Extremly hesitant on beths next game

[Nazeem]

Well games from Bethesda can be good at first impresion, but when you fucking did the main quest you:

1. Always lag and can't play anymore
2. Realize you look awfull(I made a bald Khajit woman in Skyrim. Who didn't think cats with extra head fur wouldn't be weird?) and change the game.
3. Get stuck on another questline and get bored to death because you were so close to finish it but everything you did before didn't help with anything.
4. You try to develop your skill but get bored.

Bye forever, sweet Skyrim.

NOTE: Everytime I find a bad game I look in the credits and find out that the brother of a cousin of the mother of someone who works at Bethesda was in the crew...

 

[Crni Vuk]

They'll advertise a lot, more live actors, maybe Tom Cruise as an altmer or something
More fan-service also, I say it's time for Elder Scrolls to go boobs, or at least up the cheesy embarassmentness of their romancing
More all-in-one also, more sims, more mini-games, like tetris or something
They allready stole the drab and colorless palette from GoT, it worked wonders, now maybe they can steal the golden-sunset thing from Witcher (as well as the balls to show boobs, and card-collecting mini games!)

You forgot the addition of a dog companion and an English butler.

If they go this route of trying to make characters with backstories, voice acting, and dialogue wheel with Elder Scrolls VI people are probably going to compare it to Witcher 3 and realize how dumb and shallow Elder Scrolls has become and how robotic the characters look with that game engine.

I hope they won't be potentially THAT stupid though. I mean, it might be something to consider for Fallout 4, with the voiced protagonist. Hey, I am not saying it can't be done well.

But one big appeal of the Elder Scrolls was always this kind of blank-slate approach. It would fitt even less to TES. There is simply to much competition in the fantasy genre.

Albeit, their you are another prisoner thing starts to become really really boring ...

 

[GlutinousRice]

They must have a bondage fetish at Bethesda.

 

[MercenarySnake]

Not sure how they'll pull off their prisoner fetish this time unless it's like "You have been framed for murder and thrown in the dungeons. Suddenly a riot breaks out with two factions fighting which destroys the wall leaving you an easy escape route as you attempt to avoid swords and arrows flying around. A stranger from the city's faction fighting the outsiders guides you to a dead faction member and tells you to equip everything leaving his body bare with no dignity."

 

[Crni Vuk]

Meh, who knows. Probably the same reason why every fucking Fallout guy in Bethesda has to start in a vault. It's the easiest thing to do. You don't have to explain much, why is the player here again? Oh ... oh! He's the prisoner! The Vaultdveller!. Here your gun/sword/schlong, now go and kill! Blergh.

One way to do it right is Witcher 1 for example - the introduction I mean, the game really doesn't upen up before you get to the first village. But that takes effort.

 

[Spacemunkey]

The opening for ESO was pretty good with the prisoner trope, escaping a Daedric realm.

 

[MercenarySnake]

It goes along with the whole "Vaults are an iconic part of what makes Fallout...Fallout!". Same with that goddamn vault boy that has to be animated everywhere! Probably make millions by selling vault boy merchandise.

The opening for ESO was pretty good with the prisoner trope, escaping a Daedric realm.

A prisoner to your crazy wife as you try to escape the house so she doesn't beat you senseless with a frying pan.

 

[The Dutch Ghost]

To be honest, at this point I wish I had never heard of the name Bethesda or that I could purge their name from my memories while leaving myself a note saying "Never ever check that studio's games out, this is why you purged your memories".
I honestly blame publishers like Bethesda for ruining my joy in video games. When I load up a game nowadays I so quickly feel disinterested in continuing onwards as the content is so shallow, the design so full of tripe, the storyline and quests loaded with clichés. And this needs to be done as gamers of today otherwise quickly loose interest and want their money back.

Next Bethesda game? It is going to be an even bigger sandbox in which you can fuck around to your heart's content. And remember! Mods will fix everything!

 

[Crni Vuk]

The opening for ESO was pretty good with the prisoner trope, escaping a Daedric realm.

Cant say anything about that. Hey! I am not saying you can't be creative even with the same premise. But it was already boring in Morrowind, but that was 15 years ago. It's the same thing like making every character suffering from amnesia, because that is easier than to actually explain the world in a meaningfull way to the player - because both are as far as the world goes, knowing nothing at all. It is really not an easy task anyway, in movies you would always have someone who knows (almost) nothing. So someone can explaining the plot for example, or the world, or certain details, plot devices or what ever. Like when Geordi La Forge needlessly explains something to Picard, and all he says is, make it so. Even if every character in the movie knows something or would assume that it's actually not interesting, the audience doesn't!

 

[Tom Bishop]

In fairness to TES, starting those games out as a prisoner is an old tradition by now. Every game in the main series has included it except for Daggerfall, and even a couple of the spinoffs have thrown it in. Also, there are a number of ways that the setup can be varied so as to stop it from feeling stale - the identity of your captors, the nature of your prison, whether you escape or are released, etc. Besides, prisons are a cultural universal. It's never going to be a problem to suppose that in any given setting there will be a faction that holds someone prisoner.

That being said, the "player as a vault-dweller" idea that Bethesda seems focused on is stupid and needs to be scrapped. There isn't nearly the amount of flexibility there that there is with the prisoner concept, it inhibits roleplaying by always requiring that the PC have virtually no knowledge or experience of the post-war world, and it makes less and less sense the farther down the timeline the games are set.

 

[Dr Fallout]

I don't know, I really liked Morrowind's intro. It felt natural and wasn't the same fucking action packed starter sequence. It felt like a realistic discharge from jail, which made it more immersive for me. No weird coincidences in your escape, just a simple discharge. It also made the beginning more challenging because all you have are the clothes on your back, a knife and some gold.

 

[ZigzagPX4]

I don't know, I really liked Morrowind's intro. It felt natural and wasn't the same fucking action packed starter sequence. It felt like a realistic discharge from jail, which made it more immersive for me. No weird coincidences in your escape, just a simple discharge. It also made the beginning more challenging because all you have are the clothes on your back, a knife and some gold.

So did I. No convenient bullshit to get you out, plus all the proper procedures gave me time to get used to the controls. That was the most well-designed lack of tutorial I've ever seen.

And to walk right out into a strange land. I imagine that's what those prisoners who get 30-40 years must feel like after release - being thrown back into a world you don't recognise. Felt like an alien world to them - the same way Morrowind felt the first time. I mean, goddamn, for all its flaws, Morrowind had a very unique world for its time.

I'm seriously hoping TES VI actually has world design more substantial than variants of medieval England or Nordic ruins. If we're going with Summerset Isles, go for the more ornate, extravagant, gold laced architecture contrasting with cold, harsh forts belonging to the Thalmor. There's already been too much castles, snow and generic trees. Even Sheogorath's realm in the Oblivion DLC was better than Skyrim.

 

[Ninja]

I don't know, I really liked Morrowind's intro. It felt natural and wasn't the same fucking action packed starter sequence. It felt like a realistic discharge from jail, which made it more immersive for me. No weird coincidences in your escape, just a simple discharge. It also made the beginning more challenging because all you have are the clothes on your back, a knife and some gold.

So did I. No convenient bullshit to get you out, plus all the proper procedures gave me time to get used to the controls. That was the most well-designed lack of tutorial I've ever seen.

And to walk right out into a strange land. I imagine that's what those prisoners who get 30-40 years must feel like after release - being thrown back into a world you don't recognise. Felt like an alien world to them - the same way Morrowind felt the first time. I mean, goddamn, for all its flaws, Morrowind had a very unique world for its time.

I'm seriously hoping TES VI actually has world design more substantial than variants of medieval England or Nordic ruins. If we're going with Summerset Isles, go for the more ornate, extravagant, gold laced architecture contrasting with cold, harsh forts belonging to the Thalmor. There's already been too much castles, snow and generic trees. Even Sheogorath's realm in the Oblivion DLC was better than Skyrim.

Most people have guessed Black Marsh. If not, it's not like they can use another Medieval European setting. Cyrodiil, Skyrim, and Daggerfall have been used as main locations already. Only places left will be interesting enough, due to that. Whatever criticisms people throw at Bethesda, they do put a lot of effort into their environments.

 

[TorontoReign]

I don't know, I really liked Morrowind's intro. It felt natural and wasn't the same fucking action packed starter sequence. It felt like a realistic discharge from jail, which made it more immersive for me. No weird coincidences in your escape, just a simple discharge. It also made the beginning more challenging because all you have are the clothes on your back, a knife and some gold.

snip

Most people have guessed Black Marsh. If not, it's not like they can use another Medieval European setting. Cyrodiil, Skyrim, and Daggerfall have been used as main locations already. Only places left will be interesting enough, due to that. Whatever criticisms people throw at Bethesda, they do put a lot of effort into their environments.

The problem is that seems to be the main focus. They worry about environment clutter like teddy bears more than dialog and quests. I am very curious what they plan on doing to Elder Scrolls next. It is one of those series that I have fond memories of, but I don't like as much now since they changed their focus since Morrowind, so I don't care as much if they botch it up.

 

[Ninja]

Most people have guessed Black Marsh. If not, it's not like they can use another Medieval European setting. Cyrodiil, Skyrim, and Daggerfall have been used as main locations already. Only places left will be interesting enough, due to that. Whatever criticisms people throw at Bethesda, they do put a lot of effort into their environments.

The problem is that seems to be the main focus. They worry about environment clutter like teddy bears more than dialog and quests. I am very curious what they plan on doing to Elder Scrolls next. It is one of those series that I have fond memories of, but I don't like as much now since they changed their focus since Morrowind, so I don't care as much if they botch it up.

Waiting for Fallout 4, for me, involved a lot of hoping they actually learned from their mistakes. You know how that went. For their next game, presumably TESVI, it seems like I'll just be observing, as a scientist would observe Trial #33 of mice experimentation: emotionally detached, yet as you said, very curious.

 

[valcik]

We'll see. Their next Elder Scrolls game might be fine; they're the ones who created it ...

This is the same mistake as thinking that Interplay would make the best next Fallout game, because they've created it. The biggest chunk of credit for TES goes towards two gentlemen - lead programmer Julian Lefay, and designer Ted Peterson, former writer by trade. They are not Bethesda employees anymore. Todd Howard and Pete Hines are just two happy kids, wizard's apprentices playing in mud and screaming happily. They haven't created the TES world, they just keep twisting it and adding more and more polygonds to that old and valuable heritage left behind by two mature and talented men who've left its development long ago.

 

[Crni Vuk]

The honest truth is, the Elder Scrolls has been raped and exploited by Bethesda almost as much like Fallout. Of course, it is much harder to see, if you consider that it was not a 180° shift in gameplay and view point. And that millions of people buy their games - but that is also true for NuFallout.

Thing is, when you're talking to fans of the old Elder Scrolls games, and those exist! Than you kinda get a much different picture from it. Skyrim and Oblivion could not be further away from what TES was about.

Bethesda today is making shooters. Even with Elderscrolls. Heh, probably their niche. Making shooters for shooter fans that can't come out of the closet.

 

[MercenarySnake]

Then you have plenty of people that are fans of Fallout 3 enjoying Fallout 4 because it's another Fallout game. I think that's want they want, people to avoid voicing criticism in fear that Bethesda will put the franchise to rest. So despite how mediocre it is they still want new Fallout games. A never ending cycle I suppose.

 

[PossibleCabbage]

I think the thing about Bethesda games is to simply know what you're getting into. TESVI (or whatever's next) is going to be a large open world game primarily about empowering the player by telling them how special they are and letting them do what they want and will mostly consists of depleting loot caves. In terms of character, self-expression that is character expression rather than player expression, writing, and depth it will be wanting. It will be buggy at launch with UI issues and about 18 months later the complete edition with all the DLC and most of the bugs fixed will be half as much as just the buggy original cost at launch.

If you approach them with simply a realistic sense of what Bethesda games are, so the next one is probably going to be like that, the decision is much more clear. It's not an issue about "don't bother playing TES VI" it's a "know what you're getting into, make informed choices, and don't get caught in the hype."

 

[ZigzagPX4]

We'll see. Their next Elder Scrolls game might be fine; they're the ones who created it ...

This is the same mistake as thinking that Interplay would make the best next Fallout game, because they've created it. The biggest chunk of credit for TES goes towards two gentlemen - lead programmer Julian Lefay, and designer Ted Peterson, former writer by trade. They are not Bethesda employees anymore. Todd Howard and Pete Hines are just two happy kids, wizard's apprentices playing in mud and screaming happily. They haven't created the TES world, they just keep twisting it and adding more and more polygonds to that old and valuable heritage left behind by two mature and talented men who've left its development long ago.

Isn't Pete Hines just a PR guy for Bethesda Softworks? I don't think he handles anything to do with the actual development, he's handed details from the development to throw at the waiting audience. Todd Howard is in charge, but even he's just the overall director, overseeing the decision and maybe some of the design chocies. I'm pretty sure that any real lack of effort shown in Bethesda games needs to be traced to their employees too, not blamed on their two biggest faces.

Also, do you think Todd Howard actually enjoys his own games? If not, then Bethesda really has become a greed-only company. If yes, then whatever flaws we find within the next Elder Scrolls at this point is probably intentional. If no one enjoyed games like this, no one would've bought Destiny or Borderlands. First-person world-simulators is a niche with a large audience. They can do whatever they want only up until they get bigger competitors.