Is there anything wrong with Bethesda softworks?
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Indeed... Although Oblivion may not be perfect (but which game is), I've played it for a lot of hours. It's not only fun and amusing, but it also has quite a wide variety of things to do, and that's before you even download free mods.Voodoopigs said:
Bethesda RAWK!
Bethesda does only two things good. One - Large, open worlds to wander around in and enjoy the scenery, explore the corners, etc. Two - Graphics. Their games are gorgeous. FO3 was pure eyecandy. Oblivion was dull, but still managed to look good.
Beyond that, they have terrible writers, atrocious game mechanics, pathetic storylines (occasional interesting side quest doesn't count), somewhat dull visual design, bad programming riddled with bugs and glitches, etc.
Basically, Oblivion is at best overrated mediocrity that gives an illusion of having content. FO3 is more interesting, but that's only due to the setting making the entire experience palatable.
Beyond that, they have terrible writers, atrocious game mechanics, pathetic storylines (occasional interesting side quest doesn't count), somewhat dull visual design, bad programming riddled with bugs and glitches, etc.
Basically, Oblivion is at best overrated mediocrity that gives an illusion of having content. FO3 is more interesting, but that's only due to the setting making the entire experience palatable.
I have logged an embarrassing number of hours on multiple play-throughs of Oblivion. Bethesda really is a good studio, but their games could be much improved if the characters had better facial animations, and if they could hire more then five voice actors.
I hadn't heard of Bethesda before I bought Fallout 3, I'll admit that. But since the day I bought it I haven't been able to say a bad word about them. I've really enjoyed playing Fallout 3, I just hope they don't do what most companies do and bring out a follow up game, which will struggle to meet expectations.
I love Fallout 3. If only it wasn't by that name but oh well.
FO3 is the only game from Bethesda I like, I haven't played the other TES-games and I know I'm missing out on a lot but Oblivion traumatized me by being BAD. I couldn't play it for more than a few hours before realizing I was heading nowhere with my horse, and once you've seen one brightly bloomed terrain vomiting on you're face you've seen em all but that's just me.
Fallout 3 on the other hand offers a more fun experience for me and that's what kept me coming back. The somewhat humoristic - though poor - writing, the quests and just the setting in which it takes place. Post-apocalyptic Washington, I find it really fun to play the game in the middle of the night, just wandering in the city and nearby lewting stuff and wetting myself whenever I think I saw a Deathclaw.
Enough of this inconsistent rant, I like Fallout 3, I don't like Oblivion - haven't played the others, still Bethesda kicks ass.
FO3 is the only game from Bethesda I like, I haven't played the other TES-games and I know I'm missing out on a lot but Oblivion traumatized me by being BAD. I couldn't play it for more than a few hours before realizing I was heading nowhere with my horse, and once you've seen one brightly bloomed terrain vomiting on you're face you've seen em all but that's just me.
Fallout 3 on the other hand offers a more fun experience for me and that's what kept me coming back. The somewhat humoristic - though poor - writing, the quests and just the setting in which it takes place. Post-apocalyptic Washington, I find it really fun to play the game in the middle of the night, just wandering in the city and nearby lewting stuff and wetting myself whenever I think I saw a Deathclaw.
Enough of this inconsistent rant, I like Fallout 3, I don't like Oblivion - haven't played the others, still Bethesda kicks ass.
Waaaaay below average.Citrus Insanity said:
The Pitt recently came out missing half the content, and don't even get me started on the Shivering Isles bug [http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/shivering-isles-bug-breaks-game]. Anyone remember Radiant AI? Morrowind was great. Oblivion was very poor in comparison. Fallout 3 had an ending and a form of gameplay that was just a slap in the face for fans of open ended sandbox RPGs.
They have some of the best creative minds in the gaming business, and have the potential to the absolute best RPG studio, but it is ruined by the management (Todd Howard and Pete Hines). Making games costs money. They are unwilling to fire the animators and hire people who can, you know, make animations. Fire the AI programmers and hire people who can actually program AI. Unwilling to hire more people in quality control and let the people who buy the games/use the DLC first then find the bugs and go report them. And they are also completely unwilling to actually spend time and money creating DLC that is worthwhile, and instead prefer to rip us off with horse armor and crap like that.
If you look at vanilla Oblivion, it is awful. If you look at what the modders did with it, it is one of the best games available. But the modding community did that, not Bethesda.
They don't suck. I think Master of Orion aside and Medieval Total War and Baldur's Gate, there is no game that I played as much as Morrowind. They went on a downhill slope with Oblivion and Fallout 3 but both of those are above average titles. They could do better I suppose... The big green, radiation immune dude next to me standing back as I had to push the button or start the machine or whatever will always stay in my memory as the greatest oops in gaming history.
OK, I'm a major league Bethesda fan, they're one of my top three developers (behind Paradox Interactive and Creative Assembly), so I can't really talk about what's "wrong" with them exactly, so I'll try to answer the questions you asked.slipknot4 said:
Why's Morrowind better than Oblivion? Mostly because it isn't dumbed down. An open world game should let you do anything the hell you want, and if "anything" includes permanently killing plot-critical characters and making the game unwinnable, Morrowind deserves a hell of a lot more credit than Oblivion, which is a little too idiot-proof. Plus, Oblivion's most grating feature (repetitive voice acting) isn't on offer in Morrowind. I can read, and I'm grateful for the chance to. Also, Fargoth is much more satisfying a kill than the Adoring Fan because he stays dead. Toss the Adoring Fan off of Dive Rock and the triumphant Crowning Moment of Awesome is deflated once you see him back at the Arena---almost reminds me of Cecil Turtle in those tortoise-vs-hare Bugs Bunny cartoons.
Mods and expansions: Two words, "more, please." I pity the poor fools who have to play vanilla on consoles. FCOM is such a triumph of modding excellence that whoever was responsible should be hired for scenario creation in TES5.
Is that a problem. Fuck no. It's what makes Morrowind and Oblivion two of the top ten games of all-time.
a very interesting little note; I actually live right near the studios of Bethesda. While they technically are in Rockville, Maryland, they take the more snazzy name of the adjacent town Bethesda, Maryland, which is where I live. not trying to be off-topic, but it is something I like to bring up.
I think Bethesda are amazing. Morrowind was by far the best one. If they done Morrowind in the oblivion (updated version) engine it would be intense.
I think that people forget just how fucking hard it can be to de-bug stuff sometimes you may fix one problem but then have a new one pop up in its place and i found this frustrating with a simple program so try to imagine one bug from the code of a game like Fall out 3, that bug may only come up when the player is stood in a single spot when sevreal other things are just right and by fixing that you may end up causing a new bug somewhere else in the code so to realese a completly bug free game that was on that scale would be nigh on impossible.
(I should say that i am in no way an expert, I would call my self a slightly experinced novice so dont quote me as gosepel or insult me if i am wrong about some things.)
(I should say that i am in no way an expert, I would call my self a slightly experinced novice so dont quote me as gosepel or insult me if i am wrong about some things.)
I don't know anyone who thinks Bethesda is a crap developer, it's actually the exact opposite with me. But I own Oblivion and have watched my friends play Marrowind and Fallout 3, and while they do look/are fun, they have got to be the most flawed good games out there. In Oblivion specifically, the missions were pretty linear. It was either find some random object(s), or find someone and then maybe fight them afterward. I guess the only reason people think it's nonlinear is because the map is huge and the missions are optional. While the huge world does give some pretty nice sunsets, it's really just an obstacle to make the game longer. And to me, it seems the reason why the missions are optional is because alot of them just aren't that much fun. I mean quantity is important, but I'd rather have 15 quality missions (like from any Jak and Daxter game) than 100 Oblivion missions. Don't get me wrong, it's fun to play when I'm board and feel like immersing myself in a deep and satisfying world, but the game feels like it could have been so much more.
I can understand how original Fallout fans feel about Bethesda's hack job of the story. If you've ever seen the Fallout fansites Duck and Cover and NMA, the Fallout 3 sections of the forums are an absolute mess.
I remember seeing a thread titled: 'Let's find a good side to Fallout 3.' Lemme dig up some responses:
I think Bethesda is great, but they always fall short on something major. In Fallout Triple, it was the plot, and whole rushed feel to the game (not the mention how rushed the DLC is). In Oblivion, it was the level-scaling.
I remember seeing a thread titled: 'Let's find a good side to Fallout 3.' Lemme dig up some responses:
Thread became a flame war after that. I went and played Fallout 2, and I will admit it had better dialogue and personality. I even laughed at some of the quips the game makes, for example, this one from the failed comedian in New Reno: "Radscorpions eh? What's so RAD about them? ..."
I think Bethesda is great, but they always fall short on something major. In Fallout Triple, it was the plot, and whole rushed feel to the game (not the mention how rushed the DLC is). In Oblivion, it was the level-scaling.