The promise of computer RPGs has always been that they offer gamers a vast new world to get lost in. Unfortunately, the reality of both PC and console limitations has instead offered gamers the merest taste of an alternate universe. Stray too far off the pre-set path or storyline and you quickly run into artificial walls. The past few years have brought the promise of a true virtual world closer than ever, but even the best of these virtual worlds, whether they be single player RPGs, MMOs, or even Bethesda's own previous efforts, have never quite given that "you are there" feeling.

At this year's E3, though, we finally saw just what the "next generation" of hardware and software power might be able to accomplish. The running demonstration of Bethesda's The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, showed just what can happen when top-flight technology is married with state-of-the art world building and incredible AI (assuming, of course, that it works as well in the real game as it does in the scripted scene we saw).