Get your coffee brewed already because this scan-danieln is speaks for Skyblivionesque fan projects for years and this just puts years of hard work into poetry… Skyblivion has been picking supporters one tweet at a time and this is the most hype I’ve ever heard from them, saying: “The Skyblivion team just dropped the biggest announcement on Twitter—they’re finally showing the first 15 minutes of their fan-made Oblivion remake TONIGHT at 20:00 UTC… actual gameplay footage after all this time.” Their eagerness to see the first 15 minutes of gameplay is so relatable.
If you haven’t heard about it yet, Skyblivion is a zeal project where various modders are working to recreate The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, in the same style as Skyrim. Appropriately, everything is in place, in Skyblivion we have all graphics, world, quests, and characters. With the amazing new Obrivion gameplay everyone is lowering their expectations of the old one, so construction is moving much faster, isn’t it?
The magical, sparkly version tweet from the official Skyblivion account is “Then the stars were right, and today is the day.” The main focus is the livestream of the game’s first 15 minutes, as up until now there’s only been screenshots revealing the game. The most there’s been is a glimpse of the game, which is somewhat unveiling the first portion of gameplay. This is the first look at how the opening is supposed to run, Twitter is focusing attention on this aspect now. For me, this is just the cherry on top.
Regarding the players? The responses confirm one thing: the hype is definitely real. One person named Trey bluntly comments, “@TESRSkyblivion Bro just release it ffs,” which is pretty much how I feel. Edward jokes, “Shut up and take my money already” even though everyone knows it’s a freeware mod. That tells you the level of quality we’re talking about.
Within the same thread where people are comparing wait times for TES VI, in Plover’s case, he states the cold hard reality, “Today is not that day,” referring to the Skyblivion release. An actual release is an actual release that we’ll constantly be waiting for, but 15 minutes of gameplay is something real for us.
What’s most striking is the Will Ellis “Does it run better than the official remake??” comment, which is a well-aimed remark at Bethesda. And he’s not wrong in assuming fan projects nowadays run better than official titles, like those wonderful Minecraft mods that outdo paid DLC.
Then there’s the whole UTC 8:00 PM thing. Someone unfortunate enough to reply “please don’t make me do math” to the 20:00 UTC timing is born a victim, and honestly, I feel for them—the headache that is time conversion lies in the fact no one abides by a single time zone. All I want is my local time.
There’s indeed a lot of excitement. Lucia shares a “Hell YEAH” GIF celebrating a victory, while Philemon declares, “Alright, I’ll have to support you guys, love your project, Skyblivion baby.” There’s even someone queuing up character names with BreakfastKing choosing “jack reacher,” which is a hit in my book.
What is most memorable is how much time it has taken to develop this project. Thinking back, I already knew about Skyblivion when I was still in high school. The work the modders put into this project is incredible. Because of their love for Oblivion, these passionate modders work for free during their leisure time.
For that much-loved game, the reason for that love is earned. Upon its release, Oblivion was revolutionary, and to an extent, it still is despite certain aspects aging poorly, such as the faces, particularly the infamous potato faces. And yes, a lot of the charm is diminished by the horrible faces. It will greatly improve the visuals utilizing Skyrim’s engine, while preserving the classic Oblivion nostalgia. The odd dialogue and antiquated ‘physics,’ along with monotonous guards explaining their arrow-in-the-knee, which predates the meme, and overly outdated ‘archaic story’ from the guards, are all preserved alongside the upgraded visuals.
We have the YouTube channel stream from the announcement on Twitter, where they provide a link as well. Oblivion with new graphics is something we’ve anticipated for quite some time, and nostalgia compels me to attend the stream, especially since this is probably the closest we can get to a remake by Bethesda, which might come out in 2030.
I cannot emphasize enough how Skyblivion continues to preserve Oblivion. We received the major community Morroblivion modification for Morrowind, and now for Oblivion with Skyblivion, the sky’s limit mods totally remake the old games, which makes the PC community the best part of gaming.
Prepare yourself, and make whatever preparations are needed on your part. We will finally witness a glimpse of Skyblivion at 8 PM UTC, and even if you’ve played Oblivion a bunch, or you are a Skyrim fan who has never given Oblivion a try, this is something you do not want to miss. Remember that you will not be playing the game for a while, especially with the amount of time these volunteer projects require.
The volunteers of this type allows me to believe that the game is likely to be finished somewhat soon. Looking on the bright side, it could also mean that the developers have the game mostly completed. Again, this could be a small tease to keep the fans engaged. Personally, I’d be happy with it. At this point, I’m even willing to revisit Cyrodiil, even if it means looking at those terrifying character models.
