Genre: RPG
Developer: Bethesda Softworks
Publisher: 2k Games

If there was any doubt before, there should be none by now: in the evolution of 3d graphics, the Shader 3.0 standards and HDR bring a significant improvement to gaming visuals. Oblivion is a perfect example; sprawling, lush green forests, brilliant white sunlight filtering through the trees, and a flawless 3d ogre standing in front of you attempting to bash your armor in. From the top of a mountain you can see for miles across the vast digital landscape, and nearly every surface in the entire game world uses shaders to great effect. The downside? Lack of anistropic filtering and some occasionally nasty draw-in.

The cheesy orchestrated music from Morrowind is back but the corn factor has been thankfully dialed down a bit. And this time there is an actual Diablo-esque dungeon song! No more cheery caves and happy Vampire havens! Every line of dialogue is spoken, and while only the game recycles the same few voice actors/actresses for every NPC, these performers do a decent enough job of giving more character to the cookie-cutter characters splattered about in the previous Elder Scroll's games.

Bethesda rolled the dice and made some serious changes to the Elder Scrolls formula; the user interface is all new, the control scheme has been significantly altered from the Xbox version of Morrowind, and, most importantly, enemies' levels are now based on your own level-- higher levels mean a more difficult game, unless you plan very carefully! Events like combat, lock-picking, and persuasion are now less stat driven and more interactive and player skill based. The map is a few times larger than Morrowind's, and you can instantly travel to any previously visited location (ala Arena and Daggerfall). Tighter and more balanced than Morrowind, Oblivion plays much like the classic Ultima games, but brought to modern times. Splendid!

Seldom have I seen a game so good be succeeded by a game so improved. Morrowind was one of the best RPGs ever created, and instead of simply applying a new graphics engine to the old gameplay format, Bethesda stuck out their necks, took some chances, listened to the critics, and made a game more colorful and more full of life than I had thought possible. Nearly every flaw in Morrowind has been addressed in full, and I really can't pick many faults with Oblivion, except for perhaps the too-uniform dungeons and the somewhat limited selection of armor and weapon types. If you like RPGs, particularily Western RPGs, you simply cannot miss Oblivion.