0 Comments
The publisher Bethesda has surprise announced and released a remastered version of Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, nineteen years after its initial release. This shadow drop was a great decision and hopefully more developers follow suit.
Elder Scrolls is back!
While we may not have any new information on the hugely-anticipated Elder Scrolls VI, Bethesda has finally treated us to fresh content with a remake of the fourth chapter in the series, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.
Available now for Xbox consoles, PS5 and PC, this is a ground-up remake of the original title, complete with all expansion packs as well as brand new in-game systems. Leaks and rumours had been swirling around on the internet over the past few weeks, before Bethesda officially announced the title via a YouTube trailer on Tuesday.
What’s perhaps most exciting is that the game became available as soon it was announced, making this a rare high-profile shadow release with no marketing build-up.
With no real hype beforehand and with very little information for YouTubers to dissect through, the game’s sudden release is a burst of fresh air for a largely stagnant industry; unless you’re a Nintendo fan, of course.
The game’s remake was outsourced to a French developer called Virtuos. The studio had already worked with Bethesda prior to taking on this project and claim to be big fans of the original themselves.
So far, impressions and first-time playthroughs seem overwhelmingly positive, with the game running smoothly on most systems. Given this is a Bethesda game, that’s actually quite surprising, and provides hope for the next entry in the series.
After several disastrous launches a few years back, such as Fallout 76 and the ensuing marketing headache as well as the underwhelming release of Starfield, Bethesda desperately needed to regain a little goodwill with long term fans who were growing weary of the studio.
Bethesda also provided several modders with free CD keys for the remake, as they had been working on an unofficial version of the game via Skyrim’s engine for many years. Called Skyblivion, it was intended to provide a hybrid experience between the two original titles.
The team say they’ll still be working on the game, but hype will understandably die down now that Bethesda has released their own official version.
