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Seeing as it's 12:04 a.m., 20/03/2016 in New Zealand, I'll be the first to say a wondrous happy birthday to my all time favourite video-game.

Happy birthday to you,
happy birthday to you,
happy birthday dear Oblivion,
happy birthday to you.

Bethesda did an article about it . No freebies, just a few fan creations.

Oblivion was my first Elder Scrolls. Never had the means to play them until it was released on PS3. It was literally a game changer, for me. It didn't take long for the addiction to set in. Still one of my all time favorites.

I picked up the Oblivion Collector's Edition as soon as it hit the store. I had dabbled with Morrowind briefly, but just enough to know that the Imperial Legion usually dressed up in skirts and wore horsehair crests.

This is important to note because the first time I played Oblivion I took the tutorial dungeon crawl so slowly that it was nighttime when I first escaped the sewers. I'd just seen the Emperor hounded down and slain by assassins in strange armor who had absolutely no trouble in finding him wherever he fled. And now I had the very object they were going after. I was certain I would be meeting more of their friends out in that wide world.

I felt like I was thrust into that scene in Fellowship of the Ring where the hobbits are scampering through the nighttime forests of the Shire, trying to evade the black riders looking for them. And what did I see on the Red and Orange Roads that fateful night as I slunk my way towards Weynon Priory? Men in strange black armor not too dissimilar to what the assassins were wearing, riding on horseback along the roads as if looking for someone. I stayed off the path and circled around these sinister figures, never getting close enough for them to see me.

Then I saw a roadside inn. Hopefully I could seek refuge there. I rushed up to the building and then I saw him: one of those very same horsemen sitting just outside the inn.

"Greetings, citizen..." Apparently I wasn't the only one who had Lord of the Rings in mind for this game: Bethesda decided to turn the Legion into the Army of Gondor.

Cheers to ten years of horse armor and vampire face glitches.

How rad! The game that was my starting point in the Elder Scrolls series is now 10 years old. That's kinda crazy, man.

Still my favorite in the series too.

Oblivion is ten years old. Skyrim was released in 2011. It's five years since, so we're overdue.

*raises glass for a toast*

Imagine leaving Skingrad's west gate, wending down the snaky cobblestone road toward Anvil, weaving through fields of red, blue, and yellow flax, treading across meadow-covered rolling hills, and coming to rest above Anvil harbor as sunset creeps over the sleepy ships bobbing in the water.

Cyrodiil had a charm that the harsh landscapes of the preceding and following title lacked. If Morrowind is the roast dinner of TES, Oblivion is the strawberry cheesecake of the series: simple, decadent pleasure. Everything about it was vivid and over-the-top, from the beauty of the land, to the Oblivion horrorscapes, the massive scale of the Imperial City, and on and on. It remains my favorite TES game.

A little bit late for this post, but oh well. Won't stop Oblivion from being one of the greatest RPGs of all time.

I may have arrived unfashionable late for the party, but better late than never.

Now, Oblivion and I have never seen eye to eye, but I just came to wish it a happy Birthday, and a

Hard not to love the game that gave rise to both my avatar and signature.

for ten years this game has held on as my absolute fav of all time, i just got sucked into a brand new playthrough and the magic is still there. the chances it will ever be beat are slim.