I'm done hiding it. I LOVE Bethesda games (BGS). Who's with me?

[RdN]

I wouldn't say I love them.

I really liked Skyrim.. Sunk more than 100h in it.

I finished Fallout 3, but Fallout 4 did not do it for me from the get go. Dated graphics and gameplay, bad story, etc.

I'm looking forward to the next Elders Scroll. Until then, I'll stay clear of BGS.

 

[Ænima]

I like Bethesda games, especially the Elder Scrolls series, the fact they let you roleplay and even if thers a main quest you can change ur play style alot and just have fun your own way with the tools they give you is great for me.

My problem with Bethesda, witch i started calling them Bugthesda since last gen, is the lack of polish. I really wished to be playing they games without worring that at any time the game can pretty much get uplayable because i got stuck in a bug. I usually avoid this by making multiple save files, but is still something in my mind when i play Bugthesda games.

Its also disappointing to know the next Elder Scrolls will run in the same dated engine, cant be that excited for that. Will eventually buy the next Elder Scrollls but not at launch. Im expecting the same old bug flood to be present so waiting a couple months for some patch fixes is the best way to aproach a Bugthesda game for me.

 

[Orbit]

I "like" their games. Skyrim was really enjoyable but their games after that, in light of how good open world games are being done by other developers, are just mediocre. I watched a video about Bethesda - and their subsequent decline - and the "KISS" method of design (keep it simple stupid) is a good reflection of why Fallout 4 was such a mess up.

 

[Tigress]

Same here. I know they have flaws and in general I agree with the criticisms. But I love them in spite of their flaws.

 

[OnionPowder]

240 hours and still counting in Fallout 4. I highly doubt anyone here have surpassed me.

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My dad comes close. He's 50 and is at 220 hours in Fallout 4 and 380 hours in Fallout New Vegas

 

[WGMBY]

Their worlds are great, their tech is always buggy, but mainly I'm unhappy with how they've simplified their systems in recent games. I've been replaying Morrowind recently, and while it's a slog at times, it does a great job of making you feel like some nobody climbing a long road to godhood, and I feel like a big part of that is the slowness of the levelling and the way the game encourages you to focus on a smaller set of skills rather than becoming good at everything.

Plus the story's leisurely pace and story missions I felt let me settle into the world better. Skyrim and Oblivion being in the middle of a huge crisis often gave me the impression that I had to do the story right now, even though I knew I could walk away and come back at any time.

Skyrim and Oblivion are both great, I played the hell out of them when they first released, but Morrowind is the only one that I returned to more than 5 years after it released.

 

[Timeaisis]

I'm with you. Nothing quite like them. The only "open world" games I keep going back to.

 

[Max Deltree]

*reads OP

- Yeah! Me t...

*reads the rest of the topic

- I mean, never mind. Don't know what you're talking about.

*Goes back into hiding

 

[Kaiser Swayze]

I still like them, but they're slipping compared to the competition. When I got my 360 and first HDTV, the first game I played was Oblivion, and it was a huge leap over anything I'd played before. Even when Skyrim released, it was still a top-tier open world experience. I don't know if Fallout 4 was them slipping or other developers getting so much better. It was "fine" but just didn't have that addictive quality. Ubisoft, Rockstar, and CDPR all seem to have been making advancements in open worlds, and Bethesda just hasn't shown this gen that they're a leader in that arena. Fingers crossed that they're going to change that with Starfield and/or ES6, but my expectations are definitely lowered.

 

[Fredrik]

Skyrim is in the top-5 for the best games of all time.
Oblivion is in top 10.

So yeah, I don't see this as an controversial opinion. Can't wait to play Elder Scrolls VI! My only hope is that they keep it offline.

 

[AyaisMUsikWhore]

My dad comes close. He's 50 and is at 220 hours in Fallout 4 and 380 hours in Fallout New Vegas

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My dad has both of yall's beat. My dad is 390 hours deep and skyrim and still continues to this day. Its been 3 years now lol

Truly op, I only really liked Skyrim, and I had fun with it. But I do wish Bethesda can make their games more polish. I don't like this idea that a game being polish makes it boring when there can be a balance. Why can't they continue to do what they do but make it fun to play with good presentation? I think that's what people are more upset about than being mad at them for making bad games.

 

[Necromorph]

Todd, lies makes baby Jesus cry.

 

[Shake Appeal]

I'm glad there's a thread like this.

It makes it easier for me to draw up a blacklist of users.

I kid, I kid.

Spoiler

I mostly kid.

 

[JeffGubb]

Is this post missing a /s?

I suppose you like your food poorly made and rotten instead of well cooked and fresh?

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Playing a buggy game isn't going to give me food poisoning.

 

[Vyrance]

I love Elder Scrolls games. Haven't really tried any of the Fallout games yet though.

 

[Atisha]

I'm a fan. Didnt buy 76 though. All the hubbabaloo. Patiently waiting for 6, starfield, and 5.

 

[Timeaisis]

There's something about Bethesda games that have the perfect balance of player agency, discovery, and storytelling that just draws me in like nothing else.

Like the world isn't static, and it's not linear, but its not meaningless either. Most open world games go to one of two extremes.

 

[Wolfgunblood]

How could that be something controversial... they're the best games on the planet, period point blank.

 

[Deleted member 4413]

Favorite dev by a long shot. Fallout 4 is my favorite fallout. Oblivion is my favorite TES game. Don't care about the bugs, mods can fix those. Nobody is making the type of games they make.

They shouldn't of attached their name to FO76, it's just dragging them through the mud. BGS proper didn't even develop the game.

 

[Deleted member 47843]

I liked Oblivion, Fallout 3 and Skyrim. Haven't played Fallout 4 or Fallout 76.

I'm mostly just over these huge time sink open world games. I'll make exceptions for ones with super strong stories like RDR2, but stories in BGS games tend to be pretty weak and the role playing freedom just doesn't do much for me. Future games of theirs will be a hard sell to me. Though I am intrigued by their space RPG since Mass Effect is probably dead for a long time.

 

[scare_crow]

Skyrim is absolutely one of my favorite games of all time. All of the criticisms mounted against it are pretty true, but I love it regardless. Can't wait for ESVI.

 

[Deleted member 8468]

I loved them for a long time, until they started letting me down, lying, and eventually breaking my heart. It's not that I hate BSG, it's just that we decided to go different ways in our lives to grow on our own and become better people. I still think about Todd from time to time.

 

[Gundam]

I thoroughly enjoy The Elder Scrolls.

 

[ohitsluca]

Would totally have been with you 6 years ago but not anymore. Those games feel dated in the worst possible ways now

 

[No Depth]

Have fond memories of FO3, all the Elder Scrolls games(though not a fan of the homogeny of its systems with each entry), but they lost me with FO4 and I didn't even bother with 76.

If ES6 continues the trend of truncating its world, factions, and interactions into checklist tiers without much consideration or repercussion to decision-making, I may be done with their games.

 

[Whatislove]

I used to like BGS's games at one point, but that hasn't been the case since the launch of Skyrim. I had no enjoyment from fallout 4 and expected the same from fallout 76 so it wasn't even on my radar until I heard how much of a shitshow it was.

The industry has evolved since 2011 but it doesn't feel like BGS understands that. Starfield is their last chance for me. If they don't replace their engine or upgrade it to the point that the previous issues no longer exist (I don't even know if that's possible), then they're dead to me.

 

[Stryder]

I don't care much for Fallout 4 and Fallout 76. Their other games are fun, but my favorite fallout within the last 15 years is from Obsidian not Bethesda.

I'll keep an open mind to their future games, but there are developers out there doing much better work in respect to open world RPGs

 

[Aaron D.]

There's something about Bethesda games that have the perfect balance of player agency, discovery, and storytelling that just draws me in like nothing else.

Like the world isn't static, and it's not linear, but its not meaningless either. Most open world games go to one of two extremes.

Click to shrink...

Yeah Bethesda's brand of sandbox just feels so tactile compared to other open-world games.

I sincerely hope that BGS sticks to their guns and continues to prioritize the fine minutia of world interaction that they're known for.

Let the "muh graffix" folk have their Ubi, R* & CDPR open-world titles that are gorgeous but static af.

(Nothing wrong with those other devs, I like 'em too. But why the Hate Train wants Bethesda to be yet another flavor of the same design principles I'll never understand. Like we don't have enough of those already.)

 

[stoff]

I never thought that highly of any of their games. I actually hated Morrowind, but that was mostly due to me playing it right after the (imo much superior) Gothic 2.

I picked up Fallout4 during the Winter Sale and have just started sinking my toes into it.
I think it is a fine game so far, but I didn't follow the discussion back when it released. Can someone explain to me why it gets so much hate, because so far it seems to be virtually identical to what I remember from playing Fallout3 years ago.

 

[SPRidley]

Nah, im not with you, they are trash (and were before fallout 76, they just made it more apparent now).

 

[Aaron D.]

Can someone explain to me why it gets so much hate, because so far it seems to be virtually identical to what I remember from playing Fallout3 years ago.

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I think it's 'cause the recent Fallout games are not as story-rich with diverse dialogue options as past titles or the Obsidian New Vegas.

This is where some fans split paths with BGS. Which is fine of course as many IPs change and evolve over time.

Nowadays Bethesda games feel more like looter shooters with light RPG elements instead of the reverse (RPG first) that they were known for in the past.

Some former fans just can't square with this change in focus and for some reason simply can't let go, much like a jilted lover.

It's really strange 'cause there's lots of franchises that I grew away from (i.e. FC2 >>>> modern FC3,4,5), but I don't fault Ubi for their design decisions or priorities. I just moved on to other titles that I do enjoy. And I don't feel the need to s**t up every FC thread telling everyone, "No you don't understand. The games used to be different, man.!!!"

It's like the sober alcoholic crashing bar scenes telling everyone they need to go to AA, lol.

 

[m_dorian]

I like Bethesda games too but i like what modders do with them more.

 

[Ocean Bones]

I used too. There's not much to love these days, their open world games play more like most AAA than ever, just worse. They put out Glitchy buggy pieces of shit and then laugh about it. They don't respect their fans. They don't even respect the lore of their games for chirst sakes. Why invest in any of that when other devs are now a generation ahead of Bethesda? They're not the leaders anymore, not even close.

 

[The Albatross]

I love a lot of the games that Bethesda has published, like the Dishonored and Prey series. Some of my most underrated, seemingly under the radar / under appreciated games of the last 5ish years.

Dishonored 1/DLC & 2 are some of my favorite games and I absolutely love playing them. I still go back to Dishonored 2 to play through levels in unique ways. I didn't like Death of the Outsider & PRey (2016) as much as Dishonored 1 and 2, but still liked them.

I also am happy to sink a ton of time into BGS traditional games, Fallout, Elder Scrolls, etc., and while I'm critical of the games I do really look forward to them and I find them comfortable to play. A good mix of systems I enjoy and worlds I like exploring. Still, a point comes in all of their games where I end up being highly critical of them, criticizing them more and more, and I call this the Bethesda Game Enjoyment Curve.

 

[Lo-Volt]

I love them too! I even wrote a character bio and fact sheet for my current Fallout 4 character, a redhead named Cormac (and using a mod to add journal entries in a holotape to expand the head canon and make the plot make more sense with off-camera happenings). But think I'm just exhausted by them.

It was a bit jaw dropping to see the Fallout 4 compass and lock pick mechanism look EXACTLY like Skyrim's. If I didn't know it was Fallout 4 and someone told me it was a deep deep reskin, I'd have believed it. I was playing off the Railroad quest line in F4 as my new PC stress test and I had to use console commands to finish it because of a bug - this game came out three years ago.

I remain impressed, even chuffed, at how these games have backstory and environmental "I just walked in on this" story-telling. Skyrim's moody snowy environments are seared into my brain, just like Fallout 4's moody soundtrack (the arguable high point of the game is probably some of the BGM) but Nintendo did that well in Breath of the Wild and the game doesn't crash to boot. I'm just really tuckered out watching a game engine lose its mind more than the lore issues or whatever else bothers gamers about it. Enjoying a story or a character is a subjective thing: game crashes aren't.

 

[Deleted member 46948]

It's a hit and miss for me.
I loved Arena and Morrowind, then Skyrim. Everything else was on a scale of "meh".

 

[Edgar]

Yeah Bethesda's brand of sandbox just feels so tactile compared to other open-world games.

I sincerely hope that BGS sticks to their guns and continues to prioritize the fine minutia of world interaction that they're known for.

Let the "muh graffix" folk have their Ubi, R* & CDPR open-world titles that are gorgeous but static af.

(Nothing wrong with those other devs, I like 'em too. But why the Hate Train wants Bethesda to be yet another flavor of the same design principles I'll never understand. Like we don't have enough of those already.)

Click to shrink...

I mean you can have that and they still can improve writing and quest design.

 

[gilko79]

I wouldn't say I love BGS as a whole, but I am a huge fan of TES games. They contain some of my absolute favorite open worlds to explore.

 

[Aaron D.]

I mean you can have that and they still can improve writing and quest design.

Click to shrink...

Oh for sure.

Enjoying a dev or franchise doesn't mean there isn't room for improvement.

I just hope they stick with their entirely unique brand of sandbox design.

Sure I'd love it to look as pretty as Witcher 3 as well, but at the same time I understand resource allocation and the trade off of pretty but static vs middling but highly interactive.

Not everybody respects or wants this trade off that Bethesda has made, but I sure do and I hope they stick to it.

 

[GoaThief]

I adore the Elder Scrolls series, particularly Morrowind. Actual RPGs with fantastic worlds albeit the maps are too small for my current tastes. I don't particularly like Fallout but 3 was okay to a point.

So what do I want? A much bigger and more immersive world in Elder Scrolls, the series has been missing for far too long now and the upcoming title should very much impress with its size and scope otherwise what have we been waiting for? I wouldn't care much if Fallout fell by the wayside to accommodate this and help ensure Starfield is equally impressive, although this would be sad for its fans. I am concerned after BGS recent outings but hope it's a side product due to the focus being on TES and Starfield.

 

[AWizardDidIt]

Despite any complaints I have with the quality of some of their work, I respect BGS quite a lot. No one makes sandbox games like they do and I think that their open approach to allowing extreme moddibility of their games is pretty much peerless in the industry.

Even if their recent body of work has been abject trash (not my own opinion but I can relate to it sorta) they made Morrowind and are responsible for the revival of the Fallout franchise which resulted in New Vegas. It's hard for me to hate on them.

 

[Edgar]

Oh for sure.

Enjoying a dev or franchise doesn't mean there isn't room for improvement.

I just hope they stick with their entirely unique brand of sandbox design.

Sure I'd love it to look as pretty as Witcher 3 as well, but at the same time I understand resource allocation and the trade off of pretty but static vs middling but highly interactive.

Not everybody respects or wants this trade off that Bethesda has made, but I sure do and I hope they stick to it.

Click to shrink...

yeah, i def agree. Like personally there every object you can physically interact with does nothing for me in bethesda games and i try to not fuck around with mods or whatever. But its one of core bethesda design pillars and millions of people enjoy that. I usually just stick to quests and light exploration in these games.
And F4 as much as i was not a big fan of it, i think it looked pretty darn good and had cool atmosphere . Tho i wish they would reduce the interior stuff loading , sometimes it gets ridiculous , lol

 

[DionardoLicaprio]

Jokes aside, I love Bethesda games. Give me glitchy and buggy over polished and boring like most triple-A console games.

Click to shrink...

Ooof... I heavily disagree, specially if you think AAA games like God of War, RDR2, Spider-Man, etc are boring.

IMO Bethesda games are mediocre but it's possible to have fun with them.

 

[BigTnaples]

They're amazing. Aside from FO76 which I've passed on.

 

[Prison_mike]

Love BGS also, but the dumbing down on RPG and simple immersion techniques has really made me lose hope for them going in the direction I wanted.

 

[SprachBrooks]

Jokes aside, I love Bethesda games. Give me glitchy and buggy over polished and boring like most triple-A console games.

Click to shrink...

I'm now even dumber after reading this.

 

[ABK281]

I'm a connoisseur of good gameplay so its hard for me to love them. I do enjoy Fallout games even they don't play that well because it's hard to mess up a FPS and VATS is fun to use.

 

[Sabercrusader]

I mean, there's nothing wrong with liking their games, it's more that they shouldn't be getting a pass for releasing extremely buggy and broken games. There are a lot more open world's on the same par as theirs now that release in a far less broken state.

 

[magatsu124]

I love Bethesda games. Skyrim is my favorite game of all time, Oblivion is fantastic, and I really like Fallout 4 though i was despite being a little disappointed with it. My main problem with FO76 is they spent time and money making some multiplayer survival game instead of making another normal Bethesda style game. Which is why i didn't get it.

 

[Asbsand]

I don't but I played 100 hours of Skyrim and Oblivion and while I think they're janky games I loved my time with it and I think it's impressive how many people here and out there are consistently dedicated to wasting their time trashtalking Bethesda.

Like, what exactly are you protesting against? "Grrr, this developer is so shitty, I won't stop complaining until they make the games I want!"??