He did say Skyrim’s story was “mediocre,” and honestly I think that’s being generous as far as the main quest goes.
It kind of sucks for Skyrim because the story is also extremely setpiece oriented, but setpieces need to either be very mechanically good (so nearly none in Skyrim) or tie into something that makes them feel good (so nearly none in Skyrim) and otherwise it feels like being locked into an amusement park ride.
I’m on this level with Bethesda games too. Who else is out here trying to make a game where every single broom is interactable? There’s a magic to that kind of simulationist game design which is the reason why people still mod and play the crap out of Skyrim and FO4, even though I also agree that Bethesda have gotten worse at doing it every single time.
The alternatives, games like The Outer Worlds and Avowed, flop for me because instead of leaning into what’s unique about the game style they spend all of their effort trying to fix the things that are “broken” with it, which just results in a kind of mid open world experience.
Well, if they brought back Kirkbride as lead writer with full creative freedom… It will be the most bizarre drug induced fever dream imaginable, but it will be interesting and original.
Let Kirkbride off his leash Todd, c’mon, it’d be funny
Tbf there are way bigger issues than the overarching direction of the writing. Even if they made Kirkbride the director and said everyone else in every department has to accommodate his whims to the best of their ability, the project would still be dragged down by the overwhelming incompetence of everyone else. Kurt Kuhlmann as the lead designer (which was promised to him years ago btw) might have been able to salvage something, but when they broke that promise and lost him entirely I think that was the final nail in the coffin. Absolute hacks like Emil Pagliarulo are gonna have such an outsized role in the game, it’s gonna be a complete dumpster fire
I did not know he took a right-wing turn. I was mostly aware about him becoming extremely obsessed with Warhammer besides showing up and weighing in on any forums about Elder Scrolls lore.
Sorry, I was making an obtuse joke about Erika Kirk because my brain is cooked. I don’t know anything about Kirkbride besides a little bit of his writing for those series.
Kirkbride has always been pretty quiet about real-world political stuff, and tbh I do get the vibe that he could have some real wacky and problematic views, but his wife Lady N is also active in the TES lore communities and she’s really cool so I’d be really surprised if he ever actually went further right than milquetoast progressive liberalism
I mean his most famous creation is an intersex genderfluid sex-worker god who is problematic yet strangely likeable, he can’t be a complete chud
Yeah, I should be more confident that the guy that made Vivec a central character that married the male protagonist stand-in in CODA wouldn’t be a CHUD, but I have seen some weird pivots. Especially amongst the more bizarre and weird personalities.
I have my doubts Bethesda could write a good story if it came fully formed outta their doo doo ass. What, are they gonna make me find my father again?
I have my doubts Bethesda could even write a mediocre story like in Skyrim or fallout 3\4 now lol
If they stop letting that talentless hack Emil Pagliarulo write it they have a chance
Hes just a symptom of the lack of quality in Bethesda, its not like he single handed wrote all of fallout 4 and starfield
He wrote the main quest lines for both so actually he kinda did
Trueeee
Maybe heresy but I dont really care that much about the story and its not like Skyrim was some amazing feat. Coming from someone who liked Skyrim
Similar with Fallout 4 really. I think both of those games are on a level that is totally doable.
He did say Skyrim’s story was “mediocre,” and honestly I think that’s being generous as far as the main quest goes.
It kind of sucks for Skyrim because the story is also extremely setpiece oriented, but setpieces need to either be very mechanically good (so nearly none in Skyrim) or tie into something that makes them feel good (so nearly none in Skyrim) and otherwise it feels like being locked into an amusement park ride.
I’m on this level with Bethesda games too. Who else is out here trying to make a game where every single broom is interactable? There’s a magic to that kind of simulationist game design which is the reason why people still mod and play the crap out of Skyrim and FO4, even though I also agree that Bethesda have gotten worse at doing it every single time.
The alternatives, games like The Outer Worlds and Avowed, flop for me because instead of leaning into what’s unique about the game style they spend all of their effort trying to fix the things that are “broken” with it, which just results in a kind of mid open world experience.
outer worlds would be way better if it was more ideological than tim cain is in real life
Well, if they brought back Kirkbride as lead writer with full creative freedom… It will be the most bizarre drug induced fever dream imaginable, but it will be interesting and original.
Let Kirkbride off his leash Todd, c’mon, it’d be funny
Tbf there are way bigger issues than the overarching direction of the writing. Even if they made Kirkbride the director and said everyone else in every department has to accommodate his whims to the best of their ability, the project would still be dragged down by the overwhelming incompetence of everyone else. Kurt Kuhlmann as the lead designer (which was promised to him years ago btw) might have been able to salvage something, but when they broke that promise and lost him entirely I think that was the final nail in the coffin. Absolute hacks like Emil Pagliarulo are gonna have such an outsized role in the game, it’s gonna be a complete dumpster fire
I do not understand how Emil still works there. Everyone can see how dogshit he is.
I think Kirkbride is busy with TPUSA now
I did not know he took a right-wing turn. I was mostly aware about him becoming extremely obsessed with Warhammer besides showing up and weighing in on any forums about Elder Scrolls lore.
Sorry, I was making an obtuse joke about Erika Kirk because my brain is cooked. I don’t know anything about Kirkbride besides a little bit of his writing for those series.
That was actually a really good joke I was too dumb to get, so well done imo.
Ahh, okay
He’s not, he’s a standard “San Francisco wacky hippie left-libertarian”, so generally ok with an occasional hyper-edgy take.
Kirkbride has always been pretty quiet about real-world political stuff, and tbh I do get the vibe that he could have some real wacky and problematic views, but his wife Lady N is also active in the TES lore communities and she’s really cool so I’d be really surprised if he ever actually went further right than milquetoast progressive liberalism
I mean his most famous creation is an intersex genderfluid sex-worker god who is problematic yet strangely likeable, he can’t be a complete chud
Yeah, I should be more confident that the guy that made Vivec a central character that married the male protagonist stand-in in CODA wouldn’t be a CHUD, but I have seen some weird pivots. Especially amongst the more bizarre and weird personalities.
True. Bring back kirkbride and give him all the dmt and lsd he needs to get the job done
The Elder Fallout 17: What da Dad doin?