F.E.A.R., TES IV: Oblivion (EU) Out On Playstation 3 // UPDATE

This week's top two releases on the PlayStation 3 are pretty much the only new PS3 releases, not counting NBA 2K7 - which has been available in the US since the console's launch in November 2006, but for some reason it's only being released today in Europe. One could argue that The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is even older than that, considering that Bethesda originally launched the PC and Xbox 360 versions more than a year ago. The PS3 version, on the other hand, only arrived at the end of March 2007 in North America, and as of today, Ubisoft is also offering it to fans around Europe - or at least the UK.

"Released in March 2006 for Windows and Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, Oblivion has already earned countless awards from publications around the world including numerous Game and RPG of the Year awards", brags Ubi. "Gamerankings.com and MetaCritic.com list Oblivion as the highest rated game of all time on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, and the Official PlayStation magazine in UK recently rated the game with an amazing 10/10, the first PS3 game to achieve that score in the magazine."

Although they obviously didn't point this out in yesterday's communique, keep in mind that the PlayStation 3 version of Oblivion is lacking all the extra downloads that made the PC / Xbox 360 versions (in)famous, and according to Bethesda the PS3 SIXAXIS controller's tilt function is completely useless for Oblivion.

The other major new PS3 release is of course F.E.A.R., from Vivendi / Sierra. Originally developed by Monolith Productions for the PC, the spine-chilling shooter was later ported on the Xbox 360 by Day 1 Studios, and they are the same ones behind this latest console version. To find out more about the specific changes brought by F.E.A.R. on the PlayStation 3, you can read this interview with senior producer Rob Loftus here on Playfuls.

UPDATE: Lo and behold, UK's leading retailer, GAME is refusing to stock copies of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion for the PlayStation 3. Why would they (not) do that?! Hell if we know... but maybe GI.biz will find out soon enough.

(N.B. Archive text, links removed)