Bethesda is probably the most washed studio out there, just cruising on past glory winds forever with no apparent momentum to build anything new. Their in-house engine appears to be only capable of producing literally the same mediocre game with a different coat of paint over and over again.

Don't they have the money to invest into actual new technology or is Todd Howard really that delusional?

[–] Awoo@hexbear.net 33 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I think the issue they have with building a new engine is that doing so doesn't guarantee the games will be better and it also means tossing out 100% of all accumulated experience in the existing engine. This does not just apply to their own employees but to the wider gaming community too which has built up a very large amount of experience modding their games.

What they should really do is employ some talent for a new engine and then do something experimental at a small scale first. Then build off of that.

Do they want to though? No. They want a golden goose.

[–] ashinadash@hexbear.net 2 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

I think it might actually be smarter for them to (very slowly) transition to UE5 ( disgost ) than try to spin up a new engine. I mean, the last time a Microsoft owned studio tried making a new engine was the Slipspace engine for Halo Infinite, which... doggirl-sweat

Idk how feasible it is to even make a new engine these days. It's hard work, I guess Crimson Desert is the first game on an all-new engine in a while?

[–] Awoo@hexbear.net 9 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

A large chunk of UE5's value is being able to plug in technologies from third parties. The problem with this however is that third party technologies are out of your control when it comes to modding, you can't provide the userbase with access to anything that uses those technologies because you don't have the license for them.

I guess Crimson Desert is the first game on an all-new engine in a while?

Yeah. Then there's CDPR with Cyberpunk. I think the most impressive engines that exist currently are rage9 (rockstar) and Decima (Death Stranding/Horizon Zero Dawn). Special mention for Ubisoft's engine too Anvil, which is a seriously amazing technical marvel wasted on making the exact same Assassin's Creed gameplay over and over and over again.

[–] FourteenEyes@hexbear.net 14 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Actually no, Fallout London is proof positive that you can absolutely still make a New Vegas-tier game in their engine. The problem was always the devs.

[–] space_comrade@hexbear.net 16 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (3 children)

New Vegas is great but purely mechanics wise it's still a Skyrim under the hood. Honestly the gameplay is the weakest part of the game it's the story and the variety of quests and characters that keeps you hooked.

I think the engine is fundamentally incapable of producing a truly next (or even current) gen gaming experience, my biggest gripe with Skyrim was when you visit the supposedly grandest, biggest, most important city in the game and it's, uh, 20 houses and maybe 30 NPCs. This worked fine in 2006 when Oblivion first came out but it's 2026 now. I know it's a video game in the end and you're supposed to suspend your disbelief on many occasions but it's just so underwhelming to see nowadays when other games successfully managed to execute grander visions than that.

[–] Le_Wokisme@hexbear.net 7 points 4 days ago (1 children)

what? new vegas has way more rpg mechanics than skyrim, and better writing and world design.

[–] space_comrade@hexbear.net 6 points 4 days ago

All true, I just find the overall mechanics kinda lacking nowadays. New Vegas did wonders with the engine but it's still the same thing under the hood, same basic inventory management, same basic combat, NPCs behave in much the same way etc

[–] RNAi@hexbear.net 5 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I don't play that many games, did some RPG surpassed the Witcherino 3 big city scale?

[–] space_comrade@hexbear.net 4 points 4 days ago

Crimson Desert is even larger I would say. It's not a great game overall but the sense of scale is definitely there.

[–] GoodGuyWithACat@hexbear.net 1 points 4 days ago (2 children)

The next Elder Scrolls needs to take the GTAV approach. Make one big ass city and its hinterlands to explore. Set it next to mountains and you have a few biomes you can engage with and a natural barrier. A couple small towns on the exterior that actually make the main city feel bigger. You can divide the city to wall off the noble district for higher level play and throw in some catacombs to dungeon delve. EZ PZ

[–] Abracadaniel@hexbear.net 7 points 4 days ago

This would require a new engine.

[–] XiaCobolt@hexbear.net 4 points 4 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

My dream game is an Arcanum of Steamworks and Magick Obscura prequel. Set entirely in Tarrant as the Ancient City undergoes rapid industrialization lead by Gilbert Bates (and the stolen dwarven steam technology). It's just one city, but with ancient crumbling fortifications, new suburbs springing up with electricity/gaslights, new sewers built on ancient catacombs, local woods full of magick groves being cut down for factory space. The game would be first person/third person where the physical size of your character plays an enormous role in combat and stealth. A halfing can effortlessly sneak but struggles in most melee combat, can't wield large guns etc. A half ogre dominates but cannot sneak, hold a gun etc

[–] Nacarbac@hexbear.net 2 points 3 days ago

That could be pretty damn good - the city could physically change as the game progresses. And The Tarantian newspaper was already an example of it reacting to events.

Balancing a mage would be interesting. Starts out as a typical caster, but as industry dominates their spells become less reliable and their own passive tech-bane aura is more important?

[–] ZeroHora@lemmy.ml 4 points 3 days ago

I'm a defender of the creation engine.

The problem is not the engine per se is the whole Bethesda motto of "it's just works", supposedly there is some ancient bugs from Skyrim that modders patched and the bug still exists in like fallout 76(I'm not a modder so I only heard from modders so I can't 100% confirm that), changing engine doesn't fix that, they just gonna release a mess barely holding together in I don't know UE5 so is less optimized but has better lighting.

[–] peeonyou@hexbear.net 5 points 3 days ago (2 children)

but.. but what about that space game.. can't remember the name of it, but wasn't it glorious?

[–] space_comrade@hexbear.net 4 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

It's more like a game set on a movie set filming a space movie and you move from movie set to movie set via loading screen. NPCs are just stilted props, your spaceship and space in general are just other rooms you visit and suffer through a loading screen in the meanwhile. Space exploration is extremely shallow, so are pretty much all other activities you can do in the game. Ship building was kinda cool I guess?

It's clear their engine wasn't at all capable of executing the actual vision of the game.

[–] ksynwa@lemmygrad.ml 3 points 3 days ago

I played it on game piss. The moment I finished it I felt Bethesda had robbed the time I spent on it off me. Very mid game.