Back in the day it was almost unthinkable to release a game as bugged as Bethesda's. However because of the sheer scale and quality (nothing came close back then) it wasn't detrimental and everyone knew modders would fix the bugs anyway down the line. One thing Bethesda is known for is at least embracing mod support and releasing tools for it.
Their games nowadays are just as bugged as before but because it's become common to release buggy games on day 1 (to the point that sometimes they're unplayable for half the users, like RDR2), by comparison they look almost pristine. At the very least I don't remember game breaking bugs in TES 3 4 or 5 that would prevent you from progressing the game.
Back in the day it was almost unthinkable to release a game as bugged as Bethesda's. However because of the sheer scale and quality (nothing came close back then) it wasn't detrimental and everyone knew modders would fix the bugs anyway down the line. One thing Bethesda is known for is at least embracing mod support and releasing tools for it.
Their games nowadays are just as bugged as before but because it's become common to release buggy games on day 1 (to the point that sometimes they're unplayable for half the users, like RDR2), by comparison they look almost pristine. At the very least I don't remember game breaking bugs in TES 3 4 or 5 that would prevent you from progressing the game.