The hype behind Oblivion was right. It’s been four years since the last Elder Scrolls game, Morrowind, was released and it’s been worth the wait. Oblivion marks the fourth and the latest chapter in one of the most robust, immersive and addictive single player RPGs (Role Playing Games) for PCs and consoles to date. For those who’ve yet to be initiated to the world of Elder Scrolls, each incarnation offers an overwhelming sandbox of freedom in a world where you can ignore the main quest and take upon various factions, side quests, become a collector of rare plants or just gallivant across the huge virtual world. The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion is set in the world of Tamriel, and it is a living breath gaming world. This game is the closest thing you will find to an MMORPG, but wrapped up in a single player experience.

Oblivion has been a long time coming and it finally delivers what Daggerfall and Morrowind hinted at. There’s certainly room for improvement, we could in fact stand to enjoy some randomly generated quests like in Daggerfall and a bigger game world, but Oblivion is as close to free-form RPG perfection as you can get nowadays.

Along with acclaimed Havok physics engine, Bethesda released a new game feature with Oblivion called Radiant AI. Ever play an RPG and wonder why all the NPCs just stand around or follow the same path through a town over and over? In Oblivion, each and every NPC has a set schedule of tasks that they have to accomplish everyday. If you want, you can literally follow an NPC around town each day and watch them eat breakfast, go to work, take a lunch break, talk and gossip with other NPCs, and eventually go home and sleep. Be careful where you follow them though. This isn’t Final Fantasy so NPCs will take great offense if they find you in their home rifling through their property (which is VERY tempting to do). Every NPC is professionally voiced which makes interacting and talking to them really enjoyable.