> Then you have whatever Bethesda craps out any given year.
I'll just mention that a big complaint about Starfield was that instead of crafting an open-world as they did in previous games, they created small hubs coupled with barren and repetitive procedurally generated planets.
Starfield fell on several levels, including gameplay mechanics, mediocre story, things to do, and raw content. Originally it was going to be a much smaller gameplay area which theoretically would have better content. FO76 is proof Bethesda can recover though because that was in a way worse state than Starfield at launch. But if the next Starfield DLC is a flop like the first one, I wouldn't hold my breath that it gets worked on further. The UE5 remaster of Oblivion (which is excellent) is proof they can extract more revenue from a UE5 Morrowind, Fallout, or Skyrim while working on TES6.
Really my only Bethesda interest is Fallout games. I loved Fallout 4 despite its issues. I'm not a big RPG nerd, so the lack of RPG elements didn't bother me too much. It's more the technical issues. It's also the graphics. If you don't want to put resources into ultra detailed graphics, you have to use a less demanding art style like Nintendo does.
But yeah, as far as Starfield goes, I heard how barren everything was and decided I should just wait until maybe they make it better in a few years.
> If you don't want to put resources into ultra detailed graphics, you have to use a less demanding art style like Nintendo does.
I agree in general, but just wanted to offer one counter-example. The Axis Unseen [0] is a well-received indie game created by just one person (Nate Purkeypile, notably a Bethesda veteran [1]), which looks incredible, utilizing Unreal Engine 5 geometry features with almost no textures.
> But yeah, as far as Starfield goes, I heard how barren everything was and decided I should just wait until maybe they make it better in a few years.
That’s the right call IMO. As a huge Bethesda fan, it was a massive let down. Honestly I think it’s not recoverable. They made exploration the core of the game, but the procedural generation makes everything feel samey, repetitive, and pointless. They discarded the environmental storytelling that made their previous games so fun.
I do think modern games can absolutely create incredible open worlds, even with procedural generation. That’s more or less what Valheim is doing, to great effect. Bethesda just fell down on the job.
I'll just mention that a big complaint about Starfield was that instead of crafting an open-world as they did in previous games, they created small hubs coupled with barren and repetitive procedurally generated planets.