Todd Howard, Executive Producer and Game Director at Bethesda has let a few things slip about their as of yet unannounced title.  Well at least to how they're planning on not having us wait two and a half years between it being announced and it being released.

"One thing I can say is that from when you first hear about it to when it’s out will be the shortest it’s been for us. It’s pretty far along. When we show it, we want to show a lot, because there’s a lot of game there to play right now."

Good news.  Many of us old timers here remember the long wait as we call it.  Of course in reality it wasn't that long compared to some games in the industry.

"That’s our starting point — the Fallout 3 tech. It started with Morrowind, we went to Oblivion, we did a lot between Oblivion and Fallout 3 because now we had final hardware — with Oblivion we had six months on final hardware, so Fallout 3 technically does a lot more than Oblivion. The new stuff is an even bigger jump from that."

As we suspected it'll be using an improved version of the Oblivion/Fallout 3 engine.  Not terribly surprising.  With the current generation of consoles sticking around for a few more years to come yet, a completely new improved engine would be largely wasted.  Nice to see it will be a "bigger jump", the improvements to the Fallout 3 engine were pretty decent over Oblivion.  Although obviously a lot of it was lost on the post-nuclear wasteland. :-)

Is he talking about a new Elder Scrolls game though?  Time will tell.

It will come as little surprise to those who are keeping on top of things that an Elder Scrolls game isn't going to be shown at E3.  A couple of years ago there were suggestions that we could be seeing an Elder Scrolls V around this sort of time frame, but obviously with the success of Fallout Bethesda are keeping an eye on that for the time-being.

They do have a game in-development but have yet to announce it, maybe next year?  Or maybe they'd wait for a new generation of consoles before revisiting the Elder Scrolls.  Only time will tell.

"At the moment we've got Fallout 3 for this year and potentially there's a new Elder Scrolls title in 2010," said Oughton. "At the moment we're not that interested in the Wii. We're going to stick to PS3, Xbox 360 and PC. We'll continue to pursue three or four titles a year and go for big titles," he said of the company's publishing plans for the future."

Bethesda Softworks Announces
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Game of the Year Edition

Expanded Version of Award-Winning Role Playing Game,
for PC, Xbox 360, PLAYSTATION®3 system Available In September

July 9, 2007 (Rockville, MD) – Bethesda Softworks®, a ZeniMax Media company, announced today that it will release The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion® Game of the Year Edition (GotY) for Xbox 360™ video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system from Sony, and Windows this September. Oblivion GotY will include the original version of the award-winning RPG Oblivion along with the official expansion, The Elder Scrolls® IV: Shivering Isles™, and the downloadable content, Knights of the Nine™.

This new product will allow players who have never played the 2006 Game of the Year to experience Oblivion for the first time with additional content. In addition, gamers can continue their existing games of Oblivion and experience the new quests and areas offered by the expansion and downloadable content.

Released in March 2006 for Windows and Xbox 360™ video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and in March 2007 for PLAYSTATION®3 system, Oblivion has already earned countless awards from publications around the world and won numerous Game of the Year and RPG of the Year awards. Gamerankings.com and MetaCritic.com list Oblivion as the highest rated game of all time on both Xbox 360 and PLAYSTATION®3 system.

Oblivion features a powerful combination of free-form gameplay, unprecedented graphics, cutting edge AI, character voices by acting legends Patrick Stewart, Sean Bean, Terrance Stamp, and Lynda Carter, and an award-winning soundtrack. Gamers can choose to unravel Oblivion’s epic narrative at their own pace or explore the vast world in search of their own unique challenges.

With more than 30 hours of new gameplay, Shivering Isles allows you to explore an entirely new plane of Oblivion – the realm of Sheogorath, the Daedric Prince of Madness. Shivering Isles features a bizarre landscape split between the two sides – Mania and Dementia –filled with vast, twisting dungeons mirroring the roots of the trees they are buried within.  Sheogorath himself looks to you to be his champion and defend his realm and its inhabitants from destruction as you discover all new items, ingredients, spells, and much more.

Knights of the Nine features an all-new faction and quests for noble characters and answers many of the questions surrounding the Ayleid ruins found throughout Oblivion. Players can join a new faction and found their own order of holy knights – leading them into battle against a sorcerer-king and his demonic minions while exploring massive dungeons and searching for legendary relics – the holy armor and weapons of the Divine Crusader.

For more information on Oblivion, Shivering Isles, or The Elder Scrolls, visit www.elderscrolls.com.

"As you’d expect (especially given that this is just an expansion of the core Oblivion game, The Shivering Isles looks and sounds terrific. The two realms both look great, although I was a bit more partial to the colorful palette on display in Mania. The music is just as solid as ever, and the sound effects are crystal clear. Naturally, the same issues that many people had with the original game pop up here, from the occasionally stuttering visuals to the lip-synching on the NPCs. Despite these problems, this is still a great looking game."

"Upon investigating this mysterious portal, a screaming and clearly demented adventurer exits the portal back into Nibben bay, to be killed by a guard. The guard proceeds to warn you that all who enter will be sentencing themselves to a certain death, but fear not he will be there to “clean up the mess” when you return (ekkk)! Obviously the only thing to do is to totally ignore his advice. Onward we go !"