Uncharted 1?? How is that even possible? Frostbite is a top engine, from the beautiful results it has given.
Bethesda have literally the ugliest, buggiest, slowest engine in existence today. They need to ‘Let it go’, and fast.
If you choose to prioritize delivery over graphics, then you end up paying out to Unreal for instance, or you end up with Ubisofts constant upgrading of all their engines, or you end up with Bethseda, which is woefully struggling to get their graphics to match their competitors baselines.
I think either I wrote poor english, but yes, I'm in agreement. They prioritized delivery over graphics.If you've ever attended one of the infrequent Bethesda presentations at GDC then you know they almost never talk about graphics, it's just not their focus at all. They don't want to fall too far behind (Fallout 3 was actually decent looking game on lastgen consoles) but it's definitely not where their time is most spent.
They also have one of the few engines that can manage thousands of unique individual assets moving around a massive world in realtime without smoke and mirrors (like NPC running off into the distance and disappearing) and magically appearing/spawning at the next narrative meeting point. It can also manage thousands of unique, individual items moved around, in realtime, in that world. I can't think of any other game that achieves what Bethesda's engine sets out to do. It comes at a heavy price.
In that case I think Andromeda is. Bigger maps, denser details, higher polygon count, more AI on screen .. etc.Lets compare sub 30fps andromeda and later 60 fps battlefields. Yeah different rendering setups but even then one could argue which title is doing more...
That shows they didn't think it through, and let it carry on that way ridiculously. For ionAXXIA, I faced the same issue. It was apparent I needed an immediate 'test' mode for ship designs so players could try new components and builds. After a bit of prototyping, I settled on including the ship designer inside the ship flying levels. The ship building 'level' is a normal game level with some easy target-practice enemies. Flexibility like that allows a game to evolve to its best, most fun form, as I can have special levels where you adjust your ship as you go, and could take the game more in that direction if it proved more fun.Amy mentions issues with inventory systems:
The only possible response I could see for game design is that they wanted it like mechwarrior where you could only alter your mech in a garage and not modify your parts in the jungle.That shows they didn't think it through, and let it carry on that way ridiculously. For ionAXXIA, I faced the same issue. It was apparent I needed an immediate 'test' mode for ship designs so players could try new components and builds. After a bit of prototyping, I settled on including the ship designer inside the ship flying levels. The ship building 'level' is a normal game level with some easy target-practice enemies. Flexibility like that allows a game to evolve to its best, most fun form, as I can have special levels where you adjust your ship as you go, and could take the game more in that direction if it proved more fun.
Loading screens to try anything new out is really poor.
It was a mix of indecision and having the folks at Bioware Montreal coming off of ME3 MP/DLC, so re-inventing the wheel must have been part of the issue here.4) Bioware released Dragon Age with the same engine (thus invalidating partially the same claims they had made to explain the failure of Andromeda)
Dragon AgeFrosbite is definitely being used as a scapegoat
I think that'd be a prerequisite of being a AAA studio. AAA being best of the best. Any big-ticket game should be employing engine and tool development as part of the budget, as these are vital to the success and efficient operation of the whole project.I’m not well versed with AAA studios, but I can’t imagine all of them are well fitted to modify engines and build tools as well as others can, at least in the concept of modifying someone else’s engine.