PS3 Oblivion's exclusive quest explained
by James Ransom-Wiley 
{ Oct 10th 2006 at 2:55PM }
News that Oblivion was going to be PlayStation 3's "surprise" launch title was disappointing in the sense that we'd been anticipating the port since April, but the official confirmation did instantly boost the prospects of the PS3 launch lineup for those of us who haven't had a chance to tromp around Cyrodiil. But what about Oblivion vets? Is there a reason for us to invest in another version of Bethesda's masterpiece?As previously revealed, the PS3 edition will include an additional faction, the Knights of the Nine. A new -- and allegedly, exclusive -- questline with focus on restoring the Knights' order, adding a reported 10–20 hours of gameplay. The incentive: you'll gain access to "super-powerful" relics. The catch: if you raise your infamy level you'll be suspended from the faction and those relics will be removed from your possession.
Will this new content motivate you to play well behaved? Will it motivate you to revisit Cyrodiil if you already came, saw, and conquered?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Amos @ Oct 10th 2006 3:19PM
No.
jayntampa @ Oct 10th 2006 3:03PM
No.
Car2oon @ Oct 10th 2006 3:04PM
Not bad to have such a great game added to the PS3 line up.
Red Viking @ Oct 10th 2006 3:15PM
No, because if the content remains a PS3 exclusive, the mod community will recreate it for the PC.
john @ Oct 10th 2006 3:09PM
" Will it motivate you to revisit Cyrodiil if you already came, saw, and conquered?"
Not for $600 it won't.
jc @ Oct 10th 2006 3:13PM
This is not going to make me spend $800 (CND) on the PS3/Game. I really enjoyed playing it on the X360, and hope those that pick it up for the PS3 have as much fun.
By the way, the bad guy is really your father... how's that for a spoiler (or was that Starwars?) ;)
Martin @ Oct 10th 2006 3:18PM
Red Viking: by the time they finished that mod, the ps4 will have been out for a year.
Natiahs @ Oct 10th 2006 3:18PM
If the PS3 version substantially fixes the bugs from the 360 version, then perhaps. I played the 360 version to death (or at least it felt like it - I clocked about 120 hrs with a signle character) but wouldn't mind creating a new character if the choppy load times are gone.
JET
DocWho @ Oct 10th 2006 3:19PM
If it was on Wii, sure.
GamerZero @ Oct 10th 2006 3:20PM
You don't need relics to be uber powerful.
You just move the dificulty slider all the way to
the left and you can kill champions with a pointy
stick!
Also if you go fully invisible which is not too difficult,you become an untouchable God.
Greatly involving game and technicaly impressive.
Slightly buggy but acceptable considering it's depth and size meaning hours of play.Long loading times though!
8/10
aZn_1080p @ Oct 10th 2006 3:26PM
Not really, I won't be buying this for my PS3. I'm glad its coming out though, because it will be great for people to compare it head to head with *REAL* Rpgs like Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Kingdom Hearts, etc and see just how badly it gets pwned by them.
crono141 @ Oct 10th 2006 3:32PM
UMM, FF games technically are NOT real RPGs. They're 3rd person adventure games with rpg elements. Oblivion, Morrowind, and all the other create your character and play as their role (hence role playing) are real RPGs.
Carl Winslow @ Oct 10th 2006 3:31PM
aZn_1080p, did you ever play Oblivion? It was really good. I liked some of the games in the series you mentioned, but really Oblivion made a lot of those games seem stale. I just liked a scope of the game as well as a lot of the gameplay choices. Good stuff.
Xavier Gill @ Oct 10th 2006 3:35PM
When this comes out in March 2007 in the UK it will cost £475 with a PS3, thats only $880!
tj @ Oct 10th 2006 3:40PM
so duz this mean there could be an expansion pack of the PC version =o
or is that just to far??
J.Goodwin @ Oct 10th 2006 3:41PM
Natiahs, the "choppy load times" were fixed in an autopatch that hit months ago.
That was a couple months after the game released, though, so you may have missed it.
Ken @ Oct 10th 2006 3:40PM
I am pleased that this game is announced and interested in the new quest. I am hoping this title will hold me over until White Knight Story and Final Fantasy roll around.
BTW - This is no less a "real" RPG than FF or anything else out there. It's just a different approach. No one ever said, "I'm playing Sonic until a real platformer like Mario Bros. comes out."
aZn_1080p @ Oct 10th 2006 3:43PM
Yeah I played a bit of oblivion on my friends little brothers 360. It looks ok graphics wise, but the character design sucks, all the characters are flat and boring and have no individuality, style, or edge to them . And the game was pretty boring, I couldnt tell what I was supposed to do, there was no compelling story to keep me involved, just walking around like WoW or something like that. Compare that to Kingdom Hearts II, xenosaga 3, FF XI, or any of the other sweet RPGs for PS2, and it looks pretty damn weak. From what I've seen Blue Dragon will be the first decent RPG for 360.
J.Goodwin @ Oct 10th 2006 3:44PM
I view Oblivion as being a lot more like Zelda than like Dragon Warrior, with the caveat that the world is utterly massive and you have far more options for quests and independent activities.
With Zelda games, the world is large, but you definitely have the sense that there is the potential that you can "complete" it. You can find every gold skull in ZOOT...but there's no way that you'll find every Nirnroot in Oblivion. And thankfully, you don't need to (you just need to find about 100 of them).
Gary @ Oct 10th 2006 3:45PM
I imagine Bethesda is walking a fine line to avoid the appearance of saying that the Sony version will have new content out of the box, much like the stuff 360 owners paid Microsoft extra money for.
It'd be refreshing to see Microsoft admit that sometimes the Live Marketplace is used to earn extra profit that that would not be possible from attempting to increase the initial retail price of a game.
It's much the same tactic as the Home Shopping Network employs by stating that an item can be purchased for three easy payments of $19.99, rather than simply giving the final price.
A certain segment of the public can be strung along to make small payments that total more than they would have been willing to pay all at once.
BklynKid @ Oct 10th 2006 3:48PM
I always did play well behaved.
No, I won't be buying a PS3 and I certainly won't be buying this game again.
KBeat @ Oct 10th 2006 4:01PM
Nope. This game already got 100 hours of my life, and it's yesterdays news as far as I'm concerned. Same thing applies to Ninja Gaiden.
I'm definitely not plucking down $600 to play old XBox games.
DocWho @ Oct 10th 2006 4:13PM
It's true azn1080p, the Oblivion characters don't look like Cross Dressing fags.
ErickAnderson @ Oct 10th 2006 4:23PM
Sad thing is Sony's launch lineup really really needed Oblivion. I think I saw 2 exclusive launch titles on the list - resistance and dark kingdom. If you own a 360 you played most of Sony's launch titles last november at the 360 launch, and you are looking forward to a holiday line-up far superior 2 Sony. Not 2 mention Wii-Zelda action at $250.....
crono141 @ Oct 10th 2006 4:30PM
"Compare that to Kingdom Hearts II, xenosaga 3, FF XI, or any of the other sweet RPGs for PS2, and it looks pretty damn weak"
Once again, these are not true RPGs. You do not assume the role of Sora, donald, goofy. You do not determine who they are, where they come from, what they say, how they act, etc. These are not characters you make, they are handed to you, in a constrained "linear" world, and you are directed where to go, what to do, when to do it.
This is not role-playing. Its action adventure with RP elements.
Elderscrolls is true(er) RP. You make a character, you determine what he looks like, you can play the character any way you wish (honorable soldier, check! Complete theiving scoundrel, check!).
Can you make sora pick up that guys dinner plate and sell it to anyone who wants it? Can you do anything to that guy other than "hit X" and have him say a canned script thats the same no matter how many times you do it?
People like you don't even know what RPG means.
kunikos @ Oct 10th 2006 11:46PM
"If it was on Wii, sure."
ROFL The Wii is the graphical equivalent of a GeForce 6 series... it would barely even be able to render the game, nevermind at 360 level graphics. :D
joe smith @ Oct 10th 2006 4:55PM
Played it. Still play it in fact. Certainly can't see this as a reason to buy a PS3 if you already have it on 360. If you don't already have a 360, then it is one more solid title you can get for PS3. Either way it's a great game.
Trouble with any cross platform game for PS3 and 360 is that there is no way the games will be significantly different and incremental differences won't sell hardware.
In looking at the titles out this fall, almost every one that I want is on 360 -- which I already have -- either as an exclusive or as a cross platform game. Hard to justify spending the money on a new system until there is something truly must have that's only on the Sony box.
joe smith @ Oct 10th 2006 4:55PM
It seems like Square has totally brainwashed a generation of players into forgetting waht the RP in RPG stands for. In case you missed it, it's Role Playing -- in otehr words, creating and investing your time and effort into growing a character -- playing a ROLE. The FF games are linear films where if you hit your mark the story advances combined with ages old boring turn based combat. Add to that hackneyed and/or incomprehensible storylines and stereotyped characters and you have pretty much every one of the japanese so-called RPGs.
Oblivion has a great story that you can interact with if you wish combined with an open and immersive world you can explore at will. It also allows you to create an incredible range of characters and grow their skills as you see fit. How many of the JPRGs make you want to keep playing jsut so you can explore the world after the story ends?
Teddy N @ Oct 10th 2006 10:04PM
Oblivion could easily save the PS3 from doom imo.
bobby @ Oct 10th 2006 5:06PM
with the mods available on the PC version, any console version will suck. if they add content thats fine and all for a console, but there is so much added content for this game for the pc version. plus modders can always add the stuff that is in a console version if the really wanted to, like this new exclusive quest. they have added tons of quests already.
Wedge @ Oct 10th 2006 5:07PM
Oblivion is garbage on anything but PC. The game just isn't nearly as good without the proper mods. Linear scaled leveling my ass.
aazzametalhead @ Oct 10th 2006 5:09PM
#18 - You obviously didnt play very much, if you did you wouldnt think there wasnt a good story, and you sure as hell wouldnt care what kinda character customisation there is, ive clocked 100hrs playing oblivion and there is so much story ive forgotten most of it, especially the main one.
Mark Felps @ Oct 10th 2006 5:13PM
JRPGs are for people who need their story fed to them. Those folks are never going to like games like Oblivion, because it requires active, imaginative participation.
That's fine. It means that while every person who played Oblivion played a different game, every person playing FF is playing the same game. If you want laid-back, prettied-up cross-dressers with pointy hair and the same story you've gotten in every previous FF game, then FF is the way to go. If the openness of the world, and the ability to craft your own character and story are important, then you play Oblivion.
Rhys Corlett @ Oct 10th 2006 5:14PM
I hate it when people talk about FF or Kingdom Hearts as roleplaying games.
I still play Oblivion on my x360, but I don't think I've done half the quests that the damn game started with - I don't need a paladin order to keep me going. I'm sure that they will eventually get around to a large "bloodmoon" style add-on, and at that stage I'll look at picking it up.
KAZ @ Oct 10th 2006 5:18PM
599 US DOLLA
ill trooper @ Oct 10th 2006 5:30PM
Funny how people always think you can only play one game on your PS3. As if you have to buy a new one everytime you get a game. At least that's what all the 'Not worth $600 to play that game' comments would have you believe, everytime a PS3 game is talked about.
And... Are Gary Gygax lame-outs with Conan, guilds and dungeons really more original than 'cross dressers with pointy hair?' Methinks you are looking through rose-colored 20-sided dice as you calleth the JRPG kettle black. Just mixin' metaphors for thought here.
The Shoveler @ Oct 10th 2006 5:44PM
The only Final Fantasy game that is even close to being a real RPG is the first one - which is why it's the only tolerable title in a series that has you increasingly playing anime tie-ins that make you think you're part of this super-hip club that the anime phenomenon has turned into. If you want to play a real C-RPG, play Fallout or Fallout 2.
Of all the reasons to get a PS3 - and there are many - Oblivion being available with new content doesn't rank very high up on my list. Give me games worth my time that I can't get anywhere else, and I'll show you my checkbook.
azesino @ Oct 10th 2006 6:01PM
azn1080p
I Really dont know why iam even replying you, you sound like a 13 year old kid... but no KH and FF, are not TRUE RPG'S, and this is what i meant when i say you sound like your 13 , any oldschool gamer will tell you those games are just linear R-P more like action adventure. you dont have a say in the matter, the only Role Playing you actually do is getting a higher Exp really everithing else is liner for the most part. when Oblivion you could explore most part of the game with out even touching the main quest.
and yeah, anyone should be embarassed to Pick up Oblivion at this time after so long, so many Game of the Year awards, For personally , Oblivion is Old News.( I havent finish it still tough)
ktmracer @ Oct 10th 2006 6:08PM
Only if it comes with the "duplicate objects" glitch. Otherwise it would take too long to get where I am now.
Red Viking @ Oct 10th 2006 6:15PM
Please, we can debate what an RPG really is day in and day out. But the definition of an RPG has obviously changed. Otherwise FF and Kingdom Hearts wouldn’t be labeled and considered as such.
Anthony @ Oct 10th 2006 6:25PM
To bad there are no PS3's left to play this on...
By the time we all can A] Afford one, and B] find one this game will be outdated, and Sony will be pushed out of the next gen war.
anonymous coward @ Oct 10th 2006 6:38PM
"UMM, FF games technically are NOT real RPGs."
"Once again, these are not true RPGs."
I imagine these lines being voiced by the Comic Book Guy from the Simpsons.
LaughingTarget @ Oct 11th 2006 8:20AM
kunikos -
GeForce 6800 renders it better than the 360. Wii is more a GF5.
maximus @ Oct 11th 2006 8:18AM
Decent game and should do quite well in the US anyway. All these people who moan about the price of the PS3 will be humble pie eating hypocrits as soon as they buy the HD DVD add-on for the 360. Those that actually want Sony to fail obviously don't like choice or gaming to move forward, it's competition that breeds quality and drives prices down. Take Sony out of the equasion and MS have zero competition which isn't good for any of us.