Thought last week's game releases were a bit on the sparse side? This week should brighten you up especially if you own a Nintendo Wii or a Sony PlayStation Portable. A handful of releases have come out on each platform to keep owners busy. The Nintendo DS, as usual, has another crop of light games, while next-generation consoles Sony PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Xbox 360 also have something to share. What exactly? See for yourself in this week's list.

* Article originally posted Dec 03, 2007 at 12:10AM

Fans of Bethesda's The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (PC, Xbox 360, PS3) should be keeping an eye on the U.S. PlayStation Store next week. Peter Hines, Bethesda’s Vice President of Public Relations and Marketing, has reportedly confirmed that The Elder Scrolls IV: The Shivering Isles, the first expansion pack for Oblivion, will be hitting the U.S. PlayStation Store on Thursday.

  

Playstation 3 owners and fans of The Elder Scrolls iV: Oblivion (PC, Xbox 360, PS3) can now rejoice! Bethesda Softworks has recently announced that they will release the Shivering Isles official expansion pack for the Sony PS3 next month. While The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion has been available for the PC, Xbox and PS3 for quite some time, the Shivering Isles stand-alone pack had only previously seen the light of day on the PC and the Xbox 360. That is, until Bethesda Softworks decided to keep their word.

Bethesda's Shivering Isles features Sheogorath, Daedric Prince of the Realm of Madness. His realm is divided into two sections: the bright, colorful and oversaturated Mania, and the dark, depressing and claustrophobic Dementia. Players who dare to brave the Shivering Isles will be treated to new weapons and armor, new items, new ingredients, new spells, new achievements and new enemies, plus a chance to face Prince Sheogorath himself in combat.

Bethesda Softworks has scheduled the shipment of Shivering Isles on November 20. It has been rated M for Mature by the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB).

Ubisoft sent out word that gamers in UK and the rest of Europe can finally get their hands on the Game of the Year Edition of the PlayStation 3 build of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (also on PC and Xbox 360).

It should be remembered that fans in North America got their copy last September. This special packaging will hit European retail shelves this December and will contain the original video game title, the expansion The Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles, as well as the downloadable content pack Knights of the Nine.

While pricing has yet to be revealed, we expect it to cost similarly to the North American version (US$ 59.99). We believe this will make fans in the said region happy and most important of all, prepared for the new expansion Fighter's Stronghold. The said expansion was released last October 15 and we expect that our European friends can get it as well soon.

Aside from containing new environments, Fighter's Stronghold also offers new content to further customize and improve your character.

Bethesda Game Studios has announced a new add-on to The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion called Fighter's Stronghold. As the sixth addition to the official plug-ins offered by Bethesda, Fighter's Stronghold adds a new quest and a new property to acquire: the Battlehorn Castle. DLC6 is expected to release by Monday next week (that's October 15) and should be ready for the PC and Xbox 360 versions. Features include:

• A fully detailed castle for you to explore
• Knights of the True Horn patrol the castle and do your bidding
• Secret treasure vault
• Upgrade the furnishings in every area of the castle
• Hire a vintner to create special wines to enhance your fighting abilities
• Hire a combat trainer to spar with
• Hire a taxidermist to craft lifelike trophies for your great hall
• Purchase an ancient Dwemer Forge that buffs your Armorer skill

Those who've beaten back the Daedric Prince Mehrunes Dagon and have been to The Shivering Isles and back may want to give this new content a go. After all, aside for being free to download in Xbox LIVE for the first week, it's also the developers' last official contribution to Oblivion content. Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Game of the Year Edition will follow shortly, says Bethesda, and a PlayStation 3 solution for downloadable content is coming very soon.

Buy: [ The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (PC) ]
Buy: [ The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Xbox 360) ]
Buy: [ The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Game of the Year (PS3) ]

Announced by Bethesda Softworks a few weeks ago, the Game of the Year edition for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (PC, Xbox 360, PS3) will be released this September. The special edition will contain not only the game itself, but even throw in both the Knights of the Nine and Shivering Isles expansions.

The console versions of the Game of the Year edition are priced at US$ 59.99, while the PC version is clocked in at US$ 49.99. New Zealand gaming website PS3 Only was able to fish out the box art for the PS3 version of the GOTY edition, as seen on the right.

PS3 owners who still haven't been able to immerse themselves in the world of The Elder Scrolls have this perfect chance to get the whole "bundle so far." The core game was astounding enough, but couple that with the expansions, and this deserves nothing but a Game of the Year award.

Bethesda has finally sent 'round an official announcement for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Game of the Year Edition. This particular expanded version of the game was earlier sighted on a GameStop listing.

The Game of the Year Edition, available for the PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360, will include the original version of Bethesda's award-winning RPG The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (PC, PS3, Xbox 360) along with the Shivering Isles expansion.

The Game of the Year Edition will also include the Knights of the Nine downloadable content. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Game of the Year Edition will be available in retail stores this September.

 

Folks over at the NeoGAF Forums have probably inquired if Bethesda is intending to deliver the sole expansion pack to The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion for the PlayStation 3 this year and received a PR-ish reply that Shivering Isles is still coming to Sony's next-gen console.

Although they did specify the window of release (anywhere between today and December 31), they weren't keen on revealing when exactly it would come out in 2007. As to anything regarding unique content, downloadable content, or how the expansion pack will be distributed, they were mum about it.

Now while inthezone, a member of the NeoGAF Forums, was happy to share the email reply with other RPG fans on the PS3, the news did spark concern regarding Sony's superior line up of title releases this fall. Many of the titles are big and very highly anticipated and fans of the game fear that the expansion pack would probably be forgotten by then.

Will Bethesda get another repeat of angry mobs at the gates? Unless they do share their information soon, just as the promise in the email, they just might. Here's to hoping they reveal more soon, folks!

Much hype came with Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion moving to the PS3, but those who own the game are probably enjoying it despite all the arguments between platforms. Pete Hines have spoken before about the port, and his words aren't much different from Senior Producer Craig Lafferty's.

Lafferty is pretty happy about the result of their work. The graphical differences from both consoles are pretty difficult to notice, something they intended right at the start. Optimizing was a success too, effectively removing loading times and including Knights of the Nine expansion.

As for taking the MMO world, Lafferty could only say there's a possibility in that. A Wii version is less likely to happen given the specs an enormous game like Oblivion requires, but "it's something [Bethesda Softworks] would like to do."

Unfortunately, there's nothing new on Elder Scrolls Travels: Oblivion yet. No need to worry though, we'll keep you updated as news comes. For the full interview, click on the Read link below.

Just recently, the PS3 version of Bethesda's award-winning RPG, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, was released in PAL territories. This event has, of course, sent many PS3-owning fans running to stores to get a copy, but there may apparently be a problem with this picture. As Games Industry reports, it seems that the high street video game retailer GAME, either has not, or refuses to stock up on copies of the said video game title.

Despite having already gone on sale since April 26, it appears that all of GAME's branches across the UK and Ireland do not carry the title. Many find this odd, as a large retail chain such as GAME would have already had stocks of a game prior to its release, especially if the game is a popular one.

Upon checking the GAME website, though, we have also found that Oblivion is currently listed as "out of stock", as shown in the screenshot we have here.

So... since the Xbox 360 and PC version of Oblivion seems to be available, does GAME have some hard feelings towards Ubisoft, the publisher of the PS3 version of Oblivion? Do they dislike Sony, after that incident that they had with that infamous store sign that they had from last month? Or did their shipment of discs of Oblivion for the PS3 simply get lost or hijacked somewhere along the way?

GAME is yet to issue a comment about this matter.