Please answer my questions about The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

I’ve heard about this game for a long time. I hadn’t played it until recently but I’ve seen some gameplay footage. The only two games in this rpg subgenre(1st Person, PC Style, Western Style) I’ve played a bit was Ultima VIII(kinda good, only played a little bit), and Diablo 2(not too interested in this at the time).

I decided to rent this game and I finally played it a few days ago. It is great!!! I’ve played 11 hours in three days. I like this game a lot!!! Currently I like it more than Rogue Galaxy and about as much as Final Fantasy XII, which I am playing both of those ones also.

I am not sure whether or not I will play the "Knights of the Nine" downloadable content and the "The Shivering Isles" expansion pack, or whether I will buy them or the upcoming "Game of the Year edition". Maybe I will just play Oblivion and skip all the sidequests and random dungeons, but now I think I’ve changed my mind. What I think I’ll do now is go all out in this game and beat all releases of this game to 100% or nearly 100% completion, which is what I am currently doing with Final Fantasy XII. This also means that I may start this game over and do this, and buy a strategy guide and area maps to use while playing this game.

My questions to you are…

1. How many hours will it take to beat Oblivion if I don’t beat any sidequests or random dungeons?
2. How many hours will it take to beat Oblivion if I beat all sidequests and random dungeons?
3. How many hours will it take to beat Knights of the Nine if I don’t beat any sidequests or random dungeons?
4. How many hours will it take to beat Knights of the Nine if I beat all sidequests and random dungeons?
5. How many hours will it take to beat The Shivering Isles if I don’t beat any sidequests or random dungeons?
6. How many hours will it take to beat The Shivering Isles if I beat all sidequests and random dungeons?
7. What is the "extra stuff" in this game besides sidequests and random dungeons?

Basically, I want to know what I’m getting into. I’m leaning torward going torward a 150 hours quest for this game, how many hours will this take I wonder. I’m currently researching this game right now.

I’m already extremely busy with upcoming fall rpg’s but me deciding to play The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion will make me change my plans. I’ve already previously decided that I probably won’t have time to beat Mass Effect. Now in the past day or two I have another decision that I believe I will be making.

This decision is to stop playing Rogue Galaxy(14 hours into it) and not buy DS to play The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass and Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings this fall. My reasoning for this is this: I only have time to play the blockbuster games and Rogue Galaxy just doesn’t have a good enough story and characters and some other stuff, so I think that my time might be better spent elsewhere. Also, handheld rpg’s are in general not as long, good and "bigtime" as a console rpg, even if it is a Zelda game, or a Final Fantasy game, or a Kingdom Hearts game. I should save my time and money for the "long, great, and bigtime" console games.

So I’m thinking that I will beat Final Fantasy XII and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion to 100% completion and then play Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey this fall. I’ll rent some other top console rpg’s this fall but I am not sure if any of them are definete ones for me to beat yet. I’m interested in these other console rpg’s this fall by the way: Two Worlds, Bioshock, and Mass Effect.

If possible, please answer all 7 questions for me please. Thanks! Also, is there anything else I should know or be concerned about in regards to The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion?

Thanks in advance for your help!! 🙂