Have some cake, folks. Tomorrow shall be a celebration!

October 24, 2008 is the day (actually it was night) when I first discovered TES IV: Oblivion. Although I had seen a Bethesda game in the early 2000s; I was at a party and somebody was playing a brand-new game on the brand-new Xbox, and this game had a lot of fog in it and LOTS of room to roam around, I remained clueless about it. I have a slim memory of asking the guy who was playing "hey, what's the name of this game?" And his answer (The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind) would've been too complicated to remember. Perhaps I wrote the name down. If so, I lost that scrap of paper.

One thing which struck was the way its world seemed endless. It went on and on and on. Thinking back, now I realize the guy was roaming around the Pelagiad area at the time. Everything was sort of Dr. Seuss-looking and colorful. Another memory from that party: I kept thinking that at some point, all of this would end. The guy would accomplish some task and then a huge banner would flash across the screen...



... and then this "world" would end and he'd be in the next one, sort of like Tomb Raider. But that never happened. There was just one world to explore, and it was huge.

I spent much of the 2000s looking for this game, unknowing that it was never released on Playstation. During my search for that game, I bought and tried plenty of others on PS and PS2, hoping I'd find the mysterious one with all the fog in it. Of course, I never did.

Fast-forward to October 24, 2008. I was bored one night. I had a bit of money saved, and began to think if there's anything worthwhile on the PS3, I'll go ahead and get a PS3 then. So I went to GameRevolution.com (my favorite gaming website at the time) and began reading their PS3 reviews, starting with the As. Assassin's Creed was not out yet. I'm pretty certain I would have just stopped at AC if it had been out. Thankfully, it was not, or was not on PS3 yet.

I moved on to the Bs. Then the Cs. The Ds. Es. F.... G ... H .. I JKLMNOPQRST.

T Okay, so a game with a complicated name caught my attention. Here is its review. Actually, I will quote its very first paragraph now.

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Like most adult geeks reared on Dungeons and Dragons, I often find myself a bit disconnected when faced with the endless waves of Japanese RPGs that have taken over the genre. Every time I find myself in the shoes of yet another spiky-haired protagonist with a mysterious past and a sword the size of a telephone pole, I wonder where all the role-playing has gone.

Not that there aren’t some excellent imports out there, but is walking my pre-designed character, his bossy, magical girlfriend, and a talking animal through a linear story in which I save the spirit of the earth, or the essence of Gaea, or whatever they’re calling it this time, really role-playing? If you’re truly playing a role, you should be able to forge your own destiny as a sneaky thief, a righteous paladin, a crude barbarian, a pretentious mage, or a vile murderer.

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That right there is what caught my eyes. Because that was ME, so far as gaming went. I felt like those two paragraphs described ME as a gamer. I had spent all these years playing linear games.... not all of them were horrible, but every one of them was linear. I'd literally go to step off some path, hoping to be able to explore some pretty underbrush, but *bonk* nope.... can't even step off the path. "A bit disconnected." ... "Pre-designed characters."... "Weapons the size of telephone poles."... Why doesn't anybody make a game which allows ME to make the character I want to make? Is such a thing even possible?

After not even reading that whole article, it took me maybe 40 minutes to jump in my crappy Corolla, drive to the nearest mall, and plunk down $400 for a PS3 and this cool new game. The next few hours were then a blur. I rolled a character named Lady Anne. She was my first! I don't even know what she looked like, I never took a picture of her. But after spending 3 hours doing the tutorial, delivering the Amulet, I decided that Lady Anne would "retire" in Chorrol, because I loved the opening experience so much, I immediately wanted to do it all over again, with some other character (whose name I have forgotten).

Anyway, that's my story. Thanks for listening. Feel free to share your stories, too.

This post has been edited by Renee: Mar 23 2023, 04:20 PM

Happy 17th birthday, Oblivion!!

Phew, nice job, Lena! March 21st actually crossed my mind yesterday but I've been too preoccupied today.

it's been one long party.

I have an idea for a memory mod - a photo album. It will be compatible with every kind of Oblivion, a book to be found in-game. Renoir Books in Chorrol will have it. "Heroes of our time" or some such. Better suggestions for the title welcome!

After all, 17 is coming of age in many cultures.

So, I ask of you to post here a good screenshot of your character that could work as a portrait and write a paragraph about your character. Short enough to fit on a page in an Oblivion book. Or else I'll have to trim it.

I'll do the rest. Let's have a year book.

You can post several characters, of course!

Lothran


An Adventurer by class and trade, Lothran roams around Cyrodiil. 16 years and counting there is still no end in sight.

Oh gosh. See, mirocu's got it easy! (So does Acadian). Both of you are married to your one, whereas folks like I like to play the field.

I'm actually kind of drunk right now, but I love this idea. I'll post a bunch of pics tomorrow when I'm more sober!

I think it could be fun. Also, because the mod is going to be so very simple (just one book), it can be easily converted to other games. Wink wink Ghastley!

I will come back to this idea at some point, Lena. Thing is, I'm out of touch with all my OB guys & gals at the moment because I haven't been playing TES 4 much over the past couple years.

For me to do it right means going back to some of my really early people, like Renee Gade II and Dyan phor a'Cauz and Luci Pheria. I used to write a LOT about them (and newer chars) in the old forums, couldn't shut me up sometimes! I just need to find some of those old threads. 📚 I want to add what I wrote when my mind was still fresh with new-character activity.

Didn’t really know where to put this, but this seemed as good a place as any. So, apparently, there is a rumor going around that an official remake/remaster of Oblivion is in production. All of this sounds kinda iffy to me, but I thought I’d share it.

Here’s a link to a video about it.

That would really be interesting if they would include The Ayleid Steps and The Lost Spires mod as essential additions.

Well, Oblivion is definitely my favorite among TES III, IV, V and I'd certainly welcome a significant facelift to it.

Iffy indeed. Most footage is just Skyrim. I don't believe a word of it. Besides, it is no longer Oblivion.

I’m not familiar with these mods, but it’d be quite a pleasant surprise to me if they added mods as official content.


It’s not my favorite, but I would definitely be interested in a facelift as well!


Same. I’ll believe more when I see more.

Isn't Skyblivion doing this exact thing?

Not really. That is just remaking Oblivion in Skyrim’s engine. This is supposedly going to keep the original Gamebryo engine for gameplay and physics while working in tandem with Unreal Engine 5 for visuals and audio. I don’t know enough about game engines to know how this would work, but supposedly it is being done with other games. So basically, it’s regular ol’ Oblivion just prettier and sounding better. I will repeat that I’ll believe it when I see it.

With the Skyrim engine, yes. This one says it will use a blending or pairing of the Oblivion engine and the Unreal Engine 5 project. I have no idea how that can be done or what it will eventually look like.

My thought; Bethesda is going to milk Starfield for all is worth and Microsoft fearing lagging market says, "Do something, ten years is too long to wait for a new TES release".

This post has been edited by macole: Aug 1 2023, 04:21 PM

If this remake business is true, I think that could be very likely.

This post has been edited by TheCheshireKhajiit: Aug 1 2023, 04:25 PM

I couldn't watch that video for more than a few seconds, the guy speaking is too hyper! (bla bubblblublubl bla bla bla bla bla... ) but from what I gathered, it sounds like some other studio or team got mentioned?

I'm not seeing this as an official Bethesda project; it's not their style to be involved with remakes or remasters for those older games. When they first announce a new game or project, they've been in the habit of making some sort of overt & definitive statement. Elder Scrolls VI has that teaser video, for instance. Skyrim got a remaster sure, but that's only because they made a 64 bit version of it (and secretly so...) from the get go.

Starfield's about to get released, which means they're going to be spending the next 2 or 3 years making patches & DLC for that, and then VI comes next, presumably. So IF an official Oblivion remake is going to occur, maybe it's getting subcontracted to some other studio, the way Oblivion on PS3 was handled by 4J Studios.

It's funny this thread got brought up. Next week will be my 10 year anniversary of Fallout 3! ☢