Since Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is out, I've gotten the taste to take a small break from EVE for a weekend and go back and play Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Then, once Skyrim has been out for long enough that I can buy it on the cheap (with all DLCs included), I'll play that one.

This also has the advantage that my 18-month old NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 should be able to run it a lot better then the video card that I had back in 2007 (a pair of GeForce 7950 in SLI mode). So I won't have to deal with the slow frame rates I had back then and it should run fairly smooth on more modern hardware. I remember having to heavily tweak it in order to get even 20 fps at times.

Of course, since I haven't played it in a few years, it also means I need to find the mods that I used to use, see whether there are updated versions, and figure out if there are any new mods to use.

Old entries:

Oblivion Screenshots (May 2007)
Videos on YouTube (Jun 2007)
Gameplay Videos (from 2007)

Step #1 - The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion® Game of the Year Edition Deluxe $25
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Game of the Year Edition Deluxe includes Knights of the Nine and the Shivering Isles expansions plus Fighter's Stronghold Expansion, Spell Tome Treasures, Vile Lair, Mehrune's Razor and much more.

The deluxe version includes all of the DLCs, plus the Shivering Isles expansion. The other version (the GOTY regular) only includes Knights of the Nine and the Shivering Isles expansion.

Step #2 - Oblivion mod manager by Timeslip

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=2097

This will make your modding life a whole lot easier. It will make backups of key files, let you re-order things, modify settings and a bunch of other really good and helpful tools. For the Steam version, you need to install it in the same directory as the Oblivion executable. On my Windows 7 64bit system, that is:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\oblivion

After this is installed, I recommend trying to run the game in unmodified form, just to make sure that everything is working. That way you can backup your settings / mods / data and always fall back to this point.

Step #3 - Better Oblivion Sorting Software - BOSS

This tackles one of the thorny issues of Oblivion (and other Bethesda games), putting the mods in an order that makes sense and won't crash the game.

Install it, run it, and you should get a report in your web browser.

Step #4 - The fan-made patches

The game version that comes with Steam should already be the latest "official" version, but it still contains a lot of errors that get fixed with the following (3) mods. I recommend the OMOD version (since you can use OBMM to install those). Fire up OBMM and click on the "Load" button and browse to where you downloaded the OMOD file to. Then double-click on the new entry in OBMM to install it. You may be prompted about one or two things.

Unofficial Oblivion Patch
Unofficial Shivering Isles Patch
Unofficial Official Mods Patch

Once you've changed the green box (not installed) to a blue box (installed), you should exit OBMM and run BOSS again. When you go back in and look at the load order, you'll see that BOSS has re-arranged the ESM/ESP files to make more sense.

Step #5 - Test play

At this point, I suggest going ahead and playing around with the basic game for an hour or so (enough to get through the introduction and get out into the game world). Make sure to create multiple saves as you go along, especially before you pass through any doorways to the outside world. These save points can be used later to test things out.

Step #6 - Oblivion Script Extender

OBSE is used by a lot of mods in order to extend what the Oblivion Scripting system was capable of. Installation requires copying some DLLs to the Oblivion folder (uninstall requires simply removing them). Note that you need version "0020" in order to be compatible with Steam.

1. Copy obse_1_2_416.dll, obse_editor_1_2.dll, and obse_steam_loader.dll to your Oblivion directory. This is usually "C:\Program Files\Valve\Steam\SteamApps\common\oblivion".
2. Ensure you have enabled the Steam community in-game, or OBSE will fail to load. Go to Steam > Settings > In-Game and check the box marked "Enable Steam Community In-Game".
3. Launch Oblivion via Steam or by running Oblivion.exe.

Step #7 - Windom Earle's Oblivion Crash Prevention System

Prevents some common Oblivion crashes, but not all of them. Note that you will probably have to create the "Data\OBSE\Plugins" directory and then copy the DLL file into there. Uninstallation is as simple as removing the DLL.

Step #8 - Fast Exit 2

Another OBSE plug-in that makes Oblivion better behaved when you go to exit the game.