Gaming News – Page 3 – Ms. Bella's World

3–4 minutes

As a gamer, I’m always watching Steam, looking for titles that have the potential to be fun and interesting. If it appears to have a good story, an open world to explore, or interesting characters, it goes on my list. Bonus points if it’s an RPG or survival game.

And while there are a number of titles inhabiting my wishlist at this point, some of which I’m definitely looking forward to, the one title I’m looking forward to the most isn’t a game – it’s a mod for a game that’s been around for 18 years. This game had it all – a fun story told through quests and lore found around the world, a wide world to explore and discover, and fun gameplay with both melee and magic. It also had its share of bugs, glitches, mediocre graphics and more, mostly mitigated by the modding community.

That game I refer to is Oblivion. And the mod, scheduled to release in 2025 for free, is Skyblivion.

Created by a team of volunteers under the group ‘The Elder Scrolls Renewal‘, this project to port Oblivion into the Skyrim engine began in 2012. The lead developer, Zilav had created what the team refers to now as version 0.1, nothing more than a tech demo. It was missing most of the content and very buggy, but the promise was there.

The introduction of a new member of the team, Monocleus, saw the flicker of life grow into a small flame as he began fleshing out the technical end of the mod. And by 2014, they’d managed to provide for others a stable base game to develop.

Over the years, the group has grown to 85 volunteers, all working on various aspects of the mod. Everything has been meticulously recreated and, in some cases, improved by the passionate team of fans.

Among the things a player can expect are –

The quests from Oblivion (obviously)
All of the big and small DLC for Oblivion
Settings, including landscapes and towns, re-rendered in 3D. All of it has been recreated from the ground up to match the appearance of Skyrim
Custom content courtesy of the Skyblivion Dev team
Combat, including underwater combat
And so much more

Now, one must note that while the mod is free, there are still requirements. You must own a legitimate copy of Oblivion and Skyrim SE in order for the mod to work. And the FAQ states that if you can run Skyrim on medium settings then you should be able to handle Skyblivion too.

This has been a passion project 13 years in the making and the progress of it can be seen on both the Skyblivion website as well as their Project Lead’s YouTube channel – Rebelzize.

I stumbled across the mod in late 2022, after looking for mods to improve the appearance and gameplay of Oblivion. Once I saw what they were doing, I was determined that I’d wait to finish playing the game until I could get my hands on this mod. To date, I have yet to complete Oblivion, despite finding the story fascinating.

The suspense is killing me!

And this isn’t the only project in works by the ‘The Elder Scrolls Renewal’. There are also two versions of Morrowind mods being developed –

Morrowblivion – Morrowind in the Oblivion engine
Skywind – Morrowind in the Skyrim engine

You can imagine which of those I’m looking forward to!

2025 looks to be a great year for fans of Oblivion and, I for one, will be counting down the days until Skyblivion is released and I can once again enter the world of Tamriel to stop the Daedra from taking over Cyrodiil.

What do you think? Have you played Oblivion and will you play Skyblivion when it releases? Leave a comment.

And, until next time, bye for now!

2–4 minutes

From time to time, I check out the game demos on Steam to see if anything peaks my interest. Frequently I’ll find a little game that, after looking it over, I end up adding to my wishlist. Most of these games tend to be lighthearted puzzle games, fantasy or science fiction RPGS, or the ever-growing list of survival games coming out.

Rarely do I add a walking simulator to my list. However, this one was so bizarre, and reminded me so much of something H.R. Giger would have dreamed up, that it ended up there.

The game is called Necrophosis. By the developers Dragonis Ares and Adonis Brosteanu, this game is tagged as Lovecraftian, Surreal, Walking Simulator, and Mystery.

The description of the game, from the Steam Page, reads –

“Necrophosis inspired by Zdzislaw Beksinski is a chilling first-person horror adventure, plunging you into a nightmarish realm teeming with grotesque forms and ominous visuals. Delve into eerie landscapes and uncover secrets in this atmospheric journey through the macabre.“

I had never heard of Zdzislaw Beksinski before, so I looked him up. He was a Polish painter, photographer, and sculptor born in 1929, specializing in dystopian surrealism. And, might I add, he did it quite well.

From the 1960s to the 1980s, he entered what he referred to as his ‘fantastic period,’ focusing on surrealistic, detailed environments of death and decay. Despite the grimness of his work, he insisted many of them were optimistic and was uninterested in hearing interpretations, even going so far as to leave his works untitled.

Like Giger, I wouldn’t call his art pretty, and I wouldn’t hang it on my wall. But also, like Giger, I can’t help but be drawn to many of his pieces. I found myself staring at them for some time in contemplation, wondering what he was thinking as he crafted each piece.

Inspired by Beksinski’s haunting visions, Necrophosis captures a similar sense of grim fascination. In the demo, you’re dropped into the story with very little knowledge of who you are or why you’re there. You have to figure out how to navigate this desolate world of death and decay, where everything that is has already perished and even death itself can die. There aren’t even enemies to fight; you are truly alone in your isolation.

After stumbling around for a while, missing obvious clues as I stared at the dark, graphical feast in front of me, I finally started to pick up the gameplay, just in time for the demo to end.

I was relieved. I wanted more. I needed to know why this world was the way it was. How far into the future was this reality, and was it truly the end of time?

Now, I find myself reflecting on what I experienced in the game so far and eagerly awaiting a release date so I can continue exploring this unsettling terrain. Despite Beksinski’s insistence that he didn’t know the meaning behind his art, I find myself yet searching for some glimmer of it in both his work and the world of Necrophosis.

If the whole game continues as it began, then I highly recommend it for people who love darkly atmospheric simulators that leave you pondering life, mortality, death, and all that comes after.

And if you want to see more, I’ll be streaming the demo later today at 7:30 pm EST on YouTube and Rumble. I welcome you to take the journey with me, and perhaps you too will find yourself wanting to know more.

Until next time …