You see, you’re not just “doing a quest”. You’re living in a world. And while you, personally, don’t have to eat every few hours or sleep every night, the rest of the world does. Try to go to your local merchant at 2 AM and it’ll be closed; go pounding into an old lady’s house at noon and she may be eating lunch, or walking around town. Like in real life, get caught breaking and entering or stealing someone’s stuff – your cursor helpfully turns red when you’re going to do something illegal – and you’ll end up with a bounty on your head and guards on your butt.

Magesterial. That's the word we're looking for. Morrowind can take the plaudits for laying the groundwork and scrubbing out the rules of location linearity in role-playing, but The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion takes that model, streamlines it, seamlessly integrates exhilarating combat, smothers it in beautiful graphics and takes both Tamriel and the art of role-playing to an unprecedented new height. It's bloody daunting at fi rst. Your initial three hours of freedom will contain a distinct level of confusion and blind wandering, but after this period of worry an unconscious nerve will fi re off at the back of your head and everything will just click. This is where the adventure begins, and this is where you begin to melt into your PC.