"As you'd expect, Oblivion features what appears to be a deep, involving storyline feature plenty of medieval intrigue and world-saving heroics, with just a touch of tongue-in-cheek humor thrown in for good measure. The game's story grabs you from the beginning, as you're tasked with aiding the land's beloved king as he attempts to flee an assassination attempt. Not surprisingly, he finds his end at the end of an enemy's blade, but not before he asks a small favor of you: save the world from destruction and bring peace back to his kingdom. As was the case with Morrowind, however, you can quickly abandon the main quest and set off to create your own story in the game's immense world."

Last week Bethesda traveled all over the world showing of Oblivion for various developers, gaming magazines and journalists. Bethesda has now released some new media, namely two new videos! The first video feature in-game footage of the various environments in Oblivion, the second video features gameplay footage and is more action oriented.

Head on over to our video section to watch the new videos!

We have added ten new screenshots to our screenshots section.

 As you know a picture tells you more than a thousand words so I suggest that you check them out right away!

"The system for enchantments is going to be less complex as far as we know. Was the system in Morrowind just too complex, and what does this mean in terms of gameplay?"

"We’ve removed enchanting as a player skill, but I wouldn’t say it’s less complex. Enchanting is now a perk for those who have maintained a certain rank in the Mages Guild. Once you gain access to the Arcane University in the Imperial City, you can use their enchanting station to transfer souls that you’ve captured into your weapons and armour. You pick the spell effect you want, the magnitude, area, and duration, and the item confers those benefits to you when it’s used, either when worn or when a weapon strikes an enemy. We’ve tweaked the system to address exploits, as well as put more control on what enchantments one can create. No more boots that cast fireballs or anything completely non-sensical like that."

"HG: Many gamers would like to have more information about the Arena? Will the Arena work like a faction, like you’ll be able to gain rank? Is it true that you’ll also be able to bet on combats?

PH: It's like a faction in that it does have ranks you can achieve, and you can eventually become Arena Champion. But it's all done through fighting in the Arena, there are no Arena quests to complete. Just win. Yes, you can go and bet on fights as well if you don't want to fight, or you want to take a break from fighting.

HG: Morrowind got pretty strong sales on Xbox, do you expect that the Xbox 360 will be equivalent, even if the console is still pretty young on the market?

PH: I think what we saw with Morrowind, and are still seeing, is that it wasn't a game that was done selling after 6 months. To this day, it still sells well and I would expect Oblivon is going to be very popular when it comes out....based on the pre-order numbers we're seeing, but I also expect that it will be around and continue selling for a long time."

If you’ve played previous Elder Scrolls games, you know very well how rich and detailed the games’ outside worlds are. Well, you’ve truly never seen anything like this. Right from the start I’m presented with a truly amazing landscape of lush forests, rolling highlands, snow capped mountains, lowland swamps, and grassy meadows … all of which will need my attention in some way. Great sound design means immersion and I can tell right away that a visual masterpiece like this will require a sonic landscape that sucks you right in as powerfully as the visuals.

Head on over to Bethesda's website to read the whole thing. Also released today are three new screenshots. There's a lot of new Oblivion material out there, so go and enjoy it!

Neowin.net has posted an exclusive podcast interview with Pete Hines, vice president of PR and marketing at Bethesda Softworks! This interview cover everything from gameplay to graphics and much more, this surely is a massive interview!

You can grab the 28mb large and 50 minutes long interview right here! (Right click and "save target as" if you want to download it)

Topics discussed in the interview:

The Radiant AI system

The shadow system

Graphics settings

System requirements

Discussion about various rumours (Pete inserts evil laughter)

And much more!

The people over at  Gamers With Jobs  talk about Oblivion in the latest episode of their radio show. They mention some new information that we haven't heard of before.

For example Bethesda are going to have press events for Oblivion later this month, it will take place in some major cities in the US where reporters can have a hand-on preview of the game before it's released. I suggest that you head on over there and listen to their latest episode right away!

If you are really lazy you can download it right here. (right click and "save target as" if you want to download the episode)