It's gonna take twice as long as Starfield all to contain the same jank in an even larger, more barren, world where nothing is interesting and you're just going through the motions because that's what Todd Howard thinks games are.

[–] stealth_cookies@lemmy.ca 22 points 5 months ago (1 children)

It really does feel like Starfield completely killed any excitement for Bethesda games, everything since Oblivion has been a step in the wrong direction IMO.

[–] Zerfallen@lemmy.world 22 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Including Oblivion. I enjoyed it but it was a huge disappointment to me coming out of Morrowind. Bethesda reputation for me has been on Morrowind credit this whole time.

[–] ano_ba_to@sopuli.xyz 5 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Even Morrowind was a simplified version of Daggerfall, even though it was groundbreaking when it was released. They decided that the direction to take was to simplify the mechanics progressively, to make the series more appealing to more people, as opposed to adding interesting complications back as their tech develops. They succeeded in their mantra of "keep it simple, stupid". I don't have any hope that the next game will be more interesting. It will look prettier, of course.

[–] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 4 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

It's smaller but I would not say it was dumbed down like Oblivion was to Morrowind. Morrowind feels more or less the same as Arena or Daggerfall, except in how character progressiom works and that you didn't have to swing your mouse around trying to hit things with your weapon.

It literally still has all the deeper mechanics like performing rituals during certain times of the day/months/year and what not. Just not a procedurally generated world with RNG quests or dungeons. And thank God for that because Daggerfall and Arena both could literally break by generating a dungeon you couldn't actually finish.

[–] JackbyDev@programming.dev 4 points 4 months ago

Idk, having only played Oblivion and Skyrim, I feel like (generally speaking) the simplifications in Skyrim were for the better. Take custom spells for example. Only a few spells really even made sense to make and it was better to make them in very specific ways. It's not like the games are super difficult. Fucking around with spells and more complex enchantments was cool but too easy to cheese.

Oh, and the leveling. Holy fuck what an over complicated mess. Where you could accidentally over level but also under level. Insane. Good riddance.

Complex systems are not inherently good. They're good if they provide meaningful choices and are fun to use. But ES has always been about the story and exploration more so anyways (in my opinion).

[–] stealth_cookies@lemmy.ca 1 points 4 months ago

Oblivion had quality of life improvements that made it a better game IMO. Yes Morrowind was bigger and deeper, but it was also a frustrating game that didn't age very well.

[–] Psythik@lemmy.world 7 points 5 months ago (1 children)

People have actually made it through Starfield? I tried so hard, but couldn't make it past 20 hours (which isn't a lot for a Bethesda RPG). The story is just so damn BORING.

[–] ICastFist@programming.dev 5 points 5 months ago (1 children)

The story is just so damn BORING.

Oh boy, you're lucky. I trudged through for 70h out of sheer morbid curiosity. The boring main story goes straight into "icecream on forehead" when the starborn show up. The ending is just a shit cherry on top of that, with Emil Pagliarulo's best "fuck you for asking questions" ever

[–] Psythik@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago

Good to know. I don't even know about these "starborn" people. Never made it that far.