Let me begin by saying I am a huge fan of both Bioware and Bethesda. Both companies have made incredible games and franchises, especially in the last decade, and have both contributed to the growth and domination of the WRPG. Now I wasn't a huge fan of Fallout 3, more so because I am just not all that interested in the setting, but also because I feel it was too similar to Bethesda's previous game Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Now, I understand this argument is ancient and I have no intention of digging it back up. Instead I would simply like to analyze how Bioware has been successful recently and suggest what Bethesda can do to utilize what they've learned with Mass Effect and Dragon Age.
With Dragon Age and Mass Effect Bioware has ironed out the "choose your own adventure" formula, something that Bethesda has dabbled with in the past but never fully embraced. Despite giving you the ability to do virtually whatever you wanted much of the story telling was still static not leaving too much room to make any plot oriented decisions. This is one concept I really hope Bethesda takes to heart when developing TES V (and yes, it is true that Fallot 3 was better about this).
Another incredibly important thing that Bioware has mastered is character. A problem with many Bethesda games is the lack of personality in many of the world's characters. I'll use Oblivion as my prime example of this. First of all... you can't use the same voice actors for all the characters of a certain race. This causes the characters to blur together and they all just end up looking, sounding and acting the same way. Ironically, despite having almost no voice acting whatsoever, Morrowind did a better job in this regard. Morrowind had dynamic characters with hopes, dreams and more often than not ambitions. You could simply look around their house and gauge their personality (having a Sixth-House shrine in your basement was a clear give away that your a lunatic).
Bethesda is different from Bioware in that there is more a focus on the player character, which is great and I believe it should remain that way. They just need to create NPC's that we actually care about. In Fallout 3 and Oblivion I couldn't care less about any of them (except M'aiq the Liar of course). Even characters that were central to the main plot and faction quest-lines were flat and had no character development to speak of (Martin is the only character in the game I can think of that actually changes at all and he's still a flat and boring character).
One last thing. Real conflict and sacrifice. There are very few moments in any of the Bethesda games that actually forces you into a tough decision. Its usually between killing this person or not killing this person. There is never any real sacrifice in any decision (besides dieing as a hero or as a pussy in Fallout 3, which was totally lame).
So what do you guys think? Should Bethesda learn from Bioware's success? What else could they do to improve their next game? And who else is excited to see if TES V will be announced in the next Game Informer like it is rumored to?
With Dragon Age and Mass Effect Bioware has ironed out the "choose your own adventure" formula, something that Bethesda has dabbled with in the past but never fully embraced. Despite giving you the ability to do virtually whatever you wanted much of the story telling was still static not leaving too much room to make any plot oriented decisions. This is one concept I really hope Bethesda takes to heart when developing TES V (and yes, it is true that Fallot 3 was better about this).
Another incredibly important thing that Bioware has mastered is character. A problem with many Bethesda games is the lack of personality in many of the world's characters. I'll use Oblivion as my prime example of this. First of all... you can't use the same voice actors for all the characters of a certain race. This causes the characters to blur together and they all just end up looking, sounding and acting the same way. Ironically, despite having almost no voice acting whatsoever, Morrowind did a better job in this regard. Morrowind had dynamic characters with hopes, dreams and more often than not ambitions. You could simply look around their house and gauge their personality (having a Sixth-House shrine in your basement was a clear give away that your a lunatic).
Bethesda is different from Bioware in that there is more a focus on the player character, which is great and I believe it should remain that way. They just need to create NPC's that we actually care about. In Fallout 3 and Oblivion I couldn't care less about any of them (except M'aiq the Liar of course). Even characters that were central to the main plot and faction quest-lines were flat and had no character development to speak of (Martin is the only character in the game I can think of that actually changes at all and he's still a flat and boring character).
One last thing. Real conflict and sacrifice. There are very few moments in any of the Bethesda games that actually forces you into a tough decision. Its usually between killing this person or not killing this person. There is never any real sacrifice in any decision (besides dieing as a hero or as a pussy in Fallout 3, which was totally lame).
So what do you guys think? Should Bethesda learn from Bioware's success? What else could they do to improve their next game? And who else is excited to see if TES V will be announced in the next Game Informer like it is rumored to?
