One of Bethesda's most popular titles last year was Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, released last year for the PC and Xbox. Banking on the title's popularity, some of the RPGamer staff witnessed a gameplay demo from the second expansion in the Morrowind universe: Elder Scrolls III: Bloodmoon. Our particular booth was running the PC version on an Xbox console, so the performance was noticeably slow.

Aside from the optimization issues (which wouldn't have been an issue if Bethesda's PC booth was working at the time), the game capitalizes on one of the more popular aspects of the Morrowind universe: werewolves. Players have two quests to undertake in Bloodmoon: a main quest that can be completed in either werewolf or human form, and a subquest based on a particular faction that the character chooses to affiliate him or herself with.

The developer showing us Bloodmoon noted that the AI had been considerably improved, which took into effect each NPC's ability to fight the players. Silver weapons used by NPC's (which are almost always hostile), prove particularly effective against werewolves, but the werewolves healing abilities and raw physical attack power prove for an interesting gameplay experience.

Unlike the previous expansion, Tribunal, Bloodmoon is set in a rural area with lots of forest.Bloodmoon will also be released as part of Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind - Game of the Year, so RPGamers will have plenty of opportunities in the near future to bask in the power of the full moon.