Oblivion – I Spent 44 Hours in 4 Days Playing it in Bethesda’s Basement

I imagine the Xbox stories I’ve been sharing on IGN recently in the run-up to the brand’s 25th anniversary probably seem a little ridiculous or even a bit crazy now – like how I got to be one of the first people to ever play through Halo 2 while playing in a storage closet at Bungie – but I promise you it was all pretty normal back then. Today I have another one of those stories for you, and it’s one of my favorite gaming memories of all time. It’s about The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.

If you were a gamer back when the Xbox 360 first came out, you’ll remember how big a deal it was that the Xbox 360 was the first console of the “HD Era,” as the entire history of video games up to that point (at least on the console side – respect to my fellow PC gamers who’d been 1024×768’ing it for years by then). Finally we were moving from 640×480 (interlaced, to boot) to 1280×720. It sounds quaint now, but it was a huge leap at the time. The 360 had gotten off to a fast start in November of 2005 thanks to the likes of Call of Duty 2, Project Gotham Racing 3, and then a couple months later, the jaw-dropping Fight Night Round 3. But there was one game we were all anticipating far more than any other in the 360’s first months: The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. It was supposed to be a day-one launch title for the new Xbox, but it got delayed.

I was personally and professionally so excited for this game, as it seemed like my ultimate medieval fantasy RPG come to life. And so I’d spearheaded Official Xbox Magazine’s coverage throughout 2005; I think I made at least two trips out to Bethesda Game Studios in Maryland that year as excitement for the game and the console built. The studio had already won a lot of console-gamer fans through its 2002 original Xbox port of The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, but this time, Oblivion was readied as a day-one Xbox 360 game, simultaneous to its PC launch. And what I had seen on those trips – translated into feature stories in OXM – had only fueled my hype even more. The stunning graphics, the incredible music, the “living” NPCs who had daily routines they’d go through whether you were around or not – it all felt like it was coalescing into something truly special.

So when it finally came time to review Oblivion, OXM was once again able to secure the exclusive review. Combined with the lead times necessitated by magazine publishing schedules, it meant that I found myself back at Bethesda in January of 2006 to review Oblivion, which shipped in March. Everyone knew it’d be a big game – Morrowind most certainly was – and so the plan was to spend four days at Bethesda and play as much as I possibly could. When I arrived at the studio, I was brought down to the basement floor, I said hello (again) to Todd Howard, and then I was escorted into a glass-walled conference room. There I had a giant TV at one end of the room, my chair and an Xbox 360 dev kit at the other end of the room, and a controller on the table. And then everyone else left.

My mission was to get as many hours under my belt as I could before heading home to write the review for the magazine. My hotel was literally next door to Bethesda’s office, so I wouldn’t even have to spend time getting to and from the studio. Food was ordered in for me, and I took short breaks and ate right in the conference room. It was just me and the archer/thief I’d created for 44 hours over four days. Yes, I spent roughly 11 hours per day living in Cyrodiil without having to think about anything else: no other work, no other responsibilities. It was amazing, and one of the best gaming experiences of my life.