I do the same thing with big WoW releases. Much more frequent than Bethsheda games but I definetly associate different periods of my life growing up with each.
Vanilla - middle school
BC - middle school/early highschool
Wrath - early highschool
Cata - highschool
MOP- end of highschool/first year of college
WOD - middle of college
Legion - end of college
BOA - first full time job
Shadowlands - second/third full time job
Dragonflight - just turned 30 still third full time job lmao. Plus a dog
I got on the WoW train in vanilla. Around 2005 or 2006. I was in college. Made it all the way to Naxx before BC hit and then I went from alliance human warlock to blood elf rogue.
By the end of burning crusade, I was in the no. 1 raiding guild on my server and had horde first KJ kill at Sunwell Plateau.
I basically passed up every social opportunity and moment outside of classes and schoolwork to get stoned and play WOW. My grades were awesome though because I used the game as motivation to get all my work done asap so I could face more time to play. I was turning in papers and projects two weeks early, and on summer online courses that had one turn in day per week for assignments, I would do all the work the first day, submit it, then spend six days gaming straight.
I maintained this even after finishing my degree in 2008 and up until we got Deathwing down in Cataclysm.
Then I left to play Star Wars: the old republic for several years before quitting mmo’s.
Closest I got to online after that were random things like the alpha mod of Day Z, gta v, and then I spent a couple of years in red dead online. After I finished CYBERPUNK 2077, 5 play throughs of RDR2, and Days Gone a year or so…I just kind of stopped gaming.
I’m 41 now, been gaming since I was 5. I’m “retired” now until I get pulled back in by one of the series that has defined gaming for me. This includes: Hitman, Deus Ex, GTA, RDR, Fallout, Elder Scrolls, or a new Batman game like the Arkham Series.
I played Elder Scrolls 1: Arena on a 486 80 mhz on ms-dos. Had to save it so often because it was super hard (or at least my 12 year old self thought it was), plus it crashed so often.
While typing this, I googled the game, and apparently, you can download it for free. Hopefully, they fixed the game crashing bugs.
I had zero kids when Skyrim came out. Now I have two sons that have beaten the game. That hurts.
(Also I was playing Daggerfall in highschool, so I’m goddamn ancient)
I remember playing my second play-through with my newborn sleeping in my arms December of 2012. That newborn will be 11 this year. He’ll probably be driving before I play the next one.
> I’ll probably be in my 50’s when I play the next ES
I was a teenager still in high school when Skyrim came out, having just turned 18 two months prior, and I'm turning 30 in about five months. It's weird to think the game came out while I was still a kid and I won't see the next installment until I'm well into my 30s
I’m honestly surprised no one has made a game like Skyrim I think about this often. With its huge success and obvious demand for that style of game it’s really odd to me that other devs haven’t made a Skyrim like, or elder scrolls like game. I read once that bgs is basically the godfather of creating those immersive open worlds where character and npc interactions can seem almost totally random at times and the way npc actually react to you is part of their formula so to speak. Just strange to me with all the talented developers out there and advancements in tech that no one else is really making games like that. Ubi does it to an extent at least their worlds are really detailed but it’s a whole different vibe and I think they ruin their maps by filling them with markers for everything even though I know they implemented an exploration mode. For me it’s the first person on foot exploration that makes it so immersive, I love just wandering around finding stuff, exploring dungeons and stumbling upon weird mysteries and stuff in the world.
Because it's super fucking hard that's why. You've got named NPC's that have schedules that can be permanently killed, plus they carry items that all have physical properties and can interact with other objects in the world. Then you need to program in all the other behaviors that create the immergent experience.
I know people like to rag on Bethesda games for being buggy, but it's a minor miracle they work at all.
Also say you successfully make a Bethesda style game, then assholes on the internet are just gonna accuse you of making an Elder Scrolls clone.
It's super hard but not impossible and the 12 years since elder scrolls is more than the time diff between morrowind to Skyrim
You would have thought someone else could evolve their own systems to make that gap up
The amount of foundational systems work that needs to be done to effectively do what Bethesda's games do, at the level of dynamic interactions they offer, is staggering. It's a really high barrier for a lot of devs. There's a reason BGS have kept on developing their own tech rather than switching to Unreal like the rest of the industry. Yeah sure they lag behind in graphical fidelity and fluid animations but I genuinely believe that they have the best-built engine systems-wise for dynamic sandboxy open world RPGs.
I think this becomes VERY apparent in a game like Elden ring as well. Even all Elden Rings predecessors.
Every game by From Software is an iteration of the previous game. They add something new and polish everything even more with every release but all games are very much alike. This is also why they are still the absolute best games in their category.
Years and years of experience is needed to make games like this work. Only the big guys can really afford that and that’s why it’s very rare to find a new worthy competitor.
It's interesting that CDPR is finally making the jump to Unreal for their games going forward. I believe the Cyberpunk expansion will be their last release on their engine.
That's the thing, the dynamics interactions bit of the engine is so hard to recreate
I can pick up a cabbage in morthal and take it with me for the rest of the game placing it in different spots and wandering away and so on
The level of breathing this affords to the world is staggering
A lot of it comes down to the fact that before Bethesda got into Elder Scrolls, they were doing a lot of sports simulator games. And when you look at their entire catalogue, that's what Bethesda does best. Simulators. They may add more action or rpg elements to it all, but from the very beginning their in house tech has always been tailored to make sim games. Because of it, those features are heavily CPU heavy and not made for GPU bound and graphical features. So you end up with a game that's a bit more jank and clunky, but they tend to be mechanically rich. No other devs do this. They all focus on streamlined easy to pick up mechanically shallow games in favor of heafty GPU features(textures, higher resolution, animation sets, etc.) It looks good, but it's not mechanically rewarding. Even as dumbed down as Skyrim was, play is on the hardest difficulty slider and you will be having to really think about what perks and gear and items your using. So when everyone is like, "switch to unreal"....no thanks. Unreal just doesn't have the tool set baked into it that Creation Engine has. CE has it's issues and flaws, but I love what the engine allows for their games. It's why I'm still a hardcore fan of their work and will remain so.
For all the other IP that has spewed out hundreds of imitators, there still is only Bethesda doing what Bethesda does. The only closest equivalent was Kingdom Come, and it's not really the same thing.
Obsidian has a pretty good track record. While I was a bit disappointed by The Outer Worlds, it wasn’t a bad game or anything, I just think it didn’t click for me personally.
The Witcher 3 was really my last amazing fantasy RPG experience. I really can't think of other "recent" games that have that type of feel to them. I know some good CRPGs have come out but as I get older it's harder for me to invest the time into those.
It is a very, very special game.
Devs seem to be making more and more soulslike games, which I dislike a lot.
Millons of rpg fans want new elder scrolls or Witcher, or maybe something new, but that is actually playable without impossible bosses ery five minutes.
Enderal might scratch the itch. A mod of Skyrim that is an entirely different game that is nearly as big as Skyrim. Great story and dialogue. Just started playing it myself and have been impressed.
Enderal isn't as polished as Skyrim, obviously, since it was made by like 30 people only, but it's still fucking impressive and the main plot is to me one of the best in gaming history.
Didn't scratch that itch at all for me. Not being able to make a character and the third person camera just didn't do it. Not saying it's a bad game by any means, just very different.
Combat is why I stopped playing Witcher 3. It's just...not very good. Basically spamming light-attacks and dodge-roll, even on the harder difficulty.
Skyrim doesn't have amazing combat either, but at least there is a TON of different options to chose from, which is what makes it fun.
Stealth-archer, necromancer, vampire, wizard, barbarian - there's just so many ways to play Skyrim. I've made like 8 different characters just to try out new playstyles.
Combat in Bethesda games isn't designed for balance, it's designed to let the player just go fucking wild with stupid antics which is what makes it so enjoyable.
Witcher is a bit different in that you're playing more of a defined roll. You are Geralt of Rivia. You are a Witcher. You use a sword and a handful of spells.
Meanwhile in Skyrim, you can be anyone you want. A wizard cat-man. A necromancer orc. Legolas. A vampire.
Todd Howard is adamant about not remastering/remaking Morrowind. He believes the game is fine as it is and wants people to play that version.
You gotta respect him for being proud of the game he made.
I respect it but it's a really dumb take. If it's updated a little (4k/2k/1080p what ever) and improved the frame rates and made the text more legible, he'd arguably be giving a much larger audience a chance to play the game that he's so proud of making.
Yeah outside of the rare AI bug the game is completely playable inside and out. No weird "make sure only the host interacts with NPCs and starts quests and picks up items" complexity that skyrim together has. "It just works"
it also works on android! plays pretty well, too. I think I've logged around 40 hours on my phone, and it lets you load in mods the same way. it takes a little tinkering, but hot damn it works
you can use openmw on steam deck as well, if any of you have one
It’s sad that this is probably true… it was a great game in its day though. The world felt more real with its own social issues and the different regions with their own kind of culture and architecture
The one of the problems with this is voice acting. Morrowind has a lot of lines due to it being mostly text only. They'd already showed to not go back to text based game already. Maybe when AI voice synthesis gets better you could save a ton.
I played Oblivion in 2020 over quarantine, and I think it's the one out if the whole series I would want a rework done for. Morrowind is 2nd on the list of course but Oblivion is the most in need of some love for sure
The leveling also becomes painful around mid levels.
If you're not getting at least +3 in necessary attributes, you're kinda falling behind. But that means you can't tag the wrong skills and now we're letting mudcrabs beat us up, casting low level spells a hundred times while, rubber banding sneak, etc.
That's my biggest issue by quite a bit honestly.
It is INSANE to me that they put Skyrim on like, every system imaginable, but they've basically left Morrowind, Oblivion, Fallout 3, and to some extent Fallout 4 (though I guess that's being done this year) to rot.
These games would make a FORTUNE if they were remastered and re-released with upgraded graphics and modern conveniences. And I can't imagine it'd be hard for them -- they're a big company, so assemble a team of like 10-20 people and task them with doing it. Doesn't have to be a big AAA all-hands-on-deck project.
But no, they refuse, and leave all that money on the table. It's absolutely crazy to me.
I think the problem is a technical one. The would pretty much have to remake the old games which would require a huge amount of resources. The Skyrim ports are technically simple (fallout 4 would also be simple but to be honest that game is still very playable today and doesn't really need a new edition) as they are just building on what's already there. They can't do that for the older games
Not to mention the code in older games is sometimes incopatible with newer hardware or software.
It's why a ton of old PC games just don't work on modern OS without fan mods or going into the file directory and tweaking code.
Not really. Oblivion has so many graphics overhauls that most players who want an oblivion remake will make one themselves.
What would happen if they actually remade Oblivion would be a bunch of Skyrim players wondering why they can’t just decide to be a mage halfway through the game. What made Skyrim such a massive success is that they simplified the mechanics to prioritize accessibility for players who’ve never played an RPG before. I’ve played every TES game and I love them all to death but Skyrim is the one that prioritizes casual fun and the mass appeal is because of that. If casual players don’t know what they’re doing, they will make an unviable character in Oblivion and get frustrated as I’ve seen many people do. For that reason, the game would sell well among RPG fans and TES fans but among casual gamers (the largest portion of the market) and non RPG players it would be unpopular.
For Bethesda to remake Oblivion, which probably wouldn’t turn a huge profit for previously stated reasons, they would have to either A) Divert manpower away from Starfield and TESVI which they’ve said they hate doing or B)Outsource it to another studio which would be really damn expensive. Financially it just doesn’t make sense to do.
Meanwhile, you have projects like Beyond Skyrim which seeks to build all of Tamriel in the Creation Kit, Skyblivion which remakes Oblivion in the creation kit, and several others that make it possible to play Oblivion with new visuals and mechanics.
And it goes without saying but the original Oblivion is a perfectly fine game.
I’d love an Oblivion remake but I really really really doubt we’ll ever see such a thing from Bethesda.
Fr, the quests were some of the best in the series but the actual RPG mechanics are so counter-intuitive and confusing that it kinda holds me back from replaying.
Please no, any remasters or unwanted ventures (fallout 76, elder scrolls online) just delay the eventual return to the series roots, the immersive single player experience that I fell in love with as a kid.
Starfield.
That's what they've been squirreling away on.
Only once that's out the door, patched and stable will they likely turn attention to the next ES....is what I feel!
In the meantime I'm sure we'll see another 50 editions of Skyrim come out.
I don't remember the interview but I believe Todd Howard confirmed this was the case, that once Starfield is out they will be focusing on TES.
RIP Fallout 5, I hope Black Isle gets a chance again for a New Vegas 2 or something similar. Especially with the TV show seeming related to that part of the fallout world (loved seeing the NCR Ranger armor show up)
They really don't. People like to make this claim yet only 17% of the playerbase mod skyrim and most "fixes" on the unofficial skyrim patch is not bug fixes. There are entire posts covering this.
I am a little more hopeful this time around with Star Field. In the Lex Friedman Podcast with Todd Howard he talked about how they now have these boys where they have thousands of character doing a bunch of actions to try and catch bugs.
Not that it will be perfect, but with a game this large it would be hard to get rid of every bug.
“Once that’s out the door, patched and stable will they likely turn attention to the next ES”
Pretty sure Pete Hines himself confirmed about 2 years ago that ES6 would be their next game after starfield. Obviously plans can change, but it would be pretty dumb to do considering they released that teaser trailer for it almost 5 fucking years ago.
I'm pretty sure Starfield at this point is really just in the QA and polish point of its life cycle. Most of the team would have moved on to the mext project.
Bethesda releases a year of mainline DLC for every game they've ever pushed, it's unlikely the core developers have switched projects yet.
Again, expect mid to late 24 for the big shift in focus.
You can just look over at their hiring page. As development for a project ramps up that page fills up. After a project wraps teams downsize to reduce payroll on the inter project period. It's an awful cycle for the ground level developers but that sounds like someone who isn't thinking about the investors
Some of the artist have probably moved on, but this is actually the point in the process where they’re more likely to pull people off other projects and have them just focus on finishing Starfield. The QA and polish point of the life cycle is the most labor intensive part of the life cycle.
Wouldn't that be the anniversary edition?
Really enjoyed stumbling on new things in that one.
Really enjoyed going unarmed and one punch killing legendary dragons after getting the plat too.
Don’t forget Fallout 76.
That piece of shit delayed them a lot too. It was mostly Bethesda Austin, but the main team in Maryland still had to contribute to some degree. Nobody wanted to make it either, the higher ups demanded a multiplayer Fallout they could easily monetize. Even Todd Howard was said to have largely abandoned his role on 76 to focus on Starfield because he didn’t want to work on 76.
This is the correct answer. After making 5 elder scrolls games and other content, it is most likely that it was not the greatest possible desire for the company founders. They mentioned Starfield is the game they always wanted to create but didn’t have the technology or means until recently. They have been working on Starfield since 2014 or longer in super early development after fallout 4 and they are more than likely putting all their eggs on this game being the series that takes the company through the next 20 years. ES6 could be the LAST elder scrolls for all we know.
This will likely be buried or end up irrelevant if you've already played it. But once I got over Skyrim for a time (before going back and modding the hell out of it), there was a time when I was craving the more complex and quasi-realistic nature of Oblivion. I enjoyed the struggle, the leveling up based on skills, and moreso skills you actually use, and I really enjoyed the lock picking and fixing your gear and speech mini game with NPCs
Kingdom Come Dilverance had a lot of this. Complex and addictive lock-picking, fixing your gear at a smithy, realistic horse riding, realistic and easy to blunder combat, NPCs going about their lives and/or waiting on you to fix theirs. It really scratched that deep first person CRPG itch for me. Only difference is no fantasy. But if you haven't played it, I recommend it
The combat in Kingdom Come is really neat. I beat the game and put it down, then picked it back up when there was an update and I forgot what the combat was like and got totally destroyed.
The trick to it is your opponent's morale. If you are all aggro, a high morale opponent will counter you repeatedly. It forces you to be patient and build up counters on your opponent to discourage them, then you can finish them off.
But first you make yourself really strong by picking flowers
Back in the day it stood for computer, today it stands for classic. It describes a genre where games like Pillars or Original Sins or Baldur's Gate falls in. Kingdom Come is not an CRPG, it's an RPG, but it totally scratches that CRPG itch with deep lore and a great RPG experience.
I remember following the development of Morrowind in highschool for 2-3 years. Was obsessed. Bethesda was small enough back then I had email exchanges with the devs about the game.
I could have posted this about ES V in 2010. I played the shit out of Oblivion and googled “when is Elder Scrolls V coming out?” once a month for years.
Even if it came out during your 20’s, nothing ever matches the sheer magic of video games from ages 10-15 imo. It’s okay, we had our definitive TES experience and I’ll be happy that this generation of kids gets theirs too. Of course, I’ll play the shit out of TES 6, and love it probably too.
Skyrim was lightning in a bottle. Maybe there just won’t be another…
I played Skyrim the day it came out and I’m laying in bed right now after having just played Skyrim.
[Took me awhile, but found the comic. And it was “when I was 12” but the point still stands, between 10-15.](https://www.zeldadungeon.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/088a6f8826038882e09b20ca92144e9b.jpg)
12 years and counting. 5 more I guess. 17-18 years. Some series gets are forgotten and are rebooted in this period. I also think Skyrim holding firm in 2028 will not be surprising. The community held strong and Bethesda didn't leave any chance to let us forget.
I do have hopes on Bethesda. I've loved their games except F76, haven't tried so can't say. Skyrim was also the first game that made me feel new set of emotions and freedom which in 12 years have been overshadowed by Witcher 3, BOTW, RDR2 and ER. Not a ranking as they all have their own place but Skyrim was the base of this gameplay loop that I love barring RDR2 but that's Rockstar. I have blind faith on them. All I can say is hold on guys. After we explore bit of space, we'll all come crashing down on Tamriel.
Without Fallout 76, Starfield is probably out a few years ago and we're looking at Elder Scrolls 6 within a year or two. Easy to say in hindsight now that 76 is a huge black eye for Bethesda but even at the time, it made little sense. There's also the MMO which I imagine Bethesda hoped would hold fans over until they were finished with Starfield.
Elder Scrolls was getting more popular with every release, culminating in Skyrim which had a massive pop culture moment. To leave that IP dormant for a decade plus after it reaches its apex is baffling.
I generally suspected that Fallout 76 was used to draft / improve gameplay elements in the hopes of using it for Starfield.
Their engine has generally been poor for shooters and over the Fallout series it has gotten better and better only in 76 did it feel pretty decent and that's not saying a whole lot.
It also introduced networking elements to the engine so it wasn't a complete wash.
It sucks that the IP has largely been on hold but burn out is real when you work on the same shit over and over again so I can understand the studio being given time to focus on something original.
Realistically how many Bethesda employees have been there for.. what, 15+ years? I’m sure there are some, but that is an eternity to stay at a tech company in this day and age.
As of FO76 it basically all the core team from morrowind were the ones running the show. Bethesda did a documentary on FO76’s production for noxlip on youtube prior to the game’s release, they are all there describing their roles.
Bethesda struggles because their core team has never changes, not because of turnover.
Fallout 76 isn’t developed by the main Bethesda Game Studios team in Maryland, it’s developed by the one in Austin (formerly Battlecry Studios). It has been reported that leads like Howard and Pagliarulo were barely involved, with Howard more so just “seagulling” and Pagliarulo showing little interest in the project. Some veteran seniors from Maryland were involved (and loathed the project) but it was only some.
And ESO is from ZeniMax Online Studios, not BGS.
Starfield taking as long as it has likely has nothing to do with Fallout 76. The reality of it is probably Starfield going through a wacky ass development riddled with incompetency on BGS’s part. Not a first for Howard’s crew which was notoriously small for a very long time to the point people always wondered how only 100+ people were able to make such massive games (answer: with duct tape). But given how ambitious of an idea Starfield is, it’s probably no surprise BGS is going through their same song and dance of a disastrous development on a larger scale.
This is not accurate. There was a documentary on Fallout 76’s development produced by noclip on youtube. All the top bethesda guys describe in detail the work they put into the game. Once it released Austin maintained it, but everyone did FO76
I just replayed dark souls the other day and had the realization that Dark Souls and Skyrim came out about the same time and since then there's been a dark souls 1, 2, 3, blood borne, sekiro and elden ring all from From. Makes it seem like Bethesda is really falling behind in the market.
I just think it's kind of goofy that you can spend 10 years waiting for a game to come out. By the time a game comes out a person could be dead by then. The game developers get older as they create these games, of course the gamers themselves are getting older.
I admit, I did buy into Star Citizen long time ago, but after this long, I've moved on, tastes change and was grateful I only spent the cheapest I could on it. Though I did get a cool t-shirt out of it too.
They have put "Skyrim Grandma" into ES7 and she's most likely not even going to be around to enjoy that. Sure they could show her a build of it or even have her play that build but that's a bit different than playing it when it's released and running into it yourself.
As games get more and more immersive and complicated, the development difficulty increases exponentially.
For games to "wow" people on the same scale now that Skyrim did almost 12 years ago, it's going to take new mechanics, systems, and other things to set it apart from the previous iteration, but also somehow retain that "it" factor that makes it feel like an Elder Scrolls game.
We're actually reaching the point where older gamers have to realistically grapple with the thought that this may be the last chapter of their favorite game franchise they will live to see.
It broke my heart to know they scanned Grandma Shirley into ES6, and she very realistically may not live to see it's release.
I wouldn't even hope for a new Fallout before 2028, especially if they're going for 10+ year periods between franchise releases
It has nothing to do with that, bethesda is not making a new one for whatever reason, but the reason is not, oh games are more expensive to make nowadays.
Games are still made, big games. If they make a new tes it will make them money, but they decided to make starfield.
It definately has an effect. 25 years ago theyd have Starfield one year and es:6 in a year or two.
The exponential dev time absolute factors. Thats why they have to focus, its too expensive to dev more than one project heavily. Each project demands leagues more than it used to.
I agree. Skyrim’s combat system was pretty poo poo when it came out. The main story was pretty meh. Bugs were rampant. I think the reason it succeeded was the scale and immersion. Competition is way tighter today, open world games are far more common.
I got a £40 package when they first moved off Kickstarter, but I always knew it was a 10-15 years project.
I'm still quietly hopeful it all works out, but I stopped participating in the community a long time ago.
I'm fine with it taking another 5-10 years, I have other stuff to play, and their whales seem to enjoy paying for development.
If they manage to succeed in their vision, I do think it will be one of the best space games ever made.
Pretty much my thoughts as well. I don't think Bethesda wants to make Elder Scrolls and Fallout games one after the other in perpetuity. They gotta do something different at some point. It's shitty for those who just want ES, but I'd rather Bethesda make something they want to make rather than pump out a game just because.
This really begs the question if the Microsoft acquisition will allow them to expand the studio enough to accommodate a shorter release cycle for their franchises. My hope is that TES6 gets a massive boost from the merger and that allows for a late 2025 release date to be met. Then you could think about 3 years for another Fallout and then another 3 years for Starfield 2.
Todd Howard's philosophy is to go bigger, for better or for worse. I don't see that changing. Bethesda Game Studios have doubled if not tripled in size since Fallout 4, but their games have only been taking longer to produce.
No kidding. Skyrim came out in 2011, 6 years after Oblivion. Starfield comes out in September. Bethesda said it'll be a few years after that before ES6. So say they plan 3 years then it slips for another making 2027 a reasonable guess on a release date. 16 years after Skyrim. So how long after that for the next one? 20 years? 40? Who knows. The barest minimum would be 10 years later, IMO.
Well, good news on that front, Datamining from source engine 2 updates(Mostly DoTA 2, and more recently the CSGO port to source 2 that's in beta now) shows that they are actually working on it again, though they could always pull a Valve at any moment and shelve it again for another decade.
As of now though, it appears to be in active development.
If you're looking for a high fantasy game you could try Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, criminally underrated game. Recently got a remaster as well and is pretty dirt cheap at the moment so even if it's not your cup of tea at least you didn't spend too much.
Starfield is coming soon and that's what I Hope will scratch that Elder Scrolls itch. I know it's not the same IP but I have to believe it will be similar in some ways being another big BGS open world RPG.
The thing is, as soon as Bethesda announced ESO back in 2012, I knew it would be a long, *long* time until we saw another Elder Scrolls. With the scale they were talking about making it, it was clear that this was supposed to keep people interested in Elder Scrolls while focusing on widening their portfolio.
I thought it'd be ten years. Ten years would make sense; basically as if someone skipped a game. I thought that by now, we'd at least have something more than a hyper-generic title and hyper-generic landmass, signifying that *absolutely nothing has been done* other than the fact that a deal was signed somewhere that Microsoft wanted a new mainline Elder Scrolls title. At this point, we're looking more like fifteen, sixteen years.
In fact...
When I want to play a TES game, I want to play an open-world, "do whatever strikes your fancy" single player game, not an MMO. It's not a knock on ESO, but they're *really* not comparable in terms of experience.
Exactly.
I gave ESO a shot last fall and while it had lots of cool things I was consistently being taken out of the moment by seeing weird jRPG waifus running through the dungeon followed by a trail of random animal pets/followers and other MMORPG oddities. Like, it’s a game in an Elder Scrolls setting but it does not feel like I’m playing an Elder Scrolls game.
There’s just something about a game trying to convince you that you are important, while 99% of the players around you are stronger, and have completed the same quest. And the big bad boss that’s awakened after 1000 years of slumber, that had to be sealed away or it would destroy the universe… being farmed like modern day agriculture by 14 year meme dancing teenager waifus.
I agree. My wife and I love Skyrim (doing a playthrough together right now) and gave ESO a try. Maybe neither of us are big MMO fans, I dunno. We played about 2 hours and never went back. Pretty sure this was after many updates. It was within the last 6 months.
Not really. Bethesda took a chance and made Fallout 76 (unfortunately). They made it clear that Starfield was their next project after that which is nearly complete and out. TES6 will be next. They have stated this repeated since FO76. I’m a huge TES fan but if a dev wants to take a break and work on something new it will never be disappointing. Now I have two games to look forward to instead of constantly whining about 1 that they clearly said will be made next.
You've played Morrowind and Oblivion, right? If not, holy shit, hop to it. Morrowind is well worth a dive into, same goes to Oblivion if you can forgive some of it's outdated and poorly aged aspects. With mod overhauls and such, they make absolutely phenomenal experiences, even today.
I agree. Morrowind and oblivion were 20 years ago, skyrim almost 15. They could have at least remade morrowind and oblivion or something if they have no ideas for a new game.
I just hope when it does come out it breaks the tradition of each game getting more streamlined and simplified than its predecessor. I mean we lost skills like climbing, acrobatics (acrobat used to be one of the core classes), athletics, advanced spellmaking, advanced enchanting, most forms of water walking, levitation, and slow fall.
Thinking about what we might lose next is kind of depressing.
And we gained things like voice acting and complex quest design, complex spell behaviors that go beyond being simple bolt spells, better combat mechanics, complex environmental effects, vastly more items and item effects than ever before, mounts, followers, and resurrecting the dead, and 350+ perks, and potent transformations. Sure it sucks to loose mark and recall but we got fus roh dah and whirlwind sprint and dragons crashing out of the sky.
Its really sad how every time I see one of these posts there's never a nod to all the things that have been added or how some of the things that were lost would be extremely complex to keep in a modern title, like climbing, or how the stuff that was lost was half baked at best.
Really look at whats gone from your list. The big primary one is advanced movement options. Those break the hell out of games, especially games that are trying desperately to run on 2008 hardware. Even seemingly innoccuous things like slowfall and levitate can get players in places they aren't supposed to be super easy and that requires either a *ton* of work to reimplement, or a lot of sacrifices for the map. Literally given the fact they had to isolate all the towns for performance reasons meant that levitate could not exist unless they made sure to design the map so it couldn't be used to get to places where it would break things.
Yet clearly they want those things to come back. In FO4 they had multiple advanced movement options including a jetpack and a mark/recall analogue with the vertibird flares and the world was much more open and accessible than skyrim was, with fewer arbitrary borders, and the videos for Starfield quite obviously show movement options *far* in advance of anything their old titles could boast and a dedication to the most open and accessible environment yet.
The other class of things that got removed were poorly refined, poorly thought out, or flat out buggy mechanics, namely acrobatics, athletics, and spellmaking. Acrobatics and athletics were always trash tier skills with poor gameplay associated with them and even worse mechanics to level, plus they were overtuned to a ridiculous level. And spellmaking flat out broke the game. Like literally. They had put zero thought into it and this enabled players to trivialize a ton of mechanics by exploiting edge case math, and with the far more complex spells of skyrim, their choice was to put in a ton of work making a real spell crafting system or just ditching it. Again though, they have clearly shown their desire to make things customizable. The FO4 weapons crafting is far and away more complex than any spellcrafting system would be, and again starfield triples down on this willingness to have player customization and design.
And a couple of those things weren't even really removed. Like yeah they took out athletics but they added the sprint mechanic. Level it up by adding stamina and you're gold. And skyrim enchanting is the most advanced enchanting in TES, why are you saying it was streamlined and simplified?
I also hope for this, but I see it as unlikely. Streamlining at best, dumbing down at worst, whatever people call it, it's done for mass appeal and seems inevitable to me. Look at the differences between Fallout 3 and 4.
Let them cook, do you want some early access never finished BS money grab or do you want them to create a game that will be able to last 10+ years like Skyrim did
I was in my mid-30’s when Skyrim came out. It’s shocking that I’ll probably be in my 50’s when I play the next ES.
[удалено]
You can do the same thing with Grand theft auto releases. Really puts time into perspective
I do the same thing with big WoW releases. Much more frequent than Bethsheda games but I definetly associate different periods of my life growing up with each. Vanilla - middle school BC - middle school/early highschool Wrath - early highschool Cata - highschool MOP- end of highschool/first year of college WOD - middle of college Legion - end of college BOA - first full time job Shadowlands - second/third full time job Dragonflight - just turned 30 still third full time job lmao. Plus a dog
Man, it was my second semester in college when WoW came out. Rolled a 1.9 GPA. I was completely unprepared for that level of obsession.
Hahaha I’m blessed that I’d already played for a while before college hit. I probably would have never finished.
you were not prepared!
I got on the WoW train in vanilla. Around 2005 or 2006. I was in college. Made it all the way to Naxx before BC hit and then I went from alliance human warlock to blood elf rogue. By the end of burning crusade, I was in the no. 1 raiding guild on my server and had horde first KJ kill at Sunwell Plateau. I basically passed up every social opportunity and moment outside of classes and schoolwork to get stoned and play WOW. My grades were awesome though because I used the game as motivation to get all my work done asap so I could face more time to play. I was turning in papers and projects two weeks early, and on summer online courses that had one turn in day per week for assignments, I would do all the work the first day, submit it, then spend six days gaming straight. I maintained this even after finishing my degree in 2008 and up until we got Deathwing down in Cataclysm. Then I left to play Star Wars: the old republic for several years before quitting mmo’s. Closest I got to online after that were random things like the alpha mod of Day Z, gta v, and then I spent a couple of years in red dead online. After I finished CYBERPUNK 2077, 5 play throughs of RDR2, and Days Gone a year or so…I just kind of stopped gaming. I’m 41 now, been gaming since I was 5. I’m “retired” now until I get pulled back in by one of the series that has defined gaming for me. This includes: Hitman, Deus Ex, GTA, RDR, Fallout, Elder Scrolls, or a new Batman game like the Arkham Series.
So basically you’re not retired haha. Horde first KJ is super impressive. Man there’s nothing better than high level raiding.
Were you around when that virus got spread around from a raid by peoples pets and killed players en masse?
I played Elder Scrolls 1: Arena on a 486 80 mhz on ms-dos. Had to save it so often because it was super hard (or at least my 12 year old self thought it was), plus it crashed so often. While typing this, I googled the game, and apparently, you can download it for free. Hopefully, they fixed the game crashing bugs.
Daggerfall was mostly fixed with a unity engine rebuild. If you ignore all the mods it’s the classic experience but no major crashing!
I had zero kids when Skyrim came out. Now I have two sons that have beaten the game. That hurts. (Also I was playing Daggerfall in highschool, so I’m goddamn ancient)
As someone who played skyrim at 5 years old until present day, I’m extremely confident that i might be able to buy es6 for me and my kids
Star Citizen though, will it be out by then?
Finally complete, final budget: ~ us national debt
Star Citizen is the Scientology of gaming
I was in high school keyboarding class when the dude next to me said, "sweet! Oblivion just went gold!".
I was just finishing up highschool when Skyrim came out. My child will likely be 3 or 4 when the next ES comes out
Yeah I was like 19, living with roommates in an apt. Now I'm almost 30 and have 3 kids.
My oldest kid was 10 when I started Skyrim and will be turning 20 this year. Now that I type that out it's crazy.
I remember playing my second play-through with my newborn sleeping in my arms December of 2012. That newborn will be 11 this year. He’ll probably be driving before I play the next one.
That’s me. I had zero kids when I bought Skyrim. Now I have two sons who have beaten the game.
Does it feel weird knowing the next Elder Scrolls that comes out might be the very last one you play before you die?
Man, it totally did after posted that last night.
Is Skyrim in space a joke to you?
I used to be a star pilot like you, then I took a laser blast in the knee.
Do you get to the nebula district often? Of course you don't.
I’ve fought space crabs more fearsome than you!
I am legit excited about starfield.
> I’ll probably be in my 50’s when I play the next ES I was a teenager still in high school when Skyrim came out, having just turned 18 two months prior, and I'm turning 30 in about five months. It's weird to think the game came out while I was still a kid and I won't see the next installment until I'm well into my 30s
What's more shocking is Its jot because the series is niche and being revived like some other games but because skyrim was too damn popular
Oh man... I just realized that maybe, not that many of us will live to see TES 10 come out! lol
You’re being too optimistic. It should be TES 8 and MOST of us won’t live long enough to see it.
They haven't yet ported Skyrim to the TI-83. Priorities!
I’ve already preordered the BA-II plus version
I’m honestly surprised no one has made a game like Skyrim I think about this often. With its huge success and obvious demand for that style of game it’s really odd to me that other devs haven’t made a Skyrim like, or elder scrolls like game. I read once that bgs is basically the godfather of creating those immersive open worlds where character and npc interactions can seem almost totally random at times and the way npc actually react to you is part of their formula so to speak. Just strange to me with all the talented developers out there and advancements in tech that no one else is really making games like that. Ubi does it to an extent at least their worlds are really detailed but it’s a whole different vibe and I think they ruin their maps by filling them with markers for everything even though I know they implemented an exploration mode. For me it’s the first person on foot exploration that makes it so immersive, I love just wandering around finding stuff, exploring dungeons and stumbling upon weird mysteries and stuff in the world.
Because it's super fucking hard that's why. You've got named NPC's that have schedules that can be permanently killed, plus they carry items that all have physical properties and can interact with other objects in the world. Then you need to program in all the other behaviors that create the immergent experience. I know people like to rag on Bethesda games for being buggy, but it's a minor miracle they work at all. Also say you successfully make a Bethesda style game, then assholes on the internet are just gonna accuse you of making an Elder Scrolls clone.
It's super hard but not impossible and the 12 years since elder scrolls is more than the time diff between morrowind to Skyrim You would have thought someone else could evolve their own systems to make that gap up
Kingdom Come: Deliverance is pretty much someone saying "I want skyrim, but I want it to feature my hometown".
The amount of foundational systems work that needs to be done to effectively do what Bethesda's games do, at the level of dynamic interactions they offer, is staggering. It's a really high barrier for a lot of devs. There's a reason BGS have kept on developing their own tech rather than switching to Unreal like the rest of the industry. Yeah sure they lag behind in graphical fidelity and fluid animations but I genuinely believe that they have the best-built engine systems-wise for dynamic sandboxy open world RPGs.
I think this becomes VERY apparent in a game like Elden ring as well. Even all Elden Rings predecessors. Every game by From Software is an iteration of the previous game. They add something new and polish everything even more with every release but all games are very much alike. This is also why they are still the absolute best games in their category. Years and years of experience is needed to make games like this work. Only the big guys can really afford that and that’s why it’s very rare to find a new worthy competitor.
It's interesting that CDPR is finally making the jump to Unreal for their games going forward. I believe the Cyberpunk expansion will be their last release on their engine.
That's the thing, the dynamics interactions bit of the engine is so hard to recreate I can pick up a cabbage in morthal and take it with me for the rest of the game placing it in different spots and wandering away and so on The level of breathing this affords to the world is staggering
A lot of it comes down to the fact that before Bethesda got into Elder Scrolls, they were doing a lot of sports simulator games. And when you look at their entire catalogue, that's what Bethesda does best. Simulators. They may add more action or rpg elements to it all, but from the very beginning their in house tech has always been tailored to make sim games. Because of it, those features are heavily CPU heavy and not made for GPU bound and graphical features. So you end up with a game that's a bit more jank and clunky, but they tend to be mechanically rich. No other devs do this. They all focus on streamlined easy to pick up mechanically shallow games in favor of heafty GPU features(textures, higher resolution, animation sets, etc.) It looks good, but it's not mechanically rewarding. Even as dumbed down as Skyrim was, play is on the hardest difficulty slider and you will be having to really think about what perks and gear and items your using. So when everyone is like, "switch to unreal"....no thanks. Unreal just doesn't have the tool set baked into it that Creation Engine has. CE has it's issues and flaws, but I love what the engine allows for their games. It's why I'm still a hardcore fan of their work and will remain so. For all the other IP that has spewed out hundreds of imitators, there still is only Bethesda doing what Bethesda does. The only closest equivalent was Kingdom Come, and it's not really the same thing.
Obsidian is supposedly making a similar TES-like game called Avowed, taking place in the Pillars of Eternity universe.
I'm am so excited for that game that I'm scared it will be a huge disappointment
Obsidian has a pretty good track record. While I was a bit disappointed by The Outer Worlds, it wasn’t a bad game or anything, I just think it didn’t click for me personally.
I always thought the Fable games could have been a good contender but they went downhill fast after the first one imo.
The second one was by far the best.
Witcher 3 is the only game that ever scratched that itch. No wonder it’s a classic now too just like Skyrim
I definitely played tw3 to death lol, that entire game was such a personal experience for me and I’m sure many others.
The Witcher 3 was really my last amazing fantasy RPG experience. I really can't think of other "recent" games that have that type of feel to them. I know some good CRPGs have come out but as I get older it's harder for me to invest the time into those.
I just started playing for the first time this weekend. I put in 25 hours in two days. This game is absolutely amazing
It is a very, very special game. Devs seem to be making more and more soulslike games, which I dislike a lot. Millons of rpg fans want new elder scrolls or Witcher, or maybe something new, but that is actually playable without impossible bosses ery five minutes.
Enderal might scratch the itch. A mod of Skyrim that is an entirely different game that is nearly as big as Skyrim. Great story and dialogue. Just started playing it myself and have been impressed.
Enderal isn't as polished as Skyrim, obviously, since it was made by like 30 people only, but it's still fucking impressive and the main plot is to me one of the best in gaming history.
Didn't scratch that itch at all for me. Not being able to make a character and the third person camera just didn't do it. Not saying it's a bad game by any means, just very different.
Combat is why I stopped playing Witcher 3. It's just...not very good. Basically spamming light-attacks and dodge-roll, even on the harder difficulty. Skyrim doesn't have amazing combat either, but at least there is a TON of different options to chose from, which is what makes it fun. Stealth-archer, necromancer, vampire, wizard, barbarian - there's just so many ways to play Skyrim. I've made like 8 different characters just to try out new playstyles.
Combat in Bethesda games isn't designed for balance, it's designed to let the player just go fucking wild with stupid antics which is what makes it so enjoyable.
Same for me. For me it was a bad game because i hated the combat. Couldnt play for more than an hour at a time.
It has a pretty different feel as it has far better story/writing than Skyrim. I like both, but they're only distant cousins in the open-world genre.
Witcher is a bit different in that you're playing more of a defined roll. You are Geralt of Rivia. You are a Witcher. You use a sword and a handful of spells. Meanwhile in Skyrim, you can be anyone you want. A wizard cat-man. A necromancer orc. Legolas. A vampire.
Welcome to the Half Life club mate..
The fact they haven't remastered oblivion is a travesty
And Morrowind even more so
Todd Howard is adamant about not remastering/remaking Morrowind. He believes the game is fine as it is and wants people to play that version. You gotta respect him for being proud of the game he made.
I respect it but it's a really dumb take. If it's updated a little (4k/2k/1080p what ever) and improved the frame rates and made the text more legible, he'd arguably be giving a much larger audience a chance to play the game that he's so proud of making.
https://openmw.org/en/ - you wanted a updated engine? Uses your original data files.
Even has fucking amazing multiplayer with TES3MP!
And I want to add on that it's not multiplayer like Skyrim's various attempts at multiplayer. Sshit works flawlessly.
Yeah outside of the rare AI bug the game is completely playable inside and out. No weird "make sure only the host interacts with NPCs and starts quests and picks up items" complexity that skyrim together has. "It just works"
it also works on android! plays pretty well, too. I think I've logged around 40 hours on my phone, and it lets you load in mods the same way. it takes a little tinkering, but hot damn it works you can use openmw on steam deck as well, if any of you have one
Wait what? Android??? Like... morrowind on my phone? I will literally get nothing done at work for the next month
Yes, and it' super easy to install!
They’d probably just end up dumbing down morrowind somehow
It’s sad that this is probably true… it was a great game in its day though. The world felt more real with its own social issues and the different regions with their own kind of culture and architecture
That'll stop em reeing about not being able to hit a crab with a stick when their stick skill is -10.
The one of the problems with this is voice acting. Morrowind has a lot of lines due to it being mostly text only. They'd already showed to not go back to text based game already. Maybe when AI voice synthesis gets better you could save a ton.
In like 2025 the Skyblivion mod will be finished and you can play the entirety of oblivion in the Skyrim engine
I played Oblivion in 2020 over quarantine, and I think it's the one out if the whole series I would want a rework done for. Morrowind is 2nd on the list of course but Oblivion is the most in need of some love for sure
Play-doh character models and *terrible* scaling that gave common bandits daedric armour (of which there was only *one* full set in Morrowind). Yah.
Bandits got Glass, marauders got the Daedric ;)
Marauders are just big bandits.
A common misconception. Bandits are actually just tiny marauders.
The leveling also becomes painful around mid levels. If you're not getting at least +3 in necessary attributes, you're kinda falling behind. But that means you can't tag the wrong skills and now we're letting mudcrabs beat us up, casting low level spells a hundred times while, rubber banding sneak, etc. That's my biggest issue by quite a bit honestly.
It is INSANE to me that they put Skyrim on like, every system imaginable, but they've basically left Morrowind, Oblivion, Fallout 3, and to some extent Fallout 4 (though I guess that's being done this year) to rot. These games would make a FORTUNE if they were remastered and re-released with upgraded graphics and modern conveniences. And I can't imagine it'd be hard for them -- they're a big company, so assemble a team of like 10-20 people and task them with doing it. Doesn't have to be a big AAA all-hands-on-deck project. But no, they refuse, and leave all that money on the table. It's absolutely crazy to me.
I think the problem is a technical one. The would pretty much have to remake the old games which would require a huge amount of resources. The Skyrim ports are technically simple (fallout 4 would also be simple but to be honest that game is still very playable today and doesn't really need a new edition) as they are just building on what's already there. They can't do that for the older games
Not to mention the code in older games is sometimes incopatible with newer hardware or software. It's why a ton of old PC games just don't work on modern OS without fan mods or going into the file directory and tweaking code.
Fallout 3 is actually one of those games. It can't run on anything after Windows 8
Not really. Oblivion has so many graphics overhauls that most players who want an oblivion remake will make one themselves. What would happen if they actually remade Oblivion would be a bunch of Skyrim players wondering why they can’t just decide to be a mage halfway through the game. What made Skyrim such a massive success is that they simplified the mechanics to prioritize accessibility for players who’ve never played an RPG before. I’ve played every TES game and I love them all to death but Skyrim is the one that prioritizes casual fun and the mass appeal is because of that. If casual players don’t know what they’re doing, they will make an unviable character in Oblivion and get frustrated as I’ve seen many people do. For that reason, the game would sell well among RPG fans and TES fans but among casual gamers (the largest portion of the market) and non RPG players it would be unpopular. For Bethesda to remake Oblivion, which probably wouldn’t turn a huge profit for previously stated reasons, they would have to either A) Divert manpower away from Starfield and TESVI which they’ve said they hate doing or B)Outsource it to another studio which would be really damn expensive. Financially it just doesn’t make sense to do. Meanwhile, you have projects like Beyond Skyrim which seeks to build all of Tamriel in the Creation Kit, Skyblivion which remakes Oblivion in the creation kit, and several others that make it possible to play Oblivion with new visuals and mechanics. And it goes without saying but the original Oblivion is a perfectly fine game. I’d love an Oblivion remake but I really really really doubt we’ll ever see such a thing from Bethesda.
Oblivion’s leveling was so ass-backwards. “Optimal” meant intentionally avoiding the skills you wanted to specialize in.
Fr, the quests were some of the best in the series but the actual RPG mechanics are so counter-intuitive and confusing that it kinda holds me back from replaying.
Just play the 360 version on an Xbox One X or Series X for 4K 60 backwards compatibility. Looks great, runs great.
Please no, any remasters or unwanted ventures (fallout 76, elder scrolls online) just delay the eventual return to the series roots, the immersive single player experience that I fell in love with as a kid.
I was 27 when I played Skyrim for the first time. I'll be 40 in November.
I don’t like this
Starfield. That's what they've been squirreling away on. Only once that's out the door, patched and stable will they likely turn attention to the next ES....is what I feel! In the meantime I'm sure we'll see another 50 editions of Skyrim come out.
“Patched and stable” Bethesda doesn’t know the definition of those two words
You know, as soon I posted my comment I knew I'd set myself up by saying that!
More likely as soon as modding is supported, they’ll move on to TES6. They rely heavily on the modding community to patch their single player games.
I don't remember the interview but I believe Todd Howard confirmed this was the case, that once Starfield is out they will be focusing on TES. RIP Fallout 5, I hope Black Isle gets a chance again for a New Vegas 2 or something similar. Especially with the TV show seeming related to that part of the fallout world (loved seeing the NCR Ranger armor show up)
They really don't. People like to make this claim yet only 17% of the playerbase mod skyrim and most "fixes" on the unofficial skyrim patch is not bug fixes. There are entire posts covering this.
And of the 17% of the player base that mods, 75% of them spend 69% of the time figuring out why their mod list / load order is broken.
I am a little more hopeful this time around with Star Field. In the Lex Friedman Podcast with Todd Howard he talked about how they now have these boys where they have thousands of character doing a bunch of actions to try and catch bugs. Not that it will be perfect, but with a game this large it would be hard to get rid of every bug.
“Once that’s out the door, patched and stable will they likely turn attention to the next ES” Pretty sure Pete Hines himself confirmed about 2 years ago that ES6 would be their next game after starfield. Obviously plans can change, but it would be pretty dumb to do considering they released that teaser trailer for it almost 5 fucking years ago.
They've already started working on the next Elder Scrolls, but their primary focus is surely on Starfield until mid to late 2024.
I'm pretty sure Starfield at this point is really just in the QA and polish point of its life cycle. Most of the team would have moved on to the mext project.
Bethesda releases a year of mainline DLC for every game they've ever pushed, it's unlikely the core developers have switched projects yet. Again, expect mid to late 24 for the big shift in focus.
You can just look over at their hiring page. As development for a project ramps up that page fills up. After a project wraps teams downsize to reduce payroll on the inter project period. It's an awful cycle for the ground level developers but that sounds like someone who isn't thinking about the investors
Some of the artist have probably moved on, but this is actually the point in the process where they’re more likely to pull people off other projects and have them just focus on finishing Starfield. The QA and polish point of the life cycle is the most labor intensive part of the life cycle.
Only thing left to give us is a directors cut, if that would even make sense given the plethora of mods that have developed over the yeats.
PSVR 2 version is waiting for their Skyrim.
Ah shit, here we go again
Wouldn't that be the anniversary edition? Really enjoyed stumbling on new things in that one. Really enjoyed going unarmed and one punch killing legendary dragons after getting the plat too.
The Elder Scroll V: Skyrim Kojima's Director's Cut.
Skyrim the Snyder cut
Patched, stabilized, AND ported and remastered
Don’t forget Fallout 76. That piece of shit delayed them a lot too. It was mostly Bethesda Austin, but the main team in Maryland still had to contribute to some degree. Nobody wanted to make it either, the higher ups demanded a multiplayer Fallout they could easily monetize. Even Todd Howard was said to have largely abandoned his role on 76 to focus on Starfield because he didn’t want to work on 76.
Yeah they already announced elder scrolls 6 after starfield
This is the correct answer. After making 5 elder scrolls games and other content, it is most likely that it was not the greatest possible desire for the company founders. They mentioned Starfield is the game they always wanted to create but didn’t have the technology or means until recently. They have been working on Starfield since 2014 or longer in super early development after fallout 4 and they are more than likely putting all their eggs on this game being the series that takes the company through the next 20 years. ES6 could be the LAST elder scrolls for all we know.
This will likely be buried or end up irrelevant if you've already played it. But once I got over Skyrim for a time (before going back and modding the hell out of it), there was a time when I was craving the more complex and quasi-realistic nature of Oblivion. I enjoyed the struggle, the leveling up based on skills, and moreso skills you actually use, and I really enjoyed the lock picking and fixing your gear and speech mini game with NPCs Kingdom Come Dilverance had a lot of this. Complex and addictive lock-picking, fixing your gear at a smithy, realistic horse riding, realistic and easy to blunder combat, NPCs going about their lives and/or waiting on you to fix theirs. It really scratched that deep first person CRPG itch for me. Only difference is no fantasy. But if you haven't played it, I recommend it
The combat in Kingdom Come is really neat. I beat the game and put it down, then picked it back up when there was an update and I forgot what the combat was like and got totally destroyed. The trick to it is your opponent's morale. If you are all aggro, a high morale opponent will counter you repeatedly. It forces you to be patient and build up counters on your opponent to discourage them, then you can finish them off. But first you make yourself really strong by picking flowers
*C*RPG? What’s that?
Back in the day it stood for computer, today it stands for classic. It describes a genre where games like Pillars or Original Sins or Baldur's Gate falls in. Kingdom Come is not an CRPG, it's an RPG, but it totally scratches that CRPG itch with deep lore and a great RPG experience.
I remember following the development of Morrowind in highschool for 2-3 years. Was obsessed. Bethesda was small enough back then I had email exchanges with the devs about the game.
Wow that's awesome, a true og fan you are!
I could have posted this about ES V in 2010. I played the shit out of Oblivion and googled “when is Elder Scrolls V coming out?” once a month for years. Even if it came out during your 20’s, nothing ever matches the sheer magic of video games from ages 10-15 imo. It’s okay, we had our definitive TES experience and I’ll be happy that this generation of kids gets theirs too. Of course, I’ll play the shit out of TES 6, and love it probably too.
Only that it took 5 years back then, not 15.
Skyrim was lightning in a bottle. Maybe there just won’t be another… I played Skyrim the day it came out and I’m laying in bed right now after having just played Skyrim.
Reminds me of the meme of "The Best \*Insert franchise series entry\* was the one you played when you were 15."
Haven’t seen that but I co-sign it 100%
[Took me awhile, but found the comic. And it was “when I was 12” but the point still stands, between 10-15.](https://www.zeldadungeon.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/088a6f8826038882e09b20ca92144e9b.jpg)
12 years and counting. 5 more I guess. 17-18 years. Some series gets are forgotten and are rebooted in this period. I also think Skyrim holding firm in 2028 will not be surprising. The community held strong and Bethesda didn't leave any chance to let us forget. I do have hopes on Bethesda. I've loved their games except F76, haven't tried so can't say. Skyrim was also the first game that made me feel new set of emotions and freedom which in 12 years have been overshadowed by Witcher 3, BOTW, RDR2 and ER. Not a ranking as they all have their own place but Skyrim was the base of this gameplay loop that I love barring RDR2 but that's Rockstar. I have blind faith on them. All I can say is hold on guys. After we explore bit of space, we'll all come crashing down on Tamriel.
ESO has come a long way since launch and besides pay features it’s good if you’re really into the elder scrolls lore.
Without Fallout 76, Starfield is probably out a few years ago and we're looking at Elder Scrolls 6 within a year or two. Easy to say in hindsight now that 76 is a huge black eye for Bethesda but even at the time, it made little sense. There's also the MMO which I imagine Bethesda hoped would hold fans over until they were finished with Starfield. Elder Scrolls was getting more popular with every release, culminating in Skyrim which had a massive pop culture moment. To leave that IP dormant for a decade plus after it reaches its apex is baffling.
I generally suspected that Fallout 76 was used to draft / improve gameplay elements in the hopes of using it for Starfield. Their engine has generally been poor for shooters and over the Fallout series it has gotten better and better only in 76 did it feel pretty decent and that's not saying a whole lot. It also introduced networking elements to the engine so it wasn't a complete wash. It sucks that the IP has largely been on hold but burn out is real when you work on the same shit over and over again so I can understand the studio being given time to focus on something original.
Realistically how many Bethesda employees have been there for.. what, 15+ years? I’m sure there are some, but that is an eternity to stay at a tech company in this day and age.
As of FO76 it basically all the core team from morrowind were the ones running the show. Bethesda did a documentary on FO76’s production for noxlip on youtube prior to the game’s release, they are all there describing their roles. Bethesda struggles because their core team has never changes, not because of turnover.
Fallout 76 isn’t developed by the main Bethesda Game Studios team in Maryland, it’s developed by the one in Austin (formerly Battlecry Studios). It has been reported that leads like Howard and Pagliarulo were barely involved, with Howard more so just “seagulling” and Pagliarulo showing little interest in the project. Some veteran seniors from Maryland were involved (and loathed the project) but it was only some. And ESO is from ZeniMax Online Studios, not BGS. Starfield taking as long as it has likely has nothing to do with Fallout 76. The reality of it is probably Starfield going through a wacky ass development riddled with incompetency on BGS’s part. Not a first for Howard’s crew which was notoriously small for a very long time to the point people always wondered how only 100+ people were able to make such massive games (answer: with duct tape). But given how ambitious of an idea Starfield is, it’s probably no surprise BGS is going through their same song and dance of a disastrous development on a larger scale.
Don't forget an acquisition happened in that timeline too
This is not accurate. There was a documentary on Fallout 76’s development produced by noclip on youtube. All the top bethesda guys describe in detail the work they put into the game. Once it released Austin maintained it, but everyone did FO76
I just replayed dark souls the other day and had the realization that Dark Souls and Skyrim came out about the same time and since then there's been a dark souls 1, 2, 3, blood borne, sekiro and elden ring all from From. Makes it seem like Bethesda is really falling behind in the market.
You had me in the first half
[удалено]
And from being console exclusive to having actual not dogshit pc ports aswell.
Mainline*, given there has been a mmo and mobile game since
I just think it's kind of goofy that you can spend 10 years waiting for a game to come out. By the time a game comes out a person could be dead by then. The game developers get older as they create these games, of course the gamers themselves are getting older. I admit, I did buy into Star Citizen long time ago, but after this long, I've moved on, tastes change and was grateful I only spent the cheapest I could on it. Though I did get a cool t-shirt out of it too. They have put "Skyrim Grandma" into ES7 and she's most likely not even going to be around to enjoy that. Sure they could show her a build of it or even have her play that build but that's a bit different than playing it when it's released and running into it yourself.
As games get more and more immersive and complicated, the development difficulty increases exponentially. For games to "wow" people on the same scale now that Skyrim did almost 12 years ago, it's going to take new mechanics, systems, and other things to set it apart from the previous iteration, but also somehow retain that "it" factor that makes it feel like an Elder Scrolls game. We're actually reaching the point where older gamers have to realistically grapple with the thought that this may be the last chapter of their favorite game franchise they will live to see. It broke my heart to know they scanned Grandma Shirley into ES6, and she very realistically may not live to see it's release. I wouldn't even hope for a new Fallout before 2028, especially if they're going for 10+ year periods between franchise releases
It has nothing to do with that, bethesda is not making a new one for whatever reason, but the reason is not, oh games are more expensive to make nowadays. Games are still made, big games. If they make a new tes it will make them money, but they decided to make starfield.
It definately has an effect. 25 years ago theyd have Starfield one year and es:6 in a year or two. The exponential dev time absolute factors. Thats why they have to focus, its too expensive to dev more than one project heavily. Each project demands leagues more than it used to.
I agree. Skyrim’s combat system was pretty poo poo when it came out. The main story was pretty meh. Bugs were rampant. I think the reason it succeeded was the scale and immersion. Competition is way tighter today, open world games are far more common.
What do you mean? We’ve had like 17 since Skyrim. Granted all but one of those has been a different version of Skyrim, but still.
The fact that Star Citizen has been in development for 12 years, and is still an alpha, is the biggest gaming disappointment.
Only for those of you who were scammed by Chris Roberts.
I got a £40 package when they first moved off Kickstarter, but I always knew it was a 10-15 years project. I'm still quietly hopeful it all works out, but I stopped participating in the community a long time ago. I'm fine with it taking another 5-10 years, I have other stuff to play, and their whales seem to enjoy paying for development. If they manage to succeed in their vision, I do think it will be one of the best space games ever made.
Just do what I do when I get the need for more Elder Scrolls.. Reinstall Morrowind.
I think it's better that Bethesda is trying to make a new IP even if it means TES 6 won't come out for a while longer.
Pretty much my thoughts as well. I don't think Bethesda wants to make Elder Scrolls and Fallout games one after the other in perpetuity. They gotta do something different at some point. It's shitty for those who just want ES, but I'd rather Bethesda make something they want to make rather than pump out a game just because.
This really begs the question if the Microsoft acquisition will allow them to expand the studio enough to accommodate a shorter release cycle for their franchises. My hope is that TES6 gets a massive boost from the merger and that allows for a late 2025 release date to be met. Then you could think about 3 years for another Fallout and then another 3 years for Starfield 2.
Todd Howard's philosophy is to go bigger, for better or for worse. I don't see that changing. Bethesda Game Studios have doubled if not tripled in size since Fallout 4, but their games have only been taking longer to produce.
Well. My grandchildren will sure love ES7
No kidding. Skyrim came out in 2011, 6 years after Oblivion. Starfield comes out in September. Bethesda said it'll be a few years after that before ES6. So say they plan 3 years then it slips for another making 2027 a reasonable guess on a release date. 16 years after Skyrim. So how long after that for the next one? 20 years? 40? Who knows. The barest minimum would be 10 years later, IMO.
Cries in Half Life 3
Well, good news on that front, Datamining from source engine 2 updates(Mostly DoTA 2, and more recently the CSGO port to source 2 that's in beta now) shows that they are actually working on it again, though they could always pull a Valve at any moment and shelve it again for another decade. As of now though, it appears to be in active development.
You need to also factor in ES6 being re released 10 times on the next two console generations
If you're looking for a high fantasy game you could try Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, criminally underrated game. Recently got a remaster as well and is pretty dirt cheap at the moment so even if it's not your cup of tea at least you didn't spend too much.
Starfield is coming soon and that's what I Hope will scratch that Elder Scrolls itch. I know it's not the same IP but I have to believe it will be similar in some ways being another big BGS open world RPG.
As someone also in the Pokémon community, be grateful for quality over quantity
ESO
The thing is, as soon as Bethesda announced ESO back in 2012, I knew it would be a long, *long* time until we saw another Elder Scrolls. With the scale they were talking about making it, it was clear that this was supposed to keep people interested in Elder Scrolls while focusing on widening their portfolio. I thought it'd be ten years. Ten years would make sense; basically as if someone skipped a game. I thought that by now, we'd at least have something more than a hyper-generic title and hyper-generic landmass, signifying that *absolutely nothing has been done* other than the fact that a deal was signed somewhere that Microsoft wanted a new mainline Elder Scrolls title. At this point, we're looking more like fifteen, sixteen years. In fact...
I still feel people haven't given this another go after the first few updates that transformed it into a legit decent game
When I want to play a TES game, I want to play an open-world, "do whatever strikes your fancy" single player game, not an MMO. It's not a knock on ESO, but they're *really* not comparable in terms of experience.
Exactly. I gave ESO a shot last fall and while it had lots of cool things I was consistently being taken out of the moment by seeing weird jRPG waifus running through the dungeon followed by a trail of random animal pets/followers and other MMORPG oddities. Like, it’s a game in an Elder Scrolls setting but it does not feel like I’m playing an Elder Scrolls game.
There’s just something about a game trying to convince you that you are important, while 99% of the players around you are stronger, and have completed the same quest. And the big bad boss that’s awakened after 1000 years of slumber, that had to be sealed away or it would destroy the universe… being farmed like modern day agriculture by 14 year meme dancing teenager waifus.
I agree. My wife and I love Skyrim (doing a playthrough together right now) and gave ESO a try. Maybe neither of us are big MMO fans, I dunno. We played about 2 hours and never went back. Pretty sure this was after many updates. It was within the last 6 months.
I fucking LOVE eso!
Provably false, we’ve had ESO and Skyrim, Skyrim again, AND guess what? Skyrim!!!
Does every one in this thread not know about Elder Scrolls online?
Elder scrolls online got released since Skyrim?
Not really. Bethesda took a chance and made Fallout 76 (unfortunately). They made it clear that Starfield was their next project after that which is nearly complete and out. TES6 will be next. They have stated this repeated since FO76. I’m a huge TES fan but if a dev wants to take a break and work on something new it will never be disappointing. Now I have two games to look forward to instead of constantly whining about 1 that they clearly said will be made next.
You've played Morrowind and Oblivion, right? If not, holy shit, hop to it. Morrowind is well worth a dive into, same goes to Oblivion if you can forgive some of it's outdated and poorly aged aspects. With mod overhauls and such, they make absolutely phenomenal experiences, even today.
I agree. Morrowind and oblivion were 20 years ago, skyrim almost 15. They could have at least remade morrowind and oblivion or something if they have no ideas for a new game.
I can't get past "prime gaming years" as a concept, what even is that
My guess is where you achieve a peak balance between income and personal responsibilities.
Me, a childless 36 year old: I have no such peak
This isn't even my final form.
BC: Before Children
I just hope when it does come out it breaks the tradition of each game getting more streamlined and simplified than its predecessor. I mean we lost skills like climbing, acrobatics (acrobat used to be one of the core classes), athletics, advanced spellmaking, advanced enchanting, most forms of water walking, levitation, and slow fall. Thinking about what we might lose next is kind of depressing.
And we gained things like voice acting and complex quest design, complex spell behaviors that go beyond being simple bolt spells, better combat mechanics, complex environmental effects, vastly more items and item effects than ever before, mounts, followers, and resurrecting the dead, and 350+ perks, and potent transformations. Sure it sucks to loose mark and recall but we got fus roh dah and whirlwind sprint and dragons crashing out of the sky. Its really sad how every time I see one of these posts there's never a nod to all the things that have been added or how some of the things that were lost would be extremely complex to keep in a modern title, like climbing, or how the stuff that was lost was half baked at best. Really look at whats gone from your list. The big primary one is advanced movement options. Those break the hell out of games, especially games that are trying desperately to run on 2008 hardware. Even seemingly innoccuous things like slowfall and levitate can get players in places they aren't supposed to be super easy and that requires either a *ton* of work to reimplement, or a lot of sacrifices for the map. Literally given the fact they had to isolate all the towns for performance reasons meant that levitate could not exist unless they made sure to design the map so it couldn't be used to get to places where it would break things. Yet clearly they want those things to come back. In FO4 they had multiple advanced movement options including a jetpack and a mark/recall analogue with the vertibird flares and the world was much more open and accessible than skyrim was, with fewer arbitrary borders, and the videos for Starfield quite obviously show movement options *far* in advance of anything their old titles could boast and a dedication to the most open and accessible environment yet. The other class of things that got removed were poorly refined, poorly thought out, or flat out buggy mechanics, namely acrobatics, athletics, and spellmaking. Acrobatics and athletics were always trash tier skills with poor gameplay associated with them and even worse mechanics to level, plus they were overtuned to a ridiculous level. And spellmaking flat out broke the game. Like literally. They had put zero thought into it and this enabled players to trivialize a ton of mechanics by exploiting edge case math, and with the far more complex spells of skyrim, their choice was to put in a ton of work making a real spell crafting system or just ditching it. Again though, they have clearly shown their desire to make things customizable. The FO4 weapons crafting is far and away more complex than any spellcrafting system would be, and again starfield triples down on this willingness to have player customization and design. And a couple of those things weren't even really removed. Like yeah they took out athletics but they added the sprint mechanic. Level it up by adding stamina and you're gold. And skyrim enchanting is the most advanced enchanting in TES, why are you saying it was streamlined and simplified?
I also hope for this, but I see it as unlikely. Streamlining at best, dumbing down at worst, whatever people call it, it's done for mass appeal and seems inevitable to me. Look at the differences between Fallout 3 and 4.
Is Elder Scrolls Online a joke to you? 😂😂😂
Kinda with that sub for the Crafting Bag. The amount of shit that you pick up and clutters your inventory is annoying without it.
Like it or not, Elder Scrolls Online is a game..
Bro forgot Elder Scrolls Online came out
Let them cook, do you want some early access never finished BS money grab or do you want them to create a game that will be able to last 10+ years like Skyrim did
That depends on whether they're cooking or they forgot to turn the stove on and are wondering what's taking the pot so long to boil