NPCs and guards will stop to examine dead bodies that they come across. They'll kneel down and express their sorrow or wonder at the sight. The biggest worry you'll have is that it will cause more NPCs to congregate around it, raising your chances of being detected if you're tying to sneak through. You can drag bodies around using the Grab? button, but it's a slow process as bodies are heavy.

"Plunging further into the crypt, we discovered a wide-open area that contained some treasure for us to collect, as well as some hidden dangers. Stepping onto the wrong tile sent us directly up at a set of spikes embedded in the ceiling, though we merely lost a bunch of hit points for the error, rather than being killed instantly. The game seems to strike a good balance between such action-oriented elements and typical RPG-style equipment management and number crunching, and we're eager to see more of the adventure to see what else is in store."

"The size of the gameworld is several square miles and it's all brought before your eyes without a hitch as you run around. The structures and natural environments are super detailed with no stitching or anything else that would spoil the look of Oblivion. Projected fire and other energy effects look spiffy enough that the game will feel like an Xbox 360 RPG."

"This game aims to let the player feel not only immersed in the game world, but also tied to it in an integral way. Your actions will determine future events, and have lasting impacts. For example, during the demo, we learned that the character had accidentally set a villager on fire earlier; after that, when he tried to go join a guild that he had joined in every previous demo, the guildmaster told him he was not welcome. There's a way to fix this, of course -- you can pay a fine, or do something to rehabilitate your reputation so that other villagers will think more kindly of you. This little sequence underlines the importance of your behavior and choices throughout the game, but in a more subtle and less obvious way than having a morality bar, like Fable, or the dark side/light side dichotomy of KOTOR."

Beyond3D: Could you tell us what Shader Model range you're aiming for? In a recent interview you mentioned that you make use of SM 3.0; is this shader model used for a performance increase only or do you make use of SM 3.0-specific features like texture fetches in the vertex shader?

Gavin Carter: Shader model 2.0 to 3.0 is the targeted range. For shader model 3.0 effects, we do take advantage of some looping and branching, but mostly we use it for performance increases. In 3.0 we are able to do all lighting in a single pass, as well as full lighting on blended objects.

Beyond3D: Are you using any kind of pre-computed shadow technique for static shadows? If so, how well will they blend with the dynamic shadows?

Gavin Carter: We are not using any pre-computed techniques. The main reasons are that pre-computed shadow maps don’t mesh well with our dynamic time-of-day system. Also, relying on a completely dynamic solution allows much more flexibility for the artists to create whatever environment they want in an entirely WYSIWYG work environment.

"When we began walking through the forest and the ruins, it became immediately apparent that this is one of the best looking games we've ever seen. The level of detail is fantastic, from the pitted, scratched stone pillars lining the pathways to the various types of flora we came across. Oblivion features a huge game world (nearly 16 real-size square miles), yet you wouldn't know it just by looking around your immediate area. The forest was densely populated with trees, seemingly as far as the eye could see. Amazingly, even far off trees could be seen clearly."

"ESN: What were your main goals while creating the interface for Oblivion? How did the multiplatform nature of the project affect your work and the final result?"

"Natalia: I had two main goals while working on the interface - to make it looking good and to make it easy to use. Interface graphics should never be 'pushing' the user or distract him. And at the same time the graphics should be bright and impressive, be easy to visualize and remember.

Because of the multiplatform nature of the project, I've created an additional set of buttons for Xbox360. They didn't change the style of the interface anyhow."