💎 PREMIUM: Id/Drone - HD Photos!

I'm lucky to have been able to experience Oblivion afresh twice in my lifetime, it's one of my favourite games. Ironically both times it released I had the same issue - my pc just wasn't good enough to run it so I had to wait a while before I could play. This ultimately worked in my favour, as it gave the devs time to patch major bugs and fix issues. Patient gamers know how this works, especially with a Bethesda game.

The Remaster takes the original game and tweaks a few systems, like smoothing out the levelling; adding the Clairvoyance spell from Skyrim to lead you to your quests, fixing many long standing bugs and - last but not least - brought the visuals up to date. They are stunning, but by golly do they demand solid hardware. To play at 1440p 60fps with all the bells and whistles on you'll need a 7900XT/4070 or better, and that's even with upscaling.

Perhaps worst of all, the game is incredibly CPU demanding. Its running the original engine in the background and then feeding that info into the UE5 engine to render - giving you multiple sources of stuttering if you run out of cache or memory bandwidth. This is a game that really benefits from an X3D CPU and its enlarged cache. I'd suggest a 5800x3d or better; if you're committed to using intel a 12600k feels like the baseline for 1440p ultra.

That said, this game is a marvel - I find it meditative and restful whilst still being full of wonder and joy. I've walked everywhere so far in my playthrough, running into some stunning views and more than a few crazy moments. I enjoy the game the most by ignoring the main story as much as I can; I don't open the Oblivion gates until I'm level 25+. I spent the first few hours just exploring, completing a Pilgrimage to the Nine and earning my stripes as a recent recruit to the Mages Guild.

Originally coming to this game from Morrowind felt like a step down in role-playing and depth, traded for greater accessibility, better visuals and full voice acting. But over the years I've come to accept Oblivion for what it is, in its own right. It's a great game, with fantastic music and beautiful visuals, though the combat was always a tad lacklustre. Thankfully the Remaster adds sprinting and dodging, gives enemies hit reactions and slows down their movement and weapon swings - giving us the player a bit more agency in fights.

Personally my enjoyment comes from crafting the character and build I'm working towards along the journey, finding and discovering new places and quests and gradually gaining in appreciable strength and power. It doesn't come from rushing to an end-game build as soon as possible. I like to smell the roses, gather the herbs and see the sights. This game is still fairly old fashioned, and it might be too slow and cumbersome for some more modern players - and that's okay. But for me though, this game is and always will be a classic. Just make sure you've got the horsepower to enjoy it.