The Complete and Utter Downfall of Bethesda: From Cutting Edge to CREATIVELY BANKRUPT

[@BigDanGaming]

Starfield Shattered Space DLC Review kzbin.info/www/bejne/nHyZf6WBh7h7btk

[@wolves5360]

hahaha no review codes for you Big Dan lol. Only kidding. You are right. A good video. Bethesda is arrogant sadly. Could Bethesda be saved yes . Will they be saved. No. Todd is too arrogant and Phil Spencer has a failure to supervise mentality when it comes to Todd. He must hold Todd in some reverence and is hesitant to question his decisions or to overrule him. The success of the Fallout tv show rightfully or wrongfully will be accredited to Todd making any appeal by fans to Phil to push Todd likely to fall on deaf ears. Much the same with Pagliarulo. There is no push being made on him from above to improve anything about the games so he feels he doesn't need to do anything. As Starfield made its money back and likely a profit as well on launch Bethesda is content to rest on those laurels. And despite some modders saying the game isn't worthwhile modding others modders continue to add more content and eventually someone may make a breakthrough and make some some sort of major mod that will spur more sales aka a Starfield version of Fallout London or Enderal and push sales even further w/o any effort on Bethesda's part. So Beth doesn't have to do much of anything except turn out more half baked dlcs and add on like Shattered Space and let modders improve the game while they work on ESVI.

[@JGD199]

I am of course hopeful for a Bethesda comeback story (like almost all of us), but the prospect of that looks even more bleak after this DLC. They have lost their way, and they seem totally disconnected from their audience. Do they even poll their audience? Do they even play their old games (for fun)? Do they not play-test their games? Look at the Steam Reviews for Sharted Space, they’re in the gutter. They better wake up before they become the next Ubisoft, no company is too big to fail. My hype for ES6 couldn’t be any lower, and they really screwed up chasing after Starfield & Fallout 76 instead of making ES6. A sequel 15-18 years later is RIDICULOUS. Let Obsidian make a Fallout game, get better writers, get better insight from your own audience, and get your sh!t together Bethesda

[@monamipluspen9560]

Bethesda has done nothing "fresh". Keep in mind, Baulder's Gate 2 was out not all that long before Oblivion, and it's every bit as good as 3. Watching gaming take a step down because of this grifting company was heartbreaking, but it seems like people have finally woken up.

[@sergeesteves]

Starfield is the a great game even more so with the latest updates. If you like Starfield, its immersion, the dialogues, its side quests, you might like Shattered Space, it's a very good side quest, very well written in my opinion. The thing is that the DLC remains a little expensive for the moment, compared to the content that is offered. It's probably this value for money that probably disappointed some, or people who thought that this DLC was going to change their entire experience, but it's just a DLC, nothing more, nothing less, it's not Starfield 2.

[@thischannel1071]

Things went wrong with Bethesda when Todd Howard took control as a lead designer. Since then, it's been steadily downhill for their games, while Bethesda itself hasn't changed. It's the people playing their games have changed, while Bethesda has continued to do the exact-same thing they ever did under Todd Howard, which is take something pre-existing, strip it of some of its depth and complexity, and then release it in a dumbed-down package compared to what came before. That's all that Todd's Bethesda has ever done. Starfield is exactly what Skyrim was. I was saying the same things that people now acknowledge about Bethesda games when Oblivion released, and when Skyrim released, and was raked over the coals for it. The difference is that millions of people were new to gaming in 2011, and they mistakenly thought that what they were experiencing was something new and innovative, and they created a mythology around Bethesda to hype their own experiences. But the lack of Bethesda quality, and the monotonous and superficial gameplay they offer is the exact same thing they offered in each of their previous games, with each next one dumbed-down a bit more than the previous, and all featuring the same abysmal writing from Emil Pagliarulo. Todd has never been a good game designer, and Emil is one of the worst writers to have worked in any industry. They are both comprehensively incompetent and without a clue about what makes a game good and work. Millions of people who got into gaming as kids with the earlier console gens have just grown, while Bethesda, which has never grown under Todd's leadership, but only regressed, has not.

[@ledumpsterfire6474]

I'm kind of a broken record on this, but listening to their GDC talk on narrative design was really eye opening. No passion there whatsoever, just a calculated task of making and selling a product in the most efficient way possible. They pretty much say right in the talk that anytime somebody came up with a cool idea, their first thought was always, "how much can we trim this back to something quick and easy to implement with as little effort as possible." The leads put accountants on the creative teams and told them to crunch the numbers until a game appeared.

[@ocoro174]

many such cases

[@TheBHAitken]

I think it is called "Minimal Contractual Obligation". Most of the execs retired one week after release, able to now cash out their shares now that they were converted to Microsoft stock.

[@ledumpsterfire6474]

@@ocoro174 You're not wrong, but most of the other cases were like that all along. Gaming was an industry and they're producing a product for capital. There were never any illusions there. Bethesda, on the other hand, was full of passion, starting until around the Oblivion era and only getting progressively worse from there. That makes it feel like more of a betrayal than when you look at someone like, say, Ubisoft.

[@SimuLord]

As someone in the accounting profession...what you got against us, man? Ehh, who am I kidding. I had a good goof at the expense of our lead cost accountant when I gave her a can of beans and said "can you count these before I donate them to the office food drive?"

[@gromigur]

As someone who learned gamedev(not practicing)the guidance of:"strip anything away till you have the core experience" is a greate rule. Many indie devs createt great experiences by focusing their very limited time on the main fun loop. Not trimming the excess is something we see Ubisoft do. 100+ collectibles/towers/images/ and so on. Didn't make their games better it is just stuffing you can do once all else is done(or your team is big). And they didn't do it in this game either. They added huge worlds with a lot of assets(definitly time consuming) but this time they didn't ask how can we trim it down. I still remember them saying (don't know which gdc talk you are referencing):" every dungeon should have a shortcut or alternate exit cause running back isn't fun." and now they let you run to the quest and back. maybe they lost all passion, maybe accountants have to say yes or it doesn't happen, but at least to me the basic of trimming all but the core experience away has always been helpfull.

[@daviddesrosiers1946]

The only thing that hasn't fallen at Bethesda are Todd and Emil's egos. Those have warped right off of Starfield's empty map.

[@5115neo]

You thought you cooked with that one lmao

[@daviddesrosiers1946]

@@5115neo Emil would expire if you removed him from the bubble of his own farts he lives in.

[@easydayez]

Yup they both are single handily destroying the studio. Todd himself said Star field was his game. 🤮 which makes total since it’s a complete flop

[@dingickso4098]

Keep seeing the name everywhere but still dont know who tf Emil is.

[@daviddesrosiers1946]

@@dingickso4098 He's Lead Designer at Bethesda. He's been there for a very long time. Personally, I think Fallout Far Harbor was his best work.

[@awesomehpt8938]

16 times the downfall

[@dammyoyesanya4656]

I will always love seeing the downfall of this studio. They’re mediocre and people are now seeing them for what they are

[@mrm7058]

Starfield has certainly 16 times the loading screens.

[@comradeweedity1648]

​@@dammyoyesanya4656Nobody wants to see them fall, we want to see them get better. Not having Bethesda around would be a shame.

[@simondesanta5774]

​@@comradeweedity1648They should be bought out and replaced

[@pandamonium9255]

On the money.

[@asydis7764]

I don't think they can come back because they're in denial. To fix a problem, you need to acknowledge that it exists. They don't.

[@BlackJim]

Fr Fr.

[@tjhicks3600]

🗣

[@aprinnyonbreak1290]

Exactly. If there was the slightest amount of humility in any of the big names left, things wouldn't be as dire as they are. Pretty much the moment that you have the big names blaming the audience for not liking the thing they made, over acknowledging that there might be reasons people don't like the thing they made, it's over unless rapid restructuring occurs. But there's nobody left. Bethesda is currently manned not by the most talented, or people with proper humility, but the most stubborn. Everyone else is gone.

[@MrParadux]

They need a wakeup-call like Creative Assembly had recently. They have turned things around pretty nicely after a few debacles. It doesn't seem like Bethesda is in any hot water, though. Even though their titles's reviews are more mixed in recent years, they don't seem to suffer sales-wise. Even if Elder Scrolls 6 will be terrible, there will be enough sales and preorders to not have them care.

[@cdeford2]

They've already indicated that TES 6 will go down the procedural generation path. It will probably still sell though.

[@maxvegas5423]

"I use to make good games but then I took an arrow to the knee and they're laughing now" Todd 😐

[@joetavares6334]

😂 Too perfect

[@passerby5735]

The biggest red flag Starfield rose for me - besides your points - is that Bethesda and their devs were, according to Todd himself, really excited to make Starfield. It was supposed to be a passion project they had been dreaming of for years. That is damning. If your passion resulted in an empty sandbox, then the games you aren't excited to make will be worse. It's time to pass the torch to new management instead of giving their fans coloring books and expecting the modding community to save them with all the details they left out.

[@UmmerFarooq-wx4yo]

Empty on the ps5

[@sacredpower7530]

​@@UmmerFarooq-wx4yoI'm guessing you're calling everyone here a pony because not everyone likes or shills for Starfield/Bethesda? You think everybody just hate it and or them for the sake of hating and now you feel like you need to go outta your way to defend them from people criticizing them?

[@luizkp]

​@@UmmerFarooq-wx4yo gonna come back here when Microsoft announce starfield on ps5 lmao

[@jarrodbright5231]

My guess is it was a passion project for them when they started on the game. I'd guess the development process drained that passion from them pretty quickly.

[@JesiAsh]

@@jarrodbright5231 And my guess is that they used a buzzword without meaning. Saying that this is passion project does not make it a passion project.

[@samvimes9510]

Seeing Todd sitting there awkwardly at the Game Awards, watching Baldurs Gate 3 win every award while his own game was completely snubbed, was absolutely hilarious. That _should_ have been a learning lesson for him, and more importantly, for Emil Pagliarulo. That hack thinks he wrote "the great American novel" and complained that players would rather tear out the pages and make paper airplanes out of them. Well guess what Emil, BG3 was a critical and commercial success, and the writing is the central focus of that game. Turns out gamers actually DO like good stories. Incidentally, as I'm writing this, Baldurs Gate 3 has 34,888 people playing it on Steam right now. Starfield only has 4,778 people playing it right now.

[@superbuneary8819]

Tbh what sucked me into BG3 was the play style. I was a heavy action rpg pleb and never in my life I thought that I would find turn based play style fun, thought that it was so slow and boring. Lol BG3 just got me hooked into that whole thing entirely. I'd argue now if Skyrim had something like it it would be so much more fun. Which was bonkers to hear for my past self. The music was really good too.

[@samvimes9510]

@@superbuneary8819 well to be fair, turn-based games _can_ be slow and boring if the battle system lacks depth. I used to love JRPGs when I was younger but a lot of them bore me to death now because it's just you and the enemies standing in straight lines taking turns whacking each other. But if you're more open to turn-based RPGs now, I'd highly recommend Warhammer 40: Rogue Trader. The new DLC just came out and I just finished my second playthrough of the game, it's great. You might also like RPGs like Tyranny, Pillars of Eternity and Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous. All of those use a real-time-with-pause system. Basically your party and enemies fight in real time, but at any time you can pause the game, select whatever party member you want, and direct them to use a specific ability on whichever target. Tyranny would probably be the easiest for someone new to the system, and the game is relatively short (it's intended to be played multiple times because of all the different ways the story can play out).

[@superbuneary8819]

@@samvimes9510 I actually just looked it up a while ago, funny coincidence. And watched the trailer, decided to buy it this Christmas. Can't wait until then hoho. Ik what you mean with ff, I feel like with rpg mechanics now you need to be more involved to make it more fun. I'm glad BG3 became huge because now it revitalized the genre to modern gamers.

[@benl2140]

BG3 is a bit of an odd example to use, because it absolutely does take great pains to avoid excluding people who "tear out the pages and make paper airplanes out of them". See for instance how many scenarios they had to take into account to make absolutely sure you got that artifact.

[@samvimes9510]

@@benl2140 that's the whole point. Have you seen Emil's speech at the STORY conference? He was talking about Fallout 4 and he literally compared the writing in that game to "the great American novel." Then he made the comment about people tearing pages out and making paper airplanes, and THEN he complained that players would rather spend 30 hours making shacks and 20 hours looking for bobbleheads. That's how massively inflated his ego is. He thinks he wrote a literary masterpiece, and then gets mad when players ignore his garbage story and spend time on other game mechanics. The writing is front and center in Baldur's Gate 3. The writing, along with the fantastic performances by the actors, is what made people fall in love with the game. Larian didn't slap together a lazy story. Unlike Bethesda, they put so much effort into the writing that they actually went and wrote stuff that most of the playerbase will completely miss. You remember that cat in Baldurs Gate that asks if you're its mother? You can actually get Derryth Bonecloak to adopt it, but _only_ if you let her husband die in the Underdark, and then talk to her at her apothecary in the city.

[@apricus12345]

Twice the pride, double the fall.

[@nowhereman3057]

The bigger they are, the harder it feels.

[@MeJustMe101]

The more prideful, the more crying they will make when it all crumbles.

[@MagpieMcGraw]

People my clown him, but George Lucas wrote some banger lines.

[@Gamer1990100]

Bethesda won't even remaster Oblivion & fallout 3 but have no issue pumping out microtransactions & sup-par over-priced "dlc"

[@jasonruggles4622]

I really hope they never do remake Oblivion because that would put the work of all of the people making SkyOblivion work useless. I'd rather get the game from them for free because its a mod. then send them money and buy product from them then give it to Bethesda because we all know bethesda will cut out a lot and remove most of the best missions because it'll be too difficult to remake everything perfectly.

[@5115neo]

@@jasonruggles4622they’d remove “the best missions”? What are you even talking about lmao

[@5115neo]

Thank you for reminding me that the intelligence level of people crying about this on the internet is so low they that don’t even know how to spell subpar

[@Juicedbelmont]

Its sad man The Bethesda devs say "you cant please the fans, they're never happy" Like guys, oblivion and morrowind are right there,just do that, again

[@RaphaelAmbrosiusCosteau51]

Tbf microtransactions are completely normal in MMOs (I’m assuming that comment was about fo76), but that doesn’t defend them from the fact that everything they’ve put out since fallout 4 has been dogshit, and even fallout 4 isn’t nearly as good as some of their older games like Morrowind.

[@AxeGaijin]

I used to be a Bethesda fanboy, but then I took a Starfield to the knee.

[@mikejett2733]

Dang yer all poetic is shiz thus gives me the feels

[@CrniWuk]

It's older meme, sir, but it checks out.

[@Zodroo_Tint]

Starfield? Then it's too late for you. Oblivion should have been the point when you realize they are not gonna be better.

[@flyawayq5115]

I took a Fallout 4 to the balls

[@angryvaultguy]

​@@Zodroo_Tintyeah honestly oblivion was the absolute limit for me because of how casual they made it Don't get me started on Skyrim lol I have over 200 mods just to make it more like the older bathesda games

[@henrywyckoff4301]

Bethesda CAN make a comeback, but I think they're choosing not to do so. And Emil is sounding almost exactly like Baghdad Bob. "This is the best DLC ever. There are no negative reviews."

[@jasonkoroma4323]

No, not even close. I know people are big fans and all, but you got to realize when your loyalty to taken advantage of.

[@ogun6464]

If they want elder scrolls 6 to be good, they should hire someone else to make it

[@JesiAsh]

They dont... Starfield was planned to release ONLY on PlayStation and thats why this game is empty and devoid of anything personal computer could handle. Its Microsoft that BOUGH Bethesda (ZeniMax) to prevent it and released trash we have on PC. It was already stated by devs hemself that TES will not meet expectations.

[@torrb420]

​@@JesiAshWhat does that have to do with anything? Unless of course you are confirming to me yet again that a lot of this is just Pony Salt. So what happened if Starfield only released as a PS5 exclusive. A 10/10 GoTY then?

[@JesiAsh]

@@torrb420 Any game that is intended for console is a four button trash with limited gameplay, options and environment around the player.

[@Moby_d-k9p]

That aint happening. They made that mistake once and got upstaged.

[@ZhukovsBoots]

It worked for New Vegas.

[@BlamBl00]

They didn’t only get worse. Everyone else got better while they got worse.

[@Mrlighthouse1000]

You dont need to compare recent Bethesda games with other recent games to see how lazy they are, you can do it with their previous titles

[@dantran9962]

It didn’t get worse it just didn’t grow.

[@Limrasson]

@@dantran9962 Yes it did. If you think it over, you'll realize that Bethesda keeps removing old/dated elements or mechanics and then replaces them with nothing. For instance both in Morrowind and Oblivion you had a stat system, staple for RPGs. In Skyrim this was cut, replaced by a perk system. Only problem is that Oblivion already had perks associated with stats and Morrowind worked very heavily with them, both mechanically and immersively. Skyrim cut most of this and left it on the floor.

[@aprinnyonbreak1290]

​@Limrasson Add to this the straining limits of their engine resulting in bugs infesting things more and more densly over time, their writing which has degraded from mediocre with highlights of something interesting, to horrid with highlights of barely competant, and world and quest design which has degraded from interesting to what would today probably be catagorized under "AI slop" via procedurally generated locations and quests, it has definitely gotten worse. It isn't just that Bethesda has always been cardboard. They've certainly never really been supremely good at many elements of game design, but they weren't deficient. An oblivion quest or skyrim dungeon picked out of a hat may not likly be a masterwork piece of content, but there is almost always gonna be a little something going for it. That little something is gone now.

[@BlamBl00]

@@dantran9962 charging money for mods is definitely “worse”

[@ozskeeter]

"creatively" bankrupt ... that's polite

[@aqlanimations4822]

It's made in the US, with check boxes in mind over story. Look at the last 4 years, the new US idea's of fresh, is letting you put a rainbow and nouns on crap. You get a Asian game, and it's new, neat, and has an amazing stories with no PC crap. In the US depending on the race now because their lazy, I can guess if their bad or good. You know it, and I do. The fake gamers that say it's not happening are lying, Halo Just did this two days ago. The US is putting lame games, and at this Point I am here for it. You wanna Concord yourself, or ubisoft, I say go for it. The only game companies at this point, will be Capcom, and games outside of the US and UK pushing agendas crap. I want a game, not CNN lite.

[@pnoodl3s775]

@@aqlanimations4822 you really think starfield failed because of pronouns? Jfc y’all are terrified of them huh. What a boogeyman it is 😂 I guess witcher 3, BG3, cyberpunk are all shit “checkbox” games. Maybe you should find something less triggering. Thoughts and prayers to you

[@StratumPress]

You can't play a game like Cyberpunk 2077 or Baldur's Gate 3 and then try to play Starfield and think that it's on the same level as the first two.

[@maxvegas5423]

And that says a lot because cyberpunks world is very under developed say compared to GTA 5 from 2013 and Balder's Gate is a isometric turned based RPG but has great choice and roleplay but Starfield was written by window licking potatoes.

[@damienjohnson3450]

Those are my 2 go to RPG's right now. BG3 is the culmination of all the things I love about CRPG's given the high production value it deserves and CP2077 is what I view as the future of cinimatic action RPG's.

[@36inc]

​@maxvegas5423 i disagree that it days alot cyberpunk77 even broken has a great story characters and gameplay options. Even just having 3 unique prologues harkins back to dragon age origins.

[@5115neo]

You’re right. I was asleep before the intro to Baldur’s gay 3

[@5115neo]

@@damienjohnson3450Baldur’s gate 3 is trash. They just paid the reviewers to say it’s the greatest game since sliced bread and y’all repeat that because you’re peasants that have to be told what your opinions are

[@thabangme6808]

My biggest issue with Bethesda isn't the world design, character design, or even the loading screens. I don't like the loading screens, but I can bear with them. My biggest issue is the lack of RPG mechanics and in-depth RPG mechanics, such as multiple ways of completing missions with different outcomes, choosing who to side with, and evil playthroughs. You know, when Larian made Baldur's Gate 3, we said that sub-par RPGs won't make it into the market unless they have proper in-depth RPG mechanics. I would even say Owlcat Games are providing in-depth RPGs; the only thing they need to resolve is the voice acting with NPCs.

[@superbuneary8819]

I was a heavy real time action hack and slash pleb, games like dark souls etc, and also Skyrim was my cup of tea. I played Baldurs gate thinking I'll never get into it because of the turn based play style but I was so so wrong. I realized that it's actually so much more fun than just action hack and slash. It suddenly became addicting when you knew how it works. I guess it's a tribute to table top RPGs which is really good, plus all the builds that you can do that affect the battles. It's an experience and it's one of the best rpg experience I've had in a while, it's crazy because it was a game where it has loading screens, doesn't have next gen graphics and it has a difficulty curve and you have to know the system. But it's so interactive and the characters likeable what they did, they did so well. They really embraces the whole rpg mechanic genre and went all out with that, making it feel like the past where games just used to be games where you can have true fun. Bethesda can learn from that.

[@SirZipper]

@@superbuneary8819 If you're on PC try Enderal: Forgotten Stories. It's a free Skyrim conversion mod with a whole new story, handcrafted map maybe 75% the size of Skyrim, fully voiced characters with amazing backstories. Combat still plays like Skyrim but while still open world the game is designed to be played more linearly, with there being low lvl and high lvl zones instead of everything being scaled to your lvl. I just finished my first playthrough a couple days ago and it's now in my top 5 games of all time. Even calling it a conversion mod doesn't do it justice, it's a complete new game that just uses some of Skyrim's assets, and in my opinion Enderal is better than Skyrim itself.

[@kommandantvhs4994]

Reminds me of how in Fallout 4 you're giving choices that all end with the same result.

[@Shadowsoldier87]

@@kommandantvhs4994 or those two places in Fallout 4 (the bandit fight club and the robot races on the field track) that were just yet another place to and kill everything in. Instead of nice places to take a break from the grind and bet on a fight or two; or which robot is likely to win the next race. Those two places were completely wasted in their potential.

[@lukemorgan6166]

Baldurs gate is a dating sim for people who can't get any

[@JayMaverick]

Of course it CAN be saved. But nobody at Bethesda is willing or ready to take responsibility of their failures. So down it goes. And it's all the players' fault for expecting too much, if we go by Bethesda management.

[@7thsealord888]

Bethesda's credo has long been, "Problem? Ehhhh, don't worry. Some modder will fix that for us."

[@TwoHandedChargedBonk]

That "Three women" story was way better and more cohesive than any part of the Starfield writing.

[@cockyrustler]

Worst thing about Starfield is how bland it is. Good setting needs interesting, thought provoking conflicts and mysteries. Like imagine if it was centered around powerplay between vastly different planetary civilizations with more extreme versions in our own history: Dystopian capitalism, AI singularity, Communism, Eugenics based fascists, Dune-like Hyper religious, etc, etc. Even something like faction warfare Stormcloaks vs Imperials from Skyrim was far more engaging.

[@abrahambobst4602]

Yeah, it makes no sense why they set the game after a conflict, and then even after a war there should still be tension between the factions yet it's not there. With both UC and FreeStarCollective(FSC) being weakend you would think that would make for a good opportunity for Ryujin or the Druglord ruler of Volli trying to gain more power and influence. What I point out are yet more story missed opportunities. Or there should be more pirate raiding on corpos or the other factions? Like why does Ryujin not have their own fleet security besides the UC of FSC?

[@jampine8268]

Yeah, honestly I can't really tell what idealogical differences they have, other than one having slight starship troopers vibes, and the other decided to commit their entire lives to cowboy LARPING. Also, wasn't the war because freestar built one more space station than allowed? Like its annoying, but there's literally hundreds of unclaimed systems, but everyone bizarrely decided to pigeonhole thrmselvesvinto only 3? At what point has any country ever stopped itself expanding for no reason? Better yet, the systems are devoid of intelligent life, so it's not like they're displacing anyone to live there. Also, why do even the terrorists abide by the peace treaty?

[@Adzer2k10]

They didn't set starfield during the war because they 1) don't have the creative ability to do it and 2) they're crappy outdated engine would blow up if they tried to do anything with any scale involved (i.e. battles, etc.)

[@TheMarcHicks]

The Outer Worlds has a really cool and quirky setting with lots of fascinating conflicts and mysteries. Its currently cheaper than Starfield too-even if you count the 2 DLC's.

[@akatsukicloak]

You would have done a far better job at setting design than the "professionals" employed there.

[@DoomUvb]

Morrowind has great writing

[@Browdeh]

In a truly good game, writing doesn’t matter

[@Iceblade269]

Playing morrowind today, it’s so good. Hard to get into, but once you’re in, you’re in

[@TheScavv]

As long as Emil Pagliarulo works at Bethesda, it has no chance of recovery.

[@monkee5th]

Add Todd Howard to that he needs to go as well

[@Zodroo_Tint]

If you think Emily is the only problem or even the big problem you are coping. The problem is in the roots. Nobody can save Bethesda.

[@bonnnetwork]

When I was in Middle School, and High School. I made a presentation about Skyrim, and how it is the perfect video game. And why I want to be a game designer when I'm older. I even went as far as to say Todd Howard was my idol. And figurehead example of who i wanted to be. A young man, a gamer, who was making games out of passion. And for his first half of his career was shunned by big studios because they didn't believe in his ambitious visions for where games can go. And he SHOWED those studios it could be done. And was successful. He was a story of truly not giving up. The events of Todd's actions, decisions and what Bethesda in general have done in the last decade has been incredibly depressing. To say the least

[@Chtigga]

Skyrim was far from being perfect. The writing was nothing to write home about and the guilds were disappointing to say the least.

[@bonnnetwork]

​@@ChtiggaSure, but the world was way more established than ever in the series. And had so many things in it I can go on and on for why I made two presentations in my life about it. The game is something that isn't made often, it's simply a masterpiece

[@Gabriel-ip6me]

To be fair, your idea of Todd was probably true at some point. Sometimes people change for the worse.

[@DarkLOREDash]

Its so disheartening to see the greats fall so far from their prime

[@BigDanGaming]

So true man. Oblivion in particular will always have a special place in my heart. I doubt I will be able to say the same about TES 6 when it comes out :/

[@thischannel1071]

Bethesda has been falling since Todd Howard took charge. The millions upon millions of new gamers who came in with the earlier console generations were just wowed because everything was new to them, and they mistakenly thought that what they were playing in Bethesda games was new and innovative. That flood of new console gamers created a mythology around Bethesda, to hype their own experiences. But all that Bethesda has ever done under Todd Howard is strip depth and complexity away from what existed before, and then release it in a more dumbed-down package.

[@Extreme96PL]

Its sad to see devs like Bethesda, Ubisoft and BioWare to fall so bad because their games were great back then.

[@SubtleSpell]

I mean its also pretty morally bankrupt. Anyone wanna talk about what they tried to do to Mick Gordon. That was my final straw

[@craigslitzer4857]

The guitarist who wrote the Doom soundtrack? What did they do to him?

[@ryanvandoren1519]

​@@craigslitzer4857 as punishment, they forced him to play starfield. Poor guy.. shot himself out of sheer boredom.

[@starrtrout1901]

@@craigslitzer4857The company behind Doom didn’t pay their composer and worked him like a dog, butchered his music and claimed he made it when it was their audio engineer clipping together 5 second bursts of Mick Gordon’s work, and damaged his professional reputation. Mick Gordon hasn’t had any high profile work since.

[@MisterDutch93]

Wasn’t that id Software?

[@TheMarcHicks]

You're mixing up Bethesda Softworks (publisher) with Bethesda Game Studio.

[@richardcreasey9319]

The arrogance and self-righteousness from BGS is what does it for me. They took EIGHT YEARS away from ES6 to develop this game and instead of actually using that time and their manpower and their budget to craft an actually good space game, they put out the most bland 4 out of 10 imaginable. And then, when the game turns out to be shit, they start fellating themselves by saying it's their best game, the hardest game they've ever made, Todd's magnum opus that he's wanted to make for 20 years. If they would just admit that it's not good and that they need to improve, I could have a shred of respect for them, but they'll never do that. If any dev studio deserved a downfall, it's this one.

[@ectogamut]

I know people give Outer Worlds a lot of shit, but if Starfield had been more limited in scope with a few handcrafted world like that, it could've been great!

[@richardcreasey9319]

@@ectogamut Exactly. I remember when Todd first teased that there were 1000 planets and I knew right then it wasn't going to be good. Literally just straight up admitting pre-release that they focused only on quantity instead of quality.

[@nimarus3118]

I remember being a highschool student and seeing an ad for Morrowind on Toonami. It looked like an RPG that was different from many of the RPGs I played. I loved it. I still remember exploring every nook and cranny of every Dwemer Ruin in Solsthiem. Finding books with Dwemer writing and going online to translate the text on my notebook. Of all the Elder Scrolls games I've played since, none have pulled me in as much as Morrowind. I hoped to get even a sliver of that appeal from Starfield. But no, it was not meant to be. Over 1,400 planets to explore and they re all vast empty souless planets. Starship travel is just fast traveling with a little shooting in orbit around a planet. Starfield offers a little lore and mystery, but doesn't go into depth about it. Who or what created the Armillary? Did the universe create it? Did some ancient alien race make it? No clear answer seems to be given. There isn't even a real villain. They started to make The Hunter a villain, but then it's "Oh, there are countless other versions of me. So it's pointless to take me down because there are an infinite number of me that will be around anyway." The worst part is that I don't think they are listing to much of the criticism. They hear some, but I fear they just say "That makes me feel sad, so I'll turn it off." Not taking notes on what went wrong so they can avoid the same mistake in the future. I'm not going to hope that TES6 is going to be any good. I don't want to hope and then have that hope crushed.

[@Sicarius888]

What is the only fun part of Starfield? Ship builder. And how many new ship parts and styles did they include in the DLC? Thanks but no thanks Todd. Now better go and finally fix F4 next gen downgrade mess.

[@jampine8268]

Also, people quickly figured out the ship builder is pretty broken gameplay wise. There's some weapons that are just so strong and cheap, nothing can compete, and if you put an empty space in the middle of the ship, the AI just can't hit you. Also, building is pretty borked, the perk barriers to unlock parts is a pain, and you can't access all parts at once, so if you need parts to finish the ship, you need yo buy the remaining parts to make it functional, then find the new vendor and sell the parts for a loss.

[@ramzen89]

I sensed the down turn for Bethesda when they announced Fallout 76. When they said it would be an MMO, I had a gut feeling it was going to bomb, simply because the single player titles, while good, were held together with spit and duct tape. That was never going to translate well to a multiplayer game.

[@1vaultdweller]

Many people expected F76 to suck and boy it did suck harder then any expectation

[@gametime2473]

Fallout 76 is a good game now

[@ImJustTryingToSurvive]

@@gametime2473 Debatable

[@ramzen89]

@@gametime2473 Should've been good from the beginning. Also, what's average player base right now? I never hear anybody talk about it.

[@samvimes9510]

It *could* have been good if they'd gotten the ESO team at Zenimax to make it. They use a customized version of the Hero engine for ESO, it supports both first and third person views, and they have better writers on staff. The Creation engine has its perks, but it is NOT suitable for multiplayer.

[@andyh4464]

Love Big Dan for always telling it how it is, no sugar coating. Kids these days dont know they missed a gaming golden era.

[@BreogánVillar]

Plenty of great games now, just not from Bethesda

[@MeJustMe101]

First of all, we can still play the games from that age idiot. Some of us know. Stop being a boomer. It's annoying.

[@ShaggyShagz13]

Emil's wife told me that she can't complain about their lackluster bedroom antics because she doesn't have an Oscar Mayer.

[@moto3463]

Bold to assume he has a women

[@flyawayq5115]

Bold to assume his wife IS a woman.

[@Gguyrules]

In Oblivion, I once tried doing the Umbra quest, but its wielder was way too powerful for me to beat, so I decided to run away to the Imperial City, but Umbra followed me. Then, out of nowhere, 5 guards cornered her and beat her to a pulp in seconds.

[@spudmaphot]

They used to have such unmached world building that you could look past bad gameplay and mechanics to experience the good parts of their games but now competitors are matching or even surpassing the scope of their open worlds and have great gameplay. I don't think they'll be able to keep up frankly.

[@alanviniciuswanderleytavar4399]

Bethesda is in a downfall since oblivion, you guys are just noticing now, Morrowind was Bethesda Peak

[@MrArtarius]

Preach

[@colinp3366]

People also said the same things when morrowind came out. You're just too young to know.

[@MrArtarius]

@@colinp3366 Innovation could've been recieved as quality going down except it didn't in case of Morrowind. The problem is that the change Bethesda made with Morrowind was great as it created many more or less successful offspring. Current downfall is caused by sticking to old formula while going even further back to procedual generation in a weak attempt at making the world seem bigger.

[@clintonbyers930]

no oblivion was great

[@colinp3366]

@@MrArtarius Change a few words from your comment and this could also have been a rant on a forum from 20 years ago about morrowind being a downgrade to daggerfall.

[@xenoplayz4524]

I don't think anyone was asking for a game like starfield to begin with, what we wanted was the new elder scrolls game. The last teaser trailer was released over 5 years ago! But in a way its good that bethesda wasted time on starfield, its highlighted the flaws in their game design so they have a chance to learn from it. They need to do at least the following, Handcrafted map, No/few loading screens, Memorable quests, lootable items/clothing, damage to bodies.

[@KittyCatsAreSuperAdorable]

Bethesda? Learn from their mistakes? Ha! What are you smoking? They’ll just do exactly what they’ve always done with their next game. These companies don’t care about making an actual good product anymore all they care about is profit.

[@majorgear1021]

idk, Lydia in space would be cool. She could block the ship’s exit , forcing you to dragon shout to get her to move out of the way.

[@demark365]

06:36 lmao. This video hits everything that needs to be mentioned/highlighted, subbed.

[@martyfromnebraska1045]

>implying the decline didn't start with Oblivion

[@richardsmith9615]

I heard an amazing quote somewhere recently, which was "Accountants never have anything to add, only ever something to take away."

[@matheus.bueno47]

The thing that you guys don't seem to understand is that Bethesda games make a shit ton of money, Starfield made a ton of money and had a Metatric score of 8.3 which is fine. Starfield is consistently at 10th in XBOX most played only losing to games like EA FC, Rainbow Six, Fortnite and Roblox. The game is not a failure as much as people want it to be. All these videos being made on because of Shattered Space, talking about the fall of Bethesda, are frankly ridiculous. Ubisoft is going down under, Bethesda is doing fine. Obviously if you compare CD Projekt Red, Laurian and these companies to Bethesda, their games are not as good, but then again, Bioware's games were also good in the past. Bethesda relantioship with its fans is the same as Blizzard's, 80% of you will buy their games anyway, but they are not targeting you anymore, they are targeting the general audience. Just like Blizzard with Diablo 4, which is an incredibly mediocre game, but made and still makes Blizzard a shit ton of money.

[@ProxyGateTactician]

Makes me sad thinking about how long I wanted Elder Scrolls 6, and now I don't know if I do

[@toeray5864]

I played about 20hrs of Starfield and then I gave it up. It's not that it's bad, it's that it's boring. I walked around Triton for a while, and there's just nothing there. Went to Ganymede, same thing. I'd rather the game be in a half dozen star systems with rich environments than a thousand dead worlds with nothing happening. I get it, space is empty. But that makes for a boring experience in a game that should be about humanity's greatest adventure.

[@thomasrosendahl2783]

Larian studios and Owlcat games are the only top tier rpg developers currently.

[@DavidDuchov]

I always though it was normal to jump hundreds of feet in the air after been killed by a giant in Skyrim lol

[@MrLedFarmer0331]

I know this has nothing to do with the video but thank you for all of your Mass Effect content. I must have played that game 15 times without being able to pass those speech checks and for 20 years, I never once got the ending I wanted. So thanks bro, from one N7 to another!

[@Fernthe_plant]

My theory to why Starfield sucks so much is because its their own original IP unlike Elder Scrolls/Fallout ehich they inherited/bought the rights to. Since this is their own IP we're just seeing what they're actually about. The other part that stuck out with me is when Emil recently stated that Starfield is not everyones cup of tea and that it shouldn't be which I find funny since each new game feels like they're trying to make a tea that everyone would like lol

[@abrahambobst4602]

Well, they seemed to have no dedicated writers or writer to tie all the lore together for Starfield like they did for Elder Scrolls, and now they have no dedicated lore heads for Elder Scrolls at the company either.

[@colinp3366]

Who do you think made the Elder Scrolls if it wasn't their original IP????

[@Fernthe_plant]

@colinp3366 you do know that Todd basically bought besthesda right? The game and company existed before him and he himself confirmed it. He tried working for Bethesda but didn't get hired due to no experience so he went to school, got into the industry, by then Besthesda was a sinking ship so the old Bethesda was bought. Anything prior to Morrowwind and Oblivion was not him.

[@szykowny6017]

⁠@@Fernthe_plant What are you talking about? Todd got hired in 1994, worked on Daggerfall in 1996 and was already a project leader for Redguard in 1998. All well before Morrowind released in 2002. How would he "basically buy" Bethesda if he was just an employee? Important one but still. EDIT: My personal opinion is that what makes an IP great is its style, world and lore. You're right about Fallout but Elder Scrolls' was only fleshed out and made what it is today during Morrowind development.

[@kommandantvhs4994]

Most the games we loved at Bethesda no longer have the people who created them working there anymore.

[@StudioPluche]

From what I gathered, the reason a game like Starfield has so many load areas is because at the core it is still the old Morrowind engine, although grafted with various bells and whistles. So Howard was basically lying to his teeth when he said Starfield was next-gen. Cyberpunk 2077 is next-gen, not Starfield. In the end, I think it would be best if Howard left (or fired) and replaced with someone with a clear vision and a desire to make truly awesome games.

[@nickochioneantony9288]

Todd is Bethesda... just like Wolverine to X-men. I never really care about Bethesda games, but if it's good like Skyrim, I'll support the hell of it. I mean, people recommend Fallout 4, Dragon Age Inquisition... both are subpar game, and that resulted to the release of Starfield

[@colinp3366]

You have no idea how engines work and it shows. Just keep your mouth shut about things you know nothing about and stop lying.

[@StudioPluche]

@@colinp3366 Someone from Bethesda once said on Reddit that it carries legacy code all the way back to Morrowind. If it was a brand new engine there would not be loading screens.

[@colinp3366]

@@StudioPluche Please take my first comment to heart. It hurts seeing someone say such bs and being so confident about it. Also dont make yourself even more a joke by citing a freaking reddit post.

[@StudioPluche]

@@colinp3366 I do take your comment at heart but when Beth devs themselves have said that the current Creation engine is built upon the foundations of the Morrowind engine, I tend to believe them. I'm not a dev, but when you play Morrowind, Skyrim, Fallout 3, Fallout 4, and Starfield you notice the same engine characteristics, the main one being the loading of a cell when you enter/exit a building or area. Howard lied to its teeth when he said that Starfield was next gen, because it's not. Cyberpunk 2077 is next gen, and if you play the game using an RTX 4090 in 4k you quickly realize it. Not so with Starfield which is just old tech with an overhaul. On a financial standpoint, and investment, it costs much less to just upgrade their old engine than to develop a new one, or license one such as Unreal 5.0. (which is what CD Projekt Red are now using for the development of The Witcher 4 and the next Cyberpunk game.

[@kenmck7802]

No it CAN'T be "saved". Emil "thinks" that Slopfield is their Bestest game evvaarrrr so....

[@IsleofLucy]

I think we need a Skyrim re-release

[@ShadowMokujin]

After 76 I never looked there way again

[@XoADREADNOUGHT]

I saw the bug ticket myself. The giant bug in Skyrim was left there intentionally. The lead developer responded to the bug saying, "Leave it. It's funny."

[@hippieyoda1993]

Chad move honestly.

[@Zayphar]

Fallout 76 was a shockingly bad game. This was the turning point.

[@1vaultdweller]

It was actually Skyrim. Badly written, lazily designed

[@Zayphar]

@@1vaultdweller No. Skyrim was hilarious, fun and a seemingly endless world of discovery and adventure, despite its obvious faults. I spent over 400 hours playing Skyrim. Skyrim was a great game.

[@Mrlighthouse1000]

@@1vaultdweller I would put the line in Fallout 4, Skyrim was decent tho I agree its overrated

[@Zayphar]

@@Mrlighthouse1000 Fallout 4 was still a goodish game. But it did show a lack of advancement and creativity by the studio. It was a portent of the disasters that came afterward.

[@GhostOfSnuffles]

I'd argue it was ESO, it was so bad humanity has collectively forgotten it even exists.

[@libertyprime5965]

I love Bethesda. They made my childhood and early adult life so memorable. I believe in them and in Todd we trust.

[@GldnClaw]

To save Elder Scrolls 6: * Fire Emil * Remove all DEI freaks * Remove all the outsourced help from India and replace them with the top modders * Give Kirkbride all the drugs he wants and lock him in a room. There's your lore. (not really, but put Kirkbride in charge) * actually LISTEN to dev suggestions

[@neopangean6218]

Fire Emile Buzzword Racism Funny Joke actually LISTEN to dev suggestions

[@northernseeker1822]

Outsourced Indian developers are cheap, they work on the mundane workload.

[@AHeroAlmost]

“When you know everything why bother listening to anyone” Seems to be Bethesda’s motto these days ,,

[@SiliconSlyWolf]

I think a huge thing is the world just moved beyond what their games offer. Every open world game eventually bogs down into boredom, unless it's say, as short as the stand alone Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon. And Bethesda has never done good combat, good quests beyond a few here and there (especially the main quest), or had any particularly thought provoking aspects to their world that contributed to your ever growing issues around an existential crisis.

[@SirZipper]

I don't think it has anything to do with the creation engine, Bethesda are just incompetent at writing good stories. The lore is amazing, but how it's delivered is awful. Enderal: Forgotten Stories is a full Skyrim conversion mod that puts every Bethesda game to shame with how amazing it is.

[@Sly_404]

I still remember listening to a Giantbomb episode in 2012, where they’ve been certain Bethesda’s next game after Skyrim for sure would require going for a more up to date engine. 😂

[@Sarcastro_78]

Bethesda and Ubisoft merge to form Turd Sammich' Studios......

[@HeyHiHowdy6969]

How can you say their roots are in handcrafted dungeons when Daggerfall and Arena were mostly procedurally generated dungeons???

[@ImmaLogins-l4k]

Because negativity drives engagement. This dude has no idea how Bethesda games work through the years.

[@CobyTravelWriter]

Stop complaining! 😡😡😡 Don't want to play it, don't play it!!!!! But don't ruin it for those of us who still enjoy Bethesda games. No game is EVER going to be perfect!!!!!

[@notenuf8444]

Yeah right - I think there's bigger fish to fry other than a simple game. But here we are clicking on bait.

[@majorgear1021]

If you don’t like this video then don’t watch it! Don’t ruin it for those of us who like this content.

[@AmieEss]

No, I don't think they'll save themselves with ES6. Just from how they've responded to feedback; got their heads firmly stuck up their bums and not listening.

[@Cloud_Seeker]

Bethesda was never cutting edge. People have been talking about their downfall for overtime two decades now.

[@staris3712]

Honestly unknown if they can as part of the problem Starfield ran into is that Tod expected the modders would be able to help fill out the game and then didn't bother making sure the game was created in a way that would make it easier for modders to do just that. Not a modder myself but I've heard Starfield is incredibly difficult to mod, some even saying its the most difficult game to mod out there.

[@nickzukowski4106]

I can't speak for other mod authors, but for the lack of documentation on the new ck has really made things more difficult than they should be. I like building dungeons but trying to figure out the new material swap and lighting systems without the documentation has drained allot of my enthusiasm. Currently, "verified creators" have access to some of that documentation but the rest of us don't, I hope this will change at some point in the future, but who knows. I'm not saying modders are entitled to anything or that BGS is obligated to release the documentation, just tryin to provide some specifics regarding why Starfield isn't a "modder's paradise" (as well as venting my own personal frustrations with BGS).

[@Elayzee]

What about Starfield was so supposedly amazing that Sony would originally want exclusivity and that Microsoft would go as far as to acquire the entire publisher for? I cannot see a single thing about the game that merriest that.

[@jacobwilliams5836]

It’s not about starfield being good but the name attached that what sold the game and as for the acquisition of Bethesda I’d look at it like this even if starfield fails you still have all of the other IP tes , fallout, prey,dishonored all of these can drive sales on name alone and even if tes6 comes out fails and Bethesda goes. belly up Microsoft can just have another team make the next one and bring in new hype cause the once great now bad Bethesda isn’t working on it and this would drive sales also

[@jacobwilliams5836]

As for Sony they’ve as of this year have proven themselves to be morons

[@elvangulley3210]

It was about keeping big games off xbox nothing more any game made by bethesdas main team is gonna be seen as a big game especially before all the flaws get shown to the public

[@Martial-Mat]

Bethesda CAN be saved, but not with Emil and Lyin' Todd there.

[@JPS47]

Not to sound like a biased bioware fan but I rather play Andromeda than any Bethesda game.

[@PALADINKILLIAN-1403]

atleast there is something to do in andromeda lol

[@schalitz1]

Andromeda is FAR superior to Starfield, and a more interesting questline than Fallout 4.

[@l-shadow1775]

Morrowind,Oblivion fallout 3 and new vegas were the peak while skyrim, fallout 4, 76 and starfield was the downward slope of we're gonna take everything you loved and strip it down to a nothing puddle

[@GM-vy1wy]

The problem with Bethesda is the same problem as 90% of Western developers. Look at a photo of a dev team from the early 2000s, then look at modern-day devs, and you'll have your answer.

[@elvangulley3210]

Oh look racism and homophobic bull shit

[@hochmeisterr]

The 2000 guys were fatter? What even is this comment 😂

[@VanguardDetonados]

@2:12 - Lack of competition and the lack of fast computers. Bethesda is doing the same game for the past 20 years we just realized they are bad because new games are better.

[@Dmitrisnikioff]

Their roots aren't handcrafted. I feel so old hearing that. Daggerfall has a unity port you whippersnappers can play and see what Todd Howard and co wanted the whole time.

[@elvangulley3210]

But daggerfall was good

[@vaevictis2789]

Daggerfall is procedurally generated but saying it was the game concept bsg wanted to recreate the whole time but failed until starfield is a blatant lie. Their switch towards hand crafted worlds was fully intentional

[@dscwac396]

For me it was the moment the writer said dialogue is not that important in games, I mean unless you're playing like mortal Kombat or something I'm pretty sure dialogues the most important thing in a RPG

[@ickasaurus1195]

the oblivion song on videos of real people, has been some of my favorite content of all time. and people don't realize, its a also a subtle jab oblivion

[@Cr0wsMurd3r]

For TES6 they would have to hit it out of the park. See, I think their downfall started with Skyrims overblown success. Do I understand why Skyrim became so successful, probably. It came out at a perfect moment both culturally and in the gaming timeline. Culturally... at the time a lil' show called Game of Thrones had just premiered half a year prior. This show was to put it mildly a pretty huge success, which in turn primed a consumer base hungry for fantasy and dragons. And then we had the fact that gaming was booming. More people than ever before had access to consoles and PCs in their homes, it was basically still the "golden age" of gaming... we could say somewhere around the turning point where making money became far more important than making excellent games across the industry. So, Skyrim became a huge success down to the fact that there was alot of people that had their first introduction to a game like that through that game, and people were hungry for the whole fantasy thing... especially dragons. And Skyrim was easy to understand the mechanics off, it led the player to all the interesting stuff there was to see via the compass... and NPCs were keen to notify the player of interesting happenings and oppertunities. Meaning, for a casual newbie to the genre it was the best introduction they could have. More or less safely explore a somewhat fantastic land and live out their fantasy of being whatever they could be over 60 or so hours. For a, at the time, 13-14 year veteran of Bethesda open world RPGs my experience was a little bit different. At first I was of course amazed. Stunning world, better combat than ever before, better voice acting, frikkin' dragons. But then the cracks started showing... I was allowed to be everything with little effort, from Archmage to Master Assassin without actually having the developed skills of either. NPCs were literally pointing me in the direction of the most legendary and powerful Daedric Artifacts without me having to actually try to find them or even rumors about them. Lycanthropy was literally thrown in my face within the first few hours of the game, and not through a terrifying encounter in the wilds either... but through a guild questline where they even extolled the virtues of the werewolf... at first. The compass pointed me in the direction of every dungeon... which never really contained any noteworthy loot beyond suspiciously fresh cheese and fruit. Quests were boring and predictable too... the only surprise I really had was having a few drinks with a gentleman named Sam Guinne in a quiet bar in Whiterun. That did lead to some memorable hijinks. No spoilers... And lets mention the quests for some legendary loot like Red Eagles sword and that amulet that was split into three pieces because its power was too overwhelming for any one man/woman. Lengthy quests which all hyped up the power of these legendary items... which turned out to be utter garbage. You literally cant find anything in the world of Skyrim which you cant make a better version of yourself, even the most legendary of artifacts pale in comparison with what you can make after spending a few hours making Iron Daggers and slapping some rudimentary enchantment on random bits and bobs. And then we have the fact that you cant really play the game without the quest marker waypoints. You can disable them of course, but the journal has no actual directions in it to point you in the right direction and neither does the dialogue of the NPCs... in fact the journal is so bad it just says "Go to X and kill X" usually. In short, Skyrim is a great game for casual newbies... you dont really have to think, or struggle or do much of anything to reach the apex of existence. Now compare that to Morrowind. A game where everything special is hidden. Where going into the wrong dungeon could lead you to get rofl-stomped by Daedra or vampires even as early as lvl 1. You actually had to figure out where to go yourself through developing map reading skills and interpreting the directions from NPCs and your journal. Where entering a random mine on a random mountain could net you with the best un-enchanted sword in the game.. and potentially the only example of that sword in the entire game. A game where you actually had to develop your characters magic skills to become the leader of the magical factions, where you needed to develop your sneaking and killing skills to be the master assassin etc. The only thing you got for free in Morrowind was a swarm of Cliff Racers. And lets face it... the environments were a helluva lot more interesting in that game than in bland generic Skyrim.

[@Cr0wsMurd3r]

Fallout 4 actually had better exploration IMO than Skyrim. Though the RPG mechanics were even more stripped down in favor of even more mindless blockbusterness. Map markers appearing before you actually discovers something is very much counter to exploration. Exploration should be "Hey, I see a ruin over there (with my own eyes), lets go see whats what." and not "I see a marker for a ruin in this direction, could be behind this mountain. Lets go see whats what." far more joy in exploring like that... not to mention the replayability goes up since you could play through the game several times and still find new stuff. Elden Ring is a recent game which works pretty much like that... and a very successful game at that. And I hope the industry takes some notes from that.

[@Cr0wsMurd3r]

Also, let's not forget that the Witcher 3 actually came out before Fallout 4 and had a seamless open world. Eight years later and Bethesda has still not managed that.

[@YASKY3035]

Creatively Bankrupt, that's what happens when you get rid of more than half the studio, and replace them with ACTIVISTS.

[@alekseimutovkin]

Early Bethesda success was due to them being pretty much the only ones out there making such games.

[@bigboombetty4499]

New dlc for a game no one asked for. So much wasted time on starfield so bethesda could say they made a space game. They're just sitting on fallout so no one else can have it. They have a good idea and they're wasting it out of jealousy for the original creators. It's been 9 years since an actual fallout and over 10 years since the last elder scrolls. Wtf are they doing at bethesda? Because it seems like nothing with a side of bs.

[@UmmerFarooq-wx4yo]

We've been waiting for a Starfield like game since 1991 when Starflight was launched on the Mega Drive. That's 32 years!! Starfield is a game that is better than gta 6, you just have to be stronger than 100 million active sony playstation users review bombing the game. What sitting on fallout, the game is so moddable that any company of developers can make their own version. Like New Vegas or London.

[@jampine8268]

​@UmmerFarooq-wx4yo GTA 6 isn't even out, how can you even say starfield is stronger than it? Obviously, there's no guarantee GTA 6 won't be a mess, but an argument needs more substance than bizarre personal fantasies.

[@Yora21]

Counting Fallout 3 and 4 among their great games is being particularly generous towards them.

[@truthearthlove]

This is the Worst Thing about Starfield that I ever encountered in a Bethesda game and is a prime example of it's downfall. I tried to do the Crimson Fleet faction quest, Rook meets King quest. I was lvl 25 and during the 1st spaceship battle of this quest. I got slaughtered. My ship /stats were under powered, so I had to escape. (I spent the next 100 levels improving my ship/stats for this quest.) Now, I was ready to take on the Rook Meets King quest with much earned anticipation/enthusiasm. But NO, I couldn't reactive the quest. No matter what I tried. Every time I went to the quest location nothing happened... I had no previous saves to load as Bethesda's suggested fix. (It was a game breaking quest that many players complained about!) I had to restart the game, like I did for both Oblivion and Skyrim. But even that, didn't bother me, I'm so used to it! What I couldn't get used to, was having to sit though the Helpful Hint, Load Screen, informing me, that I can leave any ship battle and return to the quest at any time! Getting that constant reminder of this blatant LIE shoved in my face! Just like this game! Being ANGRY/SAD at the same time, every time I see it! Bethesda delayed the game to get the bugs out! We got a buggy game released with no local maps, a $7.00 Trackers Alliance Quest and now a $30.00 /5hr substandard Shatted Space DLC. We still got TODD, and he's still a great salesmen.

[@jampine8268]

Spaceship combat was an odd duck, it was basically a seperate leveling system, as none of your perks could really over come the raw power of a ship. (Also your staring ship was pretty trash at combat, and the game never offered an early option to swap it, or actively suggested you improve it) And getting a better ship was manly just a pay wall.

[@tylerm7411]

We all have criticisms about the state of Bethesda today, and they deserve it. They should listen to the fans criticisms and improve their games with it. I'm hoping for a major comeback from them and I wish Todd and his team great success! They have given me countless hours of joy, I can never hate them. I just want them to do better for all us gamers!

[@InMaTeofDeath]

I don't think the downfall is occurring yet, when I think downfall I think Ubisoft which is currently in total free fall atm. Right now Bethesda is on the edge imo, it's not a huge surprise that a multiplayer Fallout wasn't what fans wanted and many were skeptical about their ability to transfer what people love about past games into Starfield. For me it's the next Elder Scrolls that will be the deciding factor on if they bounce back or take a backseat in the industry. They still have MS money and publish other good games so I doubt they'd go away but it sadly might be the case that the main BGS team just doesn't have the magic anymore. I do wish they'd either get Emil to change the writing style or replace him though, played Skyrim's Enderal and Fallout London both of which were written by fans and imo are far better than anything BGS has ever put out.

[@vomm]

lol your closing words are funny if you read the latest interviews with Bethesda. They're actually proud of themselves and see absolutely no issues.

[@PowerfulRift]

There’s no hope for TES6 because they added a transgender elf in The Elder Scrolls Online!

[@hippieyoda1993]

I hope you’re being sarcastic if not your comment is just not-so-thinly veiled hate for a community that has nothing to do with game design.

[@jayff0000]

I actually think Bethesda peaked at morrowind. It was really impressive for its time and had a lot of zany fun, jumping over buildings and stuff. I'm sure skyrim was the golden goose for profit and no doubt brought a lot of polish over a morrowind or oblivion. But also by skyrim, they were already polishing some of their charm away for mass market appeal. Fallout 4 was okay, but my immediate thought on release was basically, shit this feels a lot more dated and a lot less polished than I expected. And everything else released since has felt like more of a downwards spiral to me. I don't think they are a studio capable of pulling out a satisfying elder scrolls 6, and if/when it's a mediocre game, I think it'll be almost impossible to recover their reputation at that point. Or I hope they prove me wrong, I just think there has been a very clear 20+ year trajectory from this studio not making necessary investments.

[@mariocolantonio1943]

And the funny part is that the best game released by Bethesda was developed by a third-party independent studio (Obsidian), which had to quickly put together their title in a year and a half to avoid it overlapping with their future projects, thinking that the spinoff wouldn't be able to compete with their best RPG. I can’t imagine what could have come out of New Vegas if the Obsidian guys had more time and resources to create what they wanted, without having to use already existing assets (to save costs and time)

[@WildDancer101]

At this point, Bethesda's looking like a man who peaked in high school yet can't seem to go further in his later adult life.

[@short72hp1]

You should get a ice tea sponsorship

[@b26t4]

What I loved about Skyrim was the unknown. Going to a dungeon never knowing what to spect. In Starfield when everything is world-generated, it takes the fun, and you know what to spect.

[@greggeo3294]

Your analysis is spot on, you nailed all my complaints about Bethesda's recent rpgs and the fact that they have lost touch with gamers and their own strengths as a studio. Well done!

[@ARCHWULFLES0]

Dude all of fallout 4 was mods for fallout 3. They’ve been creatively bankrupt for years now

[@TheDragonLegacy]

They're still trying to milk those glory days where they sold gold horse armor

[@Monocle13]

I have always felt like Bethesda games have always been overrated. Yes, Oblivion, Skyrim, and Fallout were great games but not amazing like everyone claims.

[@curtiswest7849]

I'm so glad everyone is finally turning on Bethesda. I did with Fallout 3 and Skyrim.

[@TheVideoViper]

that npc dialogue meme at 5:38 actually caught me off guard and i just laughed out loud for 5 minutes straight

[@paladinezrah4874]

I can only play Skyrim so many times TODD!

[@shyviking]

I feel nervous for ES6 (when it comes.....IF it comes....). And yes; Skyrim is almost endlessly moddable, and an almost endlessly tunable engine of playing enjoyment 🙂 -I bought the game right back at launch in 11/11-11, and I still play it from time to time - with a sizable mod list. Including truly great mods, like "The Forgotten City", where you essentially get stuck in a self-contained little city/cave, and have to figure out how to save the city from itself, and escape yourself. Like many of the quest/new worldspace mods, it could almost be a game on its own...

[@Relax-hi7xo]

Ghost of Tsushima is a masterpiece

[@Orange.cats.r.cutest]

I saw a headline that pretty much stated that ES6 would never live up to people's expectations. I declined to read it as I literally have extremely low expectations at this point. If it runs without crashing for 5 minutes I would be amazed. Morrowind is one of the greatest games of all time. I'm glad I still have a physical copy for a souvenir after Bethesda tanks forever. 😢

[@econundrum1977]

I agree with that you say they could turn it around, but they won't. They have rockstar mentality now they think Starfield is brilliant one of the best things they've ever done and criticism rolls of them like water of a ducks back. It's an aging rockstar mentality. Some aging rockstars keep reinventing themselves keeping current. Others just keep playing their old hits as they fade away and younger acts take their place. That feels like BGS currently.

[@daBIGcheesefries]

Being purchased by Microsoft has really been a detriment at this point too.

[@asdf-bm4df]

Given that Dark Messiah and Crysis came out wayy before Skyrim, not even that game was particularly fantastic.