I know there’s great love for Oblivion (I never played it when it was new), and of course Skyrim is the gold standard for new fans (I played the shit out of that and it was my first entry into the elder scrolls back when it came out 14 years ago…) but I really feel like this shadow drop of a half assed remake is just priming everyone to lower their expectations for the likely dumpster fire that is The Elder Scrolls VI.
I know its old hat nonsense of a complaint but whatever Bethesda used to be it stopped being that 20 years ago and we’re all just stuck thinking they’ll put out some new masterpiece when in reality all the talent they had back in the day has likely left for other jobs and they are now just a shitty company among countless other shitty companies putting profit over anything else and stifling anyone who might actually have good ideas on how to make good games (how unsurprising).
Played Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim as they came out. Love the series. But it also felt like Skyrim lost something (not that it stopped me from sinking a stupid amount of hours into the game or playing it about twice a year.) And you know, my expectations for the next TES aren’t super high. But the thing is, it’s not what Bethesda is going to do with it that really gets me excited. It’s the hope that modding will continue to be heavily supported and what the community will do with the game. I have far more faith in modders than I do in Bethesda. The new TES not being packaged with modding support, to me, that would be the deathknell of TES.
I think Bethesda has definitely fallen off in recent years, but I am a bit confused by the point this post is getting at. We learned at launch that Oblivion is a remaster, not a remake, and it’s just the original game running under the hood with a new coat of paint and some minor tweaks. And it’s a pretty high-effort remaster at that.
I just think it’s a bad example to use of how the company isn’t getting better, when the point of the remaster was to change as little of the core game as possible. It’s as good now as it was back then but it’s still a 19-year-old game.
Starfield is what should be killing everyone’s expectations of Elder Scrolls 6.
The remaster was also made externally, so whatever the point being made here is, it’s weird twice over.
Man the negativity. I’m so sick of gamers negativity. It’s not even a new game, it’s a remaster. you knew what the product was going to be. It’s oblivion. We all knew it was oblivion. If you don’t like oblivion, why did you buy it?!
I swear to God if they changed it too much I’d be commenting here on a post about how they had no respect for the original. Then we wonder why “they never listen to gamers”. Because we bitch and moan about everything.
100% agree. Pleasing Gamers™ is a Kafka trap.
Just musing on the fact that Bethesda doesn’t care about making games and instead just cashes in on nostalgia. I also think their finance bros realized their upcoming big IP drop is going to be an objective POS and wanted to prime people’s expectations by re-releasing a 20 year old game with some lipstick on it.
It would be neat if they hired some people who actually had innovative ideas about gameplay, visuals and stories to maybe make a neat new game within an existing or new IP, but they haven’t done that in literal decades so I think its pretty reasonable to not be incredibly excited about anything they are putting out or planning to put out in the future.
Imagine if capital G Gamers actually enjoyed playing games instead of nonstop bitching on online forums.
the internet would fall silent.
It’s not even much of a remaster. They just slapped a coat of paint on it.
The Gamebryo/Creation Engine is still there running the game, it just uses Unreal 5 for the graphical elements. And they updated some of the levelling to work more like Skyrim, because the Oblivion system sucked in comparison.
It’s still the same 20 year old Oblivion under the hood.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but calling it a remaster is a bit disingenuous.
What do you think “remaster” actually mean?
More than a coat of paint. They didn’t actually port the game to Unreal 5, they just used it to make the graphics look better. The modding community could have done this years ago if that’s all they wanted to do. Skyblivion is more of a remaster than this official one.
With all of the resources of the original development and sources, I expect more than the modding community is capable of.
Emm, no. If you build something from the ground up it’s called remake.(Demon Souls, the Resident Evil series) Remastered is taking the old game and put on a fresh paint of coat and give it some modern QOL so it’s much more accessible today.
Skyblivion is closer to remake than remaster.
Also i feels like you misunderstand why people like this game.
If you’re fine paying $50-60 for what amounts to a community graphical overhaul mod that’s fine. I expect more from an actual developer with access to the source code.
A remaster should be releasing Oblivion with an updated engine and graphics, and bringing in some gameplay enhancements from newer games. Technically this meets those requirements, but only by the bare minimum and all of those can be achieved with community mods for free.
A remake would be completely abandoning the decrepit Gamebryo/Creation Engine that’s clearly dragging all of their games down now, and has been for over a decade, and actually giving us something that doesn’t feel like it came out 20+ years ago.
I love the Elder Scrolls, Oblivion is one of my favorite games of all time, and the only one I ever bothered to get every achievement for back on the 360. But I won’t accept a half assed remaster for nearly full price just because it’s what Bethesda wants to distract everyone from the fact that Elder Scrolls 6 isn’t coming out anytime soon and they couldn’t just release Skyrim for the 12th time.
Don’t accept paying for mediocre products just because you’re desperate for content.
The only real problem here is the price. It should’ve been more like $30.
Ok.
You’re describing a remake, which isn’t what this remaster is. A remaster is literally what this is, just like Diablo 2 Resurrected a few years ago
It is literally not a remake, and how is it half assed? I have a low to mid range PC and the game runs smooth as hell, and it’s gorgeous.
There‘s no Oblivion remake. Go to the Steam Page and carefully read word for word what it is you‘re talking about.
I play Fantasy Critic with some friends. We allow remakes in our league but not remasters. This one counts as a remake for purposes of this site, with a flag on it to note that it was contentious. This game definitely blurs some lines on some definitions.
Fantasy Critic
Wait what? Is this like fantasy sports, but with video game reviews? Do you draft developers or some shit?
Yes, it is fantasy sports but with video games. You draft games, and your points are determined by their score on Open Critic. Over 70 gains points, under 70 loses points. Every point over 90 is worth double. The way my friends and I structure our league, we have one counter pick during the draft, and the counter picker gets the inverse of the points of that game; so if I have a friend who drafts Kirby Air Riders, and I counter pick it, and it scores 67, my friend loses 3 points and I gain 3 points. If I counter pick a game that scores positive points, I lose those points instead.
The only game on my roster that has released so far is Knights in Tight Spaces, which only got me 6 points (I aim for about 13 points per game), because it scored a 76 on Open Critic, and I was perhaps a bit too risky when I drafted Pony Island 2: Panda Circus, because I got counter picked on it, and it doesn’t have a release date, so I might be stuck with a game that scores 0 points due to not releasing this year.
They literally ssid they kept the mechanics running on the original engine so the game retains its “bethesda charm” and upon playing it, it became immediately obvious that Todd 100℅ believes what was charming about their games is the jank and bugginess. 🤦♂️
I really hate the fact that Morrowind was such a landmark, amazing, beautiful game in nearly every way (for the time) and they have managed to regress on every single front from that in every single game they have made after.
I agree with Todd in the sense that the jankyness is part of Oblivion’s charm. However, I believe that the jankyness only works in a game from 2007, which has weird graphics and an overall surreal vibe. The jankyness is not charming in the dark fantasy of Skyrim nor in the hyper-realistic remake/remaster (whatever people call it).
whatever Bethesda used to be it stopped being that 20 years ago
I agree with the general sentiment, but 20 is a bit of a stretch given that it misses Fallout 3, NV, 4, the original release of Oblivion, and Skyrim. Twenty years ago was the start of their golden era, in my book.
They didn’t make NV anyway. And also, Morrowind was the best thing they ever made. After that, it’s been all downhill.
I have no idea what’s your complaint are though, and it’s not a remake, it’s a remaster that is significantly better than a lot of other remaster have to offer. They could’ve gave us widescreen support, some lighting change, some new horse armour and call it a day, but they somehow able to snap an UE5 rendering on top of gamebryo, some modern QOL, new character models, modern lipsync, while retaining the charm that spawned an entire genre of meme.
There’s a reason Witcher 1 isn’t getting a remastered but a remake. Gamer these day is so jaded and just can’t seems to satisfied with anything, that a witcher 1 remastered will get hated forever.
Then play something else. These are RPGs. You’re supposed to immerse yourself and play the role. Are you a Khajiiti Skooma fiend who the Emperor stumbled upon that then goes on a wacky series of adventures? Did you say screw Jaffre and head straight to Kvatch cuz that’s where your plug lives and end up going into literal hell to save him? Eventually becoming The Hero of Kvatch?
Did you parlay your new found fame into new found money which you used to greatly expand your skooma consumption? Along the way becoming leader of guilds and the avatar of a God?
Or did you mainline the golden path. Decide this is ass and dip because you have no imagination?
You get out of these games what you put in. My favorite skyrim playthrough is one without weapons. I use a mod called “Wandering Thuum Practitioner” and Ordinator. Those two will make you as near as possible a lore accurate user of Shouts. Don’t need weapons. Something attacks you? Burp it to death. Shout it off a mountain. Roast it to ash. Because you were given some training in the Thuum by a former Greybeard who for whatever reason left High Hrothgar long ago. What are the odds that the old man would find The Last Dragonborn potentially decades before they were needed and gave them a boost.
But yes. They have fallen off. Starfield was fine. Once. The whole starborn plot was a waste of time. In my opinion. The shine falls off a multiverse real quick when there’s no difference between the universes. I know what they expected. They gave modders all the room they’d ever need and then some to spread out and build anything they wanted. They expected modders to fill up the game. They got complacent that the modders would always be there to do what people with deadlines and budgets cannot. And I wish they had. I no-lifed Starfield when it came out. Loved it. But by my 2nd trip through the unity I was pretty much done with it. There was nothing else to see. No variation in the multiverse. Outside of The Lodge anyway. And they could have saved it with that first DLC. The potential was there. All they had to do was give us more about who came before us through The Unity. Some info about those who built it or discovered it. Advanced alien civilization or some cosmic god. Something. But no. We got human incompetence run amuck. That shit is boring. And it was boring. There was no grand mystery to solve. No clues to a greater understanding. Just nothing of consequence. So it flopped.
The next remake tho. Fallout 3. Oh that mfer is gonna do NUMBERS. You hear me?! We’ve been begging for a sequel to 3 or a remake for 20 years. Then after that I swear to Robert Edwin House’s ghost they better do New Vegas.
You think this is a half assed remake? To me this feels like a significant upgrade (and not just to graphics) while maintaining the core experience and I’m kinda shocked at how good it is.
half assed remake
which is exactly why they called it a remaster. it was never their intention to remake the game.
Personally I think most of the stuff that went wrong with Starfield were design choices related to space travel and many many planets, which won’t be an issue with TES of Fallout going forward. So if they stay in their lane I don’t see any reason why they can’t keep churning out decent titles in those series, even if they maybe don’t reach the same heights.
You don’t seem to know what a remaster is. Most importantly, it’s not a remake and the two terms are not interchangeable.
It might be nostalgia speaking, but I think the real issue is that a 20 year old game can actually be this good and popular. How can it be that it is more enjoyable than anything else I’ve bought over the last year (at least)? Doesn’t that say that game companies in general have dropped the ball on game design, focusing on graphics and money over content and gameplay? As I said, it might just be me stuck in my wonderfully comforting blanket of nostalgia…
I think it’s almost definitely nostalgia speaking.
Granted, by the point Oblivion was made I was the nostalgia guy talking about how Bethesda games kept getting smaller and less ambitious. Most people saying that then did so because they were coming from Morrowind. Not me, I am a proper dinosaur and I was just pissed that after Morrowind dropped everything interesting about Daggerfall to make a console game they just kept moving further in that direction.
Was also not a fan of Fallout getting turned into Oblivion 40K instead of a proper turn-based CRPG.
Which goes to show this conversation isn’t new and gaming is old enoung now that it has gone in cycles.
I mean, seriously, Daggerfall was continent-sized and was using procedural generation to make dungeons and build dialogue and quests and essentially reimagining how games could be made in ways that wouldn’t resurface until what? No Man’s Sky? Oblivion is bad Lord of the Rings. If anything it’s the awkward middle child now, because man, the Imperial City in Oblivion feels hilariously tiny and basically deserted against modern RPGs. There are five people running loops and having canned conversations. Coming from Baldur’s Gate 3 or Cyberpunk to this is… a bit of a shock.
You’re just buying the wrong games.
Go play Split Fiction, Balatro, and Hades 2.
I hear this rhetoric a lot, which shows me that a ton of people have a much harder time than me finding the good stuff, even though there’s so much of it out there.
It’s a remaster. What’s the problem?
All I wanted from the remake was character models that didn’t look like cartoons and a leveling system that didn’t punish suboptimal builds, and by God that’s what they delivered.
People keep clamoring for a Morrowind remake, and I disagree. It’s perfect the way it is. Oblivion NEEDED this.
