There aren't many games out there that totally consume you. Sure, MMORPG games are immersing and difficult to escape once you've started playing, but single player games that take away your life are few and far between. A game that, when I sit down, with the controller in my hand and my eyes fixed on the TV screen, I'm a different person in another world and I'll be that person until I realize it's getting late and I have to turn it off.

I'm Dexy. My hands are furry. I have a tail. I enjoy eating fish - and taking lives. I love to steal from the rich, and make the poor even poorer. I've got a heart of stone; cold blood runs through these veins and my furry fingers are in the pies of The Dark Brotherhood and the Thieves' Guild, from which I received a scolding from the higher members for stealing that apple from that beggar. I needed that apple to make a potion; combined with the right ingredients, an apple can play a part in making a potion that restores fatigue, a vital energy that governs my ability to hurt others more when I fight, one that helps me jump far and high, and most importantly, one that allows me keep an arrow loaded in my bow for long periods of time.

I am a Khajiit. We are a race of humanoid feline creatures, often getting grief from the other races Cyrodiil for our catlike appearance. Just the other day, that lizard-like-Argonian called me a mangy housecat - like he's one to talk, the scaly scoundrel! There are ten races in Cyrodiil; the Dunmers - who are the dark elves - and the Orcs are probably the most scary looking, while we Khajiits and the Argonians are the most unique, while the rest of the races are all just ugly variations of Humans, Bretons, Imperials and the rest. No two people look the same in Cyrodiil though, as the customization is immense. When I was born, I could shape my face within reason, I could lengthen or shorten my hair with ease, pick colors, choose from a palette of different eyes, and that's why I'm confident that I'm the most handsome murderer and graceful thief in the whole of Cyrodiil. If you're a cat person, that is!

When the Emperor of Cyrodiil set me on my quest, one that I'm sworn not to disclose should you not already know of it, I was asked by one of his guard servants what profession I was. You see, the tutorial took me through many trials and tribulations, more trials than that of the Xbox 360 version - I imagine this is because the PS3 version of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion comes with the first expansion - Knights of the Nine - preinstalled. These trials would surely shape my future, but I refused to give this guard the satisfaction of deciding my fate - judging by my performance, I was Archer material, apparently. I had just let the king force me into telling him what birth sign I was born under - The Thief - which has the benefit of boosting my Luck, Agility and Speed attributes by ten, but I wanted to take time to think about my profession. Out of the thirteen stars to be born under, I had to be born under the most illegitimate, didn't I? I mean, I could have been born under The Steed, giving me a twenty-point boost in Speed instead, or the Shadow, which grants me the ability to turn completely invisible for a short while, once per day.

In the end my profession had to be a custom one. Sure, there were preset ones already there for me to choose - like the guard suggested, I would have made an excellent Archer, a class that specializes in combat with sneaky elements and large weapon knowledge. Customizing a class is limited only by your imagination, so I stood there with the guard, dreaming up what I could be. I first told him what I'd specialize in. Out of the three choices - Combat, Magic and Stealth - I chose Stealth, because this specialization increases related skills by five points - that's skills like Sneak, Speechcraft and Security. Next I had to favor two attributes, which would be increased by five points on top of my natural attributes that come with my race, and my birth sign benefits. As we Khajiit aren't very adept at magic, and as I planned on using a bit of magic later on in my lifetime, I favored Intelligence, which increased my Magicka pool. Because my race and birth sign are based around thievery, deception and sneaking around, I also favored Agility, meaning that, with my natural Khajiit Agility, and the boost from the birth sign, this attribute was by far my highest.

Lastly, I was to choose seven of my major skills. Each skill I selected would start off at Apprentice level, whereas the other skills would start off at Novice level and have to be raised the old-fashioned way. After Apprentice, by constantly using those major skills, I could then reach Journeyman and eventually Expert. The better you get in those skills, the more advantages become available to you. An Apprentice acrobat can jump and attack at the same time - very handy, wouldn't you agree? The seven major skills you choose really effect how you play, as when you level up in your main skills you also gain experience to increase your overall level. Because my custom class consists of major skills like Sneak, Marksman and Illusion magic, the more proficient I become in those skills, the more experience I get to raise my overall level, and when I level up, I get to raise my attributes. It's all very clever, which is why this wasn't a decision to be made lightly.

I came away from that guard as a little bit of a hybrid. I'm more of a stealthy assassin - a creature of the night with a bow in one hand and an arrow in the other. I'm good at breaking into homes and infiltrating castles, thanks to my security skill, while my sneak skill means I can walk around without making much noise and perform sneak attacks that triple my damage. To keep my class fresh, I decided to go down the magic route - with Illusion and Destruction being two of my main skills, I can make myself invisible with a cloud of illusion magic and electrocute guards with my shocking touch. Lastly, I made sure to pick up Alchemy as my final major skill, as making potions and poisons would be invaluable - especially for a cold-hearted assassin like me.

And I am cold hearted too. I don't just keep on saying that for the sake of it! I stand here, invisible, hidden and ready to kill my latest mark for the Dark Brotherhood. I stand in a dark alleyway, made dark only by the shadows of the large towers of the Imperial City. Faelian, a High Elf, must be removed from existence - he must be killed in the night and nobody must find out that the Dark Brotherhood had a part to play in this defenseless elf's demise. Why must Faelian die? The Night Mother doesn't have to give a reason; if she wants him killed then he will be killed. Although I've never seen the Night Mother myself, I wouldn't want to get on her bad side; having seen what she is capable of and seen the command she has other my brothers, I wouldn't want to be the latest mark in a long line of Dark Brotherhood contracts.

Hi Faelain. I'm not here to talk so I'll get right to the point - the point of my sharp, enchanted blade, the point that meets your heart and the point that takes you to the ground. He fell without fighting back, without explanation, without mercy. I've taken his life, yet my conscience remains clear and my hands, while red and bloody, are still welcomed back into the Dark Brotherhood sanctuary. This is where I will sleep tonight, after receiving my reward from the Night Mother. I will go to sleep on the stone slab and, after sleeping, providing I have enough experience, I will level up and improve my attributes. Guiltless attributes. What next, Night Mother?

Maybe I'll leave the Dark Brotherhood contracts for the time being. After all, I am on an important mission bestowed upon me by the Emperor, but the truth is that it's so easy to get lost in the land of Cyrodiil, and procrastinating is such a pleasure with so many missions available, that it would almost be a crime to ignore the other delights on offer, rather than just focus exclusively on my main quest. I walked into a town the other day and overheard two villagers talking about this rich guy, so I decided to check him out. It turned out that the hearsay was true and I come out of this human's home with a bag full of loot to sell to one of my fences in the Thieves' Guild. You can pick up quests from villagers too, and every guild has its own unique, financially rewarding missions to complete. In Cyrodiil, life is what you make it. It's your prerogative to choose how to live your life, but I make everyday tasks into personal goals. I wake up at seven in the morning, get on my horse and gather rare herbs to make powerful potions. Then I come home, wherever that might be, make my potions, have a drink in the evening and stalk hapless souls at night for their money and materials, or just for my own guiltless pleasure.

I'm documenting my life here today, with a quill and my last drops of ink. If I run out, I might just use the rich blood of my latest victim; I've always said thought that red stands out better than black. While I write my story, while I pen my life, I can see the world going by outside through the window. I'm lucky to be able to see what I see. If this was a game and I was playing this on the PS3, I'd say that I'm now more longsighted than I used to be - the draw distance moves further away on the PS3, meaning that I can see for miles without compromise. Close up, the visuals are marginally better than from what my brother sees on his Xbox 360; maybe that's because I'm using HDMI, one of my major skills, but what I see and what he sees close up is just splitting hairs in my eyes.

When I walk into a new area, into a house for example, I always seem to get stuck in a loading time - but that's a little quicker than my brother's experience also. But loading times aren't a problem when you see what Cyrodiil has to offer; it's vast, the biggest place I've ever visited, home to literally hundreds of hidden dungeons dotted across the land, home to ruins with bandits camping and secret weapons waiting to be discovered, it's full of places to sleep, people to meet and enemies or innocents to kill. You can gallop across the luscious land your breath will be taken away by the butterflies flying around in harmony, oblivious to your crimes. You can sneak around and be astonished at the amount of people you manage to get by without being seen, or you can fast travel via the map and miss out on the exploration side of Cyrodiil, but still complete all of the missions, should you be a casual player looking for immediate action. My favorite way of getting across Cyrodiil is at night as a Vampire. One of my allies in the Dark Brotherhood offered me the unique opportunity to become a Vampire and I was only too happy to oblige, after all the powers he promised me. Of course, if I don't feed then the sun will melt my skin, but the less I feed, the more powerful I become at night and the more dark benefits I gain. You'd best lock your doors at night, or else I'll walk in and take your possessions - and perhaps your blood as well.

In fact, locking your doors isn't enough - I'll still get in, as my security skill is quite high and I'm quite a dab hand at the unlocking mini-game that comes up every time I attempt to breach a locked door, using my lock picks to move the tumblers until they fall into place. If I want to talk to you instead of killing you in cold blood then I'll use the persuasion game to increase my disposition, a game where there are four actions - Admire, Boast, Joke, and Coerce - and you have to select each action once. When I talk to you, you'll more than likely be putty in my hands for two of those actions; you might like to be admired and you might enjoy listening to my boasts above everything else, but you've got not time for jokes and you hate being threatened with a passion. That's fine. A wheel rotates around these four actions, a wheel that indicates how strong I come onto those actions. Naturally I will make sure that I come out strong on boasting action, but I will make an effort not to coerce you too much. Of course, I have to move this wheel around and select all four actions in an order that hopefully will do more good than harm in the persuasion game, but I wouldn't worry too much about talking - I let my blade do that for me!

When I'm forced to talk to the citizens of Cyrodiil, they all have their own things to say. Although lots of people have similar accents, it's amazing how everybody in Cyrodiil has a story to tell; everybody has rumors to gossip about and secrets to uncover, all of it spoken aloud in an alluring tone of voice that you just want to listen to. I remember a time when we role players had read text and nowadays you've got talents like Patrick Stewart and Sean Bean lending their vocal talents to the cast of Cyrodiil! There must be thousands of different sounds in Cyrodiil, from the creaking of old wooden doors to the quiet noise that a thief makes when he's picking a lock. Out in the wild, birds chirp and wolves howl, horses trot along and heavily armored mercenaries jump you with their large swords, clanking with a multitude of parry, block and combat moves. These are only touching the tip of Wizard's Tower - you'll get lost in audio paradise when you're lost in Oblivion.

As you approach the capital city while the beautiful score plays in the background, a dynamic soundtrack that rises when you fight and softens when you sneak, you begin to realize how much work the creators of Cyrodiil have put in to its inhabitants feel so happy. They even included the Knights of the Nine, a new faction to join that opens up extra hours of possibilities that is available for purchase for both the Xbox 360 and the PC, but comes free in the PS3 version - so my brothers tell me.

Suddenly I find myself with drool running down my face, a bag of crisps in one hand and an empty bottle of water on the floor. I've been playing on Oblivion for hours and I must have fallen asleep from fatigue. The game is on pause, my wireless controller dead. I approach the PS3, power up my pad, save it and switch off the console. I'm back in reality, and it's time for me to tell you what I have come to realize about the PS3 version vs. the Xbox 360 one.

The differences, apart from the extra content, are all cosmetic, but after putting in the research and testing certain things out, I have some to certain conclusions. Firstly, the Xbox 360 uses more HDR lighting than the PS3 does, a dynamic and realistic effect that creates some wonderful imagery. The PS3 tones down on the HDR lighting for some reason, leaving some areas looking less realistic than they did on the Xbox 360. The Emperor's face, for example, seems too light in the PS3 version, like somebody is shining a light directly at his face instead of around his face, like you'd see on the Xbox 360. I don't know why this is, nor will I pretend that I do, but this is what I have come to learn. Aside from faces, you can see that some cobbles and rocks suffering from over-lighting.

However, the PS3 has a whole host of advantages - the main one being the sound. Thanks to Blu-Ray, the sound comes uncompressed and it sounds more amazing than it does on the Xbox 360. Nights of the Nine suffered from audio compression to keep download sizes down on the 360, whereas on the PS3 version it's pre-installed and comes fully intact. Voices load up without hesitation and sound effects do not lag like I've noticed occasionally in the 360 version. Loading times are slightly faster on the PS3 and armor, shields and weapons look more detailed close up, especially when you're holding the weapon in front of you. The draw distance is a little bit further on the PS3 too. There is also no need to clear the cache, as the game seems to install 4GB worth of data on your PS3 hard drive, which I'd imagine helps to minimize loading times. Lastly, the PS3 controls maps very well to all of the actions you have to perform in Oblivion - just as good as the Xbox 360 pad, if not better, because it's easier to swing your sword with the shoulder buttons on the PS3 controller than it is with the sometimes-stiff triggers on the 360. The lack of vibration doesn't matter at all, either.

In the end, it's not a question of which The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion you purchase and play - it's a question of what platforms you have access to. What can you play this on? Have you got a high spec PC or an Xbox 360 (I'm assuming you have a PS3!) Does it matter? No. All that matters is that you play Oblivion at some point in your gaming life - and the sooner the better! Even if you dislike RPGs, I know you'll appreciate the expansive, ever-changing gaming world of Cyrodiil - and you're bound to find a guild and a class that suits your playing style too, whatever that may be. It's a shame that the best game on the PS3 is a multi-format title, but Bethesda have put the PS3 hardware to great use, bringing you an adventure that you'll never forget. Well, what are you waiting for? A sign from God, or a threat from the Dark Brotherhood?

Reviewed by Dexter Pearson for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).