Yeah, there's a recent game announcement that was just made but we still need to wait a while for the trailer (because apparently Ubisoft don't operate in the 'announcement by trailer' model that literally everyone else does) but instead I want to take a time to latch onto a particularly delicious rumour I heard regarding the future Elder Scrolls Six. Now of course, literally nothing concrete is known about this upcoming title beside the fact it's likely set in Hammerfell and that Jeremy Soule probably won't be offering his talents to the soundtrack. (Nuts. I live for the Skyrim soundtrack.) But that just means there's ripe room for rampant speculation and assumptions; my favourite two words!
This particular leak was posted on Elder Scroll Fandom (the most reliable of sources) and was offered by a presumed contractor who apparently flashed his NDA as proof to a moderator. (So that's smart; flaunting the legal document that you are currently breaking. "Look ma, I'm about to get me ass sued off!") The details themselves claim that this will be the first dual province game taking place both in High Rock and Hammerfell and is currently slated for Q4 2024. Factually this seems to tally as we all currently know that there needs to be the announcement and release of Bethesda's Starfield before hand. However, if this date is accurate then this does mean something interesting; that Starfield will likely be set for dropping this year. (Quite the surprise considering we haven't seen anything more than an incredibly light teaser trailer for this title.) But that's just the appetiser, the real meat is in the gameplay details...
Apparently this will one of the first times in a Bethesda game where we actually take an active role in nation-wide politics with the Orcs going to war against the Bretons in one instance. Ultimately they claim that the game will support large scale conflicts that mimic the sorts of battles you'd see from Lord of the Rings; and this is where I start furrowing my brow a bit. We already know that Bethesda insist upon recycling their outdated engine once again for Starfield and TES IV and I have to say I don't think such an engine is capable of this feat. Of course, they intend to upgrade and improve upon these resources but come on: Fallout 4's iteration of the engine couldn't even reliably load static objects in close proximity to one another; how the heck is it supposed to run thousands of AI packages simultaneously? Because of the way the Elder Scrolls games work, with each actor being granted some degree of autonomy even if they are just a background scene filler, it's unfeasible for too many to exist in the same spot. (Windhelm's docks used to straight CTD folk; and that only had about 20 people.) Unless the next generation is going to push processing power to ungodly heights, I have to call bull on this entire leak based on that fact alone; it just does not reconcile with reality yet.And this, ladies and gentlemen, is the part where I contradict everything I just said about how real this 'leak' might be; because it ain't. (At least I think it's not.) Don't get me wrong, everything that was just said seems like it exists within the realm of reality but there's just these little nuggets of untruth that ring me wrong. Take the whole 'Daggerfall' aspect of the game, which the leak says is set to be 'the biggest city that Bethesda have ever made', with those folk taking a que off of CDPR in creating a dense feeling cityscape. Wait, what? Bethesda taking ques from CDPR? Why, because of The Witcher 3's Novigrad? Novigrad was the first time that CDPR tried to create a large cityscape to be an explorable area and whilst it may have remained pretty to look at; the experiment was an overall failure compared to the wilder environments from the rest of the game. The city felt needlessly big and it's inhabitants were little more than window dressing, which is something that CDPR have acknowledged and want to improve on for Cyberpunk 2077. Or are we meant to believe that Bethesda are latching onto CDPR because of their work with Cyberpunk, a game that isn't released yet. Firstly, they have no idea what that game will shape up looking, no more than the rest of us at least; and secondly, that's a freakin' Sci-fi city whereas TES is a fantasy franchise. That's just too stupid of a jump in logic for us to overlook.
Then there's the assertion of there being ship travel in this game in order to justify the many claims that "the technology to make this game doesn't exist yet" from our old pal Todd. According to mr leaker this is meant to be an evolution upon the spaceship travel which is said to feature prominently in Starfield therefore establishing a feasible chain of development to make this more believable. But here's the rub; why? High Rock and Hammerfell may be two separate provinces but they are literally right next to each other and boast very few large water masses within their boundaries. Now if this game took place in a location wherein there were significant stretches of sea that could be filled with content; like Auridon (Or 'Summerset Isles' as it's been known in previous games) this would make a lot more sense. This would also make a more sensible staging area for the conflict against the Aldmeri Dominion which all of Skyrim, and the majority of this leak, has been spent building up. (You know, seeing as how Auridon would sit the seat of the Dominion's power?)
Then there is the little taster quest that was offered as a way of showcasing how the quests in the game will be more unique and varied. The scenario we were described involved a Khajiiti mother who was going to the market to buy milk and thus asked the Dragonbor- I mean the Hero of Kva- I mean The Hero Nereva- Whatever this dude is, to watch over her litter of kittens. What would proceed would be the classic 'babysitter hell' scenario wherein a bunch of cute little cat children would cause havoc and be rude all night long until the mother comes home and gets all irate. At this point our Hero(?) can either speech check to calm the crazy cat lady down or goad her into combat, after which the kittens can be found in the city's orphanage. Now, I'll admit that this is a pretty creative sounding quest, but I'm kind of curious why this is the example that's been offered to showcase the ability of this new game. I mean, this could have been coded into Skyrim, probably even Oblivion, maybe even Morrowind with a stretch. Conceptually it's unique but we've never been worried about Bethesda's ability to come up with ideas, it's their lack of the tech to execute these ideas which has been up for debate. Why not regale us with a story about that 'sailing' mechanic you introduced or maybe even the 'spell crafting' mechanic that was dropped in there somewhere? Why, oh why? (Also, the quest features Khajiit and not a single reference to Skooma. There's no way this isn't bull.)
Now a lot of news sites have already picked up on reporting this as a verifiably true leak but I've yet to see any actual evidence of these assertions so I'm willing to claim 'confirmation bias' on this one. And the nail in the coffin for that particular theory lies in one simple question; how the hell has a contractor got ahold of all these variously unrelated details for a game which, in his own words, is still in the conceptual stages right now? It just does not make sense. Now that isn't to say that I don't wish this were true, a lot of the things here do sound pretty cool, but the whole 'Redfall' rumour was killed at the end of Skyrim's life cycle and I refuse to jump onto this song and dance once again, come back when you've pictured some concept art, then we'll talk. Although this does provide ripe ground to think about the things we want from TES 6 when it does release; you know, when we're all freakin' pensioners. So maybe that's something...
No comments:
Post a Comment