Seems like Bethesda and Ubisoft have kinda the same problem.
Once upon a time they innovated and released games that set a new level for the industry. Then they kinda boiled that down to a formula and just focused on making it bigger, missing the point of what made the games popular and what people liked them for.
They also managed to lose the fine details and parts that people liked in their quest to just make the games as big as possible.
People didn’t like Skyrim and the early AC games because they were perfect, they liked them because they were the best we had at the time and there was also a lot of care put into them.
FromSoft could’ve fallen down that rabbit hole as well, but they keep changing things up in their soulslike games.
Dark Souls, Bloodborne, Sekiro, Elden Ring, each of those games are “soulslike” but also have fundamental changes that make them a unique experience.
Once upon a time they innovated and released games that set a new level for the industry.
For real: Prince of Persia, Beyond Good & Evil, Far Cry, Rayman, XIII, the Tom Clancy games, Assassin’s Creed (before it became a yearly by the numbers franchise)… There was a time when they were putting out some “riskier” titles that never seemed to just follow trends.
Splinter Cell was absolutely mind-blowing when it first came out. I HAD TO have that game.
Particularly I loved watching the making-of videos because they put so much love into their craft! There was a cheesy “interview with Sam Fisher” (voiced by legendary Michael Ironside) where they described their decision to cast an older, more experienced character for believability rather than some young cool kid. Or using keyframed animation for everything because it allowed more artistic freedom than just mocapping it all.
Assassin’s Creed’s devs talked about how they designed the controls to feel intuitive, where they tried to map the face buttons implicitly to parts of the body.
People CARED about this stuff!!
I used to think Ubisoft was a mark of quality and one of my favorite games companies. But now…people would call me INSANE if I still held that opinion! How far they’ve fallen.
(I’m glad people seem to enjoy Rainbow Six Siege but I’m forever mad that it means we’ll likely never see another real R6 title again, and that its Fortnite-esque nature has all but pushed out collective knowledge of the previous titles.)
FromSoft could’ve fallen down that rabbit hole as well, but they keep changing things up in their soulslike games.
And then on top of that they were like “Hey you guys still like Armored Core, right?” and continued blowing everyone’s minds. :p
Soulslikes might not always be my cup of tea but I’ve got a lot of respect for Fromsoft.
Ngl, I didn’t even like Skyrim, I feel exactly the way you described but, playing from III and IV, was disappointed by V and saw it as the end. It already seemed like the care and the good quests were gone in favor of “make big and pretty,” but tbh Cyrodiil is so much prettier with The Gold Coast and Bravil’s swamps even with the “worse” graphics (Skyrim’s graphics really weren’t even that big of an improvement to justify shitting up the game imo.) They all but nuked the brotherhood and thieves guild, never forgive.
Before they even started rerealeasing it I was already thinking “maybe I won’t get VI,” and now 15yr and 500 rereleases later I’ll probably stick with that.
AC OTOH I only played 1 and 2, then my 360 RROD and by the time I got an Xbox one I just never got back into it, but Skyrim I gave a really fair shot, coming off Oblivion I wanted to love it.
Seems like Bethesda and Ubisoft have kinda the same problem.
Once upon a time they innovated and released games that set a new level for the industry. Then they kinda boiled that down to a formula and just focused on making it bigger, missing the point of what made the games popular and what people liked them for.
They also managed to lose the fine details and parts that people liked in their quest to just make the games as big as possible.
People didn’t like Skyrim and the early AC games because they were perfect, they liked them because they were the best we had at the time and there was also a lot of care put into them.
FromSoft could’ve fallen down that rabbit hole as well, but they keep changing things up in their soulslike games.
Dark Souls, Bloodborne, Sekiro, Elden Ring, each of those games are “soulslike” but also have fundamental changes that make them a unique experience.
For real: Prince of Persia, Beyond Good & Evil, Far Cry, Rayman, XIII, the Tom Clancy games, Assassin’s Creed (before it became a yearly by the numbers franchise)… There was a time when they were putting out some “riskier” titles that never seemed to just follow trends.
Splinter Cell was absolutely mind-blowing when it first came out. I HAD TO have that game.
Particularly I loved watching the making-of videos because they put so much love into their craft! There was a cheesy “interview with Sam Fisher” (voiced by legendary Michael Ironside) where they described their decision to cast an older, more experienced character for believability rather than some young cool kid. Or using keyframed animation for everything because it allowed more artistic freedom than just mocapping it all.
Assassin’s Creed’s devs talked about how they designed the controls to feel intuitive, where they tried to map the face buttons implicitly to parts of the body.
People CARED about this stuff!!
I used to think Ubisoft was a mark of quality and one of my favorite games companies. But now…people would call me INSANE if I still held that opinion! How far they’ve fallen.
(I’m glad people seem to enjoy Rainbow Six Siege but I’m forever mad that it means we’ll likely never see another real R6 title again, and that its Fortnite-esque nature has all but pushed out collective knowledge of the previous titles.)
And then on top of that they were like “Hey you guys still like Armored Core, right?” and continued blowing everyone’s minds. :p Soulslikes might not always be my cup of tea but I’ve got a lot of respect for Fromsoft.
Ngl, I didn’t even like Skyrim, I feel exactly the way you described but, playing from III and IV, was disappointed by V and saw it as the end. It already seemed like the care and the good quests were gone in favor of “make big and pretty,” but tbh Cyrodiil is so much prettier with The Gold Coast and Bravil’s swamps even with the “worse” graphics (Skyrim’s graphics really weren’t even that big of an improvement to justify shitting up the game imo.) They all but nuked the brotherhood and thieves guild, never forgive.
Before they even started rerealeasing it I was already thinking “maybe I won’t get VI,” and now 15yr and 500 rereleases later I’ll probably stick with that.
AC OTOH I only played 1 and 2, then my 360 RROD and by the time I got an Xbox one I just never got back into it, but Skyrim I gave a really fair shot, coming off Oblivion I wanted to love it.