Oblivion REBORN

 That's right, you're going to DIE here!

The rumours have churned around for many a year but now it seems the online zeitgeist has convinced itself that this is the time: Bethesda are finally going to remake one of their most beloved games of all time, The Elder Scroll Oblivion. Or rather, Bethesda are going to commission someone else to make a remake, because they're too busy making new titles and I don't think Todd Howard wants any of his last few game projects to be remakes when he could be attempting to push the envelope as far as he possibly can. Rather than commit their own resources to it, rumour has it that the challenge has been given to a company called... Virtuos... Oh, the company who ruined 'The Outer World' remaster! How fun and unexpected!

Now it is imperative to say that none of this comes with any sort of official announcement as of yet, so don't go scouring the Internet for some sort of reveal trailer you might have missed. What we have here is a leak from an apparent former employee of Virtuos who is said to have had his identity independently confirmed by the forum who hosted the 'leak'. Why such a figure would leak something so innocuous with no physical evidence is beyond me, but any more time to ponder this possibility before it's dropped upon with two months until launch (Which is becoming Bethesda's preferred method of marketing recently) sounds good to me. And I'll be honest: I don't like it. I also don't get it, but that's an entirely separate and personal angle.

What I mean to say is, I don't understand the fervour around Oblivion in any aspect more real than nostalgia stroking. Don't get me wrong, Oblivion was my first Elder Scrolls too! I remember hearing people at school talk about it, then in the lead up to Skyrim getting really into Morrowind and Oblivion videos on Youtube, and then sourcing old copies of both games for myself. At the time I loved them both dearly, but with time I honestly can't even bring myself to endure Oblivion for more than a few hours at a time. Oblivion is just... garish to endure. It's natural colours are throbbing and neon, it's dungeons are repetitive and robotic, it's side quests (outside of faction questlines) are largely unambitious and forgettable outside of a few standouts- it's a product of it's time and a stepping stone from the more open concepts of Morrowind to the more focused stylings of Skyrim. It's the middle child in my eyes.

But it does garner a lot of love from people I assume to be addled with memories of nostalgia that don't really sit down and actually play the thing too often. (Maybe I need to try with a Mod Pack or something to really get it, so to speak.) Morrowind would be far too much of an effort to Remake, as it would have to be fundamentally redesigned in order to fit the sensibilities of a modern audience, a Skyrim remake would get laughed off any store front it popped up on- this Oblivion remake is really the only possible one that The Elder Scrolls Series could be subject to, if we accept that a remake is likely. (And given the track record of the industry I'd assume it's pretty likely.) But hold off on the celebration and balloons just yet, dial down the confetti and sparks, because there's some cold truth alongside this... apparently the Remake is being made on Unreal Engine 5.

This is the one point that immediately shakes the credibility of the source, if you ask me, because it's such an 'general gamer doesn't understand development' take to default to "Unreal Engine 5" as the be-all end-all of game engines because it can make things look pretty rather easily. Specialist game engines with legacy and purpose don't even enter the conversation for them because in those addled minds it makes absolute sense for the heights of fidelity to trump all other factors of game development. But let's assume that this is accurate, why is it such an issue for a prospective Oblivion Remake to target a totally new engine with fantastic capability? Because of the core most heart of the Bethesda game community: The potential to mod.

Modding is everything to a Bethesda game: the cream filling of the donut, the cheese in the pizza crust, the molten core of our soggy Earth- without the capability to mod the landscape of Bethesda titles and their unending playability would vanish. There's a reason why a Starfield PS5 exclusive release was such a nightmare scenario for everyone, because keeping Bethesda from it's PC modders would be like keeping Oscar Isaac from thirst-trap movie roles- an unforgiveable crime of nature. Unreal Engine, as a rule, isn't really an engine that accepts modding as naturally as Bethesda's homegrown Creation Engine always has, and everytime a Bethesda game comes feeling and looking janky, the world forgives them because we know the sacrifices that are being made to allow that game's spine to be moldable for years to come. Take that out of an Oblivion Remake in favour of raytracing and natural coloured grass, and you've missed the entire point of Bethesda as a concept.

Oblivion Remake be what it may, I think the real star of the show is going to instead be the Skyblivion total conversion mod for Skyrim which is, by much surprise, actually coming to some sort of form recently. In fact, the team have been providing many updates of their progress and it seems this newer engine rebirth of Oblivion is coming to some sort of reality with a tinge more promise than what we're hearing out of these rumours. It might turn out that Bethesda's biggest competition might end up being their own fans if they stay this course. Why Bethesda hasn't just poached this entire team and project the same way they're slowing sniping up the development arm of Fallout 4: London is totally beyond me. What I do know, is that this supposed remake will have to make our eyes bleed to be worth the effort, and I just don't expect Oblivion to have that kind of 'glam' in it.

Personally I don't really see why Bethesda titles are ever needing remakes to begin with. I mean sure, Re-releases to make the base product more stable are a given when we're talking about games like Skyrim which ran like hot trash on Playstations- (Weren't too bad everywhere else though) but Remakes? Why? Fans usually know the best way to revive their favourite games and are more in tune with the plight of the player. Bringing out the bugs that we love, hiding those that we don't, picking up on the really obscure little details that no one else would have bothered address because these one fan has a niche hyper fixation with it. All I want are more Bethesda experiences to play around with. If anything, Bethesda should spend this money porting an older Fallout game to modern devices; do something useful.