Oh, Bethesda. Bethesda, Bethesda, Bethesda. How do you fuck up Doom, of all things?
Well, I think we all already know the answer to that: you place intrusive online-dependent DRM in all its console ports, including the one specifically designed to be taken on the go to, say, places that you don't have a stable Internet connection.
Weirdly, there are some people defending this. I posted a tweet on the subject last night and there were people wilfully misunderstanding what I said about it as well as saying things like "just use a mobile hotspot".
Yes, you can just use a mobile hotspot, but that's not exactly an ideal solution — particularly if you're somewhere that doesn't have a good data signal. Which is still quite a few places here in the UK. Or what about if you're going on a trip and you're on a plane that doesn't have Wi-Fi, as many still don't? If you'd downloaded Doom ahead of your trip and hadn't had the foresight to start it up once beforehand at home (which is not something you should need to do with a 25-year old game) then you literally wouldn't be able to play it, because the game requires you to sign in to Bethesda's stupid servers at least once.
For a game. With no. Online. Features. Not even multiplayer!
Whenever I wonder if I should step back into the triple-A space just to see what's going on, situations like this remind me that I'm quite happy where I am. Doom from 1993 isn't a triple-A game, obviously, but Bethesda are a triple-A publisher, and so this sort of ridiculous behaviour can be expected in most of their titles. As such, I have no interest in supporting them whatsoever.
Still, at least this whole situation has resulted in some amusing memes, for once; generally I tire of topical memes within less than five minutes, but these made me chuckle.
https://twitter.com/balmut_/status/1154860181064491015
https://twitter.com/qazimod/status/1155019820724883456
https://twitter.com/grisevg/status/1155018226406961157
https://twitter.com/BradicalPrime/status/1155019883274371073
Now, I think, an hour or two of Lapis x Labyrinth, which fired up the moment I put it in my Switch, didn't require any updates and doesn't need to be connected online for anything…
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