So it seems Bethesda has remastered Oblivion, which means the Elder Scrolls 6 is probably another 10 years off.

At any rate, here's the info:

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered

Also the big reveal with commentary by a trusted Elder Scrolls authority, Gopher:

Is This "The Big Reveal" You Wanted? (Oblivion Remaster)

Thanks, TM!

A few months ago I saw that Todd Howard was quoted as saying that he was not interested in remastering Morrowind, so maybe it won't be quite that long until the next Elder Scrolls.

The reveal video is enlightening. I'm very glad they didn't stay with the old Gambryo game engine that they've used for years and have gone with the Unreal engine, which is definitely superior. Also glad that they changed everything from the visuals to the game mechanics and sound design.

It was also neat to see Wes Johnson up and around. He had that medical scare a few months ago, glad that iconic voice is still with us, "Stop right there criminal scum!"

Not cheap though. It's $50 for the standard version, which has the base game and the two expansions and $60 for the "Deluxe" edition, which has the old DLC pack (armor quests with the infamous horse armor) and some digital goodies included with the original expansions.

Oh, hell. I'm a sucker for any new version of any ES game. I'm in. Downloading now to have a look.

Oh, and it's Steam Deck verified, too. Downloading there, too, as soon as I can.

EDIT: It looks good on the Deck, and runs just fine, no lagging so far. Obviously, it's the same game, but it's a game I still play from time to time.

EDIT again: So, I was beginning to wonder just how much different the remastering made the game look, as the sewers outside the prison were much the same. However, upon emerging into the world, I see just how nice the game looks. It's very pretty.

Runs well on the laptop; no surprise, but I'll be interested to see how well it manages on the Deck over time.

It's a huge game. I had to take everything off the Deck except Fallout 76 and BG3 to get it to download.

I'm playing it too. The $50 version includes the two DLCs: Knights of the Nine, and the terrific Shivering Isle. I bought the $60 Deluxe Edition that adds a digital art book and MP3 soundtrack. The graphics have been overhauled with Unreal 5, but the gameplay is largely the same from what I've seen so far. The attribute and skill system, inventory system, combat, and old-school mechanics like the lack of a stash box are all retained from the original game. In the original game, I used the 3 opened sacks in Market District for stashing in the early going. In the new game, I found those same 3 sacks. I would say this is more of a 80% remaster and only 20% remake. Unreal 5 may have improved the look, but the game logic and scripts still seem to be from the original Gamebryo engine. We may even see the same bugs too. Much of the same voice acting carries over. Overall, I say this is a good attempt in making it "faithful" while accessible to modern players. But new players may still be stumped by some of the old-school mechanics, such as having to sleep in order to level-up. Most games today level you up automatically.

Just read an article that mentioned the game isn't running very well on the Steam Deck or allegedly on some well equipped PC's. Let us know how it goes for you. I'd post up the article, but it's not from one of the more common review sites and sort of has the feel of an nVidia ad rather than a fully flushed out review. Will wait to hear how it's working for our members.

Hopefully Gopher will have a review up soon, he's the one I personally trust for ES game input due to his technical knowledge and long experience modding for the series.

I have heard that the game is not mod ready, we'll see how that evolves as well given Bethesda's previous push to consolidate mods.

Hey GamingPhreak, what's your gaming rig (vid card, CPU)? Curious to see how the game is performing on various set-ups.

I have an RTX 4070 video card. This game requires a high-end video card, because Unreal 5 does. Here is my gameplay video. My in-game graphics settings is shown at about 10:42 -- 3840x2160, high to ultra in-game graphics settings, hardware ray tracing off, software ray tracing at low, DLSS setting at "quality", and DLSS frame regeneration off. I don't get 60 frames per second all the time. Sometimes it dips to 40-50 fps. The game has crashed 7 times already. I know because the game creates a log for every crash. Overall, it is not the worst day-one experience of a triple-A game. Nowadays, we have come to expect slightly less than smooth sailing when you buy a triple-A game at launch. You buy at launch when you really want to play it on day one, regardless of any possible technical issues. And that applies to me. I played the original 2006 Oblivion, and was excited when a possible remaster was in the works. A Fallout 3 remaster has also been rumored. I would also get that at launch.

By the way, ANOTHER Oblivion remake is also coming this year. Some of you may have heard of it already. It's Skyblivion (official website). It uses Skyrim's skill and leveling system, but with Oblivion's stories, characters, and locations.

Thanks for the info GamingPhreak!

I found a listing for the minimum requirements. Although, these should be taken with a grain of salt since Bethesda is also known to understate their PC requirements.

Operating System: Windows 10 64-bit.
Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 2600X or Intel Core i7-6800K.
Memory: 16GB RAM.
Graphics: AMD Radeon RX 5700 or NVIDIA GeForce 1070 Ti.
Storage: 125 GB SSD.
DirectX: Version 12.


I'm running a 1070 with an i7 6700K 4GHz in a Win10 box and my Win11 box runs an RTX 3060 with an i7-13700K 5.4 GHz so, once I get around to the game I'll see how those perform.

Edit: You guys are a bad influence - I was "forced" to rationalize getting Oblivion, groceries can wait

So, my experience has been quite good. The game runs very smoothly on my Nvidia 3080 laptop. I didn't play on the laptop for very long, as I only used it to create my character -- I could NOT figure out how to do that on the Deck, so I just created my Thief on the PC.

On the Steam Deck, it runs surprisingly well. I've had a couple of nasty slowdowns in outdoor areas, and I wouldn't say the game is racing along at a high fps, but it's perfectly fine and allows me to play my game out on my covered patio. Twice now the game has started stuttering very badly and become unplayable, requiring me to go make a cup of tea and wait for things to settle down. That said, that happens with Fallout 76 on the Deck and I've learned just to wait until it passes. Graphically, on the Deck obviously I'm not using the highest and best settings, but it's still much prettier than the original. The game runs smoothly enough that movement is fluid and combat accurate. I'm also almost fully competent with the command menus, except that I cannot for the life of me work out how to stand up after sitting down, and I cannot see interior maps of the dungeons, which is a real pain, and of course the character creation menus defeated me.


As for the changes, I like them for the most part. I'm not entirely sold on the levelling changes; I liked the old system where you had to plan ahead with your major skills. They did make Luck harder to level up, as in the original game.

GF, I would absolutely buy a Fallout 3 remaster, and Skyblivion is on my radar.

Hi hagatha, to get up from a sitting position, you press E, the same key you press to sit down. It's different in modern games, but the original Oblivion is that way too. The local map in the remaster is tricky to get. You need to open up the world map and click the "dot" at the top right corner, above the scroll bar for zooming. Apparently, zooming in max shows the local map. You have to do this every time to bring up the local map. So this is a badly designed UI feature and needs to be improved, because it is done much better in the old game. Unlike the local maps in Fallout 3 and 4, which we rarely look at, the local maps in Oblivion are much more useful and needed. Local maps show exteriors as well as interiors in Oblivion, whereas Fallout 3 and 4 only show interiors in local maps.

Regarding leveling-up changes, yes there are some significant differences. The biggest one is that you can level up any attribute during the level-up process. In the original game, you can only level up attributes that govern skills that you have leveled up. For instance, you can only level up Intelligence or Wisdom if you have leveled up magic skills in the old game. But the new game lets you level up any attribute anytime.

That's good to know and also preferable. Sort of aligns with the way some Feats are advanced in D&D based games, sort of. I used to "play" the the leveling system in the original Oblivion by giving my character Skills I really wouldn't use (with the exception of Athletics). Then concentrate on bringing up skills I would actually use, organically. It was a little more difficult at the start, but that slowed overall game leveling and improved my character's performance proportionately better than the current level. I'm playing it as the game design dictates for this run-through of the re-master though, using a vanilla Assassin Class.

I had to laugh that you could still take advantage of the "exploit" to level your Sneak and Acrobatics in the prison cell before initiating the beginning scene (spamming forward while crouched in the corner of the sleep alcove/secret exit and jumping).

GF, the Steam Deck control for the interior map is the one I can't find, and I've tried just about every combination of controls. There's something called "detail" on the main map, and it says RB, but I've pushed every button on the Deck and it doesn't come up.

The new graphics really are a lot prettier, even on the settings I'm using on the Steam Deck.

The control to zoom in on the world map is the one to use to get to the local map. On the PC, the mouse wheel zooms in. I don't know what zooms in on the Steam Deck.

Another difference in leveling up is that in the new game, all skills contribute to level-up, with major skills contributing more than minor skills. In the old game, only major skills contribute to level-up -- you can level-up a minor skill to 100 and your character may still be stuck at the same level.

Another significant gameplay difference in the new game is that Endurance can regenerate health both in and out of combat, albeit more slowly in combat. Higher Endurance also increases the regen rate. In the old game, Endurance doesn't regen health at all. In fact, there is no way to regen health in the original Oblivion other than drinking potions, sleeping, or casting healing spells.

But on the whole, a lot of the old mechanics are carried over. Weapons and armor degrade and need repairs. There is no stash box, so you need to put your stuff in random containers in the world. You can't fast-travel if you are inside an interior cell. That funky persuasion mini-game is retained. Lock-picking mini-game is retained. The inventory UI looks pretty much the same. You must sleep to level up. Etc.

Yeah, I was surprised that my character was regenerating health. That's sort of interesting because one of the main ways to up your Restoration skill in the old Oblivion (other than going to a trainer) was engaging a low level foe and continually healing during combat. Was also a good way to increase block without much risk. I'll be interested to see the synergies between magicka skills and spell usage to understand how those level compared to OG Oblivion.

Edit: I ended up requesting a refund, so I won't have much to offer on the topic, at least until the price comes down I can't justify the cost given how much the "remaster" inherited from the original game (i.e. collision bugs and sketchy dialogue).

Also, Trail, the game doesn't support mods, as I understand it. I never used mods in Oblivion as it's the game I got to for mindless fun, which it delivers as-is.

You know me too well The mod issue was one of the things that helped push my decision to return it. Baurus's "creatively" phrased dialogue is an example of another. It's just a personal preference, but if I'm remastering a game, getting rid of or revising iffy dialog would be one of the first things I'd do.

I really called it close too, had 116 minutes of playtime and the refund cut off is 2 hours

Good timing!

I should say that even on my Steam Deck the graphics really are very nice, not so much in the dungeons, but in the world and in the towns the improvement is quite striking.

Another improvement I've discovered is that Alchemy is simplified so that you aren't endlessly scrolling through ingredients to find the ones you need. I rely heavily on Alchemy early on as a source of income, so this is a welcome change.