Video Games: You Game Like a Young Man, With Nothing Held Back. Admirable, But Mistaken.

[Revan Baratheon]

So will there be a sixth TES or have they shelved it cause of the MMO?

[Tony Soprano]

So will there be a sixth TES or have they shelved it cause of the MMO?

Of course there's going to be a new Elder Scrolls game, and I don't mean the MMO ( which, in my opinion, is doomed to fail worse than The Old Republic ). You just don't toss aside a game like TES for an MMO.

But, I don't think there's gonna be a new installment until 2015 at the earliest. There was a 4 year development period between Morrowind and Oblivion, and 5 years between Oblivion and Skyrim.

[Revan Baratheon]

Of course there's going to be a new Elder Scrolls game, and I don't mean the MMO ( which, in my opinion, is doomed to fail worse than The Old Republic ). You just don't toss aside a game like TES for an MMO.

But, I don't think there's gonna be a new

installment until 2015 at the earliest. There was a 4 year development period between Morrowind and Oblivion, and 5 years between Oblivion and Skyrim.

The MMO covers the whole of tamriel.. How will TES 6 beat that? Especially since the graphics of the MMO judging from the gameplay trailer look pretty much skyrim quality.

[Derfel Cadarn]

Its an mmo thats going to rob heavily from the 8year old WoW. It will likely be soulless and generic with a few gimmics.

[TheEvilKing]

The MMO covers the whole of tamriel.. How will TES 6 beat that? Especially since the graphics of the MMO judging from the gameplay trailer look pretty much skyrim quality.

I don't think it needs to "beat" it. :dunno: But it will more than likely be a next gen game, so you'd hope it'd have better graphics at least than Skyrim.

[Inigima]

So, uh, The Secret World is dropping its subscription fee, Guild Wars style. Kind of.

Still not clear on what this means for the monthly issues.

edit: more in-depth RPS interview http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/12/12/interview-the-secret-world-drops-subscription/

[Tony Soprano]

The MMO covers the whole of tamriel.. How will TES 6 beat that? Especially since the graphics of the MMO judging from the gameplay trailer look pretty much skyrim quality.

It's not all about the graphics. And it's not about the scale of the map. The Old Republic covered a lot of ground, but it sill felt...empty and dead compared to the rich and vibrant world of The Knights of the Old Republic.

I hadn't seen the Gameplay Trailer till now, and to be honest, it does look and plays pretty well. But, I'm still a skeptic about it. The Old Republic was supposed to be awesome. It fell flat on its face.

[Werthead]

So will there be a sixth TES or have they shelved it cause of the MMO?

Yes, but Bethesda are making Fallout 4 first (with the Skyrim engine by the sound of it). I suspect we will see FO4 in 2014, with TES VI to follow in 2016 or thereabouts.

[Fez]

The whole "import your character and choices to shape the narrative of the subsequent games" was totally a big selling point for the ME series, and this proving such a popular idea with fans is probably responsible for them implementing it in Dragon Age as well as CDProject making a half-assed attempt at it in The Witcher 2.

See before ME3 I don't remember that being too prevalent. For ME2, all I remember was all the "Assemble Your Team!!!" ads, and they definitely seemed to be focused on the characters as the driving element. And for ME1, did anyone even know that there would definitely be a sequel when it came out; much less that character importing would be a thing? But then, yes, ME3 did make a big point about how previous choices mattered (although most of them just changed a few lines of dialog here and there; the only really, really big ones would be if Garrus or Tali had died in the SM in ME2).

They were glossed over, yes. And that's because they sold the game on big choices and ended both games on big choices and then went "Fuck, what are we gonna do now?". The point is, they obviously sold the game on those big choices and designed the games to have them, even if it forced alot of stupid moves on them when they had to walk it back.

The series was very obviously designed right from the start to be about big choices that impacted your story. Hence killing one squad mate, no way around it, in ME1 and importing characters from game to game. They could have made the game you describe, but they obviously had no interest in doing so.

But my point is, they did. There are plenty of choices in ME1 and ME2, but that didn't preclude ME3 from existing. And you don't have any choice in the very big plot points of ME1 or ME2, the ones comparable to the three from ME3 that I've mentioned. You have to blow up Saren's base at Virmire (so no early Krogan cure), you have to destroy Sovereign, you have to work for Cerberus, and you have to defeat the Collectors. There are no choices there and those are the only setting-altering points from ME1 or ME2 (the things that couldn't have just been glossed over). ME3 could've easily been the same way; lots of choices and variables that affect the narrative in various ways, but none that completely alter the basic foundations of the galaxy. There even could've been lots of different endings that separate enough to preclude an immediate sequel, but so long as there is a set form that the galaxy as a whole is in, its easy enough to set a sequel several hundred years down the road.

And that sequel is coming. And people who made setting-altering choices different from what is by necessity chosen as canon are going to be extremely disappointed. Bioware could've easily ensured that didn't happen and still made an amazing ME3. While people may go back and pick different options in ensuring playthroughs, most people consider their first playthrough to be their own personal canon one; and most people (at least judging by those on the offical forums) attempt the exact same outcomes at those big moments (who could betray Mordin first time through?). If the outcome is going to be the same anyway, what's it matter if there was a choice there are not?

[kungtotte]

It was definitely known before the release of ME1 that it would be more than one game, and that your choices would carry over. I know because I knew before I bought the game, and thought it was a really interesting move by Bioware.

[Fez]

It was definitely known before the release of ME1 that it would be more than one game, and that your choices would carry over. I know because I knew before I bought the game, and thought it was a really interesting move by Bioware.

Fair enough. But I don't think it changes my point. The choices in ME1 and ME2, while numerous, were never setting-altering and people, including me, seemed perfectly happy with them (except the being forced to work for Cerberus thing, I know that rankled some).

[Jon AS]

Approaching 24 hours left in the THQ Humble Bundle, and in the last couple of days they've added Titan Quest and Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War, for a total of 9 games (including 3 different Company of Heroes games) if you give more than the average price. Warhammer and the CoH games are what got me to go in on it, but Darksiders seems interesting enough and Metro 2033 looks amazing.

Man, I've got to remember Steam's habit of barring you from certain games (or certain versions of games) by country of residence. As it is, I only got the uncut version of Saints Row by accident (choosing to pay through amazon.com) and then still had to circumvent Steam's fascist checks just to register the key...

[haLobEnder]

Its an mmo thats going to rob heavily from the 8year old WoW. It will likely be soulless and generic with a few gimmics.

So in other words, it will feel like an Elder Scrolls game.

Regarding Mass Effect sequels:

I think there's only one ending to ME3 that needs to be scrapped and that's the synthesis one. You could have the other two endings essentially tell the same story by suggesting that the Reapers mysteriously disappeared if players chose the 'control' option. It worked in Kotor and Kotor 2.

I doubt we'd play as Liara/Shepards love child. Not only does that take away player agency from the trilogy in a way that canonizing an ending would not, but it doesn't offer us the ability to customize our character which has been a staple of every Bioware RPG except Jade Empire.

Man, I've got to remember Steam's habit of barring you from certain games (or certain versions of games) by country of residence. As it is, I only got the uncut version of Saints Row by accident (choosing to pay through amazon.com) and then still had to circumvent Steam's fascist checks just to register the key...

I don't think that's Steam buddy, blame your government.

[Clueless Northman]

I don't think that's Steam buddy, blame your government.

They're, of course, the primary culprit. But it's still Steam's fault for bowing to the demands of some lunatics in some foreign governments.

When China does this with Google, China's govt is supposed to be a bunch of (totalitarian) control freaks and Google a bunch of sellouts. Same should apply in the other cases (barring the totalitarian label in a few cases, I suppose).

[Jon AS]

I don't think that's Steam buddy, blame your government.

The government is to blame for not allowing me to purchase the game through Steam, but once I've acquired the game from another source like, say, humblebundle.com, I really shouldn't be barred from redeeming the purchased code since I already paid for it.

But yes, ideally we'd just replace those idiots responsible for the preposterous censorship. I mean, if even the censored version of a game is rated 18+ it should logically be outside of the sphere of influence of people charged with "protecting" minors.

EDIT: It's not like it's illegal to sell the uncut versions in Germany, it's just illegal to make them available to minors.

[haLobEnder]

They're, of course, the primary culprit. But it's still Steam's fault for bowing to the demands of some lunatics in some foreign governments.

When China does this with Google, China's govt is supposed to be a bunch of (totalitarian) control freaks and Google a bunch of sellouts. Same should apply in the other cases (barring the totalitarian label in a few cases, I suppose).

The Chinese government and the German government aren't exactly the same beast. I also don't think Steam is going to jeopardize their ability to do business in countries with stricter censorship laws on violence just because fans of those games want them to. If the fans really feel that way, they should organize politically.

[Jon AS]

Looking into it further, it seems that officially there is no uncut version of Saints Row - The Third available for the German market. Which means that the company went to the trouble of self-censorship just to appease our fucked up youth protectors, people who generally do not play these games themselves but have playtesters report to them and base their decisions on that.

Talk about wasting money. I mean, forget the internet, we are part of the EU, which means I could drive to another country (takes less than an hour in my case) where these standards don't apply and legally purchase an uncensored version there.

To bore every non-German a bit more with my views on this:

One of the most bizarre aspects of this, apart from ignoring the logistics of the modern age, is that standards change over time. You'd think that something that was "bad" for kids 30 years ago would still be harmful today, but that is not so. In 1984

was deemed unsuitable for children. But luckily these decisions can be appealed after 25

years, so these days it's freely available.

And judging by what was banned in the 1950s, if those same fools had been in charge in the 80s we would have just celebrated the fact that Watchmen could now be sold over the counter at our local bookstores.

[/rant]

[balefired-ed]

Continuing my classic game kick, the Christmas gift I bought for my buddy just came in: Mike Tyson's Punch-Out.

[haLobEnder]

Looking into it further, it seems that officially there is no uncut version of Saints Row - The Third available for the German market. Which means that the company went to the trouble of self-censorship just to appease our fucked up youth protectors, people who generally do not play these games themselves but have playtesters report to them and base their decisions on that.

Talk about wasting money. I mean, forget the internet, we are part of the EU, which means I could drive to another country (takes less than an hour in my case) where these standards don't apply and legally purchase an uncensored version there.

To bore every non-German a bit more with my views on this:

One of the most bizarre aspects of this, apart from ignoring the logistics of the modern age, is that standards change over time. You'd think that something that was "bad" for kids 30 years ago would still be harmful today, but that is not so. In 1984

was deemed unsuitable for children. But luckily these decisions can be appealed after 25

years, so these days it's freely available.

And judging by what was banned in the 1950s, if those same fools had been in charge in the 80s we would have just celebrated the fact that Watchmen could now be sold over the counter at our local bookstores.

[/rant]

It could be worse... you could live in Australia.

As far as I know, video game ratings have never really been brought up as an issue here in Canada, even with all the Supreme court hubbub in the US a couple years back. Like many other things, we just piggy-back off the US's rating system. Though we do have this ridiculous rule that the labels/descriptions of all consumer goods must be in both French and English, which makes absolutely no sense when you consider video games tend not to contain multiple languages on the disk itself.

[Jon AS]

Though we do have this ridiculous rule that the labels/descriptions of all consumer goods must be in both French and English, which makes absolutely no sense when you consider video games tend not to contain multiple languages on the disk itself.

Really? In Europe there's usually three or four languages available to choose from, depending on where you buy the game. Which makes the fact that some of the censored German versions are available only in German really frustrating. I still haven't played Fallout - New Vegas because of this (since I'm generally too stubborn to shell out money for the same game twice, even if it cost only 5€) because of course you can expect the translation to be lazy and the voice acting to be poor, in most cases.