Hobbies – Page 5 – 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!

4–6 minutes

Good morning! I took a couple of weeks off from posting, but now I’m back and feeling refreshed. It was far from a quiet break. Here are some highlights:

My iPad stopped working after attempting an update but finding there was no space to complete it. I ended up resetting it to factory defaults, but at least it works again. Unfortunately, I lost several months of art I was working on for a portfolio, so I get to start over.
I had a couple of doctor’s appointments. I’m working on getting healthy and back in shape. Right now, I am not in shape and, as a result, not healthy. I intend to change that.
I’ve been tending to a few real-life needs, mainly spring cleaning and (very slowly) decluttering. It’s an ongoing process, which I won’t go into in-depth. However, I did uncover my old collection of Myst game CDs! That was a beautiful and frustrating game series.
I simply needed time to recharge my brain. There’s so much negative news these days. Whether it’s the economy, tech news, the encroachment of AI on the creative space, or the failure of multiple new video games due to poor design and developers openly mocking gamers for not liking those poor choices, it’s been disheartening. Throw in politics on top of everything, and it’s a huge pile of elephant dung.

The channel continues to go strong and, as of today, has reached 567 subscribers. I’m grateful that so many of you have taken a moment to watch my videos and subscribe. Your support is greatly appreciated.

As the channel grows, I am working in the background, honing the schedule and the content. There are so many games to try and not nearly enough time to play them all. On top of that, there’s recording, editing, processing, uploading, making thumbnails, and coming up with titles and descriptions.

Those last two I definitely struggle with, which is ironic considering I enjoy writing.

Far from complaining, I enjoy the challenge of it all. I’ve had to learn new skills along the way and, in many ways, I’m still learning.

I have noticed a trend on the channel: the MMO videos are starting to get more attention. I don’t know if it’s because people are starved for a good MMO or if I’ve improved my skills in them, but the LOTRO and Guild Wars 2 videos are doing better, with a few exceptions.

The Grim Dawn series goes through ebbs and flows, but it seems to be growing in interest. This is great news. As of right now, it is my favorite aRPG to play.

The Skyrim videos are performing a little better, and I think part of that is due to me attempting to give them proper episode names.

As for Valheim, it should be back soon. The mods are working, for the most part, and we’ve managed to replace Gus’s armor mod with a new one of his choosing—one that also adds new mobs to the game that drop special items used in crafting the armors and workbenches. I am looking forward to that new element of surprise!

Speaking of Valheim, a viewer has suggested that a modless playthrough might garner interest. I know for a fact that this isn’t something Gus is interested in. As for myself, I have been tinkering with the idea of a limited mod run. While that’s not modless, I’m considering adding only a handful of mods such as Seasonality (adding seasons to the game), 2-3 of my favorite decorating mods, and mods that improve QoL. I will pare down my list of mods to the ones I absolutely want, then put out a poll to see if there’s any interest in such a series.

We can’t forget Sundays. The Let’s Play series has given me a chance to try out several games with you. Currently, I’m playing Yakuza: Like a Dragon, and I have to say, I’m enjoying it! It’s definitely cutscene-heavy, but I’ve been assured that it gets more into gameplay once I leave the prologue.

I’m already compiling a list of potential games for Q4 of 2024, including a couple that are supposed to be out by then. I’ll know for certain which game will win the coveted spot closer to the start.

Sunday has also become a catchall for games that I play from time to time, as the mood strikes me. Games like Subnautica, Broken Ranks, and Manor Lords will make appearances here, among others.

Finally, there’s the livestreams. Currently, I am doing three a week—Sundays at 7:30 pm EST, and Tuesdays & Fridays at 7 pm EST. Due to positive reception and my own enjoyment of streaming it, I’m planning on making one of those days a dedicated LOTRO stream day.

When I started the channel, I had no goal in mind except to share gameplay of the New World beta with friends. From there, it has grown, slowly and steadily, into a community of people who, like me, enjoy various games in the MMO, RPG, and Survival categories. While the occasional strategy, bullet-hell, or simulation game may peek in, the core of the channel remains the same.

I’m looking forward to the rest of the year and the games and game demos I’ll get to try out with you.

As always, if you have any thoughts or suggestions, leave a comment below. Let me know what you like, what you think I can improve, or just say hi! I promise, I don’t bite.

Until next time, bye for now!