 Review By: Jared Black |
Developer: | Bethesda Softworks |
| Publisher: | Bethesda Softworks / 2K | |
| Genre: | RPG | |
| ESRB: | Mature | |
| # Of Players: | 1 | |
| Online Play: | No | |
| Accessories: | HDTV 480p, 720p | |
| Buy Now: |   |
Having played well over 150 hours worth of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion on Xbox 360, my intentions with the PS3 version were simple. Get out of the mandatory introductory area, proceed straight to the included Knights of the Nine quest, and then review the game after taking notes about the quality of the port along the way. What I failed to take into account though is that this is The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, a finely crafted RPG with a wide-open world, where new quests and adventure await you at every turn. So shortly after leaving those beginning sewers, I found myself discovering even more new locales, quests, and other things I never found before that once again drew me into Bethesda’s latest playground.
Of course, the upside to that (aside from having a lot of fun) is that I’ve seen plenty of what makes the PS3 version better, and that’s primarily the much faster load times and the improved graphics. On Xbox 360, in its original form the environment would constantly load chunks of each area up as you navigate the vast overworld. This resulted in frequent pauses as objects such as trees and small buildings loaded before your eyes, as well as navigation issues since you often couldn’t see landmarks that were in reality only a few short feet in front of your character.
Of course, you’ll still see plenty of loading taking place in the PS3 version, but the load times are much shorter and happen much less frequently. The result is a much smoother experience while navigating the vast countryside, making exploration far more enjoyable. I remarked in my review of the Xbox 360 version that the load times had literally discouraged me from exploring as much as I did in Morrowind, but on PS3 they’ve been improved to the point where that’s no longer the case. I’ve found myself visiting new areas on horseback I never bothered to search before, and traveling on foot (rather than fast traveling to previously discovered locations) far more often than I did on Xbox 360.
It’s not just the frequency and duration of load times that have improved though; it’s also what’s loaded during those times. The draw distance is farther now, meaning buildings you wouldn’t see while standing in a particular spot before are now visible. Foliage is also drawn at a distance farther from your character, although you’ll still see it loading progressively as you run across an open field.
While cities and dungeons seem largely unchanged as far as load times are concerned, they weren’t really plagued by them in the first place. The big change you’ll notice there instead (and in the fields as well) is that the graphics look better. Although the improvements aren’t tremendous, I immediately noticed sharper textures, more detail on walls, armor, and faces, and in general just a crisper look to everything in the PS3 version. Mind you, this was after playing both versions in 720p on the exact same TV. Along with the improved load times, this seems to be a testament to just what kind of untapped power lies buried within the PS3’s complex Cell-based architecture. Even with the recent Xbox 360 patch that improved load times on that platform considerably, the PS3 version still easily looks and performs better. And keep in mind, that patch is only accessible to those that have the ability to download it, whereas the PS3’s improvements are all native on one single Blu-ray disc.
Getting to the game itself, as the first in the series to arrive on a PlayStation platform, Sony faithful are finally getting the chance to see what all the fuss is about. Like other games in the series before it, Oblivion is essentially a single-player MMO. The game starts out with your character in prison, soon to be met by a fleeing Emperor that just happens to need to use the escape route hidden in your cell. He immediately points you out as a person of destiny, and the guards allow you to escape with them. The sewer area that follows serves as a tutorial, and customizes your character’s initial attributes based on how you handle it. Naturally you aren’t forced to stick with the choices the game makes for you, and can build a custom character completely from scratch to best suit the style of play you wish to use.
After you make your final decisions and exit the initial dungeon, you’re completely on your own. Choose to follow the main quest, or go in a completely different direction and explore wherever you please. It’s all up to you. Oblivion is not about following some pre-determined path to save the princess or defeat an ultimate evil (although you certainly get to fight plenty of that). Instead, it’s about forging your own destiny in the engrossing world Bethesda has built for you to play in. Many games have followed this design model in the past, but very few in the RPG genre. More importantly, you’ll have fun regardless of what you choose to do, as virtually any career path is a viable one.
Posted: 2007-04-09 16:35:08 PST