{"id":44882,"date":"2018-11-21T06:00:39","date_gmt":"2018-11-21T11:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=44882"},"modified":"2018-11-21T01:33:56","modified_gmt":"2018-11-21T06:33:56","slug":"experienced-points-bethesda-doesnt-need-a-new-engine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=44882","title":{"rendered":"Experienced Points: Bethesda Doesn&#8217;t Need a New Engine"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>My column this week is about Bethesda&#8217;s reputation as a bug factory and why <a href=\"https:\/\/www.escapistmagazine.com\/v2\/2018\/11\/20\/bethesda-doesnt-need-a-new-engine\">replacing their game engine wouldn&#8217;t fix that<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/www.escapistmagazine.com\/v2\/2018\/11\/20\/bethesda-doesnt-need-a-new-engine\/<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>This is not to say their engine couldn&#8217;t use some work. Their stealth AI is embarrassing by today&#8217;s standards. Their physics engine is prone to ridiculous mishaps. The level-load that happens between interior and exterior locations is pretty anachronistic. The triggers for starting quest events and conversations feel like they&#8217;re governed by a random number generator. And of course the games have always been prone to crashes.<\/p>\n<p>And then there are the problems that aren&#8217;t really the fault of the engine, but are nevertheless pervasive in their games. The texture resolutions are hilarious inconsistent in a way that wastes tons of graphics memory but also leaves important scenery looking blurry. The heads all look like potatoes. Sound levels are random and many locations lack a soundscape.<\/p>\n<p>And so on.<\/p>\n<p>The important thing is that there&#8217;s no point in attempting to modernize their engine without first addressing the systemic problems with their development process.\u00a0Honestly, if anyone else ever figured out to make a Skyrim-esque experience Bethesda could find themselves in serious trouble. The only reason they get away with this is because they&#8217;re the only studio that can offer this kind of gameplay.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My column this week is about Bethesda&#8217;s reputation as a bug factory and why replacing their game engine wouldn&#8217;t fix that. https:\/\/www.escapistmagazine.com\/v2\/2018\/11\/20\/bethesda-doesnt-need-a-new-engine\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[102],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-weekly-column"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44882"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44882\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44887,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44882\/revisions\/44887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}