Oblivion's Adoring Fan and his chronically bad hairstyle are in Starfield
Go away! Go away!!
If you ever became Grand Champion in the combat arena in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, then you will recognise the little cone-headed gimp who made a surprise cameo in tonight's Starfield deep dive, streamed as part of the Xbox Games Showcase for not-E3. In the case of the upcoming space-themed mega-RPG, he'll attach to your character if you choose the trait Hero Worshipped. He still has stupid hair in Starfield, too.
In Oblivion he just says you're great and will offer to follow you around (if you accept he will become a companion, but he's useless because he mostly runs away if combat happens). I personally think that AF's memetic qualities are few, but his blank grin in his meaty, wide face do lodge in the memory. There's something a bit Mr. Blobby about him, almost... I hate him, is what I'm saying. I don't think he's funny or cute. But apparently I am in the bastard minority. Bethesda did get a bit knowingly self-referential for the showcase at times, and I'll be keeping an eye on that going forward. Companies aren't supposed to be self-aware. That's how we get Skynet, isn't it?
Anyway, it sounds like Adoring Fan will be just a tad more useful in Starfield, as he will "join your ship's crew and give you gifts", but on the other hand he's only good at Scavenging, Weight Lifting and Concealment, so the gifts will probably be shit. Also the trait screen says he'll "show up randomly", which means he probably uses the Concealment skill to jump-scare you with his triangular head, like a big yellow Toblerone.
On the plus side, it does look like you can shoot him with both barrels in the back if he does turn out to be too creepy and/or annoying, so that's nice. You can see my man in the video above at about the 15 minute mark. Our Liam wrote about the character creation and traits in a bit more detail, and if you missed any or indeed all of the Xbox Games Showcase we've got you covered with an everything we saw list. Handy!
NotE3 and Summer Game Fest 2023 is over for another year. You can find out all the latest news by visiting our E3 2023 hub, or you can catch up with our round-up posts of everything that was announced at Summer Game Fest, the Xbox Games Showcase, the PC Gaming Show, Day Of The Devs, and our top highlights from the Wholesome Direct.
