After being the industry’s worst kept secret for what feels like years now, Bethesda has officially announced The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, a substantial rework of the classic RPG which was first released way back in 2006. Man, I feel old. But by far the biggest news is that it’s right now on PlayStation, Xbox and PC for £50/$50, or £60/$60 for a Deluxe Edition that contains new armour, weapons and an art book. You can also get it on Game Pass.
As reported, this new release is being developed by Virtous, a large support company that is working on the upcoming Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater. Their past work is an impressive array of games spanning the likes of Hogwarts Legacy, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Mortal Kombat, Dying Light 2, South Park: Snow Day and dozens upon dozens more.
The reveal event, which Bethesda held today, has confirmed most of the information that was previously leaked. It runs on Unreal Engine 5 but retains the game’s original engine too, meaning the same physics etc. It includes quite a few gameplay tweaks, such as an updated UI, reworked levelling that combines Oblivion and Skyrim, revamped combat and much more. They’ve even added sprinting, along with a bunch of new voice acting. In other words, despite the name this is far more of a full remake than a remaster as it doesn’t just update the graphics but also makes some fairly large changes to the gameplay.
The package also includes every piece of extra content, from the massive Shivering Isles to all the smaller add-ons. The result of this and all of the upgrades is a hefty 120GB download size on console.
As someone that spent hundreds of hours playing Oblivion on Xbox 360, including buying a hard-drive so I could install The Shivering Isles (which I bought on disc and still own to this day) I am super excited to get my hands on this remake. However, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t also a little nervous: even back in 2006 Oblivion was a janky game, and part of me wonders if I’ll enjoy it in 2025 as much as I did back then. Perhaps I should keep my nostalgic memories intact? But no. I can’t help myself.
#Oblivion #Remastered #Announced #WGB
