Reading Oblivion now provides a more satisfying experience for me

Reading Oblivion now provides a more satisfying experience for me

Hey there, buddy! Let's take a stroll down memory lane, shall we? Just the other day, I found myself creeping around Skingrad in this fancy Oblivion Remastered, tailing the nosy bugger Glarthir's pals. I thought to myself, "Man, this game has some weird, engrossing side quests now, right?" But hold up – did I really play this game back in the day or was I just a young whippersnapper with an attention span less than a gnat's?

Technically, yeah, I spun up Oblivion in 2006... when I was nine, struggling with reading skills, and had only a vague idea about gaming. Maybe I never truly played Oblivion.

I've got vague memories of it feeling like yesterday: My old man comes home from work one day with the Collector's Edition of The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion, this flashy bi-fold case with discs, an art book, a map, and a shimmering coin. None of us had a clue what The Elder Scrolls was, and my dad wasn't much of a gamer. He wanted something new to play on our Xbox 360, and I don't think he ever got out of the sewers.

Firing up games my dad bought but never played was a funny tradition in those Xbox years, though. Games like Crackdown or Kameo, you probably never heard of 'em. I picked up Oblivion because the metal coin was cool, and I was a clueless kid who didn't know what "RPG" even meant.

Do you remember that frazzled character creator? Gave me the heebie-jeebies! All those sliders, tabs, and Bethesda faces staring deep into my soul were too much, so I went with a default white guy. Also, remember the sewers of the Imperial City overwhelming my third-grader sense of direction? Did Bethesda cut most of the sewers part out in the remaster? I could've sworn I spent hours wandering those tunnels before seeing daylight.

I sure as hell wasn't reading or listening to any of the dialogue, either. I could recall the emperor's assassination (since it happened in front of me), but I'm pretty sure I didn't have a clue about that late emperor's crucial mission he'd entrusted to some stranger like me.

Fast-forward to last week, I found myself entering Weynon House in Oblivion Remastered, and a faint sense of anxiety washed over me. I knew this place from the 2006 playthrough – in fact, it's probably where I left off. Weynon Priory was not a nice place back then. I'm pretty sure I punched a priest in the kisser, and everyone wanted to kill my sore loser butt, so I bolted. I hadn't saved, and my most recent autosave was in the middle of the fight, so I pressed the shut-off button on the 360 in a panic. If I'd bothered to read tutorials or listened to the annoying characters, I might've learned how to avoid ruining someone's day like that. Instead, I panicked and bailed.

That was my whole Oblivion experience back then, only dabbling with it again in 2012 after Skyrim. All I remember is speeding through the main quest and hopping until I maxed out acrobatics. No points for patience back then.

Now I'm ashamed to admit I thought Oblivion was just alright all these years. It's a freakin' masterpiece, and the remastered updates make it feel fresh while keeping the charm of the past. Every single side quest I've started since becoming the hero of Kvatch in the remaster is brand-new to me, which tells me I had no clue how to enjoy these games in my youth. Oh well, better late than never.

If you're curious about console commands, lockpicking spots, vampire cures, Thieves Guild membership, or persuasion tips, just ask!

Morgan Park Morgan's been penning articles for PC Gamer since 2018, but before that, he spent his childhood and college years scribbling nonsense at small gaming sites. He enjoys ranting about shooters, the communities that play them, and anything else gaming-related. If he writes you a bad joke on Slack, don't worry – he'll probably forget he did.

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1. I probably didn't fully appreciate the quirks of Oblivion when I was a young gamer, as I barely understood the concept of reading or the intricacies of gaming.
2. In my childhood home, Oblivion sat on the gaming shelf, gathering dust next to forgotten titles like Kameo and Crackdown - remnants of a tradition of playing games my dad bought but never touched.
3. Fast-forward to today, I'm seriously considering diving back into the world of Oblivion, armed with a better understanding of gaming and more patience than my nine-year-old self possessed.
4. A self-proclaimed gaming expert, Morgan Park, has been pensively analyzing the latest updates in Oblivion, uncovering hidden gems like new side quests that I missed during my initial playthrough.
5. As I join him on this adventure through Oblivion, I'll be giving tutorials and reading up on console commands a chance, hoping to finally understand the depths of this game that has eluded me for so long.
6. Perhaps, with a newfound perspective and some practical knowledge, I can claim victory against oblivion this time, immersing myself in the captivating universe of Oblivion without panic or premature exit strategies.

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