Keepers is a weekly segment in which I discuss games I’ve played that I’ve seen fit to keep after playing. I generally sell a game that I’ve finished, so the only reason I keep one is because I plan to replay the game some day. Classifying a game as a “keeper” is generally a badge of merit.

Most people who own a PC or console and like RPGs have played The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. It’s a fantastic game. And although I’ll admit that by the end I was a bit burned out on the game, it’s largely because I’d played it for over 200 hours.

Although it came out far prior to Fallout 3, which ran on the same engine, I honestly believe that Oblivion was far better than Fallout 3. You can also make the argument that the whole leveling system in Oblivion was overly complex and that you could easily screw your character over by leveling incorrectly – I’ve written about the complexities of the leveling system in Oblivion more than once – but there are mods out there that can alter or “fix” these issues if you find them to be issues. My favorite of these is Oscuro’s Oblivion Overhaul, but the number of mods out there for Oblivion is absolutely huge, which is one reason I believe the PC version to be so much better than the console version.

I’m not entirely sure that I’ll ever go back and play as massive a game as Oblivion a second third time, but that doesn’t change my opinion that the game is most definitely a keeper.