The Elder Scrolls Celebrates 30th Anniversary, Gives a Small Update on TES 6

I stand by that Bethesda is a garbage developer so Xbox can keep this.

Skyrim bored me senseless. Seemed like a real step-down from Oblivion, and that's before we mention the catastrophic PS3 launch.

Still enjoying ESO but I'd love a return to an Oblivion-esque single-player adventure.

I really enjoyed oblivion and Skyrim, but after playing the witcher 3, I tried playing the PS5 edition of Skyrim and couldn't get into it. Hopefully they evolve the next game because if not it's going to feel outdated.

After Starfield, I don't know if I even trust Bethesda to make a good follow-up to Skyrim at this point.

Skyrim is one of my all time favourites. That said Starfield ruined a lot of my Bethesda related goodwill and I am no longer certain ES6 will be the blockbuster time sink Skyrim was. When we are looking at 15-20 years for a sequel it is going to have to do something different and special but I have a sneaking suspicion it’s just going to be Skyrim with better graphics and the same problems….problems that could be overlooked in 2011 but become much more noticeable when compared with other spectacular RPGs that have released in the interim like Elden Ring, Witcher 3, Zeldas and BG3.

This game was announced 6 years ago. I don't know what they were thinking

I agree with a lot of people on here, played Starfield and after they supposedly put everything they had into that… I think they’re a dated developer.

If that was supposed to be the next step forward I think the industry has passed them by and we’re talking about a relic game when it launches. They would need an entirely new engine just to start improving.

I've never been able to get into any Bethesda game, be it Fallout or Elder Scrolls (and have ZERO interest in Starfield). It seems like every rpg from The Witcher to Final Fantasy to Zelda to even Yakuza/Like a Dragon of all games has left Bethesda games in the dust. I doubt, at this point, after the massive string of disappointments Bethesda has had ever since Skyrim launched, that there is any way TES6 can live up to it.

Skyrim felt monumental back in 2011. Now it feels like a relic, and Bethesda's latest efforts haven't done much to sway that opinion. With games like Dragon's Dogma, Horizon and Zelda, they have too much stiff competition for Elder Scrolls 6 to just be another Bethesda game.

Just remaster Oblivion that's all I want or care about from this studio at this point

"Almost any other franchise would have capitalised on that kind of success as quickly as possible"

Emphasis on "almost", courtesy of Rockstar Games.😅 Then again, the two franchises walked roughly the same path instead, only Elder Scrolls had it be a separate game.

Loved Oblivion and Skyrim but they are very much games of their time. That Bethesda style feels very stale by modern RPG standards, which has a lot to do with why Starfield didn't do anything for me, despite my hope at the time.

We've known for years the engine needs updating or changing, but I do wonder if they have the confidence or even the ability to change the gameplay loop into something that at least feels fresher and modernised, rather than just Skyrim at a higher resolution and framerate, which I can already do with mods if need be.

I hope so, but won't be holding my breath!

Modded Skyrim with 8k textures and all the gameplay tweaks is incredible.

@MomsSpaghetti I had two idle shots at Morrowind, lasted about an hour in each myself.

Sometime later, I amassed enough whimsical mood to give a third and quite possibly last shot, and that's when I discovered the in-game books. Been genuinely interested in the series since, although it was too late to consistently enjoy it behind a desktop screen, so I only indulged in a proper playthrough several years later with Skyrim on Switch (while starting the "decisive" Morrowind one later yet on the laptop... and predictably shelving it again until the advent of Steam Deck).

Relax guys! Elder Scrolls VI will be released by 2030 on the Game Pass for the Playstation 6 and the Switch 2 and no Xbox console since by them Microsoft will have given up on the console market.

Where is fallout 4 Xbox PS5 patch, Bethesda? Its been two years

I think TES 6 is guaranteed to be a good game on the PC, just not sure if it will be a great one. Honestly don't know if I can actually say I loved Skyrim because there is no way I would play it without mods. I would've needed to be paid to play that game with an unmodded inventory and a controller. Freaking cheers to people that were able to.

The long wait wouldn't be as frustrating if the games they had developed instead weren't so bad. At launch Fallout 76 was an abortion that almost nobody wanted or asked for, and Starfield is painfully average on it's best day. Personally for me the high point of the series was Oblivion.

@tangyzesty @sanderson72 You're not the first people I've seen say it, but it's an uncommon thing to hear all the same. I 100% agree with you that Skyrim felt like a major step down from Oblivion. I was totally hooked on Oblivion, ate slept and breathed Oblivion. Bought a whole new gaming PC at the time just to max out the freaking trees on Oblivion. If I didn't have a backlog I'd play it again. Skryim. It's now a decade later and I still haven't left White Run. I just can not get into it no matter what I do. And I keep trying. But it doesn't hook me like Oblivion. If a PSVR2 version were to come out (it won't) I'd play that though. I got furthest on VR1, but it's too blurry, and I don't have it hooked up anymore.

But I haven't been able to place what exactly it is about Oblivion that works so much better? What do you two think defines the difference that makes Oblivion better?

I love hearing that people share my love of Oblivion. For years it seemed that people felt it was the weakest of the 3 console TES games.

Still one of my favorite games ever.

Honestly after Starfield and Fallout 76 I'm good on Elder Scrolls 6. Bethesda clearly isn't caring to change or update their old ass engine and I do not want to go through a loading simulator.

@MomsSpaghetti Same. At various times, I've tried Morrowind, Oblivion, and Fallout 3. Never played any for more than about an hour. Even Fallout New Vegas, being an Obsidian game, feels much more like a Bethesda game than an Obsidian one. Never played Skyrim or Fallout 4.

I've come to terms with the fact that Bethesda don't make RPG's anymore. They've slowly and iteratively taken the RP out and they just make "Bethesda Games" now. Which is fine, they just aren't for me. Plenty of other games out there scratching that itch.

Best this won't be exclusive to XBOX. Why'd they even buy the thing? I guess to make money off it.

If Todd isn't retiring or being "promoted" we should expect Starfield levels of delay and disappointment w/r/t TES and Fallout

@theSpectre I'll tell you something. I hated Elder Scrolls games so much at one point. Like, despised them and found them to be so boring. Bought Skyrim 5 times before I like started to like it. Now, 10 years in, I play Elder Scrolls Online daily. And even that game I once called "The most boring game I've ever played".

@nhSnork Hahaha, Rockstar was indeed the reason I wrote "almost".

@NEStalgia For me, the guild questlines and magic in general were far superior in Oblivion, and I also preferred it's deeper RPG elements as opposed to Skyrim doing away with attributes, etc.

Also, the cities in Oblivion felt much more distinct from one another, for example I can still recall Anvil, Cheydinhal, Bruma etc. quite clearly but not so much with the cities in Skyrim. I preferred Cyrodiil as a setting as well, much more vibrant and colorful.

@AhmadSumadi I get that take. I still may play Skyrim at some point, but I've got so many games ahead of it in my queue. I avoided Final Fantasy XIV like the plague for so long because of my complete aversion to multiplayer. And yet, now, I'm about to start Endwalker and try to log in as much as possible.

@sanderson72 ESO has always tempted me. Worth trying? Is it an MMO "light" like Destiny or more like a FF14?

I enjoy Destiny a lot. It was easy to get into and wasn't always necessary to be in a party to enjoy it. As for FF14, I found it very overwhelming when I tried it, definitely leans more into what I know of MMOs, which aren't as much my thing.

Last good TES was morrowind and bethesdas fallouts are all mediocre.
I expect less than nothing.

@charbtronic I've played some ESO. IMO it feels more like Oblivion than Skryim which is a good thing. It's very MMO, however, I also have found XIV to be incomprehensible, while I enjoyed my time in ESO (until they did changes that made you reset all your stats and I barely recognized my character anymore and just kind of dropped it.) Somewhere between the "this isn't really an MMO, just a shooter with resetting group quests" Destiny 2 and "OMGWDFIDK" that is XIV.

I'm going to give XIV another try with the XB release though. Maybe this time will be the charm?

@tangyzesty Yeah, I know what you mean, the "virtual tourism" aspect of Oblivion was very compelling to me. You travel and each destination felt like a whole new little world to explor, and all the new quests and characters therin. Skyrim everywhere looks kind of the same, and the characters seem boring. I definitely see Cyrodil is more interesting.

Now that I think about it, I also think scenario design was very different. Oblivion had the right mix of a BRIEF intro sequence, dropping you outside the city, and guides you to naturally start picking up compelling sidequests that lead you to the next place that leads you to the next compelling sidequests etc. By following quests as you come to them you always have a sense of what to explore next. Skyrim by contract just kind of dumps you in an "open world" after a protracted intro, and doesn't really give you much guidance, you just kind of wander, you follow the main questline, get to Whiterun and then it's just sort of a mess of side quests and a terrible map without a real sense of a sequence of sidequests. That bad map alone may be part of what makes it feel worse.

@charbtronic I think the base game (which by now includes a couple of expansion packs?) is about a fiver so not going to break the bank.
It is an MMO but you can play it as a single player RPG, only ganging up with anyone else to take on the Dungeons (if you want) and there's Cyrodiil in the middle which is PvP and also can be ignored unless PvP is your bag. As it is Online, you will need an active PS+ subscription but there''s no sub required by the game to play it.

As @NEStalgia says, it plays more like Oblivion. I also have found FF XIV to be incomprehensible, no idea where I was going and no idea what I was doing, whereas ESO is fun and some days you can just wander around looking for treasure or gathering crafting resources and looking at the pretty scenery.

To be fair I loved skyrim back when it 1st released, but bethesda have fallen so far in my opinion, that my only real interest in this article was to read the comments to see if others felt the same, or if I was being odd in not caring about ES6 or what console its released on.

I've never truly understood the hype for Bethesda games. They are buggy messes and they aren't all that great.

Witcher 3 completely destroys what an rpg should be and skyrim just isn't that great. I did enjoy oblivion.

But honestly if Starfield is what they could make with all that time and it's basically not that much better than their previous outings then I don't have much hope.

Not when we've had a game like baldurs gate 3 come out and now dragons dogma 2.

It just puts it into perspective that for me Bethesda isn't that great at them. If starfield was all those years experience. Same old tac in my eyes

@dellyrascal I honestly don't need every new game to innovate and be something completely new and revolutionary, I can see myself playing an Elder Scrolls title that borrows and refines aspects of old games as long as the new story is good and there's a lot of good content in the game.

I am honestly really tired of everyone trying too freaking hard to make something different when all I wan't is to just play a new game in a franchise I enjoy. What is this, the age of senseless experimentation? I wish to see more game studios playing it safe and focusing on a proven formula and making their fans happy.

Heck I want the next elder scrolls game to take 1 or 2 steps back and get more heavily into the roleplaying aspect of pre Skyrim era again.

Spell crafting and much advanced gear system.. (If I wanna wear a green sock on one foot and a red on the other then let me! Also let me enchant my socks with levitation spells! And as my socks durability decreases I want to gradually see holes appear until my toes stick out!!)

Regardless of the worrying current state of the IP and its current owners, happy 30th anniversary Elder Scrolls.🎉🎈

Very amusing to read all the widely different takes on the Bethesda titles, i played Fallout 3 and New Vegas twice, one time with all the dlc and once without. I also completed Fallout 4 with the two story dlc's. New Vegas is my favorite of the three due to the crazy storylines of the sidequests, The writing really shines in that one! It takes a bit more risks with it's topics and is therefore more memorable, at least to me. Funny that it wasn't made by Bethesda. I never really got along with Oblivion on the PS3 and believe me, i tried. I played a fair chunk of that game but the samey world and it's (ugly!!)inhabitants distrackted me time and time again. I concluded that Elder Scrolls just wasn't for me, i prefered Fallout with it's apocalyptic setting and massive amount of guns. I ignored Skyrim completely when it released on the PS3 and never bothered to look back.. Until it got a PSVR release. I was craving for a massive open world rpg-type of game for VR, something to really get lost in for countless hours instead of the shorter games/experiences that were often coming to the headset. It had Borderlands 2 as well, but i already played through that one so i decided to give Skyrim a try. I kinda expected that Oblivion effect i had before, but it grabbed me really good. The nordic setting, the better looking faces of the npc's, the caves, dungeons, temples, snowy mountains, forests, the subterranean underworld of Blackreach, dwemer structures, enormous dragons, the cities Riften, Solitude, Whiterun.. I completed the main storylines of the vanilla game not too long ago after doing all the dlc as well, roughly 500 hrs. in VR spread out over three years.. I love Skyrim! It's the most epic thing i ever played and the VR mode is, besides being lazy implemented the one and only way to experience something this massive, layered and engaging. Being INSIDE Skyrim where everything is in life-size scale, the snowy mountains towering over the green plains in the distance and a statue carved out of the mountainside or a huge fortress, it's borderline intimidating at times.. A tv/monitor screen with flat, tiny assets trying to bring across the same epic setpieces, fails miserably in comparison. I'm glad i could experience Skyrim in VR as it ramps up the immersion and epicness tenfold. Though, ignorance is bliss i guess. Modless Skyrim VR on a PS5 blew me away and i'm sure some people are still equally impressed playing through the whole damn thing on a Switch, lol

@DaniPooo - I dunno, maybe familiarity grows contempt, having played Skyrim on PC, 360, PS4 and PS5 for so long.

My idea of innovation isn't necessarily about re-inventing the wheel, which I probably could have communicated better, I just want some tangible improvements and new gameplay additions that fit.

I don't particularly want TES6 to be Baldur's Gate 3 or Elden Ring, just a better Elder Scrolls title and some more variety in the gameplay itself, although how that would work, is another conversation.

And I do concur regarding proven formulas and keeping fans happy. It's probably why I've been playing Streetfighter in its various guises since the early 90's, albeit its not the greatest comparison.

Looking forward to playing TESVI on PS5 day and date with the Xbox/PC launch.

Well, four XBox games have or are coming to PS5. Nothing’s impossible, I guess.