Fallout 3? Lol.

Finishing moves in vats are just regular animations of a kill in slow mo and a camera change. Not real finisher moves like in Skyrim. An expanding is still something Fallout 3 did not do, whatever you may think. The crafting system isn't the same, you can't forge power armor and leather armor, snipers etc. It has a handful of craftable items. 7 in fact. They don't compare.

Ahead of its time... hmm... maybe if it had some synthetic voice simulator so it could have unique voices for unique characters. Or maybe a radiant a.i. like in the Oblivion demo, with totally unpredictible things happening and yet without breaking the game. Not even a good story or good guild storylines or great dialogue trees wouldn't qualify for "ahead of its time", those are expected features in a AAA title. Only outstanding technologies pushing the envelope and bringing new original mechanics into the genre can grant such a title. Skyrim just improved some features while removing others, nothing truly original.

Nope. Only thing that was ahead of its time for Skyrim was its hype machine. Ahead of its time in the sense that it didn't crash down burning like so many other games that are hyped before release. As much as Skyrim does have flaws, the hype was mostly accurate and Bethesda didn't outright lie about any significant features or functionality (looking at you Rome 2).

not really, although it is a great game, it is far from being groundbreaking in anyway..

Well yes, you have an expanded list of items you can create but it is still the same concept:

You click on an item, menu pops up, you provided the required ingredients, "you want to make this item?" you click OK.

http://modsreloaded.com/downloads/ud4jxwwxi4/8ixqt5p3kg.jpg http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=fallout+new+vegas+workbench&go=&qs=ds&form=QBIR#view=detail&id=744875B2CB9641A3AF1E4DF66CC4EEE451A2AF0C&selectedIndex=1

http://static.gamesradar.com/images/mb/GamesRadar/us/Games/F/Fallout%20New%20Vegas/Everything%20Else/Fallout%20Archives/craft--article_image.jpg

http://media.moddb.com/images/articles/1/89/88352/auto/rec8.jpg

http://i1-games.softpedia-static.com/screenshots/Skyrim-Mod-Arrow-Crafting_2.jpg

Exact same concept. Nothing new here. This applies to everything you can craft in the game. From armors, to houses, to cooking (Fallout New Vegas)

Rockstar made an incredible game.

GTA V deserves it. Glad it beat out something like Call of Duty.

One BILLION in three days.

Well if you go that route, nothing is really new anymore. You can't say Fallout 3 did everything Skyrim did because its similar. Especially when its much more expanded on in Skyrim.

What about these guys?

http://cdn-ak.f.st-hatena.com/images/fotolife/p/paranoia_shooter/20100114/20100114233427.jpg

http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/MqEpKQb9euI/0.jpg

What about it? That isn't the same as a crafting system actually fleshed out with many craftable items compared to a handful. Those aren't nearly as similar as the example you gave.

I think the only point Edalriso was making is simply that these features are similar. And if features are similar it is hard to make the case that the features are groundbreaking. It seems to me that arguing over details is missing the broader point that was being made.

I think it's a good game, but I still give it a healthy dose of criticism. It feels a lot like Fallout 3, sometimes to its advantage and other times to its detriment. However, I'll note Killabee has a point. Skyrim has a lot Fallout doesn't. Being similar doesn't mean the same.

Things can be ground breaking due to how they are expanded upon, despite being similar. Halo was considered ground breaking, despite other games having similar gameplay. Halo 2, same thing, and was ahead of its time as well, multiplayer wise and graphics wise for consoles. Same thing. It definitely wasn't the first FPS multiplayer game. It just made it a lot better.

edit: I'm not saying Skyrim was though. Just saying Fallout 3 didn't do "everything" first.

It's another thing Fallout 3 did before Skyrim as part of the random encounters. Those were not introduced in Oblivion, those came from Fallout 3. Not Similar? How about the notes they carry?

http://cdn.overclock.net/5/51/600x338px-LL-5174c7cf_Screenshot2098.jpeg

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_-LixlOVad3c/Smv8uxZFetI/AAAAAAAABuY/lWcE9cxPZN4/s1600-h/Fallout3+65+new+talon+contract.jpg

Point is, I can keep going showing examples of things Fallout 3 did before Skyrim did therefore making Skyrim not "ahead of its time"

See these people:

http://s700.photobucket.com/user/gtg633w/media/fallout3_lp/13_Daddy/517.jpg.html

http://www.scharesoft.de/loesungen/images/skyrim_hauptquest_alduins_mauer_02.jpg

Similar lines of dialogue, very different themes, same archetype. Father figure and unlikeable [censored]. Even that was done first in Fallout 3.

All True. But I'm not really arguing. You could say I may be trollin' the coronel a bit.

Well then we agree. But Fallout 3 didn't do "everything" first. Basically what you are doing is telling me that all the 9 celestial non star or moon bodies in our solar system are planets, then when I say pluto is not, you point out that Mars is, as if this proves your statement true.

Don't get me started on Mars!

Lol

This.

Can not emphasize HOW important it is to understand that.

Anyways, one of the things that I personally have always respected so much about Bethesda is how - to me anyways - they are so totally individual from the rest of the main-stream game developing market.

Of course, that's not to say they don't know how to put the power of 10 suns behind their marketing campaigns.

But the way I see it, they have always had such pure visions of what they are seeking to accomplish, and I have never seen them compromise the integrity of one of their projects by deciding to implement a different mechanic simply because it may help sell more copies.

One thing is for sure:

When Bethesda releases a game - you KNOW that it is a BETHESDA game. Each one of their installments is such a drastic leap from the previous one, and I personally see Bethesda games as being on an entirely different wavelength than the rest.

Of course, this is just my opinion

Exactly

actually, most of the features you are pointing out have existed in some RPG or another before FO3 was developed..

The series is a million times more popular now then it was after Morrowind. No denying that regardless if you're a Morrowind really devoted fan or not.

That can be a double edged sword. Here's hoping they don't oversimplify things next go around.

You consistently (and conveniently) focus on the Morrowind part of Shelly's post (which was really a throwaway line). But I think her main point concerned Oblivion. And I agree with her. It was with Oblivion's release that Bethesda took its place among the "big boy" developers. And that, to me, is when Bethesda was propelled into "true stardom."

Maybe you weren't here to experience it, but everything around here changed after Oblivion was released. We were a pretty small, tight-knit group of RPG nerds before Oblivion hit. After Oblivion, everything was different. It seemed that everybody and his brother was suddenly on these forums. We were dealing for the first time with people who had never played a roleplaying game before. It was like watching a small town turn into a major city almost overnight.

Skyrim continued the trend begun with Oblivion. It is more of the same, nothing radically different. Skyrim received more media exposure and we have even more people on these forums who have never played a roleplaying game before. But these things are just continuations of trends that began in 2006 with Oblivion.

It may be that way with the nerds here on the forum, but I have friends who barely have ever even picked up a controller who know what Skyrim is, whereas with Oblivion, even some gamers didn't know what it was. Not really a good thing to me, but that's a whole different issue. Everyone and their grandmother knows what Skyrim is. Or have at least heard of Fus Ro Dah and "Took an arrow in the knee."