Sometimes, in the absence of anything better to do, my mum and I sit down with a cup of tea and play Oblivion. (Obviously, that’s a cup of tea each, otherwise things would rapidly become unpleasant.) We alternate who gets the controller. Two pairs of eyes often work better than one, if you can stand the backseat driving – the person who isn’t currently being flayed alive by imps often notices things the other would have missed. Mum is a pretty nifty console hack’n’slash fighter, which I hate, and I have good directional memory, which stops her running around the same room eight times looking for the way out. Plus, wisecracks are always a lot more fun when there’s someone other than your character there to hear them. It’s actually a pretty fun way to play the game.

Thank God, because otherwise I really hate Oblivion.

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