this post was submitted on 28 Apr 2025
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I know there’s great love for Oblivion (I never played it when it was new), and of course Skyrim is the gold standard for new fans (I played the shit out of that and it was my first entry into the elder scrolls back when it came out 14 years ago…) but I really feel like this shadow drop of a half assed remake is just priming everyone to lower their expectations for the likely dumpster fire that is The Elder Scrolls VI.

I know its old hat nonsense of a complaint but whatever Bethesda used to be it stopped being that 20 years ago and we’re all just stuck thinking they’ll put out some new masterpiece when in reality all the talent they had back in the day has likely left for other jobs and they are now just a shitty company among countless other shitty companies putting profit over anything else and stifling anyone who might actually have good ideas on how to make good games (how unsurprising).

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[–] Stovetop@lemmy.world 164 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago) (1 children)

I think Bethesda has definitely fallen off in recent years, but I am a bit confused by the point this post is getting at. We learned at launch that Oblivion is a remaster, not a remake, and it's just the original game running under the hood with a new coat of paint and some minor tweaks. And it's a pretty high-effort remaster at that.

I just think it's a bad example to use of how the company isn't getting better, when the point of the remaster was to change as little of the core game as possible. It's as good now as it was back then but it's still a 19-year-old game.

Starfield is what should be killing everyone's expectations of Elder Scrolls 6.

[–] MudMan@fedia.io 65 points 12 hours ago

The remaster was also made externally, so whatever the point being made here is, it's weird twice over.

[–] scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 96 points 13 hours ago (20 children)

Man the negativity. I'm so sick of gamers negativity. It's not even a new game, it's a remaster. you knew what the product was going to be. It's oblivion. We all knew it was oblivion. If you don't like oblivion, why did you buy it?!

I swear to God if they changed it too much I'd be commenting here on a post about how they had no respect for the original. Then we wonder why "they never listen to gamers". Because we bitch and moan about everything.

[–] overload@sopuli.xyz 8 points 6 hours ago

100% agree. Pleasing Gamers™ is a Kafka trap.

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[–] zerofk@lemm.ee 52 points 11 hours ago

When I saw the post’s title I was hoping for a good, perhaps even balanced, critique of the remake’s choices, or the underlying engine’s shortcomings, or perhaps even the original designs.

All I got was “dumpster fire”.

[–] CosmoNova@lemmy.world 38 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

There‘s no Oblivion remake. Go to the Steam Page and carefully read word for word what it is you‘re talking about.

[–] ampersandrew@lemmy.world 2 points 6 hours ago (9 children)

I play Fantasy Critic with some friends. We allow remakes in our league but not remasters. This one counts as a remake for purposes of this site, with a flag on it to note that it was contentious. This game definitely blurs some lines on some definitions.

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[–] unused_user_name@lemm.ee 35 points 13 hours ago (8 children)

It might be nostalgia speaking, but I think the real issue is that a 20 year old game can actually be this good and popular. How can it be that it is more enjoyable than anything else I’ve bought over the last year (at least)? Doesn’t that say that game companies in general have dropped the ball on game design, focusing on graphics and money over content and gameplay? As I said, it might just be me stuck in my wonderfully comforting blanket of nostalgia…

[–] MudMan@fedia.io 14 points 12 hours ago

I think it's almost definitely nostalgia speaking.

Granted, by the point Oblivion was made I was the nostalgia guy talking about how Bethesda games kept getting smaller and less ambitious. Most people saying that then did so because they were coming from Morrowind. Not me, I am a proper dinosaur and I was just pissed that after Morrowind dropped everything interesting about Daggerfall to make a console game they just kept moving further in that direction.

Was also not a fan of Fallout getting turned into Oblivion 40K instead of a proper turn-based CRPG.

Which goes to show this conversation isn't new and gaming is old enoung now that it has gone in cycles.

I mean, seriously, Daggerfall was continent-sized and was using procedural generation to make dungeons and build dialogue and quests and essentially reimagining how games could be made in ways that wouldn't resurface until what? No Man's Sky? Oblivion is bad Lord of the Rings. If anything it's the awkward middle child now, because man, the Imperial City in Oblivion feels hilariously tiny and basically deserted against modern RPGs. There are five people running loops and having canned conversations. Coming from Baldur's Gate 3 or Cyberpunk to this is... a bit of a shock.

[–] missingno@fedia.io 8 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

"Why is an old game good?" feels like an odd question. It would be silly to ask that of any other medium, wouldn't it? The most beloved classics being beloved isn't an indictment of modern stuff, especially when cherry-picking the greatest hits and ignoring how many flops existed back then too.

[–] pennomi@lemmy.world 7 points 12 hours ago

Survivorship bias, essentially.

[–] TachyonTele@lemm.ee 8 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

I can't belive people play football. That game is old as hell!

[–] psx_crab@lemmy.zip 2 points 11 hours ago

It hasn't been updated since forever, can't believe even pay to watch others play.

[–] Flickerby@lemm.ee 8 points 10 hours ago

Clair Obscur came out the same time and it's probably the best RPG I've ever played, and I've played every noteworthy one in the last 40 years at least. GOTY at the LEAST.

You're just buying the wrong games.

Go play Split Fiction, Balatro, and Hades 2.

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

How can it be that it is more enjoyable than anything else I’ve bought over the last year (at least)?

Possibly because you're buying the wrong games? Don't get me wrong, I've got a massive nostalgia-on for Oblivion, and I picked up the Remaster, and it's cool....

But there have been a lot of great games so far this year. Just this month alone, Blue Prince and Expedition 33 have both been fantastic. Both better than the Oblivion remaster imo.

The Indiana Jones game is cool. I haven't played Split Fiction yet, but it looks really good as well. Just to name a few.

Edit: More that I remembered: Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2. Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii. Wanderstop is pretty chill. Xenoblade Chronicles X was finally released on Switch (game map is like 5x the size of Skryim or something..). Atomfall. Lost Records: Bloom & Rage is pretty cool if you're into that kind of thing.

[–] Coelacanth@feddit.nu 2 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

I mean I am all for criticising creatively bankrupt mush like Ubisoft et al pushes out and Call of Duty 420: Black Ops 69 or FIFA or whatever but we can't pretend there are literally no good games being released nowadays either. Just now we had a month with both Blue Prince and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 being released within weeks of each other. BG3 and Alan Wake 2 releasing in the same year was just two years ago.

There are plenty of not just good but great recent games.

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[–] lordnikon@lemmy.world 25 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Just to clarify one thing while i agree with you on some stuff this is not a remake it's a remaster. the OG game engine is running underneath and UE5 for just the updated models and terrain. The fact they are charging so much for it is what kills me. What this should have been is a $30 game of the year edition and maybe an discount or a free upgrade of you owned the original like they did with doom and quake remasters that nightdive did.

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[–] icecreamtaco@lemmy.world 23 points 13 hours ago

Maximum dooming for a game that almost everyone likes. lmao

[–] psx_crab@lemmy.zip 20 points 12 hours ago

I have no idea what's your complaint are though, and it's not a remake, it's a remaster that is significantly better than a lot of other remaster have to offer. They could've gave us widescreen support, some lighting change, some new horse armour and call it a day, but they somehow able to snap an UE5 rendering on top of gamebryo, some modern QOL, new character models, modern lipsync, while retaining the charm that spawned an entire genre of meme.

There's a reason Witcher 1 isn't getting a remastered but a remake. Gamer these day is so jaded and just can't seems to satisfied with anything, that a witcher 1 remastered will get hated forever.

[–] Supervisor194@lemmy.world 16 points 12 hours ago

You think this is a half assed remake? To me this feels like a significant upgrade (and not just to graphics) while maintaining the core experience and I'm kinda shocked at how good it is.

[–] acosmichippo@lemmy.world 14 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

half assed remake

which is exactly why they called it a remaster. it was never their intention to remake the game.

Personally I think most of the stuff that went wrong with Starfield were design choices related to space travel and many many planets, which won't be an issue with TES of Fallout going forward. So if they stay in their lane I don't see any reason why they can't keep churning out decent titles in those series, even if they maybe don't reach the same heights.

[–] TommySoda@lemmy.world 14 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

It's a remaster of a game from 2006 with a fresh coat of paint and some QOL changes and that's basically all it ever could be. 70% of the game did not age well and they honestly did the best they could. If they did a complete remake and "modernized" the game all the old-school fans would be pissed. If they kept it as true to the original as possible besides a facelift they'd make it harder for new players to want to pick it up. I feel like a good 7/10 was the best they could shoot for under most circumstances.

And if you ask anyone where Bethesda fell off, depending on which game was their first, they will all give you a different answer. For me Morrowind and Oblivion are the best in the series and that's with over 500 hours in Skyrim. They've been dumbing their games down with each new iteration since the 90s as they try to "modernize" the newest game each time and reach new audiences. Like, good luck playing Morrowind or Daggerfall these days without losing your patience in a matter of hours. And Morrowind especially is barely playable without mods these days.

I still hated Starfield, though. Gave it the old college try and left so underwhelmed I couldn't tell you a damn thing about the story.

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[–] MellowYellow13@lemmy.world 13 points 4 hours ago (4 children)

It is literally not a remake, and how is it half assed? I have a low to mid range PC and the game runs smooth as hell, and it's gorgeous.

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[–] Makfreeman@lemmy.world 10 points 13 hours ago

I personally don't really pre order or set up prior expectations for games these days. No matter the company's prior track record a game is only judged on its own, not because how good a previous game was. Oblivion is great because it is, In my opinion, better than Skyrim. It is dated by today's standards. Heck starfield was dated as well. Even when elder scrolls vi comes out I don't have any high expectations for it.

[–] Dr_Box@lemmy.world 9 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

You're not going into depth on how it is half assed. The only thing I can complain about is some performance drops when travelling outside, but I imagine they'll patch that out at some point. If you're referring to the classic oblivion stuff like goofy npcs and most of them having the same voice actor tbh I'd be pissed if they changed that

[–] Red_October@lemmy.world 8 points 3 hours ago

You don't seem to know what a remaster is. Most importantly, it's not a remake and the two terms are not interchangeable.

[–] Omegamanthethird@lemmy.world 8 points 12 hours ago

All I wanted from the remake was character models that didn't look like cartoons and a leveling system that didn't punish suboptimal builds, and by God that's what they delivered.

People keep clamoring for a Morrowind remake, and I disagree. It's perfect the way it is. Oblivion NEEDED this.

[–] tischbier@feddit.org 5 points 12 hours ago

Morrowind was my first Elderscrolls game. I loved morrowind and I would buy an remaster of it.

Oblivion came out when I was an adult. I sunk thousands of hours into it when it came out. It was my favorite game by far at that time.

Skyrim I didn’t enjoy. It was fine, I guess. But by the time Skyrim came around I started to see Bethesda change. Fallout 4 and then Fallout 76 sealed the deal for me turning from a Bethesda fanboy to a hater.

Overall, I do not believe Bethesda will ever put out another new original game that is polished or quality. Bethesda rips off their biggest supporters and lies to their customers.

That being said. I’m very happy with this remake. Because it’s been 20 years since I first played, I genuinely only remember a few strong moments. All the minor quests and even the main story I barely remember the details of. So, it’s nice to revisit the game as a more mature adult. I think they did a fantastic job keeping the feel the same but it looks great considering.

Can’t run it on my LegionGo that’s my only complaint. I’m happy with having bought the remastered version of Oblivion because I’m sure as hell never buying a new original game from Bethesda ever again. Not unless they do an about face.

[–] Noerknhar@feddit.org 4 points 12 hours ago

It's a remaster. What's the problem?

[–] Default_Defect@midwest.social 3 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Listen, as long as ESVI ends up being highly modable and has a healthy community behind it to make the mods, it'll be good enough for me.

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[–] CaptnNMorgan@lemmy.world 2 points 4 hours ago

This is such a silly take. After Starfield, I was still excited, but had very little "faith" in the next elder scrolls. After this remaster, I'm even more excited, and I think there is a good chance ES6 will be an absolutely beautiful game that I will play for years after its release.

They weren't trying to reinvent the wheel with this remaster, they merely demonstrated its possible to have classic BGS mechanics WITH modern day graphics and animations. Starfield made it seem like they had to choose between one or the other for future games, but this shows us we can have both!

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