Is there anything wrong with Bethesda softworks?

[Gamer137]

Bethesda is good at one thing, and that is making worlds. Everything else, from the stories, to the animations, to the combat, is just average, if not sub-par. Don't forget the glitches.

 

[AkJay]

They are a good studio, i enjoy most of their games, but they need better programmers, their games are notorious for glitches and bugs, but i like their games.

 

[theSovietConnection]

Is Bethesda a bad studio? No, I wouldn't say that, I find Oblivion and Fallout 3 a lot of fun. Could they improve? Yes, they definitely could improve. For example, the character depth in Fallout 3, or rather, the lack of it. The best example for this I can think of would be Lucy West (I think that's her name). While doing the side quest she gives you, its kinda hinted upon that maybe she likes you. However, upon finishing the quest, she immediately reverts back to the same dialogue she'd use before the quest. Another problem I had was the ending, everyone here knows what I mean. A very cynical part of me thinks this ending was just put in so they could make money off the DLC that would inevitably come out to undo the effects of it.

 

[j0z]

I really like Bethesda. I just think they need to hire some animators that can add more than one walk cycle for over 700 NPCs. I loved TES, and Fo3 was amazing. I'm glad hear me GLAD that it was not turn based. I had enough of that with FF... My only quibble with them is their animation department, some writers wouldn't hurt either, but don't they pride themselves in making games where the player progresses the story and not a bunch of cutscenes and dialog?
Maybe it is just me but I would love to see TES V:Morrowind II... th amazing setting of Morrowind (the entire thing, not just Vvardinfell) with next gen graphics and SPOKEN DIALOG, with good voice acting of course.

 

[Carnagath]

Bethesda fail at doing the impossible, that is to fill massive worlds with extra tight stories and characters full of life. They do try though, and yeah, you can't really blame someone who tries to achieve the impossible, can you? Most people who bash them and say they are talentless and have no inspiration have not played Shivering Isles, this is where one can clearly see that on a smaller, more "reasonable" scale Bethesda can tell a story as well, if not better, than any other studio out there. They just aim much, muuuuuuch higher than that. If one day they nail it though? Oh...man...

 

[Eldritch Warlord]

Damn Bethesda. Damn them to Hell!

Every game of theirs that I play is like a pit, unimaginably deep and utterly black, tended to by an immortal sentinel who works his black magics to hypnotize me and commands me to throw untold amounts of time into the mighty hole. When this great maw has consumed what it would the undead guardian leads me with morbid glee to the next excavation of unfathomable depth and the process begins anew until I am but a shriveled wretch of a man, a wraith-creature to drain the life-force of others into these insane pits like the cursed guardian who leeched me.

 

[phar]

Yeah they are a good developer. They can deliver a concept well.. but there are a lot of glitches and bugs that come with it. I didnt think the gunplay in FO3 was the best but was acceptable. Hopefully their partnership with splash will fix my issues up.

 

[Daxinos]

i like their games and they're really immersive but when im in a room with a bunch of characters in oblivion or fallout they all just give this blank robotic stare and the V.A.T.S. system is awesome but the combat would really suck without it. they're a bit buggy too but great games though.

 

[IrrelevantTangent]

No, I really don't think so. Fallout 3, Morrowind, and Elder Scrolls IV were all almost universally praised and are among some of the best RPGs made in recent memory, and Bethseda's still in business.

 

[NeonZombie]

I feel sorry for bethesda. They spend so much time making games like fallout3 for the majority of gamers to blast through the main quest and then never touch it again because you die at the end.

They put so much effort into making all the side quests fun and the attention to detail is outstanding. they make multiple options for replayablility different classes and choices to make. I think we should give them some well deserved credit

 

[high_castle]

After reading some of your posts i would like to ask the question, why is Morrowind so much better than oblivion?

Did you play Morrowind? I played both, and find the third entry in the Elder Scrolls series to be the best (I've also played Daggerfall and Arena). I couldn't stand Oblivion and I had some major problems with Fallout 3, too. I wouldn't call Bethesda crap, but I think they've gone seriously downhill by dumbing down two very strong franchises.

Let's start with Morrowind. Why is it superior? Because of its leveling system, storyline, and set-difficulty. I don't always like games that try to level up to match your character. I think a game can succeed with some dungeons that require a high level character. Part of the charm in Morrowind was running away from Daedric ruins that could have swallowed your level 5 character whole, only to return and kick butt at level 30. It made leveling important. You can, and some people did, beat Oblivion at level 1. Why? Because Oblivion lumped too many skills under one banner, dropped the number of skills you could specialize in from 10 to 7, and leveled-up baddies with your character. The end result is a game that promotes specializing in skills you DON'T use as opposed to those you use regularly. And that's just dumb. It rewards low-level character with super-high minor skills. Instant game-over. In Morrowind, you could play that way, but you didn't have to. You could pick skills you actually used and still progress in a way that let you beat the game and challenge yourself. Morrowind's main quest was also tied into the side quests better. You had to complete side quests in order to win the main one, or you wouldn't be able to beat baddies whose level was set at 35. You couldn't even get some main quests until you reached a certain level. So instead of doing side quests for the hell of it, you were doing them for training and to improve yourself. That made them necessary in a way, instead of tacked on, as they were in Oblivion. The storyline itself was more engrossing in Morrowind, too.

I think there's hate towards Morrowind because it had a difficult learning curve. But once you understood the mechanics of gameplay, it became very rewarding. It made sense. Oblivion was easier at the start, but then if you tried to play it the way you played Morrowind, you slam headlong into a brick wall at around level 20 when the baddies start getting significantly tougher than you. Furthermore, you can ignore the main quest in Oblivion without feeling like there's anything too important going on in Cyrodiil. Ignoring the main quest in Morrowind got people talking. It made you feel like you were missing out one something. I also thought there was more variation in Morrowind versus Oblivion. The landscapes were varied, the towns unique, and the factions very different from one another. Oblivion felt like a generic England-ripoff, not the typical Elder Scrolls setting. The dialogue was crap. If you want dynamic dialogue, look at Mass Effect. I couldn't get over the way people stared at you in Oblivion. And I'd rather read text than listen to the god-awful voice acting.

So, yeah, I think Morrowind's superior.

And as I said, Fallout 3 had its faults. Most of them likely stem from the fact that Bethesda didn't make the first two games and thus didn't have the original vision. They weren't as successful merging an FPS with an RPG, either. I found the gameplay schizophrenic. So many of those skills were pointless, and only majoring in 3 was annoying. The storyline was short and ended abruptly and in a wall-banging manner. Plus, my copy of the game was rather buggy, and I had the same problem with blandness of characters and landscapes as I did in Oblivion.

Let me reiterate and say I don't think Bethesda is crap. I just think they're out of original ideas for two series that have been milked dry. Let's see if they can come up with something different instead of beating these two series past death.

 

[vultureX21]

If Bethesda ever figured out how to combine what they do so well (open-world gameplay with gorgeous graphics) with the things Black Isle (BioWare) did so well (character development and storytelling) you might get as close as possible to the perfect RPG.

Think about it, what if Oblivion had a more complex and involved plot and your character traveled not solo but with an entire party of allies who all had their own personalities and goals that conflicted/coexisted within the group? Would you not absolutely kill to get that game?

Let me put it this way. The original Baldur's Gate I and II still stands as the best roleplaying experience I've ever had in a video game, why can't someone come along and tell a story that good again using the Oblivion engine? Is it so hard to see what a monstrously profitable and quality game that would be?

Fallout 3 was a very small step in the right direction with the companion system, it's just that it wasn't nearly interactive enough. Either BioWare or Bethesda is going to be the first company to finally combine what they both do well into one game and knock our socks off when they do.

Here's hoping it happens soon.

 

[GonzoGamer]

People just don't like their style I guess. People complain a lot of the ending for Fallout 3, and the stiff characters in both F3 and TES, so that might be it.

And that's the shame of it really. Their games are fun (when the glitches aren't annoying; and not all of them are) but the art style tries too hard to be realistic and has the unfortunate affect of looking about as realistic as the Disneyworld automatrons like in the hall of presidents. They need to find a less realistic art style and go for the realism thing again in another 10-15 years: when they say it'll really be possible. It doesn't make the games suck however.

It can kill the immersion: the notion that you're in Epcot center.

 

[Arachon]

[...]Black Isle (BioWare) [...]

Whatnow? BioWare != Black Isle, When Black Isle was disbanded, most of their employees went on to form Obsidian Entertainment, and they have developed sequels to some BioWare games (KOTOR2, NWN2), but they've never been the same company.

 

[vultureX21]

Somehow it all needs to come full-circle in the idea department or we'll never see the heights an RPG could reach and I'll just have to keep playing Shining Force II over and over!

 

[Klagermeister]

The only thing wrong with Bethesda is that they're associated with the Star Trek: Legacy games.

 

[hypothetical fact]

1. When you enter a conversation the world stops for you.
2. Same voice actors for everyone.
3. On harder difficulties you can put a bullet/arrow in an enemies head and they will stay standing.
4. By level 30 in Oblivion with the difficulty maxed, I would break my sword over enemies heads' and they still wouldn't die.
5. Useless skills like speechcraft, barter and explosives.
6. With maximum sneak I can stab a guy in the back and despite him screaming as he dies, nobody else notices.
7. Level scaled everything in Oblivion.
8. Fallout 3 is only as difficult as it takes you to find Fort Independence and get hundreds of stimpacks.
9. There's no weather in Fallout 3.
10. Endless green hills or endless brown rocks, take your pick.