• switchboard_pete@fedia.io
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    1 month ago

    the average player doesn’t care about crunchy rpg systems. they do care if the core gameplay would’ve been outdated in 2010.

    bethesda doesn’t seem to be able to improve the core gameplay because the engine can’t cope.

    even if you fixed the writing and tossed out the awful procedural generation in favor of hand-crafted environments, at it heart it’s still going to play like a stripped down borderlands 1

    • CALIGVLA@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      1 month ago

      bethesda doesn’t seem to be able to improve the core gameplay because the engine can’t cope.

      No, Bethesda can’t improve because they keep catering for the lowest common denominator, engine has never had anything to do with it, it never has. They don’t need a complex RPG system with a ton of flashy new things; New Vegas wasn’t complex, it was fairly streamlined as far as RPGs go, what they need is better writers and better game designers that know how make interesting worlds, quests, characters and gameplay mechanics.

      even if you fixed the writing and tossed out the awful procedural generation in favor of hand-crafted environments, at it heart it’s still going to play like a stripped down borderlands 1

      Because they’ve been dumbing down their games since forever, bring back more robust roleplay with more actions and consequences, fully fleshed out mechanics, get better writers. Just look at Fallout: London, despite the bugs everyone that has played it agrees it’s the best “Bethesda game” since New Vegas, another game that wasn’t actually made by Bethesda. I’ll repeat: the problem was never the engine.

      • switchboard_pete@fedia.io
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        1 month ago

        Bethesda can’t improve because they keep catering for the lowest common denominator

        even in your ideal world where they perfect the world, quests and characters, tes 6 is still going to suck if core gameplay plays the same as skyrim, which played the same as oblivion

        they can’t improve that core gameplay without a better engine

        new vegas and london are popular in the same way 1 and 2 are popular, which is “not mainstream enough to sustain a studio like bethesda”.

    • Jakeroxs@sh.itjust.works
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      1 month ago

      Starfields core gameplay is actually leagues more refined then prior games on the same engine, feels really good to play, where it lacks heavily is story, which is historically how they made up the difference between the lackluster gameplay.

      To clarify a little, I mostly mean the FPS style gunplay.

      • switchboard_pete@fedia.io
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        1 month ago

        which is historically how they made up the difference between the lackluster gameplay

        you and i must have been playing different bethesda games, because none of them have been particularly interesting story-wise

        • Jakeroxs@sh.itjust.works
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          1 month ago

          Elder Scrolls lore is pretty cool, they’ve never been AMAZING stories, but there’s enough there to RP and make decisions and such that have some kind of impact.