Loathe and Love: Bethesda Softworks

There's two reasons for me to loath and love Bethesda Softworks this month.

Loath: Oblivion

This hyped and sugar coated game is the reason why I loath Bethsoft. Yes, it has spectacular graphics, as shown in screenshots. But with all their time devoted creating wonderful eye candies, it seems that they forgot to make a role-playing game. That's why I'm gonna avoid it, and here's five of my reasons:




1. No tradional RPG dialogue - "...but conversation trees progress, unlike in games like Knights of the Old Republic, without your answer. In each conversation you have a list of topics from which to choose, but your replies and questions aren't written out. This is a design choice held over from Morrowind." -- 1up.com

2. High system requirements - "Recommended System: * ATI X800 series, Nvidia GeForce 6800 series, or higher video card" -- Oblivion FAQ

3. Bad character creation system - "I wasn’t thrilled by the character creation system[...]It never really made me feel like I was really customizing my character, more that I was just tweaking a preset base." -- Gamers with Jobs

4. Buggy? - "Morrowind was known to have loading issues of this sort but they seem to be even more of hassle in Oblivion than in the previous game, mostly due to the fact that while on horseback loading sections are encountered like every eight seconds." -- Gamers Mark

5. I'm broke - "I believe in the saying: What is important is invisible. Because I've never seen money for three weeks now." -- Skron

Love: Call of Cthulhu

Yes, Bethsoft finally confirmed that the PC version of Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth will hit the stores this month. This will be my first purchase from my 2006 wishlist. As a fan of Lovecraftian horror, I can't wait to play this game!