I cant help but feel like this is a massive circle-jerk situation or maybe im missing something...

Fallout 3 and especially Skyrim were two of my favorite gaming experiences of the last decade. Both were massively popular when they were released and everybody loved them but somewhere along the way people on reddit and other forums suddenly decided that both games were terrible and Bethesda is the worst developer ever while also claiming that New Vegas is 10/10 perfect bestest game, no flaws, deepest RPG mechanics, Shakespeare-level writing...

I usually dont care about these popularity contests, people can like whatever they like but this particular one annoys me.

I thought New Vegas was pretty much mediocre all around. It felt like a less polished, less atmospheric, ugly fan-made mod for Fallout 3.

The few improvements (aiming down sights, leveling system, hardcore mode) were massively overshadowed by the technical problems, terrible optimisation, bugs, ugly graphics (especially the vegas strip and most of the desert regions), lame legion faction, bland music... but most importantly it just didnt get the world-building, atmosphere and immersion right. I think Bethesda nails those attributes and thats the main reason their games work so well.

They suck you into their world and you can just wander around and feel completely immersed. People are always so quick to list all the flaws such as quest design, writing, rpg mechanics but they can never admit that these games are truely great in terms of world-building and immersion and the system based gameplay.

Maybe Im giving New Vegas too much flack, I just didnt like it at all, it felt like a cheap expansion pack instead of a sequel to me but I just think this retroactive glorification of a (imo) mediocre game is both phony and at the same time a cheap way to pile on the hate-jerk thats been going on against Bethesda recently.

I have to admit I didnt really get into Fallout 4 so far (I`ve only played it for 20 hours so far and it didnt get me hooked) but I find it annoying how one game that didnt meet expectations should suddenly nullify Morrowind, Oblivion, Fallout 3 and Skyrim.