Storyline:

You are in Cyrodiil

You are in prison when the emperors guard says that an assassin has sneaked into town and plans to kill the emperor, so the guards proceed in trying to evacuate the emperor through a secret tunnel that leads through the prison you are currently in. In other words it goes straight through your cell. The guards end up coming through your cell and tell you to stay back in your cell and do not follow after they escape. But the assassin quickly kills one of the guards. In which now you can gank all the guards stuff and proceed in your escape. You end up running along the emperor, until the assassin kills all of the guards until you are the last one standing, in which you must help the emperor evacuate, but as you help him escape the prison, he is mortally wounded by the assassin. Before finally dying he ends up leaving the worlds fate to you by handing you an item called the "Amulet of the Kings" then in his dying breath proclaims "Find him and close shut the marble jaws of Oblivion." In which with the emperor dying, weakens the magic that prevented the portals from Oblivion from entering Tamriel. Now there are several portals to Oblivion and demons straight outta hell escape into the surrounding Cyrodiil province landscape leaving the innocent people waiting to be mercilessly slaughtered by these undaunted beasts. Finally it is your task to find the one person who can close the gates to Oblivion and save Tamriel form utter destruction. GI hints at this special someone (that is very important throughout the game, the one that can close the doors of Oblivion that is) being maybe a sort of love interest in the game.

Update:

Yeah I just noticed a problem with my Story section...

I say that it mentions that the one person that can close the marble blah blah blah might be a love interest, mainly because that is what GI kind of leads on to. But after looking at what the emperor says, "Find HIM and shut the marble blah blah blah." So unless GI didnt catch that either our guy is gonna be getting it in the back door. Otherwise im thinking that if it is a guy it could just be some evil dude that doesnt want to help and the story could branch from there. sorry for the confusions

Various:

-- There are no specific consoles that it will be on as of right now (meaning it might change) Bethesda might have gotten the Xenon Dev kits but GI doesn’t know for sure because they were not allowed in that certain area (meaning basically they do have it) and Bethesda commented on the fact that they don’t have a dev kit for PS3 or Nintendo Revolution so they will judge the other systems based on how they play and there specs to see how they are

-- QUOTE: “If and when Oblivion comes to PS3, there is no telling how it will look” (good or bad thing)

-- Current release date is Winter 2005

- You will be able to train with your weapons on combat dummies that physically take damage with any of the weapons in the game

-- A small bit of the weapon selection as of now is Swords, Axes, Maces, Daggers, and Bows (which implies there is more than that)

-- According to Todd Howard they are trying to make the game as appealing to mainstream gamers as possible without alienating the hardcore players that prefer more complex RPG's (maybe good or bad)

-- They say the game is very very large, but (sadly) it will be smaller than Morrowind for two reasons \/

(Stated by Todd Howard)

A. "Budgets and schedules for games will not change much while the enhanced graphics will require more development time

B. "It’s a fact that, statistically, gamers prefer shorter games, and often do not finish more involved titles

-- They go on to say that this will still be the most Expansive game on the next-gen market

-- Will be unlike the conventional RPG in which the combat outcome does not depend on the luck of “dice rolls”

-- The damage that you dole out will be determined by your strength, your opponent’s armor, and the attack you unleash

-- Your opponents will block and dodge, so taking down an enemy is entirely on the player’s shoulders

-- To make this more mainstream appealing(?) they have made most of the tedious aspects of Morrowind fun (Lock picking, mixing potions, and forging armor for example are going to be done through a mini game of sorts and)

-- Still made for the 1st person player there are options for both 3rd person and 1st person (like Morrowind), while also saying that the "combat is visceral and bloody”, and that it is designed to recall intense swordplay seen in movies like LoTR and Brave heart. Not to mention the fact that they said, “The combat will be every bit exiting as a FPS"

-- More than 1000 NPC’s that are all unique and full dialogue for each due to the interaction and CS's amazing capabilities

-- There are expansive forest regions that are the most breath taking of them all, if only you could see the screen, but they are packed with almost photorealistic trees and at least a thousand slivers of grass

-- CS program is slated to be included with the PC version and maybe even the Consoles if they have that sort of capability

-- All NPC's have a basic day to day schedule so they go to sleep, shop, and even if a poor guy that can’t afford food wants food enough, he will steal from some one, maybe even you

-- You can still kill anyone in sight, and Guards still come but since you are in the capital province of Tamriel (or whatever) there’s a strong difference in the way the guards react

-- The guards will pursue NPC's that have committed a crime an give them a royal ass kicking

-- Game focuses on growth of your character (you still make your own of course) and the missions can be tackled from many different ways

-- Here’s another quote "The elder scrolls games are about freedom, and oblivion takes that freedom to a whole new level ~~~ The combat is a much bigger focus than in the earlier games"

-- Characters will converse in free flowing non scripted discussions that are possible due to this new CS

-- Character animation will be among the best ever seen with facial expressions representing what they are talking about and if they hate you they will greet you with a dark scold, while if they like you you’ll get a great big smile :)

-- NPCS maybe even age (shows a pic of a woman, then another with a caption saying it’s the same woman but in the CS all they did is use a slider to change her age in which she looks very aged compared to the younger looking one

- This is the most capable CS so far and runs on the havok physics engine

-- GI claims it has the most realistic lighting possible

-- When you see the GI pics and can’t believe your eyes, don’t act like they are CGI or FMV, but all pics are in game

-- There is going to be a castle and from the pic it is the most astonishing screen I have ever seen

-- Takes place in Cyrodiil, here’s a quote from GI "the world of Tamriel is a beautiful place: these are, without a doubt, the most amazing graphics the console gaming world has ever seen (look better than doom from the pics I saw)

-- Oblivion will function as a "fantasy world simulator" and wants to recreate such beautiful vibrancy as LoTR, and with these graphics being the best I have ever seen I would guess they will do just that

-- Either on foot or on HORSE BACK, players can explore a huge exterior world that looks shockingly real

-- They mention the new Construction Set which has supposedly like best AI ever in which It has created and rendered most things in which after words they hand touch every thing else

-- NOTE: as I said about the NPC's earlier and how they sleep, shop and so on, here is a couple of other things they mentioned that I didn’t.... Explore, Eat, Report for work, and none of this is scripted, this is supposedly the new development CS at work
-- Attacks will be mapped to right trigger block on left for Xenon (or whatever you want to call the damn thing) hitting trigger does basic swipes, while holding the trigger down and press a direction you perform a power swing, each different direction is a different attack for both basic and power swing. And there are special attack abilities

-- Magic features 6 schools (how many Morrowind had escapes me at the moment, seeing as I haven’t played the damn thing forever) but all the ones mentioned are all in Morrowind so no new schools of magic.... yet

-- Schools of magic are
- Destruction
- Mysticism
- Restoration
- Conjuration
- Alteration
- Illusion

-- You can combine said magic for different effects and can create custom spells

-- Can join any/all of the following guilds, each with unique quests
---- > Fighters Guild
---- > Mages Guild
---- > Thieves Guild
---- > The Dark Brotherhood Guild
---- > Arena Guild
---- > The Nine Divines Guild

-- Can become the leader of every faction during the course of one game all at the same time. Unlike factions in Morrowind where you could only get in all by cheating, while in Oblivion you will be able to do all without doing anything special to the game

-- Fighters/Mages Guild = Noble (Quests like Morrowind’s)

-- Thieves Guild = Sinister (Quests like Morrowind’s)

-- Arena Guild = Focus on Gladiatorial Combat (Quests ??)

-- The Nine Divines = Religious order for Monks (?? Quests)

-- Dark Brotherhood = Sinister (?? Quests)

- Judging from pics there are some sweet monsters in store, ranging from a Sweet dragon-esc type of monster to a Minotaur that was said to look so real that it could have come from the real world and many, many others

- Over 40 types of said monsters such as goblins, skeletons, real world animals (like deer and horses which you can ride) and a very wide selection of the demons from Oblivion

- Mentions that there will be massive conventional boss battles

- And to end it all, it says you will go through subterranean dungeons, ancient ruins, cities/towns that will have you teeming with people going about their daily lives, churches, and castles

- QUOTE: "You will experience a truly living; breathing world brought to life through cutting edge technology that will power the games of tomorrow."

Descriptions Of Screenshots:

1st pic description - It shows from a close view, a knight (if you will) on a horse with his sword exposed, staring at the mountains in the distance (this shows that this game will have one of the most incredible draw distances ever) and the mountains are to scale with what looks like actual mountains. there are also many trees and what looks like maybe a small part of a pond.

1st pic caption - "Everything in this shot is a real part of the world. You can ride your horse through the forests and up to the very top of the mountains in the distance."

2nd pic description - shows a player character in 3rd person in a prison cell with amazing graphics.

2nd pic caption - "At the beginning of your quest, you can tweak you appearance to you liking."

3rd pic description - shows in first person with an intricate sword being held, showing you hands, and it is once again in the prison cell, with great graphics.

3rd pic caption - "This is a room in the prison you will escape from at the beginning of you quest."

4th description - an amazing looking screen showing a small concrete hut with a straw roof and shows how spectacular the grass will be (the grass is hand done with every single slice moving diff.)

4th caption - no caption

5th description - is a beautiful forest with almost photorealistic trees and shows how beautiful the grass will be (and this is like an actual forest with trees in very close proximity, rather than like morrowind where they are like 10 feet apart.)

5th caption - "This shot demonstrates the incredible forests that can be genreated by the Xbox 2."

6th description - shows a pic demonstrating the facial animation in characters, and shows a dude with sweet looking red and silver armor smiling, then in a side blurb scorning

6th caption - "These two shots illustrate how an NPC can display how he feels about you character."

7th description - shows two pics top and bottom of two very different looking women. the one on top is very young, the one on bottom is very old and wrinkly. look at caption for more info, PS graphics are amazing

7th caption - "These two women are actually the same character. Her age has been tweaked in the CS program to demonstrate the power of the tool"

8th description - it shows a little training ground with a table with9 or so weapons pack on it, armor in the background, and a combat dummy in the middle of this big mat

8th caption - "Each of these weapons is real and can be picked up and tested on the combat dummy in the background."

9th description - Shows a sweet looking goblin up close with its arm raised and ready to attack (he looks graphics-wise straight outta doom 3) with a sweet looking turquose ligthed dungeon in the back ground

9th caption - "Goblins are only one of the many kinds of monsters you will face."

10 description - it shows 4 diff pics of the same place with better graphics each time, look at caption

10th caption - Here is oblivion's jail cell with just a diffuse map applied ------ Here is the same cell with normal mapping and parallax mapping ------- An example of specular highlighting ------- The finished jail cell

11th description - a beautiful (cant describe it any better than beautiful) church esque building in the back, with grave stones and mushrooms, and this pic again shows the spectacular grass

11th caption - QUOTE:"as graphics get more powerful, the artistic nature of things increases."

12th description - shows a shoddy table with 3 books, a plate with food on it a skull and a bunch of other crap (like a BUNCH)

12th caption - "Every itemon this table is fully modeled and interactive. Each piece will move realistically when manipulated (meaning bumped into or touched), thanks to the Havok physics used by the game."

13th description - shows a set of candles against a set of stairs (not all that graphically great)

13th caption - "These candles demonstrate high dynamic range shading, a thenique that results in the most realistic lighting ever."

14th description - shows a player character decked out in gold and red armor with a big round shield, and a sweet sword with light realistically bouncing off of it, with a huge ruin behing him, and a statue chick holding up a swordthe his left, yet another shot that shows the amazing grass

14th caption - "The view can be changed to third-person, so you can appreciate the beauty of the character model."

15th descrption - shows a kick ass and amazing looking daedroth that looks dragon esque (everything but the wings), with huge fangs, spikes that go down his head and back all the way to his tale, massive claws, and bloodshot eyes.

15th caption - "This creature is a Daedrorth, on of hte mosters from Oblivion that invades Tamriel."

Final pic - all it is, is the sweet ruins from the 14th pic at a different angle, with no caption