Bethesda's lifeless games...

If you don't feel like reading skip to the last line.

Fallout 4 was a huge step forward in that department but am I the only one who think Bethesda's games feel lifeless? One of the main reason for that is the usually sub-par voice acting. The characters have so little emotion and their range of expressions is so limited.

You seldom see them show rage, grief or sorrow in a believable way. Has one of them ever shed a tear? They all look so robotic and neutral. It goes for all of their games. The facial animations are so stiff and "unhuman". That may be a limitation of their engine but I realized it is one of the things preventing me from truly enjoying their games unless they offer a compelling story like New Vegas(which none of their games do).

That extends to their whole entire world. In GTA V for example, I followed a woman who was arguing over the phone with her boyfriend and she was shouting and screaming like a real woman would. She then put away her cellphone right after telling him she would call him back because some creep was following her lol. GTA V is by no means perfect in that aspect but the world feels much more alive and real.

The characters' interactions in Bethesda's games barely vary. The conversations between NPC's feel forced and unbelievable. It at times looks like a bad acting practice we used to do in elementary school. No intonation, no emotion, nothing at all. Even the main characters look soulless and unapproachable.

Bugs aside their worlds are huge and well crafted and offer tons of content but I just cannot be pulled into them as they are borefests to me.

This isn't to discuss the mechanics or practices or Bethesda but really their characters and worlds being devoid of life.

Thoughts?

You shouldn't need to write a wall of text. A simple sentence like Bethesda RPGs sucks donkey balls would be enough.

Well I'm thinking about Game of Thrones, U4, getting a car, maybe making oatmeal..........

I've seen that they leave it up to modders to make their games better.

not going to read all that info

The Witcher 3 made a lot of people realize how bad Bethesda games really are by proving it is possible to make an open world WRPG and actually have good graphics, great story, memorable characters and fill it with detail.

Then why post at all?

Perfect example. There were genuine moments of emotions in TW3. When Ciri lost it after Vesimir was killed. When Triss raged after she got tortured. Even Geralt who is a Witcher and supposed to be devoid of emotional expression has more emotions than any of Bethesda's characters.

Lol I wouldn't go that far. Most of their games are enjoyable but an open-world with a lifeless world is a huge flaw.

I was bored lol and had nothing better to do

Personally, they're games i wouldn't waste time on because of my limited free time and because they offer almost no stimulation to my needs. The horrible writing and shallow as **** design compared to better examples of open world video games are big factors here. My time is better spent on better games with much more nuanced, interesting content worth experiencing. Life is short, and if i'm going to entertain myself with this hobby, it better damn well be worth it. But that's me, we all have our own way of carefully managing our time schedule.

Tho i gotta give Morrowind a thumbs up. Now there's a game with tons of unique, interesting lore spread around for you to discover in an alien world worth exploring. But, this is a business, and i understand why such hard work isn't required to sell a game. On the contrary, it would kill sales.

To each their own. I couldn't play Elder Scrolls for more than an hour and I'm still on the fence about getting Fallout 4. Bethesda RPGs and world never looked interesting on enticing to me, I did gave them a chance with Skyrim after hearing all sorts of praise but I just couldn't get into it. Hearing the same about Fallout 4, don't know if I should try it or not.

I agree, they need to do more character development besides an angry village hunting you because you kill a chicken. Fallout 4 was a huge letdown to me.

The Witcher 3 ruined Fallout 4 for me. I'm not as excited for the next Elder Scrolls game as I used to be.

its an area where they need work.

another thing thats kind related is that there arent enough events in the world...not enough life. about half way through my skyrim stint i decided to stop using fast travel because skyrim was so dam pretty (i wont be using fast travel again in an elder scrolls game). but you could run from one end of the map to another and nothing would happen really. there were, maybe, 5 things you would see on the road.

it would be nice also to see some random stuff happening on your journeys across tamriel.

Video games suck.

Modding is the main reason why I play fallout and elder scrolls games, without it these games feel too uncompleted to me.

CDPR set a new standard for how an open world WRPG should be so it makes sense to view FO4 in that light and feel underwhelmed by it.

The size of an ocean, the depth of a puddle.

I really liked Fallout 4, it's just a really fun gameworld to mess around in full of character. I liked the weapon upgrade system too it's kind of nifty. The graphics were f***ing awful but that's Bethesda for you. Even as far back as Morrowind (amazing game btw) the graphics were hilariously bad. They honestly have zero clue how to create character models and armour/clothes that people don't just laugh at. All their games would have died a horrible death if they hadn't given people the mod tools to fix their games to how they should be if Bethesda themselves had any idea what they're doing.

I'd play Fallout 4 over Witcher 3, it's just so much more interesting and I am not forced to 'play' a main hero who is pretty much the opposite of how I would want any character to be. I'd play it over DAI too, so on this game we disagree. Elder Scrolls, Oblivion was just boring and Skyrim which it seemed to me couldn't possibly be any worse, was just unbelievably bad. They didn't even try with that game.

So yeah, they are mostly pretty crap and Elder Scrolls is now dead to me despite producing one of my fave games of all time (Morrowind) but Fallout 4 is not a classic but definitely is a really good game, tons of fun to play which, I am led to believe, is what it's all about.

This just happened to me.

I've been playing Witcher 3 for about 6 weeks.

Last night I thought, "Hey , I should do a few quests in Skyrim".

That's when I realized how awful it is . I've been spoiled by CD Projekt

their latest games feel lazy.

The Witcher 3 was a shallower experience to that of Skyrim. If you spend anytime outside the dialogue heavy storyline you are met with a rather unrewarding lifeless world.

That's just a flat out lie.

Even the side quests in Witcher are full of story rich content, and a rich vibrant world that's filled with life.

I bet you haven't even played it.

@Juub1990:

I know they don't make the most uplifting games in the world with characters bursting in flavor. So there are a few things that I agree with.

The no emotion with characters. Somewhat true. The acting was never the problem after Elder Scrolls Oblivion but the animations were when it came to NPC interaction. They're stiff, still are for the most part in Fallout 4, though they've definitely improved. To say that they make the characters seem unapproachable and have unrealistic conversations? That's just an exaggeration.

Keep in mind that the worlds of Besthesda are at a much larger scale than Rockstar's. Larger worlds mean more cities, towns, villages, activities, quests, and much more NPC's. Interactions with GTA NPC's are extremely limited compared to Fallout and Elder Scrolls and they don't give the player quests so it's easier for them to give them small random phrases to say and minor behavioral changes. They either hate you or like you and that's pretty much it. The development process for making such an enormous game like Elder Scrolls and Fallout is painstakingly long as it is, it's only natural that they'd have to start generalizing some concepts in order to meet the deadline.

So to put it in a nutshell, it's not very fair to compare GTA world builds to Fallout and Elder Scrolls because they are in very different genres with different goals in mind.

Bethesda knows how to create big maps, not games.

@naotasback: Skyrim's pretty bad, TBH. It has good bones - compelling lore and interesting LOOKING world, but there is so little soul to EVERY quest, EVERY interaction, and not ONE deep mechanic in the game

Bethesda are only good publishers. they are publisher some of best games this gen like Doom, Dishonored and soon to be PREY. other than they are horrible developers.

@naotasback: please save me th nonsense that I have not play the game. The one or two side quest that were exceptional does not negate the blandness of the vast majority of them. The game world is lifeless outside of the main story. I spend the vast majority of my time exploring in games like this because that's where the fun lies for me and the Witcher 3 has not only the most unrewarding rpg system for playing like this but it falls into the same trap of being lifeless.

I agree with you, it needs serious work. There are many reasons why Fallout 4 and TES are fantastic games, this is not one of them. I seriously hope their next game improves in this department, it's part of the reason why I failed to enjoy FO4 as much as I hoped I would.

They absolutely are lifeless. Their sound design, voice acting and other elements of design are incredibly subpar and create a very weird atmosphere. Thankfully the modding community contains skilled game developers who fix all of Bethesda's shortcomings.

And yet they are great games regardless... though I agree the company needs to get their heads out of their asses and improve the overall production values.

Exploring in ES games is far better than the Witcher 3 which is getting free passes on frigging everything these days... it had some of the most shallow exploration.

Witcher 3's idea of open world was pretty much Assassins Creed meets wall of text options... no subtle in between, any interactions were so desperate for long winded dialogue to make it seem even remotely worth while.

Elder Scrolls games had a nice naturally flow to exploration that didn't require my justification from "Peasants" .... also didnt have an auto-find trail system either.

I treat the Elder Scrolls games far closer to Zelda in terms of how little the game relies on dialogue to create its atmospher and immersion in the world.

If they're just cutscenes and I can't do anything about it in gameplay, I'd just gloss over it.

"Awww. He died. Move on."

I agree. I could never fully get into Skyrim or Fallout 4, but I loved every minute of The Witcher 3.

I recently reinstalled TW3 mainly to see it finally maxed out. As for playing it...... I tried. But, I'm more drawn to Fallout 3. When I play that game, I felt more drawn to Fallout 4. I haven't tried New Vegas yet.

The dialogue in the Fallout games seems like I'm talking to Joe Schmoe in the real world which I can readily relate to. Just about everyone I talk to in the real world talk that way. Candid, but not emotional. They start to get emotional and people would probably say they need to see a shrink.

Oh c'mon, why fucking spoil The Witcher 3

I agree to an extent. But all the fun in TES games is in the exploration, an enormous and beautiful world filled with content. Even though I haven't played the Witcher 3 yet (gonna to after ME:Andromeda), from what I've seen and heard of the game, it should prompt Bethesda to step up their game. I'd really like to see bigger and more lifelike cities and villages, bustling with people.

Compared to something like Witcher 3, definitely.

"This isn't to discuss the mechanics or practices or Bethesda but really their characters and worlds being devoid of life."

That's possibly the dumbest shit I've ever seen in my life, that's literally the dumbest shit I've read not only read on here but it further proves people shouldn't express their stupid opinions.

I've always had to use my imagination a bit to enjoy their games as much as I have.

Glitchesda cant make games for shit. Overrated and overhyped garbage are all they can make.

Yeah, as much as I thoroughly enjoyed Fallout 3 Goty edition, the character interactions felt... weirdly perfunctory? Like not a lot of time was set up to really establish any of these characters. It's meet them, "Hi, I'm (name)" then maybe a quest or two. Like I said, I still really enjoy the game, especially for its ambition, but that same ambition means they have to cut corners elsewhere. Compared to other WRPGs with much more organic and genuine feeling conversations, the ones in Fallout 3 were very weak.

Both companies have their strength and weaknesses.

Bethesda has an exploration aspect I love; however I would agree FO4 felt more lifeless compared to TW3.

TW3 didn't have as much exploration to the world.

Loved Oblicion, FO3 and NV, but Skyrim and F04 showed their age of their engine, seriously. Witcher 3, you roll around town and you hear people sneezing, bullshitting with each other, stumbling out of bars, etc etc. Skyrim, people walk in straight lines from place to place. Ugh. I used to love Bethesda, but they have been slipping for the better part of a decade.

Truth they can't make a great looking console game worth a shit. Like fallout 4 running like shit while looking like something from 2008, same with with 360/PS3 era Bethesda games.

Sorry you're late to the party. Been out for nearly 2 years.

Stop, it's a 70+ hr WRPG that is noted for its story that hasn't even been out two years. That was dickish and uncalled for.

Reminds me of someone. I'm sure you know him.

I'm sorry you're a terrible human being who probably likes pineapples and not understanding how spoilers work.

Bethesda can make your char walk forward, backward, left and right properly.

CDP can't.

This is very true. They also jack up your ability to control your character in "combat mode".