Video footage from a cancelled Elder Scrolls: Oblivion project has surfaced, allowing gamers to take a look at what ZeniMax had cooking for the PlayStation Portable.

This week, rare pre-alpha footage from the development of The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion for PSP has surfaced, spurring a massive wave of interest from fans. The knowledge of the cancelled project's existence wasn't widespread, and now that the bulk of the project's development has been laid bare for all to see, fans of Oblivion are free to take in what could have been one of the PSP's best titles.

The video footage of the unreleased edition of Oblivion has swiftly been taking down from YouTube courtesy of the ZeniMax legal team, but videos re-uploaded onto other websites still remain. Rather than owning up to the piece of gaming history like Volition did with Saints Row: Undercover, it looks like ZeniMax doesn't want their unfinished work to be combed over by the masses.

To save our readers some busywork, here's one of the remaining videos which details the progress behind Oblivion PSP.

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While the hit detection clearly needed some more time in the oven, the foundation for a strong title was evident for the PSP edition of Oblivion. The graphics looked very polished for a PSP title of the time, and the dungeons look admittingly fun to explore. We're sure ZeniMax had its reasons for shutting down the project, but we're happy the above video footage has seen the light of day.

Since the PlayStation Portable couldn't handle a massive open world like Cyrodiil, the game bypassed the issue by cutting up the world into smaller locations, which were accessible via a central hub. Within this 'hub world', NPCs can be seen roaming the streets, and much like the inhabitants of the console version of the game, some were even capable of handing out quests. Completing these quests would change how the hub world looked - for instance, if the player saves someone, they might be seen navigating around the hub world at a later point.

The PSP version of the game was also reportedly slated to allow gamers to travel all around Tamriel, rather than being situated entirely in Cyrodiil- according to a post on Neogaf, even Daggerfall was rumored to be on the plate at one point. At the end over the day, over 180 quests were planned for the game, and each explorable area had multiple paths that were either open or closed depending on active quests. By the sound of it, it would have been quite the game.

The pre-alpha footage also reveals that players would start off in a dungeon cell, which is exactly how the original Oblivion began. The game even features a familiar appearance in the intro, mirroring the console and PC version.

According to some unverified reports, the project was canned because it was falling behind schedule and the developer, Climax, switched game engines in a bid to meet deadlines. When the deadlines still weren't met, ZeniMax reportedly shut down the project for good, and the video footage remained dormant until now.

What do you think about Oblivion PSP, Ranters?

Source: Neogaf