As I attempt once again to finally finish the main quest chain in Oblivion (the hurdle I am forcing myself to complete before getting Skyrim - while I also wait for the price to drop) I have been admiring Gamespot's Top 5 Skyrim Mods of the Week, which is way more entertaining than it ought to be.
Anyway, while I doubt I will be able to enjoy all the mods shown in this series (not sure if they can be applied to the 360, and don't just tell me to get a gaming PC - those things are too expensive) it has got me thinking about the Bethesda style of RPG.
Now, Elder Scrolls and Fallout 3 are not exactly my favorite type of game, even if I do enjoy them quite a bit. I tend to enjoy sandboxes with slightly more guidance, and with somewhat more forgiveness if you screw up (and a leveling system that actually rewards leveling up, rather than Oblivion's, which punishes you.) That said, I have enormous respect for the ridiculous level of detail and size of their game worlds. These days, with the internet a quick click away, it's very easy to lose the "exploration" element from games. Bethesda remedies this by essentially saying "screw conservation of detail, let's just add ten times more stuff to our games than you would have to find to finish them."
Anyway, Fallout 3 was a kind of proof-of-concept (as well as being a very fun game) that the "First Person Scavenger" genre could expand beyond Elder Scrolls' swords and sorcery, fitting equally well (or if you ask my friend Tim, better) into a post-apocalyptic shooter.
So I figured I'd just post this idea I had. If you're not interested in hearing an armchair game designer coming up with new ideas, I apologize.
What I could imagine is a sort of Steampunk/Gaslamp Fantasy setting (for those of you unaware of the latter, it's the fantasy version of Steampunk. /end redundancies) that allows you to use Guns, Melee Weapons (think industrial hammers and ornate military swords,) and Magic/Contraptions.
Overall, this could follow the same basic format of quests and exploration as Elder Scrolls/Fallout, but the major draw here would be that you would gain access to an Airship. You would pilot your ship over vast areas, and there would be floating towns in the sky, as well as airborne hazards, like Sky Pirates. (Blowing Pirates off your ship with a concussive blast would be an obvious tactic, so you'd probably start encountering enemies with personal rocket packs, who would need to be killed more conventionally.)
Vastness would be the real big gameplay theme. I can imagine that there could be mountain-sized monstrosities (such as the Scarabs from Halo 3) that you need to land on and take out from within.
Anyway, there's my game pitch. I would like to play it.
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