As far as technology goes, one can’t expect any revolution from an expansion. Gamers are fortunate that Shivering Isles is available both for PC and console, and thanks to next-gen technology, you can download the expansion instead of going out and buying it. Nevertheless, there are two things worth mentioning in this section: graphics and modifications.
For PC users, it is not required that you update your graphics card or any such drastic measures to enjoy Shivering Isles. However, unless you’ve been living under a rock for a year, you probably know that Oblivion’s base game requires a decent graphics card to run smoothly. If you’ve been scraping by on anything less than a card with 512MB RAM, now might be good time to consider upgrading to a more heavy-duty card. The lurid purple skies of Sheogorath’s realm, the detailed cinema scenes that pop up now and again, and the fancy new items and clothing with intricate detail really aren’t done justice without having at least a GeForce 6800 series (or equivalent) card. Consider also that with Windows Vista on its way into mainstream, most graphics cards will be PCI Express, and thus you won’t find too many AGP cards around for too much longer.
And a quick note to Windows Vista users: we gave Shivering Isles a go on a Vista PC, and while we appreciated the security system nagging us about the risks of installation, we noticed a few graphics bugs with the Vista desktop display. With Oblivion running on widescreen, some sorting issues occurred when spinning the camera wildly to one side (say to dodge a Grummite’s attack) and twice when we encountered heavy magical attacks, the world would go black (Oblivion’s UI and menus still appearing normally) and the game would have to be restarted to fix this bug. One could argue that this is merely a side-effect of Shivering Isles’ purported madness – but a bug is a bug regardless of game design (and Bethesda Softworks has never gone in for immersive game mechanics akin to Eternal Darkness). Thus far, neither of these issues has been reproduced when playing Shivering Isles with Windows XP.
Now, about those PC Oblivion mods: tons of content has been contributed to Oblivion both by fans and by Bethesda Softworks in an official capacity. We tested a few of the minor mods (weather tweaks, environment alterations, and sneak improvements), as well as Kobu’s Character Advancement System and Oscuros Oblivion Overhaul. Right away, we realized something was amiss when it started raining indoors and dungeon bosses dropped like flies under a magic spell but took nigh unto 20 hits with an Elven Claymore. After toying around, we determined that while some mods work reasonably well with the new content (the sneak improvements and Kobu’s Character Advancement), while others wrecked the balance of power in the game. Particularly with Oscuros (a mod designed to make the world static instead of allowing everything to level up with your character), random enemies became difficult for no reason while others (that should logically have been more powerful), were ridiculously easy. And a living economy mod had no effect on the economy inside of Sheogorath’s realm, and yet items from Mania or Dementia didn’t seem to unbalance the economy of Cyrodiil. Thus, a good rule of thumb for mod freaks: if it messes with only your character, go for it; if it messes with the environment, go without it.
A Second Flight of Fantasy