Can we not do this? I ignored the “TOW looks better than anything Bethesda’s made” comment, but this is more than a little much. Let’s dive into why:
I’m generally not a fan of comparing graphics across games that are in different genres, and to some extent even those that are: Fallout 4 and The Outer Worlds are technically very similar from a genre/game flow perspective, but the scale delta between the two is immense. Fallout 4 is simply loading more data in any given second than The Outer Worlds does, and so that alone changes the field a bit. That said, after 400 hours of Fallout 4 with the One X enhancements and about 120 on TOW, I don’t know how anyone can say TOW looks better universally… the physically based rendering alone on Fallout 4 breathes a life into the texture work that’s simply missing on TOW. Yes, there are elements and moments where TOW shines above quite a few other Bethesda examples (those skyboxes are incredible), but there are more than enough blemishes on TOW’s graphical presentation that makes any such claim reductionist and ignorant. TOW was a mid-budget title and it shows in plenty of areas; keep in mind, I’m not slighting the game as it’s one of my favorite of last generation, I’m simply stating the realities of the two projects.
I’m also not a fan of slagging another developer and claiming that they should be taken off a franchise unless they’ve done objectively bad work, which in Bethesda’s case with the Fallout franchise has not been the case (they sell more than any of the original games did and they still maintain an incredibly high critic average). Stating that they should be removed from Fallout, or dropped from it, is akin to a take from a certain unnamed journalist that we’re all aware of. I’m not sure what your first Fallout title was, but mine was in fact the first Fallout title played on a dinosaur of a Pentium… when the game was released. As such, there are few franchises that I hold dear to my heart like Fallout (Halo is definitely one of them), and I can admit that when Fallout 3 was released, I was up in arms about the departures from the mythos and systems that Interplay and Black Isle had created. However, after spending years playing the Bethesda Fallout titles, I don’t see how it’s in the best interest of the franchise, or the industry, to insist that the franchise should be stripped from Bethesda. First and foremost because the studios you’d insist on making them, InXile and Obsidian (the modern equivalent of the aforementioned studios), have no desire to do so at this point and have IPs incubating that could have just as important a role in the Xbox RPG stable. Secondly, it’s important to remember how much Bethesda pushes systems forward and innovates mechanics that most developers/titles on a similar pedestal fail to do so; whether you personally like it or not, the settlements system is an incredible engineering feat, and likewise the scheduling and dynamics of AI scripting is still years ahead of most RPGs (obviously this lends to some of the bugginess as well, to be fair). Finally, and perhaps most importantly, in regards to the treatment and appreciation of the lore and ‘isms’ that made the original Fallout games great, Bethesda has learned (and implemented) a great deal of that following the release of 3; the world-building and expansion of the lore surrounding Vault-Tec, the Great War, and so many other elements are incredible in 4 and even 76. Claiming that a Bethesda game is “bad” because the main quests aren’t as enthralling is missing the forest for the trees entirely, hell even New Vegas’ main storyline was comparably bland to its side quests and faction storylines.
Hard disagree here, and as an avid Fallout aficionado, I’ll tell you why New Vegas was better than 3 succinctly:
- The game had factions which created a far more dynamic world and agency for the player than the simple Karma system of the previous game, not to mention it was far more canonically and systemically accurate to older Fallout titles (there’s a reason Bethesda adopted it going forward.
- The RPG elements were more expanded than simply us vs. them, and while there were indeed more skill checks (that’s typically what defines western RPGs btw), there were also more methods to completing tasks/quests. Also something that was adopted in 4 and 76, to an extent.
- The mechanics of perks, traits, and mods made a welcome return; instead of the simple bonus derivatives of Fallout 3, character improvement could come with a cost just as much as a benefit. The Outer Worlds borrows this mechanic in its ‘Flaws’ system, fyi.
There are many other reasons I could go into. Admittedly, I recently put another 200 hours into 3 and New Vegas (had to snag a few more achievements), and I came away liking 3 more than I did 13 years ago but I’d still put New Vegas ahead due to its greater adherence to the mythos and structural makeup of OG Fallout.
Ultimately though, I don’t think anyone who’s not steeped in the lore and the history of a franchise should have any say in whether a developer should still be allowed to make their own game… better yet, I’d prefer people avoid that reductionist, entitled thinking altogether (not just because the word of one internet random won’t cause a multi-trillion dollar company to change course).
