Man, playing Fallout 3 and 4 (non-modded, Xbox Series) painfully lays bare how big of a downgrade Starfield was. Fallout 3 actually aged really well. It surprisingly looks appealing on the Series X on a modern screen (moreso than say Fallout 76) and is just a compelling and immersive game. Fallout 4 is more streamlined but also has that great feel of exploration and plenty of fun characters and quests.
I tried Fallout 76 and fun can be had, but trying it next to 3 and 4 also really emphasizes what is missing. I think 76 is best if you have.a friend to play it with. It does have proper NPCs and quests now, but I feel it is at odds with the online component, greatly affecting immersion in some sections.
But overall super impressed with Fallout 3. Dialouge and world building is very Bethesda, but in a good way, right balance between silly and seriousness. And I feel the tone of the TV show aligns with it very well.
If visuals were equal between all of them, one would think the order that they made the games was exactly flipped around to be honest.
So no I don't think Bethesda has been too stuck in their ways, I think they have lost them.
I finally finished Obra Dinn; got stuck for ages at the end because there was an Indian guy I was convinced was Swedish, lol. Woops.
Also, re: Goldeneye... One of my all time favorite games, but it has not aged well. I can still play it now and enjoy it because the whack-ass controls are permanently seared into my brain, but if you didn't play it A LOT, or at all, at the time? Whack. Ass. Controls. It hasn't aged well in that regard at all. Early 3D graphics have also aged like boiled piss, which doesn't help. I would, however, argue that the level design* and mission objective structure (different objectives on different difficulty levels!!!) hold up really rather well
*with the exception of the Streets level, obviously 
I grew up with the N64 and honestly, most of those games have aged really poorly. Almost all N64 games on the Switch online services are not a good time for me outside of nostalgia. Even those 2d 3d platformers like Yoshi and Kirby, it looks and feels stiff and off compared to what came before and after.
To my surprise, I did not grow up with the PS1 but I find many of those games to have aged better (started playing them late teens/early twenties vs being a kid below 10 for the N64). Maybe because many PS1 games were more basic/limited but also not in that weird proto-ps2 phase (good ideas that would be greatly improved upon the next gen). And some also more story/puzzle/strategy based (Final Fantasy, MGS, FF tactics, Vagrant Story etc.).
I will say that I completed Goldeneye fully last year and had a great time in the end. One thing that is still above current standards in some regards is bullet impact on enemies and how run and gun feels. Also, Aztec on 00 is an experience I will never forget, akin to a section in a From Software game (Sens Fortress in DS1 comes to mind, I can probably still draw a map a decade later). Brutal and there is nothing really like it even to this date.
Topic: Video Game Thread v. Series Xbox One X Series Switch S 5 (Read 167820 times)
