Interviews// Bethesda Softworks: Shivering Isles Interview

SPOnG: So, they are two pretty key characters in Shivering Isles?
Pete Hines: Absolutely, they are the two key characters in the game after Sheogorath himself. They both sort of serve him, but rule over their separate parts.

SPOnG: Just to say a little more about the dialogue and the score in the game - there's very little generic dialogue?
Pete Hines: Yeah, rather than having lines that you may hear from multiple NPCs of the same race, everybody pretty much has specific dialogue that was written just for that character…whereas in Oblivion you would have… we don't voice individual characters, we voice races… so the male Orcs, there's one guys who provides the same voice for all of them. This is mainly because sound files are pretty big. If we tried to give every character in Oblivion character-specific dialogue you would need one DVD just for the voice files alone!

So, having a smaller realm with fewer non-playing characters (NPCs) in it allowed us to do much more with the individual dialogue, which I think in turn makes the NPCs more believable and more realistic… the music is the same soundtrack from Oblivion, there's no new soundtrack in this expansion.

SPOnG: The 360 version of Shivering Isles is only available as a download on Xbox Live - what was the thinking there?
Pete Hines: Honestly, it's logistically our only option, there is no allowing for a standalone expansion on a disc for Xbox 360. It's not supported [by Microsoft] so our only option was to make it available as a download, which is around 1.5 GB I think… slightly larger than some of the bigger demos you've downloaded on Live, so it's pretty manageable.

SPOnG: The PS3 version of Oblivion which we're going to talk about in another interview situation is coming out next month. When will we see Shivering Isles coming out for PS3?
Pete Hines: Well, it's definitely going to be later this year, but right now I can't tell you when and I can't tell you how. But it's in our plans to get onto it as soon as we get this one out the door for PC and 360.

SPOnG: Apparently there's 32 new, unique ingredients to Shivering Isles, including ten new creatures - I just noticed playing earlier some new insects, skeletal and amphibian type creatures - what else is in there?
Pete Hines: Yeah, you've got your Grommites and your Bollywogs that are both amphibious creatures, so they both regenerate when they are in water. You've got the Electra, which are the insect ones…

The Gnarls, which are the tree-looking creatures… And each one has different attributes, different strengths and weaknesses in combat…to try to give people who have been playing Oblivion and fighting for a long time, to give them some new twists and so forth to make combat with these new creatures in the game new and interesting and challenging.

SPOnG: And what about armoury and weapons?
Pete Hines: You can find a number of types of special items, but you can also find Amber and Madness Ore in Shivering Isles, which are two different types of materials that you can take to the blacksmiths in either Crucible or Bliss [places in the game] and have those blacksmith's create individual bits of armour - so you might get an amber bow or amber boots or whatever you like!

SPOnG: Cool, thanks Pete.
Pete Hines: No worries.

Shivering Isles is out on PC and 360 in March.