Bethesda can't see past RPGs

By Robert Purchese Published 20 February, 2007

Quite happy just doing them.

Those of you who enjoy a good bout of rat-punching, like myself, will be pleased to hear that Bethesda has no plans to move out of the role-playing genre, according to voice-of-the-company Pete Hines.

"I can tell you that right now there are no plans internally for us to do anything other than role-playing," Bethesda's vice president of PR told Edge recently.

The developer is currently tying the final knots for PS3 launch title Oblivion, as well as finishing work on the game's first full expansion, Shivering Isles. Bethesda believes the differences between the two console versions are largely in the eye of the beholder: both are virtually identical, with perhaps a teency-weency performance difference in load times and draw distances.

"I think that you could find any number of people who would argue that the platform they enjoy the most is the one that looks the best," Hines added. "Sometimes folks see stuff there that's real, and oftentimes it's imagined. The PS3 and 360 versions are for all intents and purposes identical."

"They're different platforms - we had to do different things for optimising and loading - but the 360 was the first one out of the gate and our goal was always that the PS3 version has to match the performance on that console, it can't lag even by a little bit. ‘As good as or better' was our mantra."

The next project for the developer will be Fallout 3. Unfortunately we know as much about it as we do about life on Mars, with no consoles specified or details divulged. We expect it will be available on PC, Xbox 360 and PS3, much like Oblivion, but we can only guess.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (20) Latest comment 5 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • BadBoyBonner #1 5 years ago

    Wonder if they were talking about a 360 with a HD or without?
    Edited by 1 at 20/02/07 @ 11:08

  • alimokrane #2 5 years ago

    I hope the PS3 version isnt plagued by framerate issues like the 360 version ... still waiting for a patch bathesda ....
    Edited by 1 at 20/02/07 @ 11:10

  • kangarootoo #3 5 years ago

    "The next project for the developer will be Fallout 3"

    Yay!

    @alimokrane

    I've not really seen framerate issues in Ob on 360, unless I am just not paying attention. Certainly nothing that has impacted my play. Is it proper frame rate stuttering, or the sometimes erratic area loading/streaming (which I do see)?

  • Laserbream #4 5 years ago

    I can pretty much guarantee a lynch mob if they make it into another Brotherhood of Steel.

    I'm going to start saving for the plane ticket now. If it turns out great, then I get a holiday in the states. If it's Brotherhood of Steel style then I get to don my mad max outfit and perform many a critical headshot on the folks in Rockville.

    And they say Jack Thompson is mad.

  • Inigo #5 5 years ago

    I thought they stopped doing RPGs after Morrowind :)

  • mkreku #6 5 years ago

    No. They stopped doing RPG's after Daggerfall.

  • Xerx3s #7 5 years ago

    Arena. -_-

  • Darren #8 5 years ago

    So am I correct in saying that the PS3 version of Oblivion will use HDR lighting *and* 2X AA just like the superb 360 version? The reason I ask is that I thought the PS3's RSX graphics chip was based heavily on the GeForce 7900 GT, which certainly *cannot* do HDR + AA in Oblivion on the PC as I own that card and play with Bloom + 2X AA instead.

    Anyway, I thought Bethesda originally claimed that the PS3 version had a much improved draw distance over the 360 version with better foreground-to-background texture transitions along with far faster loading times and now they're saying that both versions are practically identical? :?

  • Fubdub #9 5 years ago

    It does, but since that has only to do with improved coding, it will also be available in the Xbox version through a patch.

  • Nithron #10 5 years ago

    Yeah, well, dogs can't look up.
    True story.

  • BadBoyBonner #11 5 years ago

    Especially when they are howling.

  • ave #12 5 years ago

    What, you mean Bethesda make RPG's?

    News to me :/

  • TheJanitor #13 5 years ago

    how were the loading times in the x360 version? cause i was gonna get it but have been holding off cause of the improved loading times on the ps3...
    where they that bad when you were traveling? it's what i read.

  • The_Programmer #14 5 years ago

    Well I hope their next RPG is better than StarTrek Legacy.

  • BadBoyBonner #15 5 years ago

    Only bad if you do not have a 360 with HD, if ya have a HD connected to the 360 it streams most of the data in a timely fashion. From what I have read the PS3 has a slower drive - but perhaps the new PS3 disc has been mastered in a more efficient manner? Plus the PS3 allows you to "dump" large chunks of data directly onto the HD.

    Sounds like difference will be negligible - so depends which controller you like the most.
    Edited by 1 at 20/02/07 @ 13:36

  • Nobuo #16 5 years ago

    I miss when Bethesda had the Terminator licence.

  • TheJanitor #17 5 years ago

    a site claims some of the loading times on the ps3 version are 2 seconds long.

  • kangarootoo #18 5 years ago

    @Nithron

    If you ever get chased by a bear, run downhill as their short front legs have problems descending at speed (truth is, bears are fast as fk, so you will probably still get eaten).

  • kangarootoo #19 5 years ago

    @Xiphos

    I wish I could regularly execute games so poorly as Bethesda did with Oblivion.

    Those millions of sales, millions of happy customers and consistently high review scores are some incompetance that I would eat for breakfast every day given the chance.

    The key point I am trying to convey with my poor attempts at humour is that millions of people loved Oblivion, like fucking LOVED it.

    So given that the "quality" of all games is subjective by its very nature, can you really not see how this is simply a matter of taste?

    P.s. what is a design parameter?

  • NegativeZero #20 5 years ago

    I'm looking forward to seeing what they do with Fallout. Unfortunately I missed the original games when they were new and fresh at the time, and they're pretty hard to go back to after playing more recent RPGs. Plotline is fantastic, but the gameplay is really average. GURPS doesn't transfer to a computer very well.