That did take me a moment, but when you think about it, they're very different.
Rockstar tends to make their games huge and open, but still linear. You can only do a couple missions at a time, and can only talk to important people. You can go anywhere and do just about anything completely separate from your missions or story (barring the death of a minor character, denying you a mini-mission or something similar).
Bethesda on the other hand has massive incredibly detailed worlds where every single person is a potential interaction. Everything you do, from stealing to straight up murder influences what people say or do around you. On one side, I get great immersion, but also because of this, it's hard to make it more personal to your character.
In L.A. Noir and Red Dead, I honestly felt for my character, putting you in their shoes and doing what they would do. But this doesn't allow for much vesting in the character more than you might like a movie character.
Bethesda gives you a completely blank slate to make your own. This allows for you to imprint yourself on your avatar, but denies the stronger story aspect of fully fleshing him out. There's only so far you can make him/her into you due to simple constraints in technology.
I just kinda wanna throw in Bioware's contribution. In an odd way, Mass Effect is right in the middle. It's a much more linear open world with few interaction outside quest related ones, you have a character that comes with a personality and voice, but you can still get sheperd to be who you want him/her to be.
I guess my preference is Bethesda
Rockstar tends to make their games huge and open, but still linear. You can only do a couple missions at a time, and can only talk to important people. You can go anywhere and do just about anything completely separate from your missions or story (barring the death of a minor character, denying you a mini-mission or something similar).
Bethesda on the other hand has massive incredibly detailed worlds where every single person is a potential interaction. Everything you do, from stealing to straight up murder influences what people say or do around you. On one side, I get great immersion, but also because of this, it's hard to make it more personal to your character.
In L.A. Noir and Red Dead, I honestly felt for my character, putting you in their shoes and doing what they would do. But this doesn't allow for much vesting in the character more than you might like a movie character.
Bethesda gives you a completely blank slate to make your own. This allows for you to imprint yourself on your avatar, but denies the stronger story aspect of fully fleshing him out. There's only so far you can make him/her into you due to simple constraints in technology.
I just kinda wanna throw in Bioware's contribution. In an odd way, Mass Effect is right in the middle. It's a much more linear open world with few interaction outside quest related ones, you have a character that comes with a personality and voice, but you can still get sheperd to be who you want him/her to be.
I guess my preference is Bethesda
Nice summation of what I put lolXaio30 said:
