Poll: Poll: BioWare or Bethesda?

akkronym

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Dec 4, 2010
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While Bioware completely and totally wins the award of the two for best narrative I thing Bethesda truly accomplishes the "role-playing game" aspect of RPGs. While games like Mass Effect give you a compelling story and are also fun to play, I think the direction that was taken with games like Oblivion and Fallout 3 gave you a role and said play it. That was it, they truly let you play a character in a world and perhaps that's not what "RPGs" are. Perhaps "RPGs" are about playing a particular role, but that's not how the phrase would be defined if you looked at it away from the acronym. Bethesda's games put you in a world and let you experience it; be it a dangerous or safe experience. Where Bioware's games give you a role to experience in a world you can do little to affect in the scope of things.

I will say that I personally think Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 were superior games to Fallout 3 and Oblivion but in terms of defining the genre, I think Bethesda made their games better.
 

No_Remainders

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rockyoumonkeys said:
No_Remainders said:
rockyoumonkeys said:
Eh...both are great, but Bethesda loses points for having their name attached to the abomination known as Fallout New Vegas. I know they didn't develop it, but they still published it.

Bioware's games are great, but I think I still enjoyed getting lost in the worlds of Oblivion and Fallout 3 enough to even the scales.
To be fair, Fallout 3 was worse than New Vegas.

Far, far worse.
I don't see what "to be fair" has to do with anything. I don't agree with you at all. Even had New Vegas actually functioned, I wouldn't have enjoyed it nearly as much as Fallout 3.
Perhaps it's the fact that New Vegas (now that it's patched) works perfectly, when some of the bugs in FO3 still weren't patched when I gave up on it.
Or maybe that it's more in the style of the old Fallout games. Y'know, the ones that were actually amusing? The dark humour in it (and the ridiculously over-obvious dinosaur statue which was fucking cool) was really funny.
Fallout 3 on the other hand, went to try and be all dark and sinister and was basically just a big pile of expletives.
 

theriddlen

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Assassin Xaero said:
theriddlen said:
Assassin Xaero said:
Bethesda. BioWares games are pretty bland and boring to me... I barely suffered through beat Dragon Age while I've played (according to xfire) 189 hours of Fallout 3.
Dragon Age do sucks. But it's the Mass Effect that is the ultimate payload of awesome.
I actually bought Mass Effect in some Steam sale over a year ago. Tried to play it once, might try again...
After you get through the standard RPG sidequest levelup stage, the story speeds up and doesn't slow down until the ending. It is more than worth giving the game some credit till it sucks you in.
 

Sarukin

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Mar 16, 2009
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I love Oblivion but i'm saying BioWare because they appear to be the only game company left that puts some effort into a games story.
Oblivions story was "Daemons over there, stab them"
 

Zack5777

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Sep 7, 2010
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This is such a hard choice for a diehard RPG fan... You should have asked in a certain regard such as story, gameplay, choice, etc... I personally had to go more with bethesda on the grounds of games which are easier to role play, in the elder scrolls series you can do what you want pretty much how you want it, by comparison the story does suffer, but a good story almost needs more linearity, just look at dragon age, that story can draw you right in and old your attention, but the price is that it is more linear. Well that's my two cents worth.
 

Bloodstain

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Skratt said:
Bethesda was great, but somewhere along the way they lost the narrative inside a giant sandbox desert of a game. I think there may actually be such a thing as too unfocused, though I'm sure a few would beg to disagree.
Baron Von Evil Satan said:
BioWare. I've just always felt like the story and writing were much more immersive than Bethseda. I also always thought Bethesda's games lacked a lot of direction, it just sort of set a massive world before you and didn't really tell you where to go.
This is exactly then reason why I vote for Bethesda (in addition to the modding possibilities). I, for one, absolutely love the freedom and lack of direction you guys criticize.
Morrowind will always be one of my favourite games. <3
 

Krantos

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Jun 30, 2009
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Bioware wins when it comes to story, but the structured nature of the narrative restricts just how much RPing you can actually do. Bethsoft games just plop you in a world and let go, letting you do or be anything you want.
 

P.Tsunami

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Feb 21, 2010
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Not only a vs thread, but an apples and oranges one, as well! My personal preference, though, is that I'm allergic to Bethesda's apples. Their games have a lot going for them, but not things I appreciate or look for in video games.
 

9of9

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Feb 14, 2008
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I'm going to be unpopular and vote Bethesda, though it's a close call.

I'm not a fan of Oblivion or Fallout 3, but Morrowind is one of my most fondly remembered games ever, and I'm going to decide this on the criterion of 'single bestest game'.

My respect for BioWare has mostly returned largely due to the Mass Effect series, which are easily some of the best series of recent times. But ultimately, while I vastly prefer the story-driven, choice-based type of game that BioWare do, they just aren't that good at it. The plots are invariably hackneyed, cliche-ridden and thematically the games obstinately refuse to try anything new or adventurous.

Possibly the most interesting BioWare game in terms of setting was Jade Empire, but even so - rather than immerse the player into a foreign culture and mythos, it felt more like an all-too-familiar run-through of mandatory cliches and tropes.

They're good games, but not great, generally lacking in soul - at the level of a good summer blockbuster at best.

On the other hand, Morrowind came up with a wonderful lore, a beautiful, alien world that was trully unlike anything we'd seen before. At the time it was advanced enough for an RPG that it really felt captivating and mysterious. The story-telling isn't as great at BioWare's, like I say I do prefer branched dialogues and conversations, but what it lacked it made up through an extraordinary and detailed world, full of separate, smaller stories to be discovered and mysteries to be explored.

BioWare could easily make a game much better than Morrowind ever was, but they'd need to take a chance for once and try something new - break away from the traditional story mould perhaps, create a less generic world with actual character.

Until then, I'll be waiting for the Witcher 2 =P
 

MrJKapowey

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Oct 31, 2010
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rockyoumonkeys said:
Eh...both are great, but Bethesda loses points for having their name attached to the abomination known as Fallout New Vegas. I know they didn't develop it, but they still published it.

Bioware's games are great, but I think I still enjoyed getting lost in the worlds of Oblivion and Fallout 3 enough to even the scales.
Sorry, but what was so bad about F:NV?
I liked the story and the chars and the faction interaction. It was even made by the guys who made 1+2 so no studio fanboyisms.

I personally like Bethesda best. I know, I know; ME is amazing. But I love Oblivion, vanilla, console. Everyone hates it, I love it. The voice acting doesn't bother me, neither does the crap combat animation. This is my faviroute game. Ever.
 

sheogoraththemad

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Feb 6, 2010
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I am not gonna answer this poll,
Bethesda made the elder scrolls and that is my favourite gaming series, but bioware made dragon age and Mass effect and those are also excellent games,
it is a tie, Bethesda makes better (free-roaming) worlds but Bioware writes better stories.
 

LittleChone

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May 17, 2010
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Bethesda. They can actually make a game that has good writing AND is fun to play!
HEY-OH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Na, in all seriousness, both companies are respectable (if not formidable) figures in the gaming world.
 

Pirate1019

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Sep 23, 2009
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I'm sad there is no 'neither' option. I'm in the extreme minority, but I think both developers are pretty terrible.

Every Bioware game I've played (possible exception for ME2) was full of bad-to-mediocre gameplay with various degrees of technical failings all wrapped up in WAY TOO MUCH FUCKING TALKING.

Bethesda is probably better only in the sense that their games are also entirely boring and full of glitches, but you can opt spend all of your time being an incredible kleptomaniac.
 

Blatherscythe

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Oct 14, 2009
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I like them equally because they let me choose who I help, my attitude, appearance and morality. But Bioware handles story exceptionally well, or at least narrative and characterization, but falls short of open world exploration (it's very lineir even though you're in the great expanse of unknown, space). Bethesda handles characterization well (Fallout New Vega's companions were great in my opinion) and the open world sandbox is huge and fun to explore when you reach a high enough level, but the narrative sucks and the story is a few hairs shy of the stuff Bioware churns out with little effort. But I can go by amount of time I've clocked in each of their games in total so I guess Bethesda gets my vote, because I am absolutly immersed in Fallout New Vegas.
 

ninja51

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Mar 28, 2010
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Im gunna go with Bethesda. I love Bioware, they have the story department locked, they are gods in that field. But Bethesda creates better gameplay and still manages to put out some really good stuff story wise at the same time. Mass Effect is the best game ever made in my opinion, its eveerything the medium should aspire to be story wise. But Oblivion is my favorite game of all time, the gameplay is incredibly addictive, and amazing plots can shine through here and there for quests. Oblivion and to a lesser extent, Morrowind are games made for me. Bioware puts out incredible games, but they dont always hit that perfect nerve on me, Dragon Age came close but the gameplay dragged it down. And Mass Effect 1 and 2 are beautiful once the conversations start, but the gameplay itself can get really repedative.
 

Skoldpadda

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Jan 13, 2010
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I don't understand Bethesda's popularity at all. Their games are utterly bland and soulless.

Morrowind was nice, but that's been a while. Oblivion was just completely devoid of substance, it had the worst combat ever seen and a levelling system that didn't make any sense at all.

And then It Happened. They got their grubby paws on my beloved Fallout and of course completely mucked it up. The characters try so butt-clenchingly hard to be quirky and colourful it hurts. That Moira just makes me want to snap the cd in half. As does that sheriff in Megaton.
Sheriff: Hi, I'm the sheriff. See what a nice laidback guy I am, provided you don't cause trouble in my town.
Player: *innocent comment about hat*
Sheriff: I detect an *evil* response. I'm watching you, buddy. The last thing we want in this jagged desert where death stalks the lands and people gut each other over a bottle of irradiated water, is strangers making comments about hats.

Bioware may be slipping a bit lately. They're acting a bit dickish since they've been hanging out with that EA-buddy of theirs. But their games still have some feeling in them.

But who knows, right?
Skyrim may fix everything that was wrong with Oblivion and Fallout 3, and Bioware may come forward with a cheap shooter that contains 5% of the story of Mass Effect 1 (and I'm kinda suspicious that may be the case indeed).
 

duktapeman90

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Aug 16, 2009
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Tough one. I loved KOTOR 1 and 2, Dragon Age, and what I've played of Mass Effect. But honestly I've logged more hours playing Oblivion alone then the four of those combined. Not to mention Fallout 3 and New Vegas. So I'd probably have to go with Bethesda, but it's a close one.

On a side note, I just realized they BOTH have a game developed by Obsidian. Both of which I think are underrated.
 

_Cake_

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Apr 5, 2009
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Or? No no no put them together and you would have the best rpg ever. Wandering around the wasteland with your attractive yet virginal companion who totally has the hots for you XD
 

DistinctlyBenign

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Dec 24, 2008
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Bethesda wins on combat and gameplay.

Bioware wins on Story, characters, and stability.

If I'm playing an RPG, I care about Story and Characters.

Ergo: BioWare wins.