[rant]Goody. Another Bethesda Bling Game.
Remember: Shallow story, boring characters, and gameplay are all excusable if your graphics are amazing and the world is huge. It worked for Fallout 3, it worked for Oblivion, and it will work here too.[/rant]
While I am thoroughly jaded about how such titles continue to garner such unwarranted levels of praise and hype, it's not like I honestly want these games to suck. I was sucked into Morrowind before, and even though that game had its share of problems, it made up for it with an interesting story and tons of lore. I liked the atmosphere behind it too, which is something I can say for Oblivion and Fallout 3.
Of course, that sense of atmosphere comes crashing down when you realize how one-dimensional the characters and plot are...and I can understand that the more content you create the less time you can afford to spend on the details.
It's just that I cannot ever really get into these games even at the best of times (when Fallout 3 and Oblivion weren't constantly crashing...a rare occasion). I would make a stealth character only to have the AI magically detect me anyway. I would create a mage only to find out that there are essentially three viable spell effects in the game. Melee specialists were fairly riveting until you realized that every single melee fight would amount to "Block, counter, block, counter".
Really, none of this would even bother me so much if not for the extreme amount of hype that goes into these titles. Todd Howard makes a living suckering people into his titles, and it's a job he's apparently quite adept at.
I remember when Game of the Year quality titles made me stop and appreciate the entirety of the experience. Today, it just seems to be based solely on franchising.
