The Orrery, the latest chunk of downloadable content for the excellent Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, is now available for Xbox 360 via the Xbox Live Marketplace and for PC atBethesda's Oblivion site. Costing 150 Microsoft points (about $2.00), it's a download that's around 9MB in size and offers a new quest centered on rebuilding a mysterious, conked-out backroom within the Arcane University.
We're a little torn about The Orrery - the new quest it offers is too brief and somewhat dim, involving the collection of Dwarven items from bandits scattered across the land. But the Orrery itself is a beautiful contraption, and makes for a unique sight. Plus, by offering new powers to the player based on phases of the in-game moon, there could be more that we've not yet seen.
The Orrery is the second of three pieces of extra content currently planned by Bethesda, with the third - Wizard's Tower, a mod that offers a useful new home for magic-focused players - due in the next few weeks.
April 18, 2006
After 12 years, the modders merging Morrowind and Skyrim say their project would "come out faster" if "we were all working with Bethesda," but it would be "much worse"
RPG veteran Josh Sawyer says Skyrim is the perfect example of why it doesn't matter if players finish games because "a lot of people never finish the crit path," but "they love it"
