Oblivion is a massive game -- and aptly-named for the place where your productivity will likely end up, once you start playing and commit to it. 100 hours of playtime? Easily, even if you opt for the PS3 version -- which, admittedly, lacks the downloadables available for the PC and 360 versions.

What the PS3 version does offer is an immersive world experience that's every bit as impressive as those found in the other versions, some minor visual upgrades (that 90 percent of gamers might not even notice, unless they were pointed out), and the nice addition of a ten-some-odd-hour expansion (Knights of the Nine). If you've already played the other versions to death -- a feat in itself -- you can't be said to have a huge reason to pick the PS3 iteration up; but if you've waited this long anyway -- or if you simply never had the 360 or PC rig capable of running the game before -- you're in for as much of a treat as the next gamer.

Set in the beautifully and exhaustively-rendered land of Tamriel, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion eases new players into gear through a hand-holding introductory segment, after which you can customize your character to your heart's content. While the high-fantasy staple molds are here -- wizards, thieves, warriors, etc. -- the character creation system is extremely flexible, offering hybrid classes and attributes/skills that are ultimately available to any manner of character (in fact, you can easily start molding your in-game persona one way, decide after a while that you're not happy with they way he/she is shaping up, and completely re-direct the character's proficiencies and abilities later on).

After the reasonably-brief "orientation" portion of the game (and yes, it begins with you escaping from a prison cell -- gotta love the classics), you'll settle into the primary, uber-quest revolving around the infernal alternate world called Oblivion -- gates to which are popping up hither and yon, disgorging nasty creatures that are griefing all the land of Tamriel. If you were to plow single-mindedly through on just this primary quest, you'd still get a good 40 hours out of Oblivion, but the odds are you're not going to do that: In a world this lush and detailed and sprawling and alive, you'll continually run across all manner of potential waylayings and distractions -- things to hunt, items to collect and forge, wild-growing plants to pick, spells to learn, new enemies to bumble into, entire new secret areas to explore where you didn't even know there were areas, and all manner of side fetch-quests. Even the apparent garbage strewn about the countryside, like old bones, cups, dead-rats (seriously, dead rats) and other seemingly-useless crap has a purpose or a function at some level. Get comfy, adventurer.

How (and with what, and with whom) you fight in this mesmerizing first-person world is up to you. As you use any given item, skill, weapon, spell or what have you, you start getting proportionately better with it. Of course, hacking away with weapons and running around the sprawling environments also engenders fatigue. And you don't have the expected RPG "party" here, with each member excelling at a different practice and thereby making for a balanced team of adventurers; it's just you yourself, and you can't be an ace of all trades simultaneously, either, even though you'll evolve into a specialists of some kind naturally along the way, and eventually your skill choices will come back to reward and/or haunt you. Relying solely on burning up your magic points and then not having any for a while sucks bad, and scoring a string of ranged, stealth missile attacks only to suddenly find your non-melee-skilled self faced with an unavoidable, close-up brawl is even worse. This makes for gameplay of genuine consequence, not just an interactive romp of going through the videogame motions and watching pretty animations along the way.

It's not a flawless outing: One of the biggest gripes is that your potential foes will become more powerful or "level up" right along with you. While you're not likely to blunder (in all your newbie lack-of-glory) into a nest of hellishly-overpowered enemies early on, you also can't really expect to park yourself off in some comfy battle-practice paradise, badass yourself up and then return to come down on some early tormentors like the wrath of God, since said tormentors will surreptitiously and inexplicably be as badassed as you've become.

Truly new-generation worthy, the audio/visual of Oblivion is glorious, including an ear-full of voice work from actors Sean Bean and the majestic Patrick Stewart (who could recite off his laundry list and make it sound somehow regal). The vast majority of the voicework for the scores of characters you'll encounter isn't on that level across the board, of course, but the overall voice-acting is decent, and there's an awful lot of it. Add in some dynamic scoring that cranks up the musical tension when things start to get ugly, and you've got a rewarding dramatic experience.

Still, and to reiterate, if you've already thoroughly scoured the PC and 360 lands of Oblivion, there's not much here to (re)discover except some visual prop-ups and a minor add-on quest; but if you've held out this long to dip into the newest sprawling world of The Elder Scrolls, you are in for an engrossing adventure.