• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Bethesda lead designer says Starfield is "hardest thing Bethesda has ever done" and the best game they ever made

Vlodril

Vlodril

Member
Not sure why so many studios are so out of touch with their consumers and even the product they make. People are surprised how bad their game is received. You made a bad game. You did not know that at all? How is that even possible.
 
S

Schmendrick

Member
And Concord was viewed as the "future of Playstation".
Bernie Sanders Delusion GIF by Team Coco
 
Topher

Topher

Identifies as young
Miyazaki’s Slave said:
HA!
Its just a joke, for whatever reason that name popped into my head one day when you were taking the piss out of some of the fresh meat. Just made me laugh, so I look forward to using it every so often!

Nah, don't get it twisted I am not offended...just want to point out the person has been there for 22 years...yes they may be "sniffing their own farts" or whatever but they have plenty of old war wounds I am sure.
Click to expand...

Damn...ok, you got me. I was thinking "what the hell did I say". lol

Yeah....the guy has a ton of experience, but even just looking at Starfield on its own without referencing prior games made at Bethesda.......his take doesn't really hold water. I like Starfield. Everyone knows that. But Bethesda's history of games is incredibly rich. If someone is going to make claims like that then I'm expecting him to have had a major part in most of their best games. I just don't see it though. If he had said this was the best game he had ever been a part of......no problem with that. Hope that makes sense.
 
King Dazzar

King Dazzar

Member
Frustratingly, this could have been their best game ever. It certainly has its moments, but its screaming out to be free of its archaic technical limitations.
 
ReBurn

ReBurn

Gold Member
Topher said:
Would have been a hell of a lot better had they included the vehicle day one. I might have actually wanted to explore. But having to literally run for 5 to 10 minutes just to get to main quest objective sapped away whatever desire I had for exploring. So many things in this game were close to being great. If the game had been released today, I think reception would have been a lot better.
Click to expand...
Totally accurate. After the first couple there was no way I was going to hoof it to some remote, abandoned outpost. The loot just wasn't worth it. With the vehicle it's much less irritating.
 
Topher

Topher

Identifies as young
StereoVsn said:
The issue goes a lot further.

Most of the planets have small and empty exploration areas that are at best populated by content that’s pretty much the same down to enemy placement.

So vehicle or not you hit that “wall” pretty quick. It kills off the major bonus of past Bethesda games, which is organically encountering interesting quests and locations.

This doesn’t really exist on randomly generated planets.
Click to expand...

You are not wrong, but there were points on the HUD that I would have gone out and explored more if they were not so far away or I could get there quicker.
 
Last edited:
Gonzito

Gonzito

Gold Member
A monkey with a pencil could write better stories than this guy. Bethesda should get rid of him
 
Miyazaki’s Slave

Miyazaki’s Slave

Gold Member
Topher said:
Damn...ok, you got me. I was thinking "what the hell did I say". lol

Yeah....the guy has a ton of experience, but even just looking at Starfield on its own without referencing prior games made at Bethesda.......his take doesn't really hold water. I like Starfield. Everyone knows that. But Bethesda's history of games is incredibly rich. If someone is going to make claims like that then I'm expecting him to have had a major part in most of their best games. I just don't see it though. If he had said this was the best game he had ever been a part of......no problem with that. Hope that makes sense.
Click to expand...
Yup, I can understand that take completely.

I just read their comment/tweet a little differently, or from a different perspective. I worked in AAA for 7 years before we started our own studio and there were plenty of projects that I worked on that I wasn't directly credited for. That happens a lot when you work at companies who are developing multiple titles at once, so I tend to give their opinion weight since, while they may not have been in the "Skyrim" trench according to their Linked In bio, they were probably very close to the teams making it and has insight we just wouldn't.
 
EDMIX

EDMIX

Writes a lot, says very little
Luipadre said:
They are so delusional, no wonder they make shit games now
Click to expand...

Well, not really.

A designer saying its the hardest thing they've done imho isn't really shocking, what Starfield is doing is much more then their prior works, of course saying best game is subjective, but in terms of minimal bugs and features, I think it isn't that far off and the statement sounds accurate.

I'm not saying this is my favorite title they've ever made mind you, but you can see it is the hardest title by design, best in regards to complexity thus far while still having a favorite like Oblivion or Fallout 3 etc.

Starfield may not be everyone's favorite title they've made, its also something I don't think they should be ashamed of, we've seen more shit games released broken, missing features, taking 3 years for basic elements to release and then a series of lies on what the game is etc. Starfield really isn't any of those, solid release, is what they described, more complex then their past titles and imho, they should be proud of what they put out.

I don't think these are delusional statements.

DonkeyPunchJr said:
he ship building/combat was genuinely cool. Trying to disable enemy ships, then board/loot them and either hijack the ship or blow it to pieces, was really cool.

Base building also seemed pretty interesting and in depth, like there’s a lot of cool stuff you could do, although I didn’t even experiment with that in my first play through.

For better or worse Starfield felt like a middle-of-the-road Bethesda RPG but with a new setting and a couple fun new gameplay systems to experiment with.

What I’d really like is some better writing/characters and more impactful choices. That would’ve taken Starfield from like a 7/10 to a 10/10 for me.
Click to expand...

I generally agree, i saw it as a 7 or 8 title, still solid and still imho one of the most complex works they've made.

I feel most of what you wrote goes unnoticed and its as if its easier to just attack developers instead of rationally looking at what they actually created.

By default this would easily be the hardest thing the team has done as Starfield just has more complex systems and functions going on then Fallout or Elder Scrolls. I didn't really like the story, but enjoyed the general concept and liked the random character's you'd meet along the way, I also didn't care for the choices in the game (but I generally don't in most games lol)

I think even if loved the story, I would still put it at a 7 or 8 (ok maaaaaybe a 9 if I really loved the story or something)
 
killatopak

killatopak

Member
Miyazaki’s Slave said:
Yup, I can understand that take completely.

I just read their comment/tweet a little differently, or from a different perspective. I worked in AAA for 7 years before we started our own studio and there were plenty of projects that I worked on that I wasn't directly credited for. That happens a lot when you work at companies who are developing multiple titles at once, so I tend to give their opinion weight since, while they may not have been in the "Skyrim" trench according to their Linked In bio, they were probably very close to the teams making it and has insight we just wouldn't.
Click to expand...
He’s their main writer since Oblivion. He worked on every game they had since except for FO76.
 
DonkeyPunchJr

DonkeyPunchJr

World’s Biggest Weeb
EDMIX said:
Well, not really.

A designer saying its the hardest thing they've done imho isn't really shocking, what Starfield is doing is much more then their prior works, of course saying best game is subjective, but in terms of minimal bugs and features, I think it isn't that far off and the statement sounds accurate.

I'm not saying this is my favorite title they've ever made mind you, but you can see it is the hardest title by design, best in regards to complexity thus far while still having a favorite like Oblivion or Fallout 3 etc.

Starfield may not be everyone's favorite title they've made, its also something I don't think they should be ashamed of, we've seen more shit games released broken, missing features, taking 3 years for basic elements to release and then a series of lies on what the game is etc. Starfield really isn't any of those, solid release, is what they described, more complex then their past titles and imho, they should be proud of what they put out.

I don't think these are delusional statements.



I generally agree, i saw it as a 7 or 8 title, still solid and still imho one of the most complex works they've made.

I feel most of what you wrote goes unnoticed and its as if its easier to just attack developers instead of rationally looking at what they actually created.

By default this would easily be the hardest thing the team has done as Starfield just has more complex systems and functions going on then Fallout or Elder Scrolls. I didn't really like the story, but enjoyed the general concept and liked the random character's you'd meet along the way, I also didn't care for the choices in the game (but I generally don't in most games lol)

I think even if loved the story, I would still put it at a 7 or 8 (ok maaaaaybe a 9 if I really loved the story or something)
Click to expand...
Early in the game I joined the UC Vanguard faction and did that quest line and it was fucking awesome. Felt like I was part of some kickass 80s action sci-fi movie.

Everything after that felt kinda drab and hollow afterward. If the rest of the game were up to that same standard it would’ve been 2023 GotY for me
 
Roberts

Roberts

Member
I've spent more than hundred hours on the game and I kind of agree that it is the best. Or at least the one that appeals to my gaming taste the most. It is a weird game set in a weird world and I fucking love it. It is also more (intentionally) funny than any game they have made in the past.
 
Nydius

Nydius

Gold Member
AyraSutoraifu said:
Yes.
Bethesda has riding a long time on it's pedigree and now it is crumbling.
Click to expand...

I'm having flashbacks to Anthem and watching as BioWare's reputation (and their own belief in their "BioWare Magic") began disintegrating before our very eyes. We're watching the same thing happen with Bethesda. Years of riding on Skyrim's coattails and then people giving them passes for obvious and egregious issues in games like Fallout 4 have led to this extreme level of hubris.
 
Cyberpunkd

Cyberpunkd

Member
How can you be so tone-deaf to say things like that ? Like, does he think ES started with Skyrim?

Bethesda made one great game - Morrowind. They never got close afterwards but hey - I can still play Morrowind in 2024.
 
Ribi

Ribi

Member
I was going to say "Yes true if it was made on 2010" then I remembered that Fallout 3 and Oblivion already existed...
 
Sooner

Sooner

Member
Best game "they" have ever made. I assume whoever said that means the literal people who worked on Starfield.

Because Bethesda has absolutely made better games, even if that was a different group of people who mostly are long gone from the company.
 
M

Madserb2023

Member
I enjoyed Starfield but it's not even nearly as good as Fallout 4 let alone Skyrim or Oblivion. I don't think it's as bad as many make it out to be. It's a solid 7.5 to me, but it does worry me if they think it's a 10. They need to look at what was wrong with Starfield and not repeat it.
 
Lucifers Beard

Lucifers Beard

Member
Cyberpunkd said:
Are You High Basketball Wives GIF by VH1


It’s not rocket science. Morrowind. It has always been Morrowind.
Click to expand...
You know this is one of those things where I believe this is entirely dependent on when you really engaged with the series. I'm not saying you're wrong, just Oblivion is my favourite. Morrowind was too much for my 12 year old brain to cope with at the time.
 
Sooner

Sooner

Member
Schmendrick said:
And Concord was viewed as the "future of Playstation".
Bernie Sanders Delusion GIF by Team Coco
Click to expand...
Except, Sony never publicly said that. And it took them no time to figure out it is NOT the future, or even a game worth continuing to support.

If Sony was saying that a year from now, your point would be more adequate.
 
Shubh_C63

Shubh_C63

Member
That we pulled it off makes Starfield something of a technical marvel.
Click to expand...

Jesus christ how low a bar can be.

Look we found a way to jam real working solar system in our games on a Xbox Series S. We so cool. Who cares if it runs on 4fps ?
What a technical marvel.
 
MujkicHaris

MujkicHaris

Banned
The best game Bethesda ever made is called The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. It's also the greatest WRPG ever made. Second place is Fallout 3.

IHpsvja.png
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Starfield Fans Denounce 'Excessive' Pricing of Paid Mods - Bethesda's third attempt to monetise fan made mods, review bombing on Steam has commenced
News Drama Game Dev 2 3
129
9K
Rambone replied
Starfield design lead says players are "disconnected" from how games are made: "Don't fool yourself into thinking you know why it is the way it is"
Opinion Game Dev 3 4 5 6 7
331
29K
ByWatterson replied
Starfield: Shattered Space | Review Thread
Analysis Review 2 3
125
8K
Nydius replied
Starfield's lead quest designer leaves Bethesda
News Game Dev 2 3
129
16K
BouncyFrag replied
Skyrim Lead on the death of video game expansions: “after six months, the audience has moved on”
Opinion Game Dev
47
3K
Pandawan replied
Top Bottom