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Bethesda Softworks during the 8th generation - How did they do?
- Thread starter ThereAreFourNaan
- Start date
It was going really well. I think I bought everything from them and then Fallout 76 happened and it all turned to shit. That slide into mediocrity is partially why I have less of an issue with Microsoft buying them. It seemed like they were making design decisions based on financial needs.
This is the correct answer in my opinion. Published a lot of amazing games but the ones they developped, eeeeeh. They are just ok.
Let me say exactly the same thing as everyone else, only slightly different worded so it seems we're reading something else: they've got Machinegames, Arkane and Tango on their belt, and the stuff they've done is generally excellent.
Machinegames gave us an Arkham Asylum-tier surprise with New Order, as far as I'm concerned, and one of my favorite fps ever made.
Tango gave us a hell of a great horror game, (not necessarily easily digestible) with great DLC and an even better sequel, with its open-world trappings and side quests. That kind of stuff in the context of a horror game felt fresh as fuck. Gameplay was refined and felt generally great.
And what to say about Arkane. They're S tier as far as I'm concerned. Their worlds and gameplay are on a league of their own, consistently. Dishonored man, like holy shit. It's so thoroughly good. Prey, too. Deathloop seems to go down the same path.
Bethesda fucking own.
Machinegames gave us an Arkham Asylum-tier surprise with New Order, as far as I'm concerned, and one of my favorite fps ever made.
Tango gave us a hell of a great horror game, (not necessarily easily digestible) with great DLC and an even better sequel, with its open-world trappings and side quests. That kind of stuff in the context of a horror game felt fresh as fuck. Gameplay was refined and felt generally great.
And what to say about Arkane. They're S tier as far as I'm concerned. Their worlds and gameplay are on a league of their own, consistently. Dishonored man, like holy shit. It's so thoroughly good. Prey, too. Deathloop seems to go down the same path.
Bethesda fucking own.
Didn't really like a single one of their games
DOOM has nice graphics though that's the only praise I can give
DOOM has nice graphics though that's the only praise I can give
One of the best publishers this gen, only behind Capcom and Sony for me. Both Doom games are fantastic, both The Evil Withins are great, Fallout 4 may have been disappointing but still a very good game, Arkane's output continues to be stellar and at least TNO/TOB were great even if I didn't like the other Wolfensteins much. Do I vote "Nightmare" or "I'm too young to die" if I thought they had an amazing gen?
Bethesda as a publisher have done a great job with generation with their in-house studios. Some of my favourite games of this generation are amongst them.
Bethesda Game Softworks, however, have really sunk in my esteem. An entire generation of disappointing Fallout games means the best Fallout title of the past generation was Fallout Shelter, and that's not a position I'm sure they want to be in. Hard to have any confidence for Starfield or anything else when precedent weighs so heavy against them.
Bethesda Game Softworks, however, have really sunk in my esteem. An entire generation of disappointing Fallout games means the best Fallout title of the past generation was Fallout Shelter, and that's not a position I'm sure they want to be in. Hard to have any confidence for Starfield or anything else when precedent weighs so heavy against them.
If you don't give a shit about their RPGs, it's been a great generation for them. While I personally didn't care for Doom/Doom Eternal, I respect the hell out of them for putting Wolfenstein 2 out. I will -never- forget the part of the game where you audition for the role of yourself with a deranged Hitler screaming at you
Between the Wolfenstein reboot (?), the Doom reboot (?) and The Evil Within, Bethesda has shown us that they can take amazing franchises with a lot of history behind them and make them way better while also creating entirely new franchises that scratch an itch we've had for ages.
Dishonoured 2 was fuckin' awesome, too.
Dishonoured 2 was fuckin' awesome, too.
They've been great as a publishers. Outside of first-party, probably the most consistently strong. Doom, Wolfenstein, Dishonored, Prey and TEW2 are among the top games this gen and include some of what are now my all-time favorites.
Shame about what happened to Fallout 4 though. I enjoyed the world a lot, but the role-playing just wasn't there. FO76... Haven't played it. Seems like it's gotten better? Zero interest to me.
ESO is shockingly pretty alright too. Enjoyed what I played of it.
So, in short, I've been really happy about their output. It's pretty telling that I've either played or plan to play just about everything they've released. The one notable stinker is Rage 2. And even that just seemed mediocre.
Under Microsoft, I hope they'll ditch their shitty PC game launcher for Microsoft's comparably shitty launcher where at least it'll be on Game Pass and that they simultaneously put out releases on the good one: Steam. Oh, and no shitty exclusivity deals like with Deathloop, but that seems like a given.
While folks were decrying Elder Scrolls going to Xbox, the much bigger (but less mainstream) story is losing id and Arkane, who seem to have really found their groove this gen.
Shame about what happened to Fallout 4 though. I enjoyed the world a lot, but the role-playing just wasn't there. FO76... Haven't played it. Seems like it's gotten better? Zero interest to me.
ESO is shockingly pretty alright too. Enjoyed what I played of it.
So, in short, I've been really happy about their output. It's pretty telling that I've either played or plan to play just about everything they've released. The one notable stinker is Rage 2. And even that just seemed mediocre.
Under Microsoft, I hope they'll ditch their shitty PC game launcher for Microsoft's comparably shitty launcher where at least it'll be on Game Pass and that they simultaneously put out releases on the good one: Steam. Oh, and no shitty exclusivity deals like with Deathloop, but that seems like a given.
While folks were decrying Elder Scrolls going to Xbox, the much bigger (but less mainstream) story is losing id and Arkane, who seem to have really found their groove this gen.
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Nightmare is the best one. I am too young to die is the worst one.
haha that's fine. I do the same in some games for various reasons.
OP's scale is the issue.
Published a lot of terrific stuff -- Arkane in particular would be in the running for developer of the gen, imo -- that was arguably let down by their marketing department.
I would say that Fallout has been damaged with the hardcore crowd due to 4 and 76, but I don't think it's in some unrecoverable position on that front.
I would say that Fallout has been damaged with the hardcore crowd due to 4 and 76, but I don't think it's in some unrecoverable position on that front.
Great publisher, although kinda lacked in polish on the console side for the most part. Dishonored 2 is an awesomely designed game that plays like complete ass on console with really bad right stick tuning and severe input lag, for example — and I think that issue comes up with Prey 2017 too but I ended up just buying Prey for PC and forgetting about it.
I'm more of a console-centric player myself, so them kinda hurting on the technical front on console more frequently definitely hurts a bit, especially considering that I do think a lot of their published games are really well done.
Fallout 4 and Fallout 76 felt like they let the Fallout franchise down a bit. I did eventually find a way to enjoy Fallout 4, which was really just aimless wandering and experiencing a lot of side content — the main story and base-building aspects of the game NEVER resonated with me. I've yet to play Fallout 76 but I keep thinking I might finally give it a try via Game Pass. To me, it wasn't a complete disaster and I still ended up pumping around 50 hours into Fallout 4 with my own playstyle and enjoyed the content that I did enjoy, but I avoided 76 all-together and hear it's gotten quite good after some updates, so maybe soon.
Bethesda proper was a bit weak but I think they were pretty great with publishing games from other studios this generation. Big stand outs for me are the two Doom games, the Wolfenstein games (excepting Youngblood — love the setting and the characters but the coop revolving-gameplay wasn't my cup of tea), The Evil Within 2 (I didn't like the first one very much, I tried), Dishonored 2 and Prey (when played on PC and not on console — god I wish Arkane could go back and update these with next gen consoles out and put a bit more effort into making sure the controls feel ok).
I'm more of a console-centric player myself, so them kinda hurting on the technical front on console more frequently definitely hurts a bit, especially considering that I do think a lot of their published games are really well done.
Fallout 4 and Fallout 76 felt like they let the Fallout franchise down a bit. I did eventually find a way to enjoy Fallout 4, which was really just aimless wandering and experiencing a lot of side content — the main story and base-building aspects of the game NEVER resonated with me. I've yet to play Fallout 76 but I keep thinking I might finally give it a try via Game Pass. To me, it wasn't a complete disaster and I still ended up pumping around 50 hours into Fallout 4 with my own playstyle and enjoyed the content that I did enjoy, but I avoided 76 all-together and hear it's gotten quite good after some updates, so maybe soon.
Bethesda proper was a bit weak but I think they were pretty great with publishing games from other studios this generation. Big stand outs for me are the two Doom games, the Wolfenstein games (excepting Youngblood — love the setting and the characters but the coop revolving-gameplay wasn't my cup of tea), The Evil Within 2 (I didn't like the first one very much, I tried), Dishonored 2 and Prey (when played on PC and not on console — god I wish Arkane could go back and update these with next gen consoles out and put a bit more effort into making sure the controls feel ok).
Probably a 7. I loved The Evil Within 1 and 2, and I liked New Order. I also love the Dishonored franchise. Only now with the PS Plus Collection I'll play Fallout 4, so I can't comment on that.
That Wolfenstein multiplayer game was trash, Fallout 76 a disaster, Elder Scrolls online at launch was boring (never got back to it), Rage 2 was a thing in 2019? Damn, that game came and went without any noise. And I didn't like Prey.
And those Doom games look good for what they aim to be, but they're not for me.
That Wolfenstein multiplayer game was trash, Fallout 76 a disaster, Elder Scrolls online at launch was boring (never got back to it), Rage 2 was a thing in 2019? Damn, that game came and went without any noise. And I didn't like Prey.
And those Doom games look good for what they aim to be, but they're not for me.
I think I've bought at least a dozen Bethesda games this gen and the majority of them have been fantastic. Dishonoured 2 is a game of the generation contender. They've probably been of one the best pubs for me this gen, in terms of game output.
Can't say, I've only played Doom and Doom Eternal- which were the best FPS games of the generation.
It's a shame they've skull-fucked one of the best series ever (Fallout) into the ground, beyond repair or recognition.
It's a shame they've skull-fucked one of the best series ever (Fallout) into the ground, beyond repair or recognition.
Evil Within is one of my favorites of the generation, DOOM is excellent, and Wolfenstein The New Order was pretty great. But then Evil Within 2 and Wolfenstein 2 (and Old Blood) were big let downs and I haven't gotten around to Doom Eternal yet. Dishonered and Prey look neat too. Overall they seem like they did a pretty good job, bummed they're probably all going Xbox exclusive.
This is my opinion as well. I cannot believe, from a commercial perspective, that Zenimax didn't ensure a follow up to Skyrim was released last gen. Apart from that the other games haven't been spectacular either.
The other studios though have been really good, it is a shame that most didn't experience huge commercial success.
dont understand the distinction for "bethesda publisher"
they're internal studios, who was supposed to publish them
voted ultra-violence, they made some of the best games of the last decade
maybe a little less first person to vary a bit for the future
they're internal studios, who was supposed to publish them
voted ultra-violence, they made some of the best games of the last decade
maybe a little less first person to vary a bit for the future
The only game I really loved from that batch was Prey. Fallout 4 was good but underwhelming, same story with both Wolfensteins. Never cared much for Dishonored or the Doom games, and didn't play FO76 at all for obvious reasons.
Overall it was a pretty meh generation for myself when it comes to Bethesda, but they have plenty of opportunities to improve on that this new gen with ESVI and Starfield. Hoping for Prey 2 from Arkane as well.
Overall it was a pretty meh generation for myself when it comes to Bethesda, but they have plenty of opportunities to improve on that this new gen with ESVI and Starfield. Hoping for Prey 2 from Arkane as well.
I *loved* Prey, Dishonored 2 and DOOM, they are among my favorites of the gen
DOOM Eternal, Dishonored DotO and Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus are great too, but a level below
Fallout 4, Wolf TNO and Rage 2 are good, but a bit unremarkable
Wolfenstein Youngblood and Evil Within I played only a few hous before dropping both. Havent played any of the others
So I think its been a pretty good gen for them in my books
DOOM Eternal, Dishonored DotO and Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus are great too, but a level below
Fallout 4, Wolf TNO and Rage 2 are good, but a bit unremarkable
Wolfenstein Youngblood and Evil Within I played only a few hous before dropping both. Havent played any of the others
So I think its been a pretty good gen for them in my books
Fallout 4 : loved it
Fallout 76 : loved it
Prey : loved it
Dishonored 2 : loved it
Dishonored DOTO : loved it
The Evil Within : loved it
The Evil Within 2 : loved it
DOOM 2016 : loved it
DOOM Eternal : loved it
Wolfenstein TNO : loved it
Wolfenstein TNC : loved it
Wolfenstein TOB : liked it
Wolfenstein YB : liked it
I would give a 9/10. Incredible games.
Fallout 76 : loved it
Prey : loved it
Dishonored 2 : loved it
Dishonored DOTO : loved it
The Evil Within : loved it
The Evil Within 2 : loved it
DOOM 2016 : loved it
DOOM Eternal : loved it
Wolfenstein TNO : loved it
Wolfenstein TNC : loved it
Wolfenstein TOB : liked it
Wolfenstein YB : liked it
I would give a 9/10. Incredible games.
Outside of Fallout and Elder Scrolls they don't make games that appeal to me, so I've not really found their output great. If they were to not be on PS5, I wouldn't lose anything.