Dear Bethesda, I would like my life back please. Sincerely, f*ck you. (Fallout 4 and Orsinium)

[Hyzenthlay]

So lately I've been getting double teamed by two of the heftiest games I've ever known and I have to admit, I'm feeling raw. Don't get me wrong it's not that I don't enjoy a pounding to my personal life but I just wish Bethesda would at least lube up before they come at me. Give my social life a change, will you? Enough of the sexual word-play, on to my point:-

What I'm really here for is Bethesda stories. In the spirit of Fallout month lets hear what you think of the gaming giant.

Are you a fan?

What is your favourite/ most hated edition to the Bethesda gaming arsenal to date?

Do you feel that the bug that inevitably come with a Bethesda title should be ironed out before release or are you just happy to sink another 8 weeks of your life into one way relationship?

Will the sexually suggestive speech come back?

What is your favourite moment playing a Bethesda game, or what made you dislike a game?

Why are they charging £10 for a bear cub? It's pretty and I want it. (seriously though, do you think that it is okay that Bethesda have gone into the 'online items market' or do you think this new type of gaming hurts the industry?)

Oh, and if you really really hate Bethesda just tell me about another game... I'm cool with a sidestep.

Hyz.

[Heartless Angel]

Favorite is a tough call. Either Morrowind or Skyrim. Most hated would probably be one of their various sports games. I think they've had a handful of bowling and acing games that I never really played. But really, when you talk about Bethesda, you're talking about Elder Scrolls and Fallout. And there has yet to be a bad entry in either series.

I don't mind much. It's an enormous game. You'd be looking at years in QA to even iron out half of them. Besides, once I get modding, I'm just going to be adding new bugs anyway. Save often, you'll be fine.

I hope so.

The first time I accidentally shouted Lydia off a cliff. That's definitely a top 10 moment. The entirety of the Shivering Isles expansion for Oblivion is another high point. Sheogorath was an amazing character. The Dragonborn expansion was pretty nice. Lot of nostalgia when I set foot on Solstheim again. Particularly amusing, when it came out I was playing a Nerevarine inspired character, roleplaying as the immortal Nerevarine (He actually is Dragonborn if you reread the Nerevarine prohpecies,

"From seventh sign of eleventh generation,
Neither Hound nor Guar, nor Seed nor Harrow,
But Dragon-born and far-star-marked,
Outlander Incarnate beneath Red Mountain,
Blessed Guest counters seven curses,
Star-blessed hand wields thrice-cursed blade,
To reap the harvest of the unmourned house.")

Still out there adventuring and finding new trouble. So I landed in a settlement, that according to Morrowind Lore, I pretty much built myself 200 years ago. So that was cool.

The Tribunal expansion to Morrowind was badass.

The first time I fired a Fatman in Fallout 3 and seriously underestimated the blast radius, priceless.

I love all of those games.

[OutlawTorn]

Bethesda is the best company out there right now (it tastes of blasphemy to me as the world's leading Squaresoft fanboy. But Squaresoft no longer exists, and Square-Enix cannot hold a candle to Bethesda), making the best games by a crippling landslide. If you happen to disagree, you're probably an idiot.


But that's neither here, there, nor Elsweyr.


Morrowind will always be my favourite due to the depth of the magic system. Skyrim's spells made me physically sick, and I deleted my level 30-some Dark Elf battle-mage, Lazarus T. Grimmtower (from Morrowind) after realizing it wasn't getting ANY better. I then made a Redguard ranger who I decided has washed ashore somewhere suffering from complete memory loss. This let me enjoy the Legendary version to it's full potential.

I love Skyrim, but Morrowind owns that *****, so to speak.


Oblivion is my least favourite, but I've only played ES & Fallout.

~ AUTO-MERGED POSTS ~

My Redguard's name was Sol Outlander. The name Sol came a piece of the wreckage he washed ashore with. Part of the name (so it was determined) of the ship. I decided he was half Redguard half Imperial (as dual race is something yet to be incorporated, but if.you try hard enough with the main races, you can.achieve a mixed race look). I never commited to anything, but I knew he was a very bad man prior to the ship wreck. The story I favoured was that one of the Gods had destroyed the vessel and purged his memory, as he was the prophecised Dragonborn, but would have never embraced his destiny under normal circumstances.

He specialized in Archery, smithing, and alchemy. He was a natural hunter and tradesman, building a home and establishing a small estate with his wife Ysolda?? (of Whiterun. Her dream was to become a merchant, so I wanted to make that happen), and his best friend/ long-time companion turned Steward, Fendal?? (I'm bad with ES namea >.> )

His primary and really only affiliations were the Dawnguard and The Blades.

His most memorable storyline moment was killing Astrid in that abandoned shack (as they had already sent mwn to kill him), and killing the entire Dark Brotherhood afterward (SO badass!! <3 ).

He always concealed his face, as he had no clue who or what he used to be. He wanted to avoid being recognized in the event it would have negative consequences.

I play very intensely and with calculated conviction to my character. But Sol's nature (not knowing who he is) allowed me to relax and have with it a lot more than playing with Lazarus, who is extremely established. I have an entire backstory for him leading to Morrowind and even afterward leading up to his death (didn't know he was immortal, HA?).

~ AUTO-MERGED POSTS ~

I actually found this with a simple google search!! ^_^


This is old, so please forgive all spelling mistakes and inconsistencies with ES lore and canon.


My first and favorite character is*Lazarus T. (Tyranikus) Grimmtower, Dark Elf Battlemage and sworn enemy of the Imperial swine. Most noted for his volatile temperament, obsession with all things Dwarven, and creative mastery of spells and enchantments (I became VERY good at finding and exploiting loopholes in the vast, flexible spell tree of III). An avid collector of anything he can pick up. Known to stash caches of items and return for them after freeing up some carrying capacity. Hobbies include alchemy, exploring Dwarven ruins, treasure hunting, and reading. Above all else, Lazarus collected books. Knowledge was his weapon, and fascination. Much can be learned about Tamriel from the volumes of books scattered around it's landscapes.

In the early days (of playing Morrowind), I thought of him as being counted among the top sorcerers in Tamriel. I still sort of feel he's the best Mage of his era, I haven't met any NPC in the games who comes even close, especially now, given the state of the magic system, he's certainly more powerful than any Mage Skyrim is capable of producing. But his skill with a bow was remarkable as well. Admittedly, I neglected my melee skills severely, but it's worth noting that he was skilled with a two-handed sword (I used the 2H Katana in Morrowind, and twin Blade's Swords in Skyrim for the brief time I used him in Skyrim before retiring him from all titles except III).

Lazarus has a complete disregard for the Gods, and anyone who knows the story of the Dark Elves, knows why that is. He is anti-social, reclusive, and harbours a dislike or hatred for certain races of Tamriel. Imperials more than any other. A deep hatred resides in his heart for Imperials. He takes great pride and joy in killing them, usually in ways that are painful, prolonged, or generally brutal. He'd even kill a pregnant Imperial woman, 2 for 1 Special. (I go deep with characters, in no way is this an extension or reflection of myself, that would be my Redguard in ways).*

To him, Redguards are little more than submissive Imperial dogs; pets of the Empire. He takes no pleasure in killing such weak, feeble minded souls, but a subject of the Empire is all the same to him.

Nords are also a subject of disdain for Grimmtower. For all their physical might, they are weak-minded, simple fools. Hardly demanding of respect.

He also harbours resentment toward High Elves and their elitist ways. Truly deplorable, grotesque creatures to his logical, free spirited sensibilities.

He is also annoyed by his own race, having also let the Septim scum rape their land and people, instead of fighting to the death in the name of freedom. Above everything in the world, even knowledge, he values the freedom to live and die how one chooses.


Lazarus devoted a large portion of his life to investigating the Dwarven mysteries, trying to understand what happened to them, and where they are now. The possibility of ascending beyond this realm of existence fascinated him, fostering into an obsession... a sickness of sorts. It became his primary motivation in life.

Lazarus could never be considered a member of any factions, guilds, or organizations. He infiltrated many for his own personal gain, but his loyalty has been only to himself for a very long time.*

He is a Member of the House of Grimmtower, an old House of Morrowind long exiled on false grounds; victims of a political skirmish. They fled to Elsewyer, where Lazarus should have been born. His mother, while along in her pregnancy, claimed to have had a vision; a message from the Gods. Her son will be a great hero of Morrowind, and must be taken there to be born a true Dunmer. Tyranikus Grimmtower and his young wife head to Morrowind in secret, hiding out with a friend in Balmora, where Lazarus Tyranikus Grimmtower was born on a starry Frostfall night. On the journey back to Elsewyer, his mother becomes ill and dies just before the Hammerfell border. Lazarus is raised by a shell of the man he used to be. His childhood is not pleasant. Tyranikus blames him for his wife's death; all this prophetic "take him to Morrowind" shit! He would be raised away from his family, unaware of his mother, or her vision. He would grow up believing was a disgrace. A weak, simple bastard Tyranikus found in the wild, left for dead.

Wasn't long into his adolescence before he packed a small bag, took his father's blade, ran him through with it and set off to find the Grimmtower family.

It's a long story, but they accepted him, found him to be primitive and embarrassing. He travelled Tamriel for 20 years before returning to Elsewyer. His brethren ultimately betrayed him after having learned of Tyranikus' death, selling him out to the Empire (The Grimmtowers are major enemies of the Empire, as well as the Houses of Morrowind and the Thalmor), where he rotted in prison for many years. This is when we find him in the beginning of III, as a prisoner aboard an Imperial ship docking in Morrowind.

After the end of III, he travelled Tamriel again for many years, returning in the end to Elsewyer, the land and people he loves more than any other. But before he could truly retire and become a teacher and scholar, he had to make things right... and massacre the House of Grimmtower, a ragged house of fork-tongued dogs. He did spare the youth, children, and his cousin Lupin who had sent him letters in secret every season while he was in prison. Lupin was also old enough to remember what had happened to Lazarus, and what the others were like. He could rebuild the Grimmtower legacy with honour.

Lazarus died peacefully surrounded by his wife, cousin, son, two daughters, nieces and nephews. His last words: "Someone fetch me my things. I'm going to see the Dwarves..."

[Heartless Angel]

Strictly speaking, the Nerevarine isn't immortal, at least not following the defeat of Dagoth-Ur (the prophesied Nerevarine couldn't fail), but because of his infection by the corprus disease "neither blight nor age shall harm him, and curse of flesh before him flies", he doesn't age. So assuming he didn't get his ass kicked somewhere, the Nerevarine is still alive and kicking 200 years later.

Also if you like magic, and are a member of the glorious PC master race, I highly recommend the Lost Spells and Apocalypse spell pack mods.

[Rowan]

I have only ever taken back a single game in my lifetime, and it was fallout 3.

I assume this sucks just as hard. Graphics are dirt, gameplay looks suffocatingly unoriginal.

Bethesda made wolfenstein the old blood, that sucked also.

The Witcher 3 for GOTY

peace out, plebs.

[OutlawTorn]

I have only ever taken back a single game in my lifetime, and it was fallout 3.

Only God can judge you for your sins, Greenhorn.

I assume this sucks just as hard. Graphics are dirt, gameplay looks suffocatingly unoriginal.

I assume you're talking about Morrowind, and thus yoir newbian ****ery has made me sick.
Please go play some God of War or Assassin's Creed you 1-dimensional hipster lackey.

~ AUTO-MERGED POSTS ~

Cresent: Perhaps, but I never played more than a few hoirs of Oblivion. And my point was that Lazarus was literally unbeatable using conventional spells. You could run or hide from him, even neutralize his damage, use some.incantaion to transpoet him or trap him somewhere, but you couldn't hurt him. Nothing in that entire game could score 1 damage on him in any form by the time I was done. I toyed with Dagoth Ur, sustainig flight whilst sinking arrows into face. A flawless and timely victory.

[Crescent]

What is your favourite/ most hated edition to the Bethesda gaming arsenal to date?

Favourite: *Shivering Isles* the expansion pack of Oblivion which is my fave main TES title. Morrowind is my 2nd fave. Dont have a most hated Bethesda game.

Do you feel that the bug that inevitably come with a Bethesda title should be ironed out before release or are you just happy to sink another 8 weeks of your life into one way relationship?

I dont notice the bugs or they jus dont bother me as much when I play. I finished Shivering Isles in like a wk, so addictive.

Will the sexually suggestive speech come back?

I dont remember much of any. I usually punch NPCs when they smack talk me like that. I prefer random lines like " Your stick is a lot nicer than mine, Sheogorath." and " He loves dogs. Dogs like sticks. Dogs like meat. I wonder if they like meat on a stick" lmao

What is your favourite moment playing a Bethesda game

Best quest. Much fun. - www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDXwEzKvF9c

Why are they charging £10 for a bear cub? It's pretty and I want it. (seriously though, do you think that it is okay that Bethesda have gone into the 'online items market' or do you think this new type of gaming hurts the industry?)

Dont care. Besides I own some gaming (DMC3,RE,ZELDA,FFVII) merchandise myself.

[Hyzenthlay]

Favourite: *Shivering Isles* the expansion pack of Oblivion which is my fave main TES title. Morrowind is my 2nd fave. Dont have a most hated Bethesda game.

I dont notice the bugs or they jus dont bother me as much when I play. I finished Shivering Isles in like a wk, so addictive.

I dont remember much of any. I usually punch NPCs when they smack talk me like that. I prefer random lines like " Your stick is a lot nicer than mine, Sheogorath." and " He loves dogs. Dogs like sticks. Dogs like meat. I wonder if they like meat on a stick" lmao

I LOVED the Shivering Isles. To be honest I love that cheese-obsessed lunatic in general.

Ha ha ha, I was talking about my speech in the OP but now that you mention it TES does have some of that going on anyway. In ESO about 2/3 of the Khajiit sound like they are trying to get into my pants. Maybe it's just the way they talk, though? There was this one particular one that was outside a fighting arena. I'm pretty sure that If I had died in the arena she would have still come up to my corpse and hit on it.

I have only ever taken back a single game in my lifetime, and it was fallout 3.

I assume this sucks just as hard. Graphics are dirt, gameplay looks suffocatingly unoriginal.

Bethesda made wolfenstein the old blood, that sucked also.

The Witcher 3 for GOTY

peace out, plebs.

No need to start a class war in here! I have never played the Witcher 3. I played 2 but, to be honest, I was put off by the combat system. It seemed clunky and heavily weighted on rolling out of the way. Dodging, whilst technically more realistic, doesn't keep my interest. It tends to break my immersion and I scream at the screen. I like to relax whilst playing a game and, much like Dark Souls, I was not relaxed whilst playing the Witcher. That being said I do believe that I'm just not very good at the aforementioned games. In fact I believe they are currently in my living room singing "No, I don't want no scrubs…”

Fallout 3’s graphics were dirty? I remember them being pretty good for their time but then again I can’t really remember what else came out that year. 2008… What came out that year? :S

OutlawTorn and Heartless Angel- You guys clearly know more of the lore of TES than I do. I don't know either of those guys but I will definitely keep my eyes open. I tend to get so lost in the world that I am in that I barely remember the lore that I have read. That being said I think it's interesting in TES when it comes to wizards/ mages. It's very difficult to tell who is the most powerful. Take ESO, for example, I have come across some very powerful mages like Vanus Galerion who is (correct me if I'm wrong) the founder of the mages guild. Now Vanus has done some insane spells in that game. I saw hime pull himself apart to keep away the daedra and then put himself back together. Insanity, that's some straight up Voldemort stuff right there. Then I met Telenger the Artificer who managed to fend of Boethiah for a while and kept out daedric influences when other powerful mages couldn't. He did these things with seemingly minimal effort too! I tend to think that the Psijic Order are the most powerful of all the mages, and their leaders the most powerful of them. I don't know why I think this. I guess it's the mystery of them.

Right, I guess I'd better answer my own questions, huh? Here we go...

What is your favourite/ most hated edition to the Bethesda gaming arsenal to date?

My favourite is and always will be Fallout 3. Fallout 4 is incredible, and i love the new base-building aspect, but I bought Fallout 3 with no expectations and no clue what it was and came away with a feeling that I can never replicate. It's a feeling I only had with a few other games such as FFIX, LoZ: OOT and Skies of Arcadia. I only own Fallout 3 because I got a voucher for Game and it had more money on it than I realised. I went in for Mass Effect and came away with a number of games. The wonder i felt when stepping out of Vault 101 was incredible. I felt lost and I've never felt that in a game before or since.

Bethesdas worst game for me was Brink. That game sucked so hard that I only played it for about an hour and it hasn't been used since. I hate multiplayer only games but this one was just so, so bad.

Do you feel that the bug that inevitably come with a Bethesda title should be ironed out before release or are you just happy to sink another 8 weeks of your life into one way relationship?

Like Crescent I honestly don't ever notice bugs. Even if I ever see a glitch, or whatever, It's always minor like the ragdoll physics sending bodies flying or whatever. I've never encountered a game ending bug like some people. I know Skyrim had some but I guess I was lucky. I think the strangest one i had was when the corpse of Lydia turned up to my wedding in Skyrim. That was just hilarious though. I remember writing about it on here, my adventures in Skyrim.

Will the sexually suggestive speech come back?

Probably...

What is your favourite moment playing a Bethesda game, or what made you dislike a game?

My favourite moment in a Bethesda game is really, really hard to choose. I tend to fall in love fast but it's fleeting and I move on to roast another game (after like 200 hours. ). I did love my Skyrim guy, though. When I got all the jewels and suddenly every burial urn had gems in it. I had about 300 diamonds in Skyrim and an unappreciative wife. I also loved taking on one of the group dungeons in ESO recently. Just me and this one mage took on a gladiator arena and the whole time i was shooting arrows, hacking people to pieces with my twin axes and thinking "wait, why are we killing these athletes again?"

My favourite moment, though, the one that stands out the most is probably when i first took on a Behemoth in Fallout 3. When the Lyons Pride was there helping me and we were getting absolutely annihilated. Every last bit of ammo I had was being thrown at it and people were being flung around all over the place. Then... Out of the dust and smoke cloud that was my last rocket (which I missed with in a panic) comes Charon, my faithful ghoul sidekick (who I thought had died hours earlier when we were in the subway) he's dressed in sexy lingerie and is armed with a baseball bat. He runs right over to this colossal monster and just starts wailing on it's knee. I lost my sh*t, was in fits of laugher with tears running down my face. Then the super mutant falls down deadand Charon runs over and just says "did I hit him?" pauses, looks around and then "what the hell?". I should probably note that he was in the lingerie because we'd just been to Dukov's brothel-like house and I wanted us to be appropriately dressed. Anyway, very fond memory.

I also love that moment of the sinking, haunting realisation that Dr. Braun in Fallout 3 was actually the little girl Betty and was absolutely crackers. This game is the reason little girls terrify me.

Why are they charging £10 for a bear cub? It's pretty and I want it. (seriously though, do you think that it is okay that Bethesda have gone into the 'online items market' or do you think this new type of gaming hurts the industry?)

Usually I don't mind. I've played F2P MMO's before but I do think that the prices should reflect the item and I don't think Bethesda's do. You end up spending about £40 on useful things and £10 on thinks that have no value except as vanity items. It is was too expensive for things that don't impact the game. I can't complain, though, they are letting us play sub-free (even though I pay for ESO Plus).

EDIT:

I found my original post on Skyrim. Originally posted on the 23rd of Nov 2011. Here it is, if you wanna read-

I'm a huge Bethesda fan, anybody who knows me can vouch for that. This game has seriously killed my social (with a legendary, enchanted dwemer dagger roused with frostbite poison). I've been constantly tired since I bought it and rarely do much else. (Sorry Lucid) I should be coming on here and getting on with my Rp. Perhaps, dare I say, go out? I mean, it took me several hours and numerous trips to choose a spouse. My god was that a waste of time. Her meals suck, I have nothing to spend the money on and all she does is thank me for helping her a year back. I've resorted to running past her whenever I'm in the house. Or shouting 'SILENCE, WOMAN!' Anyway, my point is that this game, while amazing, is taking over my life.

Currently I play as a male orc who is the spitting image of Vinnie Jones and is thus named... Mikael. He's level 30, enjoys long walks on the beach, chasing butterflies and beating people with twin maces. His only friend, Lydia, was chewed on by a dragon and thown from a mountain (along with his priceless collection of dragon bones). Since then he hasn't trusted another person and goes it alone. He now spends his days with his trusty steed (who, to save heartache, is an immortal nutjob). During his time in Skyrim Mikael has developed burning hatred if children, small inpossibly hard to navigate rocks and people called Cicero.

He's been on numerous adventures and has seen some incredible things. Such as the time he and an argonian woman took on a dragon together on a lonely walk to Windhelm. He felt a certain comradery with the woman. Sadly the argonian died in the battle. This left Mikael to do the only thing he knows- loot her. It was then that he found the note. She had been an assassin hunting for him. So he threw her corpse in the river.
Then there was the time he got married and all his closest erm... I guess they must've been his fiances friends because he'd never seen that scary witch wither tattooed face before. The beauty if the couples day was ruined, however, when the corpse of his friend Lydia turned up (presumably to give back his dragon bones). Now they live in a house in Windhelm where she makes him a pie a day and gives him spending money to blow on dragonflies.

Mikael shall continue his adventures in Skyrim and will strive for better.

Good times.

I actually love this game.

Hyz.

[loaf]

What is your favourite/ most hated edition to the Bethesda gaming arsenal to date?

Fav: Shivering Isles - it was just so good with the story and new world it gave you from an already big world

Hated: I don't really have one, never played many of their other series or older versions of TES. Could say some of the other series that aren't as huge but haven't tried many of them.

Do you feel that the bug that inevitably come with a Bethesda title should be ironed out before release or are you just happy to sink another 8 weeks of your life into one way relationship?

Bugs? What bugs? I encountered 1 bug in New Vegas, 0 in Fallout 3 and nothing in Skyrim. Call me lucky. So for this question I don't think they should but it helps.

Will the sexually suggestive speech come back?

Prob depends on the Country/Region.


What is your favourite moment playing a Bethesda game, or what made you dislike a game?

When I get into the world and it just sucks me in. Also making characters with backgrounds or progressive stories. I tend to use characters from RPs as characters in these games or vice versa.

Why are they charging £10 for a bear cub? It's pretty and I want it. (seriously though, do you think that it is okay that Bethesda have gone into the 'online items market' or do you think this new type of gaming hurts the industry?)

Never seen this thing before but Blizzard does it and so do other games. I like it, sometimes. I've spent an extra $50 bucks on stuff for h1z1.


Edit: Rowan tries so hard to sound cool. Goes into Fallout 3 expecting it to play like an FPS when that is literally the reason why the game is not fun. Stop playing them like an FPS and play them like an RPG.

Double edit: I haven't enjoyed Fallout 4 because my laptop sucks and playing with less than 30 FPS outdoors sucks and 10 indoors is no go.

[Heartless Angel]

Which guys, Hyz? The Nerevarine is the player character in Morrowind. It's a title like Dragonborn. The Nerevarine is the prophesied reincarnation of an ancient dark elf hero and leader by the name of Indoril Nerevar, said to one day come and defeat the 'devil' of the Tribunal Temple(dark elf religion), the demigod Dagoth-Ur.

[loaf]

I mean, for someone who never played Morrowind. I never knew what the hell Nerevarine meant until my old roommates explained Morrowind to me in full detail.

[Heartless Angel]

Morrowind was such an amazing game. If anyone here hasn't played it, I strongly recommend it. The graphics haven't aged well, but the Morrowind Overhaul project makes it a lot better.

[Coff9]

Yeah, Morrowind is amazing. It was the first open-world sandbox RPG I ever played and I was completely committed to it for almost two years. I still play it from time to time. I recently installed a bunch of mods and they make the game even better.

One of my favorite things about the game is how alive the world feels. I especially like all the books you can find throughout the world. Some of them are really good and drop subtle hints about the story or give you insights into the culture of the Dunmeri people.

It's a game that I like to load up from time to time and just wander around. The areas around Balmora I know very well, but the areas up north near Sheogorad are still unfamiliar to me, so it's fun to just get lost in a virtual world for an hour or two. Or five, haha.

[Heartless Angel]

I killed helseth for his crazy ring of awesomeness. Instant badass.

[Freya]

Honestly? Am I the only one over here who hasn't played ANY The Elder Scrolls Game yet? Shame on me, I suppose. I tried playing Oblivion once, but I didn't like the gameplay...

BUT! I'm currently playing Fallout 3. (My husband plays Fallout 4, I'm actually playing it as well, in the back seat, just watching him play ) I really like the setting and the atmosphere of the game, but the gameplay... well, it's like in Oblivion. My major problems are that there is too much to do. Seriously, how many damn sidequests does this game have??? I'm still stuck in Megaton and really just want to go on with the story and ignore all the sidequests... I like games with lots of sidequests, but I'd really liked to get into the game first BEFORE getting to all those quests. I feel like I've been thrown into the game without a choice to handle the gameplay. Once in the Vault, I've been thrown out just 15 minutes later. The f-? (Plus, I liked the Vault. And the G.O.A.T. xD)
I think I'll need at least half a year to finish the game. Unfortunately, I am too interested in all the stories of the Wasteland. *sigh*

As for the main quests: seem to be nice, still have to develop into something really catchy. So far, both games don't have THAT much of an interesting story. But I feel the main character of Fallout 4. Searching for your child must be horrible. Especially after all what happened to the world... The game really makes me sad. :/


Besides, let's make a poll: do you also play the opposite sex? My husband always plays as a female character, because he "prefers to see a woman for 100 hours". And I like to see a man

[Heartless Angel]

A lot. These games were specifically designed so that nobody would ever actually be 'finished' with them. You should never be out of things to do in this sort of setting. In Skyrim and FO4, you literally never run out, because there's a system that generates cookie cutter quests in the form of going to a place and killing some dudes that the game can just make more of and assign you again later. But even the full, non generated sidequests are enough to last dozens of hours.

And yeah, I usually play the opposite sex in games. If I'm gonna be staring at someone's ass for hundreds of hours, it's not gonna be a dude's ass.

[OutlawTorn]

Can't relate to the opposite sex thing at all, lol. I have absolutely no preference. But I don't stare at the back of my character, rather everything around that spirit and it's severely limited range of motion for 500+ hours (the only real beef you can have with any ES or Fallout title without being a picky little shit is the robotic and limited character movements, and the redundant voice acting).

As I stated before, I don't just pick a race, plan a class build and go. I take an hour or more to create a character! Because these are the longest, most detailed, engrossing and rewarding games you will ever play by a crippling and absolute landslide. To half ass the experience by half assing your character, and thus their experience; choices made, how things are done and why, what things are done (Sol never attended the Mage College, Lazarus ended up the Arch Mage), is to rob yourself of the full return on those hundreds of hours you put into a video game...


I dunno about any of you, but my very limited time given the big picture is very precious to me. That's why ES and Fallout are the only two titles I'll even waste that invaluable time on. And I just happen to be better at creating male characters than female.

~ AUTO-MERGED POSTS ~

Honestly? Am I the only one over here who hasn't played ANY The Elder Scrolls Game yet? Shame on me, I suppose. I tried playing Oblivion once, but I didn't like the gameplay...

Problem with ES is it's still about 20 years before it's time. Start with Skyrim. Go straight to the Legendary Editio for maximum greatness out of the gate.

Oblivion just sucks in my humble opinion. Awkward transition from Morrowind to Skyrim. All characters look like complete cartoony shit. Only in Morrowind can I withstand the rough graphics, bleak visions (we see them atone for this with the stunning, epic visuals provided by Skyrim everywhere you go down to the last home and cavern), and choppy gamplay & combat. Only with Morrowind, because everything else makes up for it.

[Heartless Angel]

Mods make all the problems go away.

[Kurt Zisa]

I would recommend starting with Oblivion and then moving on to Skyrim for playabilities sake. Oblivion isn't bad, it's just quite a step backwards from Skyrim if you play them the other way around and you don't have that nostalgia driving you on. It's still a really fun game that you can easily sink well over 100 hours into... it's just that Skyrim fixes a lot of the issues I felt the game had.

I love Oblivion and Skyrim equal amounts (I own and enjoy playing morrowind, it's just that I prefer the other two more). There are some things that each game does better than the other. I actually prefer Cyrodill's landscape over Skyrim's, it just gives off a more fantasy and rpg vibe (Morrowind takes the cake though) and I just love the humor that comes with all the hamminess (Oblivion has more ham and cheese than a Hawaiian pizza). Skyrim is too serious for it's own good, the only way you can get a laugh out of it is when a bug happens and stuff wigs out.

With Skyrim it's so much easier to create a character, decide on their skills and just go for it. No more having to worry about major and minor skills or making sure you get +5 in your three major attributes (getting Endurance to +5 every level is a real drag I'm telling you -.-). Want an orc Spellsword? Make your guy or gal, decide on your skills: One Handed, Heavy Armor, Destruction, Conjuration (for example), play your file, get bored and start over again. I've had Skyrim for about a year and a half now but the number of files I've had from going "hmm I feel like playing as this build" way outnumbers the ones on Oblivion.

Favourite moments probably come from TESIV (said the full name too many times) like standing on a rock and shooting arrows into a hedge wizard's bald spot until he eventually died (bows sucked if you didn't invest in Agility) when I jumped down he had over 100 arrows sticking out the top of his head.

Another one was beating the shit out of goblins to get my H2H up wearing just clothes and a brass ring. And then repeating the process later in the same mine wearing Daedric Gauntlets.

[Rocky]

What is your favourite/ most hated edition to the Bethesda gaming arsenal to date?
I actually liked New Vegas the most. They took a lot of the good things i liked about FO3, and made the formula even better. To be honest i think the expansion stuff was better in 3 than in NV but overall I really liked the plot of New Vegas and how you could play it all out.

than again, i didnt like morrowind at the time of play and its far too dated for me to get back into, oblivion i never played either, but skyrim was pretty fun. I hear theyre making a "Skywind" mod of sorts where people are making Morrowind on the Skyrim engine/graphics, I'd be down to play that if it follows through.

Do you feel that the bug that inevitably come with a Bethesda title should be ironed out before release or are you just happy to sink another 8 weeks of your life into one way relationship?

I haven't ran into many bugs yet for FO4 but one annoying thing I've been struggling with is how awful it runs on my pretty decent gaming computer.

Will the sexually suggestive speech come back?

Nah FO4 totally butchered speech and player immersion by only offering 4 choices in the dialogue menu, with one of them being a 'sarcastic' option that isn't even sarcastic half the time......

What is your favourite moment playing a Bethesda game, or what made you dislike a game?

I can't think of any from all time, but I think meeting up and teaming up with Valentine is a pretty cool experience so far. Dude is a nicely written character.

Why are they charging £10 for a bear cub? It's pretty and I want it. (seriously though, do you think that it is okay that Bethesda have gone into the 'online items market' or do you think this new type of gaming hurts the industry?)

wtf is a bear cub?????????????????


i think thats what a lot of companies are doing to make $, even some that previously have stated are against that practice (like nintendo for example). I can't really say whether it helps or hurts, but its more or less a gaming norm these days. I think its kind of nice because they can fix things that are awful and improve their game if they so desire (like Mass Effect 3 ending comes to mind), but at the same time it gives developers the option to release half ass products. I'm on the fence.

[Crescent]

All these concerns about Oblivion I've actually never heard before. Gameplay-wise I never even stopped to think how hard(?) it was i jus took it at face value. I felt so immersed in the world of the Cyrodil I rolled with whatever was given to me. I went out of my way to complete as many side quests as I could before going on with the main quest because when I get a feel for all the inhabitants, creatures, ppl n places (caves,shrines, ruins,minesetc) alike it adds to the overall experience. I swear the NPCs in the ES games n all their weird n eccentric personalities, dialogue n backstories can be so petty it cracks me up.

What is your favourite moment playing a Bethesda game, or what made you dislike a game?

Also Joining the Dark Brotherhood is one of my fave things about TES series. The Mudcrab merchant in Morrowind so cute I got so much gold from him. And this is a signature moment for me from Morrowind lmfao.

Something I dislike (not really) is that I always get overencumbered lol because as soon as I enter the open world I explore like crazy. I dont hit the towns first thing unless I really need to. I explore, find n hold onto everything that could either sell for a lot or any rare n unique items that would likely be needed for a side quest and ofc weapons n armour (mainly daedric or glass) and deal with the consequences later lol. Thats how I play Elder Scrolls yo.

[OutlawTorn]

A quick step. WTF Rocky? lol

[streaml1ned]

What is your favourite/ most hated edition to the Bethesda gaming arsenal to date?

I really don't have a most hated game from Bethesda. Most favorite would have to be Fallout 4. The other games by Bethesda never really "pulled me in" like FO4 has.

Do you feel that the bug that inevitably come with a Bethesda title should be ironed out before release or are you just happy to sink another 8 weeks of your life into one way relationship?

Bethesda games, being as massive as they are, are bound to have bugs. Its not really a deal breaker for me. I know the team spent many hours making a game that a lot of people will enjoy. So what if there are a few bugs on launch. I don't recall a game that has been released that had no bugs in it whatsoever. That being said, I went into FO4 expecting A LOT more bugs. I am pleasantly surprised that I have only ran across a handful (and non game-breaking too).

Will the sexually suggestive speech come back?

Haha, I would hope so!

What is your favourite moment playing a Bethesda game, or what made you dislike a game?

I shit my pants when I went toe to toe with my first Deathclaw. Had to throw my chair and pants out after that fiasco.

Why are they charging £10 for a bear cub? It's pretty and I want it. (seriously though, do you think that it is okay that Bethesda have gone into the 'online items market' or do you think this new type of gaming hurts the industry?)

Because they know that some people will spend real-world money on it and some will not. Yes, its a cheap way to make a quick buck and probably will not hurt the industry. Kids these days will grow up with game companies that do this and think that its the norm. Older gamers will know better.

[Andromeda]

I've only played Skyrim so that I could try out an Elder Scrolls game to see how they were. Played it for 40 hours and got bored with it. So I quickly finished up the story and haven't touched since. There was a number of odd design choices in the UI that I wasn't a big fan of that made it harder than it should have been to play naturally. So I can't really say I have a favorite. Skyrim was a thing and I've satisfied my curiosity. Leaving me with no real interest in trying out any of their other games. Can't say it was a bad game, just mostly indifferent. People enjoy it, it just not really for me.

But I do think that the severity and consistency of them releasing buggy games is bad and if they're unable to effectively test the game with the staff of QA they have then they need to increase their team size. Open world games are naturally more prone to bugs and prone to harder to reproduce bugs. Meaning that you're going to get more chances of severity bugs that break, crash or otherwise negatively impact your ability to enjoy the game you've bought. Their handling of patches on the PS3 for Skyrim was just awful. People joke and expected bugs and pass it off because they're open world games. But that doesn't give them a pass. My job is testing open world games so I know the challenge and importance of good testing and being staffed well enough for it. It's not easy testing such games, but when your reputation is being buggy then you should work on fixing that reputation.

I can't really remember any good moments in the game. That stuff is rather gray in my head. But I do remember being annoyed doing the werewolf/vampire side quest and learning that companions get their level equal that of when you enter the town or talk to them, whatever it was. So I was doing the side quests as a 30+ something with an NPC that was lv 6 and naturally the enemies scale to me. So needless to say it was harder to get through than it should have been since that system wasn't designed well.

[OutlawTorn]

I pity you. Eiter you're too used to playong linear games where it holds your hand and leads you down a 1-way track from checkpoint to checkpoint, or you actively chose to run from main questline object to main questline objective.

No matter how you slice or excuse it away, you missed out on the greatest gaming experience of all time.

[Andromeda]

I pity you. Eiter you're too used to playong linear games where it holds your hand and leads you down a 1-way track from checkpoint to checkpoint, or you actively chose to run from main questline object to main questline objective.

No matter how you slice or excuse it away, you missed out on the greatest gaming experience of all time.

Greatest gaming experience of all time? I play the Civilization series quite regularly. ^^

But seriously, Skyrim's gameplay didn't grab me. The combat wasn't very interesting to me and for a RPG to grab me keep my attention the combat needs to be good. And if it can't do that then the story and characters need to be entertaining. And I couldn't get sucked into the story. I did play the game for 40 hours. So I gave it good attention and didn't write it off. I just found it's not the sort of game that is compelling to me. Just a personal taste thing. Not a lot that can be done about it.

[Pete]

While the games might be a little buggy, I can honestly say that the infinite customization and open world exploration make Bethesda titles like Fallout and Elder Scrolls things that I actually look forward to. It's the exploration, finding little things in games like Fallout that made me laugh out loud or are heartbreaking.

I can't say that I've felt the same way about a Final Fantasy title in the past 15 years. Especially when they've felt very linear. To be fair, I haven't and won't play ff11 or 14, because the financial commitment isn't worth the actual time I'll spend playing.

I think that Skyrim was a phenomenal game and Fallout 4 is also quite good. It has the same feeling that I got when I first played 3, and nothing like Vegas, which I wasn't a fan of.

I know I keep comparing these games to Final Fantasy, which has been the gold standard for as long as rpgs have existed, but I'm finding myself enjoying that Bioware and Bethesda are doing so much more. Give me speech options and the chance to let me make my own choices. If I want to tell a guy to **** off, give me that option and let me deal with the repercussions, not just hitting a button to keep dialogue continuing.

As for my least favorite Bethesda game, I have to go with Evil Within. The idea of it was pretty awesome but the clunky controls and weak camera control made it incredibly frustrating

[Hyzenthlay]

Will everyone just stop having their own opinions, please? Agree with me or I'll stomp my feet and hold my breath until my face turns purple! This isn't a competition, guys, we're all here to chat. No need for pistols at dawn because somebody doesn't like what you like (although, wow would that be cool...). This isn't feudal f*cking Japan, your honour means jack here. We can disagree whilst still being pleasant. Let’s all be nice to each-other, eh? Good. Nip that sucker in the bud.

What is your favourite/ most hated edition to the Bethesda gaming arsenal to date?
I actually liked New Vegas the most. They took a lot of the good things i liked about FO3, and made the formula even better. To be honest i think the expansion stuff was better in 3 than in NV but overall I really liked the plot of New Vegas and how you could play it all out.

ROCKY, WHAT THE F*CK IS THIS SH*T!? YOU ARE DEAD WRONG! GET OUT OF HERE! *cough* Nawww, I liked New Vegas but I never felt the same sense of freedom that I did with Fallout 3. From the very beginning I felt like I was being herded by the worlds best, award winning shepherd (no, not that Shepard). I also had a huge problem with the followers. I like that they all had separate mini-questlines but I hated that these could be missed. One of the things that really ruins a game for me is finding out I can't do something because you only get one chance to activate it and it gives you no indication of that. It just really gets to me. If you give me 3 options and those all impact the story in different ways I'm cool with that; take away a possibility because I didn't bring the overly talkative doctor I met 3 minutes ago with me and i get angry. That being said I hugely loved other parts such as the fact that Luck had a real-world benefit. I was obsessed with gambling and wished it was infinite. I also loved the back-alley doctor that can give you implants. That's my kinda stuff right there. Little bits that make the world that much more... Fun and immersive. I also had a game i called Deathclaw Chicken but maybe that's for another time?

I've only played Skyrim so that I could try out an Elder Scrolls game to see how they were. Played it for 40 hours and got bored with it. So I quickly finished up the story and haven't touched since. There was a number of odd design choices in the UI that I wasn't a big fan of that made it harder than it should have been to play naturally. So I can't really say I have a favorite. Skyrim was a thing and I've satisfied my curiosity. Leaving me with no real interest in trying out any of their other games. Can't say it was a bad game, just mostly indifferent. People enjoy it, it just not really for me.

Personally I think 40 hours is a pretty long time to spend on a game. You must have liked it at least enough to give it a go. If it wasn't your cup of tea after that amount of time then spending another 100 hours on it would be completely pointless. Playing other games makes far more sense. Did you never fancy giving a Fallout game a glance? I've heard people who hated FO3 and NV say they like FO4. Just curious.

Yeah, were you playing Skyrim on PC? I've heard quite a few people complain about the UI on PC. It was designed more for console so I think it's a little bit of a fiddle and a bit clunky for your platform. Perfectly designed for a controller which suits me. I tend to do open world RPG's on console like the old days. My PC gaming is reserved for RTS and MMO games which I find are far better suited to the keyboard and mouse.

I know I keep comparing these games to Final Fantasy, which has been the gold standard for as long as rpgs have existed, but I'm finding myself enjoying that Bioware and Bethesda are doing so much more. Give me speech options and the chance to let me make my own choices. If I want to tell a guy to **** off, give me that option and let me deal with the repercussions, not just hitting a button to keep dialogue continuing.

I couldn't agree more. I feel like where as the western RPG giants moved with the times Final Fantasy actually went backwards with their approach to RPG's. Choices are the standard now. If you can't impact you game, or at least believe you are, then it's just not as in depth these days. Square Enix seem to rely on the name of their best known series to sell the product. In actual fact the new FF's are about as much like the old ones as Mario is to Gran Turismo. I feel more like i'm playing a game of Tekken where i can walk around a bit with the new Final Fantasy games. It's pretty sad. Where is the exploration? Where is the wonder? Where is the living, breathing world you used to give us, Square?


People are talking a lot about Civilisation so I thought I’d pipe up about that, too! I used to absolutely love Civ II when I was younger. I remember giving Call to Power a go and it just wasn’t the same. Then I gave that diabolical Civ Revolution a go on the 360. I don’t even want to think about that. If you can recommend one i’ll give it a go. I do like Sid.

EDIT: I just got finished with this post and people are talking about Civ 2 already. That game was great. I haven't played in such a long time but I remember a lot so vividly. Like the fist marks of power look like wooden spoons and I remember building my throne room and having my brother yelling at me to build railroad everywhere (I never wanted to because it didn't look pretty... Which is ridiculous but that was me.

Hyz.

[Michael Swayne]

Other than the occasional frame rate drop that would cause a high level of frustration on my end, I don't think I minded any bugs in the games. It was really fun putting the people I didn't like in doorways in Fallout 3 and then shut the doors. Seeing their twitching bodies made me so happy!

As for most liked/hated Bethesda game, my most liked would definitely be Skyrim. I don't hate any of the Bethesda games, but my least liked is probably Dishonored. I just couldn't get into it. I'm sure if I take the time to play it more, I may get interested, but there is just so much to play other than that game.

While I may not be super invested in making a lengthy backstory for my characters, I do like to play around with stats increases and boosts of different races. I'll usually just have a basic character to try out the mechanics, and then after I find what weapons/spells/etc. I like, I will make a character that naturally has the boosts I prefer.

[Pete]

I didn't like Dishonored either. The premise was great but I just couldn't get into it. They made it so hard to be stealthy, with severe repercussions for not being perfect. You'd get spotted by the dumbest of guards, have an army chase you, and would have to run and hide to avoid negatively impacting the overall story. So frustrating