I Think I Found Something Amusing Regarding Bethesda's Obsession with HP Lovecraft

Ragemage

Ragemage

Wept for Zion
So in a lot of the forums lately, especially regarding the announcement of the new DLCs, I've noticed people saying that Bethesda seems to have a hard-on for HP Lovecraft. I even saw some people saying something along the lines of "Instead of cramming the Fallout universe full of nonsensical HP Lovecraft references, why don't they just make a damn Cthulu game or something?"

Well, as it turns out, they actually did! In an obscure Bethesda title known as Call of Cthulu: Dark Corners of the Earth. You can read about it here: http://store.steampowered.com/app/22340/

It's old, it's clunky, and apparently it's full of bugs so gamebreaking you need a fanmade patch in order to actually be able to finish the game. It's also from 2006, to put a date on it. So yes, it looks like FO4 isn't their first foray into Lovecraft.. well.. love.
 
Actually Bethesda was the publisher, that game was actually made by Headfirst Productions.

What is interesting about that game and the relationship between Bethesda and Headfirst Productions is that after the game was released Headfirst Productions had problems with Bethesda Softworks about financial issues and then they went bankrupt... I don't really know what problems those were.

So we have Bethesda refusing to pay Obsidian's Bonus money and this case where an entire studio went bankrupt because they "had problems with Bethesda Softworks about financial issues", I have the feeling Bethesda just promises to pay "smaller" studios and then doesn't as a big Fuck You...

Attention future game devs, do not have dealings with Bethesda, they will promise you money and then fuck you in the ass and you won't get the money.

Disclaimer: This is my opinion and I am making assumptions since I don't really know what happened with Bethesda and Headfirst Productions besides this:

After having published Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth, Headfirst had problems with publisher Bethesda Softworks regarding finances. Some time after that about half of the company left, so the second project's team (Call of Cthulhu: Destiny's End), along with some people from the CoC:DCotE production team, stayed on board trying to keep working on the project, porting it to the next-gen consoles, while the directors were trying to secure a publishing deal for the game. After several months of struggle the company went into administration. After that most unfortunate event, majority of staff have left to other West Midlands game companies, namely Codemasters, Eurocom and Sega Racing Studio. In February 2006, Headfirst Productions went into administration in an effort to pay off outstanding debts owed because of production costs associated with the many years of Cthulhu development, and other unsigned projects. Assets were liquidated, employees were laid off, and the company was dissolved less than a month later.
Courtesy of Wikipedia: Source
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I have to say, Bethesda Game Studios have been trying very hard to follow in the footsteps of its sibling under Bethesda Softworks. They get one-upped so often - Wolfenstein: TNO was one of the best shooters of recent years, and Dishonored recreated nearly everything that made Thief and Deus Ex good, yet Fallout games just keep falling behind. I guess being the only studio that has to juggle two IPs (Fallout and Elder Scrolls) is taking its toll on them.

On that note, did you know that Interplay's successor, inXile Entertainment, worked for Bethesda Softworks to create a mediocre action hack and slash once? I didn't, until now. Pretty interesting how many connections Bethesda Softworks has to pretty much everyone. Even Japanese game developers.
 
ZigzagPX4 said:
I have to say, Bethesda Game Studios have been trying very hard to follow in the footsteps of its sibling under Bethesda Softworks. They get one-upped so often - Wolfenstein: TNO was one of the best shooters of recent years, and Dishonored recreated nearly everything that made Thief and Deus Ex good, yet Fallout games just keep falling behind. I guess being the only studio that has to juggle two IPs (Fallout and Elder Scrolls) is taking its toll on them.

On that note, did you know that Interplay's successor, inXile Entertainment, worked for Bethesda Softworks to create a mediocre action hack and slash once? I didn't, until now. Pretty interesting how many connections Bethesda Softworks has to pretty much everyone. Even Japanese game developers.
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Softworks is the publisher for some really talented studios. It's just that their in-house developers in Game Studios suck.
 
ZigzagPX4 said:
Pretty interesting how many connections Bethesda Softworks has to pretty much everyone.
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Bethesda is the Nestle of Gaming: Big, Publishes lots of games, People buy their stuff because they are from labels they are familiar with, and they charge you extra for stuff you should be getting for free(With Nestle it's water, with Bethesda it's DLC with content that could have just been implemented in to the main game)
 
JO'Geran said:
Bethesda is the Nestle of Gaming: Big, Publishes lots of games, People buy their stuff because they are from labels they are familiar with, and they charge you extra for stuff you should be getting for free(With Nestle it's water, with Bethesda it's DLC with content that could have just been implemented in to the main game)
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That's Electronic Arts, and the better comparison is probably as the Comcast of gaming. Bethesda is basically a less diabolical version of EA.

They're not as bad as every publisher out there - like Square Enix, Ubisoft, or EA, but they still make the mistakes that publishers disconnected from their fanbase do - overcharging, treating their community not as well as they should be, etcetera. I would trust them more than other publishers but not by that much.
 
Ragemage said:
So in a lot of the forums lately, especially regarding the announcement of the new DLCs, I've noticed people saying that Bethesda seems to have a hard-on for HP Lovecraft. I even saw some people saying something along the lines of "Instead of cramming the Fallout universe full of nonsensical HP Lovecraft references, why don't they just make a damn Cthulu game or something?"

Well, as it turns out, they actually did! In an obscure Bethesda title known as Call of Cthulu: Dark Corners of the Earth. You can read about it here: http://store.steampowered.com/app/22340/

It's old, it's clunky, and apparently it's full of bugs so gamebreaking you need a fanmade patch in order to actually be able to finish the game. It's also from 2006, to put a date on it. So yes, it looks like FO4 isn't their first foray into Lovecraft.. well.. love.
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That game is great, its not broken; it was even ported over to consoles. Have you actually played it ? Hell I wish Fallout 4 had similar mechanics. It had different types of healthpacks depending on type of wound/part of the body was injured. No HUD or quest markers of any type. Ammo was scarce and you would suffer vertigo and other psychological effects and were given a lower score the amount of times you saved your game. Snooping around Innsmouth while trying not to see too much to effect my sanity and then escaping Gillman house was an experience, and the level design was quite impressive for the time.
 
Juza The Cloud said:
That game is great, its not broken; it was even ported over to consoles. Have you actually played it ? Hell I wish Fallout 4 had similar mechanics. It had different types of healthpacks depending on type of wound/part of the body was injured. No HUD or quest markers of any type. Ammo was scarce and you would suffer vertigo and other psychological effects and were given a lower score the amount of times you saved your game. Snooping around Innsmouth while trying not to see too much to effect my sanity and then escaping Gillman house was an experience, and the level design was quite impressive for the time.
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I never said it wasn't fun, just broken. I haven't played it myself but I bought it for my girlfriend and she had to go get that patch for the game because of glitches.
 
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