prefacing this to say i'm really enjoying the oblivion remaster so far - it's one of the best remasters i've ever played, up there with need for speed hot pursuit and the last of us part one. there's more than enough posts that go "this feature sucks, therefore the game is garbage" on the internet, and this is not one of those. the original oblivion will always exist for those who truly cannot enjoy the remaster for whatever reason.

with that out of the way: i wish they didn't remove the "world freezes, camera zooms" effect when you talk to people in the remaster. the game still kind of does that, but instead of the abrupt cut and zoom, it does this gentle pan, sometimes taking three seconds to bring the character into view. IMO, it feels ten percent less janky and a hundred percent worse.

this video shows it right at the start. the character is talking and animating, but they're almost completely off-screen, and the camera lazily swoops down to show them. it's weird.

it doesn't really fix the problems with the dialogue lock that made it so jarring in the first place, namely that you can suddenly find your inputs disabled and your camera swinging around to look at an NPC that snuck up behind you. if every conversation in oblivion happened because you looked at someone and pressed the "talk" button, the hard zoom from the original release wouldn't have been nearly as disorienting. it's the fact that you can find yourself in the dialogue state when you're not expecting it that's the issue.

i'm pretty sure the designers were aware of this back in 2006 - one of the first times you get dialogue sprung on you is when you enter jauffre's place in weynon priory for the first time. a monk stands up, walks towards you while in your view, and then talks to you. the designers made sure you had ample time to realise you're about to be talked to.

but oblivion dialogue minus the zoom plus a slow pan is still oblivion dialogue. having control wrested away and "STOP RIGHT THERE, CRIMINAL SCUM" shouted at you while you're quietly sneaking around and listening carefully for footsteps is always going to be jarring. why not keep the iconic hard cut and zoom?