Elder Scrolls The dumbing down of The Elder Scrolls

[taxalot]

There is nothing new here ; but I think the point is made in a quite clear way.

 

[evdk]

Too much time spent on sucking Bethesda's dick but nevertheless some sound points are made here. Too bad he does not include Daggerfall in the comparison, it would make for an even starker contrast to the later decline.

 

[DalekFlay]

Watched five minutes and thought it was too common sense to bother with the whole thing. Maybe it gets more surprising later on.

In any event each game since Oblivion has been a little better, in my opinion. Maybe eventually they'll get back to Morrowind quality, given enough time.

 

[evdk]

In any event each game since Oblivion has been a little better, in my opinion.

That's one game, so while technically true, I fail to see a trend here.

 

[JarlFrank]

In any event each game since Oblivion has been a little better, in my opinion.

That's one game, so while technically true, I fail to see a trend here.

Well, there was also Failout 3.

 

[evdk]

Right. Given the contents of OP I figured we were talking about TES.

 

[felipepepe]

FFS, one could tell that video in 5 minutes... he spend so much time going in circles at the start....

 

[Glyphwright]

He makes some good points, but much of the video is just clutter or pedantic babble about meta-things that should have been cut from the final version. I can't stand commenters/reviewers who talk too much about the structure of their video instead of the main topic. Confused Matthew also suffers from this pedantism, although it's the least of his problems. "In this video I am going to be talking about blah-blah-blah, and I will point out that yadda-yadda, and I could have covered this and that but I'm not going to" - just cut the crap and get on with the point you're making already, we'll understand that you're talking about blah-blah-blah and yadda-yadda once you're actually talking about it. "Now I will very slowly recite the fifteen chapters, seven hundred points and fifty million subpoints my review is subdivided into along with each and every ordinal number, even though they are written and numbered right here on the screen as well as below the video" - no need to treat your audience like brainless morons, especially since this is what you're complaining about in regards to Bethpizda.

"I hope I made my point in a concise manner" - no, you haven't.

 

[Delterius]

I'm assuming you people didn't skip to the 'main arguments' and spent more than 30 seconds at the video? Most of it is what passes for common sense in the Codex.

By the way, what accent is that?

 

[Manjuice Nutella]

Oblivion was better than Fallout 3 Nothing can be worse than Fallout 3.

 

[Glyphwright]

Most of it is what passes for common sense in the Codex.

The Codex seems to think that Skyrimjob is an improvement over Oblivion, which I found to be blatantly untrue upon actually playing the game and comparing it to what I remember of Oblivion. The fancy-pants accent guy nicely articulates the fact that Skyrim continues the trend of hand-holding and finger-pointing the only right path for the player to take in quests or main plot, it features even fewer choices and consequences than Oblivion (let alone Morrowind), it forces the player to rely completely on the quest-arrow (most quests are built/written in a way that precludes a player from knowing where to go and what to do if the arrow is disabled), and it nullifies the impact the player has on the game world - the game doesn't care if the player's chosen profession is incompatible with their current background, and the characters do not care about or perceive anything at all about the player. Skyrim is far worse than Oblivion in any manner that actually matters, aside from technical aspects. It's boring and unrewarding to play, and "plastic" is exactly the adjective I had in mind while trying to play it - it looks, sounds, and feels plastic and fake. More so than Vomitlivion.

 

[Delterius]

Oh, that. I wouldn't know, I'm only playing Morrowind now and I won't ever bother with Oblivion. But from a outsider's perspective, I'd say Skyrim has one thing going for it: setting. Not like frozen north with vikings is special or anything, but it does have some kind of inner conflict that Oblivion's High Fantasyland seems to lack (beyond super bandits, that is).

 

[DalekFlay]

Right. Given the contents of OP I figured we were talking about TES.

I meant Bethesda Games Studios' output in general. Shivering Isles > Fallout 3 > The Pitt > Point Lookout > Skyrim > Dragonborn is a clear upward curve, in my opinion. Doesn't mean they're great or anywhere close to Morrowind but an upward curve none-the-less. I have hope that Fallout 4 is better still.

 

[DalekFlay]

The Codex seems to think that Skyrimjob is an improvement over Oblivion, which I found to be blatantly untrue upon actually playing the game and comparing it to what I remember of Oblivion. The fancy-pants accent guy nicely articulates the fact that Skyrim continues the trend of hand-holding and finger-pointing the only right path for the player to take in quests or main plot, it features even fewer choices and consequences than Oblivion (let alone Morrowind), it forces the player to rely completely on the quest-arrow (most quests are built/written in a way that precludes a player from knowing where to go and what to do if the arrow is disabled), and it nullifies the impact the player has on the game world - the game doesn't care if the player's chosen profession is incompatible with their current background, and the characters do not care about or perceive anything at all about the player. Skyrim is far worse than Oblivion in any manner that actually matters, aside from technical aspects. It's boring and unrewarding to play, and "plastic" is exactly the adjective I had in mind while trying to play it - it looks, sounds, and feels plastic and fake. More so than Vomitlivion.

o_O

Every bullet point you just listed is better in Skyrim than Oblivion, in my experience.

 

[Machocruz]

There are key things Bethesda refuses to do that will keep them from attaining any appreciable incline, as well as things they insist on doing. They just don't have it to produce anything but banality, shittiness, and boredom.

 

[Mastermind]

Too much time spent on sucking Bethesda's dick but nevertheless some sound points are made here. Too bad he does not include Daggerfall in the comparison, it would make for an even starker contrast to the later decline.

No it wouldn't, Daggerfall was shit.

 

[Machocruz]

No it wouldn't, Everything is shit.

fixed

 

[evdk]

Too much time spent on sucking Bethesda's dick but nevertheless some sound points are made here. Too bad he does not include Daggerfall in the comparison, it would make for an even starker contrast to the later decline.

No it wouldn't, Daggerfall was shit.

Coming from you that's a glowing recommendation, so my point stands.

 

[Mastermind]

It doesn't matter who it's coming from, once character generation is complete Daggerfall can be safely uninstalled without missing anything of note.

 

[Sranchammer]

*reinstalls Morrowind*

Dammit

 

[DalekFlay]

Just watched this entirely. Agree with most of it, especially quest arrows and item scarcity (I would more say item placement) but I do disagree on two points:

1. Talking about hardware and computational power is off. Graphics don't make good games, for one thing, and perhaps more on point he admonishes Bethesda for wanting more money but then seems to demand the high detail graphics development that requires massive budgets and hence more money.

2. Dialogue... Morrowind dialogue was more robust and well written WHEN IT WAS UNIQUE. I love Morrowind, don't get me wrong, but 9 times out of 10 an NPC said identical random shit that every other NPC was saying. I actually like that in Skyrim especially every NPC has unique dialogue and personality, outside of a few random farmhands and barmaids.

 

[felipepepe]

I think that hardware does play a vital part on it... modders have added very nice stuff like making the cities open (without loading and you can ride a horse inside) and added tons of detaisl to it, things that where cut due consoles limitation. Those are mostly cosmetic, but who knows what kind of ideias they had that were limited due consoles as well?

 

[DalekFlay]

I think that hardware does play a vital part on it... modders have added very nice stuff like making the cities open (without loading and you can ride a horse inside) and added tons of detaisl to it, things that where cut due consoles limitation. Those are mostly cosmetic, but who knows what kind of ideias they had that were limited due consoles as well?

Well Morrowind had open cities. I would guess it was hard to have open cities with the level of graphical fidelity in Skyrim, so it still roots in graphics. I'm fine with saying tech impacts more the just pure visuals, but I mean at some point it has to be "good enough" for the audience size you can count on or you need to increase that audience size through casualizing.

 

[felipepepe]

I can imagine that at various points of the development, the hardware limitation made a debate on gameplay/mechanincs vs. graphics (i.e., make animal packs larger or raise the animal texture), and due it's casual audience, graphics were placed as priority...

 

[Lyric Suite]

Don't listen to Mastershit, Daggerfall is still best in the series.