Like a Mythic Dawn cultist popping out of a secret room to stab the Emperor in the back, a remaster of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion has shown up out of nowhere, and it’s a dagger I’ve gladly thrown myself onto for over 80 hours (and counting) in less than a week. This Unreal-tinted glasses nostalgia trip modestly modernizes one of my all-time favorite open-world RPGs and had me teaming up with Sean Bean to close shut the jaws of Oblivion, helping the God of Madness with his, um, complicated mental health issues, rising to the top of every faction like I was angling to become Cyrodiil’s Valedictorian, and violating every single person’s personal space by getting way too close to them while talking.
"It really happened! The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered has been released! Developed by Bethesda Game Studios and Virtuos, it is available right now for PC, Xbox Series X|S, and PS5. The base game includes all of the old DLCs that are available for the original version of the game. However, there is also a Digital Deluxe Edition that features quests for new armour and weapons, as well as a digital artbook and the game’s soundtrack!" Charlie @ Thumb Culture
Oblivion Remastered shows how Bethesda once embraced discomfort in game design, forcing players to adapt rather than guiding them every step.
The Outerhaven says: The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered looks fantastic, but that doesn’t make it a remake. Here's why the distinction matters for gamers and developers.
Just like how, RE2 was/is regarded as a Remake benchmark (FF7 is a more ambitious project) and later that became SH2 ... Oblivion should be the new Remaster benchmark (although Nightdive's multitude of Remaster efforts should also be commendable) ... previously held by CoD4 Remaster and recently Dead Rising Remaster
Other notable mentions : Remasters : Halo and Gears Anniversaries, Tomb Raiders, MediEvil etc
Remakes : Mafia 1, Demon Souls, Dead Space, Ninja Gaiden 2, Persona 3 Reload, Spyro Reignited etc
So glad MGS Delta is being done by Virtuos!
These guys are now superstars. So happy.
Why does the naming matter at all? Let's all just be glad its a better version of oblivion than what initially released all those years ago. Getting caught up in a moniker is not the hill anyone should die on.
As much as people hate on remakes and remasters there are plenty of amazing games released on last gen consoles and PS360 era that deserve to be remastered like Oblivion. I remember playing Ico remastered and having good controls and no input lag was like playing a new game compared to PS2 version.
Legal reasons. Lawsuits happen from false advertising. Otherwise you could dump a 20 year old unchanged game on the store, call it a "remake" and charge full 70 dollar price for it and get sued. At least remastered allows you to change a couple things here and there to resell it to gamers.
It’s not a full remake but it’s plenty good enough. I just hope for a physical copy!
It's the cheapest possible touch up job by a lot of people that struggled using the engine. It still needs a lot of work.
In what way is this "the cheapest possible touch up job"? Are you living in another world? It looks wonderful graphically, runs pretty well overall and plays great. It's leaps and bounds better than the original release in most aspects.
This is the score I would give it too. A few QoL improvements and some much needed combat enhancements particularly for the camera allow it to be appreciated in the modern era. However the performance issues persist even on performance mode.
Are we just going to admit that bugs are a gameplay feature required for all Bethesda games, and therefore they won't get docked points for it?
As for someone who played the original at launch, this is a safe faithful remaster. Some new bugs here and there but the core is still there just has a face lift and other nice little extra details. I wish they could have released the game with better performance on PS5, it chugs even on performance mode. And also fix the goofy looking sprint.