Good things come to Xbox 360 owners who wait. Today, Bethesda announced The Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles will be released on the 360 in October (the Windows version of the expansion has been available since late March). This is great news for those wishing to extend their Oblivion experience, yet do not have Xbox Live.

The retail disc will cost $29.99 and include Shivering Isles and Nights of the Nine, netting a $10 savings over those who purchased the expansions from Xbox Live Marketplace.

Xbox 360 Core owners take note; the box art has the "Storage Required" badge on it. The Shivering Isles expansion alone takes over 1 GB of hard drive space. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Game of the Year Edition will be out next week for $59.99, the benefit there being that everything is in one package (hard drive is still required to play the expansions).

Shivering Isles allows you to explore an entirely new plane of Oblivion – the realm of Sheogorath, the Daedric Prince of Madness. Weighing in at around 30 hours of game play, Isles includes new enemies, items, ingredients, and spells. Sheogorath himself is quite funny; you can tell Bethesda had fun writing his character.

Nights of the Nine, which takes around 10 hours to complete, adds another faction to the game. The quests will have you searching for legendary relics, the holy armor, and weapons of the Divine Crusader. This set is great for high-level players. The Nights expansion also explains more of the back story of the game world, and the Ayleid ruins found throughout it.

Oblivion has recently achieved the status of Xbox 360 Platinum Hit, and has received numerous 2006 Game of the Year and RPG of the Year awards, including RPG of the Year from Blogcritics Magazine.

Oblivion has seen quite a lot of downloadable content — a pioneer for Xbox Live Marketplace — including the two above mentioned expansions, The Vile Lair, Mehrunes' Razor, The Thieves Den, Wizard's Tower, Orrery, Spell Tomes - and of course the infamous Horse Armor.