So the countdown is over and Bethesda have made the predicatable announcement of TESIV:Oblivion. Obviously no release date as of yet (rumours of a Winter 2005 are bullcrap in my opinion) - but we can all smile at the fact the game's been in development since 2002 in some form or another.

Some recently leaked pictures of the 12-page magazine exclusive (which I will not be putting up here due to it's illegal nature) are truly breath-taking as Oblivion sets out to be as ground-breaking to the gaming industry as TES3: Morrowind.

So what do we know about this latest edition to the Elderscrolls series? Well first off the game will no longer be set in Morrowind but on the main island of Tamriel itself in none other than the Imperial Province, Cyrodiil. It seems there is some unfortunate news - the Emperor is dead and according to the prophecies, with the Emperor dead the gates of Oblivion are opened and Daedra (demons to the uninformed) are pouring out from their realm and into Tamriel.

During the main quest in Morrowind the player finds out that there seems to be some sort of civil unrest back in the Imperial Province. So much so that the Blades (the Emperor's secret intelligence service) and Imperial Legions are being pulled out of Morrowind to go sort it out. Even Casius Cosades has to return back to sort out some sort of unrest. Its all very suspicious to me!

Diabolic Wizard, a forum member at Morrowind Source came up with some very interesting conclusions relating to the inscriptions that Bethesda left us in their eight day countdown to the announcement.

On the third day the inscription reads:
"And from the womb of the void, who shall stem the blood tide?"

Obviously "the womb of the void" implies Oblivion. Players of Tribunal, Morrowind's first expansion pack may remember Eno Romari. Eno Romari was a prophet found in Godsreach whom Almalexia disliked intensely. He had some interesting things to say about what was going to happen next.

Eno mentions that Daedra will invade Tamriel from the Oblivion - bounds will be broken that keep them in the Oblivion.

Oblivion Wizard went on to speculate that the "blood tide" would be a great war between the Imperial Forces (who are the controlling force in Tamriel) and the invading Daedra. Once can only conclude that it will be the player character who shall "stem" this tide.

Players who have completed Morrowind will also remember that before the final battle on Red Mountain you meet Wulf, an old soldier thought to be the spectre of Tiber Septim himself. "Wulf" gives you the emperor's lucky coin which has some magical propeties. Perhaps the coin is a family heirloom within the royal family and the emperor - foreseeing his own death - passes the heirloom on to his son, the player character?

While this is all speculation, there are a few things we know about TESIV: Oblivion. To begin with, it seems as though the player character once again begins as a prisoner, this time in a dungeon. Your very first quest sees you escaping this prison. Of course one has to question why the Neverine has been locked up in a dungeon - perhaps the Imperials weren't all too happy with the Dark Elves having a saviour, or perhaps the player character is no longer the Neverine?

The game has a whole new engine which has enabled some amazing new features. From recently leaked screenshots it looks as though the game will have rideable mounts (most noteably horses) which were missing from Morrowind but sought after desperately in the modding community.

The draw distance (the distance the character can see before the area is clouded in fog) seems to be MUCH further than that of Morrowind which was a real let-down. The problem was only resolved by the use of a user-made plug-in which enabled the draw distance to be enhanced. We can only speculate that Bethesda are using the same technology as Far Cry to enable such far sight (ignore the pun). In Far Cry players could see for miles, literally, yet the graphics were ten times better than that of Morrowind's. The technology lowered the resolution and quality of textures and objects that were a certain distance away, unlike in Morrowind where all objects and terrain maintained their polygon count whether the player was standing ten metres or one hundred metres away from it.

The game will maintain its first person perspective while still allowing players to switch to third person perspective to get a wider view of their location (and a snapshot of their character in full attire!). As any Morrowind player will tell you, you'll mostly be using the first person view, but the third person perspective can be quite handy.

The graphics are in no way a let down - we're looking at graphics which overwhelm that of recent releases such as Doom 3 and Far Cry, and even that of Half-Life 2. The locations look breath-taking and will be a real eye turner for anyone looking for a Middle-Earth style setting (lets face it, EA aren't the best at portraying Middle-Earth in all its glory).

No word as of yet on the handy-dandy construction set which so many mod developers swear by in the Morrowind modding community. Nor has there been any word on any multiplayer capabilities for Oblivion. The decision to not develop a multiplayer side for Morrowind was a real gamble for Bethesda, but really paid dividends as their fanbase whole heartedly (for the most part) agreed with their decision. If Bethesda do decide to make a multiplayer aspect it will be interesting to see how they pull off the feat, and how their fanbase will react to such an announcement.

What with Bethesda's recent aquirement of the Fallout license and the announcement of Fallout 3, Bethesda really look to be coming in trumps as a major game developer.

Its early days yet, but from what I can see The Elderscrolls IV: Oblivion is set to storm the gaming industry like its older brother, Morrowind did in 2002. Just start purchasing those Russian nuclear reactors from EBay now to power this monstrosity of a game! Half-Life2? Screw that...there's a new big boy in town.

nuclear reactors? LMAO.

Mine is here.

Take that Fable.

I checked out the gameinformer artical and they said winter of 2005. of cource I dont expect it to be writen in stone.

is there a chance that the whole world (all of the games basically) could be added together? sorta like full world acess... is there any chance that would happen?

Maybe.... but not in this game.

Elder Scrolls 3: VVardenfall
Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind
---

see... Vvardenfall would have been too long to fit on the box

Which would explain why Oblivion is named as it is. And why it's most likely going to not live up to the ES name.



D*mn you mainstream gamers!

Well, If they just made it Vardenfell, They wouldent have that problem! Just had to add that extra v didn't they! And I think the whole world in one game would be pretty cool. But imagine how long it would be to make! like 8 years AT LEAST!

I doubt that they would ever make the whole world in one game. That would take too much work. Plus, apparently, "mainstream gamers like short games." Which means small worlds. And if Oblivion is turning mainstream, then I'm willing to bet anything afterwards will be too.

Plus, in 8 years, videogames will be dead.

REally Slaiv? whats your reckoning on "in 8 year videogames will be dead" I wanna know where you getting this... How can video games die anyway?

I'm on the gamespot mailing list and they sent out a big announcment about Bethesda officially announcing TES:4 and so they ahve a large section on it:

Interveiw with Todd Howard

Info on Oblivion itself

For the second link, be sure to read the paragraph starting with:
"A new artificial intelligence system, called Radiant AI"

Read the Gamespy Article.... it's like 5 pages long. Aside from the Game Informer article, it's the second largest article on TES:IV available.