Oblivion expansion details

By Robert Purchese Published 5 January, 2007

Madness of Prince Sheogorath.

Early magazine previews have spilled details about Oblivion's first real expansion, Shivering Isles.

We assume it's Xbox 360, PS3 and PC bound, though Bethesda has yet to come forward and confirm the game.

Unfortunately our biggest wish seems to have been denied, as the team looks to have chosen to focus on new content rather than overhaul some of the existing and flawed gameplay mechanics. It seems you PC gamers will still hold the upper hand in this sense, enhancing your experience with user-created mods.

The new adventures will take place in the 'Shivering Isles', otherwise known as the 'Realm of Madness', ruled over by the wacky Daedric Prince Sheogorath. It seems you're to help this fruit-loop protect himself from the god Juggalef and his Greymarch - a cleansing of the land and everyone in it.

Humour looks to be a key ingredient in this recipe, with quests and NPCs taking full advantage of the strangeness at hand. One inventive task sees you join forces with one of the Sheogorath's minions to decide how best to dispatch a group of loot hungry adventurers. The Prince has already sentenced them to death, it's your job to dictate how it happens - either kill them outright or utilise traps and illusions to drive the greedy pests insane.

The entrance to the Shivering Isles is on an Island located near Niben Bay, and the content will be suitable for all level ranges.

There's a rumoured Q2 2007 release date for this expansion, but no word on whether it will be a downloadable addition or a traditional boxed affair.

Still, it all sounds rather more fun than pushing horses down hills.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (24) Latest comment 5 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Ace_McCloud #1 5 years ago

    Oh my god am I first?!? .... Dammit why couldn't it be on a story I have an opinion on......

    Okay I shall beef out my first comment with an Oblivion related story. I played about 80 hours of this sucker and got so excited by the whole free world thing that I didn't bother doing any of the main quest. Now I've found that upon entering the first gate to Oblivion the enemies are so many and extrememly tough (I suppose to match my high level) it is near impossible to progress! Damn that strange levelling system Bethesda created. It is flawed I tells you!! ... I have not returned to the world of my blue skinned elf man since...
    Edited by 1 at 05/01/07 @ 14:29

  • Bertie Verified Senior Staff Writer, Eurogamer.net #2 5 years ago

    Just pretend you've played it! Surely you could muster a generic RPG-like response ;)

  • Arganoid #3 5 years ago

    Does anyone actually enjoy reading "first post" posts?

  • gaijin #4 5 years ago

    i find these threads usually hit their stride around the third or fourth comment meself...

    Guess I'll have to finish the original game now. Well, not *have* to, but to justify to myself buying an expansion...

  • Machiavel #5 5 years ago

    "content will be suitable for all level ranges"

    Arghhhhh!!! The biggest flaw of the first game revisited!

  • Darkedge #6 5 years ago

    nobody enjoys first post posts.

    mind you I found oblivion to be boring and had the worst pop up I have seen in 10 years

  • miiiguel #7 5 years ago

    on-topic: will it have Achievements ? If not I'm out...

    greggywocky: you are doing the "press A button on starting screen" thing, right ?
    Edited by 1 at 05/01/07 @ 13:06

  • Donny #8 5 years ago

    This is just a copy of what I said on the forum. Pfft

  • miiiguel #9 5 years ago

    greggywocky: when you're loading your game, press A button during the load screen, until you controll your character. I had this problem that escalated until almost unplayable, when I was waiting for my gf to to the girl stuff prior to leave the house in order to go return the game I read this routine in a site and it fixed the problem. Ever since I do this and loading times are reduced a whole lot!

  • miiiguel #10 5 years ago

    ok, this is the deal I found for you greggywocky :
    " you experience freezing screens, delayed sounds (sword clanks 5 seconds after it hits something), long pauses while searching a person or object, or anything similar then you must clear your hard drive's cache.




    1) Reset the Xbox 360 with Elder Scrolls still in the DVD drive. (Use the power button to do this)



    2) Press and Hold the A button until you see the Bethesda Software logo appear on screen."

  • miiiguel #11 5 years ago

    not at all m8, I don't do pranks, I'm actually kinda boring person. Anyway, do a google search with this:
    "oblivion 360 clear cache", you'll find what you need from reliable sources.
    Edited by 1 at 05/01/07 @ 13:23

  • kangarootoo #12 5 years ago

    The one thing worse (if indeed it is really an issue worth losing sleep over, which lets face it, its not) than "first" posts, are posts complaining about how pointless and annoying they are.

    Pure irony.

  • glaeken #13 5 years ago

    I think anyone who feels that posting first on comments is some sort of achievement should be put to death. Though I must admit it often amazes me that such individuals have lived so long as to have learned how to type.

  • crazyhorse174 #14 5 years ago

    "There was a patch applied to Oblivion last night and now my load times between areas have increased to over 2mins, making the game virtually unplayable.

    Anyone else had the same problem?"

    I found loading times were pretty bad when I was connected to Live for some reason...pulling the cable out of the back seemed to help - not sure why though!

    EDIT: Should have said, pulling the Ethernet cable out of the back helps...not the power cable or owt... doh
    Edited by 1 at 05/01/07 @ 13:33

  • glaeken #15 5 years ago

    Loading issues for the 360 version are always said to be related to the disk cache.

    Apparently this can be cleared I think by holding down the A button as the game loads. I might be wrong on the button though as I have never needed to do this so do a google search on clearing the disk cache for the 360 version of Oblivion.
    Edited by 2 at 05/01/07 @ 13:41

  • Drakron #16 5 years ago

    This "expansion" seems to be so bad people rather complain about the game that talk about said expansion.

    Heck as things are going I will be happy if Fallout "3" is Morrowind with guns ...

  • Floppy #17 5 years ago

    Crazyhorse. I notice that scrolling down the save game list is majorly slower when connected to Live, and dead quick when not.

  • Machetazo #18 5 years ago

    I really like the premise of this. Of course, it depends on how you've been playing Oblivion, but you can immerse yourself in a completely different role, while still being able to return to your current pursuits at a later date, should you so choose, but with the addition of any equipment or spells you might have gathered from the expansion content. I'm not buying "Oblivion GOTY" for Xbox 360 to enjoy these new experiences though.
    Provided it's packaged right, the Prince can expect an audience, shortly after the portal to his realm is uncovered.

  • kangarootoo #19 5 years ago

    @greggywocky

    Ooh, hoisted by my own petard. How did I not see that one coming.

    o-o

  • yagisencho #20 5 years ago

    I'm excited to think that I might have a real reason to pull my 'head of all guilds and savior of the land' wood elf out of mothballs. I'd buy it today if it were available.

  • Razorus #21 5 years ago

    I've downloaded every piece of content for the 360 version, and the game seems to get slower and slower in regards to load times. I never use stuff like The Orrory and the vampire haven, and am really regretting downloading them. Will be 360 explode if I download this one? Nights of the Nine almost killed it.

  • Dr.Mott #22 5 years ago

    @ Razorus

    Why don't you just delete the pieces you don't use from the hard-drive. You can always download them again free if you feel you ever need to.

  • MrBeast #23 5 years ago

    I wonder if any of you guys can help. This isn't something I've really looked into, but I downloaded that Knights of the Nine Malarkey the other day, yet when I started playing the game, there was no indication that I had a new quest. When I've downloaded the other stuff, I've always had a message pop up telling me where to go to activate it. After a few minutes waiting to see if anything would happen, I turned the bugger off and put my Wii back on.

    Do I have to go somewhere or do something to start the quest?

  • dripping_brain #24 5 years ago

    All this talk of "clearing disk caches" to get games to run properly on a console worries me. Console gaming shouldn't require that kind of stuff (even if it is a simple procedure).
    That kind of nonsense should be reserved for PC gaming (incidentally I play Oblivion on the PC). I'd considered buying a 360, but these kind of complications that shouldn't be associated with the operation of a console put me right off, like I say, I get enough bother like that from my PC.
    Back on topic, the expansion sounds tempting, although I've not finished the original main quest yet, in fact I'm really on embarking on it now...after 50hours play time.
    It took me that damn long to cure myself of the vampirism I contracted 20 minutes in that I levelled up to the point where I'm v.worried about the proportionally-levelled enemies Ace_McCloud was on about.