Game Discussions PS5 players won't get future Bethesda games

[Ozric]

I find that no different than Sony exclusives...

I do disagree with this. I've been discussing it elsewhere for a while, it was quite obvious from when Microsoft brought Zenimax that this was one of their big goals.

I don't mind a platform having a couple of defining exclusives, like Mario and Zelda with Nintendo, but I am not a fan of the more 3rd party style exclusives. Sony do certainly have their own exclusives but there is a big difference in this case.

Microsoft have gone and purchased a well established game studio, with at least 3 very popular and established franchises. So they are not so much paying someone to make a game for them, as opposed to taking franchises away from competitors. Microsoft have always done things like this in the past with various companies, not sure how many times they've had a chat with the monopolies commission But that doesn't make it right.


And just on the HZD, before the updates broke all the textures for me and I stopped playing. I was really enjoying it, great story, well thought out gameplay, and it is a gorgeous game.

Spoiler

Horizon Zero Dawn by Ozric, on Flickr

 

[Jezzah]

Im what regard exactly? Repeatitive action? Solutions only won by a fight?
You can sneak, climb, swim, circumvent, steal or only maim, trap and plunder or kill and scavenge.
You help a painter gather colours.
You help a musican reinstalling the perfect acoustic environment.
You help a scavenger find the one item he always longed for. (Why he lost it in an ancient water barricade, I do not know.)
You help a nature reserve ranger to reclaim his lost animal toys.
You do not help a warlord continuing sacrifice games against robot dinosaurs. (But I think this was maybe a main quest)

One mission you go into a valley where all robots (which normally attack on sight) are peaceful and docile among the humans.
I

Spoiler: Mission runs as follows

nvestigating the cause of this you find something like a peace ray. And two dolts in train of breaking it for money.
They succeed.
Lets just say the way out of the valley is not as peaceful.

You follow the trail of a missing husband, having gotten lost with a waggon load of brandy. Yeah, this could have only one obvious resolution as to the reason.

Spoiler: Mission description

But it's fun to rescue the barrels dropped from a waggon with a broken axle among a herd of robot bisons about 50 times your size, while the injured husband hides between some rocks he fears to get out from.

You try to reach a certain "hunter" rank in the city, by figthing monsters. You are not promoted.

Spoiler: Background

Your tribal outcast status (and being a woman) puts you against the master of the guild, who has stolen fame from the former master too according to your friend in the guild (you are not friends with at first).
You nevertheless get out (with your friend) to help her to slay the one monster everyone is in awe of.

You are waylaid.

Spoiler

When you find the moster, it is already in a fight. Against said guild master.
He does not get promoted. Ever again.
If you play this right, you get our friend on his post. If you both

survive

Spoiler

the monster

.

Easy on the detail however minor please much appreciate the response though thanks a lot.

I'd read about the side quest whine on eurogamer or Rock Paper Shotgun I think, they didnt go into detail other than to say the side quests lacked variety and depth.

I did play 3 hours tonight, love it already amazing looking and runs flawlessly for me. It's a definite thumbs up from me, I'm not rushing the main story just enjoying meeting the people and things in the starting area. Combat is fun also.

I suppose we have a thread on this somewhere round here I cant keep hijacking this thread, sorry all.

 

[tolm]

I do disagree with this. I've been discussing it elsewhere for a while, it was quite obvious from when Microsoft brought Zenimax that this was one of their big goals.

I don't mind a platform having a couple of defining exclusives, like Mario and Zelda with Nintendo, but I am not a fan of the more 3rd party style exclusives. Sony do certainly have their own exclusives but there is a big difference in this case.

Microsoft have gone and purchased a well established game studio, with at least 3 very popular and established franchises. So they are not so much paying someone to make a game for them, as opposed to taking franchises away from competitors. Microsoft have always done things like this in the past with various companies, not sure how many times they've had a chat with the monopolies commission But that doesn't make it right.

[/SPOILER]

Could not agree more! SEGA, Nintendo and PlayStation exclusives being “must have” titles was something that was “earned” ... introducing new games developed or published by the console developers themselves (Sonic, Mario, Wipeout, Gran Turismo) whereas Microsoft are just doing what they always do: buying someone else’s idea so that no one else can have it. It’s anti-competitive and, well, mean spirited.

But I’m more upset with Bethesda for selling out their PlayStation fans ... apparently the millions of copies of TES and Fallout games bought by PlayStation owners over the years mean nothing to them. But after the car-crash that was F76, maybe I shouldn’t be surprised by the ineptitude.

 

[Mole HD]

Wow that's a big difference there, normally turning up difficulty in games doesn't have quite so stark a comparison.

I'm assuming it's a better experience on the hardest difficulty then?

One thing I did read recently was the quality and diversity of side tasks was quite low? Any comment on that?

I didn't find the side missions too monotonous or anything and there's certainly enough of them. All of them are voice acted, all of them offer dialogue choices, some of them are even tied into the main quest in some way or other....better than average I'd say over all

Edit: Forgot to mention the game difficulty. It was a thing that surprised me most of all in the way it changed my approach when playing it. Changing the difficulty just doesn't make the enemies more aware, it also adds the physical effect of them being armoured which you don't notice on the easy levels. Armour... as in you really need to knock that off using the special 'tear' arrows before you start dealing significant damage to the enemy. They also detect you at greater ranges, actively look for you for longer and are far more ferocious when attacking...the watchers will call for help a lot quicker too if you damage rather than kill them with the first one or two arrows. Aiming for the specific weak points in each robotic animal type becomes a necessity too.

Playing on the harder difficulties also rewards you with different face paints and Focus styles once you've completed the game...only really useful for further playthroughs of course and it's purely cosmetic.

 

[Mole HD]

I do disagree with this. I've been discussing it elsewhere for a while, it was quite obvious from when Microsoft brought Zenimax that this was one of their big goals.

I don't mind a platform having a couple of defining exclusives, like Mario and Zelda with Nintendo, but I am not a fan of the more 3rd party style exclusives. Sony do certainly have their own exclusives but there is a big difference in this case.

Microsoft have gone and purchased a well established game studio, with at least 3 very popular and established franchises. So they are not so much paying someone to make a game for them, as opposed to taking franchises away from competitors. Microsoft have always done things like this in the past with various companies, not sure how many times they've had a chat with the monopolies commission But that doesn't make it right.


And just on the HZD, before the updates broke all the textures for me and I stopped playing. I was really enjoying it, great story, well thought out gameplay, and it is a gorgeous game.

Spoiler

Horizon Zero Dawn by Ozric, on Flickr

I wasn't particularly aiming blame or comparing like for like between Sony and Microsoft with regard to monopolising game titles...the point of the post was that I didn't like the practise from any of them...gaming should be universal, not hardware platform exclusive...it's a practise I find distasteful...no matter who's doing it

Cracking screenshots too...

 

[Jezzah]

It is distasteful for sure, but sadly inevitable I think. This will only get worse rather than better in that regard.

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

Could not agree more! SEGA, Nintendo and PlayStation exclusives being “must have” titles was something that was “earned” ... introducing new games developed or published by the console developers themselves (Sonic, Mario, Wipeout, Gran Turismo) whereas Microsoft are just doing what they always do: buying someone else’s idea so that no one else can have it. It’s anti-competitive and, well, mean spirited.

But I’m more upset with Bethesda for selling out their PlayStation fans ... apparently the millions of copies of TES and Fallout games bought by PlayStation owners over the years mean nothing to them. But after the car-crash that was F76, maybe I shouldn’t be surprised by the ineptitude.

The industry is full with takeover stories. I don't see what is so different. EA gobbles up studios all the time to lay them on the graveyard after a while. Whether you pay a studio to develop exclusively for you or outright take it over.

 

[Ozric]

But I’m more upset with Bethesda for selling out their PlayStation fans ... apparently the millions of copies of TES and Fallout games bought by PlayStation owners over the years mean nothing to them. But after the car-crash that was F76, maybe I shouldn’t be surprised by the ineptitude.

It's not really anything to do with Bethesda anymore to be honest. Bethesda Softworks just keep their heads down and make games. They've been owned by Zenimax for over 20 years now, who themselves grabbed a load of companies over the years, and they're the ones Microsoft brought.

Bethesda have the two big headline titles because that's all people think about, but Zenimax have iD too, so that means future Doom games are likely to be restricted also. They also have Dishonoured and Wolfenstein among others. There is a chance that Microsoft will allow the "lower profile" franchises to be cross platform still, we'll just have to see how greedy they get.

The industry is full with takeover stories. I don't see what is so different. EA gobbles up studios all the time to lay them on the graveyard after a while. Whether you pay a studio to develop exclusively for you or outright take it over.

I think the difference is that companies the size of EA haven't previously been brought out and had their franchises made exclusive. Imagine if Sony brought EA and stopped any future Fifa/NBA/Madden games from being on Xbox (obviously this won't actually happen).

 

[avow555]

When I heard about MS taking over i hadn't considered a PS5 lockout, just glad I never picked one up now.

You do have to wonder if the quality will be maintained.

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

It's not really anything to do with Bethesda anymore to be honest. Bethesda Softworks just keep their heads down and make games. They've been owned by Zenimax for over 20 years now, who themselves grabbed a load of companies over the years, and they're the ones Microsoft brought.

Bethesda have the two big headline titles because that's all people think about, but Zenimax have iD too, so that means future Doom games are likely to be restricted also. They also have Dishonoured and Wolfenstein among others. There is a chance that Microsoft will allow the "lower profile" franchises to be cross platform still, we'll just have to see how greedy they get.


I think the difference is that companies the size of EA haven't previously been brought out and had their franchises made exclusive. Imagine if Sony brought EA and stopped any future Fifa/NBA/Madden games from being on Xbox (obviously this won't actually happen).

Halo? Was PC once then it went console exclusive. I'm sure it's not the only example where a platform gobbles a franchise for themselves exclusively.

 

[Ozric]

Halo? Was PC once then it went console exclusive. I'm sure it's not the only example where a platform gobbles a franchise for themselves exclusively.

No Halo was released on console first, then PC after an exclusivity time. I seem to remember that Microsoft brought the company to make it a launch title for the Xbox. But I've never owned an Xbox, or played Halo, so don't quote me on that

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

No Halo was released on console first, then PC after an exclusivity time. I seem to remember that Microsoft brought the company to make it a launch title for the Xbox. But I've never owned an Xbox, or played Halo, so don't quote me on that

Well, it disappeared entirely after initially selling it's first game(s) on PC to be exclusively console. Only recently they're trying to sell reheated Halo stuff from last decade again to PC I hear.

 

[Mole HD]

No Halo was released on console first, then PC after an exclusivity time. I seem to remember that Microsoft brought the company to make it a launch title for the Xbox. But I've never owned an Xbox, or played Halo, so don't quote me on that

Bungie were an independent studio when they started off with Halo...the original game was being developed on PC...I know because I was involved in the public multiplayer beta testing of it at the time. Bungie cancelled the beta after only 2 months saying there were interesting developments ahead for them as a company...then Halo appeared as the original Xbox release title a few months later...minus the multiplayer which didn't appear until Halo 2. The original Xbox had no ethernet card.

 

[Ozric]

Bungie were an independent studio when they started off with Halo...the original game was being developed on PC...I know because I was involved in the public beta testing of it at the time. Bungie cancelled the beta after only 2 months saying there were interesting developments ahead for them as a company...then Halo appeared as the original Xbox release title a few months later.

The joy of Micro$oft

 

[Mole HD]

The joy of Micro$oft

They do good stuff too...they developed and produced the TVWS tech that currently gives me internet access...without it, there would be no internet up here

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

They do good stuff too...they developed and produced the TVWS tech that currently gives me internet access...without it, there would be no internet up here

They published Rise of Nations back then. One of the best RTS strategy games. AoE-like. The best is Supreme Commander (1) - still played competetively today I think and published by THQ.

 

[tolm]

They do good stuff too...they developed and produced the TVWS tech that currently gives me internet access...without it, there would be no internet up here

I don’t believe that technology is a Microsoft “product” as such ... much like Disney they seem to like putting their name to things that already exist ...

 

[Mole HD]

I don’t believe that technology is a Microsoft “product” as such ... much like Disney they seem to like putting their name to things that already exist ...

Nope, the tech was developed by Microsoft, manufactured, marketed and distributed by others.

 

[Deleted member 110222]

I have to admit, the whole "Microsoft bad" rhetoric is rather boring, considering they actually continue to be one of the more open tech brands out there.

Could it just be the cool thing to do, to hate?

 

[Jezzah]

It does sound a little like that sometimes.