• The Snark Urge@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      19
      ·
      3 months ago

      In August 2023, Todd Howard described his intent behind The Elder Scrolls VI as wanting to make “the ultimate fantasy-world simulator”,

      That’s when you should have known. TES is at heart a novelistic series that is owned by a studio whose entire style is now “short term crafting and gameplay loops occurring within a physics simulation”.

      • boonhet@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        edit-2
        3 months ago

        The same could be said of Skyrim, but tons of people loved it and it’s still a great framework for modding if Bethesda themselves don’t give it a good storyline.

        • megopie@lemmy.blahaj.zone
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          9
          ·
          3 months ago

          Skyrim had a narrative, it had stories that raised curiosity enough to engage with the gameplay loops. Some of the side quest were even pretty good, the main quest was meh.

          Increasingly Bethesda seems to be building their games around gameplay loops with narrative increasingly ancillary. They’ve optimized for grind without giving a reason to grind.

        • The Snark Urge@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          3 months ago

          Quite so, but I’ll be damned if fans are ever going to redo TES6 in whatever engine they make for (god forbid) TES10, forty years from now.

    • arefx@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      14
      ·
      3 months ago

      This has been obvious for a few years now. I used to get shit on for voicing this opinion a couple years ago and now it seems almost universally agreed upon. Bethesda is truly shit now.