Tuesday, April 22nd 2025
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered Launches Today - Available on PC, Xbox X|S & PS5
The "walkout" moment is a staple of Bethesda Game Studios' titles, and there are few that have stuck with me as much as emerging from the sewer-set tutorial of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. That makes it all the more incredible, 19 years later, to see it in thoroughly modern form in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered—which arrives today. I watch as a newly-built character loads into the wide open world of Cyrodiil (R.I.P. Emperor Septim)—they turn to see the landscape I know so well in new and improved form. Mist wreathes around the top of nearby mountains, seen again in distorted reflections on the wholly reworked water below. A sunrise cuts across the world, casting long shadows across gorgeous new foliage. Behind me, an even more imposing Imperial City stands proudly, blotting out the horizon behind it. And then, we're interrupted by an unscripted attack from a Mud Crab. It might look all-new, but this is Oblivion alright.
Oblivion Remastered—All the Updates
Oblivion Remastered comes to Xbox Series X|S, PC (via Steam and the Xbox App for Windows PC) and PlayStation 5. It's also available day one with Game Pass and, with Xbox Play Anywhere, one purchase on an Xbox platform means you can play on Xbox consoles, Windows PC, and cloud with full cross-entitlements and cross-saves. Designed in co-operation with the remaster specialists at Virtuos, Oblivion Remastered keeps the core of the original game intact (and includes the Knights of the Nine and Shivering Isles expansions), but drapes it in an incredible new visual style, powered by Unreal Engine 5. Alongside 4K resolution, 60 frames per second performance, all-new textures, lighting effects, and landscape improvements, the game also updates everything from character, spell, and weapon animations, to dynamic time of day and weather effects.
Seeing the game in action, the effect is immediate—this is the game millions have loved for almost two decades, in truly modern form. If you're a longtime fan, everything you know and love is intact, and if you've never played, this is the perfect place to begin.
It also adds new quality of life improvements to the original game, including:
Oblivion Remastered Deluxe Edition
Available for purchase separately, or as an upgrade to the base game, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered Deluxe Edition includes all of the above, and adds:
Source:
Xbox News
Oblivion Remastered—All the Updates
Oblivion Remastered comes to Xbox Series X|S, PC (via Steam and the Xbox App for Windows PC) and PlayStation 5. It's also available day one with Game Pass and, with Xbox Play Anywhere, one purchase on an Xbox platform means you can play on Xbox consoles, Windows PC, and cloud with full cross-entitlements and cross-saves. Designed in co-operation with the remaster specialists at Virtuos, Oblivion Remastered keeps the core of the original game intact (and includes the Knights of the Nine and Shivering Isles expansions), but drapes it in an incredible new visual style, powered by Unreal Engine 5. Alongside 4K resolution, 60 frames per second performance, all-new textures, lighting effects, and landscape improvements, the game also updates everything from character, spell, and weapon animations, to dynamic time of day and weather effects.
It also adds new quality of life improvements to the original game, including:
- HUD, menu and map reworks
- Improved UI for systems like Persuasion, Clairvoyance, and more
- Modifications to levelling, encumbrance, non-combat perks, and other mechanics
- Improved enemy scaling
- Enhanced accessibility features
- Additional autosaves
- Revised first-person and third-person camera
- Much more...
Available for purchase separately, or as an upgrade to the base game, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered Deluxe Edition includes all of the above, and adds:
- Bonus quests
- Unique weapon sets
- Unique armor sets
- Unique horse armor sets
- Digital artbook
- Official soundtrack
- Joe Skrebels, Xbox Wire Editor-in-Chief
61 Comments on The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered Launches Today - Available on PC, Xbox X|S & PS5
so, $50 for deluxe (horse armor) and $40 for standard
so, not as bad as buying from steam
It is less cartoony than the original which some might not like.
You can always try it on Gamepass first there are also deals to grab it around 40 usd which is probably more appropriate.
At a min it would be worth picking up on a discount if 40 is too rich for your blood.
And I saw pop-ins, reflection issues and bad frametimes and frame drops on series x.
As always, wait 6-12 months for them to fix the game.
Dialogue system - pathetic and looking like something from 2001 at best.
Facial animations - absolutely pathetic, lagged and unsynced with voice lines.
WTF is this? I wouldn't play it even for free. They clearly did only the bare minimum to make it work or something. I wouldn't be surprised if they only took the original assets, upscaled the textures and slapped everything together in the crudest possible way.
They released the Oblivion remake to remind people that the brand is called "The Elder Scrolls", so the young ones get less confused when the next game is called "The Elder Scrolls VI: Hammerfell" or something and not "Skyrim 2"
The only "cheap" remasters are those who are only improving texture resolution, the UI, and add a few additional setting relevant to modern screens. Like the tales of remasters. And that's still being sold for 40€ if the OG game isn't that old.
From what I've gathered, the west obsession for bleeding edge visuals is a big culprit of the difficulties that they have to make a profit. Dev cost so high, even selling a millions copies isn't enough. Meanwhile you get asians games who might not even outsell those games by much, but are profitable because they are less expensive to make. And it's not like those last western AAA release had a gameplay so intricate, an art direction so breathtaking that most of the money went there. Even those bland looking, formulaic gameplay release were massive money drain.
The lighting defiantly changes the feel of the game. I play oblivion mostly for the ambiance so maybe not worth it.Its not a remake, its a reMASTER. there is a difference.
To me, there's no excuse. There are new games, and there are remasters. I don't care how much shit the gaming world is willing to eat.
Just upscaling like RDR1, people complain
Reimagining like FF7R/RE2, people complain
Update all the visuals add distinct voice acting for each race, update the combat and leveling system but keep the core game the same for Oblivion, people complain.
I think these releases no matter what the developer decides to do will always split gamers and that's ok not every game release new/old is for everyone.
Don't be surprised if new games jump to 80 usd here pretty soon and this isn't hard to find for 40 bucks now. I get you though $30 would have been more appropriate or at least a slight discount to people who own the original.
People can also play it for 2 weeks for 1$ last I checked and decide what it's worth unless giving Microsoft $1 hurts too much lol I know there are some who feel that way and it's fine.
Like I said it is what it is and all I mean by that is this is the price M$/Bethesda has decided on and we can either buy it or not buy it just like any other game.
I'd probably be more annoyed with the price if there wasn't much cheaper options of either $1 for two weeks or $12 for a month for people to play it and the actual retail price is likely to offset that I wouldn't be surprised if at least 1/3 or more of people will play this on gamepass.
I'm not disagreeing with you though anyone who thinks 40-50 is too expensive for a remaster shouldn't buy it and vote with their wallet that doesn't mean everyone needs to not buy it becuase others think 40 is too much it goes both ways.
And the teams handling those remasters are often distinct or external teams that wouldn't have been involved with the developement of a new mainline game. Virtuos studio who handled that remaster for example are big specialist in remakes and remaster, they are more of a companion studio, than a fully independant entity making their own games top to bottom. The metroid prime remaster also involved an external team, while Retro studio was working on prime 4.
When it comes to make a new game, I've read that you can have a small team just working on the basics element of gameplay for a few years before they actually start the big production. Prince of persia 2008 had like a dozen people working on it at first iirc. Once the base seems solid and get greenlit, they start to make the team bigger. You don't just go full throttle from the start, that's way too much money that you might be wasting. And that's a poor management of human ressource. Studios that big won't put their big talent on stuff that don't really require their level of expertise.
The real issue is that many big studios have become very risk adverse now that they have shareholders to answer to. There's probably many project that never got the chance to bloom because they were deemed "not marketable enough" and never got past the napkin stage.