The Elder Scrolls Wiki:Black Horse Courier/Archive1

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Bethesda releases fifth official plug-in: Mehrunes' Razor (6/15/06)
Bethesda releases their fifth plug-in today titled Mehrunes' Razor (DLC9). The plug-in introduces the largest dungeon in the game, Varsa Baalim, in which you must overcome any enemies to recover the Mehrunes Razor for your own. Features:
 * A fully-featured quest takes you deep into the fringes of the Niben.
 * Earn the fearsome Mehrunes Razor, with the ability to kill foes instantly.
 * 17 new magic items to discover!
 * Conquer the largest dungeon in all Cyrodiil.
 * Thwart a plot to overthrow Imperial rule in Tamriel.
 * 12 new books, notes, and journals to help you unravel the mystery.
 * Hidden treasures await!
 * Full Mehrunes' Razor information

Bethesda releases official patch v1.1.511 for PC; Xbox 360 patch to come tomorrow (6/6/06)
Bethesda has released patch v1.1.511 for PC today and plans on releasing a patch for Xbox 360 over Xbox Live tomorrow. Among numerous bug and quest fixes, the patch also fixes the "duping" infinite money and items exploits that players have found. Versions of the patch are available for both the U.S.A-English and the British-English versions.


 * Download the 1.6 MB PC patch: here
 * Patch v1.1 notes: here
 * Important Post-Patch Fix FAQ here - must read!

The Thieves Den Now Available for Download for Xbox 360 and PC (5/22/06)
Bethesda's fourth official Oblivion download is now available for the Xbox 360 and PC. The 4.5MB The Thieves Den download costs 150 points on Xbox Live, or $1.89 for PC. Bethesda describes their new mod as: ''Uncover a famous pirate's lost ship and claim it for your own. Designed for stealth-based characters.''

Oblivion Is Given New "M" Rating In The USA (5/4/06)
The age classification of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion has been re-rated in the USA. The Entertainment Software Ratings Board announced that the Oblivion rating has been adjusted from "T" (teen) to "M" (mature). This means that the game is now for retail sale only to people aged 17 and older in the USA. The ESRB seems to have taken issue with the ability of a user to tweak the Oblivion .ini file to obtain more detailed depictions of blood and gore, and with the presence online of, in their words, a "third-party modification to the PC version of the game, that allows the user to play with topless versions of female characters". Bethesda Softworks made a complete and full discourse of the game's content when they submitted the game for ESRB rating.

Bethesda Releases Version 1.1.425 BETA patch (5/2/06)
Bethesda Softworks has released their first beta patch for Oblivion for the English version. While the patch addresses many known issues, the patch is still a beta and should be used with caution. It's important to note that the patch will NOT work with the Direct2Drive version. In addition, Bethesda strongly suggests that if you are not experiencing any problems currently, you should not install the patch yet.


 * List of changes: See list of changes
 * Download: here.

Dual-core CPUs Group-Tested With Oblivion (4/25/06)
Firing Squad has a new in-depth technical group-test out. It tests which dual-core CPUs run Oblivion best. They conclude that the type of dual-core CPU is not any kind of limiting factor on performance once the game is running at hi-res, with HDR and eye-candy turned on. They point to the quality of the graphics card(s) and driver as being a far more important factor.

The Wizard's Tower Now Available for Download for Xbox360 and PC (4/24/06)
Bethesda's third official Oblivion download is now available for the Xbox 360 and PC. The 17.6MB Wizard's Tower download costs 150 points on Xbox Live, or $1.89 for PC. Bethesda describes their new mod as: ''Located high in the Jeral Mountains of Cyrodiil away from prying eyes, this add-on makes the Wizard's Tower, Frostcrag Spire, become available. Packed with numerous useful enhancements, this structure will prove invaluable to magic-oriented characters.''

Unofficial Oblivion Patch (4/24/06)
Those wanting to play Oblivion on old PCs can now take advantage of an unofficial patch. Oldblivion should allow Oblivion to run on systems that use ancient graphics cards such as the Radeon 9200 and the Geforce 3 or 4. It may also allow those with SiS 760 onboard graphics systems to play the game. Oldblivion is free, and the source code should become available shortly.

Fans release over 1200 Oblivion mods in just 30 days (4/19/06)
Less than one month after the release of the game, fans have freely released over 1200 mods for Oblivion, according to listings on the comprehensive TES Source database. These include around fifteen utilities that complement the official TESIV Construction Set used for mod creation. The Oblivion Mod Wiki currently lists over 500 mods.

The Orrery Now Available For Download on Xbox360 and PC (4/18/06)
Bethesda's second official Oblivion download is now available for the Xbox 360 and PC. The 18MB Orrery download costs 150 points on Xbox Live, or $1.89 for PC.

Matrox Enables 'Super-Widescreen' 3840x1024 in Oblivion (4/13/06)
Matrox is about to ship its new Triplehead2Go box for power-gamers. The box enables the daisy-chaining of three flat-panel monitors to get a 'super-widescreen' effect in games. www.bit-tech.net has photos of this system running Oblivion at 3840x1024.

ATI Release Bugfix Driver for Oblivion (4/13/06)
Video card maker ATI have just released a new official driver, ATI Catalyst 6.4 that is reported by Nexus.net to contain bug fixes for Oblivion players. ATI's experimental proof-of-concept "Chuck" 6.3 driver, which enables HDR lighting and anti-aliasing in Oblivion, is not part of their new official 6.4 driver.

Oblivion: Can A 512MB Graphics Card Boost Game Performance? (4/12/06)
An in-depth technical test by www.firingsquad.com is just out, and reveals that Oblivion shows almost no benefit from a video card with 512MB of onboard RAM, against a card with just 256MB. Firing Squad found that any benefit is only really apparent with an NVIDIA 512MB card, and even then only seeing a marginal 13-percent boost on outside areas with distant landscapes.

Bethesda Announces Sales Figures For First 20 Days (4/11/06)
Bethesda Softworks has announced that the new Elder Scroll's IV: Oblivion game has sold just over 1.7 million copies for PC and Xbox 360, since release on 21st March. Sales have been equally strong in the USA, UK, and across Europe.

Fan Programmers Release New Oblivion Software (4/11/06)
Programmer brainpower is creating a small clutch of new free software utilities for Oblivion. Released in the last few days, these fan-made applications complement the official Construction Set. Releases include: TES4BSA which unpacks the official Oblivion BSA file to reveal 5 gigabytes of 3D models, sounds and textures; TR v1.8 which is a texture replacer for the official 3D models (i.e.: .NIF files) embedded in the game; NifScope for Oblivion allows opening of .NIF files, viewing their contents in 3D, editing them, and writing them back out for use in the game; and the Oblivion File Merger, an early utility for merging fan-made mod files. The author of the well-known Wrye Mash utility for Morrowind modding has also posted a series of detailed technical papers on the structure of the Oblivion mod file format and associated editing issues. These technical papers encouraging modders and programmers to take a structured approach to creating software that will aid Oblivion content-creation.

Graphics Card Makers Release New Oblivion Drivers (4/9/06)
Graphics card makers NVIDIA and ATI have both delivered specially optimised video card drivers for Oblivion. Both drivers are available for free public download. NVIDIA released 84.25 version drivers with Oblivion optimisations in late March 06. ATI have just released new drivers that enable HDR with AA rendering for Oblivion. NVIDIA is said to be working on ways of doing the same with future drivers. The ATI driver also enables AFR mode for CrossFire (i.e.: using 2 video cards) with Oblivion.

Bethesda Announces Game Patch & Two New Official Content Mods (4/7/06)
Pete Hines, Bethesda's VP of PR & Marketing, has posted to the official web-site. He said that... "We are working on a patch/update for both the PC and Xbox 360. It will address a number of issues that we have found and ones that have been reported to us and confirmed. It is our plan to first release it as a beta patch for the PC when it has cleared our initial testing cycles internally." The patch is expected to be available for download very soon, initially for the PC and then for both PC and Xbox 360. Patches for the European and Japanese language version will follow, after the English patch.

Also announced were two new official downloadable Bethesda mods. These should be available in the week beginning 10th April, and are titled Orrery (a major quest with new buildings and voiced NPCs), and Wizard's Tower (a grand new building that can act as a gamer's 'home place'). Prices will be $1.89 U.S. per mod (PC), or 150 Microsoft Points (Xbox 360) per mod.

First Official Downloadable Content - Horse Armor (4/3/06)
An official Bethesda Horse Armor mod package is now available for Xbox 360 download. It costs 200 points on Xbox Live, or $1.99 for PC, and includes two sets of armor for your horse, Elven and Steel.

Oblivion is Released (3/21/06)
Oblivion, the fourth member of the Elder Scrolls game series, arrives in stores today. The retail game has been released simultaneously in the USA, UK, and Japan. Versions in the major European languages (Spanish, German, Italian) have also been released. An "Oblivion Collector's Edition" retail pack shipped with the game disc and extras such as a replica coin, and a 'making of' DVD. Also in stores at the same time was a 380-page full-colour official game guide in English, retailing at $19.99 U.S.