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The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is a computer role-playing game developed by Bethesda Softworks LLC. It is the fourth game in the Elder Scrolls series. The game was shipped March 20th, 2006 in the United States, and March 24th in Europe. The retail date set for the game was March 21st.

General Story

After the mysterious and untimely death of the Emperor, the throne of Tamriel lies empty. With the Empire ready to crumble, the gates of Oblivion open and demons march upon the land - laying waste to everything in their path. To turn the tide of darkness, you must find the lost heir to the throne and unravel the sinister plot that threatens to destroy all of Tamriel.

Overview

Oblivion is currently available for Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360. In addition to the standard release, a "Collector's Edition" is available for both platforms which includes a 112-page Pocket Guide to the Empire, a Bonus DVD (including concept art, renders, and an approximately 45-minute long documentary on the making of Oblivion), and a Septim coin replica (the currency of Tamriel, also known as a drake).

The game, featuring the voices of Patrick Stewart, Lynda Carter, Sean Bean, and Terence Stamp, has been in development since 2002 and is claimed as "another leap forward in role-playing with its combination of freeform gameplay and cutting-edge computer graphics."

Oblivion features a custom version of the Gamebryo game engine, a more involved combat interface utilizing the Havok physics engine, state-of-the-art graphics (utilizing True HDR) with realistic procedurally generated forests (created with the aid of SpeedTree Technology), an improved magic system, and a more interactive stealth system (similar to Thief: Deadly Shadows), along with many additional features not seen previously in the series.

The Windows PC edition of the game also supports a new version of The Elder Scrolls: Construction Set (TES:CS) that is available as a free download on Bethesda's website (the developers indicated that this allows for easier upgrading of the Construction Set; some have speculated it may be because of pending Havok licensing issues). The Construction Set allows for extensive expansion of the game and includes all of the basic world building tools used by the designers, giving users many of the same opportunities to create original game content as the designers. This feature alone, when included with Morrowind and taken advantage of by a large modding community, gave it many years of additional replay value.

Game Technology

Radiant A.I.

Oblivion boasts a new artificial intelligence system, fully developed in house by Bethesda, codenamed 'Radiant AI'. It is a major source of excitement for many of the fans of the series as it aims to counter what was believed to be one of the major flaws of the previous installment (The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind): the lack of 'life' of the NPCs in the game. Radiant AI gives every NPC a set of 'needs' (such as hunger) that they will need to fulfill, thus creating a more lifelike world.

Radiant AI works by giving NPCs a list of goals. Nothing else is scripted. They must decide how to achieve these goals by themselves based on their individual statistics. A hungry NPC might compare his current gold against his moral values to decide whether he will walk to a store and purchase food, or just steal it; a skilled archer can choose to hunt his own deer.

This has required massive testing, but has even greater long-term flexibility for future NPC AI as well as testing with PAC AI for further developments.

The following are examples of unexpected behavior discovered during early testing:

# One character was given a rake and the goal "rake leaves"; another was given a broom and the goal "sweep paths," and this worked smoothly. Then they swapped the items, so that the raker was given a broom and the sweeper was given the rake. In the end, one of them killed the other so he could get the proper item. # Another test had an on-duty NPC guard become hungry. The guard went into the forest to hunt for food. The other guards also left to arrest the truant guard, leaving the town unprotected. The villager NPCs then looted all of the shops, due to the lack of law enforcement. # In another test a minotaur was given a task of protecting a unicorn. However, the minotaur repeatedly tried to kill the unicorn because he was set to be an aggressive creature. # In one Dark Brotherhood quest, the player can meet up with a shady merchant who sells skooma, an in-game drug. During testing, the NPC would be dead when the player got to him. The reason was that NPCs from the local skooma den were trying to get their fix, didn't have any money, and so were killing the merchant to get it. # While testing to confirm that the physics models for a magical item known as the "Skull of Corruption," which creates an evil copy of the character/monster it is used on, were working properly, a tester dropped the item on the ground. An NPC immediately picked it up and used it on the player character, creating a copy of him that proceeded to kill every NPC in sight.

Bethesda has been hard at work to fix these issues, balancing an NPC's needs against his penchant for destruction so that the game world still functions in a usable fashion. To give you a clue as to the enormity of this technology, there will be over 1,000 NPCs not including other monsters.

====Middleware used in Oblivion==== File:EmergentLogo.gifFile:Speedtree logo thumb white.jpgFile:Havoklogo.gifFile:FaceGenLogo.JPG

* Gamebryo 3D graphics engine from Emergent Game Technologies formerly: Numerical Design Limited (NDL) * SpeedTree tree rendering from Interactive Data Visualization, Inc (IDV) * Havok physics from Havok Inc * FaceGen face generation from Singular Inversions Inc

=====Gamebryo Engine=====

The Gamebryo 3D graphics engine as described by Emergent Game Technologies:

The Gamebryo engine is both powerful and flexible enough to suit the needs of any type of game, demonstrated by the range of major games that use it: Sid Meier's Pirates!, Civilization IV, Dark Age of Camelot, and Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, to name a few. Gamebryo runs on every major platform, is already in use for Xbox 360, and will be optimized for use in PlayStation 3. It boasts outstanding, reliable performance, and includes the rendering, animation, and special effects features needed to create any game.

Although Gamebryo was the underlying engine that was used with Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, it has been rebuilt upon for Oblivion with many new features, and is more optimized than its predecessor.

The Gamebryo run-time engine is a C++ API that features a hierarchical scene graph structure. Multiple culling and sorting techniques are available to reduce CPU usage by drawing only visible objects. The engine's flexibility allows simultaneous use of different sorting techniques in different parts of the scene graph. - - =====SpeedTree===== - SpeedTree is a programming package produced by Interactive Data Visualization, Inc. (IDV) that aims to produce high-quality virtual foliage in real time, suitable especially for video games but also aimed to a lesser extent at some other kinds of simulations. It has so far been licensed to a substantial number of next-generation video game developers, including the developers of the next generation in the extremely popular Unreal engine series. Speed Tree™ is currently being used in several games, one game using it extensivly is WWIIOnline™, a massivly multiplayer historicly based world war 2 sim. - The vast areas requiring tree and grass coverage made Speed Tree™ an excellent choice. - - =====Havok===== - The Havok Game Dynamics SDK, better known as simply Havok, is a middleware physics engine (in this case Dynamical simulation) designed for computer and video games by allowing interaction between objects or other characters in real-time. By using collision detection Havok allows for more lifelike worlds and animations, such as ragdoll physics, that adds to the overall game by making these interactions appear natural. - - =====FaceGen===== - FaceGen is a parametric face modelling software that allows the user to create faces from one or more photographs, or at random. You can edit faces in over 150 ways, including race, age and gender. - - ===Release Date=== - Oblivion was shipped on March 20, 2006, with stores selling as their shipments arrived throughout the week. -

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- - =====Official Prices===== - - United States: - *PC - $49.99, Collector's Edition - $59.99 - *XBOX 360 - $59.99, Collector's Edition - $69.99 - - Canada: - *PC - $60, Collector's Edition - $70 - *XBOX 360 - $70, Collector's Edition - $80 - - Australia: - *PC - $89, Collector's Edition - $99 - *XBOX 360 - $110, Collector's Edition - $120 - - United Kingdom: - - *PC - £30, Collector's Edition - £35 - *XBOX 360 - £45, Collector's Edition - £50-60 - - ===Modding=== - Since Morrowind's TES:Construction Set was released, a large mod community has formed around the series. Bethesda, not wanting to let the masses of fans down, has released a version of TES:Construction Set for Oblivion. The latest Construction Set is not included with Oblivion on-disc, but is available for download. Bethesda thought this was necessary as users will generally download the latest version each time they install Oblivion. For quick access to the download page, click here. - - Some planned projects for Oblivion include: - * The community "Library of Tes F'ruum" project - * TESIV: Vvardenfell, which will create a Morrowind after Dagoth Ur's fall. - * Tamriel Rebuilt, which will create all of Tamriel, beginning with Hammerfell. - * Silgrad Tower, which is a project dedicated to the Morrowind province only. - * A.R.O.M. , which is dedicated to paying tribute to Alternate Reality. - * The Kingdom, where the player will be on an entirely different planet. - * The Wheel of Time mod, this will be a mod that is based entirely on the Wheel of Time novel series. - These are only a few of the massive amounts of mods that will assuredly be released by the Elder Scrolls community.

General Story

After the mysterious and untimely death of the Emperor, the throne of Tamriel lies empty. With the Empire ready to crumble, the gates of Oblivion open and demons march upon the land - laying waste to everything in their path. To turn the tide of darkness, you must find the lost heir to the throne and unravel the sinister plot that threatens to destroy all of Tamriel.

The Plane of Oblivion

While Oblivion is most often described as "the Elder Scrolls version of Hell," the metaphor expressed in the game actually implies a more relativist ethical cosmology than is usual in most video games and Western fantastic literature, in which morality and the gods are often portrayed as simplistically dualist.

Oblivion is the void surrounding Nirn, the mortal plane of existence in the world of The Elder Scrolls. The stars in the sky are the mortals' view of the spheres of the Aedra and Daedra floating in that void

The spheres (or pockets) that make up Oblivion are each ruled by a different Daedric Prince, with each sphere manifesting the attributes of the ruling Prince’s personality. To categorize these beings as good or evil would be inappropriate. Daedra act according to their natures. Mortals perceive Daedra as good or evil depending on their view of this behavior.

The gates connecting the mortal realm to Oblivion have been protected in the past, and prevented from opening so long as the emperor's bloodline controls the amulet which binds the pact between gods and men. The main plot of the game involves the death of the Emperor and the subsequent opening of the gates.

With the gates of Oblivion open, the most aggressive of Daedra will invade the mortal plane. So while there are many realms in the vastness of Oblivion, the part that will be shown in The Elder Scrolls IV is the most "hellish" of all; that is, the most reminiscent of hell and its contents as some real-world religions conceive of it.

Gameplay style

Oblivion is an excellent example of open-ended or "sandbox" gameplay. The main quest may be delayed or ignored as the player explores a sizable game world rendered in detail, following side quests, interacting with NPC's, and developing a character according to his or her taste.

Cast and Crew

Cast

Patrick Stewart - Emperor Uriel Septim VII (voice)
Sean Bean - Martin Septim (voice)
Terence Stamp - Daedric Lord Mehrunes Dagon (voice)
Lynda Carter - Nord Females (voice)
Ralph Cosham - Breton Males (voice)
Wes Johnson - Imperial Males, Lucien Lachance, Demons (voice)
Michael Mack - Redguard Males (voice)
Craig Sechler - Dark Elf Males (voice)
Jonathan Bryce - (voice)
Catherine Flye - (voice)
Gayle Jessup - (voice)
Elisabeth Noone - (voice)

Crew

Gavin Carter - producer
Todd Howard - executive producer
Jeremy Soule - composer
Dawn Hershey - casting director

Factions

There are many factions and guilds in The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, several of which can be joined.

The guilds function effectively as trade unions, where each seeks to control a particular type of job or skill set. When a player joins a guild, it will give them assignments (quests) that allow the player to earn rewards and/or promotion within the guild. The guilds also provide members with training, accommodation, advice and possibly allies. If a player gains enough influence within a guild they can rise to the top and become guild master, which in some cases gives them the authority to promote and demote members.

The known factions in which you can join are as follows:

• Fighters' Guild (Mercenaries and paramilitaries; Imperially chartered)
• Thieves' Guild (Criminal monopoly, drugs, smuggling, burglary, extortion; illegal organization)
• Mages' Guild (Academy for the preservation and study of the esoteric arts, magic, alchemy, chemistry, humanities, sciences; Imperially chartered)
• The Dark Brotherhood (The evil counterpart of the honorable Morag Tong Assassins Guild)
• The Arena (Gladiatorial combat, has religious significance; Imperially chartered)
• The Blades (Spy network; Imperially chartered)

There are also several political factions in each major city vying for power against the Elder Council, which has been left governing Tamriel in the wake of the emperor's death. Many of these additional factions will have quests available, or be part of the main storyline, though to what extent the player can interact with them, or join them is unknown. The Mythic Dawn (Daedra worshippers who appear to be another version of the End of Times cult from Morrowind: Tribunal), will most likely appear as an enemy faction. The Temple of the Nine Divines and the Imperial Legion, while playing heavily into past Elder Scrolls games, will most likely be present but not joinable. It is unknown to what extent other, less prominent or well-known factions will be featured, such as the Wharf Rats (a loose collaboration of petty thugs and street gangs who infuriate the Thieves' Guild with their doggedly-persistent incompetence. They seem to be the Cyrodiilic equivilant of the Morrowind Camonna Tong) and the Necromancers (a rather darker, more devious, conspiratorial and occultic version of the Mage's Guild).

There is also an Arena which you may join as a combatant. Though it's not called the "Gladiators' Guild", in practice that's what it is. So when you "Join the Arena," you are joining a group of warriors who fight in matches in the Arena. Winning matches in the Arena can earn you gold or new equipment. You work your way up a circuit (with ranks), all the way to the top. Your arena faction standing is your rank within the competitions.

Is the Arena a "guild"? Yes and no. "Yes" in the sense that you're joining an organization, and completing Arena matches just as you would quests. "No" in the sense that it's not one of the standard guild structures. When the guilds give you quests, you're potentially sent out anywhere in Cyrodiil; when the Arena gives you a match, you fight that match in the Arena. So the Arena is like the guilds in some ways, very much unlike them in others.

Betting on fights does NOT require you to join the Arena. Anyone can do that, without ever stepping into the Arena as a combatant to change faction rankings.

Playable Races

Oblivion has 10 playable races.

Four of the races are classical human archetypes:

• Breton (Descendants of humans and elves, predisposed toward healing and other magical arts)
• Imperial (The reigning race of Tamriel; similar to classic Romans)
• Nord (Fair-haired warriors; similar to Scandinavian Vikings)
• Redguard (Dark-Skinned, Skilled fighters)

Three types of Aldmeri (Elves):

• Altmer (High Elf)
• Bosmer (Wood Elf)
• Dunmer (Dark Elf)

And three beast races:

• Khajiit (A Feline biped race)
• Argonian (A reptilian humanoid race)
• Orcs (Were once a race of elves known as Orsimer, but Boethiah, a Daedric Prince, ate their leader Trinimac and turned him into Malacath.)

The Akaviri are not included.

Oblivion, The Evolution of TES

Each iteration of The Elder Scrolls series has been built from the ground up. Over time, many features have been added, removed, or otherwise modified to fit each game.

Game Technology

Radiant A.I.

Oblivion boasts a new artificial intelligence system, fully developed in house by Bethesda, codenamed 'Radiant AI'. It is a major source of excitement for many of the fans of the series as it aims to counter what was believed to be one of the major flaws of the previous installment (The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind): the lack of 'life' of the NPCs in the game. Radiant AI gives every NPC a set of 'needs' (such as hunger) that they will need to fulfill, thus creating a more lifelike world.

Radiant AI works by giving NPCs a list of goals. Nothing else is scripted. They must decide how to achieve these goals by themselves based on their individual statistics. A hungry NPC might compare his current gold against his moral values to decide whether he will walk to a store and purchase food, or just steal it; a skilled archer can choose to hunt his own deer.

This has required massive testing, but has even greater long-term flexibility for future NPC AI as well as testing with PAC AI for further developments.

The following are examples of unexpected behavior discovered during early testing:

1. One character was given a rake and the goal "rake leaves"; another was given a broom and the goal "sweep paths," and this worked smoothly. Then they swapped the items, so that the raker was given a broom and the sweeper was given the rake. In the end, one of them killed the other so he could get the proper item.

1. Another test had an on-duty NPC guard become hungry. The guard went into the forest to hunt for food. The other guards also left to arrest the truant guard, leaving the town unprotected. The villager NPCs then looted all of the shops, due to the lack of law enforcement.

1. In another test a minotaur was given a task of protecting a unicorn. However, the minotaur repeatedly tried to kill the unicorn because he was set to be an aggressive creature.

1. In one Dark Brotherhood quest, the player can meet up with a shady merchant who sells skooma, an in-game drug. During testing, the NPC would be dead when the player got to him. The reason was that NPCs from the local skooma den were trying to get their fix, didn't have any money, and so were killing the merchant to get it.

1. While testing to confirm that the physics models for a magical item known as the "Skull of Corruption," which creates an evil copy of the character/monster it is used on, were working properly, a tester dropped the item on the ground. An NPC immediately picked it up and used it on the player character, creating a copy of him that proceeded to kill every NPC in sight.

Bethesda has been hard at work to fix these issues, balancing an NPC's needs against his penchant for destruction so that the game world still functions in a usable fashion. To give you a clue as to the enormity of this technology, there will be over 1,000 NPCs not including other monsters.

Middleware used in Oblivion

File:EmergentLogo.gifFile:Speedtree logo thumb white.jpgFile:Havoklogo.gifFile:FaceGenLogo.JPG

• Gamebryo 3D graphics engine from Emergent Game Technologies formerly: Numerical Design Limited (NDL)
• SpeedTree tree rendering from Interactive Data Visualization, Inc (IDV)
• Havok physics from Havok Inc
• FaceGen face generation from Singular Inversions Inc

Gamebryo Engine

The Gamebryo 3D graphics engine as described by Emergent Game Technologies:

The Gamebryo engine is both powerful and flexible enough to suit the needs of any type of game, demonstrated by the range of major games that use it: Sid Meier's Pirates!, Civilization IV, Dark Age of Camelot, and Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, to name a few. Gamebryo runs on every major platform, is already in use for Xbox 360, and will be optimized for use in PlayStation 3. It boasts outstanding, reliable performance, and includes the rendering, animation, and special effects features needed to create any game.

Although Gamebryo was the underlying engine that was used with Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, it has been rebuilt upon for Oblivion with many new features, and is more optimized than its predecessor.

The Gamebryo run-time engine is a C++ API that features a hierarchical scene graph structure. Multiple culling and sorting techniques are available to reduce CPU usage by drawing only visible objects. The engine's flexibility allows simultaneous use of different sorting techniques in different parts of the scene graph.

SpeedTree

SpeedTree is a programming package produced by Interactive Data Visualization, Inc. (IDV) that aims to produce high-quality virtual foliage in real time, suitable especially for video games but also aimed to a lesser extent at some other kinds of simulations. It has so far been licensed to a substantial number of next-generation video game developers, including the developers of the next generation in the extremely popular Unreal engine series. Speed Tree™ is currently being used in several games, one game using it extensivly is WWIIOnline™, a massivly multiplayer historicly based world war 2 sim.

The vast areas requiring tree and grass coverage made Speed Tree™ an excellent choice.

Havok

The Havok Game Dynamics SDK, better known as simply Havok, is a middleware physics engine (in this case Dynamical simulation) designed for computer and video games by allowing interaction between objects or other characters in real-time. By using collision detection Havok allows for more lifelike worlds and animations, such as ragdoll physics, that adds to the overall game by making these interactions appear natural.

FaceGen

FaceGen is a parametric face modelling software that allows the user to create faces from one or more photographs, or at random. You can edit faces in over 150 ways, including race, age and gender.

Changes from previous games

• Bethesda has plans for downloadable content via both Xbox Live and a standard internet connection for PC users. The only concrete downloadable content at this point is Horse Armor. Plans for Holidays were cancelled by the Bethesda team.
• Bethesda had plans for a downloadable holiday patch via Xbox Live/internet connection, but they have expressed some ambiguity over the current state of this additional content
• Horse riding has returned, but not carriages. You can purchase different breeds of horses in the game, which may also attack enemies.
• You may once again travel via the map; though in a more limited form than was present in Daggerfall. A compass is also avaliable.
• You can now play as the Cathay-Raht breed of Khajiit, who are nearly elven in appearence, and can wear boots, rather than the Suthay-Raht who were the playable breed in Morrowind.
• Dual-wielding is not included in Oblivion, and has yet to return from Daggerfall.
• Nudity from both the player portrait and creatures has been removed.
• There are no children present in the game world.
• Levitation, Mark, and Recall spells have been removed. The reason levitation was removed according to the developers was that, unlike Morrowind, cities are located in separate cells from the rest of the world. Since the cities aren't fully rendered until you enter them, it wouldn't look right if you were to fly over the walls. Also levitation was normally used as a "cheat" or exploit in previous games of the series, so it was removed to preserve game balance.
• Enchanting items/weapons is now a perk of membership in the mages guild, and not a player skill. Creating custom spells now requires advancement through the mages guild, not just joining the guild.
• Every NPC will include full voice acting (With Patrick Stewart playing the voice of Emperor Uriel Septim VII, and Sean Bean playing the voice of the Emperor's illegitimate heir).
• The Dark Brotherhood is the predominant local assassins guild, rather than the Morag Tong, which was native only to the province of Morrowind.
• Crossbows, throwing weapons, spears, and their respective skills have been removed.
• Bows have been improved in many aspects, including the use of physics on arrow flight. You can also zoom at higher levels and set off traps with arrows.
• Were-wolves/creatures have not returned (though even for Morrowind, these were included later in an expansion).
• Magicka (mana) now regenerates over time, no need for resting to achieve the effect.
• Stamina does not drain from running, but plays a more vital role in combat tactics.
• The skills list has been condensed into 21 skills. Players no longer choose major and minor skills, instead they select seven primary skills.
• The Medium armor skill has been removed; the actual armors which were previously considered medium-class have been moved to the heavy or light armor skills.
• The Unarmored skill has been removed since you can now dodge with the Acrobatics skill, which allows rolling moves.
• The combat system has changed. No longer the player has access to the previous "Chop/Pierce/Slash" combat system. It has been replaced by a newer combat system similar to action RPGs such as Fable with one button for attack and another for block. Blocking is no longer automatic, but player controlled.
• The combat system has been changed so that your skills determine what happens once you perform an action, not whether or not something happens. So, you block when you want to block. If your sword hits somebody, it hits. There is no “to hit roll,” no “swish” sound of a miss when your sword clearly hit its mark. Instead, skills are used to determine how much damage that attack does, or how much less damage you take because of your block.
• Lockpicking is now a minigame similar to Thief: Deadly Shadows. (it can also be done automatically based on the players security skill)
• Vampires have a biting animation instead of a spell.
• Each of the 9 major cities has a house you can buy and have for your own. You can go around in town and buy different things to decorate your house with, so you have places to put all the stuff you collect. One of the houses that you can purchase is initially haunted.
• There's no “magic mode” you have to switch to in order to cast magic. Weapons and magic can be used at the same time.
• The speechcraft skill will now employ a mini-game in order to affect the disposition of NPCs. There will be various types of speechcraft techniques including joke, boast, admire, coerce, demand, and bribe.
• Dungeons will now include tricks and traps using the Havok physics engine, such as falling spikes.
• No longer will any spell or spell effect be available to any level of character. All spells have a novice, journeyman, expert, and master designation depending on skill in the particular spell school.
• Clothing and armor are now considered the same item type. Whereas in Morrowind you could wear a full set of clothes and then a full set of armor on top of it, or a set of armor covered by a robe, Oblivion only allows one item to be worn on each section of the body.
• The inventory system has been changed to menu based instead of icon based. The player no longer has to drag an item to the character portrait equip it. The "Window" interface of Morrowind has been removed, and windows can no longer be resized or dragged. Hotkeys can be used to access menus, instead of clicking on icons.

Morrowind vs Oblivion vs Daggerfall size comparison

It has been confirmed by producer Todd Howard that the world will be larger than the previous installment in the series: The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind.

For comparison, the total above-ground area of Morrowind 's game world was roughly 10 square miles; however, the central landmass was only around 6 square miles and then surrounded by water and tiny islands; not including either of the expansions.

With Oblivion, the above-ground areas are approximately 16 square miles, considerably less water coverage; plus more than 200 underground dungeon areas and the realm of Oblivion.

The realm of Oblivion in lore is described as infinite; in game terms, you'll be exploring large randomly generated sections of extra-dimensional terrain every time you enter a portal and leave the normal world behind you. This is similar to the random dungeon generation of The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall

There have been no official size estimates for the playable sections of the realm of Oblivion.

Neither Morrowind nor Oblivion has come close to the massive world as it existed in Daggerfall, estimated as being roughly twice the size of Great Britain, with over 15,000 towns, cities, villages, and dungeons. Instead Oblivion aims to bring more life and detail to the world, and not just massive size.

Critical reception

Critical reaction to Oblivion has been almost entirely positive; PC Gamer UK, PC Gamer US and OXM have all awarded the game 9/10 or more, and praised the game for its immersiveness and scope. PC Gamer UK did, however, criticise the game's repetitive and occasionally absurd nature of conversations between NPCs, saying that it broke suspension of disbelief. OXM also said that the Xbox 360 version of the game suffered from occasional frame rate drops and long load times.

Trivia

• Award-winning American composer Jeremy Soule - best known for his work on the Dungeon Siege, Neverwinter Nights and Icewind Dale video games - scored the music for both Morrowind. and Oblivion.
• The development of Oblivion began in mid 2002 shortly after the release of Morrowind - roughly 4 years in the making.
• In the Making of Oblivion Documentary DVD (only found in the Collector's Edition), Todd Howard (executive producer) was given a list of actors to choose from to provide the voice for Lord Mehrunes Dagon. He stated that the only actor he envisioned perfect for that role was Terence Stamp, known as General Zod in Superman II.
• "I got the notes on the character. Never in my life doing any role have I gotten such detailed notes, and I loved it! I am really intrigued, this sounds really cool, you guys have given this a lot of thought. I can't wait to do it!" - Patrick Stewart's reaction on his character notes (found in the Making of Oblivion Documentary DVD)
• According to past and recent interviews with Todd Howard and other members of the Bethesda Softworks team, Oblivion is the very first Xbox 360 game to utilize all three symmetrical cores of the CPU.

Funding and political backing

Information relating to The Elder Scrolls IV is a controversial matter. If you are interested in researching these issues for yourself see the external links below.

External links

Official Website links

• The Elder Scrolls Official Home Page - Plus additional links to news articles & interviews.
• Oblivion FAQ - Official Release Date and Frequently Asked Questions
• A Letter to the fans by Todd Howard - and links to the Dev Team Diary
• The official Zenimax Media Inc list of external advisors - note the attempt to hide their political colors: Tony Coelho/McAuliffe are simple 'investors'/business men
• [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/14/AR2005081400853_pf.html A

Washington Times article which touches on some of the political and financial issues]

Wikis and news

• OblivioWiki, the Elder Scrolls IV Wiki - An Oblivion Wiki.
• Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages - An Elder Scrolls and Oblivion Wiki.
• TESwiki - Wiki database for Oblivion, and the entire TES universe.
• Gamespot Hands-on preview

Mod sites

• The Elder Scrolls Files
• Oblivion Source
• The Elder Scrolls Source
• Planet Elder Scrolls
• OblivionCC: Character Creation Generator

• 2006 computer and video games
• The Elder Scrolls series
• Xbox 360 games
• PC games