The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion more impressive on PS3.

EddieDZ · 02-06-2007, 09:08 PM

http://ps3.ign.com/articles/762/762108p1.html

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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.

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.

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.

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Visual textures are much sharper in the PS3 version of the game.

wow.. i am very impressed, im glad the PS3 version of this game is actually showing off some impressive stuff and we're not just getting some "crappy ported" version. i played this game for the 360 at a buddies house and it was alrigth. but i only got to play it for a very short time and i knew this game is MASSIVE. i'll certainly be at least renting this title for sure when it comes out. one thing that got me is the load times... 3-5seconds compare to 7-10 on the 360.. thats sweet, and i remember reading from 360 boys that load times on the PS3 will be worst due to the blu-ray drive and crap like that, you know the stuff that they dont know cause they dont own a PS3 to begin with LOL..

junehhan · 02-06-2007, 09:41 PM

The guys at Bethesda had a year to work on the PS3 version of this game. It BETTER be better than the X360 version which was rather shaky with a long slew of rather serious bugs. A mandatory update took care of some of them, but not all. As for load times, they did duplicate lots of the data on the BD to speed them up(in an interview a couple weeks ago), and I imagine they are preloading a lot of stuff on the hard drive.

Gideon · 02-06-2007, 09:47 PM

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Originally Posted by junehhan

and I imagine they are preloading a lot of stuff on the hard drive.

You imagined right! As far as the textures and such, I agree, they had much more time to work on it, so it better be an upgrade.

But I guarantee you that its not loading faster because of the "superiority" of the cell.

Cygnus · 02-06-2007, 11:27 PM

Be sure to watch the following from IGN as they cover Oblivion for PS3 (as well as the expansion pack Shivering Isle for 360/PC): http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3156932

According to the 1up previewer, the PS3 version lacks a lot of the upgrades that the 360 version gave, and doesn't perform as well. Essentially they can't load as much into memory as the can on the 360 and PC versions, and thus had to make significant changes.

It has a completely re-written renderer too. They managed to improve the distance view, however, that same improvement will be on the 360 version via a patch too. Due to the slow speed of blur-ray, Obliviion was loaded twice to increase its load times.

Just showing the other side of this, gotta be fair and balanced ya know...

1up is a far better source for info than IGN

Type A · 02-07-2007, 01:02 AM

Wow, impressive 1up review, this expansion pack makes my list as the next must have. Ironic I havent played much of the original story line, but then this expansion pack isnt so medieval looking....'cheerier' to do more kill'in in.

EddieDZ · 02-07-2007, 07:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cygnus

According to the 1up previewer, the PS3 version lacks a lot of the upgrades that the 360 version gave, and doesn't perform as well. Essentially they can't load as much into memory as the can on the 360 and PC versions, and thus had to make significant changes.

It has a completely re-written renderer too. They managed to improve the distance view, however, that same improvement will be on the 360 version via a patch too. Due to the slow speed of blur-ray, Obliviion was loaded twice to increase its load times.

Just showing the other side of this, gotta be fair and balanced ya know...

1up is a far better source for info than IGN

you couldnt just post "oh thats cool" or "oh ok thats neat" of course not, your the type of person that has to come back over the top with something else because you love your precious 360 so MUCH that you cant bare the fact of something else being better if its not on the 360. your so gay man lol. IGN is just as fine as 1up so that opinion is irrelevant who is to say this and that source is better then this or that source. the 1up previewer must have played a older build because obviously this statement

"the PS3 version lacks a lot of the upgrades that the 360 version gave, and doesn't perform as well. "

is COMPLETELY the opposite of what IGN hands on just said about the game.. gemme a break. next time just dont bother posting in any of the threads i create if your always constantly going to be coming back with other stuff like that(oh im just showing the flip side of this blah blah blah).... now back to the topic.

Steve44 · 02-07-2007, 09:11 AM

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Originally Posted by Gideon

You imagined right! As far as the textures and such, I agree, they had much more time to work on it, so it better be an upgrade.

But I guarantee you that its not loading faster because of the "superiority" of the cell.

So in sum....

the PS3 version is better visually and in load times.
It only took less than 3 months to see a game that both may agree is better on the PS3 (visually and in load times...whatever the reason).

mshulman · 02-07-2007, 09:23 AM

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Originally Posted by EddieDZ

wow.. i am very impressed, im glad the PS3 version of this game is actually showing off some impressive stuff and we're not just getting some "crappy ported" version. i played this game for the 360 at a buddies house and it was alrigth. but i only got to play it for a very short time and i knew this game is MASSIVE. i'll certainly be at least renting this title for sure when it comes out. one thing that got me is the load times... 3-5seconds compare to 7-10 on the 360.. thats sweet, and i remember reading from 360 boys that load times on the PS3 will be worst due to the blu-ray drive and crap like that, you know the stuff that they dont know cause they dont own a PS3 to begin with LOL..

I don't really find this at all surprising considering how much time they've had to work on the PS3 version. Lets not forget how long 360 owners have been able to play it. 360 version would look just as good if they waited a year to release it.

And I think much of the load times were reduced due to their duplicating data across the BD disc. Good thing those discs are so big

It is nice though to see that at least PS3 owners get some sort of advantage to waiting an extra year for the console and even longer for this game.

mshulman · 02-07-2007, 09:26 AM

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Originally Posted by Steve44

So in sum....

the PS3 version is better visually and in load times.
It only took less than 3 months to see a game that both may agree is better on the PS3 (visually and in load times...whatever the reason).

3 months? Yes, 3 months since PS3 release, but Oblivion was relased on 3/21/06 for the 360. So they had nearly a whole year to work on improvements for the PS3 version.

I think this is good for PS3 owners, but lets not kid ourselves on what it means. When a game is simulatenously released for both and the PS3 version is remarkably better, than you can start with these comments.

EddieDZ · 02-07-2007, 10:38 AM

yes.. the time they took with it(with the delays too) paid off very very well... woohooo. and even thought hey duplicated data on the BD disc(some 360 boys are going to see that as a negative thing LOL!) i think the developers where smart in utilizing the space BD disc offer so i think its kind of smart what they did to reduce load times.. very smart thinking. no one knows how much HDD space the game will use(for caching or whatever) so we'll see when the game comes out..

Cygnus · 02-07-2007, 11:02 AM

*sigh* instead of getting so defensive, watch the 1up interview. BTW, it was bethesda (developers) who thought of having to load the game twice was a negative, because they said that they would prefer speed (DVD9) instead of bloated space (blur-ray)

Quote:

Originally Posted by EddieDZ

yes.. the time they took with it(with the delays too) paid off very very well... woohooo. and even thought hey duplicated data on the BD disc(some 360 boys are going to see that as a negative thing LOL!) i think the developers where smart in utilizing the space BD disc offer so i think its kind of smart what they did to reduce load times.. very smart thinking. no one knows how much HDD space the game will use(for caching or whatever) so we'll see when the game comes out..

Trantzz · 02-07-2007, 11:03 AM

I for one hope that the game plays MUCH BETTER on the PS/3. I have been playing Oblivion off and on for about a month on the 360 and the only time my machine ever freezes is when playing this game. I am still enjoying it but if they can lock it up for the Sony guys good for them. It's about time they have another game they can enjoy!

Have fun Eddie!!

EddieDZ · 02-07-2007, 01:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cygnus

*sigh* instead of getting so defensive, watch the 1up interview. BTW, it was bethesda (developers) who thought of having to load the game twice was a negative, because they said that they would prefer speed (DVD9) instead of bloated space (blur-ray)

you know what can you point me in that direction? i cant seem to find the interview(video?) your talking about. .... i guess the developers now realize that a bloated blu-ray still makes for faster loading LOL.. thats too funny and i still think its quit clever though but oh well... lets move on.

hey Trantzz, you enjoying that HDTV of yours?

Trantzz · 02-07-2007, 01:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by EddieDZ

you know what can you point me in that direction? i cant seem to find the interview(video?) your talking about. .... i guess the developers now realize that a bloated blu-ray still makes for faster loading LOL.. thats too funny and i still think its quit clever though but oh well... lets move on.

hey Trantzz, you enjoying that HDTV of yours?

I am enjoying it VERY MUCH, thanks for asking. I was just surfing the "Flat Panel TV" area here and YOUR original thread on "which B Tv" to buy was on the front page. So I was able to relive your buying decision. Found it funny to read it knowing what you ended up with.

Thankfully I have no "stuck pixel" issues.

bboncorr · 02-07-2007, 01:47 PM

on one hand im glad the ps3 version is getting some good reviews but lets not forget they had all this extra time to build onto what was already released. if where talking a couple of months between releases then the ps3 has accomplished a huge feat but where talking a year. all they did was port it and take all that extra time to improve it.

im glad to see the ps3 is better because i plan on getting a ps3 this fall just because i will have the extra cash to blow and oblivian will be one of the first games i pickup. plus a brp will be nice to have since there are a bunch of movies i cant get on hd dvd that really want to see in hd. i might even pickup a home media server that holds dvds. i wonder if any of them hold br. or hd dvd.

02-06-2007, 09:41 PM	#2
junehhan High Definition is the definition of life. Join Date: Aug 2006 Age: 29 Posts: 5,661	The guys at Bethesda had a year to work on the PS3 version of this game. It BETTER be better than the X360 version which was rather shaky with a long slew of rather serious bugs. A mandatory update took care of some of them, but not all. As for load times, they did duplicate lots of the data on the BD to speed them up(in an interview a couple weeks ago), and I imagine they are preloading a lot of stuff on the hard drive. __________________ X360 Gamertag junehhan Toshiba HD-A1 HD-DVD player -Klipsch RSW10 Subwoofer -Pioneer VSX1016TXVK reciever -Klipsch Synergy Quintet III 5 channel speakers AIM: jhhan80 HD-DVD's: Loving it! BD's: When we get a reasonably priced BDP with lossless decoders Everyone wants to live at the expense of the state, they forget that the state lives at the expense of everyone - Frederich Bastiat, 1848

02-06-2007, 11:27 PM	#4
Cygnus The Bringer of Balance Join Date: Dec 2004 Posts: 6,832	Be sure to watch the following from IGN as they cover Oblivion for PS3 (as well as the expansion pack Shivering Isle for 360/PC): http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3156932 According to the 1up previewer, the PS3 version lacks a lot of the upgrades that the 360 version gave, and doesn't perform as well. Essentially they can't load as much into memory as the can on the 360 and PC versions, and thus had to make significant changes. It has a completely re-written renderer too. They managed to improve the distance view, however, that same improvement will be on the 360 version via a patch too. Due to the slow speed of blur-ray, Obliviion was loaded twice to increase its load times. Just showing the other side of this, gotta be fair and balanced ya know... 1up is a far better source for info than IGN __________________ Toshiba 57H81 Kenwood VR-616 Comcast DCT6412 III XBox 360 GamerTag Sec0nd2N0n3

02-07-2007, 01:02 AM	#5
Type A 1080 Optical Supporter Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Panama City, Fl Age: 38 Posts: 2,724	Wow, impressive 1up review, this expansion pack makes my list as the next must have. Ironic I havent played much of the original story line, but then this expansion pack isnt so medieval looking....'cheerier' to do more kill'in in. __________________ Mitsubishi HC3000U HD projector Dual Optoma 106" screens Harman Kardon AVR-7000 receiver Bose 901 VI, 301 IV, VCS 10 Bose AM-6 Series III Sony STR-DG600 receiver JVC GR-HD1 HD camcorder Xbox 360 Pro / PS3 40 Gig HD DVD 0 / Blu Ray 15 Games 18 / Games 2 Gateway 901x HTPC (modified) Sling Box Pro w/HD Connect Cable Dish 211 receiver w/Absolute HD pack HP Pavilion dv-6000 laptop (HTPC2GO) Link-Theater Gallery - 100,000+ views Link-55 Restoration Updated 6/21/08

02-07-2007, 10:38 AM	#10
EddieDZ PSN is Free Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Saint John, NB Canada Posts: 4,707	yes.. the time they took with it(with the delays too) paid off very very well... woohooo. and even thought hey duplicated data on the BD disc(some 360 boys are going to see that as a negative thing LOL!) i think the developers where smart in utilizing the space BD disc offer so i think its kind of smart what they did to reduce load times.. very smart thinking. no one knows how much HDD space the game will use(for caching or whatever) so we'll see when the game comes out.. __________________ Uncharted 2 l GRID l Killzone 2 l Battlefield:BC l BuzzQuiz l Pacific Rift l Dead Space l Burnout l Motorstorm l R&CF l Uncharted Fat Princess l Shatter l Zen Pinball l PJ Monsters l PJ Eden l Astro Tripper l Zuma l Soldner-X l Cuboid l Prince Persia l PowerUp l Magic Ball l WipeOut HD l R&CF: Quest Booty l Fatal Inertia l Stardust HD l flOW l Blast Factor AR l Nucleus l Everyday Shooter Samsung LN46A530

02-07-2007, 11:03 AM	#12
Trantzz Mutant Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Upstate NY Posts: 474	I for one hope that the game plays MUCH BETTER on the PS/3. I have been playing Oblivion off and on for about a month on the 360 and the only time my machine ever freezes is when playing this game. I am still enjoying it but if they can lock it up for the Sony guys good for them. It's about time they have another game they can enjoy! Have fun Eddie!! __________________ Panasonic TH 50px75u Vizio VX37L X-Box 360 Live Tag=Trantzz 40 Gig PS3 (welcome back Sony) PSN tag= Trantzz Just give me a Snifter of Don Julio Anjeo (on the rocks) and a Acid Subculture Toast....life is good.

02-07-2007, 01:47 PM	#15
bboncorr High Definition is the definition of life. Join Date: Nov 2005 Posts: 4,418	on one hand im glad the ps3 version is getting some good reviews but lets not forget they had all this extra time to build onto what was already released. if where talking a couple of months between releases then the ps3 has accomplished a huge feat but where talking a year. all they did was port it and take all that extra time to improve it. im glad to see the ps3 is better because i plan on getting a ps3 this fall just because i will have the extra cash to blow and oblivian will be one of the first games i pickup. plus a brp will be nice to have since there are a bunch of movies i cant get on hd dvd that really want to see in hd. i might even pickup a home media server that holds dvds. i wonder if any of them hold br. or hd dvd. __________________ Living Room pioneer kuro plasma PDP-5010FD (9.9) Denon 4308CI (9.5) B&W 683's, HTM61, 685's (9.0) Sony PS3 (9.0) Sony BD-S350 (9.5) HSU VTF-3 MK3 sub (9.0) Harmony 1000 (9.5) XBOX360 + HD DVD (9.2) Nintendo Wii (7.5) Netflix Roku (9.0) Gaming Room 60A3000 (8.7) Halcro ssp200 (10. perfection) Deftech BP7004, C/L/R2002, BP2X (8.7) Sony Remote Commander (7.0) Toshiba HDA35 (7.9) Samsung 1400 (5.0) Bedroom Panasonic TH-42PZ85U (8.7) Tivo HD (9.7)