI 8500 (very old). I'd have to cough up $250 for an x1950. Trying to decide whether to stay the PC route or switch to the xBox.

I've seen lots of comments about Oblivion not being as good as the earlier games, and this has kept me on the bench.

[Newc]

Graphically it's superior to Morrowind, but the gameplay was "dumbed down" from Morrowind (according to many Morrowind fans) by adding a Guide Arrow that shows you where to go for a mission/objective rather than forcing you to walk all over creation and talk to everyone you run across for it.

Some see it as "holding your hand", and there's really no way to turn it off completely. However, since it points only at your Active Quest objective, you could always set an un-interesting quest as Active and do the one you want to do the old-fashioned way.

As well, everything levels up with you, so there's no risk of running into a Level 50 dungeon as a level 5 and having your butt handed to you.
By the same token, there's also no way to stomp through a Level 5 dungeon as a Level 50 and hand butts to its inhabitants for stress relief.

Technically this claim is inaccurate, because there are quite a few dungeons that are "critter lairs" - rats and dogs and such - which you can dispatch with Heavenly force easily, but there's also usually a bear or Minotaur in there as well.

Personally I like the idea that everything levels up with you just so you don't have to go all over creation looking for the one dungeon that has the guys wearing the good stuff - you can go to a Bandit camp and get high-dollar loot just the same as fighting them in the bottom of a 3-level Mine.

I tried Morrowind on the Xbox after playing Oblivion, and thought I'd vomit from the graphics. Talk about ancient. I've seen Xbox games look better than that, and there's no excuse for it to look 10 years older than it really was.


Definitely rent it first just to see if you like it, but with over 280 separate dungeons, 8 cities, a thousand NPCs each with their own daily routines and the ever-amusing Radiant A.I. (not to mention the Havok physics engine), there's not much to dislike IMO.

[Inazone]

I've held off buying Oblivion for my PC, as my current machine isn't very far above the minimum specs. I've been beta-testing Lord of the Rings Online and just got Gothic 3 (Gothic 1 and 2 and Morrowind killed my EverQuest interest), so I don't really need to start another new game anyway...but I *loved* Morrowind. I was going to buy a new PC, but I can't really justify the expense right now. I despise console controls - I'm a mouse and keyboard guy - so the Xbox isn't a viable alternative.

Pentium 4 2.4GHz with nVidia 6600 256MB AGP and 2GB memory seem like an acceptable platform for Oblivion? LotR runs like butter and G3 performs pretty decent from what I've seen so far...

[Newc]

It's good enough to run Oblivion PC, but they recommend a 3GHz processor, 1GB RAM, and either an ATI X800 series or NVidia GeForce 6800 card.

Supports ATI X1900, X1800, X1300, X850, X800, X700, X600, Radeon 9800, 9700, 9600, 9500, Geforce 7000, 6000, and the GeFoce FX series cards.

And I seem to recall talk of a mouse and keyboard coming for the 360. It can use USB keyboards, but not for control in Oblivion - just naming spells and whatnot.

Makes messaging a lot easier/faster, though

[slayer32390]

As well, everything levels up with you, so there's no risk of running into a Level 50 dungeon as a level 5 and having your butt handed to you.
By the same token, there's also no way to stomp through a Level 5 dungeon as a Level 50 and hand butts to its inhabitants for stress relief.

Well if you really wanted too you could set the difficulty setting all the way to easy and romp all over everything then reset it to default. Pretty fun rag doll effects if you have a good enchanted weapon. For example I have a Daedric long sword with a crap load of shock enchantments on it and it does insane amounts of damage and I smacked this one guy with it and his body went flying an incredible distance. Humor at its best IMO

[Newc]

Finger Of The Mountain will do that as well. I usually use it to blast Necromancers onto their own sacrificial altars, or to arrange a zombie corpse onto their naked deadness - "If you love the dead so much, well here ya go!"

It's also good for clearing cave-ins in mines, or sending log traps back up the hill and nailing whoever set it off

Hey, if ya wanna launch a wolf off a cliff, enchant a Mace with 13 pts Fire Damage, 12 pts Frost Damage, and 22 pts Shock Damage, as well as 100% Weakness to Fire, Frost, and Shock, then bash one in Sneak Mode for the 6X bonus - them puppies go sailing!

Do all the Guilds and get the tagalong that comes with them, including the Arena for the annoying fan, and the Knights of the Nine DLC to get one from there, then put them all in the house in Skingrad with the Maid.
Or the Isolated House where Bandits respawn every 3 days: clear it out, put your flunkies in there, come back 3 days later and watch the fight

[slayer32390]

Whats finger of the mountain? I've never heard of it and if I have I dont recall. And the mace trick doesnt work that greast for me i hate blunt weapons and my level in it is really low, so low in fact that I think I just swung a mace a few times, like three or four, and leveled up