For a 10-day period the summer of 2006, in between handing in my resignation at my first job on a games magazine and returning to Scotland to start university, I did almost nothing except eat, sleep and play The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion on my Xbox 360. I hauled my TV from the living room of my small, unpleasantly warm flatshare into my bedroom so I could play uninterrupted; it was all I could think about. My character was a Khajiit thief, a kind of manky lion in black-leather armour with excellent pickpocketing skills. One afternoon, I decided to see whether I could steal every single object in the smallish town of Bravil, and got caught by the guards a couple of hours in. I did a runner, dropping a trail of random plates, cheese wheels and doublets in my wake, and the guards pursued me all the way to the other side of the map, where they finally got entangled with a bear who helpfully killed them for me.

For months rumors have circulated that developer Bethesda was about to release a remastered version of its timeless classic action RPG The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion–now one has finally arrived and it looks so good I can barely believe my eyes. The remaster boasts the complete Oblivion world–Cyrodiil and all–beautifully remade with high-resolution textures and new lighting. The graphical conversion comes courtesy of the game development engine Unreal Engine 5, with a little input from Bethesda's in-house gaming engine to keep it looking as true to the original version as possible. Thanks to Unreal Engine 5, players will now be able to play Oblivion in 4K at up to 60 FPS, enjoying a level of detail they could otherwise only dream of in the original. They can forget about wandering past trees and shrubs that seemingly appear in 2D, for example, because they'll now be rendered in mind-blowing 3D, like everything else in the game. In addition to a graphics overhaul, the remaster boasts an updated UI as well as updated sound and visual effects.

Fans of the 1980's-era sitcom A Different World were initially thrilled to hear that the Cosby Show spinoff was making the jump to Netflix, with all six seasons presented in HD quality. Then they started watching, and noticed there was, indeed, something very different about how A Different World looks on streaming. The text on signs looks strangely garbled. Faces in the background appear squished, sometimes even a tad monstrous. The image as a whole looks like an animated watercolor painting. Everything looks… well, weird, bordering on grotesque.

Nightdive Studios, the developer behind remasters of Star Wars: Dark Forces and System Shock 2, have surprise-launched a remaster of 2002 cult-hit The Thing. The upgraded game is available now for PC, Xbox One and Series X/S, PlayStation 4 and 5, Nintendo Switch, and to stream through NVIDIA GeForce Now. Originally developed by Computer Artworks, The Thing is a third-person shooter that acts a direct sequel to John Carpenter's 1984 film The Thing, following a United States Special Forces team that's sent into the film's arctic base to investigate what happened there. Outside the source material, the game is best known for its trust, fear, and infection systems. How you play can impact whether in-game characters trust you, think you're The Thing or turn into The Thing themselves.

Blizzard's first real-time strategy games had a profound impact on me as a young immigrant to Canada in 1994 and '95. Warcraft: Orcs & Humans and Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness helped me learn how to read and write in English, and formed the basis for some of my oldest friendships in a brand-new country. Suffice to say, I have a lot of love for these old RTS games -- maybe more than Blizzard itself. So you can imagine my excitement at remaster rumors for Warcraft II and its expansion, Beyond the Dark Portal. When Blizzard aired its Warcraft Direct last week, not only were those rumors confirmed, but it announced that the original Warcraft would receive the same treatment, and both would be sold alongside Warcraft III: Reforged (itself a remaster) as part of a new battle chest.

If modern games are sports cars – flashy, fast, expensive and noisy – the original Tomb Raider is a shopping trolley: clunky, slow and not much to look at. Cumbersome to operate, especially if you're used to automatic gears and sat nav. Absolutely brilliant at doing what it was designed to do. Well, 24.99, which is the asking price for Tomb Raider I-III Remastered. This offering includes Lara Croft's first three adventures from 1996-98, plus the expansion packs.

As is now tradition, an enormous piece of gaming news landed right after last week's Pushing Buttons went out to readers: Microsoft's huge $70bn purchase of Call of Duty, World of Warcraft and Candy Crush owner Activision Blizzard, a deal that has been in the works since January last year, was unexpectedly blocked by a UK regulator. This might not seem interesting to anyone except those involved with the business of video games, or people with an inexplicable interest in the actions of regulatory authorities in Britain, but wait! It is quite interesting, because the response from these two giant companies has been entertainingly petty. All corporations are entitled brats. For decades, US- and UK-driven neoliberalism has empowered them to consider themselves legally equivalent to actual people, and deserving of privilege, ostensibly because they create wealth and jobs.

Regular readers will know that I find video games' ability to pull people together to be one of the most interesting things about them. I have a weakness for stories about outsiders finding each other, and games make that happen with charming regularity. I once wrote about a long-distance couple who stayed connected by playing Dark Souls, wrestling with that game's opaque online matchmaking to ensure that they could always find each others' summon signs, hidden in a nook behind a wall or under a distinctive vase. And I'm fascinated by how Eve Online has attracted a particular flavour of person – usually science-fiction-obsessed, very often in some position of power in real life – to create an intergalactic community that mimics the economics and power structures of our own, but with extra skullduggery. Online gaming has brought us so much in this regard: people have formed lifelong friendships through all kinds of video games, from World of Warcraft to No Man's Sky.

Don't look now but a new Nintendo remaster could be on the way. A job posting on Bandai Namco's website has listings for a planner and two visual artist positions, one of which entails performing "HD remastering of the 3D background." The listing was first identified by Resetera. "As a visual artist for a 3D action game project on a Nintendo contract, you will be asked to do image sketching and 3D background production work for design consideration," a translated description of one of the job listings says. Bandai Namco is the development studio behind many critically acclaimed Nintendo games, such as Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, New Pokemon Snap, and Mario Kart 8.

Arcade-style sports games had quite the following in the early and mid-2000s. From Tony Hawk's Pro Skater to the many iterations of FIFA and NFL titles, these games had lasting impact on players, with many continuing to play new games or seeing remakes or remasters of their favorites. One such series was SSX, the popular snowboarding game that was released just over 20 years ago. SSX was the first title from EA Sports Big, a new-at-the-time addition to the EA developer umbrella. The game received critical acclaim across the board and received several awards, including 2001 Console Game of the Year from the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences.