Bethesda has formally announced The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered after months of rumours, and it’s available now on Xbox Series X/S, PS5 and PC. It’s included with Xbox Game Pass on Xbox consoles and PC and sold for $66.99 on these platforms and PS5.
In a livestream, Bethesda and partner developer Virtuos unpacked everything that’s new in this massive upgrade over the original 2006 Xbox classic open-world action-RPG. Oblivion, which is widely regarded to be one of the greatest games of all time, is set in the province of Cyrodiil and follows the player character’s efforts to stop a fanatical cult from opening gates to a demonic realm. That core story has been preserved as is in the remaster, but practically everything surrounding it has been expanded upon.
First and foremost, the visuals have been remade from the ground up in the current-gen Unreal Engine 5 to give Oblivion a stunning modern look in 4K/60fps. Other new features include dynamic lighting, new lip sync time, updated character models and animations, improved audio, overhauled Skyrim-inspired levelling system, improved Starfield-inspired third-person perspective, newly added unique voiceovers for each race and more.
A remastered version of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion has been rumoured since the highly-publicized 2023 FTC v. Microsoft legal battle over the tech giant’s then-pending acquisition of Activision Blizzard. During those proceedings, internal Microsoft documents were leaked that pointed to several unannounced games, including Oblivion Remastered. More recently, leaked images of the game were found on ResetEra.
Oblivion Remastered will hopefully tide players over a little bit for the next instalment in the series, The Elder Scrolls VI. The game was announced way back in June 2018 but we’ve seen nothing from it since, given that the same development team was working on 2023’s Starfield.
Perhaps we’ll get an Elder Scrolls VI tease at the Xbox Games Showcase on June 8, but for now, fans and newcomers can at least make a grand return to Cyrodiil.
Image credit: Bethesda
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