we stream playthroughs here - / eddyburback internet historian's video - • The Fall of 76 tony's twitter - bit.ly/3oULWeq eddy's twitter - bit.ly/3oT6BiJ
The real question you should ask yourself is why, why on earth would you get your hopes up for this game?! Just forget it and move on. If it is a masterpiece (do you know the odds of that occurring?) you will hear about it. No doubt. But why torture your psyche by even giving this game any of your mental real estate? Isn’t there anything you would rather focus on than another game from a studio - one of many, admittedly - that hasn’t delivered for… (checks notes)… a decade or more?! Yeah, the content creators need to generate dem clicks, but you, the viewer, have a choice.
I need to points out three major flaws on this video for me. 1. Didn't mention about the size of Bethesda Game Studio, during the development of Fallout 4 they had only around 100 people, that's like 10% of staff Rockstar has for GTA5. 2. Few Years ago their biggest investor Providence Equity who help funded many of their previous projects drop them which was speculated as the reason they made Fallout 76. 3. Their engine are known how support for highly complex modding which is available on most other places, which is the reason why some other more cinematic and fancy features were sacrificed (a trade-off), I will spare you the details but keep in mind Bethesda also has id tech which were used for Doom Enteral and was one of best looking game of last gen, but they told us they couldn't use it for Fallout 4 because id tech lacks many of signature features only available on Creation Engine.
The next Elder Scrolls and Fallout games will likely be released for the next generation of consoles - might as well slap Skyrim on the Series X and PS5 in the meantime!
Fun fact: my junior year of high school, my choir got to choose a song to sing and all of the boys gathered and voted for the Skyrim theme. And they won. So we learned the Skyrim theme song and sang that at our spring concert. The parents were so confused.
oblivion was my first PC game, i asked for a computer and "a game where i can play as a knight" for christmas and my dad absolutely delivered that year lmao. loved that game so much. that feeling of crossing endless horizons as the sun set, chasing creatures through the woods, being able to TALK to people in the game. so wonderful. the soundtrack for oblivion will always be my favorite.
😁 _"i asked for a computer and "a game where i can play as a knight" for christmas and my dad absolutely delivered"_ I love this for some reason. Great dad.
It goes beyond "Day one bugs". It goes on to the realm of "never fixing them". Even when they re-release Skyrim for the 50th time, it still has the same bugs.
The community fixes the bugs themselves with mods. While that is useful, the problem with people fixing a company's mistakes is that the responsibility is no longer on the company. If the community is gonna fix it anyways, why bother? Bethesda has always been really supportive of mods, and that's honestly a really good thing. But it HAS made them a bit lazy in that sense.
why would I fix bugs from a game that I released 12 years ago? if I already know people are going to buy it regardless, and they mod my game all the time. doesn't seem like a profitable idea for a big company, to be honest
No, Bethesda should NOT adopt cutscenes or anything that "seamlessly transfers into gameplay". Bethesda's games come from essentially life simulation background. The games are meant to be immersive - make the player feel like THEY are the ones in the world rather than playing as someone else in the world. Never take the control out of the player's hands
I agree. I’m very forgiving of Bethesda games not being as cinematic as other games because they excel in interactivity. Games like God of War and Uncharted might look good on the surface but can you pick up every single tomato and slice of seared slaughterfish?
I very much agree. I personally do not enjoy those playable movie type games such as the new God of War or the Uncharted games. Probably the worst thing Bethesda could do is to waste time on motion captured faces, elaborate hand animations, motion capture etc. Bethesda RPG's have never been about that, and things like those should be left to the playable movie type games.
Definitely. There's a time and a place for that, but ultimately, cutscenes take control out of your hands and limit the immersion factor. I love games like God of War, but old Bethesda titles give me something completely different and unique. Not many (if any) RPGs are quite as interactive as Bethesda's, and a big part of that is never taking control away from the player. I look at, say, Cyberpunk 2077, and they had "cutscenes" in first person, and that's great, but there is something to be said about the pure interactivity and freedom Bethesda gives you. It's their trademark and they shouldn't gravitate away from that.
This is a common defense for these games, but I highly disagree. The best and most immersive RPGs I've played in the past few years are Witcher 3 and Divinity 2. I just tried to replay Oblivion for the second time and Fallout 4 for the first time and I have to say I was nearly bored to tears. Oblivion is over 15 years old now and more appropriate for its time, and I have fond memories of the oblivion gates and shivering isles. But Fallout 4 seems OOOOOLD. I have fond memories of Fallout 3 and NV, but F4 was a grind. There were very few memorable moments and I remember having to force myself to keep playing to see the famous Institute which ended up being a slap to the face. Maybe my tastes have changed, but the formula definitely seems obsolete. The Witcher 3 is actually OLDER than F4, which amazes me because it looks 10 years younger. You cannot tell me that its world is less immersive than Skyrim's or F4's. Divinity 2 showed that you don't even need a huge budget or studio to make a legendary game. Starfield will have a new setting, sure, and I LOVE the setting, but if it's just gonna be Elder Scrolls/Fallout in space there is no way in hell I'm buying it because it already sounds boring AF. Do we really need another IP that copy/pastes the same formula? There is a time and place for these games. I am actually playing Legend of Grimrock right now. That tickles my nostalgia fancy. The thought of booting up another Bethesda title honestly sounds like work at this point.
So a cutscene breaks immersion, but freezing the player-character in place (removing all player freedom the same as a cutscene) to watch a poorly animated NPC pace around and monologue to you doesn't?
It's just crazy to me that most FPS games have been integrating RPG elements into games that otherwise don't need it. Meanwhile, Bethesda has been stripping true RPG elements from the titles with every release.
@@notjimpickens7928 hardly a letdown. Could be further improved but anyone who play game fire it's own fun and merit will still enjoy it, unlike the utter failure of a fallout 76
@@Jinkypigs It was a letdown for many of us. I have finished Fallout 3 and New Vegas multiple times, so when the F4 was being released, I bought it on day one. I’ve never finished Fallout 4 despite multiple attempts. It’s not a terrible game, but the dialogue system was a huge let down, same with progression system. They stripped most of the fun RPG elements from that game. And yeah, F76 is a complete garbage…
every problem they talked about bethesda games happened in starfield : -multiples bugs -stage play where characters just stand around and say lines -bad animation -sales over product -bad ratings in reviews -PR failure -failures at launch -company lost trust -they gave us towns but most where just a empty void of despair with no real NPC experience EVERY PROBLEM WAS IN STARFIELD LMAO
Skyrim was so huge when it came out that even my dad wanted in on it, and he’s not any kind of gamer. He used to watch us play for hours at a time and one day he decided to buy his own ps3 and pick up a copy. Of course, he played for about two hours and decided he’d never be able to do the twin stick thing and gave up, but still. Shows you how big a deal Skyrim was. They absolutely need another of those.
Bro fr I have no idea what happens in the boomer brain where they just cannot for the life of them understand dual stick gameplay. It’s their literal kryptonite.
bethesda hasn't just kept doing the same thing, they've also improved in some areas and regressed in others. FO4 had improved visuals. I loved the new power armor and the base building even though they wasted their true potential. The combat felt better too. But at the same time they regressed in the writing and quests and world building, which has been an important aspect of the games and arguably the most important one.
@@njux1871 Fallout 4s regression was the thing OP already mentioned. It also regressed further with 76 and the sheer lack of it on launch. I've heard the DLCs are genuinely decent but I also just don't trust their current writer staff. They need to announce some changes like bringing on new staff or something for me to believe they can salvage their writing. The Sean twist in fallout 4 was the most pathetic limp thing in an rpgs story I've seen.
Fallout 4 kind of felt like a slap in the face to the former fallout games, really poor writing and a complete misunderstanding of what the games are about.
I think this is something a lot of people forget. Fallout 4's failures were entirely in the things they'd previously done, it wasn't considerably worse in those aspects, it just wasn't better than their previous games. The settlement system in FO4 pushed the boundaries of what is possible in an RPG, but it's implementation took away more than what was gained. To me Obsidian's The Outer Worlds felt like a major regression in what is now expected of FPS RPGs. I really hope Bathesda doesn't back off, the worst outcome would be Starfield being just another FPS RPG, after Bathesda has shown us that more can be done.
@@ToomanyFrancis Absolutely not, Fallout 4 regressed in multjple ways compared to the older games. Due to the voiced protagonist, many dialogue encounters were effectively neutered to mostly just 4 option: Yes/No/Question/Sarcasm. The writing also took a very noticeable hit in quality in the base game of Fallout 4. The final twist involving Sean and everything literally tells you the player that you're too stupid to understand his plan and he won't bother explaining it to you. The story in 4 is ultimately the worst in the series by a noticeable margin compared to the depth and character of New Vegas, 3, 2 and even 1. Skills and all their interactions were gutted for a widdened but shallow perk system that felt like gaining random abilities, rather than any potential for real character building. You wanna have 60+ medical stat and be a doctor? Prior games had checks placed into the world to let you do so and roleplay into your chosen professions. 4 is quite sparse of these. If Starfield is going to keep them up, they 100% need to hire on better talent and need start giving a damn about quality assurance and their storytelling again.
@@420Zeebruh Some people like what they like, just like some hate what they hate. For instance, I much preferred NMS(No Man's Sky) as it released and do not like current day NMS. Even though I knew and acknowledged that there was massive lies by the developer/press, it was still everything I wanted out of it so I was happy to defend it. Same probably applies to the current Starfield defenders. Not everyone has to hate the same games you do.
@@fistymcbuttpuncher6419 Not sure what your point here is, tbh. The game was badly received. That's it. Some people may like it, sure, but it doesn't change the fact that to general public it's a bad game
I really jus want Bethesda to up their writing game for their next generation of releases. The addicting and immersive gameplay of Bethesda, combined with inspired and actually noteworthy storytelling, would be an incredible experience. As of right now, Bethesda’s writing seems below what should be expected from a AAA *“RPG”* game developer.
For the last three playthroughs of Skyrim I’ve done, I’ve completely ignored most of the questlines because the writing for them is so bad. The only time I’ve done anything related to those questlines is when I have to in order to enter an area
They didn’t forget, though. They intentionally moved away from that to make games that don’t require you to think. Their modern games make a lot more sense if you try playing them when you're a little drunk, or you have a minor concussion.
Be careful. I replayed both Area and Daggerfall earlier this year along with Morrowind. Nothing much D&D about them. Outside generic fantasy setting in the first two, and a dark pretty original one in Morrowind. The first Bethesda game I ever played was Terminator: Future Shock or something like that, and the fist one I am aware of is Bethesda Football. If anything the RPGs not based on anything D&D but for the fantasy settings. But just taking what Ultima Underworld did and trying to improve on it. An RPG simulation game, you cannot remove the simulator from this, as it is the main push as the series continues. If you do not like RPG immersive sims, then Starfield will be a let down.
@@derp195 dnd rules can be used in any setting, sure. But playing a Star Wars adaptation using DnD rules is not the same thing as actually playing DnD. DnD has it's own native setting, though, and it's not in space.
It's interesting how some games are absolutely crucified for their bugs and others have it brushed under the rug. I feel like there's always underlying problems making a game unfun but the general audience will latch onto bugs as a cheap shot because it's a lot harder to break down and agree upon the actual problems. I'm very thankful for the boys doing these deep dives on this wild west medium of video games we're all riding through.
I think part of it is that in games that aren’t as fun or are just missing some fundamental part of the experience, bugs are a lot more annoying because there’s less to distract from them. I’ve played hundreds of hours of Elden Ring and it’s buggy as hell sometimes, but I haven’t encountered any game breaking bugs or significant bugs, and the rest of the game’s experience is more than enjoyable enough for me to ignore them. So when people encounter bugs in less enthralling games, they are more frustrated by them in a similar way to people being more frustrated by more significant bugs compared to less significant bugs.
I definitely agree with this when it comes to Skyrim, but not Fallout 4. I did a Skyrim play through fairly recently and I have to say it rarely ever frame dropped terribly, nor was any bug extremely immersion breaking or game breaking (besides dragrs shouting you into the wall which happened A LOT) Fallout 4 is on an entirely different level. I feel like I tend to give games a lot of leway when it comes to bugs, but some of the places in 4 get so laggy it's genuinely impossible to play through. It's the only game where ive really sat down and thought about how infinitely better the game would be if it was any kind of solid state
I think it also has to do with the scope of the game itself. For Fallout 4 and especially 76, the gameplay formula wasn't new (especially to them), so it was less excusable because their time wasn't spent breaking any molds. Elden ring for example, though, while not entirely genre-breaking, is subversive enough where some bugginess can be understood.
Cyberpunk comes to mind. Expectations play a big role. People expect bugs from Bethesda but expected perfection from CDPR. And Bethesda's open-worlds are so much more feature-rich
@@jubbin4849 elden ring was praised unanimously by the gaming community, I've not heard a single bad thing about the game itself. What I have heard is that the game doesn't preform very well on PC. Which, well is true. Whenever I play elden ring I usually end the session by just waiting for a crash to happen to signal to stop playing.
thank you for putting this out on my birthday, I was beginning to get concerned that there would be no gift for Ebby and Tonny, the Burbacta Brothers. Thank you again for your kind transgressions.
Honestly, I've always been more of a sci-fi person than a fantasy fan. That said, after a friend let me play through the beginning great plateau portion of breath of the wild, I saved up enough money to buy my own switch and that game, and have since sunk over 900 hours into it over the years. I would be more than willing to do the same if Starfield is any good, especially with a character creator. I've been dreaming, literally dreaming, of being a starship captain since I was a little girl, that would be... just incredibe.
Did you not watch the video? Every worry they voiced was spot on even down to the lack of towns making the game feel empty and as if it had no conflict or culture.
Am I the only one that isn't being drawn in by the factions? Factions summarized: - Big bad corporation with drugs. - Muh freedom wild west. - This is what democracy looks like! - Arg, we be pirates. - We just want to explore. At least give them some depth, give them something they care about outside of their trope. Give them something to add to the interest. If not then at least give us a cool autocratic faction that just wants to blast some Xenos so I at least have someone to join. Maybe have the corpos relying on drug profits as the only way to make sure the colonists are fed since the import fees from the republic is extreme. Maybe have the wild west faction have competing leaders maybe some refugees or governments in exile after their country fell on Earth. Maybe have the cringe democracy faction have an absolutely terrible electorate that leads it having brain dead leaders and making silly decisions and quickly undoing their decisions as elections cancel out the past leader's accomplishments. Occupy a planet under Senator Le'Saysha? Not so fast because now the People's Happy Vote Front Party is in power and as per their campaign promise negotiations for surrender were concluded, sure the war was already won but its too late their party leaders didn't know that until after they already signed the treaty and all treaties are binding per the law.
@@darken2417 don't forget the people that call themselves The Thieves Guild instead of some kind of secretive name so at least their motive isn't so blatantly obvious🤣
@@-k-b- Eh but the Thieves Guild just works. Its a guild, guilds are supposed to have easy to understand names. Its the medieval aesthetic. Sure they were very complicated internally back then but at the end of the day they were just the Blanket Maker Guild or the Nailsmith Guild or the Saddle Craftsmen Guild.
Side story about bethesda messing up: Within the company, "Todd Howard" is officially an insult. In their Elder Scrolls mobile game (Wait, why do I even remember the mobile game?), when creating the character, the game didn't allow players to use insults when writing their names, as online games often do, good for them, the funny thing is that "Todd Howard" was another banned name, but they didn't add any special message of why that was the case, resulting on that input triggering the message that doesn't allow you to use offensive names.
One thing I have noticed from Bethesda’s marketing for Starfield, especially from Todd Howard, is they seem to be doing everything they can to clamp down on the hype for the game. The latest gaming news article I’ve read is Todd saying only about 10% of the 1000 planets in the game have life (animals and NPCs) on them. It was such a weird thing to hear from Todd since 10 years ago he would’ve said every planet has life on it including factions and unique quests, and just his usually over promising. It seems Bethesda is aware of the state they’re in and is trying to rebuild that trust with the gaming community. And while I’m incredibly skeptical in how Starfield will turn out, it’s definitely been interesting to see Bethesda not using Bethesda marketing.
Yeah that bit of news was a little odd haha. I’m interested in seeing how the game is. The idea of 900 planets with no life on them is a little alarming. I just don’t want them diluting the game experience too much.
tbh, isnt that normal that vast majority of planets has NO life on them? Seeing they aim at more realistic space take, its seems only valid and fits them. Having 100 planets with life is still too much for average player to handle, or visit anyway, lets not pretend it isnt a lot.
@kptmaci4979 sure from an in-universe perspective it makes sense that populated planets are rare. But as a player 900 planets devoid of life just sounds like Bethesda padding out their game with dry content.
I don't think that's disappointing at all. Life on 10% of planets is a really high percentage considering they're going for a grounded sci-fi feel and in real life we've yet to observe a single planet with any evidence of life at all. Also including NPCs in that is wrong since he never said planets without life will also lack NPCs, and in the gameplay we've seen NPCs on planets that from what they've shown us are desolate and lifeless. Bethesda definitely haven't been clamping down on hype, the only instances of them saying anything that goes against the hype have been when Todd's been asked a direct question in an interview (e.g. will there be land vehicles) and he's had to carefully say no, there won't. The time he said 10% of planets will have life was actually in that same interview and also answering a direct question
If I'm correct in assuming Tony still does the editing work, he is absolutely killing it. Pleasantly surprised to see some more Brokeback content this month.
I’m so glad I’m not alone on the settlements thing! I was so disappointed by that! Having NPCs who have no names or character roaming about a farm I don’t want to build was boring. I feel like Bethesda thought “We need to keep up with Minecraft,” without saying why.
Eh. I really quite liked the settlement building. It made me feel more connected to the world, and as someone who usually sided with the minutemen, I felt like I had some impact. Also I like basebuilding mechanics in general. Tho I will say more towns like diamond city would have been much appreciated
I think it was a decision based on FO4's context not having many cities crowded, to make you feel like the Sole Survivor you are. But I agree it was something I missed, hopefully with Starfield this will change.
@@deathminion11that was probably my number 1 gripe with the game, the commonwealth felt so empty compared to New Vegas that it was genuinely immersion breaking for me. Like diamond city has so much room in the stands to build housing while some residents just slept outside. The upper class consisted of (i believe) like 4 family homes and a restaurant, yet this is supposed to be the biggest settlement in the commonwealth with a full economy. And the rich folk of bunker hill known to be so rich that they pay off raiders instead of fighting all live in rundown wooden shacks that have less insulation than tents. I can usually suspend my disbelief, like one generic npc is supposed to represent 10 of them in lore, but it just felt like Bethesda was putting all that homework on people's headcanon and didn't really try to give us context to make it make sense. Idk if what I said is coherent lol, sorry if it's not and for replying to a one year old comment.
Skyrim got away with a lot more at the time than it would today. In a post- Fallout 76 and Cyberpunk 2077 world, if Starfield is half as buggy as them it will get absolutely crucified.
I think one of Bethesda's biggest problems in recent years has also been slowly shaving away a lot of the rpg elements of their games. Fallout 3 let you range anywhere from a paragon of heroism to a cannablistic child slaver who literally nukes an entire city. But over time it feels like a lot of the meaning has been stripped away in your choices in their games. Its just generic good guy line, generic asshole line, antagonize, ask question... It stopped feeling like you got to create a character.
While Obsidian even with their new staff, has stayed true to their core beliefs of giving has much freedom to player has they can, going has far has allowing you to kill legit anyone. Not saying "ObSiDiAn GoOd, BeThESDA bAd" but more so it interesting how they went onto different paths from one another. One taking more risky, sticking to their guns path, while the other sticking to a more safer and generic path.
Basically Bethesda stopped being based and started being woke. We had Imperials cohabitating with bloody Elves in fooking Skyrim. SKYRIM the land of the Nords! We even had scalebacks able to marry the damn furballs. If it was true lore Skyrim those people would have gotten an axe through their head; the elf ears would be fried and eaten, the scale skin would be used for boots and the fur pelt would be hanging on someone's wall.
They basically gave up on depth to pander to the casual gamers,the ones that are in higher number.Also No matter how starfield turns out,it will still sell because its made by Bethesda(not Morrowind Bethesda,just Fallout 4 Bethesda)
So, NoClip has a great documentary on Bethesda and FO4 and I remember it being pretty insightful into why the games are how they are. Apparently (and don't quote me here) they just try to add as much content as they can until a few months before the game has to ship and then decide what can be completed in that time and what has to get cut. It seems like they just don't allocate enough time to bug testing as they maybe should, thus the bugs. Also, stuff like the settlement system iirc come from an internal "game jam" where devs spend like a day trying to build an interesting tech demo and the good one get integrated. Iirc that's where the cat animations in FO4 came from because someone just spent their time getting cat animations as accurate as possible. Like you said, trying new stuff is fine, you just need to accept when it doesn't work.
I feel like the bugs in Bethesda games are very hit or miss. There are some bugs I think we as gamers find halirous, and that is why we still love them. But I would like to see a change. I would also like to mentioned how good it was to hear that Starfield was being delayed. That means they see that there are issues that they need to fix. It’s good to see and gives me a little bit more hope for Starfield
the stage play analogy is spot on. it never used to bother me when i was younger but ever since playing witcher 3, my tolerance for bland and robotic NPCs has gone way down. Witcher is pretty rudimentary these days, but it’s amazing how much little character movements and expressions add to the immersion/realism of a conversation.
There is another aspect of witcher 3 people do not want to talk about that is , its npc AI predates Morrowind , If you lure bunch of wolves to a village in white orchard or velen you will see npcs are screaming , hunched back instead of running away or doing anything & wolves attack Geralt only as if npcs do not even exist
@@COHOFSohamSengupta Funny you say that I got a monster to chase me and hid behind an NPC and the monster clipped through the NPC but did not even kill them or react to them. I then did some thing similar in RDR2 I robbed and NPC and witness saw so I chased her through the woods and A bear came and attacked her, taking care of the witness for me haha. CD Project Are Great at Quests but they really need to work on the their systems.
@@John-996 I am sort of tired of witcher 3 circle jerk(maybe it sounds too rude I apologize) Its a masterpiece I know but I have never seen people talking about its actual flaws other than praising it to the moon , their worlds *LOOK* living & breathing but are not functionally living & breathing , for example despite having dozens of monster species you will never across a single village in witcher 3 getting attacked by a monster dynamically (not scripted quest encounter) on the other hand Skyrim which is ancient by now , you will often see Dragons or Vampires attack villages dynamically & villagers defend their home , At the same time I dont think any fantasy city will dethrone Novigrad either from design perspective or how it showcases socio economic status
Also I feel like the depth and writing of the games suffered when transitioning to appeal to a wider audience. Oblivion to skyrim or new vegas to fallout 4, it leaves a section of gamers with defining series features missing.
It is worth noting that even with basic animations and acting that they were able to create such immersive story telling. Even replaying fallout 3 or Skyrim you can still get invested.
For me, as someone who started playing bethesda games with oblivion and has played every release from them since, I’ve watched mysef grow from a kid who wasn’t very critical and thought the bugs were hilarious to a cynical adult that just wants his games to work. I feel like their main audience has just grown up and that’s a big reason we don’t forgive bugs anymore.
I think the point where Bethesda REALLY lost my respect is when they introduced the creation club and started breaking mod support (like a script extender for Fallout 4 which would have allowed for MASSIVE mods). I'm sure the modding scene has gotten better since then, but for Bethesda to try and attack the LIFEBLOOD of their games is plain insulting.
They dont care, normie normson number 83 who buys fifa, nfl and call of duty every year will still buy at least two copies of everything. Nothing will change for the better
There is a working Fallout 4 script extender. Yes it has to be updated everytime Creation Club is updated, which sucks, but the mod team is very quick to do so, usually in less then 24 hours. Props to the modders but boo to Bethesda for how they handle mods. I can't play their games without mods, whether it's bug fixes or just adding new content. I built a gaming PC solely for modding Bethesda games.
I 100% agree, creation club ruining my Skyrim Mods has been the biggest issue I’ve personally had with Bethesda. They took a huge part of the Skyrim Community and just made life so much more difficult for them.
@@StarmenRock they do care. they know very well, that a big part of the success for skyrim comes from the great mod support and the modding community. nobody would talk about skyrim without that anymore
5:50 I disagree strongly about your point on "blockbuster" experience. We are playing a game, a form of interactive medium, not a passive one like watching a movie. Imo making a game like a movie is the biggest sin of modern AAA titles.
I think he meant animation doesn’t match storytelling which is very wonky. Wolfenstein Old Blood is a great example of what Bethesda could do with Star-field.
@@ServantofAnubis007 wolfenstein is not exactly an open world game that's meant to be played and explored at people's own paces. it's as linear as it gets.
@@musa4539 I meant with animations. More seamless natural movement. No floating above the map like it’s a treadmill in previous titles. No t posing or awkward sitting animations. No characters clipping through the damn wall.
I agree. This is why I have a deep dislike for naughty dog games. They are mostly well written stories, but the gameplay is often mediocre. They are just movies with gameplay thrown in between.
I think the good part with Starfield is that it has no previous expectations on what the game should be like. It's not like Fallout where people expected heavy lore or Skyrim where people don't expect a new ES
I mean judging from the trailers, the expectations are that it'll be a Bethesda game. It doesn't look like they've 'shaken up' the formula all that much, it's the same stiff animations and AI written dialogue that we've been getting for a while now. Oh but instead of one big map, there's a few small ones and then some procedurally generated ones.
The only flaw with this mentality is thinking that Bethesda's modern titles fail critically because the fans expectations exceed what the product is capable of... Bethesda's modern titles fail critically because they're using minimum effort and greedy marketing to make games for the lowest common denominator.
On the wanting towns: it was nuts how there were, I think, no human NPCs in 76 at first... The best part in these games are the characters! I went back to 76 after a bunch of NPCs and story were added (and after getting it for $5) and it was nice. That's their strong point.
Interesting! I thought the exact opposite. When they said they would be removing human NPCs in the newest fallout I thought honestly they were removing the weakest part in any Bethesda game. I quit the game a couple months back because I just got tired of the NPCs saying the same 4 lines. Plus apparently all my default locations for a scenic, secluded lookout in the forest now have at least two NPCs. One drunk and always burping. The other saying the same lines over and over and over again. "Gotta keep tabs on raider whereabouts!". "If the scorched or the ferals don't get you, the rads will!" Also did you know Sunny makes a good hoagie? Because if that sentence isn't burned into the very neurons of my brain because of the litteral thousands of times I've heard that line than I don't know what is! I think NPCs were a huge step down for 76 in what was actually a pretty decent game. I just realized I turn a response into a rant! 😜 I apologize. I just find it interesting hearing others opinion and sharing my own.
Glad to hear the thoughts echoed about how curated/designed towns being a highlight in past games and how the settlement system replaced those and wasn't adequate. My friends and I share that sentiment.
When talking about merging animations and storyline, I think of Half-Life: Alyx. While all the Half-Life games had the same approach, HL:A really hit it out of the park with keeping the world completely open and free to explore and not locking the player's orientation to the cutscene. The older Half-Life's had, to a degree, the same robotic/scripted issue that Betheda games face, but when Half-Life: 2 came out in 2004, and Skyrim in 2011 it's hard to justify Bethesda's approach. I'd honestly argue that Half-Life 1 had the same animation level as Skyrim, and that Fallout 4 only made it to the same level of animation as Half-Life: 2. It makes you wonder if their game engine is a large part of the fault.
That is exactly what caused all those bugs in all their games for so long, it all comes down to the same game engine, which they just upgraded slightly with each new game. They should have build a new game engine from scratch a long time ago. Although it is impressive what they managed to squeeze out of the old one. It is hard to deny that they are masters at creating worlds and setting an atmosphere, it's just too bad they never put as much effort into fixing their game engine.
@@wateo1782 css and csgo both use source, csgo uses an updated version of source that doesn't look like the original half life. You don't need a new engine, just an updated one
Could Bethesda finally make moderately attractive characters without installing CBBE or a face mod, 'cause of all the good devs, the "Bethesda face" is my biggest problem with their games.
Bethesda will make faces look Just nice enough for them not to lose buyers on that fact. That's the baseline time investment required. All other dev funds will try to expand the universe in a marketable way.
Sounds like an ideal thing to be solved by modders. Most people do not base their purchase decision on your desired level of character beauty, otherwise you would see much more funds invested into this part of the game. Every dollar can only be spent once, so Bethesda needs to be smart about it.
@UCV7HIWvrfe3eQQXzkonObgQ you're talking like a real investor, a business man, the company defense. To invest on the design, in the art, is not the same as investing on features that will, effectively, directly have a financial return on the mere existence of such feature. Players appreciate more these details, more than any investor that only see money being paid back, that understand numbers. Let any of them take control of the creative team, they don't care.
ESO was my worst buy in Steam ever. In that moment my head make click, and say. Never ever again buy an multiplayer game from Bethesda. They can make a 99% discount of FO76 and not worth it for me.
Hey guys, I was hoping you would include the problematic practice of crunch, overworking employees to reach project deadlines often to the detriment of the employees health, in your analysis. This is often the reason that games are so buggy. That in combination with the growing demand for bigger and better games. It's no longer good enough to have a game as good as Skyrim. It has to surpass it in every way. Crunch is a serious issue in the video game industry and you can't plead for companies to build better games without addressing this. But it may lead to video games becoming more expensive or taking longer to produce in order to fix this problem. Food for thought.
Bugs are features in Bethesda games. I remember when they patched the Giant "Space Program" and the community went into an outrage and they un-patched it lol.
Skyrim was great for introducing me to that type of game. But I think now that I have developed a better ability to game, Oblivion mechanically-wise is a lot more interesting, Skyrim feels so bland now in comparison. I still love Skyrim to pieces though. I want Starfield to be good, I'm kinda cautiously optimistic, but I have no hopes for it really. And as much as I appreciate the need to have accessible games, but I'm scared that TES VI might be even more simplified than Skyrim.
The thing Skyrim excelled at was exploration. The amount of cool locations, random events or environmental story telling you'd find on your way between objectives is what makes it feel like a real organic adventure and hasn't been matched since (botw was close though). The Rpg elements and lore were definitely more bland than previous titles though, but with what they've been saying about starfield it sounds like they're looking to fix that. They've already talked about alternate starts, class creation, new speech mechanics and environmental changes like different gravity and atmospheres
@@roadblock0210 i will. Broken world scaling leading to overpowered mobs throughout the map. Completly breaks the game and makes many character builds unusable.
@@criert135 I liked Oblivion and Skyrim, but Morrowind was truly defining and groundbreaking, (and also extremely buggy and glitchy). It set the bar at that time much like Elden Ring does today. Their new game-engine better be build from the ground up and thouroughly tested. At least they should know what no to do by now, like linking movement speed to frame rate to give an example...
Fallout 4 was my introduction into Fallout. Without it, I wouldn’t have found a franchise that perfectly blends my two loves of history and science fiction perfectly. New Vegas is one of my favorite games of all time.
Absolutely. NV is one of my favourite RPGs of all time, right next to Fallout 1 and 2. I just wish Bethesda gave Obsidian more chances to work on more Fallout games. Clearly with Elder Scrolls and Starfield in the pipeline, we will see a new Fallout game once a decade, if not longer. So to have another studio work on a Fallout "side game" inbetween the main releases would've been a smart move, especially a studio with as great of a track record and the knowledge of the franchise as Obsidian. And since Bethesda insist on exploring the east coast in their Fallout games, Obsidian would've been a perfect studio to work on expanding the west coast lore.
Love the editing on these videos, they have an amazing flow to them and they really immerse me in the topic you guys discuss. Cant wait to see what you guys talk about next!
You’re absolutely right about everyone has one of these games that they’ve grown up with and still love. I grew up watching my dad play Skyrim and then I got to play it and fell in love with it. I still play it now like 8/9 years later and am wanting to get one of the skill tree constellations tattooed on my back
Honestly what made me lose my respect for Bethesda is that they continually release new versions of Skyrim with the same very well known and massive game breaking bugs more than a decade since the original release
The worse thing about Fallout 76: we'd seen it all before with Elder Scrolls Online. Zenimax actively chose to lump FO76 on Bethesda so that when it inevitably flopped, the public fault was on them.
I actually think the settlement building was awesome, they just need to integrate some better storytelling/worldbuilding into the player built settlements to make you care about the people that live there. I also think they need to add more depth instead of just trying to make fallout a looter shooter with rpg lite mechanics. Give me choices that matter or lock me out of other choices, because hey, maybe I'll play the game again to explore those other options. Ultimately, I think they've fallen prey to sacrificing everything on the altar of accessibility as many triple aaa devs do nowadays.
I think it would’ve been cool to see an ax Valhalla like tier system to every settlement, and every tier you unlock more items and utilities at the settlement
I want this game to be good so bad, but we are months away and Bethesda has shown us nothing in-game, just concept art and the execs talking about the old days/how great the game will be. If they had something, they’d show us. This game will either be delayed, or it will be another 76. EDIT: Called it. Q1 of 2023, let's hope it's good.
Well, Skyrim and Fallout 4 were shown off only months before release. It's been their M.O. to wait until just a few months from launch to do a big reveal and then not have too long a wait until it comes out. Fallout 4 was shown off at E3 and released November of that year. Can't speak on the bugs tho haha.
@@harshamohite1289 yeah, and they’ve been talking about this game for the last two years. It’s not their MO to string along with small bits here and there until release. As you said, by this time only a few months out from release, we would have had way more
@@scpWyatt they apparently released a new trailer about a month ago, it even contains a little bit of gameplay. Didnt know about till just now, been too busy with Elden Ring. In other words : bad timing, better wait till the hype around Elden Ring dies off first imo. November is still far away.
This is just wrong. Bethesda *always* waits until a few months before release to show gameplay. Always. And they reiterated that that was the plan this time around too. The fact that this has upvotes is crazy. Gameplay will come in the next couple of months
@@edwinring8173 which game did they discuss for years before releasing any gameplay footage of just before launch? Because it wasn’t Fallout 76. It wasn’t Fallout 4. It wasn’t Skyrim. It wasn’t anything that I can remember. They were all tight lipped about those until it was month until release and then the first thing we saw from them was gameplay footage. I hope Starfield is good, lord knows we need a new good Bethesda to sink the next few thousand hours on, so I’d love to be wrong.
I gotta be honest Bethesda bug at least for me are part of the game and have a unique charm. I couldn't imagine a Bethesda game without some funny bug occurring from time to time. Obviously game breaking bugs are big problems.
you know i was just writing on my christmas wishlist for santa to bring me a new Burback video entitled "Bethesda Needs Another Masterpiece" and wowie kazowie christmas came early this year ❤
What you said about the core veterans is what still gives me hope for Bethesda. While they still have had some turnover, (all big companies do) they seem to have a good relationship with their employees in Maryland which is more than you can say for a lot of other industry leaders.
I'm honestly really excited for starfield. Being honest, I'll probably have a good time with it no matter what, just based on their previous single-player games, so the bar to impress me is pretty low. But some of the things they've been promising have me excited. A new engine, more in-depth RPG mechanics, a more diverse group of factions, additions of things like traits and classes for more detailed character building, plus I'm really hoping that I can fly a spaceship (instead of interplanetary travel just being a fast travel thing)
You may be able to fly around in atmospheres or space, but I doubt you’ll be able to fly between planets. I hope I’m wrong but I don’t have that kinda faith in Bethesda
If they manage to turn Starfield into something like a single player Star Citizen, with all the freedom and gameplay options, i have no doubt they can get their throne back but all depends heavily of their new engine.
@@GhostInPajamas if no man's sky had it, I see no reason why Bethesda couldn't manage it. Might not be perfect, but skyrim was far from perfect and I've got hundreds of hours, probably thousands between ps3, ps4 and Xbox one x put in.
@@arminkuburas1696 its a totally different way of making a game to what Bethesda is used to , you only need cyberpunk to tell you that when implementing features from other games, it doesn’t always go your way.
Yeah, no kidding. Elder Scrolls is my all time favourite IP. It's the only series that I like enough that I'm willing to get tattoos of it. If Starfield doesn't captivate me, I'm literally gonna cry myself to sleep in fear of what will happen to TES:VI
@@Helperbot-2000 I find there are some people who just like a specific kind of game and if it's not that kind of game then they think everything else is bad. You are one of those people. Which don't get me wrong, if you think Skyrim is bad fine. But objectively speaking, it's one of the best selling games of all time and they are able to continue selling copies of this game even today.
silly ragdoll physics is one thing. straight up game-breaking glitches is another. i think theres a lot of charm in the physics of skyrim/oblivion, despite it not being realistic
@@phillystevesteak6982 There was literally not a single game in 2011 that was realistic. Skyrim was a game ahead of its time, thats why it was the most selling game at that tieme
@Raxi_ I was talking realism in terms of physics/gravity/skeleton bodyworks. And if you remember, half life 2 was a thing which certainly had far more realistic physics for the time
My first open world RPG ever was Oblivion when I was 7 so I’m really hoping that Bethesda delivers some real bangers in he coming years, and that Elder Scrolls 6 is more like Oblivion 2 than Skyrim 2
and have more than 10 VA's and have the main characters have yk... Their own VA's instead of Nord VA 2, the one we allll know because he voices half of fucking whiterun.
I think their open world formula works so well, along with the streamlined RPG elements makes the games so easy to pick up and just enjoy. I don't mind giving a hub area that players can customize and build but don't make the entire world a settlement. Now that it is delayed to 2023 I think that the bug testing will definitely be better (hopefully), I only wish for a story that is more consequential based on your actions and story choices.
Elden ring still uses a ton of the same animations that have been around since the ORIGINAL Demons Souls, so as a fan of all the games I notice when they're used. A massive problem with some of the presentation issues in Bethesda games, is the ancient, patched together with glue and tape engine that makes animating and scripting much harder than many modern engines.
Honestly I agree. This is Bethesda were talking about. They're basically the gaming equivalent of a shitty youtuber who makes low-effort content and begs you to join their Patreon.
Skyrim is no masterpiece by today's standards; if they release a game that was the quality of skyrim, it will not be treated so kindly as the nostagia bias won't protect it.
@kodybenson5244 People say that they're improving it using mods "to improve on Skyrim, it's like making nearly perfect games even better", although it's not like framerate up grades; it's like overhauling the entire videogame. I feel like more and more over time, it isn't to improve on what's there... but replace it; its inadequate, so to keep Skyrim standard they update; it's some strange kind of nostalgia bias, people say Skyrim is great, (and if they love it nice) although haven't played it (the original unmoded version) in years. I respect Skyrim, but it's not my favourite game Bethesda created.
@kodybenson5244 I genuinely feel like the majority (if not all) of Fallout 4 is of Skyrims quality, yet overall...it received much more criticism, I think that some fans, oftentimes can't pick up on issues (in games they play, or films they watch)...although if they're in other games, then they'll see them; I think it shows blatant biases actually. Most of Fallout 4s' popular criticisms, are just as true (if not more so) of Skyrim than they're of Fallout 4: A lack of true options in most dialogue encounters/Inconsistent tone/main character is too premade, i can't define them/overly convenient plot (Leader of every guild)/plotholes/quite unresponsive game feel/retcons in lore/technical issues, Bethesda fans ignore/neglect this one; Fallout 3/ Obsidians New Vegas/Fallout 4/Skyrim, at launch couldn't even play sometimes, and had endless glitches from Clipping, to crashing/Framerate issues/game-breaking issues/Launching incorrectly/Not loading important assets, etc. Actually curious how people receive Starfield (Critically not financially), I'm unsure how it'll stand technically; Microsoft needs something to PlayStation's standards, technically at least. I know it'll likely have many of the same problems, im just curious if they're more evident and apparent.
I’m so excited for starfield. I’ve just started playing Bethesda games on my series x with fallout 76 and elder scrolls 3 and 4. I cannot believe I missed out on these types of games . Then again , my choice of games 13 yrs ago in my teens was just cod and guitar hero , so I’m thankful to be able to experience these great rpgs . Wish me luck
It’s not just bugs that have made the games worse in recent years. I think the biggest problem with Bethesda is the poor quality of writing in their stories and continuously dumbing down RPG mechanics. In each entry since Morrowind this has gotten worse. I hope Starfield can be a breath of fresh air, but this issue is deeper and has do to with the core functions of the games.
I started to play Kingdom's Come: Deliverance a couple of weeks ago and I'm amazed at how far the industry has gone. If you like skyrim, I definitely recommend trying out the game. It will make you realize how much depth can be added to an elder's scrolls-like game. One day I was travelling between the woods and some bandits ambushed by leaving a barricade in the roads that made my horse tumble on it. I barely managed to defeat the bandits. One of them asked for mercy and started running away. I was angry at them so I pursued the bandit on my horse practicing shooting arrows on the guy as he ran. A few people saw me, on my horse, chasing someone and taking that person down. They didn't knew it was a bandit. So they reported me to the guard. A few days later a guard recognized me and fined me for the report. It's a hard game, but very rewarding. Definitely recommend.
