Just got the expansion today, played it a while.

Pluses

Much more interesting world, it doesn' t seem as dead as the original world does. The environments are so much better, near the beggining they send you off to some ruins and the way they look and are designed just shit all over any dungeon in the original. There is definitely tons more variety in environments and dungeons overall.

The game seems more enjoyable to play, could be because I have a $600 video card and it doesn' t run like shit on my system like it used to on the PC I had last year, it' s so much more enjoyable to be able to run through a thick Forrest at 60FPS instead of 20-25 like you do on the X360/PS3 versions and on weaker PCs. But It' s still a very demanding game hardware wise though, even with my specs the frame rate occasionally stutters, you need a top of the line PC to be able to run it nicely.

Minuses

The story so far starts off slow, you meat with the " God" of the shivering isles, he acts like you' d expect the " prince of madness" to act, he' s just fucking crazy. After you meet him he starts sending you on random quests with little to no explanation, supposedly he will explain why you do what you' re doing later on. The characters met so far are more appealing than anything in the original but there is lack of a strong central story, so far. There is tons of bizarre side quests to do, almost every quest you do seems crazy, for instance there' s a guy that wants to pay you to kill him.

You can' t use horses in the shivering Isles, walking around sucks ass, you can still port around the map to areas you' ve visited before, but you have to walk to them first.

Overall I' m liking it much more than the original, I think that people who enjoy the more bizarre quest line types in oblivion such as the the dark brotherhood line will like this the most, it has less " goody two shoes" type crap, the theme is more violent and unpredictable.

And award for most improved poster goes to.....

Seriously though, thanks. Im not a huge Oblivion fan, but I have quite a few friends who are.

ORIGINAL: Evil Man

I think that people who enjoy the more bizarre quest line types in oblivion such as the the dark brotherhood line will like this the most, it has less " goody two shoes" type crap, the theme is more violent and unpredictable.

Awesome. I thought that the Dark Brotherhood quests were by far the most interesting quests in Oblivion. I' ll definitely be picking this up.

Just a question though for the PC users out there. How is mod compatibility with it? I use quite a few mods - especially Qarls Texture Pack 3 so going back to the normal lower res textures would be near impossible for me now. I wouldn' t think it would screw with mods too much because it is in it' s own separate realm but still, this is Bethesda we' re talking about. Optimization isn' t their strong point.

Did you guys catch the recent Bethesda interview we did re: Shivering Isles?

But It' s still a very demanding game hardware wise though, even with my specs the frame rate occasionally stutters, you need a top of the line PC to be able to run it nicely.

So it is struggling even with your 8800 card and 6800 cpu?

Did you guys catch the recent Bethesda interview we did re: Shivering Isles?

Hey! You' re one of those bastards who only come here to advertise for your website! Booooo!