Oh no, I might be in grave danger of buying a bethesda game if that’s real.
I had zero interest in Starfield because it seems so uninspired but playing Oblivion certainly was a formative experience for me and the pull of nostalgia is strong.
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Yes same for me, Oblivion was my first Elder Scrolls game and always has a special place in my heart. I was waiting for Skyblivion and even bought Skyrim (again) recently when it was on sale, because they had said this was coming out at some point in 2025 and required both games to run in anticipation thinking this remake was never going to happen.
By all accounts it really depends if the QoL changes they’re talking about in Skyblivion are better than the ones in this remake, if they have done any at all. To be fair, if they just fix the skill leveling system it’ll already be incredible!
Luckily I have Game Pass and while I’ll be away when it’s scheduled to release I will try it when I can and probably play it fully. Again. I mean it’s the best Oblivion!
Second favourite Oblivion
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RIlRhXXQjg
I was a teenager in the 90s, this song was HUGE!!!
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Given how much multiverse/timeline nonsense goes on in the Elder Scrolls universe, I’m sort of hoping this is a Final Fantasy 7 Remake situation.
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From what I’ve read, this will be a direct remaster of sorts of the game - but the way it will run is that it’ll be using Unreal Engine 5 somewhat “emulating” the original game. There will be changes to a few things like the HUD, certain skills like archery and sneaking and other QoL updates but exactly what no one seems to have revealed. One thing that was found during this now famous Virtuos website leak is this screenshot:
If true, they are marketing it as a remaster and not an FFVIIR/RR/RRR type remake at all, which could be a good or a bad thing depending how you feel about the FFVII remakes.
There are more images leaked, but I’ll save you from seeing them all but this one:
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The only Bethesda game I’ve played is Skyrim. Is Oblivion a lot better than that?
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That’s a tough one to answer. Personally I think Skyrim is the better game overall, if you take into account the improvements to combat, leveling, graphics and the world being more varied both with locations and people compared to Oblivion.
However, Oblivion has such a charm to it, which is why as a whole I prefer it over Skyrim. It’s been years since I properly played it but the memories of it stick far more in my mind than Skyrim. Off the top of my head:
- The whole world is voiced by eight people. One of whom is Sean Bean.
- Leveling your skills uses the most random system I’ve ever seen and yet you spend hours jumping around to level things up.
- It’s called Oblivion for good reason and that leads you to wanting to do all the quests and missions related to it.
- It was the first game I ever unlocked all the achievements for.
- You could buy horse armour as DLC. I did. I’m not proud but I stand by it.
And two of the biggest factors for me:
- The introduction to the Shimmering Isles DLC is still one of my all time favourite moments in video games. Skyrim never blew me away like that did and maybe three things at most have since.
- Although the soundtrack isn’t as vast as Skyrim, it’s really quality over quantity. Plus King and Country was my alarm clock for about a decade.
Maybe it is related to playing it at the time it was released, going in without knowledge of the series and falling in love with it that makes me prefer Oblivion, but I still think Skyrim is the better game. It’s one reason Skyblivion has had me so excited for 12 years by using newer technology and gaming standards on such a lovely game.
So yes, kinda!
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I wouldn’t say a lot better. I think it has better faction stuff, but the main quest sucks.
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I find Oblivion more endearing than Skyrim, even though at this point I’ve probably played Skyrim more. One thing in its favor is that I like the kind of dungeons in Oblivion better. The elven ruins especially are a cool design, very vertical and angular in a way that makes it feel distinct from the Imperial style, which feels distinct from the Oblivion style, which feels distinct from a couple of other in-game styles.
The faction quests and miscellaneous quests are good. Even the more repetitive ones have some good stuff in them (“Welcome … to the Arena” will always get me going). Some of them definitely subverted my expectations from where I thought they were going. The main quest in contrast is messier in script, but at least the dungeons (esp. the Oblivion gates) are pretty cool.
It’s hard for me to describe otherwise, but Oblivion is peak Bethesda chonk. They pack a whole bunch of stuff in this region, you have a lot of cool spell types and skills and ways to interact with the stuff, and after the initial sequence you can go do whatever. That was exceptionally freeing after a decade where I had been playing the sort of RPGs (like Neverwinter Nights) where everything felt meticulously scripted and, while the writing was perhaps better, everything felt like a stage. In Oblivion, all of Cyrodiil is a stage, and the inhabitants merely players. They have their exits and their entrances, and one actor in their time voices many parts.
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The Shenmue Dojo folks purchased a bunch design materials at auction and have kindly shared it for all to enjoy
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New avatar unlocked, thank you for sharing
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it’s honestly fucked up that we have all this other video game crap and shit everywhere but no Dreamcast and no more Shenmue
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Be careful what you wish for
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It’s still insanely funny to me that they got to make a third one and barely progressed the story in it.
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The true forgotten thing about the horse armour is that it wasn’t even actually armour, it was a HP buff.
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I was not aware that Ys Memoire: Memories of Celceta is launching in Japan on May 22 on Switch. I’m sure it’s a matter of time before it comes to the west (though a port of the ps vita version is already on Steam and PS4 store)
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I didn’t like Celceta too much on the PS Vita at the time, but the Memoire edition of Felghana was an excellent revision so I hope this second Memoire edition maintains that level of polish and fixes some of the issues I had with the original release.
Falcom is also releasing Ys VIII and Ys IX in Japan on the PS5 (NISA already released them previously in the West) on the same day they release Ys X -P•r•o•u•d NORDICS- (apparently as a temporary hardware exclusive?) on Nintendo Switch 2, July 31. Big summer for Ys!
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I recently started replaying the Xbox 360 version of Oblivion for the first time since 2009, and I think I will continue playing the Xbox 360 version of Oblivion for the first time since 2009
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That Lunar remaster collection dropped today and I’m pretty excited to play it. I’ve always wanted to play Lunar 1 and 2 but just never have. I pretty vividly remember when I first became aware of the games, I was a kid and was at the Playstation store in the Sony Metreon in San Francisco. Saw all the cool PS1 Lunar limited edition stuff there and thought it all looked so cool:
I also remember seeing this creepy puppet there:
It sounds like the remaster is pretty good but has some shimmering/scaling issues. I also know there’s some debate on Sega CD vs PS1 versions but I’m honestly pretty happy to just try this remaster.
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Seems like the Lunar collection is in better shape than Grandia HD. Good to hear.
August 28 for Super Robot Wars Y.
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There is a new Doom The Dark Ages trailer and it’s filled with characters, story and plot. All the things Doom doesn’t need. My frothing demand for this game decreases…
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