The standout moment of E3 2005 was, for me, being treated to a sneak peek at Oblivion, developed by Bethesda. Executive Producer Todd Howard, was on hand and at the helm to show us what Oblivion has in store for gamers---and it was this demo that left me most breathless at E3 (though Alan Wake was a close second for that honor). I was simply blown away by the upping of the ante for RPGs.

The Elder Scrolls series games' get reinvented with each new chapter that Bethesda writes---but of course they have to in order to take advantage of emerging technologies and brand new platforms (*cough* Xbox 360). Morrowind was a milestone for Bethesda, and was the last chapter in the Elder Scrolls series---until the recent announcement of Oblivion. And this one's about to blow the doors off of the competition.

This game runs in true HD, with all of the hot 3D graphics buzzwords running smoothly: normal mapping, bump mapping, and parallax mapping. For audio, we have the Elder Scrolls' ('TES' for those fans out there and acronym junkies) usual high quality fare, and adding to their great audio street cred is the addition of Hollywood talent to their lineup of voice actors. Patrick Stewart is featured as the voice of Uriel Septim, the current Emperor of Cyrodiil, where the bulk of the gameplay takes place—save for the occasional foray into the realm of the Daedra: Oblivion. Including Stewart's voice work, there is over 50 hours of recorded dialogue that will delight a gamer's ear and provide a richer atmosphere in terms of NPCs, which many long-time TES fans have been requesting.

In terms of environments, the forests are lush and mysterious, just as they seem in the screenshots that have been floating around the web. Howard informed the crowd that the forests were actually "grown" by the engine so as to make them seem more natural, rather than having an artist place everything by hand. The artists have built over 200 dungeons for this new title, which will ensure dungeon-delving inclined gamers many hours of entertainment. There were a couple of traps a player might encounter showcased at this point in the demo, and they were very clever while still being fair enough to ensure that a cautious and observant player would still have a way of dealing with them.

The stealth gameplay was also showcased as being newly revamped for this edition. The stealth gameplay seemed more fun and intuitive now, with the stealth icon being centered over the player's crosshairs, rather than shoved down in the corner of the screen. With this new system, Howard was able to skulk around and pick off goblins with well-placed arrows to the neck. He also showed off another trap that the goblins had set near one of their campsites (complete with a rat roasting on a spit). Howard admonished the goblins' stupidity at standing close enough to their trap that they would be caught if it got set off. And set it off he did. Three blocks of wood with spikes thrust through them swung down from the ceiling suspended by chains and caught the poor goblins by surprise. The goblins didn't survive.

Next up was the newly revamped NPC system, where the NPCs will seem more alive and vibrant than ever before. The NPCs are now on a daily cycle, with lists of goals for them to try to achieve. The daily cycle of sleep and eat are incorporated into this system as well as more ephemeral concerns of gaining wealth or power. Part of the way they keep track of their goals is by having ratings attached to them which allow them to "decide" which concern is of more immediate importance to pursue at any given time. This system is doubly impressive considering that there are around one thousand NPCs in the entire game. Also NPCs are more aware of their environment, and can pick up nearby items to use if they feel the need (such as a potion or sword)…and since the same skill system that the player adheres to is also used by the NPCs, they will probably be using these environmental items to practice with to stem the tide of Oblivion. Of note during this point of the demo was that the TES book junkies will be satisfied by having more than 400 books available to peruse during the course of the game. The conversation system where NPCs are concerned has also been improved somewhat—at certain times conversations between two NPCs may be overheard and simply overhearing the NPCs will cause new conversation topics to appear in the player's dialogue choices.

An NPC-owned dog ("Thunder the Dog", for those of you playing our home game) was also showcased during this portion of the demo. The NPC and the dog interacted in various ways, and it will be possible for the player to have pets too, so that should be something to look forward to. Also the player can own a horse, to make travel through the countryside loads easier this time around.

On a final note, the capital at Cyrodiil was shown in the last part—let's just say that, if one took away the obvious fantasy element, it reminded this journalist of a WWII shooter's version of a large French town, if you get my drift. To go along with this motif, it seemed that the human defenders of the city were kept very busy storming Daedric defensive positions and holding their own positions as well. It seemed very chaotic and fun.

All in all, it was the most impressive game I saw at E3. I am very excited by this title and I can't wait for it to hit store shelves some time this coming Christmas season. I look forward to playing this title and journeying through the lands of the Elder Scrolls' series once again.