Sega buys Relic Entertainment

[Scrub]

Actually, as a fan of current bethesda games (after a handful of community mods, mind), I'd be interested to hear what an oldschool fan's stance on them is. Any specific things you hate, besides the bugs, poor quality control, etc.? Is it just the depth of the game world, or is it more than that?

Sorry for not responding sooner, I don't come around here much.

It's mostly an overall feel of the games. I don't HATE Skyrim at all the way that I hated Oblivion (Skyrim was a pretty solid game that I actually enjoyed), but it still just feels dumbed down from Morrowind in every way except for combat. The best story I have to describe what I mean is, you know the 'Warriors Guild' of Skyrim, I forget its name? They take you into that hidden area behind their clubhouse to show you that theyre all werewolves and they want to make you one too? I immediately drew my sword and attacked and found out immediately that both were immortal and that I could only knock them out and they didn't even really seem to care when I did that. That was like...so offensive, that they have to literally have a big safeguard in the game so that you can never possibly screw yourself out of being able to do quests that every other named NPC is immortal. This kind of shit is the same reason I hate Half-Life 2 even though the original is one of my alltime favorite games.

Even the fact that I could become the Guild Grandmaster of that guild after I was already the Grandmaster of all the other guilds. They have like no actual interaction with each other, there's almost never any consequences, most characters are tied to their one little faction/quest and practically don't exist outside of it, that sort of thing. In Morrowind you couldn't even get very high in the fighter/thieves' guilds if you were buddying with the other one because you would literally take actions that would piss off the other faction, etc. I think the only thing in Skyrim I found remotely like that was if you sided with the Imperials or not, which also happened to be the only questline that I could get REALLY into in the whole game.

There's also a bunch of other minor things that everyone knows about. Less weapontypes, armor pieces, entire spell schools, shitty level-scaling that I cant stand, the fast travel system (I just didn't use it so it obviously doesnt effect me as much, I just dislike the ability to instantly travel to any location in an rpg thing), enchantment system, etc all minor gripes that add up. Not even going to go into the whole Lore and all the backpeddling/retconning because that is way too nerdy even for me. The unfortunate part about all of these is that the game has made a ton of huge strides in other areas. Look at the way combat works. Combat in Skyrim is pretty fun. Even Oblivion's shitty combat was such an upgrade from Morrowind that I have a really hard time playing Morrowind ever now because of how shitty the whole 'diceroll to hit evne though im in their face' thing works.

I will still probably end up TRYING OUT that new elder scrolls MMO if only because the fantasy of an Elder Scrolls MMO was like one of my top dreams years ago, but the fact that nowadays it's something that I have to kind of force myself to get excited about is really an indication of my feelings for the games.

[gigawuts]

Mm, I see what you're saying. Yeah, I felt the same way after I tried System Shock 2 because I enjoyed Bioshock. I couldn't believe what they'd done to the ideas, then called it a "spiritual successor." Yeah, Bioshock is fantastic, but SS2 came from an era where game devs had to do more with less resources; when ingenuity of design made a game great - not the bloom or fog effects.

What you're describing though, I think you would REALLY enjoy the STALKER series. Those are some of my all time favorite games, even vanilla (which some people say is terrible). I advise playing the first before the sequels, then the second is optional, but definitely play the third if you play the first. The second...I found it mediocre at best, focusing on gimmicks with territory and that sort of thing. The first and third are top notch and very much in the same vein.

The TES MMO, yeah, no. I'm not touching it. Between my past experience with MMO's, and knowing what modern MMO design does to game series I enjoy, I won't touch it. I go to TES (and fallout 3/NV) for some great exploration as well as deep, subtly detailed worlds. In-jokes, references, and small stories told in a specific area are what make the games so great to me. I do this in solitude at my own pacing, ignoring and delaying whatever quests I want without potential punishment. I'd REALLY like coop with this, a buddy to do this with (Borderlands 1 mastered this kind of gameplay for me, BL2 is a bit of different experience but is still good), but not an MMO. On paper a TES MMO sounds great, but...with what modern MMO's are like, no thanks.

[Akaimizu]

Take note, the level of capability and user control for a game system was also done in 2D. By the guys who did the Fallout series. 1 and 2. But being that Bethesda has that series now...I guess they're the only ones left.

Skyrim definitely is a more acceptable game for a lot of today's gameplayers, but I do think they did took some easy way outs to make things a little easier to bugtest than something like Morrowind. Of course, Morrowind started with a number of humdingers they had to patch for that very reason.

Still, the variety was awesome. I loved how in Morrowind I was able to actually be a very good enchanters, but a horrible spellcaster. The idea in Morrowind was that while you needed to know how a particular spelltype worked (basic knowledge) before you could use it in an enchantment; you didn't have to be a master or even that great at the art of hurling it to make a fantastic weapon with that affix on it.

Back in Morrowind, a fire spell would hardly get past fizzling past my hand, but I could create a wicked fire sword that had its own mana pool and was ready to wreck havoc because my enchanting was that good. Outside of the massive potion abuse, there was a whole lot of reward for thinking outside the box. To a degree, I'm glad Skyrim didn't remove that ability entirely, but it certainly keeps a lot of things in check you could invent or figure out in previous games. They did do everything they needed to bring a typically niche title series to mainstream.

At first, I thought, due to the adherence to the dice roll system (which I was way used to, and was fine with) in something that had the appearance of an action RPG would keep Morrowind to the niche title the previous ones were; but I was wrong. It still managed to take off.

[Seany1990]

Let's just be eternally grateful that Activision didn't get Darksiders or Saints Row.

[Akaimizu]

They didn't, but I'll still be curious as to what will happen to those games in the new hands.

[Randomness]

SEGA is actually the best possible option for Relic. They also publish for Creative Assembly (creators of the Total War series) and Sports Interactive (creators of Football Manager), both of which are strong PC-exclusive franchises. Chances are they'll treat Relic as well as they've treated CA, which is a great thing for gamers.

Also, I was told that a lot of SEGA's money comes from their pachinko games in Japan. Not terribly surprising, that. Those games are insanely popular over there.

Honestly, SEGA only screws up it's old Genesis franchises it seems.

[Seany1990]

Honestly, SEGA only screws up it's old Genesis franchises it seems.

Anarchy Reigns was a bit naff too

[andrewall]

Saint's Row will be my priority.SEGA has made some tremendous achievements.