Why Bethesda's Graphics Are Outdated

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[@hoddtoward]

Good...good...this video will trick people into buying improved graphics DLC!

[@TheCantinaChannel]

lmao, I suppose that's technically the special edition

[@fenixchief7]

The good Doctor has finally joined us. Excellent.

[@FUNKadelicBAsSisT]

...he strikes again

[@brandontaylor6677]

@@mr.wilson9941 or abacus. Or stick on the ground

[@nishantshade668]

Really hyped for the Skyrim Microwave edition

[@Synful_RoX]

I think what really drives this "don't judge a book by its cover" thing home regarding Bethesda is that their Elder Scrolls games *literally* use books for their CD covers! No huge flashy action posters with a dozen characters and explosive colours, just a plain book cover with a logo. I think that really speaks to how unique the franchise is in gaming as a whole.

[@angelmaximux840]

Yes graphic dosen mean its bad think about the story and gameplay

[@uriel7395]

@@angelmaximux840 Unfortunately story and gameplay are probably the worst parts of bethesda games

[@angelmaximux840]

@@uriel7395 Ughhhh what about morrowind it has good story and a great villan

[@Mythicalgoon]

​@@angelmaximux840except Bethesda games are traditionally known for being bad at both of those too.....

[@MechLock1198]

If they only have 100 people, they should hire 1 more guy. Named Billy Bob, from Tennessee, who has a thick southern accent, whose only job is to make the graphics melt your PC like a nuclear power plant before the cooling rods hit the water.

[@Chrymzon]

I like Skyrim's look more than ESO's. I also like Morrowind's graphics over Oblivion. It's difficult to say something objectively looks better since people have different taste, unless we start comparing vast differences like The Witcher 3 or RDR2 to TES.

[@TheVioletBunny]

I personally prefer morrowinds look the best the polygons add to the alien and uncanny nature to the world game is a masterpiece just as it is.

[@Foogi9000]

@@TheVioletBunny Ahhh Morrowind, the only game where I can get called a filthy foreigner and N'wah by dunmer nationalists.

[@M0rshu64]

Oblivion only looks better than Morrowind in terms of clarity. Morrowind on the otherhand looks better than Oblivion Aesthetically because of its unique artstyle and setting.

[@meissnerflux]

@@TheVioletBunny bingo. Morrowind transports you to a convincingly more alien land. The mushroom trees, the exotic architectures, etc. Graphics mods bumps this effect up nicely. Oblivion , while having it's charm , is more like an English countryside with generic caverns .

[@SalesmanWave]

@@meissnerflux yeah, cyrodiil would have looked way better with the huge jungle and forests it was said to have in previous games

[@chimpyboi3540]

I mean when Oblivion came out, it was pretty darn incredible looking for it's time (character faces notwithstanding).

[@murphy7801]

Yeah 100% people where amazed. Last game they really tried it feels like.

[@chillhour6155]

Character face never withstanding, they're all nightmarish

[@uhneeuhnjee1031]

@@murphy7801 Except for Far Harbor

[@jonredcorn862]

@@murphy7801 Oblivion was my first elderscrolls game and I personally though skyrim was pretty damn good. I thought it was better in a lot of ways than oblivion. The only ones they made I think they really dropped the ball on where fallout4, and obviously fallout 76. I think Starfield and Elderscrolls 6 are going to knock this shit out of the park. I also think the graphics in Starfield look stellar, yes they have that classic bethesda look going on but they still look brilliant. The lighting seems to have really been upgraded.

[@tvdvd8661]

​@@jonredcorn862 why would you think that when looking at their recent games? I understand giving benefit of the doubt but damn Bethesda has lost its luster these days

[@changer_of_ways_suspense_smith]

Honestly, though, they're also cutting back on content as well. Quests aren't as good as they used to be and there's less branching paths and chances to roleplay different roles. And if they only have a couple hundred employees, the question is why. Why haven't they expanded? Surely, as successful as the company is, you'd think they'd be able to afford more employees and have some dedicated to the obvious gaps that can use more work ie graphics, quest and gameplay content, and bugs.

[@orionrei]

They don't even have to hire expensive developers. They could hire several trainees, graduating in game development, to create simple things, like the scenarios, while the seniors work on the game play and animation.

[@patrickiamonfire965]

@@orionrei but the trainees have to learn several of Bethesda work methods though and that needs time.

[@patrickiamonfire965]

While they do make really good games with high profit margins they’re still a business who has to pay the cost and give the money to executives and shareholders. So no they can’t just hire more people. Which is why they compromise by hiring good modders. They have experience and knows how to make good but not out of the line quest.

[@user-tp5yb4hr4w]

sometimes they hire modders who have modded the hell out of their games and have created a reputation for themselves to get hired by a company, sometimes it's another company who notices them and their work.

[@Merik2013]

They've been heavily cutting back on content ever since Oblivion. Morrowind, despite the dated engine, graphics, and combat mechanics (good riddance to dice roll attacks), had much deeper world building and a much more expansive list of skills and weapon variety. Then Oblivion came around with its deliberately generic fantasy setting and stripped away weapon choices like spears, throwing weapons, and crossbows. Got rid of medium armor altogether, cut maybe half the spells, and then grouped weapon classes into either bladed weapons or blunt weapons. Spears are by far the most common and easy to learn class of weapon in medieval warfare but we havent seen them in Elder Scrolls since Morrowind due to Todd Howards bizarre idea of streamlining game design. Does no one else thinks its odd that Todd decided to cut spellcrafting in Skyrim and get rid of RPG stats and class choices in his RPG game?

[@lafarfalla2273]

They're not neglecting the graphics, just outsourcing the work to all the modders out there. Why pay your devs to do it when your community does it for free, right?

[@bruhdon4748]

And then charge people to download it on their store after they make it official after essentially stealing the mod

[@scottishblacklab]

morrowind and oblivion still look ok nowadays because of their specific art style although i find oblivion to still be quite ugly character wise

[@TheGameCreator13]

character-wise But those forests are dam gorgeous! 👀

[@user-tp5yb4hr4w]

yeah the characters looked like shit and 3rd person looked really stupid, which they fixed in skyrim and also fixed the animations to look better. every game they make the game looks slightly better than the previous one, so starfield may look a bit like fallout 4 with some slight changes to the looks of the NPC's and the world, but it will mostly look the same. i recently started playing FO4 and i noticed when it rained during dialogue when it was dark with little lighting that the NPC's had a shine on them, something i never thought possible as not even the modders from skyrim could figure that out, however the modders of skyrim did some amazing things when it came to wet and cold in other ways that would show up on the NPC's. so clearly bethesda improved on some things within their game, but fallout kind of needs to look like shit because everything is within ruins.

[@johnnymcgeez5647]

They are not that bad to be fair... I honestly always thought how mountains and fog blends so well in skyrim.

[@skjaldulfr]

Oblivion's graphics are underrated. The biggest problem was how weird heads could look in some cases.

[@Nevergofullretard321]

The developers are the problem tho. They aren't very competent coders, which causes all kinds of performance issues and bugs in their engine that they themselves update, but refuse to fix, which modders end up doing just as soon as the modding tools are released.

[@faristhedragon3015]

Graphics criticisms would be less valid if the games didn't run so badly.

[@alexanderstilianov]

I always appreciate it whenever a big channel (especially one with content primarily about a single game comany) is honest about said company's flaws and doesn't try to disingenuously "defend" it from its own fans.

[@y2jeff2]

Graphics aren't important to me but frame rate is. If Bethesda could de-couple frame rate from physics their games would honestly look and feel so much better.

[@bernd_das_brot6911]

When I first played skyrim I thought the game looked incredibly lifelike and realistic lol I played skyrim for the first time in 2018…

[@user-tp5yb4hr4w]

when i first played it in 2011 i thought it looked better than most games, and it did at that time, but it was also much more addictive than most games which started an obsession in the game that lasted for a decade straight.

[@youtubeshadowbannedme]

I just played Skyrim SE like a few months ago, while playing Oblivion over a year ago

[@user-tp5yb4hr4w]

@@youtubeshadowbannedme i still need to go back and play Oblivion, i kind of played it while on the 360 back in the day, but i wasn't as interested back then as i am now, and now i own the game on PC but i can't get passed the no real controller support as there is for skyrim. i know there are mods for this, but many of them don't really do it justice as much as it did back on the 360, so my game collects digital dust lol. but the reason why i purchased it in the first place was because when skyblivion comes out, i will be able to play it no problem.

[@Mythicalgoon]

So the year they updated the graphics? NO WAY

[@bernd_das_brot6911]

@@Mythicalgoon ?

[@monophthalmos9633]

I don't think at all that Oblivion looks bad for 2006.

[@hornmonk3zit]

It doesn't, it looked really, really good for a game of it's scope in 2006. The best looking games around then were FEAR, Resistance: Fall of Man, Gears of War, Twilight Princess, CoD 4, Halo 3, Half Life 2, and Oblivion. Notice how the only one of those that was truly open world was Oblivion, and even then it still looked better in many aspects than some of those linear games with no crazy AI calculations to process, like how the textures in FEAR are pretty much all flat greys compared to Oblivion's actual textures. All Creation Engine games look good for their age. This video isn't even playing these games on their high settings, Skyrim in the video's intro is literally on the lowest texture quality setting. There are times when Skyrim still impresses me with how good it looks to this very day, but I'm actually playing it on ultra quality which is easy as hell on any PC worth being called a gaming rig made in the last eight or so years, plus with mods like ELFX and other standard graphical mods it can still hold it's own with many games coming out these days. Saying Fallout 4, and in turn Fallout 76 since it's the same game with multiplayer, looks bad is even more egregious. Fallout 4 is almost eight years old and it still looks just fine bone stock with no mods.

[@danshive4017]

There's another critical factor: Flexible optimization. Modern Fallout and Elder Scrolls games have enemies with randomized elements, and individual assets for multiple bits of armor, clothing, and weapons. They also populate areas with loot, and you can drop almost any amount of items in any given place, which you may well do to help your carry capacity. You have your visible equipment, your followers have visible equipment, each NPC has visible equipment, there are variable effects depending on abilities, and you can build settlements in Fallout 4 with variable settlers, builders, objects... They can't optimize as much as other games because what's going to be in any given place is so variable, and the NPCs are more complicated than copy/pasted single object drones in a game like Spider-Man or Hitman. It's a completely different different animal, and these are all things I'd rather they have than not. I like Outer Worlds less because the visible equipment on enemies wasn't necessarily the actual loot you'd find on enemies, but that choice definitely made it easier to optimize that game's graphics.

[@YngolSonofYsgramor]

Honestly I dont think I've ever heard anyone call game devs lazy, it's all been directed to those in charge making the decisions to have low quality in whatever's released

[@Nevergofullretard321]

Which would include Todd, as he is in charge of the projects.

[@God_gundam36]

It makes me wish they stopped trying to make games with semi realistic graphics, and go into full style, fallout would look perfect in a dishonoured art style

[@TheCantinaChannel]

ya definitely agree.

[@TehSeksyManz]

Wouldn't mind seeing more cell shaded games ie: Borderlands

[@user-tp5yb4hr4w]

looks are important, but they are not this important to me, because if the game looks amazing and plays like shit, than it's not worth the effort they put it look pretty. again, i like good graphics in games, but i enjoy a game that works and has a stable frame rate and good gameplay more than i care about the game looking really amazing to the point where the game runs like shit. there is also limitations to the engine when it comes down to how it functions in the game, it's not going to run like dishonored, but it will be highly modable and depending on which system your playing it on, you could potentially have access to some amazing mods that could make the game run a little like dishonored or other popular games. i mean till this day there are some amazing mods to make skyrim play like dishonored, assassins creed, Sekiro, dark souls with combat to animations to gameplay tweaks to magic in how it functions to play like these other games, the possibilities are endless so long as there is a modder working on something to change the game and make it into something else. obviously many of these won't work on console because of the obvious limitations of the console, but some of them work.

[@unoriginalperson72]

Yeah, I'm sick of all this realism, I have enough realism in real life! We want more stylised games that will last longer than realistic artstyles because inevitably something realistic in 2016 will not be realistic in 2024. However if it's something stylised and not completely cartoon it'll last a lot longer.

[@kinokochouchou]

honestly i dont care about good graphics, i care about STYLE in graphics, or like colours and sharpness of the picture itself.. like dishonored isnt the "best" graphics wise, but it looks so good and it doesnt age that much, because of how stylistic it is. also skyrim even now looks great. even oblivion still looks nice!

[@shriyanshpandey112]

This is why I am not liking how Starfield is going to look, I'd much preferred a stylized look than the tryna be realistic one. Like Prey 2017 or Redfall.

[@youtubeshadowbannedme]

Skyrim SE looks fine, but Oldrim looks horrible cause of the ugly dull colors

[@bruhdon4748]

100% agree, style and aesthetic is more important than graphics to me. Same with borderlands 1 not the best graphics or animations but the style and tone is what makes it look so great. Still looks good even now.

[@NamelessKing1597]

Todd has literally told us what the problem is, at Bethesda everyone does everything, there are very few specialist positions. Everyone is a jack of all trades and a master of none so everything lacks polish. The only reason the games have any charm at all is passion, not talent and as the company grows that passion fades which is why the games are increasingly lackluster as time goes on. The bugs exist for the same reason. It's not the engine it's the people using it, the engine is actually less bug prone than Unreal but the "programmers" try to fix the few issues it does have with duct tape and hot glue, creating bigger problems down the line, the big bugs are a result of lazy fixes for small bugs.

[@sethwinters3556]

Can you really confidently say that the bethesda creation engine is less prone to bugs than UR? What's your source for this info lol. Because as far as I can tell the engine hasn't really improved in years. Where as have you seen UR5 engine? Unreal wants people to use their engine. Bethesda wants you to buy their game lol.

[@NamelessKing1597]

@@sethwinters3556 I'll try to find where I first heard it from but I'm pretty sure at the very least the bugs you do get are less likely to break quests.

[@NamelessKing1597]

@@sethwinters3556 Nevermind I rewatched it, it had to have been a different video. I don't feel like doing the amount of digging I would have to to find the actual source for something entertainment related. If it was like medicine or economics or something and the misinformation could harm people I would. Then again it could be the one from this channel last month and I confused bugs for the game breaking from an update. Then again there are plenty of buggy Unreal games so it could still be true. Development is faster in Unreal though so they probably have time to patch more of them before and after release.

[@sethwinters3556]

@@NamelessKing1597 hmm idk about that. Skyrim was litered with issues that can not only break a quest, but break the main storyline and trap you in a culinary purgatory lol. I've had multiple saves ruined because of bethesda bugs. And it was an actual meme for a while that the less harmful bugs are what make bethesda games fun lol. Not to mention they've basically said they'd rather just make more stuff on a buggy engine than waste time patching it lmao.

[@sethwinters3556]

@@NamelessKing1597 tbf tho Fo2 is regarded as one of, if not the best fallout game. And I literally had a run die at like the second map location because a quest was bugged 😂 and that's not even a bethesda game that's black isle studios! Needless to say that a game being buggy isn't always representative of its quality. Fonv also had a bunch of bugged stuff like quests and what not. I think it's more the structure of how these games and their quests are designed that causes the most issues. When you have five ways of completing quests sometimes things get convoluted lol.

[@pisscvre69]

tbh a huge part is they don't use their normal maps right, so many are almost entirely featureless which means a big hunk of metal that would have shine, rust, scratches and all in other games is lit pretty much just totally flat, add this up across the whole game and factor in poor optimization and you get something that could look way better with a few tweaks than you think cuz it looks like a potato, another thing is how their engine loads areas its pretty impossible to ignore the obvious grid your on once you see it even in the newer games and LOD doesnt seem to have more than just 2 layers still, in starfield it may be more but that means in skyrim for instance its either in full detail or a sprite not meant to be seen closer than a whole mile away but its being put just 100 feet in front of you, and lastly style, landscapes are flat and devoid of distinct features, for comparison look at a halo map in the original 3, all such memorable places with cool landscape features and building placed in cool places, despite being all just forunner stuff in washington inspired landscapes even halo ce manages to feel more visually diverse than skyrims overworld, this isnt the fault of devs im guessing and if it is its not likely a talent issue more they have a sense of style i highly disagree with, but also i think the landscape tools hold them back as is theyre as bare bones as possible, its hard to make a clean slope with it in general its very sloppy and could use an update but im guessing the higher ups wont let them invest the time and money to fix it, for example moutainsides in skyrim tend to be flat paths separated by steep stone slopes that are an item placed like that not art of the landscape, not for big stones yes you want those to be items but my point is even as your climbing a mountain your on the flattest most straightforward path possible not wandering up a slowling increasing slope with a diverse set of landscape features along the way, the concept art is always stronger and id like to see them stick to that more and break their dependence on constant tilesets, tilesets are slow and tedious to make and slow and tedious to assemble in their many forms and slow and tedious to play through, some are in all games but bethesda relys on them entirely and it makes for very boring repetitive dungeons basically many of these issues bethesda could fix by just shifting priorities caring a little more about quality over quantity and also just hire more people, like your not gonna loose your identity from just a few more people especially when you have a core team thats been there forever supposedly, if so they can be the lead and the new hires follow, by the time the new hires are long time employs they'll be familiar with the identity of the games and able to preserve it anyway if not coming in knowing it already cuz who doesn't know these games by now? to refer back to halo ce, only 40 people worked on it and it was ahead of its time on all fronts and while it isnt an open world with lots of quests people forget games like halo really arent that much simpler to develop cuz the focus on a refined experiance, every combo of weapons every path every enemy carefully planned out so the game never falls into that bored feeling of clearing out just another identical bandit camp, open world games have less resources to put into refining but imagine for example a game that took the well structures missions of mass effect 2 and put them around and open world your free to happen upon, mass effect 2 is a long game with lots of content probably close to as much as skyrim if not the same but it uses it dif and does it cleaner, i dont think the devs are lazy but i think the leadership is risk adverse and as a result fails to deliver the quality of experiences they could and that no doubt many devs on the team wish they were given the time to do, Oblvion for instance is my fav game but it was a bit of a novelty for its time and i love it for what it is, but any subsequent game should have built on it made the dialogue more natural, given you more options durring quests, and giving the devs more time to refine those quests at the cost of time on a few random dungeons or something less interesting like that, for instance the painted world is sucha great start to a quest but then nothing of interest happens once your in the painting beyond "oh painted trol fat, thats interesting" it was enough to capture my imagination as a kid but in truth they did it dirty by not letting it grow beyond its most basic form Developers have dif priorities and i get that but i honestly think many of the issues at bethesda are above the dev level and not choices of what they want to make but of what leadership will let them risk

[@UltrEgoVegeta]

As a former eso player I can confirm ZoS is incompetent

[@fregatopolitis]

I think this would be the case if their new games were actually good gameplay-wise and content-wise

[@lostbutfreesoul]

The very same reason they would use a decade old engine, designed for single player, for a multiplayer experience. The Managers know it will be 'good enough' for sales, and that really is the underline, isn't it? Besides, it isn't like the manager making these calls are the ones that have to deal with the bugs....

[@t.t6294]

wow. a youtuber that doesn't have hate boner for bethesda, doesn't spread misinformation and actually uses logic? you're a rare breed my friend

[@ItxOkami-kh2dp1]

LETS GOOOO NEW VIDEOSSSSSS, love ya man, keep it up

[@johnprager662]

I honestly can't stand cinematic trailers. They make these flashy trailers with graphics that look absolutely nothing like the actual game. It doesn't even look like the game's cutscenes

[@Swedishmafia101MemeCorporation]

I still constantly play Fallout: New Vegas lol. I think Bethesda games look "good enough".

[@JWalters388]

They just need to add more hair variety so they don’t all look the same. I play Nehrim and the fact that some NPCs have different hairstyles, make them stand out more, compared to Skyrim. No need for facial mod.

[@courirnorte8137]

i remember people saying that skyrim looked realistic at the time it came out, and i also remember thinking that fallout 3 looked realistic too lol however since fallout new vegas all the way to fallout 4 (and 76) their games started looking pretty outdated, hopefully with microsofts help they can get more people working on making the game look better and play better, i heard rumors that they might consider adding ray tracing to starfield

[@Suno-ta-sei]

Bethesda does need to clean up there graphics just a bit so it doesn't hurt so much to look at. at least with oblivion it was easier on the eyes because it was smooth and vibrant. all the other games hurt to look at some times like they physically hurt the retina.

[@willowispgaming1995]

Yep like new vegas, it hurts to look at bcuz of the orange and brown colour pallete 😩

[@AmericanLord]

When Skyrim came out, people forget how highly that game was praised for how beautiful it was as a whole..

[@Nuberax]

Dang dude, your last few videos have been SUPER bold! Are you trying to get yourself into trouble?! 😂 Either way, great work as always!

[@falcoon_f_zero9450]

Never had much of an issue with Bethesda's graphics. And I think it comes down to the strong art direction in their games. The landscapes and locations still manage to look beautiful despite the lacking graphics. A good use of color and creative locations really sell the visuals in their games. Even the characters started to look good enough from Fallout 3 onwards.

[@Nevergofullretard321]

Fallout 4 onward have really weak art direction. They're simultaneously more colorful and washed at the same time.

[@falcoon_f_zero9450]

@@Nevergofullretard321 I don't really feel that way. I do agree on the weird mixture of more colour but also washed out look in some places. But Fallout 4 and 76 as well have some really beautiful landscapes and cities you instantly recognize that they belong to Fallout.

[@Nevergofullretard321]

@julian marx Fallout 4 is fugly, lmao

[@ToharaAmah]

@julian marx Skyrim is prettier imo, but fallout 4 is a close second.

[@Nevergofullretard321]

@julian marx Awwww... you're still coping? Aw.

[@mars7357]

Great vid as always

[@Ps_gameplays]

The problem with Bethesda games its that both the graphics and gameplay are bad 😓 The only good quality its their world and RPG elements

[@lucho7629]

I like the strong facial designs from TES series, because makes sense if you think about the harsh conditions of live and clima

[@XyzgorYT]

I'm playing through vanilla skyrim atm, and I gotta say that Solstheim's graphics are severely underappreciated imo. Particularly the bottom half with the ash storms, Tel Mithryn and pine forest sections. It's very moody, and just feels more thematically "complete" to me than the base game world (referring to Morrowind of course helps with that a lot, too). Things like dwemer ruins also got a visual upgrade there and look a lot better. It would have been nice to get some reworked weather systems and more unique textures with the special edition to flesh out the vanilla game world a bit more, but then again there's always mods.

[@limalepakko6074]

Why are you playing vanilla Skyrim

[@XyzgorYT]

@@limalepakko6074 Nostalgia and fun. ☺

[@plaidchuck]

Probably part of the development and business model. They minimize time tweaking gamebryo to make a bigger game with more playing time and were able to cap development costs and spend more on advertising.

[@phillycheesetake]

I have never, ever cared about graphics half as much as Bethesda haters have told me I should. And honestly the games which use "cutting edge" visuals are looking less, and less artistically competent every year. I'd also prefer my games to FIT ON MY SSD.

[@tvdvd8661]

Their games take T O O long to make for such shallow gameplay in fallout 4 and 76

[@TheCantinaChannel]

They were both a 3 year turnaround, which is pretty quick in comparison to something like Red Dead, which was 8 years.

[@HamanKarn567]

I honestly never had a problem with the graphics myself. I know everyone is different but as far as some of their games I actually like the design and way NPCs act and stuff. Like Fallout 3 and New Vegas just for one example. I actually like that it's basically just a sort of improved oblivion. I also am not an expert on making games or any of the technical stuff but as far as just playing and by the looks I personally don't mind most of them. Some design choices I dislike but that's not really because of the graphics though.

[@WarNvrChanges]

With the last two releases from Bethesda Game Studios being Fallout 76 and Starfield most people aren’t very optimistic about their future projects. Starfield took over 8 years of dev time and people thought it was taking them that long because they were making significant upgrades to their gaming engine, but after playing Starfield it seems more like they’ve downgraded it.

[@MadMamluk88]

Kalthar is the most beautiful NPC Bethesda has ever created.

[@nishantshade668]

Selling Games on the basis of ultra high quality graphics only is such a Ubisoft move.

[@mauseratti226]

They could really use a couple hundred extra employees, to this day I haven't been able to complete a Vampire Dawnguard run without the thing soft locking on me

[@JAZ_2002]

Always an advocate of Gameplay > Graphics

[@phoque022]

Something I've noticed about graphics. For the newer Bethesda games that have added full shadows is that while the exteriors and outside world can look great at times, the interiors look extra dated in comparison. This is very apparent in Fallout 4 and 76, lesser so in origin Skyrim. I wonder if it's a ongoing engine issue. In New Vegas I got a mod called New Vegas Reloaded which adds in real time shadows, god rays, other graphical and gameplay updates, etc and now the interiors don't look near as good as the outside. It's also very buggy and glitchy inside buildings and doesn't work half the time. My guess is outside the main light source for creating shadows is the sun. Inside you can have many different light sources and this is where the mod creator had problems. It seems like the lighting and shadow effects are dialed back inside buildings (with loading screens) in 4 and 76 so it makes me guess it's an ongoing engine issue that adds to the difficulty with shadows and lighting in interiors.

[@theskoomacat3106]

Probably the same reason Pokemon games don't look as good as they could. Gamefreak and Bethesda both get by doing the minimum they can get away with. Both companies could create pure Gold if they put maximum effort into their work.

[@Nevergofullretard321]

If only the heads actually cared.

[@CyberVirtual]

The literal invention of Facial Motion Capture currently used in the Gaming Industry makes every Bethesda Game Conversation (except for Dishonored) look like shit! The Creation Engine is an abused sex slave in a torture dungeon while Unreal Engine 5 is a Pornstar in the taverns. Yeah that's the analogy I came up with.

[@AP-uc7oz]

0:58 they’re really undoing that with fallout lol

[@LoafofSourdough]

While I don't think that Bethesda expected or relies on the modding of Skyrim to make it a good game, I believe that with them fully embracing the modding community, Elder Scrolls 6 won't be a "next-gen" dumpster fire like most other modern titles are, and probably will be. It just won't be Ubisoft levels of realism. Fallout graphics, and TES graphics even more so, have always had a fantasy feel to them, it's realistic but it still feels outlandish, and starfield feels like a test to see the limits of what their game engine is capable of. The title of the video kind of explains how people view Bethesda's graphics, and I think they want to prove that this is just how they like to do things. They don't need good graphics to sell their games, rereleasing skyrim this many times half-way proved it. Also, considering the dev cycle of 3 years with of a small team, and Ubisofts 2 1/2 years with a huge team, I think "out-of-date looking upon release" is not a fair, or even a correct comparison. Just give it time, TES6 will consume any and all free time we have left when it drops in 6 years. TL;DR I feel like Bethesda's Starfield and Skyrim's Anniversary Edition is Hodd Toward proving his point that they don't even need the best graphics to sell, just good graphics and good gameplay, and that they CAN make higher quality stuff if they want too.

[@felman87]

I think one more reason that didn't really get touched upon in your video is that Bethesda aims for a mass market appeal. Sure, they have console ports but they don't neglect the casual PC market either. When was the last time you were worried that your rig wouldn't run the upcoming Elder Scrolls game (if you can remember back wen we got them)? Chances are, most people weren't even paying attention because they weren't resource-heavy games. That PC you got in 2000? Yeah, that can run Morrowind, you're fine. You're not going to be running into a Crysis or Cyberpunk situation where the game you were eager to play is now out of reach becomes the settings you're recommended to play at is too much for you. And you're right about the gameplay. Look at the most popular games and how many of them are graphically impressive for the time? Tetris? Hardly (it was a game developed on soviet tech, which was a decade+ behind what we had in the west). Minecraft? It can certainly get pretty intensive with enough building going on at your end but the fact that it's been ported to just about everything on the planet shows it was never about graphics, only building whatever it is you can put your mind to. GTA5 bucks the trend but it's also a game that's nearly a decade old at this point (having released in 2013). So, yeah, a casual PC player probably wasn't playing it at launch (or maybe they got the console version) but eventually whatever their next computer was, they were picking it up.

[@Ppppftt]

New cannedtuna let's go

[@ilovehotdogs125790]

Man i really hope the new engine can handle more than 4 light sources

[@jinsakai409]

Probably the scope and style of gameplay? It’s not a linear game like spiderman. There is 10 x more dialogue. Lots of systems like weapons and gear, full npc schedules. At some point they have to choose, do we want it to be next gen or just a better graphical improvement from previous titles that actually works

[@jefftheindianchief8279]

Visuals aside, I thoroughly believe that they don't spend nearly enough time polishing the game where it matters most: functionality. The slew of bugs & glitches, both minor & game-breaking, aren't always resolved. It leaves much to be desired when Bethesda prioritizes the short-term, forgetting how beneficial the long-term actually is; it results in features either being cut completely, left in a broken state or gleefully tossed around in DLC for a quick buck. If I'm being honest, Microsoft should've taken a more firm approach in managing Bethesda & Todd's antics.

[@Aiphares]

people love to hate on the creation engine but one of the biggest strengths is the customizability of the engine. Thats also the reason why its so easy to mod the game so much. I mean people have created entire Games (Enderal) via mods.

[@simple-commentator-not-rea7345]

Do you also ask a bird why it flies? Or a fly why it's buzzing?

[@TheCantinaChannel]

I realize you're trying to make a comment on the foolishness of such a question but studying why birds fly, or flies buzz helps us understand our world better and how evolution has played into the lives of such creatures. There are no foolish questions, only foolish answers.

[@EvilNightwolf]

To be fair, every TES game looked amazing when it first came out. Some people still talk about the water in Morrowind.

[@gordyrroy]

this video says important stuff and hopefully the peeps complaining about the points you adress actually see this video.

[@judythepunk461]

The quests have not been that great of late tho, it's been on a decline aswell, so it's not just the graphics

[@Gingerninja44]

0:50 what game is that

[@TheCantinaChannel]

a cancelled game called Deep Down

[@dreadwaters7898]

I started playing oblivion again this week and yeah it’s rough looking but I get more enjoyment out of it then I do Skyrim.

[@adamrubella2290]

Dated graphics are only a small part of Bethesda’s issues. You can’t only look at graphics and forget the constant and recurring issues with bugs, the lies and BS from extremely high level people in the company and the bad decisions and tripping over their own feet when trying to deal with totally avoidable self inflicted injuries. Bottom line is they were once a game company I more or less trusted totally. Now I wouldn’t trust them to tell me water is wet.

[@ameyashetty1441]

i honestly think its gotta do with the sheer amount of interactable content focus on the word interactable here

[@alm5992]

No one asked for 76 to be an MMO, nor did they ask for it in 3 years.

[@uchenna127]

Those graphic comparison's were a little unfair. Those Bethesda games are all pretty darn ancient. Compare Mass Effect 2 to Skyrim, that's much fairer.

[@limemime565]

Pretty much every bethesda game until fallout 4 was heavily and meticulously stylized.

[@andraken]

Cyberpunk, the perfect example of a "Elder Scrolls like" game wich was bullshit in the end

[@lucasliu2575]

it is because their game engine is outdated. Lighting and shadow is just a minor part of what a game engine handles. The important part is it optimizes the dev process and the game itself. I can't blame them considering how small their studio is.

[@es-ed5ug]

Yeah, bethesda lost a LOT of "whatever they make is gonna be good" cred with FO76.

[@bigsteamypeas]

Once video games start to look like human vision this problem will be completely eradicated.

[@schalitz1]

Ryse was not terrible garbage. It was a great game and still has amazing graphics to this day, nearly 10 years later.

[@VelcroSnake93]

The problem is that the last few Bethesda games have had dated graphics AND have been either bad or mediocre, relying on mods to make them good.

[@alexcruba4928]

Bethesda's graphics were already outdated when Morrowind was released - fact.

[@EclipseCoD]

The way I see it, is that Bethesda doesn't like making fantasy games. Ever since Morrowind, it's become quite clear they like sci-fi. If you don't like what you're making, it will always be only "good enough"

[@DragonTroopBeta1]

CannedTuna with another smash hit video. Here's a comment specifically for the algorithm.

[@GrievousReborn]

My biggest complaint about Bethesda games. But that doesn't mean I'm not going to play them.

[@RavenStorm332]

Bethesda's games will usually run on mid-range PCs that don't have top tier GPUs

[@Human0245]

Because I am not there.

[@BodieB]

Top tier glazing.

[@theironfox2756]

There is a lot more going on in the background in a Bethesda game. So many subroutines.

[@pigeonpallz1733]

First... Is that still a thing ? Well first anyway lol. Cool video mah man

[@Jun-Kyard]

You aren't, but yes it is a thing.

[@pigeonpallz1733]

@@Jun-Kyard there were no other comments before mine soooooooooooo. First twice now lol

[@kenetickups6146]

I think they look fine the issue is ignoring lore and dumbing down gameplay

[@Doyoueverwonderwhywerehere]

Ignoring kirkbrides writings is fine because anything he writes is non-canon

[@kenetickups6146]

@@Doyoueverwonderwhywerehere ok todd

[@mattjohnson0718]

Oh boy not another one there is no defending Bethesda screwing up so terribly over the past several years they need to take responsibility and they do they should focus on trying to do everything better and making less mistakes and making sure they have the right team with the right skill set and knowledge to do what they need to do then they can become successful and do better I know nobody's perfect but Bethesda they don't even really try it shows that's just straight facts

[@artimmenersilvers7841]

Also have to keep in mind the platforms they make the games for. I don’t think the Xbox 360 could’ve handled a super detailed Skyrim and still run smoothly. With pc you get more freedom, but if they made the pc version prettier it would have been a noticeable difference compared to the console version. I also think they know that the modding community is gonna make EMBs and stuff to tailor to their own tastes anyways

[@youtubeshadowbannedme]

The PS3 and Xbox 360 couldn't even run Oldrim properly

[@MuchWhittering]

People call Oblivion ugly and then install mods which make everyone look like Handsome Squidward, so I'm reluctant to take their opinions seriously.

[@joshuagraham6381]

also I think accessibility may be a factor for people with more low end devices

[@TheCantinaChannel]

True

[@MegaPrams]

Development lifecycle is the true problem here, they should hire more people from the money they are still milking from skyrim

[@randommay9219]

16 Times the Bits

[@senritsujumpsuit6021]

Fuk Raytracing when we have iconic moments or how many times I can look at B-roll of N64 Chickens with nice colors :3

[@Strato_Casterrr9898]

The only problem I ever had with Skyrim is how bleak and drab everything is. Like, I get it, its a cold place, but it just did not fit with my personal taste. I tried ENBs with westher mods. Apart drom being laggy, they are really good. But they do stray away too far from the "Skryim feel" if you know hwat I mean. So I installed Cathedral weathers and used its lush preset. The vanilla textures really shine using this.

[@Ieatpaste23]

"Epic playing game." Yes, but what if they fail at that, too?

[@fitzlepop]

I thought they focused too much on graphics in Skyrim and ended up making a lazy game everywhere else.

[@michaelcarpenter7835]

I have to respectfully disagree. Now maybe it's because I am visually impaired but I think Skyrim is a beautiful looking game. And considering the time period I think Oblivion was way ahead for its time

[@Cerberus19660]

It just works

[@MadMamluk88]

0:41 neither does Rockstar

[@edmundprice5276]

Sometimes too much realism is a bad thing Oblivion is like a pantomime, but it's fun Need for speed is sometimes just creepy, graphically stunning, but I found it impractical and lacking

[@Wsquared43]

Graphics may be what sells games on playstation but everywhere else gameplay is what sells games

[@gabrielandy9272]

well i rather have the gameplay of bethesda games as they give some level of freedom i don't encounter in other games, i love divinity original sin as a good rpg, but it don't have the same feeling of skyrim or fallout 4, i don't play betehsda games cause i want a good rpg, its just that they have some level of immersion that is unmatched to me i think its due to radiant AI and the npcs being more dynamic, for example theres a quest where you have to go to you first dragon the game give you the option to go with the npc or don't go but the trick here is the NPC WALKS TO THE DESTINATION even if you don't see then the game may not render it, but its simulating the time to get there, if u pick a hourse a few minutes later, u will find it walking there and catch up to it, while on witcher 3 for example the npcs just teleports and do nothing ruining my immersion, in windhelm the npc that go to jail acctualy GO TO JAIL even if you are not watching, theres a time simulating that event it will take around 2 minutes for then to walk to the jail, and if u go earlier he will be going to the jail even if you don't go there to see, in other games like witcher 3 stuff don't really happen, the immersion level of bethesda is much better than other games bethesda is king on gameplay/immersion, tho i think they do bad RPGS as divinity original sin is a much better rpg game even tho it have less immersion. the cities of witcher 3 look more dead than skyrim to me, cause citiets in withcer 3 is random generated npcs not unique npcs with routines the clothing and items they use are all false while on skyrim every clothing and item they use is TRUE ITEM on a inventory even if you don't see or look for it, i mean its just a level of immersion even tho its a video game, it feel like it respect the rules i expect from a game its hard to explain.