Elysian Shadows

Introduction
First of all, this is my first game review ever, so just bare with me. I have had this game for at least a year, Im not the avid gamer I used to be so I didn't even get to finish the whole game... AFTER 1 year... Yea. I have the PS3 Game Of The Year Edition, comes with the original Oblivion game with Shivering Isles and Knight of the Nine Expansion Packs. I DO have a HD TV, but the game only supports 720p HD output for the PS3.

Graphics
As mentioned, its only 720p for PS3 but 720/1020i for 360. Even at SD, you can see it's fantastic graphics, the textures and the trees, OMG the TREES! They are just FANTASTIC, I am pretty sure they look better in 1020i than 720p. The water is beautiful as well, buildings, characters and weapons are all great. Everything looks fantastic. I give Graphics 10/10, they are just gorgeous, but the NPCs are just plain ugly sometimes.

Audio
The OST is great. Most if not all NPCs talk, but you can tell that the same actors were used over and over, but its fine. I like how the NPCs just carry out conversations with each other and you can eavesdrop on them. Audio is a 9/10.

Gameplay
This is the most important factor of the game. I can't say much about the storyline itself since I didn't even beat the game, but I can tell you that you can have fun without doing the main story. Its an open ended game, you can do anything you want, hundreds of quests and some of them actually affect the story line. Think of it as a GTA game, but in a fantasy/medieval world. You can make your own spells, enchant items, even the police with a wanted level system. Its absolutely great. The world is huge too, there are dungeons scattered over the land, and there are factions. Joining certain factions give you certain privileges and take some away, some people will like you better or worse, all depending which factions you join. The game is so open ended that you can replay it over and over again, you can try a new race, a new job, anything. Also the expansion packs add hours of gameplay. Its just a fantastic game. 10/10 on gameplay.

Conclusion
Its a must have game if you are an RPG fan, and I suggest getting the PC version just for the fact that you can put mods on it and the debug menu that is always fun to mess with. Its absolutely great game, can play it over and over.

Graphics: 10/10
Audio: 9/10
Gameplay: 10/10
Overall: 9.5/10

I would say if you enjoy RPGs, and EXTREME customization opportunities this is definitely the game for you. Unfortunately if you're in it for the storyline I'm afraid you'll likely be somewhat disappointed. Personally, I put maybe 30 hours into it, and I think it's a fun game.

If anyone thinks about getting this, I HIGHLY recommend you buy the PC version (just as long as you have a decent rig ). The amount of mods out there for this game is just mind-blowing, from a complete high-def texture pack to patches to UI updates, game changes, etc.

Plus its only $20 for the PC and $30 for the PS3... Its a great buy

Thanks for the review I've be looking into this one for a while.




Peace Out,
ZachO

I think that it's a great game but the PS3 version just doesn't seem to have been as well polished as the xbox and PC versions. My game freezes occasionally and there are a lot of times where you notice very annoying aspects of the game which should have been fixed.

thejahooli wrote:I think that it's a great game but the PS3 version just doesn't seem to have been as well polished as the xbox and PC versions. My game freezes occasionally and there are a lot of times where you notice very annoying aspects of the game which should have been fixed.

That's also true of the PC version. The community patch alone fixes over 1400 bugs. Some quests aren't even complete able if not done in exactly the right way. Bethesda make decent, highly ambitious games but they always tend to be infested with bugs

Live-Dimension wrote:That's also true of the PC version. The community patch alone fixes over 1400 bugs. Some quests aren't even complete able if not done in exactly the right way. Bethesda make decent, highly ambitious games but they always tend to be infested with bugs

QA time isn't a priority these days, even with console games since patches can always be pushed out later. Most companies will want to release an 'Ok' version of their games then the publisher will allow them to patch it based on how well it sells and what people complain about the most.

Trask wrote:QA time isn't a priority these days, even with console games since patches can always be pushed out later. Most companies will want to release an 'Ok' version of their games then the publisher will allow them to patch it based on how well it sells and what people complain about the most.

Even though this is true for most games it doesn't seem that Bethesda have made an effort to patch any of the countless bugs, even ones that are obviously known to them. For example, they fixed the vampire quest glitch for xbox but not ps3.

Trask wrote:

Live-Dimension wrote:That's also true of the PC version. The community patch alone fixes over 1400 bugs. Some quests aren't even complete able if not done in exactly the right way. Bethesda make decent, highly ambitious games but they always tend to be infested with bugs

QA time isn't a priority these days, even with console games since patches can always be pushed out later. Most companies will want to release an 'Ok' version of their games then the publisher will allow them to patch it based on how well it sells and what people complain about the most.

Which is quite sad.

thejahooli wrote:

Trask wrote: Even though this is true for most games it doesn't seem that Bethesda have made an effort to patch any of the countless bugs, even ones that are obviously known to them. For example, they fixed the vampire quest glitch for xbox but not ps3.

Without knowing the numbers, I would assume that the Xbox version sold more than the PS3 version or that the PS3 version would of cost the company more to patch it(possibly they didn't make the PS3 version, but rather outsourced it).

This is such a good game, if you haven't played it, get it now!!!

Eh. I'm probably not going to actually have gaming time for quite a while (atleast, not until ES is considerably further along, I've fixed my car, and I've beaten OoT) but I nicked this title from work anyway.

One of these days, I'll get around to installing it!

I'll let ya know what I think. I doubt I'll be investing more than 15 hours unless it really impresses me.