Game News Oblivion dev diary and screens

[Saint_Proverbius]

Yeah, that works all the time.

I can hear his will breaking like the sound of an oak tree in a hurricane! He can not resist the taunts and dares!

YOU HEAR ME, SMILEY! SUCCOMB!

 

[LlamaGod]

I doesnt really say much about being an RPG, just that you can have Thief-copied stealth actions in the game.

 

[Reklar]

Wow, most of those screenshots look really nice, although I think the minotaur looks pretty crappy compared to the other models. If my computer could run the game, and more importantly it wasn't a boring cRPG lite, I'd probably buy it. The only question I have is when did Bethesda become a division of ZeniMax Media Inc., or has it always been one and I'd just never heard of it before? I always thought they were an independent developer.

-Reklar
(a Fallout/RPG fan)

Prior to 1999, Bethesda Softworks was part of a company called Media Technology, which also consisted of a division called XLTranslab that did production graphics and design. Bethesda Softworks was founded in 1986. Been around a while.

In the summer of 1999, Media Technology became ZeniMax Media Inc, a new media company that consisted of Bethesda Softworks (games), Vir2l (web content & design), e-Nexus Studios (video content), and ZeniMax Technology (R&D, where I first started working in '99). After the dot bomb dried up the market for web development and new media, the company consolidated and moved fully into the video game market. And thanks largely to Morrowind's continuing success, the company is doing exceptionally well.

Now the company is comprised of Bethesda Softworks, publisher; Bethesda Game Studios, developer (where I've been working since '01), and ViR2l, publisher of mobile games. We also have a product line of published budget titles called "Mud Duck".

We use the Bethesda Game Studios label now to distinguish internally developed titles (like Oblivion and Fallout 3) from titles we publish (like Cthulhu). BGS has two studios -- one that makes the RPG's, and another that so far has been focusing on the IHRA drag racing titles (but is expanding).

For more info on the corporate side of things, click here.

Wow, thank you for the in-depth answer, MrSmileyFaceDude. I appreciate your professionalism despite my negative comment towards your company's most recently released game. If this sort of interaction with Bethesda continues I'm afraid I'll lose a great deal of my cynicism for the future of the Fallout license. Not that this would be a bad thing. :D

-Reklar
(a Fallout/RPG fan)

 

[Vandal]

Yeah, the new screens look good, but I can't wait to see some video footage of the game--hopefully we're not too far from seeing that. If the visuals hold up once they're moving, giddyup!

 

[Foamhead]

Hehe well, we'll let you know about that when we're ready. We tend to keep quiet about product development

I'd keep quiet too if I knew the second I announced real time, first person perspective or anything else the Fallout fanboys will hate that they would throw us down and gang rape us until we didn't have assholes anymore. I don't know why your company bought the rights but God be with you brother.

 

[Taoreich]

Hehe well, we'll let you know about that when we're ready. We tend to keep quiet about product development

Well shit, at least throw a bone out there about Cthulu. Q1 is fast coming to a close!

 

[Screaming_life]

"Graphics look great" - bla bla, who gives?

I say: make the graphics crappy and have a proper seamless world!

 

[Sol Invictus]

What do the development of the graphics have to do with the seamlessness of the world, Screaming Life? The artists aren't the ones programming the game, and the programmers aren't making those pretty models.

It doesn't have to be one or the other, and Morrowind wasn't so great with its 'large, seamless environment', either. It just felt like a big empty game devoid of content. A wasteland, if you will.

 

[Fez]

The only way they would be connected is through the overall budget of the game.

 

[NeutralMilkHotel]

Hehe well, we'll let you know about that when we're ready. We tend to keep quiet about product development

I'd keep quiet too if I knew the second I announced real time, first person perspective or anything else the Fallout fanboys will hate that they would throw us down and gang rape us until we didn't have assholes anymore. I don't know why your company bought the rights but God be with you brother.

I can see the Bethesda FO3 developer's reaction to this:

"Oh noes, a couple hundred people on the internet with too much time on their hands are writing angry messages on role-playing forums... SAY IT ISN'T SO, MY ASS WILL BE A BLOODY PULP WHEN THEY'RE DONE TYPING. SWEET LORD, I WILL NEED DIVINE PROTECTION AGAINST THEIR KEYBOARDS, WOE IS ME!!!"

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

What do the development of the graphics have to do with the seamlessness of the world, Screaming Life? The artists aren't the ones programming the game, and the programmers aren't making those pretty models.

It doesn't have to be one or the other, and Morrowind wasn't so great with its 'large, seamless environment', either. It just felt like a big empty game devoid of content. A wasteland, if you will.

The less complex the environment, the easier it is to make seemless.

 

[Screaming_life]

What do the development of the graphics have to do with the seamlessness of the world, Screaming Life? The artists aren't the ones programming the game, and the programmers aren't making those pretty models.

It doesn't have to be one or the other, and Morrowind wasn't so great with its 'large, seamless environment', either. It just felt like a big empty game devoid of content. A wasteland, if you will.

Basically what Saint_Proverbius just said!

If you're pushing the boundaries of graphics, the smaller the locations the more detailed they can be and the higher res textures you can have.

Seamless world graphics just can't be as good as small corridor level graphics. This is why i said make them "crappy". It's admitedly a reactionary statement but my point is that if it were a seamless world then in relative terms the graphics would be crap, well this is what many would say anyway. Xenus is a prime example.

I just think that the focus should be reversed. Design the game with gameplay in mind (seamless world is better) then add the graphics to what ever level is possible.

Anyway, Morrowind wasn't seamless - there were loading screens... this is why there weren't any windows!

 

[Foamhead]

can see the Bethesda FO3 developer's reaction to this:

"Oh noes, a couple hundred people on the internet with too much time on their hands are writing angry messages on role-playing forums... SAY IT ISN'T SO, MY ASS WILL BE A BLOODY PULP WHEN THEY'RE DONE TYPING. SWEET LORD, I WILL NEED DIVINE PROTECTION AGAINST THEIR KEYBOARDS, WOE IS ME!!!"

I was speaking in purely a metaphorical sense :D I can't even go to the No Mutants Allowed forums because they treat that game like it is a religious experience. I wish Bethesda would just re-release Fallout 2, with the 2 crossed out and a big 3 written over it. Then they can finally all have the sequel they truly desire.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

I was speaking in purely a metaphorical sense :D I can't even go to the No Mutants Allowed forums because they treat that game like it is a religious experience. I wish Bethesda would just re-release Fallout 2, with the 2 crossed out and a big 3 written over it. Then they can finally all have the sequel they truly desire.

If they killed the bugs in Fallout 2, updated the graphics, fleshed out the ending so it actually made some sense and wasn't something out of left field, and perhaps homogenized the setting so it wasn't all THEME TOWNY - I'd buy it.

Oh yeah, and scrapped about two thirds of the easter eggs.

 

[Reklar]

I was speaking in purely a metaphorical sense :D I can't even go to the No Mutants Allowed forums because they treat that game like it is a religious experience. I wish Bethesda would just re-release Fallout 2, with the 2 crossed out and a big 3 written over it. Then they can finally all have the sequel they truly desire.

If they killed the bugs in Fallout 2, updated the graphics, fleshed out the ending so it actually made some sense and wasn't something out of left field, and perhaps homogenized the setting so it wasn't all THEME TOWNY - I'd buy it.

Oh yeah, and scrapped about two thirds of the easter eggs.

What he said. :D And Foamhead, compared to most of the drivel labeled as a cRPG nowdays, Fallout IS a religious experience.

-Reklar
(a Fallout/RPG fan)

 

[Foamhead]

People take video games way too seriously. I'm going to really freak people out now:

I liked Baldurs Gate 2, I think it was better then Fallout. I liked all the jokes and pop culture references in Fallout 2. I liked KotOR and it's sequel to a lesser degree.


Holy shit i'm like the antichrist of PC elitest snobs and Fallout geeks everywhere.

Boo.

 

[Naked_Lunch]

Boy, you better run. The snobs here will hunt you down like a black guy at a klan meeting.

 

[NeutralMilkHotel]

People take video games way too seriously. I'm going to really freak people out now:

I liked Baldurs Gate 2, I think it was better then Fallout. I liked all the jokes and pop culture references in Fallout 2. I liked KotOR and it's sequel to a lesser degree.


Holy shit i'm like the antichrist of PC elitest snobs and Fallout geeks everywhere.

Boo.

whatcha doin here boy? We don't take kindly to yer kind arand this here parts. Ya betta git on out of here before you git a lickin.


In all seriousness. Fuck what the others think. You like what you like.

 

[Country_Gravy]

People take video games way too seriously. I'm going to really freak people out now:

I liked Baldurs Gate 2, I think it was better then Fallout. I liked all the jokes and pop culture references in Fallout 2. I liked KotOR and it's sequel to a lesser degree.


Holy shit i'm like the antichrist of PC elitest snobs and Fallout geeks everywhere.

Boo.

Eat shit you commie fuckwad!!!

 

[HanoverF]

People take video games way too seriously. I'm going to really freak people out now:

I liked Baldurs Gate 2, I think it was better then Fallout. I liked all the jokes and pop culture references in Fallout 2. I liked KotOR and it's sequel to a lesser degree.


Holy shit i'm like the antichrist of PC elitest snobs and Fallout geeks everywhere.

Boo.

OMG... you're a moron... omg there are morons in the world, I'm freaking out!!!




Eh

 

[Reklar]

People take video games way too seriously. I'm going to really freak people out now:

I liked Baldurs Gate 2, I think it was better then Fallout. I liked all the jokes and pop culture references in Fallout 2. I liked KotOR and it's sequel to a lesser degree.


Holy shit i'm like the antichrist of PC elitest snobs and Fallout geeks everywhere.

Boo.

To each their own, Foamhead. Fallout is my favorite cRPG more because of a preference for a science fiction setting, turn-based combat, and free form, classless gameplay than anything else. I didn't mind the pop-culture references too much in Fallout 2, but overal I think it did weaken the storyline and divert the focus of the player too often. As for Baldur's Gate and it's sequel, I like them both, especially when they focused more on character interaction, but ultimately the games were just too damn long and restrictive feeling to hold my interest and so I haven't finished either of them yet.

-Reklar
(a Fallout/RPG fan)

 

[triCritical]

As long as I can beat the hell out of a chest to open it instead of being stealthy and playing tumbler minigames.

As far as I am concerned, when dude said picking locks will be much more then using a tool, it had mini-game written all over it. I am just hoping its not at lame as Wiz8's mini game which made absolutely no sense. Honestly lock picking was not one of MW's problems.

 

[Jed]

Holy shit i'm like the antichrist of PC elitest snobs and Fallout geeks everywhere.

No, you just have poor taste in CRPGs.

 

[Diogo Ribeiro]

Yes, God forbid any form of entertaiment be taken seriously.

 

[Foamhead]

No, you just have poor taste in CRPGs.

Check out my equally qualifiable reply:

No...you do!

Bwa ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha kneel before me puny mortals.