Skyrim Is 13 Years Old, But Elder Scrolls 6 Is Nowhere in Sight While Bethesda’s First Four Games Took Only 12 Years (questalerts.com)

submitted 5 days ago by Rider@eviltoast.org to c/games@lemmy.world

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[-] TheFeatureCreature@lemmy.world 64 points 5 days ago

They can take as long as they want. After Starfield, I have zero confidence that TES6 will be any good. Bethesda has some serious issues they need to sort out with their production pipelines and methodology and they need to rethink how they approach story-driven open world experiences.

Every time I see a Starfield video and see the camera turbozoom in on a character as they deliver a forced, robotic line with terrifying facial animations - I get teleported right back to 2006. It is very obvious this studio does not know what they are doing and has learned little from their previous releases and from other contemporary games.

[-] PunchingWood@lemmy.world 16 points 5 days ago

I've said it before, and I believe that Bethesda is going to completely mess up TES6.

There are several issues with Bethesda, the major problem being they seem to have lost all creativity and they're trying to apply the same old formula to every single game with minimal changes. Then hope that modders will keep it on life support. And sadly that's how I found myself having to play their games, because without many mods it was often awful to play on PC, and I still didn't have fun thanks to repetitive content and forgettable story and characters.

Another is that they're clinging on to that damn dilapidated game engine of theirs like it's their precious baby. It's an awful engine, insanely outdated, limited and performs terribly. Starfield is a great example of how awful it is, but every game before that has had major performance issues and limitations as well.

The only redeeming feature might be that TES6 probably won't be a procedurally generated world. They really showed how repetitive and boring it can get with procedural generation. And a handcrafted world would have so much more character. They could perhaps use the procedural engine for dungeons, and enemies and their bases, or items found through the world, but not the world itself.

But I'm afraid it's just going to be a near Skyrim carbon-copy. It'll likely be an okay looking game with an okay looking game world, but I bet gameplay will be mostly unaltered from what they've been doing for over 20 years. Same old basic combat, same talking heads with lifeless animations, same sneaking and magic gameplay, etc.

[-] ProfessorProteus@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago

Agreed. They need to retire that dogshit engine and write a new one. I know that's a huge and expensive undertaking, which is why they probably won't. TES6 will sell like hotcakes on its name alone.

I had been looking forward to TES6 for so damn long, but at this point the most exciting thing we can look forward to is the crazy glitches that speedrunners will discover. That is, if they're not just the same glitches we've alll seen time and again.

[-] Cethin@lemmy.zip 2 points 5 days ago

Well before Starfield came out they said they couldn't make TES6 yet because the technology didn't exist. Starfield's development, I assume, was partially about building this technology. That makes me assume it's the procedural generation or the ships. If the former, I doubt it's the main game world or TES6 is fucked. I would suspect maybe something like plains of oblivion that are proc-gen or something.

To me, one of the biggest things that make Starfield feel so bad is the planets are so boring, specifically because there's too much to do (and it's all meaningless). Every location is surrounded by the exact same amount of points of interest. There's no barren areas and more habituated areas. It's all this bland uniform container of "content" with nothing making any of it stand out. Proc-gen only works when it can be used to make a lot of boring empty space with a few interesting unique things to find. I don't think they've figured that out yet.

[-] BruceTwarzen@lemm.ee 3 points 5 days ago

I found it extremely funny that todd said that planets are empty and boring, because irl, planets would be boring and and empty wastelands. Why do you make a boring game then todd? Are you stupid? Is that your dream game? Imagine you can make any videogame that you want and you go: i want it to be set in the middle desert.

Oh so there are gonna be pyramids, bandits and other points of interest?

No the desert is pretty empty and boring.

Oh, sounds pretty good.

I do not understand why Bethesda fans even deal with that shit. They must laugh their asses off every time someone doesn't refund starfield.

[-] Cethin@lemmy.zip 1 points 5 days ago

Honestly, I mostly agree they should be mostly empty and boring. They aren't though. They're absolutely full (of really boring stuff). There are no empty spaces. If there were then finding something would feel special. However, anywhere you land it shows you at least like ten points of interest nearby. I don't think there's anywhere on any planet that isn't inhabited despite supposedly no one colonizing most of the planets. Every location is generic, so none of its unique and you never find anything special.

Excitement and fun is built on the juxtaposition of the opposite. If everything is equally interesting, nothing is interesting. For example, in some space games finding life on other planets is exciting, because it's rare. In other games there's life on nearly every planet and it's boring because it's not different than anywhere else. To use loot drops as an example, if every drop was a legendary, legendary drop would be boring. You need most drops to be bland common items so the legendary drop stands out.

[-] Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world 4 points 5 days ago

I think they really don't believe in storytelling in the way traditional game writers do. They think enough simulation can replace good writing.

Personally I'm certain they are wrong, and it's tragic that they own the Elder Scrolls IP.

[-] DarkThoughts@fedia.io 7 points 5 days ago

Simulation? What? That's the one aspect that has been gotten worse with every Bethesda title. Their storytelling was always garbage. I never finished the main quest in Skyrim even, and the one in Oblivion was trash, the one in Morrowind barely existing. This was never the strong suit of their games.

[-] Cethin@lemmy.zip 1 points 5 days ago

I don't agree that all of it has always been trash, but the quest writing mostly always has. For your Skyrim example, I went to the midnight release. I completed the main quest within a 24h period IIRC and I remember just being incredibly disappointed. I haven't finished it again since. Honestly, Skyrim in general is a letdown besides the world they built, although they could have done a lot more to make it more interesting and feel more lived in and real instead of an amusement park.

Their writing in the past has been really strong in world building. They've had really interesting lore and reasons for us to be doing what we're doing. Most of the people who did that are gone now though, and they have been for a while, so I don't expect it in the future.

[-] DarkThoughts@fedia.io 1 points 5 days ago

Dialog camera can be disabled.

[-] Venicon@lemmy.world 1 points 5 days ago

I did this for a recent attempted playthrough and vastly prefer it, maybe cos Skyrim was my first Bethesda game.

[-] JackbyDev@programming.dev 0 points 5 days ago

STOP! YOU'VE VIOLATED THE LAW!

[-] Sylvartas@lemmy.world 0 points 5 days ago

Bethesda has some serious issues they need to sort out with their production pipelines

That's a strange way to spell "Todd Howard" /s

[-] acosmichippo@lemmy.world -3 points 5 days ago

ES6 will be fine. Starfield was doomed from the beginning because of the silly space exploration structure.

[-] CleoTheWizard@lemmy.world 1 points 5 days ago

Not if they keep on their BS. Let’s look at Fallout 4. The engine is absolutely the weakest part of the game. Can’t even keep 60fps in the city on any settings or on consoles. Frame times are all over the place. And the game isn’t even that pretty, it’s very ugly and textures are real bad. The story was pretty awful and boring, the writing in every way was forgettable.

So that’s why ES6 is screwed. It’s been downhill since Skyrim and even releasing a better looking Skyrim in 2028 on the PS6 isn’t going to cut it. It’ll be the most expensive budget title out there.

[-] DontMakeMoreBabies@lemm.ee 33 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Starfield was boring as hell and now they're too scared to try ES6 (because it'll be garbage).

I would love to be wrong...

[-] ampersandrew@lemmy.world 27 points 5 days ago

They're not too scared to make Elder Scrolls VI. It's their next project. It's just not coming until probably 2028 at the rate they've been working lately, and it'll feel 15 years out of date this time instead of only 10.

[-] dinckelman@lemmy.world 7 points 5 days ago

This is, more than likely, exactly what will end up happening.

They know Creation Engine is not fit for the task. They know the writing is stale and uninspired. They know that it'll more than likely be aimed towards mainstream success, rather than being a good rpg, making it even more simplified.

I really hope i'm wrong, but I'm not holding my breath for TES6 anymore

[-] Venicon@lemmy.world 11 points 5 days ago

Skyrim will always hold a special place in my heart, it’s almost like a simpler time.

Starfield damaged Bethesda for me though. To spend 25 years on it in total and for it to be as it released was very disappointing. I mean basics like, no city maps or land vehicles? Every base you come across having the same bodies in the same place with the same loot? I want to love it, they can do things I can’t even imagine (I can’t program Jack shit) but for that to be the end point of their decades of labour just doesn’t add up for me.

[-] superkret@feddit.org 9 points 5 days ago

To be fair, Skyrim still holds up today.

[-] PunchingWood@lemmy.world 29 points 5 days ago

Yeah, but not thanks to Bethesda though.

[-] Rider@eviltoast.org 11 points 5 days ago

True, but Bethesda not only embraced modders with open arms—they encouraged them! You can’t say the same for most other game devs; the majority either ignore modders like they're pests or, worse, are outright hostile towards them.

[-] catloaf@lemm.ee 1 points 5 days ago

Well except for that part where the native mod tools suck ass and every creation club update breaks a bunch of mods

[-] acosmichippo@lemmy.world 5 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

unless you already played it and want something new.

[-] lukhan@fedia.io 2 points 5 days ago

skyrim is ever lasting, if there is no skyrim is heaven then it isn't heaven

[-] acosmichippo@lemmy.world 7 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

wasted too much time on starfield, FO76, and mobile games. that's all they have released since 2018. and if you don't count VR editions or special editions then you're back to 2016 with FO4.

8 years of junk. They could have made TWO elder scrolls in that time.

[-] aesthelete@lemmy.world 3 points 5 days ago

It's almost like they suck at making games now.

[-] nek0d3r@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago

Join the dark side -- stop taking your pills and enjoy Elder Scrolls 6 and Titanfall 3 with the rest of us

[-] scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 2 points 5 days ago

TES6 isn't real. It isn't real. Do you see it? Is it in the room with us here?

[-] devilish666@lemmy.world 1 points 5 days ago

As long as Todd can milking TES5 there's no TES6

[-] lukhan@fedia.io -1 points 5 days ago

I hate the way most of the ES fans talk and think about this. I see where the frustraition is coming from but for the most part all of the hate is baseless, you all act like you have seen even a pixel of it. Yes the last few games were not their best to say the least but i belive they had a reason for most of the fumbles. While sometimes it was just plain "we need more money" other times itwas a bit more complex with how starfield was a passion project which they made to test out the limits of their game engine. it was never supposed to be a ground braking game just a way to monotize their testing while giving the hungry fans something to play with while they wait. There is no solid proof or reason to balive that TESVI will be trash. It may not be as good as skyrim in some aspects but i belive it will at least surpass it in some other ones. Another thing which bugs me is people being angry at how long it takes them to make it while you know they did projects in between, would you reather a buggy unplayable mess now or a fully flashed out game a year or two later. The best thing to do is wait and see. Don't make it harder for everyone to be excited. I may have missed some things in this post so if anyone wants to debate me feel free to reply!

-Cheers!

[-] BurnSquirrel@lemmy.world -3 points 5 days ago

They should release it as early access and just fix all the crap people find wrong with it

[-] ddplf@szmer.info 2 points 5 days ago

no.

[-] BurnSquirrel@lemmy.world 1 points 5 days ago

Why not? are you expecting a fully game on release? When have they ever put out something that wasn't fixed by modders?

Better yet, I'd like to see them put out more of a platform than a game with maybe a built in missions they can call "Cannon", sort of like the ARMA series does. Let the people build it, they have been anyway.