Morrowind Remaster Not Going to Happen, Says Bethesda

[mrdude2010]

I mean, it's not like there's anything to rebuild. There's only so many times you can kill a worm before it starts to get a bit old.

 

[Cowabungaa]

Basically, remastering anything older than the Xbox 360/PS3 generation would simply require way too much work to be worth it

Which is ironic because for me as a consumer, it's the pre-360/PS3 gen games that are the most worthwhile to remaster. Current games aren't all that different from previous-gen games, but the further back you go the bigger the differences get so the more interested I am for a retake of them with modern sensibilities.

That's not to say that I don't get Bethesda's reasoning though. It's those bigger differences that make it more difficult to remaster as well. Now as long as, after they say this, they're not going to stand in the way of the fan remake of Morrowind it's all okay.

 

[Shamanic Rhythm]

An absurd comparison. Those paintings have a certain style that still holds up and wouldn't really be improved by modern technology.

Thanks... that was my point?

The dated graphics of Morrowind aren't simply a timeless artistic choice, they're born out of the extreme limitations of the time. I really don't think the developers, having the technology we have now, would opt for a terrible draw distance, triangles so blatant you can count them, blurry textures, hideous lighting, and all the other things that come with early 3D graphics. Look, even 16 bit 2D graphics can still look fine to this day, but the early days of 3D graphics look like complete and utter shit. They've not aged well at all.

For a lot of games I would agree. But not for Morrowind. I actually think it's a really good example of how graphics artists can turn what are actually technical limitations into features (which you can also say about Seurat's pointillism, which is why I used it as an example). The crappy draw distance? That gave the game a foggy and murky atmosphere. The triangular textures? They worked those limitations into the unique monster, building and weapon designs Morrowind was famous for. Think of something like the Netch or the Dwarven spider and how angular it looks.

Morrowind is a game with an impressive atmosphere more than anything else. Regardless of the fact that graphics have definitely improved since then, it's a game I'd prefer to enjoy in its original state, warts and all.

 

[HanFyren]

Nice of them to finally admit it was an x-box game though.
They kept insisting, through all the evidence to the contrary, that it was made for PC.

 

[Headsprouter]

This just reminds me that I still have things to do in Skyrim. I've been able to power through Fallout 4 a few times already (haven't touched the dlc yet) but Skyrim's slower paced levelling system makes experimenting with different character builds difficult. Maybe I need a mod or two to speed things up.

Honestly I'd imagine a Morrowind "remaster" to be a remake that is prepared to voice act the dialogue (even the shitty lines LOL) and rework every texture, but that's just me. I suppose remake and remaster imply two different things.

Totally on board with the Oblivion remaster. Take my money.

Or...the next TES game would be nice.

 

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

The only remastering I want from Morrowind is to increase the Draw Distance.

Apperently Vvardenfell has a severe fog problem

 

[Naldan]

I wonder what people will say, when they realize that Skywind will cut out as much from Morrowind as is missing in Skyrim.
Less skills. Less armor types. Less spells. Less true weapon-variety because of less skills.

You get voice acting and better graphics, whereat the voice acting must be of such a massive amount that I highly doubt that its quality can be anywhere near as consistent for a fan project.

---

On the other hand, Bethesda said that the dialogue system in place in Morrowind is too complicated for a Skyrim player. I guess they meant that it's too cluttered and they're right. But how about... I don't know... improving it by making a competent UI!? Oh my god!


Morrowind is simply more than Skyrim. Doing this with the graphical and audio standards of today is too much to be profitable. It's, and this is my smug opinion, too much to take for the average gamer of the millions of today. And it's Zenimax and their investors, so profit must be higher than that from Skyrim. Which it won't, because not enough would buy it.


Just play the original with mods. Try to play Daggerfall afterwards. If you're really into RPG, I think you would take a remake of Daggerfall over Morrowind any day.

 

[razor343]

Funny how developers decided to respond to people calling them out on rehashing the same franchises by going a step further and just re-releasing the same games. This industry is pathetic.

 

[Kahani]

"To take Morrowind and then to completely rebuild it? It was an Xbox game. To completely rebuild it have it be relevant for today? That's a pretty massive team doing a massive amount of work,"

OK, I'm confused. His reasoning for not remaking Morrowind appears to be that Morrowind would actually benefit from being remade, while it's fine to remake Skyrim because it won't actually involve doing anything. Obviously Skyrim will make more money, but surely they should at least pretend to have a real reason rather than explicitly saying "We're just going to sell people the same game again without doing any work".

So the graphics are a little dated. Live with it.

Why? Graphics may not be everything, but it's silly to pretend they're completely irrelevant. Many old games look truly terrible, especially ones made in the early days of 3D models. And of course it's not just graphics, things like user interfaces (OK, not so important in this example given that Skyrim's is quite possibly the worst interface ever made) and compatibility with modern systems. Why should we just live with what we had in the past when the limitations that forced numerous compromises are no longer present?

It's like going to a Seurat exhibition and asking for a pair of 3d glasses

It's much more like going to the Sistine Chapel and being glad you can actually see the artwork because made a massive effort was made to stop it looking like shit, at least five separate times. Without constant remastering, a huge amount of famous art simply wouldn't exist today. And of course, Seurat is a particularly ironic one for you to have chosen given how heavily influenced he was by Chevreul's work on restorations.

 

[sXeth]

Weird that he picked the dialogue system to go on about. I mean, trying to fix the god-awful generational midstep combat and broken leveling mechanics of Morrowind without losing content would be the bigger task.

The dialogue systems basically always been really bad across all the games though, just in different flavors and the pre-voice acting days had higher levels of text

 

[MCerberus]

Another issue that Bethesda isn't mentioning is Radiant. The 360 and later games use radiant to control all AI functionality. While I assume some scripting can be converted, there's still the matter of AI behavior being a square peg for their new engine's round hole.

 

[Shamanic Rhythm]

Why? Graphics may not be everything, but it's silly to pretend they're completely irrelevant. Many old games look truly terrible, especially ones made in the early days of 3D models. And of course it's not just graphics, things like user interfaces (OK, not so important in this example given that Skyrim's is quite possibly the worst interface ever made) and compatibility with modern systems. Why should we just live with what we had in the past when the limitations that forced numerous compromises are no longer present?

Because we should be encouraging companies to continue innovating, instead of just continuously rehashing old content?

It's much more like going to the Sistine Chapel and being glad you can actually see the artwork because made a massive effort was made to stop it looking like shit, at least five separate times. Without constant remastering, a huge amount of famous art simply wouldn't exist today. And of course, Seurat is a particularly ironic one for you to have chosen given how heavily influenced he was by Chevreul's work on restorations.

You should have a read of my reply to someone else in this thread. Much of Morrowind's aesthetic is a product of the limitations of the time. I feel like that's something that people should just experience so that they understand progress - in much the same way that people prefer to watch the original version of A New Hope instead of the 90s Lucasfilm remakes.

And yes, I'm well versed in the Seurat history. I take your point but it's just an analogy. Morrowind does not look like shit.

 

[Strazdas]

"To take Morrowind and then to completely rebuild it? It was an Xbox game. To completely rebuild it have it be relevant for today? That's a pretty massive team doing a massive amount of work," he explained. "You go back and look at it. Do you remember the dialogue system in Morrowind? Do you remember what it was like talking to someone and scrolling through this long list of questions. You put that out for someone that just finished Skyrim and they're going to be like 'What in the hell...?'"

Well at least they are fully aware that they are marketing to people stupid enough to get confused by a scroll bar....

It was an Xbox game.

Funny that, it was the last PC-centric elder scrolls game.

If they give it SLI/crossfire support pc players would go crazy for it but, as Bethesda has never done this I will not get my hopes up.

Given that bethesda is still running on patched up Gamebryo from 1997 with Havoc ducktaped to the side (you cant really call it integrated by how badly it performs), i would bet on them not having multicard support for next game as well.

Nope. But I don't think that matters too much when the most I can find Morrowind selling is around 2 million and Skyrim being in 20 million. That's an insane gap.

i couldnt find reliable figures for the entire industry (most are either for single continent or for seperate platforms) but the market size certainly grew few times over since 2002 (morrowind release). I mean just look at current consoles, they are selling multiple times more copies than their previuos ones and still loosing market share like crazy.

Also skyrim sold a lot for its modability, something that would also be true for morrowind, but wasnt so popular in 2002 given that it was the first game with this functionality.

 

[Saelune]

Ok, you don't have to remake Morrowind. All you have to do is make the next TES game BETTER than Morrowind. Ya know, add that depth and quality Morrowind had that Oblivion removed. Skyrim was better than Oblivion, partially cause you partially fixed the removed stuff from Morrowind, now finish it. Bring back spells like Levitate and teleportation. Remove fast travel and put in a travel system like the boats and Silt Striders were. Stop treating us like morons by always holding our hands. "Follow the quest arrow" isn't good questing. Thing like that. Make a game that replaces Morrowind as my favorite game of all games. Then you wont have to remake Morrowind.

 

[ShakerSilver]

Good.

I'd rather Modern Bethesda leave their old games alone. Morrowind doesn't need to be remade, especially not with OpenMW and Tamriel Rebuilt coming to fruition.

 

[bartholen_v1legacy]

The disconnect between people in this thread and the rest of the gaming hobby is amazing. Morrowind was a great game for its' time and intended audience (me included) but it is an incredibly clunky, counter-intuitive game by modern standards and was to some degree even on release. From its' "dialog"-system that was basically just keywords to get intended response and the adjoined "persuasion"-system that meant you clicked a button and prayed to the counter-intuitive fighting system where you could see your sword connect but the game said you didn't hit to the lack of directions in many quests that led to a lot of people spending a lot of time just running around aimlessly hoping to find their destination. And let's not even get into the fact that to make the game somewhat manageable to playthrough you had to abuse alchemy and/or enchanting at some point so that you could get a long duration or constant levitation effect to spare yourself the trouble of backtracking up and down hills.

Don't get me wrong, I love Morrowind. I love it for a lot of its' weird flaws, but I also know that those same flaws is what made most of my friends give it a pass. Remaking Morrowind is not a cash-cow, at best it is a break even proposition or a minor profit. Morrowind never was and never will be a mainstream appeal game and there's absolutely no point in re-making it when the same team could be making the next TES or Fallout game, a game that is likely to sell at least twice or thrice as much as a Morrowind re-make.

All reasons why I could never get into it. Morrowind is absolutely a game where you need an instruction manual: Not only to learn the basic goddamn mechanics, but to learn how to approach them in the right order. For example, there's no indication of whether you can even properly wield the weapon you're currently holding (as I remember), which led me to stupidly flailing my spark shortsword at mudcrabs in the hopes that I might some day hit them. As I recall, lockpicking and character creation are pretty much the only mechanics you're given any kind of tutorial on. No introduction to magic, alchemy, crafting, economy, speech mechanics and so on. And the combat system is horseshit on toast.

 

[Gethsemani_v1legacy]

All reasons why I could never get into it. Morrowind is absolutely a game where you need an instruction manual: Not only to learn the basic goddamn mechanics, but to learn how to approach them in the right order. For example, there's no indication of whether you can even properly wield the weapon you're currently holding (as I remember), which led me to stupidly flailing my spark shortsword at mudcrabs in the hopes that I might some day hit them. As I recall, lockpicking and character creation are pretty much the only mechanics you're given any kind of tutorial on. No introduction to magic, alchemy, crafting, economy, speech mechanics and so on. And the combat system is horseshit on toast.

Lockpicking in Morrowind was done by aiming an equipped lockpick at a locked container and clicking. Then you got a message informing you of success or failure. There were also tool called "probes" that you used to deactivate traps in the same manner, but most people I've talked to never realized that was what probes did, since the game never bothered to explain it.

A re-mastering could potentially include an expanded and improved help section, but the simple truth is that Morrowind is marred in early-00's design sensibilities and baggage from prior TES-games and those things do not translate well into modern games. So either they have to be ripped out ("dumbing down") or Bethesda is left with a re-make that will only appeal to old time fans.

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

Here's one interesting tidbit...the original XBox and XB1 both run on standard PC X86 architecture. Unlike the 360, there's no real reason the XB1 cannot easily play all original XBox games as is.

Also, the creators of Skywind called, they want to have a word about how it can't be done