The best Bethesda games that aren’t Bethesda games

With the imminent release of Starfield, people the world over are about to fill their boots once again with Bethesda’s signature style of go anywhere, do anything game. Unless they don’t have an Xbox or a decent PC, that is. But Bethesda aren’t the only studio who have had a crack at that particular style of vast open-world RPG: indeed, they’ve inspired plenty of copycats and homages over the years, and are often namechecked by other developers when talking about open world game design.

So Bethesda aren’t the only studio who create Bethesda-style games. Who, then, aside from them, has made the best one? That’s the question we’re asking our esteemed panel on this, the latest episode of VG247’s Best Games Ever Podcast, the show where we performatively argue about this sort of thing for your entertainment. Or bemusement. Whichever.

You could also simply read the summary below, if you’re the sort of person who skips to the last page of a book (a wrongun, a reprobate, a Bad Seed).