Exclusive Oblivion quest for PS3

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion for PlayStation 3 - recently revealed as a surprise launch title for Sony's next-gen console - will feature a huge, exclusive quest that revolves around new faction The Knights of the Nine.

The Cyrodiil-spanning adventure will offer an extra 10-20 hours of gameplay, with your reward being a collection of super-powerful items.

[USMChardcharger]

they should expand it for the PS3. it has been out for awhile so no reason why not...good for you PS3 guys.

just shows that the oblivion developers go above and beyond instead of the easy route.

that's good for every gamer.

[andy capps]

Yeah it is almost making me consider buying the game at launch, if only they would mention that they did away with the horrible loading between areas I would be even happier. The reason I am hesitant about getting this game is that it's so long, I mean 200+ hours for a game is too much for me. Some people like that, but me, I get bored after a while and I like to feel like I'm actually accomplishing something. That's one reason why I can't get into MMO's or RPG's. The closest I get is God of War, and that's not a real RPG.

[USMChardcharger]

i hit agree with ya because i can get bored too. but i find that after it has lost it's appeal...one day you can pick it up for more fun.

the game is like its own sequel to that effect.

i recommend that you do buy it. i have enjoyed playing it on my 360 a whole lot...i can easily say i got my moneys worth.

o by the way, no horriable load time for me. once the game loads for the first time...it takes anywhere from 3 to 7 seconds for loading.

shouldn't be any different on your PS3.

[Bebedora]

That with horrible loading times, is helped with pushing a button while loading. This is from a XB360 pal of mine. He called XB support and was told to do this....just FYI. Now THAT is worth bashing the QA guys at MS for.

[unleash bass]

I would like to bet that this exclusive quest will be made on the 360 as an additional download on the XBLIVE market place, eventually, maybe after it's PS3 release.

[USMChardcharger]

they could easily do it...and i bet you are right.
they have given so much additional stuff it's crazy.
i like that games on the 360 keep on living long past it's release dates with additonal content.

[bizzy12]

thats cool the game been out for a while and to make it sell add new quest to it.but if it dont sell on the ps3 like xbox look for this be the only title they produce on your console.

[andy capps]

That's just not going to happen, RPG's the Playstation brand's bread and butter. It will sell like crazy.

[USMChardcharger]

if they made a new toaster that dubs as a new game console this game would sell like hot cakes. it just a good game.

btw, the toaster console has heating problems.

[USMChardcharger]

what is there to disagree with my statement?

must be that a toaster could dub as a game console...did someone not realize that was a joke.

because the games sell like hot cakes and it is good. so...

[zypher]

i wasn't that impressed with the 360 version, mainly because of the first-person fighting system (i thought it was kinda repetitive and lacking). but who knows? additional content (especially 10 to 20 hours worth) is always a good incentive to re-purchase a game...i guess.

[joemutt]

I didnt like the first person view either, so I clicked the thumbstick to change it to 3rd.

You did know that didnt you??

[zypher]

yeah, i tried the third-person view. but the animation was horrible. dude looked like some puppet on a string, gliding around on the field like he was trying to moonwalk or something. the game had a deep and engaging story, nice dialog, and a wide-variety of customization; but with me, rpgs have to excel at everything (gameplay, character development and story) to hold my interest. as it was, Obilvion excelled at everything but the fighting/gameplay aspect. many people hype Oblivion as the 360's crown and jewel hitherto, but i beg to differ. i'm not trying to dog Oblivion, but i think GRAW was far more an enjoyable experience on the 360. just imo.

[Schmitty07]

If you are buying a PS3 at launch or down the road, and haven't played Oblivion yet, it is a must buy. Such an amazing game, best experience on the 360 so far, and one of my top 5 favorite games.

[ploody]

I have to agree with everyone, beautiful game and it should be for all formats, maybe they'll help they framerate adn loading screens since they've had a while to work on on the game, man if they game ran smoother it would look even better I think

[LiquifiedArt]

and ofcourse wayyyy better for the PC. 360 chugs on the loads and since it needs to do it every 50ft, its alotta of loading. PC (atleast) mine loads instant.

[DJ]

about how Mods saved Oblivion? The mods for the PC title made it a lot better, graphically and content-wise.

[Optimus Prime]

be happy you are getting this game. quit bashing the 360.

[NextGen24Gamer]

A 15 to 20 hour side quest added to the already massive 200 hour core gameplay. Great news. As far as the 360 version chugging...Not true if you have a hard drive and clear the cache before you play each time. All you have to do is hold the A button while the game starts up and load times are cut drastically. And it runs much much smoother. As far as graphically. The 360 version is on par with the high end pc verion..."if" you play in on 1080i and have a 1080p Telivision. When they compared the high end pc version to the 360 version, they didn't play the 360 version in 1080 by 1920. they did it in 1280 by 720. Big difference in detail. PC's can do 1600 by 1200. Now as far as Ps3 load times...Interesting to see with the slow blu ray player. Some where something is going to have to load from the blu ray drive to the game or hard drive like the 360 does if present. But at 2x speed. WOW. Interesting to see. And the PC version uses a dvd9 disc. So disc space isn't an issue. Its the loading of the out door areas and streaming of info constantly that should be interesting. But all in all, Great news. I loved that game. I beat it and it was Great.

[Bebedora]

<TopGamer:>
When they compared the high end pc version to the 360 version, they didn't play the 360 version in 1080 by 1920. they did it in 1280 by 720. Big difference in detail.
</TopGamer>

The detail level must be enhanced furthermore if the textures are in the same resolution? I'm not a tech guy, but that's how I have understood it.

<TopGamer>
PC's can do 1600 by 1200. Now as far as Ps3 load times...Interesting to see with the slow blu ray player. Some where something is going to have to load from the blu ray drive to the game or hard drive like the 360 does if present. But at 2x speed. WOW. Interesting to see. And the PC version uses a dvd9 disc.
</TopGamer>

This must apply with texture res too. Is the textures for 1600x1200 resolution ? Honestly asking. If not, maybe that would put the DVD9 space under pressure? Blu-Ray is supposed to not be sucha sucker to the loadingtimes according to a mag testing it. And I think it would have been massively reported by now?

If I know my math, 2.2x more space needed for 1080p textures to 720p textures. If what I say hold waters that is.

[dantesparda]

The 360 version didnt look anywhere near as good as the PC version. Not even close! The PC version has way more trees and foliage! and is much smoother and doesnt load like the 360 version. So try again, it looks better on my PC and my PC isnt even high-end

[CAPS LOCK]

i could play a snes game at 1080p, but it wouldn't improve the graphics, unless some of the textures where in hi def, so resaloution does not improve graphics alot.

[calderra]

Trying to sort this out for people...

Think of resolution like playing an Xbox 360 on a standard TV versus HD. You get the exact same gameplay either way. You get the exact same models, the exact same amount of items onscreen, etc. The only difference is that the HDTV can produce a clearer image of the exact same action.

So the game does "look better" because it's clearer, but there's no real difference in what's happening onscreen.

And to quote someone:
"If I know my math, 2.2x more space needed for 1080p textures to 720p textures. If what I say hold waters that is. "

This is a tough one, because image compression comes into play. So technically you're right- there are 2.2x as many pixels to fill. But with all those pixels, many spaces are just going to be vast swaths of one color, for instance. You can cheat your way around this.

...but that depends on a developer wanting to do that compression. With a potential of 50GB of room on a dual-layer BluRay, a lot of devs aren't going to see much need to do compression. After all, it'll fit right? But all that extra data takes more time to load, and takes up more space in memory, etc. Lazy development could cause big problems.

To put the space issue in perspective (beating a dead horse):
-Oblivion doesn't even take up a whole Xbox 360 disc (maybe running 8GB or so, if that).
-When putting this game on Playstation, that means the devs would have approximately 5x as much space to store... what?

The 360 version has high-fidelity audio for virtually every line of dialogue in the game. Thousands of items, high-res graphics, miles of in-game terrain, potentially unlimited gameplay due to the incredible amount of subquests and time-wasters....

What in the world would a developer need to use all that extra space for? THAT's the question. The only convincing answer to come out has been from Japanese devs who want HDTV-quality cinematics... and hours of them. They really DO need BluRay's storage. But they could do basically all of that using in-game cutscenes or video compression (instead of pre-rendered, uncompressed, 1080p video) and cut the disc space usage by HUGE amounts.... sssooo.... *insert shrug*

[dantesparda]

You do know that compressed stuff has to be decompressed right? And is usually done by a codec, and you do know that it takes time to do that, right? It can take alot of time! Especially the more compressed it is

[Bebedora]

<calderra: > And to quote someone:
"If I know my math, 2.2x more space needed for 1080p textures to 720p textures. If what I say hold waters that is. "

This is a tough one, because image compression comes into play. So technically you're right- there are 2.2x as many pixels to fill. But with all those pixels, many spaces are just going to be vast swaths of one color, for instance. You can cheat your way around this.
</calderra>

Just so I get this. So the compression factor is not linear from one texture res to an other (720p to 1080p for an example)? Even if your texture are at a lower res the compression technique is still the same.

Anyways, I think the Blu-Ray will give some for the devs to play with. It cannot more than enhance the feeling. And there better be compressed data, since I've heard it loads faster to memory (as you stated in an other way). I dont want to go redundant on this subject, since it has been hammered to death in here and everywhere else, but I am curious as to what will come out of all this Blu-Ray storage.