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[GDJustin]

What a crazy way to measure things.

Why? I've always felt that most game expansions were incorrectly priced, and, as a result, didn't support them. They're generally squeezing the fan for more money, instead of providing more bang for the buck.

Think about a FPS that comes with a full single player game and, say, 10 multiplayer maps. For $60. Then they release another 2-3 maps for $10. I think it's bullshit. It isn't proportional.

 

[GhaleonEB]

Load times are really fast when in the expansion-specific zones.

I noticed that as well. My drive isn't chugging as loud either, since it's streaming off the HDD.

Great art direction - it really feels like a different place. The first thing I did was head off and find a random dungoen to explore (Xerciesmygx or something). It was made up of entirely new components and art - I'm a dungeon whore so I'm happy. Smallish one, but some good loot and several new creatures and variants.

I just got past the Gatekeeper.

Spoiler

Apparantly, there are multiple approaches to doing it. I got a tip, thanks to bribery, that the tears of his creator damage him. I also got an invitation from a hunter to find the bones of a dead Guardian (which I had already found) for him to make arrows with. I went that route, and the two of us took him out. The Guardian was terrifyingly huge - nice to have a proper boss fight early on. I hope there's more!

Loving it so far. New toys galore. My character design is working out well.

 

[GhaleonEB]

And do people notice differences?

syllogism posted a good before and after pic when it came out. It is indeed a very noticable difference.

 

[GreekWolf]

The encounters are not really well-thought out, and the new enemies are cheap. For example, this one new enemy knocks you unconscious over and over and over and over again. Another enemy keeps causing your guy to get "shell-shock" after hitting him, no matter what.

For starters, you need to sit back for a bit and contemplate what this expansion is all about. The Shivering Isles are NOT an extra little landmass to explore in the world of Tamriel, populated by the usual suspects. This is another plane of Oblivion. An alternate universe. The rules you're accustomed to in the mortal realm don't apply here... at all.

Did you ever play Everquest? The game was divided into two radically different components - the real world, maintained by normal laws and physics, and the alternate planes of existence, which essentially operate with their own unique principles. It's a similar philosophy here.

Some of the enemies you'll encounter in SI can't be killed by conventional means. You have to use your noggin to figure out where their weaknesses lie, and then take advantage. I know that some folks are gonna get pissed off because they can't go charging in and hack everything to pieces, but where's the fun in that? Always expect the unexpected, and you'll have a better chance to survive.

Why? I've always felt that most game expansions were incorrectly priced, and, as a result, didn't support them. They're generally squeezing the fan for more money, instead of providing more bang for the buck.

You must not be an Elder Scrolls vet. The LAST company you ever need to worry about not providing you with an expansion worthy of your money, is Bethesda.

The Tribunal and Bloodmoon expansions for Morrowind were huge and offered a ridiculous amount of variety. New character classes were added (werewolf), completely new enemies, quests and epic-sized dungeons.

Heck, I still haven't finished Tribunal yet.. and have poured more than 50 hours into that one. Not a bad value for $30.

 

[Clevinger]

I'm waiting until I get some word on size/length before taking the plunge. I have my doubts that it's truly half size of Tamriel and it's questlines, even though it's half the price...

I think they've always said that the content is roughly 1/3 the size of Oblivion. Yet at the same time, Oblivion is much bigger than most games, so...

 

[Norse]

a bit late to be starting this expansion tonight, but how doyou star the shivering isle expansion? Is there an entry in your quests or do you just talk to people in gam and they will get you started?

 

[FrankT]

a bit late to be starting this expansion tonight, but how doyou star the shivering isle expansion? Is there an entry in your quests or do you just talk to people in gam and they will get you started?

Wait a day or 2.

 

[Quazar]

kk time to play SI.(Finally done dlding) I rebooted and DL speed went up to a reasonable speed.

 

[Norse]

Why? I've always felt that most game expansions were incorrectly priced, and, as a result, didn't support them. They're generally squeezing the fan for more money, instead of providing more bang for the buck.

Think about a FPS that comes with a full single player game and, say, 10 multiplayer maps. For $60. Then they release another 2-3 maps for $10. I think it's bullshit. It isn't proportional.

youre messed up....those 3 maps could be 10x as fun as te others...and could be 3x as large..the packing cost them the same, I doubt they get discount for less code on the disc in the xpansion.

I think you are just a penny pincher, or cheap.

 

[Norse]

Wait a day or 2.

cool, thx

 

[Kabouter]

Come on people, take some photos of your screen
I wanna see this new world .
(Go light on the spoilers though )

 

[GreekWolf]

My digital cam is acting screwy but I'll see if I can get some pics up later.

 

[GhaleonEB]

Wow. Dungeon designs got a BIG overhaul. I'm in Xaselm and the Flesh Atronoch + Skinned Hounds are raping my sorry ass. I'm so glad I made an uber-fast character because I'm spending a lot of time running away. :lol

 

[raYne]

Wow. Dungeon designs got a BIG overhaul. I'm in Xaselm and the Flesh Atronoch + Skinned Hounds are raping my sorry ass. I'm so glad I made an uber-fast character because I'm spending a lot of time running away. :lol

Running is for chumps. Invisibility ftw.

 

[Kabouter]

Wow. Dungeon designs got a BIG overhaul. I'm in Xaselm and the Flesh Atronoch + Skinned Hounds are raping my sorry ass. I'm so glad I made an uber-fast character because I'm spending a lot of time running away. :lol

Okay, time to leave my horse in the stables for a while and run everywhere in regular Oblivion to beef up athletics :lol

 

[Hitler Stole My Potato]

One thing I was hoping for but didn't get was new music. I'm so freakin' sick of the music in Oblivion and I was looking forward to hearing something/anything else but we still have to listen to the same stuff in the land of madness. Lame.

Time to turn the music to nil again.

 

[GreekWolf]

One thing I was hoping for but didn't get was new music. I'm so freakin' sick of the music in Oblivion and I was looking forward to hearing something/anything else but we still have to listen to the same stuff in the land of madness. Lame.

Time to turn the music to nil again.

Jeremy Soule don't come cheap.

Spoiler

I hear that his fee has quadrupled since Morrowind.

 

[Kabouter]

Jeremy Soule don't come cheap.

Spoiler

I hear that his fee has quadrupled since Morrowind.

I know he doesn't come cheap, but they could've hired him to at least do more than one hour of music for the original. Only track that still rocks is the main title one (Reign of the Septims I believe it's called).

 

[Hitler Stole My Potato]

Spoiler

I hear that his fee has quadrupled since Morrowind.

Oblivion's music is a step backwards imo. Morrowind's soundtrack, while repetitve like Oblivion's, was much, much better. Soule may have the cash to go along with his talent, but Oblivion certainly isn't his crowning moment.

 

[Kabouter]

Oblivion's music is a step backwards imo. Morrowind's soundtrack, while repetitve like Oblivion's, was much, much better. Soule may have the cash to go along with his talent, but Oblivion certainly isn't his crowning moment.

Should've hired Jesper Kyd .

 

[GreekWolf]

I know he doesn't come cheap, but they could've hired him to at least do more than one hour of music for the original. Only track that still rocks is the main title one (Reign of the Septims I believe it's called).

I can listen to Wings of Kynareth over and over again without it getting repetitive. I think that's his best track since Lonelywood.

Really I think they should have snagged Jesper Kyd for Shivering Isles. Some of his stuff would have been perfect for the plane of madness.

Edit: Hey great minds think alike! We were typing Kyd at the same time.

 

[FlyinJ]

Ugh... the game has hard locked my 360 twice already. I rarely get hard locks on this console. I hope the game is just buggy, and my 360 isn't dying.

 

[Kabouter]

Ugh... the game has hard locked my 360 twice already. I rarely get hard locks on this console. I hope the game is just buggy, and my 360 isn't dying.

That'd be the absolute shittiest moment for your 360 to break.

And very nice Greekwolf :lol. I'm a huge Kyd fan .

 

[Quazar]

Ugh... the game has hard locked my 360 twice already. I rarely get hard locks on this console. I hope the game is just buggy, and my 360 isn't dying.

Oblivion locks all the time on old/replacement 360 for me. So far no locks though in SI.

 

[BenjaminBirdie]

WOW.

This expansion is out of control! I'm still at the very beginning, having just completed the initial quest that prepares you for the prologue of the start of the whole main expansion quest.

Spoiler

The Gatekeeper is hard! I've got the bone arrows. I'm shooting him with the bone arrows. He keeps killing me. Help?

 

[MaddenNFL64]

Spoiler

Bone arrows? AWESOME

I need to get away from all Elder Scrolls threads till I download this thing...

 

[Kabouter]

Gah, just saw it's not due until friday here. Dammit.
Oh well, vanilla Oblivion it is then.

 

[GhaleonEB]

WOW.

This expansion is out of control! I'm still at the very beginning, having just completed the initial quest that prepares you for the prologue of the start of the whole main expansion quest.

Spoiler

The Gatekeeper is hard! I've got the bone arrows. I'm shooting him with the bone arrows. He keeps killing me. Help?

Spoiler

You're not taking him on alone are you? Have the other guy fight as well. Use sneak for the first shot, and don't miss - if you tag with 16 or so you'll take him down. Keep the other guy between the two of you as a distraction. Took me three attempts. Tough fight.

So...that dungeon I was in was the creepiest thing in the entire game of Oblivion so far. Tons of creepy experiments, new monsters,

Spoiler

"failed experiments" - basically zombies - that are laying around, some of which get up

. Lots of ways to torture and kill helpless captives. I got deep into this HUGE place, and hit a part that needs a key. I assume there's a quest attached since I didn't find any around.

There's just tons of content in here - lots of dungeons, camps, shrines. The map is just as densely packed as the rest of the game. I got to the capital and quickly had four side-quests pile up. Gonna chip away at them tomorrow.

Good stuff.

 

[Kabouter]

Man, I really have to restrain myself not to read the spoilers :lol

 

[Quazar]

Just got past the GK and got keys, good spot to leave off for the night I suppose. Pretty cool, cant wait to see what all SI has.

 

[Son of Godzilla]

Ok so. Many moons ago I bought this game, played the hell out of it, and stopped. I never even bothered to do the main quest line.

Then, a couple moons less than previous count, my 360 died. And along with it my hard drive. The miracle? I lost all my saved game data!

Which brings us to now. I want the Shivering Isles expansion, but I've got questions. And this thread somehow got littered with spoilers that I don't want to read, so I'll just ask. Do I have to relevel back up to something decent to enter/survive the expansion? Does it req anything from the old world? Like completing the main quest or w/e?

 

[GreekWolf]

Nope. You can create a new character and enter the expansion at level 1 if you so choose. All items/enemies are scaled just like in the original game.

 

[65536]

Which brings us to now. I want the Shivering Isles expansion, but I've got questions. And this thread somehow got littered with spoilers that I don't want to read, so I'll just ask. Do I have to relevel back up to something decent to enter/survive the expansion? Does it req anything from the old world? Like completing the main quest or w/e?

I started a new character last night, got to level 4 after finishing off Vilverin (the first Ayleid ruin when you exit the sewers) and went straight into Shivering Isles no problem, so you don't need to worry about that.

 

[GhaleonEB]

I started a new character last night, got to level 4 after finishing off Vilverin (the first Ayleid ruin when you exit the sewers) and went straight into Shivering Isles no problem, so you don't need to worry about that.

I went in as a level 3. Currently at level 4 and it's a very good challenge, but nothing impossible. Difficulty feels a touch harder than the main game, but not much. The loot seems to be better than the main game, though.

 

[FlyinJ]

I went in as a level 3. Currently at level 4 and it's a very good challenge, but nothing impossible. Difficulty feels a touch harder than the main game, but not much. The loot seems to be better than the main game, though.

You're finding it to be hard? I did 2 optional dungeons and the first story dungeon, and every single creature was a total pushover. Like I said earlier, one weak fireball hit would kill them.

I was level 2 at the time. I think I'll go level to 4 in the normal game and come back to see if it's harder.

I really don't want to use the difficulty slider. I want to play the game as the designers intended.

 

[GDJustin]

You must not be an Elder Scrolls vet. The LAST company you ever need to worry about not providing you with an expansion worthy of your money, is Bethesda.

The Tribunal and Bloodmoon expansions for Morrowind were huge and offered a ridiculous amount of variety. New character classes were added (werewolf), completely new enemies, quests and epic-sized dungeons.

Heck, I still haven't finished Tribunal yet.. and have poured more than 50 hours into that one. Not a bad value for $30.

So what new character classes are included in shivering Isles?

 

[GreekWolf]

So what new character classes are included in shivering Isles?

None that I know of

Spoiler

though Easter Eggs have been rumored on the official forums

. I was using the werewolf class from Bloodmoon as an example of the variety of content you can find in the expansions.

The Tribunal didn't feature any additional classes, but they did have the largest dungeons in the game. Shivering Isles looks to have more monster archetypes and quests than either of the Morrowind expansions, which is really pretty amazing.

 

[Kintaro]

Still playing Oblivion PS3, I wanted to share this.

I'm in the town of Chorrol and I take on this quest to help an old man out. He wants me to fight with his sons to protect their farm from creatures. I'm like "Sure, np. Just wanna swing my mace." I meet up with the sons and we walk down to the farm. We get ready and goblins attack. It gets into a pretty good melee fight and I ready this power attack to finish a goblin off. One of the sons walks right into the path of my swing.

KABLOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!

Son goes down in one shot. I'm like "OH SHIT!" hoping the guards wouldn't come barreling down the road to arrest me. To my surprise, no guards. The remaining son and myself finish off all the goblins, and he says "We did it! But Dear Brother...you have to tell dad he's dead."

I dunno why. I just, don't know why. But as I was about to run back to Chorrol to finish the quest, I whip out my mace.

KABLOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!

Flies in the air and crashs like a heap of flesh at my feet. I couldn't help it, but I said to myself "I guess I'll have to tell the old man, neither of his sons made it." I loot the bodies, tell the old man and finish the quest.

Woke up to a nice man in black telling me how well I murder. Why thank you kind sir. I try.

 

[Kabouter]

Still playing Oblivion PS3, I wanted to share this.

*awesome anecdote*

Fantastic
These are the things I love about Oblivion .

 

[British Monsoon]

Noooooooo - I was at 96 freaking percent when XBL went down for maintainance Now i've got to wait 14 hours to finish the last 4% and play Shivering Isles.

 

[Son of Godzilla]

Oh yea, I guess I should have asked if there were any expansion additions to character creation. Any reason I shouldn't get started tonight while waiting on it to be avail?

 

[XSamu]

Pff I thought the expansion would only be for US members today, so I didn't even bother checking. This sucks, I feel...... betrayed.

 

[Kabouter]

Pff I thought the expansion would only be for US members today, so I didn't even bother checking. This sucks, I feel...... betrayed.

Meh, at least you'll be able to download it in like 10 hours. I'm forced to wait for several days

 

[XSamu]

Meh, at least you'll be able to download it in like 10 hours. I'm forced to wait for several days

Yeah that's true. It's quite nice I can download it already, I've got a week of vacation so lots of time.

 

[MirageDwarf]

Woke up to a nice man in black telling me how well I murder. Why thank you kind sir. I try.

You accepted his offer to join his faction, right? Join it. He will give you one gift that nobody can take away from you.

Noooooooo - I was at 96 freaking percent when XBL went down for maintainance Now i've got to wait 14 hours to finish the last 4% and play Shivering Isles.

I feel sorry for you. I was lucky to download it one hour before shutdown. Got a chance to play it for an hour, oh man, it's amazing!!!

Oh yea, I guess I should have asked if there were any expansion additions to character creation. Any reason I shouldn't get started tonight while waiting on it to be avail?

Just start it, dude. All it adds is new content in terms of quests, new area to explore, new weapons, armors etc. Character creation and gameplay is exactly same.

 

[Kintaro]

You accepted his offer to join his faction, right? Join it. He will give you one gift that nobody can take away from you.

Yeah, I accepted the quest. The target will go down brutally beneath my Mace of Unmidigated Rage.

 

[65536]

Oh yea, I guess I should have asked if there were any expansion additions to character creation. Any reason I shouldn't get started tonight while waiting on it to be avail?

That was the reason I started over last night, but I didn't notice anything added at the start of the game, so you shouldn't miss out on anything.

It may not have been this topic, but some people were asking for pics of it, so here's a few:

 

[Kabouter]

That was the reason I started over last night, but I didn't notice anything added at the start of the game, so you shouldn't miss out on anything.

It may not have been this topic, but some people were asking for pics of it, so here's a few:

Shit that looks awesome, especially the first two and the last shot.

 

[GreekWolf]

HA! I haven't even left the Fringe yet, and I've already spent over two and a half hours just poking around and gawking at all the new architecture. The lizard statues and monuments give off a strange vibe that reminds me of the Everquest dungeon - Guk.

Just had my first battle with

Spoiler

the Shambles in the bone yard

. Holy smokes, those things are tough! My knucklehead friend kept getting knocked unconscious, so it left me to fight all three at once. That's the first time in several months that I was a sliver of health away from getting killed.

Shivering Isles is amazing. The art is so much more detailed and exotic than anything in Oblivion, that it really does feel like you're playing a completely different game.

 

[eXistor]

Shivering Isles is amazing. The art is so much more detailed and exotic than anything in Oblivion, that it really does feel like you're playing a completely different game.

That's exactly the kind of thing I want to hear, I love Oblivion to death but the environments do tend to repeat themselves a bit too often. Are the dungeons also different graphically?