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.

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.

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.

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.

As a long time Bethesda game fan I agree with you on almost everything you've said about Bethesda... But the remaster is a terrible example of your points.

The remaster does exactly what it says on the tin and they've been very upfront about how it was made and why it was made in the launch video.

It's hard to criticise them for cashing in on nostalgia when they've shown time and time again with Skyrim re-releases that do a fraction of what the Oblivion remaster does still sell like hot cakes.

Nostalgia is at the core of their business model. That's why they march Skyrim's corpse out every two years like clockwork; that's why they picked Fallout for a new franchise after ES; that's, frankly, likely why Starfield sucks so much.

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.