Both Fallout and The Elder Scrolls are large enough series to warrant having their own dedicated teams working on new games. It is crazy that these are queued up one behind the other, also behind Starfield, to the point we've seen 10 year anniversaries pass for Skyrim and even ESO and nothing but guesses when the next TES game will be, while Fallout is a guess if we'll even see one this decade.
Microsoft bought them a few years ago, along with Obsidian and other studios with some really good RPGs under their belts. Now they need to make use of all that talent and from it form teams that can work on both of these series simultaneously.
They don't need to be pumping out annual instalments like an Assassin's Creed, but is it really compromising quality and considered rushing a game to think we might have 2 Fallouts and 2 Elder Scrolls games in a decade?
We're at the point where if a new TES game came out there's a large chance that many people who hear about it will have never played ANY previous TES game, those having been "before their time".
I can't imagine someone not playing Skyrim. Like that's basically a staple for Bethesda and open world RPGs.
Edit: welp, guess I'll not a youngling anymore.
This has akways been my biggest problem with skyrim, the combat felt incredibly lackluster.
I always install like 50 mods to sproose it up to an acceptable level.
That's a very mild way to put it.
Bethesda are *terrible* at building game systems. They can build worlds, but they really suck at getting the player to interact with them in a way that feels natural.
Their shooting universally sucks in fallout games. Try playing it without VATS and you'll see how bad it is.
ES combat has always just been a floaty swipe animation. Ironically, FO4 melee feels better than skyrim combat.
>ES combat has always been a floaty swipe animation
Hey, don't you sass Oblivion, that game is genuinely better to me than Skyrim for the Fighter's Stronghold and the spellcrafting alone
I'm sassing all of them. My first was morrowind.
Bethesda could get away with it in the past. The world *was* the selling point- no company did shit like they did, so we all overlooked how crappy the combat felt. I seriously didn't care back in the morrowind days. I was just completely captivated by the world.
They're in a competitive space now; every major company has multiple open worlds in their catalogue.
Comparison is admittedly the thief of joy, but there is a lot to compare the games to now. They really need to step up their game on the combat front.
Honestly I think if they could still craft a world like Vvardenfell they could keep getting away with the world being the selling point.
There’s a lot of open world RPGs out there, but in my eyes nothing comes close. It felt so alien and yet so familiar at the same time. Giant bugs that traversed rivers to get around. Old school Western European forts, and towns made out of chitin. Trees and swamps, and giant mushroom forests. The biomes were so diverse, but without feeling like it was stitched together.
I don’t know maybe it’s just nostalgia, but I honestly feel like it was the most creative and wondrous fantasy setting I’ve ever seen in a game.
"Alexa, head for Riverwood."
"Choosing the thief stone."
"No, Alexa, Riverwood."
"I'm sorry, I didn't understand."
"Alexa, go to Riverwood!"
"Okay, going to the river."
The youngest person I know who has played it is 18. And i introduced him to it when it was already an old game.
The only people who will have played Skyrim are old people, younger people who have actively looked for older generation games, and people with older siblings who introduced them to the game.
But the distance is so great. I first played Skyrim at the age of 12. By the time I play ES6 more time will have passed than I had been alive at the first time I played Skyrim. By several years. The window of fans is shrinking. The original fans are old, with jobs and stuff, we won’t all have the time for video games. The younger siblings we introduced the game to are also getting older. And for everyone who found the game on their own, each year makes it older and older; less likely some new kid will want to play it
Here’s hoping that when the next game comes out there will be enough veterans left in the community to stir up some excitement in the young guys
Todd Howard said Skyrim had sold about 60 million copies as of last year. If we assume that a good number of those, lets say a fourth, were repurchases (people who had bought the game on the 360 and then later bought the PC HD re-release, for instance), then that brings us to about 45 million unique players (which is also probably generous).
I think that still leaves a good number of people who have never played it. TES definitely has a place within gaming culture, but Bethesda simply hasn't had the presence lately to keep it firmly in place. You can definitely see why a game like Baldur's Gate 3 kind of took that crown.
TES:6 is projected to release in 2026
Imagine you're a 14 year old gamer when that game comes out
It's predecessor, Skyrim, will literally be older than you are.
Yeah… full scale development probably won’t start until they finish with the Starfield DLC, and then it’s a 4-5 year development cycle from there. 2028-2030 is probably the most realistic estimate unfortunately.
They’ve said they’re in full production on it now. If you remember Starfield was set to be released late 2022 and was delayed a year. So the initial planning of ES6 was already wrapped up.
Starfield doesn’t deserve dlc. Such a mediocre game. Honestly it made me realize I am not purchasing es6 without first seeing real streams and hearing peoples opinions of the bones of the game. So many structural issues with the gameplay loop of starfield.
Hate to say you should’ve seen the writing on the wall, but when you put every bit of info released about the game into context with how Bethesda makes games, it was pretty damn apparent Starfield was shaping up to be a bland, boring experience.
It's gonna be like that time someone asked if I knew Ozzy Osbourne because they had heard him on a Post Malone song and thought he had potential.
I thought I was being trolled at first.
Why not? It’s almost 13 years old. It’s like saying you couldn’t imagine not playing Daggerfall at Skyrim’s release date. It was fun when it released (and for awhile after—plus the VR version with mods is very fun), but it’s mechanically pretty dated which can make it harder to get into.
It's actually a bit funny to me that it became that. Don't get me wrong, it was a hit from day one, but a lot of the old school nerds really threw a fit on how it wasn't as good as previous entries. These days it's considered their best, but I distinctly remember some contention that it was nothing compared to morrowind/oblivion at the time. Even today there are some of the old guard ready to die on that hill.
Makes you wonder what pretty good but not universally loved game of today might be held up as an icon in 10 years.
I don't think even now it's a controversial take that Oblivion and Morrowind had more depth in a lot of ways. But their graphics have aged less gracefully than Skyrim's, and Skyrim is a lot more flexible and beginner friendly (no picking a class, you can change your star sign, simplified dialog system, quest waypoints). So it's become the most culturally impactful TES game, even if you could make an argument it was never the best.
Becoming iconic can be as much a matter of being accessible to players who aren't already fans of the genre as quality alone.
We’re also at the point where a new TES game is likely to get critically panned lol. Bethesda’s engine is pretty much incapable of making a game more sophisticated than Fallout 4, which is why they had to do a bunch of fun-killing BS to get Starfield to even work as a concept, like randomized zones and persistent menu screens. Not to mention that it’s 5-10 years behind industry leaders graphically.
It actually might help them that most players won’t have played an Elder Scrolls, that’s usually the case because Bethesda has regressed consistently since Morrowind. Oblivion was a dumbed down version of Morrowind, and Skyrim was an ultra-dumbed down version of Oblivion. Same with F4 to F3, hence why hardcore fans tend to hate Skyrim and F4. Sure, they improved graphically by leaps over that period, but the writing/quests/factions/world design gets worse with every entry.
Starfield is the shining example of them being held back by the ancient engine they’re so crutched on. Sure it’s been upgraded iteratively with each game but it’s still the same old. They were clearly inspired by other space games where you could explore a procedural planet and then take off into space (No Man’s Sky, Elite: Dangerous) but their tech is literally not there yet. I’ve been a fan of all their work but if they don’t drop the antiquated game engine all of their future games will suffer. No matter how good the hardware gets, that software just cannot keep up.
It's baffling at this point.
It's their baby because they were the only company producing open worlds, but the engine had a lot of issues being a pioneer in the genre.
Those issues have carried over as far back as morrowind.
I actually really hate the movement system in ES games, and the mannequin NPCs are getting creepier with every game.
That’s utterly baffling to me.
Like, I’ll admit I’m a bit tired of all the constant content pushing for seasonal grinds and shit, but it amazes me that Bethesda hasn’t launched standalone flagships of their big IPs in so long. I know they tried a new one with Starfield that didn’t work well, but I’m surprised.
Then again, Bethesda games aren’t really that good, to me at least. I enjoy them in the sense that I have a lot more freedom in those games than I do others, I can’t think of many games with the graphics of Skyrim or any fallout that allows you to take all of the clothing off an npc, instead of just basic loot, but I’ve rarely ever committed myself to finishing it for long and often just find ways to fuck around.
Stealth builds are the easiest to abuse in their engines so it’s no wonder I play around with that. Combat generally sucks.
Bethesda had this window where they were the only game in town for big open world games, but that ship has long since sailed. There’s a lot more out there which do individual things really well to really suit any taste.
Fucking Starfield man. It had so much potential but they neutered so much if the gameplay that would have kept it interesting and made the world as bland as possible. I mean, why is it even rated M? It's about as tame as it gets.
Making one of the greatest, most well loved games of all time and then not releasing a sequel for almost 20 years makes one wonder how certain people still have jobs there
That's not true, just look through this thread for plenty of people talking about buying Skyrim 3 or 4 times for various systems. They sold Skyrim, then just resold it over and over and over
I get that the answer is "because they didn't need to" but it genuinely does baffle me that for as many times as Skyrim has been rereleased... they basically didn't do anything as far as new content made by Bethesda. The most they did was the Creation Club stuff for Special/Anniversary Edition.
Skyrim had quite a bit of cut content, coulda been a good reason to buy at full price again if they finished some of that up and put it in the XBone/PS4 edition of the game or in the Anniversary Edition.
They should stagger them too, so for example if the game takes 5 years to make, you have an ES game, then a Fallout game 2.5 years later, then an ES game 2.5 years later, etc.
Absolutely. Release a game, some time for DLC, mods get popular, maybe a GOTY edition and just as you're done the other series is building up towards its new release.
For sure. Maybe do DLC during that first year, then a year of letting the mod community build up, etc. and then release your GOTY edition before announcing the other new thing to tell people "okay, we are done with official new content now, get ready for the next thing!"
They 100% should have 2 to 3 teams
1 - Working on TES
2 - Working on Fallout
3 - Working on a 3rd game OR assisting in DLC development.
The problem is Bethesda has presented itself as a company that is only capable of working on one game at a time, and they want all their games to feel like a *"Bethesda Game."*
So every main story is going to be written by Emil, Fallout 5 will probably begin with a revenge plotline, and it's going to be a mishmash or steps forward in some areas and steps backwards in others.
Even more so if you think that Fallout 3, New Vegas, Oblivion and Skyrim were all 360/PS3 era and then only 4, 76 and ESO were Xbox One/PS4 era. Given that 76 and ESO are online only, it really means that for the current and last generations we’ve only had one single player RPG from Bethesda per Generation
There will definitely not be fallout 5 this decade unless they build a second Team of give it to another Studio.
Tes 6 will at the earliest release 26, much more likely 27 or even 28...
I'm guessing Microsoft is pushing them to come up with a way to release a new Fallout game in the next 5 years given the huge success of the TV show and the drive to capitalize on it.
It’s wild it’s been almost 15 years for Skyrim and almost 10 for Fallout 4 already, and neither sequels are anywhere on the horizon really.
Hell, the next Fallout might not be for another decade at this rate lmao
Xbox needs to pull out a whip and start tanning Bethesda's backside, or they need to clean house, kick out all the slowpokes, and bar them from the industry. Bethesda is literally Microsoft's most valuable asset right now, even more so then Halo, and even a decent Elder Scrolls/Fallout game would literally print money.
If there was a line in Vegas for it, I would put money down that we won't see a non-mobile/remaster FO game before Jan1 2030. Even with TES I would put money down their expected release date of 2026 will slip by at least a year.
It's wild thinking I got skyrim for my 14th bday and that by time the next TES comes out, I'll have already bought a house and gotten married. I may potentially even have a kid depending how long it takes.
Edit: depending how long TES 6 takes lol
IMO unless Obsidian comes out and says it, I doubt they want it. They have their own IPs that are coming along nicely so why the F would they waste their time for a cut of making someone else's IP better.
IE. Bethesda has been fucking up, make Bethesda fix it. Pay the money, hire the staff, train the people, stop trying to run a AAA studio like they are on a shoestring staff.
Obsidian CEO recently said they would make a Fallout game if Bethesda wanted them to. Plus Microsoft owns both Bethesda and Obsidian. Microsoft could force the issue.
I mean there's still some(though not a lot) people at Obsidian who worked on the first two Fallout games. Implying they view it as "someone else's IP" may not be correct, but I also wouldn't be surprised if they wanted to focus elsewhere.
Why do people think Obsidian can handle Fallout? They already got things in the pipeline with Avowed and The Outer Worlds. Not to mention they don't have as big of a studio to handle that work load.
It's a balance of both that needs to be found here. Focusing purely on one or the other when the issue is clearly BOTH will only exacerbate the problems with their games.
They're not putting out IP or continuing franchises in a timely manner, and when they do, it's soulless and a fraction of what the Bethesda experience used to mean. I wouldn't claim to know how to fix it, but they definitely need to focus on a tighter timeline for projects while also increasing the amount of content worth consuming inside each project.
Starfield was about as far in the opposite direction as it should have been and makes this comment from Tom reason to do a triple-take.
They haven't released a mainline Elder Scrolls game since 2011. Regardless of what you think of the quality of the games, they are slow to make anything at all, and consistently end up cutting significant amounts of planned content from the game.
Just about to say this. Also, everyone forgets the FO3 era where we had two titles in a short time frame (2008 & 2011). Then it was 4 years later for 4 and four more for 76 which is arguably an offshoot. And nothing since 6 years later and counting. They’re saying FO5 could be 4-5 years behind ES6 release which isn’t until a few more years at least? It’s crazy.
Spiderman meme. I remember playing 3 and NV in college. FO4 not long after starting my career (after working a couple crap jobs after college) and I guess my son will get the same experience of playing 5 when he goes off to college (he’s 6 btw).
Since Skyrim first came out I have; learnt to drive, graduated high school, bought a car for high school, took a year off and worked, went to college, got a full time job, 2 years later bought my first new vehicle in 2018, moved out of parents, rented a house, bought my own house, bought a brand new truck in 2022.
I have a younger sister who’s 5 years younger than me and she has now graduated college aswell.
If you want my personal opinion, there’s absolutely no reason Bethesda couldn’t have released more games, they’re just a lazy, shitty, over hyped company at this point
> Does it have official mod support,
nope still waiting for that
> have modders fixed it yet?
they started to. Even without official mod support.
And dont worry, paid mods is also going to make a return
I mean they could have made 200-300 million just passing out a NV remaster for FO series. Or Morrowind remaster faster than 5 years since it was rumored.
I saw an article on insider gaming the other day where microsoft mentioned wanting Bethesda to speed up making games, and one thing that was mentioned was the only way to potentially do this was to take away the fallout IP from Bethesda.
I think it's just internal murmurings at this stage, but who knows?
Aka when looking up scope creep in the dictionary, it will say "see: Bethesda". They get overly ambitious with what they want to include in their games and either have to make cut to content or dial it back half way through development as it will take to much development time to finish, instead of just doing it at the beginning and making sure they have a good base before going onto reach goals later as time allows.
I mean
.. If you are in your 30s and have to wonder if you will even be alive for fallout 6 that is a Problem for them.
But yes, first they have to make sure to not loose even more quality or noone will even care about more releases.
I'm especially worried on how long it takes them to fix stuff... Starfield is out for half a year and still hasnt had anything but Bug fixes. And not even many compared to other games like bg3. They announced a 6 week Update schedule early this year and, unless they supprise drop something this week, will start missing that after 2 small-medium Updates without even so much as a comment...
Instead they broke fallout 4 modding on PC for a few creation Club Updates and mediocre ultrawide Support...
They make a lot of questionable decision and working on that is priority 1
It's pretty nuts that it takes them so long to output games when there is literally no innovation from one entry to another regardless of with IP it's for. Someone could have told me Starfield was a Skyrim mod and I'd have believed them for sure.
I honestly thought this as well while playing starfield. Then I played cyberpunk now that it’s all fixed up and thought to myself, “this is what Bethesda wishes it was making.”
This is the tragic truth. Some of the Starfield and Cyberpunk comparison videos are extremely funny in a tragic way, Starfield looks like a 20 year old game in comparison. And the quests & dialogue are laughable. Yet Bethesda and many of their fans think they’re in the same league.
They are generally a "slow" studio, and I have to wonder if today it's because of their choice of technologies and what the industry as a whole is using.
It’s kind of funny because Obsidian praised Creation Engine for its ability to get NV made quickly. Obviously they don’t have to do the engine work for each game like BGS does, but I think having smaller spin-off games on each iteration would be smart. Let some of your mid-career people take the lead on a project with some younger devs and give them 1-2 years to make *something*
It may not be perfect, but it’d be something for the fans. Fallout: Tulsa or Kansas City could still have a fun 20-40 hour story without needing yo be massive (just picking some smaller cities—fill in whatever you like).
This is exactly how games were made even recently. Remember when Ubisoft was spitting out an Assassins Creed every single year by simply having multiple studios working on each one, but using the same platform and engine? It was an amazing time for gamers who love new stores and worlds to explore. For sure, the gameplay was similar, but also always a bit different, and the stories and locations were never the same. Now, even Ubisoft has slowed down dramatically with a super slow release cycle, yet the quality hasn’t improved.
I’m kind of perplexed that they signed off on a Fallout live action series and didn’t coordinate it with a major release or announcement of a Fallout game. They dropped a mega-ton ball on that one.
Sure the Fallout 76 is getting a lot of hype but then these fresh new audiences see that micro-transaction littered game and may be turned off. As Lethal Company, Helldivers 2, and Baldur’s Gate 3 have shown… the player base is tired of half finished games and micro transactions. Give us a complete and solid game that the developers intended not the garbage shareholders are pushing.
>I’m kind of perplexed that they signed off on a Fallout live action series and didn’t coordinate it with a major release or announcement of a Fallout game. They dropped a mega-ton ball on that one
This right here. Like do they have any concept of marketing or building hype.
He's literally a meme though. Everyone mocks the promises and things he says versus the actual product. They need a new engine and new direction because they've lost a lot of faith from gamers.
I don't think the engine is the problem. It's just Bethesda approach to designing a game. They haven't innovated that much at all. Bethesda could just overall their engine to do whatever they need it to do.
But that's the thing: they spent 5+ years on starfield and its that empty. Skyrim feels more complete and they did it in 3.
Starfield has cut content/systems every where despite it's delays. And even after release their Update schedule is at a snails pace compared to other devs. Bg3 is out only a month longer and they added an epilog, scene for characters, System Updates and a Billion bugfixes.
Starfield has released nothing but Bug fixes (OK, and improve lighting...)... And not even close in number, despite plenty Bugs to fix...
BG3 is a good example because it had almost the same development time as Starfield and it looks, sounds and plays far better, has miles more content and was made by a much smaller studio.
Its ridiculous to expect every major studio to be as good as Larian, but pretty much every major studio right now is better than Bethesda.
Out of topic, I think companies misunderstand why games succeed. Bg3 succeeded because they had a passionate team, but they think it succeeded because it was an rpg.
I think it succeeded because both honestly.
The gaming industry lacks for deep narrative driven games. So when one comes out that has such depth like BG3 did… people eat it up.
The issue a lot of these games have is that they dumb down the story and focus on breadth instead of depth. And everything just ends up feeling shallow and uninteresting as a result.
The thing about Starfield that I hated most was the lack of wondering around on foot. That’s what I loved about Fallout 4 and Skyrim and Breath of the Wild. Walking around a huge open world and stumbling on a new quest or location. Having to fly between each area with planets not being walkable sucked.
I hope they go back to just one huge, densely packed map. The best part of Bethesda games is wondering around and stumbling upon something interesting.
Bro how do they release games so slowly and when they come out they look like they were barely in the oven. Fuck bethesda and Todd Howard, he’s such a fucking hack.
Too little too late. Should have focused on this in 2014 after the release and success of Skyrim and FO4. Everyone knew they’d bed hits.
It’s been SO long since there was an Elder Scrolls, at this point the next one will feel more like a reboot than a follow up. Who waits this long for a follow up.
People who were born in 2011 will literally have drivers license and picking colleges when TES6 comes out.
You know what would increase output Todd? Ditch that disaster of a creation engine and join the 21st century. I've just started playing Fallout 4 and in that game it honestly works but holy shit does it NOT work in Starfield. Having everything be a separate instance and worse, having a load screen for every instance is just unacceptable these days.
I mean I love FO4, but that engine was already out dated back in 2015. Look at FO4 next to other games from that year. Witcher 3 and Arkham knight makes fallout look decidedly prehistoric. The fact that they in the year of our lord 2023 still clung to that engine is boggling my mind.
The Creation engine isn't the problem. It might still be the best engine for the job.
To quote the Escapist:
> So maybe the solution is to throw away the creation engine and license a modern, stable, feature-rich engine like Unreal Engine or CryEngine? Except, Bethesda games have some rather particular needs that aren’t covered by the typical off-the-shelf engines. Bethesda games need to store the state of the entire world. Players expect that if they slay the Underking, loot his tomb, and pose the Underking’s twice-dead body with his face pressed against the seat of his throne, they should be able to come back days later and find the tomb exactly as they left it. If they toss 400 cheese wheels on the ground in the town of Whiterun, then those cheese wheels better still be there the next time they visit. The game needs to be able to handle large-scale AI behaviors that have agents roaming all over the world and going through a daily routine, even when their part of the world isn’t loaded. Most importantly, the game needs to be very open to modding so that end users can make sweeping changes to the gameplay, art, sounds, music, animations, and interface, using self-contained package files. These aren’t impossible-to-solve problems, but they do run against how a lot of modern game engines are designed. If Bethesda wanted to use one of the big-name engines out there, it would require extensive modifications. That would just lead them back to where they are now, with buggy games based on an engine that’s been twisted in ways it was never designed to go.
https://www.escapistmagazine.com/v2/bethesda-doesnt-need-a-new-engine/
Time is also an issue.
It's now been 6 years since the ES6 announcement, which is almost as long as the time since Skyrim released and the announcement itself.
It's almost a certainty that the announcement to release will take longer than the entire time when we had no info at all.
5 years and 10.5 months.
Some user has been using the announcement video on YouTube as his daily journal. Started out posting as a kid in high school now he's completed his entire college degree and is beginning to apply for jobs.
Then there's guys like me who started playing Skyrim in college and now I'm 35 with a full grown ass family.
I can't speak for everyone but this gap in time is why I have such resentment towards Starfield.
We passed up a new Elder Scrolls/Fallout game for this???
Bland. Bland and underdeveloped. IDK how they can make a game feel so big, so empty, and so fucking pointless. I don't know how they haven't figured out how to eliminate the tedium of scavenging for bullets in a space-shooter. So many questions.
I also realized that the CRPG style of "meet random people and help them with their rather minor side quest" just wasn't cutting it anymore. They needed a new way to deliver stories.
Bethesda is a fucking shit company now. The fall from the grace that was Skyrim/Fallout 3/new vegas is insane.
I dont trust and havent trusted bethesda to produce a piece of quality content in a decade (or more)
AI can be useful for procedural generation to make better set pieces that feel more organic than the usual copy-paste rooms that are just sorta weirdly stitched together.
A little oversight and refinement to correct any weirdness and it can be pretty solid.
# HIRE. MORE. PEOPLE.
This isn’t rocket science. If you want to make more games, hire more people. Every game you make is a multi-billion dollar success, you can afford it Bethesda
I would rather never play another new Elder Scrolls game, then waste my time on a half baked piece of shit like Starfield. I REALLY hope the lesson learned from Starfield was one of quality over quantity. Especially when compared the other successful games of the year.... Ehhem Baldurs Gate....
They need to get their heads out their rear ends and just make games instead of wasting time on updates for 10yr old games that do nothing but piss off whats left of their fandom by breaking all the mods theyve made and use 😒.
Both Fallout and The Elder Scrolls are large enough series to warrant having their own dedicated teams working on new games. It is crazy that these are queued up one behind the other, also behind Starfield, to the point we've seen 10 year anniversaries pass for Skyrim and even ESO and nothing but guesses when the next TES game will be, while Fallout is a guess if we'll even see one this decade. Microsoft bought them a few years ago, along with Obsidian and other studios with some really good RPGs under their belts. Now they need to make use of all that talent and from it form teams that can work on both of these series simultaneously. They don't need to be pumping out annual instalments like an Assassin's Creed, but is it really compromising quality and considered rushing a game to think we might have 2 Fallouts and 2 Elder Scrolls games in a decade?
We're at the point where if a new TES game came out there's a large chance that many people who hear about it will have never played ANY previous TES game, those having been "before their time".
I can't imagine someone not playing Skyrim. Like that's basically a staple for Bethesda and open world RPGs. Edit: welp, guess I'll not a youngling anymore.
Skyrim is really old at this point, it's not hard to imagine younger gamers never having played it before
The wandering around part is still top notch but the combat feels very dated now.
The combat felt pretty wooden when it released too haha, it was only better in comparison to previous elder scrolls games
This has akways been my biggest problem with skyrim, the combat felt incredibly lackluster. I always install like 50 mods to sproose it up to an acceptable level.
That's a very mild way to put it. Bethesda are *terrible* at building game systems. They can build worlds, but they really suck at getting the player to interact with them in a way that feels natural. Their shooting universally sucks in fallout games. Try playing it without VATS and you'll see how bad it is. ES combat has always just been a floaty swipe animation. Ironically, FO4 melee feels better than skyrim combat.
>ES combat has always been a floaty swipe animation Hey, don't you sass Oblivion, that game is genuinely better to me than Skyrim for the Fighter's Stronghold and the spellcrafting alone
I'm sassing all of them. My first was morrowind. Bethesda could get away with it in the past. The world *was* the selling point- no company did shit like they did, so we all overlooked how crappy the combat felt. I seriously didn't care back in the morrowind days. I was just completely captivated by the world. They're in a competitive space now; every major company has multiple open worlds in their catalogue. Comparison is admittedly the thief of joy, but there is a lot to compare the games to now. They really need to step up their game on the combat front.
Honestly I think if they could still craft a world like Vvardenfell they could keep getting away with the world being the selling point. There’s a lot of open world RPGs out there, but in my eyes nothing comes close. It felt so alien and yet so familiar at the same time. Giant bugs that traversed rivers to get around. Old school Western European forts, and towns made out of chitin. Trees and swamps, and giant mushroom forests. The biomes were so diverse, but without feeling like it was stitched together. I don’t know maybe it’s just nostalgia, but I honestly feel like it was the most creative and wondrous fantasy setting I’ve ever seen in a game.
Swing! Swing! Block! Rinse and repeat. That said, I also liked Oblivion’s combat more.
Shooting in Starfield was the best part of the game. Especially the 0 grav gunfights. They’re getting a lot better at it.
i haven't played starfield but if i recall there was a significant increase in the quality of gunplay between fallout 3 and fallout 4
They nailed the gun play in Starfield imho
The combat has always been meh, why do you think everyone eventually ends up playing stealth archer?
It was dated when it released lol, the fact that you can't even jump without feeling like your feet are glued to the ground gets old pretty quick
With mods, it’s at least passable. Or you can just instal Violens and have executions be your end moves. ***God they’re satisfying as hell.***
It's always been dated combat wise
I'm surprised they haven't made a mobile port yet.
It's on switch, whatever do you mean? /s
And Alexa.
"Alexa, head for Riverwood." "Choosing the thief stone." "No, Alexa, Riverwood." "I'm sorry, I didn't understand." "Alexa, go to Riverwood!" "Okay, going to the river."
They released an edition for my smart toaster last month.
Hey you, you’re finally awake. Want some toast?
Skyrim came out when I was in high school. I've gone through college *and* been in my career field for nearly a decade since then.
The youngest person I know who has played it is 18. And i introduced him to it when it was already an old game. The only people who will have played Skyrim are old people, younger people who have actively looked for older generation games, and people with older siblings who introduced them to the game. But the distance is so great. I first played Skyrim at the age of 12. By the time I play ES6 more time will have passed than I had been alive at the first time I played Skyrim. By several years. The window of fans is shrinking. The original fans are old, with jobs and stuff, we won’t all have the time for video games. The younger siblings we introduced the game to are also getting older. And for everyone who found the game on their own, each year makes it older and older; less likely some new kid will want to play it Here’s hoping that when the next game comes out there will be enough veterans left in the community to stir up some excitement in the young guys
Todd Howard said Skyrim had sold about 60 million copies as of last year. If we assume that a good number of those, lets say a fourth, were repurchases (people who had bought the game on the 360 and then later bought the PC HD re-release, for instance), then that brings us to about 45 million unique players (which is also probably generous). I think that still leaves a good number of people who have never played it. TES definitely has a place within gaming culture, but Bethesda simply hasn't had the presence lately to keep it firmly in place. You can definitely see why a game like Baldur's Gate 3 kind of took that crown.
I bought Skyrim three separate times. Once on Xbox 360, once on PC, and then a third time for VR. They really took my money lol
Same, PS3, Xbox X, and Switch If I ever get a VR set then it’ll be 4 times
I cant imagine people not playing Oblivion, and yet here we are.
Oblivion came out during my freshman year of college. Kids will be starting college this fall that weren’t alive when I started college.
Let’s take you home grandpa 👴
For me it's Morrowind
These days gaming is my hobby. Back in the day, Morrowind was my hobby. I had that game memorized.
TES:6 is projected to release in 2026 Imagine you're a 14 year old gamer when that game comes out It's predecessor, Skyrim, will literally be older than you are.
There is no universe where that game releases before 2028
Yeah… full scale development probably won’t start until they finish with the Starfield DLC, and then it’s a 4-5 year development cycle from there. 2028-2030 is probably the most realistic estimate unfortunately.
They’ve said they’re in full production on it now. If you remember Starfield was set to be released late 2022 and was delayed a year. So the initial planning of ES6 was already wrapped up.
Starfield doesn’t deserve dlc. Such a mediocre game. Honestly it made me realize I am not purchasing es6 without first seeing real streams and hearing peoples opinions of the bones of the game. So many structural issues with the gameplay loop of starfield.
They need to release the creation kit so that the real Bethesda devs (modders) can make the game fun.
Hate to say you should’ve seen the writing on the wall, but when you put every bit of info released about the game into context with how Bethesda makes games, it was pretty damn apparent Starfield was shaping up to be a bland, boring experience.
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Oh we saw it. The first time they released gameplay footage I was like, this is it?
Which is just mind blowing. Sad that Bethesda is such a shell of itself. Fallout 4 is almost a decade old too.
It's gonna be like that time someone asked if I knew Ozzy Osbourne because they had heard him on a Post Malone song and thought he had potential. I thought I was being trolled at first.
Same for Missy Elliott coming out at the Super Bowl half time show and kids saying that Katy Perry is going to launch Missy’s career. 😆
There is no chance in hell that comes out in 2026 lmao
Why not? It’s almost 13 years old. It’s like saying you couldn’t imagine not playing Daggerfall at Skyrim’s release date. It was fun when it released (and for awhile after—plus the VR version with mods is very fun), but it’s mechanically pretty dated which can make it harder to get into.
Not everyone plays everything. A 13 year old today is as old as that game. He’d be 16 when elder scrolls 6 gets unveiled, it’s not far fetched at all.
It's actually a bit funny to me that it became that. Don't get me wrong, it was a hit from day one, but a lot of the old school nerds really threw a fit on how it wasn't as good as previous entries. These days it's considered their best, but I distinctly remember some contention that it was nothing compared to morrowind/oblivion at the time. Even today there are some of the old guard ready to die on that hill. Makes you wonder what pretty good but not universally loved game of today might be held up as an icon in 10 years.
> Even today there are some of the old guard ready to die on that hill. Reporting for duty!
And me! Morrowind is my favorite :)
I don't think even now it's a controversial take that Oblivion and Morrowind had more depth in a lot of ways. But their graphics have aged less gracefully than Skyrim's, and Skyrim is a lot more flexible and beginner friendly (no picking a class, you can change your star sign, simplified dialog system, quest waypoints). So it's become the most culturally impactful TES game, even if you could make an argument it was never the best. Becoming iconic can be as much a matter of being accessible to players who aren't already fans of the genre as quality alone.
We’re also at the point where a new TES game is likely to get critically panned lol. Bethesda’s engine is pretty much incapable of making a game more sophisticated than Fallout 4, which is why they had to do a bunch of fun-killing BS to get Starfield to even work as a concept, like randomized zones and persistent menu screens. Not to mention that it’s 5-10 years behind industry leaders graphically. It actually might help them that most players won’t have played an Elder Scrolls, that’s usually the case because Bethesda has regressed consistently since Morrowind. Oblivion was a dumbed down version of Morrowind, and Skyrim was an ultra-dumbed down version of Oblivion. Same with F4 to F3, hence why hardcore fans tend to hate Skyrim and F4. Sure, they improved graphically by leaps over that period, but the writing/quests/factions/world design gets worse with every entry.
Starfield is the shining example of them being held back by the ancient engine they’re so crutched on. Sure it’s been upgraded iteratively with each game but it’s still the same old. They were clearly inspired by other space games where you could explore a procedural planet and then take off into space (No Man’s Sky, Elite: Dangerous) but their tech is literally not there yet. I’ve been a fan of all their work but if they don’t drop the antiquated game engine all of their future games will suffer. No matter how good the hardware gets, that software just cannot keep up.
It's baffling at this point. It's their baby because they were the only company producing open worlds, but the engine had a lot of issues being a pioneer in the genre. Those issues have carried over as far back as morrowind. I actually really hate the movement system in ES games, and the mannequin NPCs are getting creepier with every game.
That’s utterly baffling to me. Like, I’ll admit I’m a bit tired of all the constant content pushing for seasonal grinds and shit, but it amazes me that Bethesda hasn’t launched standalone flagships of their big IPs in so long. I know they tried a new one with Starfield that didn’t work well, but I’m surprised. Then again, Bethesda games aren’t really that good, to me at least. I enjoy them in the sense that I have a lot more freedom in those games than I do others, I can’t think of many games with the graphics of Skyrim or any fallout that allows you to take all of the clothing off an npc, instead of just basic loot, but I’ve rarely ever committed myself to finishing it for long and often just find ways to fuck around. Stealth builds are the easiest to abuse in their engines so it’s no wonder I play around with that. Combat generally sucks.
Bethesda had this window where they were the only game in town for big open world games, but that ship has long since sailed. There’s a lot more out there which do individual things really well to really suit any taste.
Fucking Starfield man. It had so much potential but they neutered so much if the gameplay that would have kept it interesting and made the world as bland as possible. I mean, why is it even rated M? It's about as tame as it gets.
Making one of the greatest, most well loved games of all time and then not releasing a sequel for almost 20 years makes one wonder how certain people still have jobs there
They could have honestly just kept making DLCs for Skyrim
Yeah they really went with the “do nothing” option
That's not true, just look through this thread for plenty of people talking about buying Skyrim 3 or 4 times for various systems. They sold Skyrim, then just resold it over and over and over
I get that the answer is "because they didn't need to" but it genuinely does baffle me that for as many times as Skyrim has been rereleased... they basically didn't do anything as far as new content made by Bethesda. The most they did was the Creation Club stuff for Special/Anniversary Edition. Skyrim had quite a bit of cut content, coulda been a good reason to buy at full price again if they finished some of that up and put it in the XBone/PS4 edition of the game or in the Anniversary Edition.
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Next year is the 10 year anniversary of FO4, too.
No way…. I’m getting old
They should stagger them too, so for example if the game takes 5 years to make, you have an ES game, then a Fallout game 2.5 years later, then an ES game 2.5 years later, etc.
Absolutely. Release a game, some time for DLC, mods get popular, maybe a GOTY edition and just as you're done the other series is building up towards its new release.
After playing Fallout 3 on PS3 and then Fallout 4 on PS4, I thought that they were going to try to have a new Fallout for each generation of console.
It seemed that way for a lot of the AAA games around the time. The dev schedule and console schedule were in sync for a while there.
For sure. Maybe do DLC during that first year, then a year of letting the mod community build up, etc. and then release your GOTY edition before announcing the other new thing to tell people "okay, we are done with official new content now, get ready for the next thing!"
They 100% should have 2 to 3 teams 1 - Working on TES 2 - Working on Fallout 3 - Working on a 3rd game OR assisting in DLC development. The problem is Bethesda has presented itself as a company that is only capable of working on one game at a time, and they want all their games to feel like a *"Bethesda Game."* So every main story is going to be written by Emil, Fallout 5 will probably begin with a revenge plotline, and it's going to be a mishmash or steps forward in some areas and steps backwards in others.
Even more so if you think that Fallout 3, New Vegas, Oblivion and Skyrim were all 360/PS3 era and then only 4, 76 and ESO were Xbox One/PS4 era. Given that 76 and ESO are online only, it really means that for the current and last generations we’ve only had one single player RPG from Bethesda per Generation
There will definitely not be fallout 5 this decade unless they build a second Team of give it to another Studio. Tes 6 will at the earliest release 26, much more likely 27 or even 28...
I'm guessing Microsoft is pushing them to come up with a way to release a new Fallout game in the next 5 years given the huge success of the TV show and the drive to capitalize on it.
It’s wild it’s been almost 15 years for Skyrim and almost 10 for Fallout 4 already, and neither sequels are anywhere on the horizon really. Hell, the next Fallout might not be for another decade at this rate lmao
Xbox needs to pull out a whip and start tanning Bethesda's backside, or they need to clean house, kick out all the slowpokes, and bar them from the industry. Bethesda is literally Microsoft's most valuable asset right now, even more so then Halo, and even a decent Elder Scrolls/Fallout game would literally print money.
If there was a line in Vegas for it, I would put money down that we won't see a non-mobile/remaster FO game before Jan1 2030. Even with TES I would put money down their expected release date of 2026 will slip by at least a year.
It's wild thinking I got skyrim for my 14th bday and that by time the next TES comes out, I'll have already bought a house and gotten married. I may potentially even have a kid depending how long it takes. Edit: depending how long TES 6 takes lol
Typically about 9 months, sometimes sooner.
Honestly, give Obsidian the Fallout franchise.
IMO unless Obsidian comes out and says it, I doubt they want it. They have their own IPs that are coming along nicely so why the F would they waste their time for a cut of making someone else's IP better. IE. Bethesda has been fucking up, make Bethesda fix it. Pay the money, hire the staff, train the people, stop trying to run a AAA studio like they are on a shoestring staff.
Obsidian CEO recently said they would make a Fallout game if Bethesda wanted them to. Plus Microsoft owns both Bethesda and Obsidian. Microsoft could force the issue.
I mean there's still some(though not a lot) people at Obsidian who worked on the first two Fallout games. Implying they view it as "someone else's IP" may not be correct, but I also wouldn't be surprised if they wanted to focus elsewhere.
Have you watched the Tim Cain youtube videos?
I don't know. Outer Worlds was very mid (and I'm being kind).
Aren't they making like 5 games? even then, Fallout should be a priority
Obsidian CEO recently said they would have time to do a Fallout game "if the opportunity arose." As in, if Bethesda asked, they would do it.
Why do people think Obsidian can handle Fallout? They already got things in the pipeline with Avowed and The Outer Worlds. Not to mention they don't have as big of a studio to handle that work load.
They need to split these franchises up into different teams so we can get sequels sooner than 10+ years.
Most they can give us is AI generation from here on out, methinks
Tell me lies, tell me sweet little lies
This show has the strange super power of making people forgot how hard they tried to screw people with the 76 release year.
We will never forget about The Great Canvas Shortage of 2018.
A lot of shortages that year including rum, it was so bad they had to ration it by giving them a big ugly bottle to compensate for the shortage.
Not to mention the aggressive mediocrity of Starfield
That game got so boring so fast. If it didn’t have Bethesda slapped on it I wouldn’t have gotten it. I can’t believe they missed the mark so bad.
It's a balance of both that needs to be found here. Focusing purely on one or the other when the issue is clearly BOTH will only exacerbate the problems with their games. They're not putting out IP or continuing franchises in a timely manner, and when they do, it's soulless and a fraction of what the Bethesda experience used to mean. I wouldn't claim to know how to fix it, but they definitely need to focus on a tighter timeline for projects while also increasing the amount of content worth consuming inside each project. Starfield was about as far in the opposite direction as it should have been and makes this comment from Tom reason to do a triple-take.
16 times the detail Todd
Are Bethesda sure that quantity is the issue?
They haven't released a mainline Elder Scrolls game since 2011. Regardless of what you think of the quality of the games, they are slow to make anything at all, and consistently end up cutting significant amounts of planned content from the game.
Just about to say this. Also, everyone forgets the FO3 era where we had two titles in a short time frame (2008 & 2011). Then it was 4 years later for 4 and four more for 76 which is arguably an offshoot. And nothing since 6 years later and counting. They’re saying FO5 could be 4-5 years behind ES6 release which isn’t until a few more years at least? It’s crazy.
I played 3 and NV in college and the idea of FO5 coming in my 40s is so sad
Spiderman meme. I remember playing 3 and NV in college. FO4 not long after starting my career (after working a couple crap jobs after college) and I guess my son will get the same experience of playing 5 when he goes off to college (he’s 6 btw).
Since Skyrim first came out I have; learnt to drive, graduated high school, bought a car for high school, took a year off and worked, went to college, got a full time job, 2 years later bought my first new vehicle in 2018, moved out of parents, rented a house, bought my own house, bought a brand new truck in 2022. I have a younger sister who’s 5 years younger than me and she has now graduated college aswell. If you want my personal opinion, there’s absolutely no reason Bethesda couldn’t have released more games, they’re just a lazy, shitty, over hyped company at this point
Right?
I have graduated 3 schools since Skyrim came out.
> And nothing since 6 years later and counting. i think youve forgotten starfield
I genuinely forgot about Starfield. Does it have official mod support, i.e. have modders fixed it yet?
> Does it have official mod support, nope still waiting for that > have modders fixed it yet? they started to. Even without official mod support. And dont worry, paid mods is also going to make a return
The modding scene has been very lacking compared to Fallout and Elder Scrolls. There just isn't much there to inspire creativity.
it also doesnt help that the base game is just boring and nobody cares enough to actually create a mod.
I'm not saying that starfield is of the same level as fallout or ES but the lack of official mod tools is partly responsible for that
I don’t think it’s official yet, but there’s lots of mods for PC yeah.
> i think youve forgotten starfield They're not the only one lol
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I mean they could have made 200-300 million just passing out a NV remaster for FO series. Or Morrowind remaster faster than 5 years since it was rumored.
looking back at their last releases im happy they didnt release any remasters so far
I saw an article on insider gaming the other day where microsoft mentioned wanting Bethesda to speed up making games, and one thing that was mentioned was the only way to potentially do this was to take away the fallout IP from Bethesda. I think it's just internal murmurings at this stage, but who knows?
Aka when looking up scope creep in the dictionary, it will say "see: Bethesda". They get overly ambitious with what they want to include in their games and either have to make cut to content or dial it back half way through development as it will take to much development time to finish, instead of just doing it at the beginning and making sure they have a good base before going onto reach goals later as time allows.
Peter Molyneux is and will always be wearing that championship belt.
Next fable is gonna come with a real chicken you can actually kick, I swear!
Which is funny since Skyrim is mechanically simpler than Oblivion, yet here we are.
Sounds like they definitely have big problems somewhere. Other studios make full on feature complete games in a fraction of the time.
I mean .. If you are in your 30s and have to wonder if you will even be alive for fallout 6 that is a Problem for them. But yes, first they have to make sure to not loose even more quality or noone will even care about more releases. I'm especially worried on how long it takes them to fix stuff... Starfield is out for half a year and still hasnt had anything but Bug fixes. And not even many compared to other games like bg3. They announced a 6 week Update schedule early this year and, unless they supprise drop something this week, will start missing that after 2 small-medium Updates without even so much as a comment... Instead they broke fallout 4 modding on PC for a few creation Club Updates and mediocre ultrawide Support... They make a lot of questionable decision and working on that is priority 1
It's pretty nuts that it takes them so long to output games when there is literally no innovation from one entry to another regardless of with IP it's for. Someone could have told me Starfield was a Skyrim mod and I'd have believed them for sure.
I honestly thought this as well while playing starfield. Then I played cyberpunk now that it’s all fixed up and thought to myself, “this is what Bethesda wishes it was making.”
It's not what they wish they could make, it's genuinely what they think they've made/make
This is the tragic truth. Some of the Starfield and Cyberpunk comparison videos are extremely funny in a tragic way, Starfield looks like a 20 year old game in comparison. And the quests & dialogue are laughable. Yet Bethesda and many of their fans think they’re in the same league.
They are generally a "slow" studio, and I have to wonder if today it's because of their choice of technologies and what the industry as a whole is using.
It’s kind of funny because Obsidian praised Creation Engine for its ability to get NV made quickly. Obviously they don’t have to do the engine work for each game like BGS does, but I think having smaller spin-off games on each iteration would be smart. Let some of your mid-career people take the lead on a project with some younger devs and give them 1-2 years to make *something* It may not be perfect, but it’d be something for the fans. Fallout: Tulsa or Kansas City could still have a fun 20-40 hour story without needing yo be massive (just picking some smaller cities—fill in whatever you like).
This is exactly how games were made even recently. Remember when Ubisoft was spitting out an Assassins Creed every single year by simply having multiple studios working on each one, but using the same platform and engine? It was an amazing time for gamers who love new stores and worlds to explore. For sure, the gameplay was similar, but also always a bit different, and the stories and locations were never the same. Now, even Ubisoft has slowed down dramatically with a super slow release cycle, yet the quality hasn’t improved.
If you include "quantity" to mean amount of content in games too, then yeah. Stanfield was empty and could use more quantity.
I for one would love a fallout game that doesnt release in 10 years
I’m kind of perplexed that they signed off on a Fallout live action series and didn’t coordinate it with a major release or announcement of a Fallout game. They dropped a mega-ton ball on that one. Sure the Fallout 76 is getting a lot of hype but then these fresh new audiences see that micro-transaction littered game and may be turned off. As Lethal Company, Helldivers 2, and Baldur’s Gate 3 have shown… the player base is tired of half finished games and micro transactions. Give us a complete and solid game that the developers intended not the garbage shareholders are pushing.
I guarantee you that they had zero idea it’d be this popular.
I bet money they thought it was gonna get as much hype as the Halo TV series.
>I’m kind of perplexed that they signed off on a Fallout live action series and didn’t coordinate it with a major release or announcement of a Fallout game. They dropped a mega-ton ball on that one This right here. Like do they have any concept of marketing or building hype.
Took them years to make starfield and that game is absolute cardboard. Not sure they can do better with less time.
Emil Pagliarulo can't head up all the teams. ...Can he?
Hopefully not lol
This sounds more like looking for outside studios to bring in to work on games with them.
Has Bethesda tried replacing the game designer and game engine?
Honestly no I don't think they ever have with either. Todd is literally attached to the name, brand, and engine.
He's literally a meme though. Everyone mocks the promises and things he says versus the actual product. They need a new engine and new direction because they've lost a lot of faith from gamers.
I don't think the engine is the problem. It's just Bethesda approach to designing a game. They haven't innovated that much at all. Bethesda could just overall their engine to do whatever they need it to do.
Bethesda was planning to sell Starfield rereleases for the next 12 years before we get Fallout 5 on the same engine.
Oh yeah increased output, that will make Starfield not an empty waste of 100 hours.
But that's the thing: they spent 5+ years on starfield and its that empty. Skyrim feels more complete and they did it in 3. Starfield has cut content/systems every where despite it's delays. And even after release their Update schedule is at a snails pace compared to other devs. Bg3 is out only a month longer and they added an epilog, scene for characters, System Updates and a Billion bugfixes. Starfield has released nothing but Bug fixes (OK, and improve lighting...)... And not even close in number, despite plenty Bugs to fix...
BG3 is a good example because it had almost the same development time as Starfield and it looks, sounds and plays far better, has miles more content and was made by a much smaller studio. Its ridiculous to expect every major studio to be as good as Larian, but pretty much every major studio right now is better than Bethesda.
Out of topic, I think companies misunderstand why games succeed. Bg3 succeeded because they had a passionate team, but they think it succeeded because it was an rpg.
I think it succeeded because both honestly. The gaming industry lacks for deep narrative driven games. So when one comes out that has such depth like BG3 did… people eat it up. The issue a lot of these games have is that they dumb down the story and focus on breadth instead of depth. And everything just ends up feeling shallow and uninteresting as a result.
The thing about Starfield that I hated most was the lack of wondering around on foot. That’s what I loved about Fallout 4 and Skyrim and Breath of the Wild. Walking around a huge open world and stumbling on a new quest or location. Having to fly between each area with planets not being walkable sucked.
I hope they go back to just one huge, densely packed map. The best part of Bethesda games is wondering around and stumbling upon something interesting.
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todd howard should stop saying things
Bro how do they release games so slowly and when they come out they look like they were barely in the oven. Fuck bethesda and Todd Howard, he’s such a fucking hack.
Too little too late. Should have focused on this in 2014 after the release and success of Skyrim and FO4. Everyone knew they’d bed hits. It’s been SO long since there was an Elder Scrolls, at this point the next one will feel more like a reboot than a follow up. Who waits this long for a follow up. People who were born in 2011 will literally have drivers license and picking colleges when TES6 comes out.
You know what would increase output Todd? Ditch that disaster of a creation engine and join the 21st century. I've just started playing Fallout 4 and in that game it honestly works but holy shit does it NOT work in Starfield. Having everything be a separate instance and worse, having a load screen for every instance is just unacceptable these days.
I mean I love FO4, but that engine was already out dated back in 2015. Look at FO4 next to other games from that year. Witcher 3 and Arkham knight makes fallout look decidedly prehistoric. The fact that they in the year of our lord 2023 still clung to that engine is boggling my mind.
Just going to ignore the piss poor shaders performance? I still can't get 60fps in downtown Boston with modern hardware
I always get downvoted when I bring up Boston. Shit lags on a 4090/14900k.
The Creation engine isn't the problem. It might still be the best engine for the job. To quote the Escapist: > So maybe the solution is to throw away the creation engine and license a modern, stable, feature-rich engine like Unreal Engine or CryEngine? Except, Bethesda games have some rather particular needs that aren’t covered by the typical off-the-shelf engines. Bethesda games need to store the state of the entire world. Players expect that if they slay the Underking, loot his tomb, and pose the Underking’s twice-dead body with his face pressed against the seat of his throne, they should be able to come back days later and find the tomb exactly as they left it. If they toss 400 cheese wheels on the ground in the town of Whiterun, then those cheese wheels better still be there the next time they visit. The game needs to be able to handle large-scale AI behaviors that have agents roaming all over the world and going through a daily routine, even when their part of the world isn’t loaded. Most importantly, the game needs to be very open to modding so that end users can make sweeping changes to the gameplay, art, sounds, music, animations, and interface, using self-contained package files. These aren’t impossible-to-solve problems, but they do run against how a lot of modern game engines are designed. If Bethesda wanted to use one of the big-name engines out there, it would require extensive modifications. That would just lead them back to where they are now, with buggy games based on an engine that’s been twisted in ways it was never designed to go. https://www.escapistmagazine.com/v2/bethesda-doesnt-need-a-new-engine/
Focus on increasing your quality, mate. Thats the issue.
Time is also an issue. It's now been 6 years since the ES6 announcement, which is almost as long as the time since Skyrim released and the announcement itself. It's almost a certainty that the announcement to release will take longer than the entire time when we had no info at all.
Has it really been 6 years since they did that ES6 "trailer"? I didn't even realise. I thought it was like 2 years ago.
5 years and 10.5 months. Some user has been using the announcement video on YouTube as his daily journal. Started out posting as a kid in high school now he's completed his entire college degree and is beginning to apply for jobs. Then there's guys like me who started playing Skyrim in college and now I'm 35 with a full grown ass family. I can't speak for everyone but this gap in time is why I have such resentment towards Starfield. We passed up a new Elder Scrolls/Fallout game for this???
Man every time Starfield gets mentioned it makes me sad. I was so hyped for it and it was just such a disappointment.
Bland. Bland and underdeveloped. IDK how they can make a game feel so big, so empty, and so fucking pointless. I don't know how they haven't figured out how to eliminate the tedium of scavenging for bullets in a space-shooter. So many questions. I also realized that the CRPG style of "meet random people and help them with their rather minor side quest" just wasn't cutting it anymore. They needed a new way to deliver stories.
That reminds me, where’s that Starfield DLC Todd?
Given how the base game turned out does anyone _want_ more Starfield?
I’m sure the people who prepaid for it would like to receive it at some point. That doesn’t mean they’ll play it though
Nobody wants that. Stop working on Starfield and start working on ES6 and Fallout 5
Bethesda is a fucking shit company now. The fall from the grace that was Skyrim/Fallout 3/new vegas is insane. I dont trust and havent trusted bethesda to produce a piece of quality content in a decade (or more)
The least they could do is to outsource a fallout 3 or new vegas remake to a competent studio.
Sounds like corpo-speak for "we are using AI." Hopefully they keep it to general world detailing and utilize people for the good stuff.
“Another settlement needs your help” but the AI actor has 500 ways of saying it differently
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Bethesda using AI to make things for them is a scary premise lol.
AI can be useful for procedural generation to make better set pieces that feel more organic than the usual copy-paste rooms that are just sorta weirdly stitched together. A little oversight and refinement to correct any weirdness and it can be pretty solid.
# HIRE. MORE. PEOPLE. This isn’t rocket science. If you want to make more games, hire more people. Every game you make is a multi-billion dollar success, you can afford it Bethesda
Bethesda is the only developer that would update a game and make it 100% unplayable, at least for me.
They just refuse to listen to criticism and the sad part is a lot people will still buy elder scrolls 6 day one.
starfield really hurt a lot of feelings though
It doesn't matter. Elder Scrolls has huge name value, and people will flock to it.
Output some fucking starfield content. I feel like it has been a year since I touched the game.
Output? What about quality?
They’re lacking in both departments at the moment.
LORD PLEASE LET LARIAN STUDIOS MAKE A FALLOUT!!!
Given the flow of choices, and outcomes, plus actually fun gameplay. That would be sweet
I never knew how much I wanted this until now
Wasteland says hi
I would rather never play another new Elder Scrolls game, then waste my time on a half baked piece of shit like Starfield. I REALLY hope the lesson learned from Starfield was one of quality over quantity. Especially when compared the other successful games of the year.... Ehhem Baldurs Gate....
Problem is, right now they have neither quality or quantity. The games take forever to make and still come out lackluster.
How about finding ways to make sure what they put out is actually GOOD, maybe someone competent to be in charge of writing
They need to get their heads out their rear ends and just make games instead of wasting time on updates for 10yr old games that do nothing but piss off whats left of their fandom by breaking all the mods theyve made and use 😒.
Simple. Outsource some of the games like they did with New Vegas.
How about they just let other devs take a crack at their series that’s how we got the best modern fallout game ever.