Oblivion Expansion coming in spring 2007!

cdneger

Full fledged Oblivion expansion, Shivering Isles, coming soon?
by Nick Brutal on 12.13.2006

Bethesda Softworks hates me and doesn't care about whether or not I've finished Oblivion yet. It seems they'll be making it completely impossible now, with the release of a full-on expansion pack, entitled Shivering Isles.

Finnish gaming magazine Pelit is reporting that Bethesda has confirmed the expansion, but reveals no details or release date.

While I can't vouch for Pelit (although it is one of the biggest Finnish gaming magazines), I can say that this news is not surprising or unbelievable. Rumors of a full expansion appear in the latest issue of Official Xbox Magazine. Additionally, it appears that ZeniMax Media (owner of Besthesda Softworks, LLC) has had the "Shivering Isles" name trademarked with the United States Patent and Trademark office since August of this year.

Word Mark SHIVERING ISLES
Goods and Services IC 009. US 021 023 026 036 038. G & S: Computer game programs; providing downloadable computer game programs offered via handheld computers, wireless telephones and mobile and wireless devices

IC 041. US 100 101 107. G & S: Providing online computer games; providing online computer game programs offered via handheld computers, wireless telephones and mobile and wireless devices

Filing Date August 17, 2006

Owner (APPLICANT) ZeniMax Media Inc. CORPORATION DELAWARE 1370 Piccard Drive Rockville MARYLAND 20850

http://images.flannigus.net/ShiveringIsles1.jpg

http://images.flannigus.net/ShiveringIsles2.jpg

Monoxide

Oh fuck, why would you highlight the important part in red text on a purple background?

I changed it to bold, don't use red without bolding or increasing the text size, it's blinding.

cdneger

Monoxide wrote:

Oh fuck, why would you highlight the important part in red text on a purple background?

I changed it to bold, don't use red without bolding or increasing the text size, it's blinding.

Yeah, I'm colourblind (truth!), I don't 'get' those things. Good show!

Cilla Black

Well, this isn't much more than a rumor from a patent, which can hardly be worked with all to much, but I find myself excited regardless. Oblivion needs an expansion and desperately. I just hope they make it with more quality than Oblivion itself. If it turns out to be as good as Tribunal, then all will be forgiven Bethesda.

Vincent Grayson

Haven't they said there would be no full expansion?

I know a few guys at Bethesda, so I'll see what I can find out, but last I knew, efforts were focused on the PS3 port, and Fallout 3.

Malkor

I don't claim to know anything about the game industry, but don't they really just need level designers, artists, and writers? The game's already there, and its not impossible for those particular efforts to be run concurrently with Fallout (wheeeeee!) and the PS3 port.

bongi

i totally thought this was going to be a world of warcraft xpac

still hella neat though

Rook

Malkor wrote:

I don't claim to know anything about the game industry, but don't they really just need level designers, artists, and writers? The game's already there, and its not impossible for those particular efforts to be run concurrently with Fallout (wheeeeee!) and the PS3 port.

Why would the PS3 port need level designers/artists or writers? Besides there was a fairly frank interview with someone at Bethesda where they basically said they'll probably sit on the PS3 version until the number of installed PS3s actually justifies it's release.

As for an expansion, I think, generally speaking it's a smart move to release an expansion for a very recent and successful game rather than sticking all your eggs in the basket of sequel to decade old game.

cdneger

Making this the first official Shivering Isle thread.

Poast on!

Barcardi

Wow, glad to see that the faces are still ass. Still, i r happy

bruin

Wow, this sounds awesome. Any word on a 360 release?

Couscous

bruin wrote:

Wow, this sounds awesome. Any word on a 360 release?

Considering that that Bethesda likes money, there will certainly be one.

bruin

titmouse wrote:

bruin wrote:

Wow, this sounds awesome. Any word on a 360 release?

Considering that that Bethesda likes money, there will certainly be one.

I don't doubt that, I was more wondering about a release date, and whether it'll be downloadable on XBL Marketplace, on a disc, or both.

Citrus

Barcardi wrote:

Wow, glad to see that the faces are still ass. Still, i r happy

Is it really that hard to make a normal looking face?

-SPI-

I'm glad it's real! And it sounds like a lot of fun.

Kazhiim

On one hand, it's nice of Bethesda to just create another world for the expansion and not fuck over any modders whose regions might otherwise conflict with it. On the other hand, goddamnit Bethesda, you've got like five unseen provinces to work with and you start doing the daedric realms.

-SPI-

Kazhiim wrote:

On one hand, it's nice of Bethesda to just create another world for the expansion and not fuck over any modders whose regions might otherwise conflict with it. On the other hand, goddamnit Bethesda, you've got like five unseen provinces to work with and you start doing the daedric realms.

To be fair, if they did one of the other provinces and it had three towns, I'd be pissed off.

HarshLanguage

Sk-88 wrote:

Barcardi wrote:

Wow, glad to see that the faces are still ass. Still, i r happy

Is it really that hard to make a normal looking face?

It's very hard to get a good-looking avatar in Oblivion, yes. The faces usually end up quite ugly. Faces end up weird, bodies look... kinda lumpy. NWN2 has the same problem.

Blitz Rawket

cdneger wrote:

http://images.flannigus.net/ShiveringIsles2.jpg

I love the look on that guy's face in the top shot.

"Now just what are you planning to do with that exactly"

Synthetic Orange

Oh boy, we get to go annoy Sheggy!

randombattle

Does this mean they were actually working on real content while pumping out horse armor like crap?

Awesome!



i still bought knights of the nine because i am an oblivion whore...

Suriko

I got as far as driving adventurers insane before I knew I'd be buying this.

Damn you Bethesda. Damn you to hell for appealing to my sadistic tendancies.

KKprofit

sigh ...

OK... where is the building a PC thread...

Silpheed

I still hope for the chance to build a Stronghold as you got to do in Morrowind but I have a feeling that it won't be a feature in this ex pack. Guess I'll have to hope for that in the next one instead.

Suds

This is good and bad. Good because I loved Oblivion. Bad because it'll suck away a ton of my time.

cdneger

Suds wrote:

This is good and bad. Good because I loved Oblivion. Bad because it'll suck away a ton of my time.

I feel the same. Usually between work and household stuff I have about an hour to an hour and a half a day to spend on videogames. Oblivion has been eating up most of that time for the last few weeks. On top of that I have a Halo addiction (must... go.... online.........) that I can't seem to kick. So my backlog is killing me, I feel like



except that you should replace the planet and the houses and shit with games, and add some more bodyparts. But you get my drift.

EDIT: also can I just add that I am VERY lttp when it comes to Morrowind? I just installed it (and Tribunal and also Bloodmoon) half an hour ago for the first time ever and I was very pleasantly surprised. I am currently downloading a set of mods for it that supposedly makes it look almost as good as Oblivion. So there goes my life, I guess.

solsovly

Man I can't wait for the microtransactions that come out after the expansion pack

Fartacus_the_Mighty

I wish they'd fix the damn bugs in the existing release before they start working on an expansion pack. Releasing a game with mod tools then expecting modders to fix bugs is unacceptable.

While I'd like official fixes, I hope Bethesda doesn't follow the Battlefield method of patching, where you have to buy each new expansion pack if you want fixes to (potentially) showstopping bugs.

Roshin

For all it's flaws, I enjoyed Oblivion a lot, so I guess I'll be getting this whenever it comes out.

Gaming-Module

I just dropped $19.99 worth of points on all of the Oblivion downloadables, except for spell tomes (yes, even horse armor). More content is good. I love this game.

thorpe

That bulky, pyramid-headesque armor on the second page looks like sweetness.

nameless

Guys. This isn't an Oblivion expansion.

This is Fallout 3

korodullin

The only things that I'm looking forward to in the expansion are the inevitable gameplay fixes (Bethesda has never really been on the ball with patches, and likes to use expansions as patch bases) and what I hope will be new resources available to modders.

TheGreat2nd

If only they could release an expansion for the 360
Hopefully...

august

I'm thinking the content from this will end up on the 360 in one form or another. Wether you buy it off Live or in some sort of Gold box.

Anyway, that Sheogorath is one crazy...

Darlan

TheGreat2nd wrote:

If only they could release an expansion for the 360
Hopefully...

They released Resurrection of Evil on the Xbox, and Oblivion sold pretty well on the 360, I don't think it's at all implausible.

syndalis

If Shivering Isles is 2 gigs or less, I'll prefer to drop 1600 points (20 bucks) to just download it. Hell, the entire Knights of the Nine Storyarc, with voiceacting, new characters and models, new environments and 10 hours of gameplay was about 150-200 megs.

Gaming-Module

Provided they can recycle some assets from the existing game, it shouldn't be that massive of a download.

bruin

Xbox got the Morrowind expansions on the GOTY Edition reprint, I imagine we'll see something like that in addition to maybe a Marketplace download.

apotheos

I really really hope that this concludes in a GOTY 360 edition with all DLC, with the voices in Knights of the Nine improved to match the quality of the original game.

Fiatil

apotheos wrote:

I really really hope that this concludes in a GOTY 360 edition with all DLC, with the voices in Knights of the Nine improved to match the quality of the original game.

Wait what? How bad does voice acting have to be that it has to be raised up to the level of Oblivion? Oblivion had some pretty bad voice acting aside from a few major characters. Four voice actors recycled, all of which sound like they're 60, for justice.