With a little trick, you can encounter a hidden character in Oblivion Remastered who was voiced by Bethesda boss Todd Howard.
Oblivion Remastered delights fans of the original not only with numerous improvements, but also with the return of beloved Easter eggs and unintentionally entertaining quirks. For example, some test recordings by Todd Howard himself have made it into the new edition, allowing you to chat with the Bethesda boss and even influence his mood.
The Todd Test reveals many facets of the developer
During the production of The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion, Bethesda boss Todd Howard recorded some lines of dialogue himself for testing purposes. These are still included in the game files, which means you can listen to them in the finished game – at least on PC.
How to find Todd Howard: Unfortunately, Todd isn’t lurking in any dungeons or hanging out at the local tavern. Instead, you’ll need a console command. Here’s how:
- Save your game.
- Press the
^-key
to open the console menu. - Now type: coc toddtest
You should now find yourself in a small house. This is a test room where the developers have placed characters and items to try out. In this room, you must talk to a man named Alban Corinis After he greets you, you can choose between various conversation topics: angry, happy, neutral, sad, and surprised.
When you select one of the options, Todd Howard’s voice will be heard, giving his own interpretation of the respective emotion. If you choose angry
, for example, the character will say: What? That really pisses me off!
You can take it to the extreme
Now it’s getting really interesting: With the different dialogue options, you’re not just having a simple conversation, you’re changing the mood of Todd’s character For example, if you select the mood option happy
often enough, his mood will continue to rise.
When it reaches a value of 90, you must select the dialogue option neutral
Now Todd’s character will shower you with love and say:
I can’t remember ever experiencing such loving moments as I am experiencing with you right now.
But it also works the other way around. If you select the dialogue option angry
until his mood drops below 20, you can insult him with the dialogue option neutral
:
You’re a real bastard.
And considering how often you’ve made him angry, this insult is perhaps justified.
Todd Howard may not be a gifted voice actor, but his lines in Oblivion have earned him a place in our hearts forever. But that’s not the only unusual dialogue in Bethesda’s cult role-playing game. For example, there’s a strange and iconic editing error in the audio that made it into the re-release.
