Celebrating 'Oblivion''s Wildest Moments On Its 16th anniversary

Are you hyped for Starfield but unwilling to get your body ready for Bethesda titles by revisiting the world of Skyrim because you've never even left in the first place? Well, a good alternative would be to revisit the world of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Bethesda's ironically unforgettable classic. It was in March of ‘06 that Bethesda showed the world that RPGs needed to dominate the mainstream was to replace TES III: Morrowind’s deep mechanics with a neat console-friendly interface and a ridiculous amount of bloom lighting effects.

Ok, that's unfair. Oblivion never looked that bad. If anything, the game's then-mocked high bloom actually helped its graphics remain completely unique to this day.

But it's the weird stuff that has brought us here. Luckily, it turns out that Oblivion is a masterpiece not just when it's trying to be good, but also when achieving goodness in unintentional ways. Despite a gargantuan effort by Bethesda at the time, Oblivion was not without its flaws – and even those slapped.

Like, remember how this was the game that invented the absolute trash that's paid cosmetic DLCs? Hell yeah, they did that by introducing a dumb horse armor we'd have to buy for $2 dollars or whatever kind of old currency they used back then. $2 is pretty low for today's standards, but it's still kind of a lot for something whose only practical effect is to make the owner look dumber.

Look at that poor horse's expression. Even he knows he's about to forever damage the gaming landscape forever.

To Bethesda's credit, however, they did unofficially admit to their mistake by adding the same horse armor to Skyrim for free.

Oblivion also introduced a star-studded cast composed of greats like Sean Bean, Patrick Stewart, and also this voice actress responsible for a beautiful outtake that still made it into the game.

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But as with all things Oblivion, there's always a perfect parallel to the bad things, so here you have the best voice acting in the game.

Just like the video uploader wisely states it at the beginning of the video, we too feel the need to confirm that that's indeed in the game and is not the result of any sort of modding.

There are other beautiful oversights, like how everyone in the world hates you if you catch the disease that causes you to become a vampire, even a guy we need to convince us later who's also a vampire. There are also all sorts of unscripted moments that turn into comedy gold.

As well as an incredible level of unpredictability, like the beautiful glitch that might have an essential NPC accidentally falling off a bridge to his death and thus preventing players from ever buying a house.

Top Image: Bethesda