Why Bethesda DESERVED Starfield

To start this video I want to make it clear that I am a true fan of Bethesda Game Studios' work, not every game they have made is perfect, but really no game is at least within the scope of my own gaming experiences. I'm about to say it's going to sound, uh, it's going to sound like I really hate them and for some of you that might be very funny, it's a neutral point for me, they have made mistakes both apparently intentional and otherwise. Being able to balance the good with the bad or take the bad with the good depends on how egregious you feel those points are within your own sensitivity.

Bethesda Game Studios, a Juggernaut development whose initial claim to fame of being the oldest Scroll series was one of the Few game studios have been launched as projectiles into the stratosphere of being one of the most well-known and respected game developers in all the world. Bethesda is also notable for being the intellectual property rights holder and developer that popularized Fallout within the broader lexicon of the gaming conversation with titles including Fallouts 3 and 4, as well as New Vegas and oh my god oh Look, Bethesda Game Studios titles have a distinctive quality that is unmistakably Bethesda Game Studios.

This might seem circular in logic and probably a sentiment expressed a million times as a weak defender of his games, but it's simply the best way to put it. Bethesda frequently faces a lot of backlash for having a preferred format and style of game design that is often criticized for being too derivative or too similar to their previous releases, while I understand this sentiment, it is simply their unique style and approach. in the game design which ultimately won't suit everyone. Elden Ring, the game that was widely acclaimed as one of the best games of its genre and year of release, which is effectively a title quite similar to the soft work in the Dark Souls series, except with an open world design and some changes made to accommodate that this is not intended to be a criticism, no, I'm serious, I'm talking to you, stop writing, it's an expectation and something we appreciate understanding. a creation within the context of a company's culture is perfectly valid.

Opening your favorite band's latest CD and finding absolutely zero traces of pre-existing DNA would be pretty strange and an astronomical risk for any creative pursuing this sort of thing with both Fallout and The Elder. Scrolls under its belt, the release of a new mainline Bethesda game generated quite a bit of commotion and a sense of excitement among gamers. Bethesda games are synonymous with absolute freedom of interaction and industry-leading environmental storytelling, are often quite iconic during their time of release and frequently considered industry-defining and milestones of the era for modding communities in the past. coming years. With the praise I'm heaping on Bethesda right now, one might think, at a glance, that everything this company produces is made of solid gold. and praised by the broader gaming community as a benchmark, Elder Scrolls 5, the fifth installment in the series, stands as one of the most financially successful and renowned role-playing games of the last decade, with 60 million copies sold.

Since its release in 2011, Fallout is no slouch either, having grossed hundreds of millions of dollars for Bethesda in the five entries released since being owned by them as an unmentioned brand, the series is one of the visual beacons of the gaming industry with Fallout Boy. being one of the most visually recognizable icons within the gaming space alongside Mario Kratos and Resident Evil dealer Bethesda launching a new IP; No big game developer announcing a new IP in the gaming world is something we rarely see due to the high risk. and profitability factors if it's not Rainbow 6 from Duty Creed of Redemption Part 3 2K 29 most people don't know what it is and they sure as hell don't spend $70 on it, so the reveal of Starfield to the vast majority of Players felt they both like an exciting new video game that cuts a thousand hours into two, but also something intangibly difficult to promote, since a new IP means zero expectations.

This reality will be a factor later in the video, as I suspect the lack of transparency is a sin, another outer space fairing. The space adventure that comes to mind also removed all of this, it's just an additional cut within the foundation of Bethesda's reputation, so Starfield released the deluxe owner's edition on August 31, marking the start of a new era of Bethesda games and yet after almost 25 years Starfield feels different, not entirely in the game itself, which is actually part of the reason we're seeing the reaction that we're seeing with several people calling it simply Skyrim and Space, but there's something else that feels bitter among the Zeitgeist that is the gaming echo chamber, well, I might be trying to attribute the brewing discontent solely to the catastrophic release of Fallout 76.

I think these problems have been getting worse over decades and decades. For decades, Bethesda has, in several cases, inadvertently and deliberately alienated specific fanbases and communities. Whether through creative decisions, lack of awareness, financial reasons or a combination of these factors, you guys don't have a phone, but despite all that, one thing remains evident to me, Bethesda's reputation is that the core of why Starfield is a death-per-million case. to subscribe if you like the video, thank you. I think a good place to start is with this simple question: what was your first Elder Scrolls game? Everyone tends to have a different answer, and as children become teenagers and adults, the question tilts greatly. pro Skyrim or none, I played Fallout whatever your answer is, whether it's Morrowwind Oblivion which is the best, or Skyrim you probably hold that game in high regard as one of the few games that was able to suck you in like no other game it has done.

Often, enthusiasts of previous installments like Morrowwind will criticize Bethesda for the simplification and restrictions they perceive in the later SE It's me, where I found immense depth and joy exploring Tamriel on my Xbox 360 as a child, I found the release of Skyrim console to be demonstrably simple and unappealing, that's not to say Skyrim is a bad game, although most people aren't that diplomatic in my game, well your game, literal human conversations as I can be taking a quick step back from this train of thought. I want to ask you a random question: who are the hardest people to please within fictional circles?

Is it a fantasy genre for fans? B, devotees of science fiction or C, fans of history and politics. Why don't you intervene with your answers? Next I won't give you time to guess that they are all impossible. I can't even tell you how many conversations I've had about Bethesda that invariably lead people to remember their favorite Elder Scrolls game and argue that the simplification of the game's core mechanics transformed it from something like Dungeons and Dragons with dice rolling disabled to The Hobbit - and I'm not talking about the books, I'm not even talking about the first movie - from a very fundamental level, it was clear that Bethesda's ambitions were less about creating games that evolved and progressed in mechanical complexity and depth, but instead They served as accessible entry points for game fans who usually always skip cutscenes to get to the game, which is very ironic because the only PS5 game fans, note that the current leading platform by a country mile is interested in bragging that it's a literal DND simulator with more depth than your mother's.

They simply have a reputation for oversimplification within a genre where most games. Die Hard fans want more, not less. They're also the company that made armor, which was the beginning of microtransactions, which also sucks. Moving on, we come to one of my favorite video game franchises of all time, the Fallout series, this one is fascinating because I think. its roots lie at a level that could have influenced My Generation quite a bit, especially among modern tastemakers and content creators over 25. I know Fallout is basically dead as a Bethesda property and starts at number three. Fallout 3 was the first Bethesda game in the universe you see Bethesda was not the original rights holder of the Fallout license that honor fell to the now defunct game publisher interplay black Isle Studios the gaming collective responsible for creating in part The Fallout brand is the roots of almost the entire Fallout identity we see marketed and sold at every GameStop and Target Clothing Rack around the world.

After the demise of Interactions, Bethesda obtained the rights to the Fallout IP and quickly embarked in creating a new installment of the series using its notorious Brio game engine, the same engine used in Elder Scrolls for Oblivion. This marked the first time that the Fallouts Universe could be explored from a first-person perspective and Fallout 3 would become one of the pioneering single-player open-world FPS games on the console market. Following the release of Fallout 3, it quickly garnered praise as a technological Marvel. and a milestone in entertainment immersion and world-building, this sentiment resonated strongly for years, even after the release of the now-beloved Fallout New Vegas.

However, as time progressed, a discernible undercurrent of discussion began to simmer within the Fallout Community, a bit of controversy fueled by some questionable decisions made by Bethesda towards its then-contracted developer Obsidian G games. To provide context, several prominent figures from Black Is Studios had migrated to Obsidian and consisted largely of former staff when the game development studios disbanded, it's quite common for substantial portions of the original team to set up new companies, so frequently witness company leaders or key personnel leave or be fired from a function only to quickly regroup into a new company, often with a significant part or almost all of the original developers preserving the initial culture and identity of the company. significant point of interest for gaming enthusiasts upon realizing that Obsidian was tasked with creating a new Fallout game, marking the series returning to its creative hands since the closure of Black Isle Studios.

Bethesda even offered Obsidian a bonus if Fallout New Vegas reached a review score of 8.5. I like the good guys for sharing the license with them and fans of the game were excited to see a more faithful way to the story of the game they love so much. Oh, by the way, did I mention that with the release of Fallout 3 Bethesda took major liberties with the game's tone, atmosphere, world characters, and more, although they still label it as a third entry within the release timeline of the game, fans didn't like it very much and needless to say, it's one of the reasons why some older Die Hard fans balked.

To show a modicum of respect to Bethesda and the recent Fallout titles in particular, they took something that people grew up with and recognized and reworked large parts of it to fit a more marketable and simplified approach for the general gaming public after the release of Obsidian's Fallout New Vegas. received solid reviews across the board, but fell short of Bethesda's initial review benchmark of 85%, missing it by 1%, a single percentage standing between them and their minimum necessary review benchmark. That single point served to excuse Bethesda from any shred of decency and meant that no one at Obsidian got their rather large bonuses if the game could overcome this hurdle, when this became known it no doubt served to improve Sully Bethesda's reputation and began to depicting them as bullies, especially towards the creatives who helped found the series.

We were profiting to begin with, so we have Elder Scrolls fans upset about the oversimplification of their favorite game series while being in a genre characterized by extremely DieHard and wide-ranging individuals within fantasy media. and basically everyone in their mother was mad at Fallout because Bethesda ruined the original artistic mind behind the series with ultra-strict deadlines, an unreasonable work-life culture, and a bonus for missing payday for all the insane stress they were under subdued to begin with, in addition to harassing fans with almost infinite reissues of Skyrim that for the sake of it guys, please stop buying them, it'swhich is why they weren't playing the next in the introduction of Creation Club content, which are effectively microtransaction versions of mods for PC users.

Bethesda had one more giant load to drop on everyone, one more proverbial fang from Beast to Bear. In the eyes of players everywhere home, I belong in West Virginia Mom, take me home, take me home, country. I think it's impossible to discuss the source of Bethesda's fervent dislike without mentioning the release of Fallout 76, while 76 has its fanbase and has improved substantially. more refined and content-rich since its launch, it is undeniable that its launch was emblematic of a Bethesda that was neither willing nor able to compromise financial stability over any other avenue of the game's existence. This frenetic, financially driven release period gave fans, haters, and viewers ammunition for months as Bethesda Fallout 76 fits into a timeline recent enough that nearly every generation currently alive on the planet has some degree of knowledge of how embarrassing that release was for Bethesda.

Some argue that its launch status was indicative of Bethesda's financial desperation after such long periods of operation without consistent finances for microtransactions or a consistent release schedule. I feel like Bethesda's pivot to publishing was also emblematic of this financial insecurity at the company, which naturally makes sense for Microsoft. The ones who will bail them out and help make financial decisions are less of a burden overall, they want to make monstrous amounts of money, but not being stressed about needing that monstrous amount up front to keep the doors open helps, but I mean, All that is in the past and yet we still see a large number of young people. the voices keep shouting Bethesda commits past transgressions the reality is that every game console has generations and each year has demographic changes, so I wouldn't be surprised if 99.9% of the kids on Tik Tok and YouTube who call Starfield a typical and embarrassing Bethesda game they haven't even made it. they played one of the most RPG focused titles of their lives which is fine I mean a 17 year old boy was five today in 2011 why are you crying when I was a snotty 11 year old wearing his gamer badge and I played his video games like a good gamer should.

He admired gaming media and television networks like G4 to serve as a reflection of gaming culture. He desperately wanted to be a part of this, which meant game reviews were previews. Chat forums and anything with the pun in front of it were places where I cultivated and refined my own understanding of what was a good game and what was a bad game. I was no longer interested in playing shitty games licensed from my favorite TV shows and movies. growing up now I'm an adult Mommy I want culture in my media I won't tolerate this Dil give me balance and inspired design give me Devil May Cry Mom oh my gosh when the Game Outlets collectively agreed that a game or series was considered to be exemplary of brilliance of the industry at large would become a moderate topic of conversation among all of us who value discussing things as absolute truths and take every opportunity to spew hate from across the room at those dirty PS3 kids or Xbox heritage .

Perspective isn't exactly a notion exclusive to games; In fact, it infects every facet of humanity at large and runs much deeper than the pixels on the screen; However, by the nature of this same reality, perspectives and criticisms are inherited with the intention of being perceived or declared as something more Informed and studied individual, that is definitely something pre-existing, but aggravated by unlimited access to the Internet, so The actual weed-type contact of the old days can eventually quickly turn into a battle to discover whether those who have genuine complaints are actually people who in good faith tried something. and to distinguish between others who are taking a broad and fast approach and copying their own perspectives from the Zeitgeist in an attempt to profit from it, whether through ego padding or actual social media standing.

Capital likes retweets, things like that I really need to do. Of course I'm not talking about people who have played these games, tried these games, had errors with these games and ultimately didn't have a good time with them, you are excluded from what I'm talking about. people who take joy in separating opinions that they have no basis or understanding about, okay, if this is the whole sandwich on the plate, I'd say it's pretty obvious why people disagree with Bethesda in their games. I didn't mention Fallout's overpromises. 76 and Bethesda's iconic brand of streamlining its sequels with Fallout 4, which is a testament to how long this video could go.

There have been millions of small incidents that have made Bethesda have such a bad reputation, but none of these explanations or reasons. I really articulate why people are so mad at Bethesda nowadays, not only is this a complete new game from Bethesda, something we haven't really seen since Fallout 4 in 2015, but it's also a console exclusive, that's right, this one. The game will never come to a PS console because Bethesda's ownership of the company's manufacturer is in direct competition with them, meaning not only are people taking advantage, and to be fair, rightfully so, of the many controversies. and problems that Bethesda brought upon themselves and their countless fans, myself included, but we are also immersed in the revitalized console wars, which makes things quite complicated, since most of the conversation against Bethesda revolves around ammo-harvesting that someone heard about from someone else whose older brother did play a Bethesda game once, but that's inherited hate and something Bethesda earned through ill will.

To their communities, adjacent studio, and fanbases, the discourse they're seeing around the game appears to be 30% genuine, decent criticism and 70% an actual visual representation of a Fortnite pre-game lobby, except everyone has multiple raids on their account and doesn't even play video games, ultimately this video will be pretty thin on direct criticism of Starfield as I intend to post a proper in-depth review of the game itself without the hysteria and the group stuff surrounding the release itself, which is pretty much what this video is. but I think it would be a mistake not to at least briefly touch on the issues that even Bethesda fans are expressing about the game itself because sure the issues people are having can range from profound to ultimately Echo Camera fodder.

Starfield has issues with the game itself, these issues, when combined with the very real reality that in our current year of 2024, design decisions like invisible wall prompts and near-infinite loading screens are not out of the question. immediately in the design room, is a testament to where we have come. So far I have my own fringe conspiracy theories about why these issues exist and they all start with a capital S, ultimately these issues serve to damage the overall package that Bethesda spent the better part of a decade putting together, so where we meet Starfield? as a product and how it affects Bethesda's reputation as a game developer.

Invisible walls are a very real thing that players run into in Starfield, though the limits are pretty big, ultimately incredibly questionable coming from a studio whose entire wrath claims fame. They were creative, ever-expanding, and impressive environmental designs that seemed almost limitless compared to their contemporaries, and while game developers have come a long way since Fallout 3, the reality is that open-world games are the trend of the decade, which is a big part of how awesome we are. What we're seeing in Starfield are things that other developers have apparently done and done better than anyone else. Sky, a game that is often directly compared to Starfield by people who probably played it for a week and never played it a second later, the bars just could do it.

The interstellar breadth is better and more delicate than Bethesda ever could, and while I'll address my defense and complaints I ultimately really have with the design choice, another video, at least on paper, paints Bethesda like a studio losing touch with its capacity. to push boundaries and create technological marvels in the gaming space, fast travel does much the same thing and with more fervent consequences, ultimately every play style imaginable in Starfield will encounter loading screen issues, while short ones when installed on an SSD still ultimately break big hits. of content leading to an experience that ultimately feels like a series of designed sections rather than a cohesive open world, and while they don't bother me as much as others, they're ultimately too frequent even for my own sensibilities. , the areas you visit tend to Provide a lot of detail and complexity of Freedom, especially when you try to map, even remotely, some of the cities, which have many inhabitants and nuances.

No, the planets are tremendously barren and often very repetitive, which means that exploration is a crucial point in people's enjoyment, something that actually made me pause and reconsider how to approach and enjoy the game. on their own terms. This is not a traditional Bethesda style of content delivery and formatting and that is not okay for some and not adaptable for others, but ultimately. Again, this video isn't about criticizing the understanding and identification with Starfield as a whole, it's about understanding where the negative Nega sentiment that Bethesda is getting from social media is coming from, so it's impossible not to see the infinite loading screens as more than just a joke. modern era, especially when we're just a few years away from what will very well be the most impressive open world we've ever seen developed in gaming, the last point I'd like to address is Bethesda's continued use of crafting. . the game engine from which every Bethesda game has been created in one form or another - yes, the creation engine is gone by over 100 names - but it is ultimately derived from the same technology that was used to build the Elder Scrolls , a game that came out tomorrow. when dinosaurs were still around, while it is quite common for game developers to iterate and maintain their own in-house game engine technology over decades rather than buying and learning off-the-shelf game engines such as Unreal or Unity This doesn't mean they came with such fervent dislike, as Bethesda's internal game engine is called Creative Engine 2.0, the engine used and updated for Starfield Bears, all familiar hallmarks of a Bethesda game.

Many find these telltale signs of Jank and poor engine stability. be quite unpleasant and ask Bethesda to reconsider its use now. I'll be the weirdo who defends the use of this game engine. Bethesda and its relationship with modders have always been a symbiotic and clearly positive situation. ERS understands and knows this game engine and Bethesda's continued use might seem like incompetence when in reality the engine was designed for the same level of customization and freedom. Many people prefer games like Dungeons and Dragons as a mechanically free and customizable gaming experience. Note that Bethesda has been including built-in mods since Marwin, allowing everything from tweaking individual stats to personal tastes to creating huge groups of fan-made worlds to share with others.

Modding is a staple of Bethesda's game, virtualizing this feeling and allowing vertical changes and horizontal freedom like Bethesda has allowed players means coding anything could prove to be a hindrance and ultimately restrict the player's freedom. . While this notion seems pretty lenient towards Bethesda, there is no such thing as a design decision without consequences, and boy, it's clear that there have been consequences to gaming. It's highly unlikely that the average player will spend more than 10 minutes playing a Bethesda game without seeing something absolutely stupid and breaking the immersion. What this means is that for every consideration made for freedom of expression and fashion, they come with 40,000 errors that will continue detrimentally. every individual experiencing their games leads to a pretty fair impression that they make games pretty poorly and I won't necessarily fight you there.

Bethesda games, at least for me, are always bought with a doubleconsideration: the first is that it is a game that In its current state, I could find myself deeply enjoying the world and characters in a way that makes me feel like I will get my money's worth and secondly, this will be based on the atmosphere and the state of enthusiasm of the core fan community. to be a fruitful and enjoyable modding platform for me to experiment with many times Bethesda nails the ladder and in the case of Skyrim is completely capable of not nailing the first at least for me Starfield came close to not nailing the first again as I am I'm not a big space and sci-fi fan, but Come Away ultimately surprised me with how interesting and visually compelling I found in my time with Starfield;

However, for seemingly the first time, Bethesda has gone beyond nailing the ladder and completely bombing. With a million thumbs up from me, the wide availability of real estate allocated to Starfield means that the degree of diversity and modding capabilities are almost limitless, this is Bethesda at its smallest and largest and I am beyond excited to See what stories and adventures modders have. especially amidst the controversial era of AI design and voice acting that we currently live in, Bethesda's use of the creation engine ultimately makes them look like bad game designers and, at the same time, They do questionable things in search of their own unique fingerprint of their releases. that are eventually modified in the first week of release, ultimately making them look worse than what they are capable of.

Bethesda's long-standing hatred has come down to its harsh and ignorant stance towards its numerous fan communities, but also the state of its game releases are buggy and feature incomplete titles through short-term monetary grabs. They have made their way into the collective consciousness of the gaming masses and have become one of the largest game developers in the entire industry. However, once they've done so, it's fallen out of favor with gamers of almost every demographic through one controversy or another, well, I know Bethesda finds a million ways to be hated; They wouldn't still be around if they didn't have a way with their design process that really fueled and inspired creativity and inspiration in the countless fans they've amassed over all the years they've been a company, modding is an important part of the ecosystem of Bethesda and, while some mods work to rework what Bethesda has done to fix games, many times players add more content to expand, absorb and fill their world beyond the immense amount of work Bethesda already does on its stories, settings. , characters and elements, while what rests beneath the surface is a beautiful, diverse and beautiful video game, fun and full of nuances. is not doing this when it comes to the fundamental evolutions of the game formula, using their money to put into R&D a superior platform for them to develop their games on, it all comes down to Starfield being a Bethesda game Pretty good, but when no one likes you, there's always someone else singing a similar song that you can listen to without feeling guilty.