Playing Bethesda’s open world RPGs when they were new, each time you installed a new DLC you’d get a convenient notification as soon as you booted up your last save telling you how to start the quest or where to buy your horse armor or whatever. Replaying them after the inevitable GOTY or Ultimate edition made for a more jarring experience. You step out of the tutorial sewer or shelter and you’re bombarded with pop-ups, one after another.
Istvan Pely, who has art credits on all of the Bethesda Fallout games as well as the Elder Scrolls from Morrowind to Skyrim, recently told GamesRadar that Fallout 3’s GOTY edition in particular taught them this wasn’t the best experience.
“One of the things we learned, more than a decade ago,” he said, “when you look at the Game of the Year Edition of Fallout 3—we would make these DLCs, and then we put out a Game of the Year Edition—and the Game of the Year Edition would start with all of these messages [telling you] the DLCs had unlocked. We’ve gotten better at that.”
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