A couple thoughts: Worst-kept secret in the video game industry in recent times, lol Glad they're keeping the meat and bones of the game, even with all the changes. Oblivion is one of my favorite...
A couple thoughts:
Worst-kept secret in the video game industry in recent times, lol
Glad they're keeping the meat and bones of the game, even with all the changes. Oblivion is one of my favorite games ever, so I look forward to trying this out eventually. I really hope they haven't messed with the athletics or acrobatics skill and made it more like Skyrim. Oblivion was great in that you got faster and jumped higher throughout the course of the game. Made it have much more of a sense of verticality and like your movements actually mattered, as opposed to Skyrim where you just sort of stand there and fight with opponents (or shoot them as a stealth archer from 50+ feet away).
THEY ADDED NEW VOICES! By Azura! By Azura! By Azura! Hopefully we won't hear the same dozen voice-actors saying the same few lines over and over. The bit that always got my goat with this game was that they had different voice actors say the exact same line! Like if you're going to pay for different voice actors, why would you make them say the same thing? Glad there's more variety now.
That zoomed-in closeup during every dialogue is infinitely creepier. It was already memed on before for being a bit forced and off-putting, but these new detailed graphics and motion capture really emphasize the creepiness.
Added one more after looking at it on steam (link for anyone interested): incredibly disappointed to see day-one dlc in this remaster. Like I get the horse-armor for the memes, but actual quests and items being locked away behind the deluxe edition just feels bad for a 20 year old game. At least the two original game dlcs seem to be included with the base game. But I guess I shouldn't be surprised given the state of the video game world nowadays.
Can't wait to go spelunking in some Oblivion gates helping Martin and the Blades retake control of the capital (let's be real I'm gonna do all the side shit first, like the Shivering Isles and the Dark Brotherhood and the ARENA, oh man I forgot how fun the arena was).
That's nuts. You can fit around 26 OG Oblivions in this new Oblivion and still have some room left over for a Morrowind or two (4.6gb and 1gb respectively)
That's nuts. You can fit around 26 OG Oblivions in this new Oblivion and still have some room left over for a Morrowind or two (4.6gb and 1gb respectively)
There's day-one DLC, but it looks like it's cosmetics and horse armor. The quests and expansions are included in the base game as far as I can tell. From the Steam page: The graphic for the deluxe...
There's day-one DLC, but it looks like it's cosmetics and horse armor. The quests and expansions are included in the base game as far as I can tell. From the Steam page:
Experience everything Oblivion has to offer with previously released story expansions Shivering Isles, Knights of the Nine, and additional downloadable content included in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered.
The graphic for the deluxe edition isn't clear, so it looks like Shivering Isles and Knights of the Nine are deluxe-only, but the rest of the page says otherwise. I could be wrong, but I'm hoping I'm not. After all, Skyrim had the Legendary Edition with all 3 major DLC expansions for $30, and the Special Edition was free if you had Legendary Edition in your library. I don't think it's a stretch to expect the same in the Oblivion remaster.
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered Standard Edition includes:
Digital base game
Shivering Isles and Knights of the Nine story expansions
Additional downloadable content: Fighter’s Stronghold, Spell Tomes, Vile Lair, Mehrune’s Razor, The Thieves Den, Wizard’s Tower, The Orrery, and Horse Armor Pack
Yeah I saw that too, and was equally confused at first by the graphic. I'm glad they included Shivering Isles and Knights of the Nine in the standard edition since those are the main two...
Yeah I saw that too, and was equally confused at first by the graphic. I'm glad they included Shivering Isles and Knights of the Nine in the standard edition since those are the main two (Shivering Isles is probably one of my favorite dlcs in any game ever, if that wasn't included in the base version of a 20yo remake I think people would riot).
But under the description for the deluxe edition on the steam page it lists : "New quests for unique digital Akatosh and Mehrunes Dagon Armors, Weapons, and Horse Armor Sets".
So yeah, mostly cosmetic, but a few quests and exclusive items thrown in cuz why not. And in a single player game like Oblivion, I would argue that armor sets with real stats aren't actually cosmetic. Like imagine if they had held daedric armor back behind a paywall.
I'm just grumpy that day-one dlc packs have become the norm nowadays. A trend ironically spurred on by the original Oblivion's horse armor dlc.
Wait, what? As nitpicky as it sounds, that was the biggest thing I disliked about Oblivion--it's the only TES game I never finished, and I own boxed copies of Redguard and Battlespire. I had some...
THEY ADDED NEW VOICES! By Azura! By Azura! By Azura! Hopefully we won't hear the same dozen voice-actors saying the same few lines over and over. The bit that always got my goat with this game was that they had different voice actors say the exact same line! Like if you're going to pay for different voice actors, why would you make them say the same thing? Glad there's more variety now.
Wait, what? As nitpicky as it sounds, that was the biggest thing I disliked about Oblivion--it's the only TES game I never finished, and I own boxed copies of Redguard and Battlespire. I had some other quibbles with the game compared to others in the series but the mind-numbing repetition of the VA and the script was the reason I wasn't planning to pick up the remaster.
The voice actors themselves are fine--they've been in other TES games and I like them--but it just took me completely out of the game to hear the same four or so people over and over repeating the same non-story-related lines. Especially Craig Sechler, who I think is great but having every single male elf in Cyrodiil sound like a harried-but-pompous scheming courtier was just grating. (A great character voice! But weirdly jarring to have for so many different types of NPCs.) Wes Johnson too, who I really like a lot but voices so many NPC and story characters that I just felt like I was talking to the same guy over and over.
Looks like this is a buy after all. I'll finally get to finish it, hah.
The only thing I can think about is how bummed the Skyblivion modding team must be. I mean stuff like this is obviously always a risk, but it seemed like their roadmap was quite concrete at this...
The only thing I can think about is how bummed the Skyblivion modding team must be. I mean stuff like this is obviously always a risk, but it seemed like their roadmap was quite concrete at this point; this must have felt like a major rug-pull.
I think Skyblivion still has a leg up on being moddable. This remaster is some amalgamation of UE5 and Creation/Gamebryo and does not have official mod support (so presumably no creation kit...
I think Skyblivion still has a leg up on being moddable. This remaster is some amalgamation of UE5 and Creation/Gamebryo and does not have official mod support (so presumably no creation kit coming either). I'd be surprised if no mods made it through, but I also wouldn't expect the same breadth of mods for this remaster.
Edit: Nexus currently has flood of reshader "mods", but there are some actual esp files folks are getting to load. A rather large conversation randomizer mod has already been ported over. Mod support may be more widespread than I thought.
The original engine ESPs and ESMs are present in the UE5 game files. They can be loaded, and edited, in the original Oblivion Construction Kit. A script extender was made and working with Ob:Re...
The original engine ESPs and ESMs are present in the UE5 game files. They can be loaded, and edited, in the original Oblivion Construction Kit.
A script extender was made and working with Ob:Re within an hour or two of its launch.
Non-texture, non-shader, non-randomizer mods are already made (UI, gameplay changes, more), and more are coming. A new golden age of Oblivion modding is likely upon us.
However, this doesn't mean much for Skyblivion; theirs is a free modding project that will ultimately produce very different results, and likely be more readily playable on older hardware than most-all underoptimized UE5 implementations.
It's a good day all around for lovers of Oblivion.
Could you point me to the new script extender? I'm very curious if its something that could allow mods for the original game that required OBSE to work with the remaster. I did some searching but...
Could you point me to the new script extender? I'm very curious if its something that could allow mods for the original game that required OBSE to work with the remaster. I did some searching but couldn't seem to find it
It's an Unreal Script Extender for being able ot make further changes in the UE5 side of things, since it seems the EXE is for/goes through UE5, not through Gamebryo/Creation engine. Unless...
It's an Unreal Script Extender for being able ot make further changes in the UE5 side of things, since it seems the EXE is for/goes through UE5, not through Gamebryo/Creation engine.
Unless someone writes a translation layer or something from scratch, there's likely not going to be an early drop-in replacement for OBSE mods and the remaster. We're still very early days in seeing what's possible, so might just be something to come back to in a few months.
I'm trying to save myself the money, but you're making it hard. I was planning to heavily mod the original today, reminding myself that it's likely a lot of issues I had to the original back in...
I'm trying to save myself the money, but you're making it hard.
I was planning to heavily mod the original today, reminding myself that it's likely a lot of issues I had to the original back in 2006 are still there (like the terrible dungeons) in the remake and I could just fix the original and be happy...
But if we're likely to see the modding capacity for the remake, well...
That’s a great callout, I hadn’t thought about that! It does make me a lot more excited to revisit the space knowing that the modding community will continue to make it a deeper experience,...
That’s a great callout, I hadn’t thought about that! It does make me a lot more excited to revisit the space knowing that the modding community will continue to make it a deeper experience, instead of just “really pretty and polished vanilla experience.” Though I’m excited to see the state of both, of course.
Hmmm, is this some experiment for dropping the Creation Kit altogether? Edit; I think it's more of a, do more with less work situation, but I'm very curious what sort of bizarre engine setup this is
This remaster is some amalgamation of UE5 and Creation/Gamebryo
Hmmm, is this some experiment for dropping the Creation Kit altogether?
Edit; I think it's more of a, do more with less work situation, but I'm very curious what sort of bizarre engine setup this is
Shout outs to them though for keeping going. I look forward to their different experience in Skyrim and plan to play it when it is released. It'll just hit different.
Shout outs to them though for keeping going. I look forward to their different experience in Skyrim and plan to play it when it is released. It'll just hit different.
While I personally don't have much interest in the game I have to say, it looks fantastic and I'm happy for all the Oblivion fans who get to have this. And this confirms the rumors that the...
While I personally don't have much interest in the game I have to say, it looks fantastic and I'm happy for all the Oblivion fans who get to have this.
And this confirms the rumors that the Fallout 3 remaster is also a thing which is what I really care about and cannot wait for, though unfortunately sounds like that's still a ways off.
It seems doubtfuk they'll do anymore than these two. From what I've read other places remaking any of the first three TES would be a major pain in the ass they'll likely never do. And Starfield...
It seems doubtfuk they'll do anymore than these two.
From what I've read other places remaking any of the first three TES would be a major pain in the ass they'll likely never do. And Starfield just came out, so doesn't need a remaster, and it would be dumb to remaster Fallout 4 before Fallout 5
You seem to be forgetting that this is Bethesda, the studio that has re-released Skyrim a thousand times over the past ten years. You don't think a remaster isn't coming to drum up sales while the...
it would be dumb to remaster Fallout 4 before Fallout 5
You seem to be forgetting that this is Bethesda, the studio that has re-released Skyrim a thousand times over the past ten years. You don't think a remaster isn't coming to drum up sales while the show is on?
I mean, Naughty Dog released a remaster of TLOU and it was only a year old in 2014, then they released an entirely new remake just seven years after that, because the show was popular on Amazon. A lot less work is involved in a remaster/remake that they throw to a third-party vendor than an entirely new game, less risk too.
I'd love nothing more than a modern remake of Daggerfall, a game I sunk probably a thousand hours into over the years, but yeah it would be an insane lift, maybe impossible. There is a version...
I'd love nothing more than a modern remake of Daggerfall, a game I sunk probably a thousand hours into over the years, but yeah it would be an insane lift, maybe impossible. There is a version that was updated to use the Unity engine and that was impressive but you'd be hard-pressed to call it really modernized.
That said, though, two of the creative leads from Daggerfall are working on The Wayward Realms, which seems both in spirit and practice a modern remake of Daggerfall in pretty much every sense but just without the TES IP. In the trailer for the game there's even a quick example of a specific quest recreated from Daggerfall (an imp sets itself up as mayor in a small town). I'm definitely going to keep an eye on it.
Call me whatever, but I'm not really interested. Bethesda is dead studio for me. They fail to do good games anymore. But to be on topic - I have bought Oblivion collector's edition on the launch...
Call me whatever, but I'm not really interested. Bethesda is dead studio for me. They fail to do good games anymore.
But to be on topic - I have bought Oblivion collector's edition on the launch date. I'm so glad I did as I'm big Morrowind fan and player and I knew I will be buying Oblivion - the CE I bought was pre-order, actually. I bought both expansion DVDs as well, I still own all of it. I played the hell out of the game before my laptop died. Then I bought GOTY for my PS3 and played the hell out of it on PS3. Then Skyrim was announced, I made pre-order and said to myself I really and finally should finish Oblivion for the first time before Skyrim comes out. In one month I finished the base game (which I never did before) all the expansions on PS3 including KotN and then I went into Shivering Isles as well. I rushed through though with my "low level optimized build" - I believe I was level 14 when I finished the base game. But due to good skill pick I was semi-god by then.
I got Steam Deck when it came out and I promised mywelf I will play Oblivion as the first game. And I did. And I put 200 hours into the game basically finishing everything the game has to offer. I played the shit out of it and I'm glad I finally put all the time into the game that it really deserved. Doing that I'm finished with it. I keep very good memories and apart from doing some weird builds or just freshen up the memories I have no reason to come back. Ever.
And this remaster/remake doesn't change a thing for me. Oblivion was definitely flawed but also great game when it came out and it doesn't need to be changed in any way. It is modern enough that it already has all the things from modern age gaming (like 3D graphics, optimized interface - although flawed, interactive map, usable journal...). Saying this I'm thinking about FF7 and its remake - in my opinion FF7 Remake is worth it, it brings a lot to quite aged game.
Now this Oblivion remaster - I see good graphics. I presume it will be somewhat similar in gameplay. If that is the case, it's not worth it. But that is just my opinion and it means nothing in grand scheme of things.
I would prefer if Bethesda changed their way with games. They are big, they can do better games. Yet they won't. They keep to what they know and what makes them money - sadly. Skyrim was absolutely unbelievable let down for me - I finished it twice, I had fun playing, but it felt empty, nothing special. And after I finished it for.the first time after around 80 hours getting all trophies (PS3) I actually asked myself "What now?" - the game gave me everything it had and I had no reason to play again. Actually the same happened with Oblivion when I finished it on Steam Deck - but Oblivion was 200 hours game. And with it's styling and even with quests and with skills and mechanics it would give me a good time if I went in again.
I replayed Skyrim once again later. That time I got warhammer in tutorial and I kept using ONLY warhammer as damage dealer through the whole game. I haven't dealt damage in any other way than using warhammer (and sometimes fus-ro-dahing enemies from the cliff). Yes, I finished the game using only warhammer, the game where your main eneimes are flying dragons. Using warhammer to kill them. I never came back.to the game and I promised myself to not buy anything else from Bethesda. I don't want to play such games.
Rant over. Although I could have continued with Fallout series...
I realize you only mentioned it for the sake of comparison, but I got around to playing the first and second FF7 games this year, and I tapped out around 2/3rds of the way through the second one....
I realize you only mentioned it for the sake of comparison, but I got around to playing the first and second FF7 games this year, and I tapped out around 2/3rds of the way through the second one. Playing them felt like watching an anime with 20 filler episodes for each one that drives the main story — there's filler in the filler! It was pretty disappointing to me that the ideal modern version of FF7 that I wanted to play just doesn't exist. :/
I mean that is FF7. The mid game has a bunch of detours and a lot of beloved minigames. It’s fine if you don’t like the way it meanders, but it’s being true to the original in that sense.
I mean that is FF7. The mid game has a bunch of detours and a lot of beloved minigames. It’s fine if you don’t like the way it meanders, but it’s being true to the original in that sense.
Yeah, you're right. I guess I fall into a weird spot. I'm not nostalgic in a way that makes me want new content just to see more of the characters, but I did play the original so I can tell when...
Yeah, you're right. I guess I fall into a weird spot. I'm not nostalgic in a way that makes me want new content just to see more of the characters, but I did play the original so I can tell when the next hour is going to be a new tangent they added in the remake. It's definitely faithful, just not the game I wanted to play.
I haven't played FF7 Remake. I haven't olayed that much of FF7 either. I use it as a comparison because if I finally went for it, I would play Remake simply because the oiginal is a bit too dated...
I haven't played FF7 Remake. I haven't olayed that much of FF7 either. I use it as a comparison because if I finally went for it, I would play Remake simply because the oiginal is a bit too dated for me. If they did an overhaul of original, I would be happy with it (higher quality backgrounds, models etc. but stay in the same concept), but they didn't, so Remake it would be.
Oblivion on the other hand probably won't come woth anything better than graphics. I hate when studio just slaps the new graphics on (I know it is A LOT of work to do) and calls it a day.
Have a look at GTA trilogy definitive edition - that is what I call straight bad. The original games had some charm and they failed to put the charm into the DE versions, they just went for new engine and graphics and made the game kinda sterile.
Have alook at original Mafia and its DE on he other hand. I'm Czech, Mafia is Czech, I love the game, it is part of my life. I feared what the DE will come with. And they made it great. DE is likely what I would call Remake. They took original Mafia and upgraded i in many many ways. It also lot a bit along the way, but it also gained a lot. Original and DE stay bih distinctive in their own way, but there is no lesser one in my opinion.
And Mafia 2 and its DE? Well, Mafia 2 was made in the era when it already looked great and played great. I don't know why there even is DE of it. Probably to have it in DE collection with the other two games and be able to call it that.
What I got from the Oblivion announcement video leads me to think it’s more of a remake than a remaster. They mention overhauling more or less everything else (on top of the graphics). UI, combat,...
What I got from the Oblivion announcement video leads me to think it’s more of a remake than a remaster. They mention overhauling more or less everything else (on top of the graphics). UI, combat, animations, levelling, environment, voice acting - all got touched.
Looks like it was overhauled kinda from all angles. Still - the original was good enough for me. I mean there will be people who will buy it and I don't blame them. It will likely get big audience...
Looks like it was overhauled kinda from all angles. Still - the original was good enough for me.
I mean there will be people who will buy it and I don't blame them. It will likely get big audience of younger people that will learn about the game I played 20 years ago. It is just that I don't believe in the studio anymore.
But maybe this release will become the beginning of their redemption and they will do better games with less bugs. Only time will tell.
I'm not buying this remaster - I'm inclined to add "ever". If I wanted to play Oblivion again I would do so on Steam Deck and I would do so with the old game - part of this is nostalgia, part is "it was meant to be like that (when the game launched; I mean mechanics, controls, graphics...)" and part is due to performance or rather how long you can play on one battery charge.
It's verified, but has a low frame rate. The original is perfectly viable in the Deck anyway you just need a couple of engine mods to stabilize memory issues.
It's verified, but has a low frame rate. The original is perfectly viable in the Deck anyway you just need a couple of engine mods to stabilize memory issues.
I have poured hundreds of hours into morrowind and skyrim, but I've never stuck with oblivion for a full playthrough. I think this will change that, I'm hooked. It seems like this brings a lot of...
I have poured hundreds of hours into morrowind and skyrim, but I've never stuck with oblivion for a full playthrough. I think this will change that, I'm hooked. It seems like this brings a lot of what made skyrim great to oblivion, without giving up the features that people missed from oblivion in skyrim. We'll have to see how the new leveling works out in the long run, it's annoying to me that running and jumping level me up even without being major skills, but I don't know the full breadth of the change yet so hope it all pans out well!
No official mod support, which has always been the case. It does still have support for the original 2006 modding tools. You can open the new game's files with the TES construction kit that comes...
No official mod support, which has always been the case. It does still have support for the original 2006 modding tools. You can open the new game's files with the TES construction kit that comes with the original Oblivion right now.
That’s actually kind of shocking to me, I assumed under the hood (running in Unreal Engine) it’s a completely different beast from the Gamebryo original.
That’s actually kind of shocking to me, I assumed under the hood (running in Unreal Engine) it’s a completely different beast from the Gamebryo original.
Yeah I recall that from the video but it’s not clear to me where the line of separation is. Wouldn’t that mean things like meshes, animations, and shaders would exist in the UE side and not be...
Yeah I recall that from the video but it’s not clear to me where the line of separation is. Wouldn’t that mean things like meshes, animations, and shaders would exist in the UE side and not be moddable?
Currently it is mostly a flood of reshaders, but there are some actual esp files folks are getting to load. A rather large conversation randomizer mod has already been ported over. Mod support may...
Currently it is mostly a flood of reshaders, but there are some actual esp files folks are getting to load. A rather large conversation randomizer mod has already been ported over. Mod support may be more widespread than I thought.
Yes but I don't see that as indicative of the ability to mod it. The game's been out for less than 12 hours. Within a couple weeks we'll have some pretty serious mods available.
Yes but I don't see that as indicative of the ability to mod it. The game's been out for less than 12 hours. Within a couple weeks we'll have some pretty serious mods available.
Oh yeah I don't consider reshaders proper mods or indicative of a games modability at all, just commenting on what was in the link. When they said no mod support and UE5, I thought you wouldn't be...
Oh yeah I don't consider reshaders proper mods or indicative of a games modability at all, just commenting on what was in the link. When they said no mod support and UE5, I thought you wouldn't be able to get the game to even read esp/esm files, that's huge compared to what I expected at all. I expect modders will quickly find what freedoms and limitations they've got, but yeah certainly not in the first 12hrs.
Not that it can't be modded away I suppose, but did they fix the horrible enemy scaling in this release? It made the game quite unpleasant to play as you progressed unless you figured out how to...
Not that it can't be modded away I suppose, but did they fix the horrible enemy scaling in this release? It made the game quite unpleasant to play as you progressed unless you figured out how to game the system, which them made it silly easy. I swear I spent half of my time in my playthroughs of original carefully managing my skills so I could keep it comfortably between "too easy" and "God-like rats".
I don't know if they've changed the enemy scaling, but efficient leveling should no longer be necessary since you can assign points to attributes as you choose, which should help a lot
I don't know if they've changed the enemy scaling, but efficient leveling should no longer be necessary since you can assign points to attributes as you choose, which should help a lot
That will help somewhat, but any new players going in and thinking "I want to specialize in swords and running" is going to meet that rat-of-destiny that will one shot them real quick if the...
That will help somewhat, but any new players going in and thinking "I want to specialize in swords and running" is going to meet that rat-of-destiny that will one shot them real quick if the scaling is unchanged.
In regards to running, you will actually level from it even if you don't select athletics or acrobatics as a major skill. All skills level you like in skyrim. My hope is that there are other...
In regards to running, you will actually level from it even if you don't select athletics or acrobatics as a major skill. All skills level you like in skyrim. My hope is that there are other balance changes that make that manageable, because it's no longer possible to avoid that pitfall just by not selecting it as a major.
As far as I remember, you always leveled from all skills in Oblivion, it was just that the lower the skill "tier", the more skill increases it required to gain a level. As long as athletics was...
As far as I remember, you always leveled from all skills in Oblivion, it was just that the lower the skill "tier", the more skill increases it required to gain a level. As long as athletics was not specifically chosen as a major or minor skill, it was never a major concern. That was also key to the stat raises, which you already said was addressed, so that level of tedious planning should be gone at least.
At least according to UESP that's incorrect. Majors level you up in the original but minors don't, they only affected what multipliers you would be able to get for your attributes.
At least according to UESP that's incorrect. Majors level you up in the original but minors don't, they only affected what multipliers you would be able to get for your attributes.
Welp, that's strange, I could have sworn that Oblivion also leveled from others skills since both Morrowind and Skyrim did, though Morrowind only leveled off of the Major and Minor, not the bottom...
Welp, that's strange, I could have sworn that Oblivion also leveled from others skills since both Morrowind and Skyrim did, though Morrowind only leveled off of the Major and Minor, not the bottom skills. I guess this means that you can raise the lower tier skills with impunity without triggering levels. So I guess the question is: did they fix or at least tweak the enemy scaling? If you can no longer directly boost your attributes through skill increases, the enemy scaling may be even worse since there isn't a direct way to overcome it.
I guess we shall see once players start getting into the later game.
A couple thoughts:
Worst-kept secret in the video game industry in recent times, lol
Glad they're keeping the meat and bones of the game, even with all the changes. Oblivion is one of my favorite games ever, so I look forward to trying this out eventually. I really hope they haven't messed with the athletics or acrobatics skill and made it more like Skyrim. Oblivion was great in that you got faster and jumped higher throughout the course of the game. Made it have much more of a sense of verticality and like your movements actually mattered, as opposed to Skyrim where you just sort of stand there and fight with opponents (or shoot them as a stealth archer from 50+ feet away).
THEY ADDED NEW VOICES! By Azura! By Azura! By Azura! Hopefully we won't hear the same dozen voice-actors saying the same few lines over and over. The bit that always got my goat with this game was that they had different voice actors say the exact same line! Like if you're going to pay for different voice actors, why would you make them say the same thing? Glad there's more variety now.
That zoomed-in closeup during every dialogue is infinitely creepier. It was already memed on before for being a bit forced and off-putting, but these new detailed graphics and motion capture really emphasize the creepiness.
Added one more after looking at it on steam (link for anyone interested): incredibly disappointed to see day-one dlc in this remaster. Like I get the horse-armor for the memes, but actual quests and items being locked away behind the deluxe edition just feels bad for a 20 year old game. At least the two original game dlcs seem to be included with the base game. But I guess I shouldn't be surprised given the state of the video game world nowadays.
Can't wait to go
spelunking in some Oblivion gates helping Martin and the Blades retake control of the capital(let's be real I'm gonna do all the side shit first, like the Shivering Isles and the Dark Brotherhood and the ARENA, oh man I forgot how fun the arena was).misc note: it's 125 Gb, which is 2600% larger than the original. My hard drive does not like the trend of every new game being massive.
That's nuts. You can fit around 26 OG Oblivions in this new Oblivion and still have some room left over for a Morrowind or two (4.6gb and 1gb respectively)
I've been upgrading my smaller devices (laptops, Steam Deck) to 2tb for exactly this reason.
I'll be honest, it doesn't look like 125GB lol
They often "achieve" that by not compressing textures and audio, so the improvements aren't necessarily linear.
Uncompressed textures might meaningfully reduce system load for an open world game.
I usually only play one or two games at a time and have fiber internet so the file size isn't a concern to me at all.
There's day-one DLC, but it looks like it's cosmetics and horse armor. The quests and expansions are included in the base game as far as I can tell. From the Steam page:
The graphic for the deluxe edition isn't clear, so it looks like Shivering Isles and Knights of the Nine are deluxe-only, but the rest of the page says otherwise. I could be wrong, but I'm hoping I'm not. After all, Skyrim had the Legendary Edition with all 3 major DLC expansions for $30, and the Special Edition was free if you had Legendary Edition in your library. I don't think it's a stretch to expect the same in the Oblivion remaster.
According to the Fanatical page:
Yeah I saw that too, and was equally confused at first by the graphic. I'm glad they included Shivering Isles and Knights of the Nine in the standard edition since those are the main two (Shivering Isles is probably one of my favorite dlcs in any game ever, if that wasn't included in the base version of a 20yo remake I think people would riot).
But under the description for the deluxe edition on the steam page it lists : "New quests for unique digital Akatosh and Mehrunes Dagon Armors, Weapons, and Horse Armor Sets".
So yeah, mostly cosmetic, but a few quests and exclusive items thrown in cuz why not. And in a single player game like Oblivion, I would argue that armor sets with real stats aren't actually cosmetic. Like imagine if they had held daedric armor back behind a paywall.
I'm just grumpy that day-one dlc packs have become the norm nowadays. A trend ironically spurred on by the original Oblivion's horse armor dlc.
Wait, what? As nitpicky as it sounds, that was the biggest thing I disliked about Oblivion--it's the only TES game I never finished, and I own boxed copies of Redguard and Battlespire. I had some other quibbles with the game compared to others in the series but the mind-numbing repetition of the VA and the script was the reason I wasn't planning to pick up the remaster.
The voice actors themselves are fine--they've been in other TES games and I like them--but it just took me completely out of the game to hear the same four or so people over and over repeating the same non-story-related lines. Especially Craig Sechler, who I think is great but having every single male elf in Cyrodiil sound like a harried-but-pompous scheming courtier was just grating. (A great character voice! But weirdly jarring to have for so many different types of NPCs.) Wes Johnson too, who I really like a lot but voices so many NPC and story characters that I just felt like I was talking to the same guy over and over.
Looks like this is a buy after all. I'll finally get to finish it, hah.
The only thing I can think about is how bummed the Skyblivion modding team must be. I mean stuff like this is obviously always a risk, but it seemed like their roadmap was quite concrete at this point; this must have felt like a major rug-pull.
Bethesda gifted the game to all the skyblivion devs.
I think there's still space for Skyblivion in all of this.
That’s quite touching indeed! Very sweet way to show support to the modding team.
I think Skyblivion still has a leg up on being moddable. This remaster is some amalgamation of UE5 and Creation/Gamebryo and does not have official mod support (so presumably no creation kit coming either). I'd be surprised if no mods made it through, but I also wouldn't expect the same breadth of mods for this remaster.
Edit: Nexus currently has flood of reshader "mods", but there are some actual esp files folks are getting to load. A rather large conversation randomizer mod has already been ported over. Mod support may be more widespread than I thought.
The original engine ESPs and ESMs are present in the UE5 game files. They can be loaded, and edited, in the original Oblivion Construction Kit.
A script extender was made and working with Ob:Re within an hour or two of its launch.
Non-texture, non-shader, non-randomizer mods are already made (UI, gameplay changes, more), and more are coming. A new golden age of Oblivion modding is likely upon us.
However, this doesn't mean much for Skyblivion; theirs is a free modding project that will ultimately produce very different results, and likely be more readily playable on older hardware than most-all underoptimized UE5 implementations.
It's a good day all around for lovers of Oblivion.
Could you point me to the new script extender? I'm very curious if its something that could allow mods for the original game that required OBSE to work with the remaster. I did some searching but couldn't seem to find it
It's an Unreal Script Extender for being able ot make further changes in the UE5 side of things, since it seems the EXE is for/goes through UE5, not through Gamebryo/Creation engine.
Unless someone writes a translation layer or something from scratch, there's likely not going to be an early drop-in replacement for OBSE mods and the remaster. We're still very early days in seeing what's possible, so might just be something to come back to in a few months.
I'm trying to save myself the money, but you're making it hard.
I was planning to heavily mod the original today, reminding myself that it's likely a lot of issues I had to the original back in 2006 are still there (like the terrible dungeons) in the remake and I could just fix the original and be happy...
But if we're likely to see the modding capacity for the remake, well...
That’s a great callout, I hadn’t thought about that! It does make me a lot more excited to revisit the space knowing that the modding community will continue to make it a deeper experience, instead of just “really pretty and polished vanilla experience.” Though I’m excited to see the state of both, of course.
Hmmm, is this some experiment for dropping the Creation Kit altogether?
Edit; I think it's more of a, do more with less work situation, but I'm very curious what sort of bizarre engine setup this is
Shout outs to them though for keeping going. I look forward to their different experience in Skyrim and plan to play it when it is released. It'll just hit different.
I just played the first 90 minutes. They knocked this outta the park. Hats off to everyone involved.
Agreed, I'm really enjoying it - they definitely kept the Bethesda tradition of gorgeous character models alive
While I personally don't have much interest in the game I have to say, it looks fantastic and I'm happy for all the Oblivion fans who get to have this.
And this confirms the rumors that the Fallout 3 remaster is also a thing which is what I really care about and cannot wait for, though unfortunately sounds like that's still a ways off.
If given the opportunity, Bethesda will remaster every game in their catalog before releasing Elder Scrolls 6
It seems doubtfuk they'll do anymore than these two.
From what I've read other places remaking any of the first three TES would be a major pain in the ass they'll likely never do. And Starfield just came out, so doesn't need a remaster, and it would be dumb to remaster Fallout 4 before Fallout 5
You seem to be forgetting that this is Bethesda, the studio that has re-released Skyrim a thousand times over the past ten years. You don't think a remaster isn't coming to drum up sales while the show is on?
I mean, Naughty Dog released a remaster of TLOU and it was only a year old in 2014, then they released an entirely new remake just seven years after that, because the show was popular on Amazon. A lot less work is involved in a remaster/remake that they throw to a third-party vendor than an entirely new game, less risk too.
Fallout 4 already got an updated re-release last year.
And Fallout 5 development isn't slated to begin until after release of TESVI, so we're probably about two or three remasters out until FO5.
Makes sense I suppose - Daggerfall with modern graphics would be insanely large and complex
I'd love nothing more than a modern remake of Daggerfall, a game I sunk probably a thousand hours into over the years, but yeah it would be an insane lift, maybe impossible. There is a version that was updated to use the Unity engine and that was impressive but you'd be hard-pressed to call it really modernized.
That said, though, two of the creative leads from Daggerfall are working on The Wayward Realms, which seems both in spirit and practice a modern remake of Daggerfall in pretty much every sense but just without the TES IP. In the trailer for the game there's even a quick example of a specific quest recreated from Daggerfall (an imp sets itself up as mayor in a small town). I'm definitely going to keep an eye on it.
A fully modern Daggerfall would be great, with one issue. It would probably kill completionists that try to do "everything".
Since their older games were arguably far better than the more recent ones, that's probably for the best.
Call me whatever, but I'm not really interested. Bethesda is dead studio for me. They fail to do good games anymore.
But to be on topic - I have bought Oblivion collector's edition on the launch date. I'm so glad I did as I'm big Morrowind fan and player and I knew I will be buying Oblivion - the CE I bought was pre-order, actually. I bought both expansion DVDs as well, I still own all of it. I played the hell out of the game before my laptop died. Then I bought GOTY for my PS3 and played the hell out of it on PS3. Then Skyrim was announced, I made pre-order and said to myself I really and finally should finish Oblivion for the first time before Skyrim comes out. In one month I finished the base game (which I never did before) all the expansions on PS3 including KotN and then I went into Shivering Isles as well. I rushed through though with my "low level optimized build" - I believe I was level 14 when I finished the base game. But due to good skill pick I was semi-god by then.
I got Steam Deck when it came out and I promised mywelf I will play Oblivion as the first game. And I did. And I put 200 hours into the game basically finishing everything the game has to offer. I played the shit out of it and I'm glad I finally put all the time into the game that it really deserved. Doing that I'm finished with it. I keep very good memories and apart from doing some weird builds or just freshen up the memories I have no reason to come back. Ever.
And this remaster/remake doesn't change a thing for me. Oblivion was definitely flawed but also great game when it came out and it doesn't need to be changed in any way. It is modern enough that it already has all the things from modern age gaming (like 3D graphics, optimized interface - although flawed, interactive map, usable journal...). Saying this I'm thinking about FF7 and its remake - in my opinion FF7 Remake is worth it, it brings a lot to quite aged game.
Now this Oblivion remaster - I see good graphics. I presume it will be somewhat similar in gameplay. If that is the case, it's not worth it. But that is just my opinion and it means nothing in grand scheme of things.
I would prefer if Bethesda changed their way with games. They are big, they can do better games. Yet they won't. They keep to what they know and what makes them money - sadly. Skyrim was absolutely unbelievable let down for me - I finished it twice, I had fun playing, but it felt empty, nothing special. And after I finished it for.the first time after around 80 hours getting all trophies (PS3) I actually asked myself "What now?" - the game gave me everything it had and I had no reason to play again. Actually the same happened with Oblivion when I finished it on Steam Deck - but Oblivion was 200 hours game. And with it's styling and even with quests and with skills and mechanics it would give me a good time if I went in again.
I replayed Skyrim once again later. That time I got warhammer in tutorial and I kept using ONLY warhammer as damage dealer through the whole game. I haven't dealt damage in any other way than using warhammer (and sometimes fus-ro-dahing enemies from the cliff). Yes, I finished the game using only warhammer, the game where your main eneimes are flying dragons. Using warhammer to kill them. I never came back.to the game and I promised myself to not buy anything else from Bethesda. I don't want to play such games.
Rant over. Although I could have continued with Fallout series...
I realize you only mentioned it for the sake of comparison, but I got around to playing the first and second FF7 games this year, and I tapped out around 2/3rds of the way through the second one. Playing them felt like watching an anime with 20 filler episodes for each one that drives the main story — there's filler in the filler! It was pretty disappointing to me that the ideal modern version of FF7 that I wanted to play just doesn't exist. :/
I mean that is FF7. The mid game has a bunch of detours and a lot of beloved minigames. It’s fine if you don’t like the way it meanders, but it’s being true to the original in that sense.
Yeah, you're right. I guess I fall into a weird spot. I'm not nostalgic in a way that makes me want new content just to see more of the characters, but I did play the original so I can tell when the next hour is going to be a new tangent they added in the remake. It's definitely faithful, just not the game I wanted to play.
I haven't played FF7 Remake. I haven't olayed that much of FF7 either. I use it as a comparison because if I finally went for it, I would play Remake simply because the oiginal is a bit too dated for me. If they did an overhaul of original, I would be happy with it (higher quality backgrounds, models etc. but stay in the same concept), but they didn't, so Remake it would be.
Oblivion on the other hand probably won't come woth anything better than graphics. I hate when studio just slaps the new graphics on (I know it is A LOT of work to do) and calls it a day.
Have a look at GTA trilogy definitive edition - that is what I call straight bad. The original games had some charm and they failed to put the charm into the DE versions, they just went for new engine and graphics and made the game kinda sterile.
Have alook at original Mafia and its DE on he other hand. I'm Czech, Mafia is Czech, I love the game, it is part of my life. I feared what the DE will come with. And they made it great. DE is likely what I would call Remake. They took original Mafia and upgraded i in many many ways. It also lot a bit along the way, but it also gained a lot. Original and DE stay bih distinctive in their own way, but there is no lesser one in my opinion.
And Mafia 2 and its DE? Well, Mafia 2 was made in the era when it already looked great and played great. I don't know why there even is DE of it. Probably to have it in DE collection with the other two games and be able to call it that.
What I got from the Oblivion announcement video leads me to think it’s more of a remake than a remaster. They mention overhauling more or less everything else (on top of the graphics). UI, combat, animations, levelling, environment, voice acting - all got touched.
Looks like it was overhauled kinda from all angles. Still - the original was good enough for me.
I mean there will be people who will buy it and I don't blame them. It will likely get big audience of younger people that will learn about the game I played 20 years ago. It is just that I don't believe in the studio anymore.
But maybe this release will become the beginning of their redemption and they will do better games with less bugs. Only time will tell.
I'm not buying this remaster - I'm inclined to add "ever". If I wanted to play Oblivion again I would do so on Steam Deck and I would do so with the old game - part of this is nostalgia, part is "it was meant to be like that (when the game launched; I mean mechanics, controls, graphics...)" and part is due to performance or rather how long you can play on one battery charge.
Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2623190/The_Elder_Scrolls_IV_Oblivion_Remastered/
PS5: https://store.playstation.com/en-us/product/UP1003-PPSA21203_00-ALTARDELUXEED000/
Xbox: https://www.microsoft.com/store/productId/9NQR437K7PQH
It's included with XBOX Gamepass for PC too.
Edit: I just started downloading it, and holy shit, it's 119.2Gb!!!!
Bought, downloaded, and running now. I had no idea this was coming.
I thought it was gonna be an announcement. I tuned in at work (from home) and downloaded it on my desktop for after work. I'm so excited.
It's a safe space here. We all know you're booting that up before clocking out.
I may have tested it on my deck while doing a server upgrade.
I'm kinda shocked it runs at all.
It's verified, but has a low frame rate. The original is perfectly viable in the Deck anyway you just need a couple of engine mods to stabilize memory issues.
I have poured hundreds of hours into morrowind and skyrim, but I've never stuck with oblivion for a full playthrough. I think this will change that, I'm hooked. It seems like this brings a lot of what made skyrim great to oblivion, without giving up the features that people missed from oblivion in skyrim. We'll have to see how the new leveling works out in the long run, it's annoying to me that running and jumping level me up even without being major skills, but I don't know the full breadth of the change yet so hope it all pans out well!
Absolute dealbraker for me: no mod support.
No official mod support, which has always been the case. It does still have support for the original 2006 modding tools. You can open the new game's files with the TES construction kit that comes with the original Oblivion right now.
That’s actually kind of shocking to me, I assumed under the hood (running in Unreal Engine) it’s a completely different beast from the Gamebryo original.
They said in the launch video it's basically a UE5 front end on top of the old back end. There are only minor tweaks to the underlying functionality.
Yeah I recall that from the video but it’s not clear to me where the line of separation is. Wouldn’t that mean things like meshes, animations, and shaders would exist in the UE side and not be moddable?
We’ll find out soon enough exactly what’s possible.
Maybe no mod support, but there are mods.
Currently it is mostly a flood of reshaders, but there are some actual esp files folks are getting to load. A rather large conversation randomizer mod has already been ported over. Mod support may be more widespread than I thought.
Yes but I don't see that as indicative of the ability to mod it. The game's been out for less than 12 hours. Within a couple weeks we'll have some pretty serious mods available.
Oh yeah I don't consider reshaders proper mods or indicative of a games modability at all, just commenting on what was in the link. When they said no mod support and UE5, I thought you wouldn't be able to get the game to even read esp/esm files, that's huge compared to what I expected at all. I expect modders will quickly find what freedoms and limitations they've got, but yeah certainly not in the first 12hrs.
Not that it can't be modded away I suppose, but did they fix the horrible enemy scaling in this release? It made the game quite unpleasant to play as you progressed unless you figured out how to game the system, which them made it silly easy. I swear I spent half of my time in my playthroughs of original carefully managing my skills so I could keep it comfortably between "too easy" and "God-like rats".
I don't know if they've changed the enemy scaling, but efficient leveling should no longer be necessary since you can assign points to attributes as you choose, which should help a lot
That will help somewhat, but any new players going in and thinking "I want to specialize in swords and running" is going to meet that rat-of-destiny that will one shot them real quick if the scaling is unchanged.
In regards to running, you will actually level from it even if you don't select athletics or acrobatics as a major skill. All skills level you like in skyrim. My hope is that there are other balance changes that make that manageable, because it's no longer possible to avoid that pitfall just by not selecting it as a major.
As far as I remember, you always leveled from all skills in Oblivion, it was just that the lower the skill "tier", the more skill increases it required to gain a level. As long as athletics was not specifically chosen as a major or minor skill, it was never a major concern. That was also key to the stat raises, which you already said was addressed, so that level of tedious planning should be gone at least.
At least according to UESP that's incorrect. Majors level you up in the original but minors don't, they only affected what multipliers you would be able to get for your attributes.
Welp, that's strange, I could have sworn that Oblivion also leveled from others skills since both Morrowind and Skyrim did, though Morrowind only leveled off of the Major and Minor, not the bottom skills. I guess this means that you can raise the lower tier skills with impunity without triggering levels. So I guess the question is: did they fix or at least tweak the enemy scaling? If you can no longer directly boost your attributes through skill increases, the enemy scaling may be even worse since there isn't a direct way to overcome it.
I guess we shall see once players start getting into the later game.