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The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Hands-on
We escape the gates of Oblivion for these hands-on impressions.
by Jeff Haynes
February 6, 2007 - Fans of the Elder Scrolls series have always loved
the flexibility the franchise afforded them during their adventures,
but when the eagerly awaited Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion was released
last March, even they were astounded by its depth. Players could
literally choose their own adventure within the massive game, which
offered over 200 hours of play. Characters could be customized in
various ways, and it was easy for gamers to make powerful magic users,
fighters, thieves or other classes as they attempted to close the
gates of Oblivion. For PC and Xbox 360 gamers, it was a match made in
RPG heaven. Fortunately for PS3 owners, Oblivion will soon be
descending upon the system. We got the chance to play the latest build
of the game today, and we came away with new impressions from the land
of Cyrodiil.
Apart from the initial scale of Oblivion, which was simply huge,
Bethesda Game Studios augmented the adventure with eight downloadable
plug-in features. Items like the Horse Armor download seemed much more
of a minor adjustment than a significant addition to the gameplay.
Others like the Orrery or Mehrunes' Razor provided separate locations
for players to battle through, collecting experience and valuable
items. Unlike the PC and 360 versions, the PS3 edition will not
feature all eight of the currently available plug-ins for the game.
They may find their way to the PlayStation Store at some point in time
in the future, but they will not be added into the version as a "PS3
Collector's Edition" or a special copy of Oblivion. Instead, the title
will only include the recently released Knights of the Nine side
quest, as you attempt to recover lost artifacts of the Divine Crusader
and restore glory to the order of warriors.
PS3 owners will get their own taste of Oblivion this March.
Players of the PC or 360 version of the quest know that only those
characters who don't have any infamy associated to their name can
begin the pilgrimage to start the Knights of the Nine quest. However,
there have been a few changes made for the PS3 version. Characters can
now immediately set out on their pilgrimage to the Wayshrines of the
Divines as soon as they exit the sewers at the start of the game
(which served as a tutorial). This immediately lets you bypass having
to track down the rumor about the attack on Anvil Chapel and start on
your quest for righteousness.
The PS3 version of Oblivion isn't a simple port of the game either,
although players who have picked up the 360 version will be very
familiar with the control scheme. For one thing, the PS3 version has
been optimized to take advantage of the Cell processor and hardware
that the system offers. As a result, the game runs a lot faster than
the 360 build. Entering dungeons or buildings results in a load of 3-5
seconds, compared to the 7-10 seconds or longer for the 360 version of
the game. Similarly, the amount of framerate drops or hitches that
cropped up in the wilderness as you accessed a new area on the 360
have been substantially reduced on the PS3 version. There is a plan to
completely eradicate these issues as the game nears release, as well
as fixing a number of bugs that were present in the other builds. Kiss
the item duplication glitch goodbye.
Visual textures are much sharper in the PS3 version of the game.
The visual presentation of Oblivion has also been significantly
enhanced. While it was a beautiful title on the 360, far off
environmental details often displayed low resolution textures. This
has been fixed with new shaders dedicated to rendering the foreground
cleanly with sharper details, so rocky landscapes now have craggy
appearances instead of smooth, non-distinct surfaces. While there is
still a fair amount of pop-in that occurs (which can't be helped due
to the size of the world), the draw distance is farther than the 360
version. As a result, screens from the PS3 version should approach
those from high end PCs running Oblivion, which is an impressive feat.
We'll have more on Oblivion soon, but for now, check out these new
screens.
We escape the gates of Oblivion for these hands-on impressions.
by Jeff Haynes
February 6, 2007 - Fans of the Elder Scrolls series have always loved
the flexibility the franchise afforded them during their adventures,
but when the eagerly awaited Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion was released
last March, even they were astounded by its depth. Players could
literally choose their own adventure within the massive game, which
offered over 200 hours of play. Characters could be customized in
various ways, and it was easy for gamers to make powerful magic users,
fighters, thieves or other classes as they attempted to close the
gates of Oblivion. For PC and Xbox 360 gamers, it was a match made in
RPG heaven. Fortunately for PS3 owners, Oblivion will soon be
descending upon the system. We got the chance to play the latest build
of the game today, and we came away with new impressions from the land
of Cyrodiil.
Apart from the initial scale of Oblivion, which was simply huge,
Bethesda Game Studios augmented the adventure with eight downloadable
plug-in features. Items like the Horse Armor download seemed much more
of a minor adjustment than a significant addition to the gameplay.
Others like the Orrery or Mehrunes' Razor provided separate locations
for players to battle through, collecting experience and valuable
items. Unlike the PC and 360 versions, the PS3 edition will not
feature all eight of the currently available plug-ins for the game.
They may find their way to the PlayStation Store at some point in time
in the future, but they will not be added into the version as a "PS3
Collector's Edition" or a special copy of Oblivion. Instead, the title
will only include the recently released Knights of the Nine side
quest, as you attempt to recover lost artifacts of the Divine Crusader
and restore glory to the order of warriors.
PS3 owners will get their own taste of Oblivion this March.
Players of the PC or 360 version of the quest know that only those
characters who don't have any infamy associated to their name can
begin the pilgrimage to start the Knights of the Nine quest. However,
there have been a few changes made for the PS3 version. Characters can
now immediately set out on their pilgrimage to the Wayshrines of the
Divines as soon as they exit the sewers at the start of the game
(which served as a tutorial). This immediately lets you bypass having
to track down the rumor about the attack on Anvil Chapel and start on
your quest for righteousness.
The PS3 version of Oblivion isn't a simple port of the game either,
although players who have picked up the 360 version will be very
familiar with the control scheme. For one thing, the PS3 version has
been optimized to take advantage of the Cell processor and hardware
that the system offers. As a result, the game runs a lot faster than
the 360 build. Entering dungeons or buildings results in a load of 3-5
seconds, compared to the 7-10 seconds or longer for the 360 version of
the game. Similarly, the amount of framerate drops or hitches that
cropped up in the wilderness as you accessed a new area on the 360
have been substantially reduced on the PS3 version. There is a plan to
completely eradicate these issues as the game nears release, as well
as fixing a number of bugs that were present in the other builds. Kiss
the item duplication glitch goodbye.
Visual textures are much sharper in the PS3 version of the game.
The visual presentation of Oblivion has also been significantly
enhanced. While it was a beautiful title on the 360, far off
environmental details often displayed low resolution textures. This
has been fixed with new shaders dedicated to rendering the foreground
cleanly with sharper details, so rocky landscapes now have craggy
appearances instead of smooth, non-distinct surfaces. While there is
still a fair amount of pop-in that occurs (which can't be helped due
to the size of the world), the draw distance is farther than the 360
version. As a result, screens from the PS3 version should approach
those from high end PCs running Oblivion, which is an impressive feat.
We'll have more on Oblivion soon, but for now, check out these new
screens.
