Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim or HERE THERE BE DRAGONS

[Marc v4.0]

If I would trust anyone to build a new engine that would be custom-tailored to support Bethesda's type of open-world games, it would be Bethesda.

[Krylo]

Because that worked so well last time.

[Marc v4.0]

Considering I've never seen Bethsoft release all this horrible stuff you seem to be in absolute fear and disgust of, yes I would say it worked well.

I'll just step out and let all the fun, off-topic Bethesda hate just run along then, though.

[Inbred Chocobo]

Originally Posted by Marc v1.0

Considering I've never seen Bethsoft release all this horrible stuff you seem to be in absolute fear and disgust of, yes I would say it worked well.

I'll just step out and let all the fun, off-topic Bethesda hate just run along then, though.

Can I live in your world?

Nah, but in all seriousness the last engine that Bethesda used and made themselves had quite a few bugs and glitches. Besides some visual bugs and once in a while a quest breaker, there were save bugs (which a lot of times if you go through a door and it crashes, its actually a save bug, turn off auto-saving) that ruined hundreds of hours of play. I think that that is more due to the modibility of the games the engines were designed on, but even the base games had their problems.

However I'm willing to give them a chance, as it is possible they learn from making an engine before and improve upon its fundamental level.

[Krylo]

You forgot the clipping. Oh how many times have I been unable to kill a mudcrab or rad scorpion because it was 90% clipped into the ground... how many times have I had swords, arrows, and bullets swinging and firing at me from within walls.

Not to mention the, extremely, poor character animation, and especially facial animations. The stock solid dialogue deliveries from NPCs.

And that's all just their engine.

I'd mention the terrible physics, too... but they're too much fun in the Fallout games to really be a negative.

[Marc v4.0]

I guess my entire experience is rose tinted by the fact that I've never run across an actual game-breaker or save-ruiner. The most I get is titchy collisions or hilariously placed physics fuck-ups.

That was only in Oblivion onward, too. Morrowind never gave me any problems at all except on the console, what with the wonderful way it would have to load every 10 seconds while moving around the world map if you had been playing longer then 40 hours.

In fact, New Vegas is about the buggiest game I have played with the Bethesda label, but a lot of the bugs I encountered there were things I had never seen or heard of happening in FO3 and Obl. which leads me to point at Obsidian's work with the engine.

EDIT: I would argue that Writing and bad Animators are NOT an engine problem at all, mostly because they are not and it's a little silly to blame them on it. You can get improved animations that look wonderful from Mods, which wouldn't be possible if it was the engine making them shitty.

Really, the fact that modders can improve on everything goes more to show that the people making it at Bethesda aren't bringing out their A game most of the time.

[Krylo]

Originally Posted by Marc v1.0

EDIT: I would argue that Writing and bad Animators are NOT an engine problem at all, mostly because they are not and it's a little silly to blame them on it. You can get improved animations that look wonderful from Mods, which wouldn't be possible if it was the engine making them shitty.

Really, the fact that modders can improve on everything goes more to show that the people making it at Bethesda aren't bringing out their A game most of the time.

I've never seen animation fixes, and even when outsourced (See: New Vegas) the animations remain exactly the same and clunky as ever.

If they exist, however, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt.

Also the whole Bethsoft not bringing out their A-Game thing? Exactly. They don't bring their A-Game to developing the actual games... why should I expect them to do any better on their engine?

Annnnd in my defense, I did separate the writing from the engine, but holy crap is Bethesda terrible at writing. The difference between New Vegas and FO:3 is like night and day, and Oblivion was just terrible. Completely failed to engage me at all in the main quest line, and even the side quests that I decided to do were rail roaded, inflexible, and, at times, illogical. Then there's the dialogue and ugh...

Bethesda is good at making ALMOST good/great games, but it's got a really shitty track record for making games that are actually great lately. And the ways in which they fall just short rub me in all the wrong ways and just make me hate them more than I would if the game was legitimately shitty, because I can write off a legitimately shitty game. A game that comes so close that you know that if the developers had just given maybe one or two more half a shits and it could have been great?

Jesus, that pisses me off.

[Marc v4.0]

Hm, yeah I can see how that would really get your goat and then smack it around a little.

There is rumor ZeniMax might being buying up Obsidian, but even if that is just a rumor I hope they shove more Fallout work off on them...but there is a whole other set of troubles with that as obsidian can't seem to finish anything, just look at NV patch 1.02.

[bluestarultor]

If it's not going to be on the same engine, I wonder what the requirements will be like? This laptop is definitely not for gaming, and while it's starting to have problems (battery not recognized even though it charges fine, mainly), I'm probably not going to be in the market for a new one for a while as I finally start to strike out on my own (my area is to jobs what Raid is to ants).



EDIT: PS @ Krylo: Yeah, the animations are stored in separate files from anything related to the engine. There are tons of custom animations (and even more in custom poses) mods out there ranging from increasing the width of the males' gaits (which looks pretty darn good if you actually notice that kind of thing) to, well, take a look. Given you're probably not logged in, that won't even account for all the adult stuff. When animations are the question, the only limitation is the skill of the animator.

[Arlia Janet]

Will the game have serious engine flaws? Yes.
Will the main quest be lackluster and a burden to complete? Yes.
Will there be fun, self-contained side quests with interesting treasure and colorful characters? Most likely.
Will community made content be incredible, imaginative and well worth the price of admission? Most definitely.