What is with with Bethesda Games...

[VulgarDisplay]

I play the crap out of them, but I rarely ever finish them.

I'm looking at dual booting windows 8.1 to test out the performance in bf4. And that 12gb sitting on my hd that I haven't used since May 6 is facing execution.

I did one play through, got too powerful and stopped playing because I was doing like 2000 damage per swing. Stopped playing. Started another play through. Once again, I did the alchemy and smithing and became overpowered and stopped another time. I'm not sure I'll ever finish Skyrim. Should I just power through it before I delete the game, or banish it to the mechanical steam backup HD of hell?

 

[Bateluer]

Thats the thing, Bethesda games are easy to exploit. Its in their nature.

Mod it up though. If you add a few 'realism' and 'immersion' mods, it becomes a different game. Add realistic bow damage, frostfall, no fast travel, etc.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim, Fallout 3 all had interesting worlds to wander around in but weak main quests. FO3 is the only one I've finished despite spending huge amounts of time in each.

 

[alcoholbob]

They have been improving throughout the TES series, but generally part of the problem is the map and journal system is just terrible in terms of differentiating random quests versus the main story line, also the quests that are part of the main story line often aren't of higher quality than the side quests, so you don't have to inclination to complete them and usually don't even realize they are important enough to follow up on.

Part of the problem here is art assets, if the main quest-line assets look like side quest farmer's market fetch quest assets (everything looks generic and equally bland), there's no visual indicator that it's the path you should be following.

 

[Via]

I thought the main quest in Morrowind was pretty good. It kept me involved until the end. I loved seeing the blue sky.

And then it was time to explore the rest of the island based out of my fancy Redoran stronghold, and I petered out.

 

[Scooby Doo]

Well these games have no definite ending, sure you can finish the main quest but there's tons of other side-quests. If you stay focused on the main quests, then it's easy to "finish the game" but once you get side-tracked it's easier to get too many things going on and putter out.

 

[blackwhiskers]

the only one that I haven't almost totally completed (haven't completed a few of the side questlines) is Morrowind, despite me having played it the most out of all bethesda games. while it can be overwhelming, I've almost never been put off by that. a fantastic world where you can go anywhere, do whatever? hell yeah, count me in.

 

[pathos]

Is finishing the main storyline really an issue in these games?

I've played all the tes games (well, just watched a roommate playing redguard, which is a different discussion), and the only ones I've actually finished the main storyline is Daggerfall and Morrowind.

Finishing the main story line doesn't really seem all that important, for the most part

 

[DefDC]

I'm just a sucker for Bethesda games. I've finished Morrow and up of the TES, and love the Fallout series. I've completed most of the official DLCs.

I just replayed Skyrim with a different style. Still great fun. I've done most of these vanilla (then again, I get most of them on release day.)

 

[Regs]

I've out grown them. Was cool in my early 20's but now I am just an old fart to these games.

 

[gorcorps]

You said you became over powered by doing the smithing and alchemy stuff, and then whine that you're overpowered? If you know exactly why you're becoming overpowered then you have nobody to blame but yourself. What's that saying about doing the same thing and expecting different results?

 

[Red Storm]

So you find a method to create unbalanced items and break the game... and you proceed to do it again and again each time you play? That is really odd behavior.

Bethesda games are launched as rough drafts, you need mods to fix the little annoyances.

 

[VulgarDisplay]

Hell yeah I break the game every time I play. There's nothing like walking around 1 hit killing everyone in the world lol.

 

[smackababy]

The problem with Bethesda games is they make huge immersive world to explore, but the stories and characters are always awful. If they just stuck to the world building and hired some other team to do the story, I'd be far more likely to finish their games.

 

[blackwhiskers]

The problem with Bethesda games is they make huge immersive world to explore, but the stories and characters are always awful. If they just stuck to the world building and hired some other team to do the story, I'd be far more likely to finish their games.

Morrowind begs to differ. I dare say that Morrowind's main quest is one of the best questlines about gods, metaphysics and crazy stuff like that among all fantasy RPGs. It's tied in to the history and mythology of the world, is full of ambiguities and has hidden meaning on every corner. Very few other RGPs sport a story and backstory so intricate.

Oblivion's and skyrim's main questlines are quite horrible, tho, yeah. FO3 was pretty bad as well. But morrowind is a case strong enough to make your statement "always" very shaky.

 

[smackababy]

Morrowind begs to differ. I dare say that Morrowind's main quest is one of the best questlines about gods, metaphysics and crazy stuff like that among all fantasy RPGs. It's tied in to the history and mythology of the world, is full of ambiguities and has hidden meaning on every corner. Very few other RGPs sport a story and backstory so intricate.

Oblivion's and skyrim's main questlines are quite horrible, tho, yeah. FO3 was pretty bad as well. But morrowind is a case strong enough to make your statement "always" very shaky.

Morrwind's story wasn't that great. You're the Nerevarine, now go kill some god! The Tribunal expansion was decent, but it shouldn't have even been started until after the main quest (otherwise it doesn't make sense you're able to kill Almalexia).

Compare Morrowind's story to other Elder Scrolls, yes it is great. Compared it to BG2, Planescape Torment, or Ultima 7, it falls very short.

 

[Crono]

Morrwind's story wasn't that great. You're the Nerevarine, now go kill some god! The Tribunal expansion was decent, but it shouldn't have even been started until after the main quest (otherwise it doesn't make sense you're able to kill Almalexia).

Compare Morrowind's story to other Elder Scrolls, yes it is great. Compared it to BG2, Planescape Torment, or Ultima 7, it falls very short.

What makes Morrowind great is the amount of detail and backstory involved. It's not just "go kill some god". Have you ever tried reading all the in-game books? There's a ton of material there. I haven't played the other games you've mentioned so I can't compare them, but Morrowind still has a good story even if it isn't as good.

 

[Markbnj]

Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim, Fallout 3 all had interesting worlds to wander around in but weak main quests. FO3 is the only one I've finished despite spending huge amounts of time in each.

Daggerfall, Oblivion, and Skyrim are the only ones I "finished" in terms of the main story line quests at least. I have yet to finish either Fallout.

I have two big issues with Bethesda's current design approach: the mind-numbing uniform uselessness of the loot in every container that you feel obligated to open because it's there; and the incredibly annoying random NPC commentary. I actually yearn for the days when it was all text, and hand-written for each scenario.

 

[blackwhiskers]

Morrwind's story wasn't that great. You're the Nerevarine, now go kill some god! The Tribunal expansion was decent, but it shouldn't have even been started until after the main quest (otherwise it doesn't make sense you're able to kill Almalexia).

Compare Morrowind's story to other Elder Scrolls, yes it is great. Compared it to BG2, Planescape Torment, or Ultima 7, it falls very short.

mmm, the classic "if it sounds stupid when I oversimplify, it's stupid" argument. well, no. the amount of details in there are astonishing, and it's not even clear what really happens, that's the biggest part of the beauty - what does asura want, are you really nerevarine, what role does the tribunal play, what did Kagrenac do, all of this and a lot more comes into play, and the answers are far from clear cut.

but on the surface, sure, you go kill some guys. just like in bg2. or whatever.

compared to bg2's story, I prefer morrowind. compared to planescape, hmmm, tough one, not sure, they're both awesome. haven't played ultima.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Daggerfall, Oblivion, and Skyrim are the only ones I "finished" in terms of the main story line quests at least. I have yet to finish either Fallout.

I have two big issues with Bethesda's current design approach: the mind-numbing uniform uselessness of the loot in every container that you feel obligated to open because it's there; and the incredibly annoying random NPC commentary. I actually yearn for the days when it was all text, and hand-written for each scenario.

Yes to both. At least Oblivion added a lot more crafting to FO New Vegas so you had more incentive to save junk to make weapon repair kits, etc.

They really needed to keep a log of "mudcrab chatter" so you only heard each of the different lines so many times instead of over and over and over and then over some more.

 

[CrackRabbit]

Yes to both. At least Oblivion added a lot more crafting to FO New Vegas so you had more incentive to save junk to make weapon repair kits, etc.

They really needed to keep a log of "mudcrab chatter" so you only heard each of the different lines so many times instead of over and over and over and then over some more.

The developers were going to do that, then they took an arrow to the knee.

 

[Bateluer]

Morrwind's story wasn't that great. You're the Nerevarine, now go kill some god! The Tribunal expansion was decent, but it shouldn't have even been started until after the main quest (otherwise it doesn't make sense you're able to kill Almalexia).

Compare Morrowind's story to other Elder Scrolls, yes it is great. Compared it to BG2, Planescape Torment, or Ultima 7, it falls very short.

MW's MQ and story were pretty good for a Bethesda game. They just put so much into their worlds and locations that everything else seems flat and 1 dimensional compared to more story/character oriented RPGs like BG, PST, or DAO. But none of those games have the sheer size and open world of a Bethesda game, you get a deeper more personal experience with the story telling.

 

[pong lenis]

What's everyone talking crap about Bethesda's writing? I happen to think it's great. Those endless and awesome little tales I read in random books in Skyrim, no game ever came close to making me so excited to read something. And I loved the way the people in Skyrim have different reactions to each side, are the imperials tyrants or fair rulers, are the stormcloaks freedom fighters or racist fascists?
Morrowind was ok, but people just say it's better out of nostalgia, it was made in the Bethesda building's basement by three people.

 

[blackwhiskers]

nah, mate, you fucked up there. most of the good books in skyrim come from the past tes games anyway, the simple reactions people have to various factions are middle school grade writing tier, the main quest is atrocious, the "civil war" has to be the worst questline in all of TES, and, well, it's not even a proper rpg anymore.

I still enjoy skyrim as an open world action game, but I replayed morrowind after I did most of skyrim (meaning, main questlines etc.), and it's not nostalgia, but the simple fact, that morrowind had roughly hundred or so times better writing and setting than everything bethesda has done since. I don't know about the three people, but it's a well known fact that behind morrowind were people who were equally nuts and brilliant. that combination of people gave us morrowind, and most of them don't work at bethesda anymore. the result is visible to anyone but the most devoted fanboy, imo.

 

[pong lenis]