I'm not really talking about preferences. I'm asking more about the niche that games like Skyrim/Fallout/Starfield fill. If it is so simple to just make "Skyrim but better" or "Starfield but better" then where are all the games from other developers that are just that?
Or from another angle. Where is the Path of Exile for Skyrim?
The first 90 percent of the code accounts for the first 90 percent of the development time. The remaining 10 percent of the code accounts for the other 90 percent of the development time.
The small improvements they have made in Starfield are alright, but it feels like the bar was set with Skyrim and they can’t even really match something from 12 years ago.
Or maybe game development is just hard? Why haven't other "better" developers created a game that improves upon Skyrim?
Look at Baldur's Gate 3. It's "small improvements" to the type of game that Larian has been working on for many years at this point.
Bethesda’s seeming disdain for anything that could be considered a fun and seamless mechanic is frustrating.
Or that the technology available doesn't really make this type of setup reasonable?
Star Citizen is trying to do this and it's been how long with how much money spent?
Would Starfield be a better game if they sacrificed the quests/content/companions and just made a game that was more like Elite Dangerous or No Man's Sky?
That’s fun, that’s what I wanted, and I don’t think it’s really expecting that much.
I mean, CIG has been trying to make a game that does what you want for the last 13 years and they aren't close yet. Maybe it's not as easy as you want it to be?
I think you can explain much of the lack of lower scores by the fact that the games that would get lower scores are also likely to be ignored by just about any established reviewer.
There are thousands of games released every year that a site like IGN will never review. Would you find it valuable for IGN to scour Steam or the Switch eShop for terrible games just to use more of the score scale?
There’s literally no reason the graphics wizards at id couldn’t make a Bethesda branch of the engine that uses similar or identical workflows to Creation but also employs all the best practices for a modern open world engine.
It's hard to take your opinion seriously with this kind of statement. It has some real "It's 2023, where is my flying car?" energy.
At the end of the day, it's a lot easier to write a wishlist of game engine features than it is to actually develop said engine.
Its alright for people to dislike Dark Souls or not want every game to be a Souls-like. Not too mention that there weren't really any actual criticism of Dark Souls in the post. Makes the rest of your comment fine of as defensive more than anything.
Only in the context of the specific set-pieces provided within the game though. You have no way to work outside of the very specific rails that BG3 provides for interacting within the game.
If Skyrim is a mile-wide but an inch deep, then BG3 is an inch wide but a mile deep.