Slowtrain

I'd say because a) Bethesda thinks their writing is better than it actually is. b) they don't consider writing all that important to the ES game mechanics to begin with Well bugs you mentioned, for my personal preference the dungeons were just way too big. Without that "anchor" spell you would have to find your way back out as well which was more than little annoying. I always enjoyed the fact that they were so huge and you would invariably get lost. To my mind it's the way a dungeon should be. But having the recall spell kind of made the dungeon design sort of pointless

Considering Obsidian'd receive the Creation Engine and all assets on a silver platter like with FO:NV, why wouldn't they focus on writing and story? It wouldn't be impossible for them to develop a spin-off adventure for Elder Scrolls while Bethesda is developing Fallout 4 after Skyrim is released. Sure. It'd be cool if Obs could do a more story focused version of an ES game or even an adventure game like Redguard. I'm just thinking that since Obs' rep is good writing/story/character that wouldn't be Bethie's choice to work on an ES game since those things are of minimal importance in the ES game mechanics. FO was always a bit more story-focused so the Obsidian choice seemed a bit more logical.

Daggerfall was ambitious yes, but most parts of the game were just bad, especially all the dungeons. Never played Morrowind, so can't comment on that. Buggy, I'd agree. You'd would have to define bad though. I thought they were some of the best dungeons ever done in an crpg.

Actually I'd say he pretty much ruled it out with what he said. It's like when you start a sentence out with 'no offense' and then go on to say something offensive. Yup, totally agree. Besides Obs would be a bad developer for an ES game anyway; they would focus too much on writing and story.

Selling plates of cold poop. What marketing is all about.

The AI cheats like mad. SP isn't all that great comsequently. Best recommendation is to play in a tiny galaxy with max number of races. which minimizes the AI cheating effect because they're all cheating against themselves as well as you.

DS1 was the most pointless game I ever played. I can't even say it was bad, just pointless. The damn thing almost completely played itself, even the level ups required no input from me, the game took care of it all. Utterly pointless. This from a sp pov though. Maybe it was great in mp.

In the end its all marketing and pr anyway. With enough marketing, a plate of cold poop would sell millions.

With FO:NV Obs got to work on an IP that Bethie had returned to prominence. With DS Obs got to work on an IP that had no prominence at all. NV was pretty close to a slamdunk as far as being a big seller, which we talked about at length before the game was released. DS3 was pretty much the opposite. But I don't think that qualifies it as a failure for Obsidian. Maybe for Square Enix, though.

That's also a developer problem as it means they failed to appeal to the target audience with their product. Did Obsidian have that level of responsibility for the project? I was under the impression, perhaps incorrectly, that Obs was hired to make the game Square Enix wanted to make. Similar to how the Wheel of TIme project seems to planned.

*shrug* If someone contracts you to do work to their specifications in a specific period of time and you do so, then you've done your job successfully. If the idea doesn't sell, for whatever reason, that's a different issue.

Why would DS3 be considered a failure for Obsidian? It wasn't their IP. They were hired to make a game that someone else wanted them to make the way someone else wanted them to make it. DS3 is not "Obsidian's game". They were told what to do and did it. The game appears to have been brought in on time and mostly bug-free. WHich is a big success for Obs in and of itself. If anything this success should be a good boost to their credentials as a for-hire developer of other people's IPs.

why stupid? seems a harsh judgement to make on someone who was born unable to move their arms and legs.

I'm thinking he must have some setup that holds the controller vertically in front of his head so he can look over the controller while he pushes the buttons.

I think its pretty amazing. People are capable of astonishing things. I mean, playing games with your face? Incredible. I worship that guy.

Yeah, that's cool. I've got nothing against the old world at all. But the gameplay and story in O:A was extremely lackluster. Which is being generous since there was really no story or character interaction and the gameplay was what FO3 did least well: be a pure FPS. I'm not sure what OWB is actually about, but it at least LOOKS like it might be interesting.

Ah, the classic "wizard made me do it" defense. No doubt somewhat embarrassing for an aeons old cosmic entity.

Come again? We need more z-grade rail shooter add-ons?

How can Cthulu save the world? Sounds like some serious retconning.

I started Hyperion but didn't get very far. Can't remember why. Didn't Dan Simmons have some book about the devil coming back to earth or something, a sort of horror/sf crossover? I think I read that one. Can't remember. I had a bunch of Dan Simmons books at one time, but never did much with them.

? If by contemporary he means "conservative choice to make as money as possible for the shareholders with as little risk as possible" then OK.

lol. See I just can't believe anyone would read that. I hope you borrowed it from a friend or a library so at least it didn't cost you anything.

That OWB trailer looks like the best of the DLC so far though not enough to make me buy it. I'll just keep waiting for some edition that has all the dlc and patches bundled out for 1/2 of the price.

lol. Nice pic. @Morgoth: Sure, DX was a pretty good, though flawed, game, and Smith was pretty heavily involved with it for a long time, but still by all accounts it was Spector's vision, and had been for the many years it was in development. Since DX what precisely has Smith done that makes him worth anything special as a game developer? He promised a lot with IW and delivered almost nothing that was promised. Was that entirely his fault? Who knows. But the result is there. I paid $49.99 USD for it. Dishonored may be a great game. Who knows. But nothing in Smith's game development history indicates his presensce is a positive point in the game's favor.