Memes @lemmy.ml

1y ago

Another Starfield Post

376 comments

bethesda announces game concept.
people freak.
bethesda announces game.
people hype.
bethesda starts hyping the game.
people go fucking nuts hyping the game as a result. their social media team plants those seeds to make it look organic.
a year or more of speculation occurs.
todd howard being his little schmuck self comes out and boasts about their new game.
people lose their god damn minds.
whispers of shitty gameplay start occurring closer to launch.
the masses tell those people to fuck off how could they know, dishonest review etc etc.
the big names in game reviews all review it and give it out of the park amazing reviews.
people go batshit crazy. people are out in the streets killing their parents for a chance at the new bethesda god game.
the game is released and is somewhat playable but jesus fuck is it lacking, it’s buggy, and every character looks like they’ve been updated from skyrim graphics of yore. the story sucks. the game play is empty but goddamn is there a lot to explore.
everyone rushes in like a madman.
everyone realizes the gameplay sucks.
people start removed.
others say “oh don’t worry, DLC and user created mods will fill the game out nicely.”
years pass.
the unpaid modding community pours their heart and soul into making the game not fucking suck.
after all the DLC has come out (all with mostly positive or mixed reviews on steam) the game will go dark for a year or so.
todd howard wakes from his capitalist vampire coma needing fresh life force. the blood money of his unsuspecting idiot fans.
todd howard makes it into the office and says we could make a new game or we can milk this game for the next decade and a half. quick come up with names to rerelease the game under. game of the year edition. complete edition. master edition. elite edition. remastered. remastered complete. anything works!
over the course of the next three decades, todd howard is fed the blood of bethesda’s fan base.
he is swollen, like a fat tick upon his harkonen throne, waiting to burst.
“the people. they call for a NEW game”, he says, a devilish sneer contorts his face.
and the cycle continues.
and these fucking idiots. every goddamn time.
- This comment is better written than the game itself.
  
  That comment or this comment?
- I enjoyed this display of literary art.
- holy shit this broke me 10/10
- This is one of the greatest comments of all time
- Sixteen times the comment!
- Str8 facts

I don't get it.
People wanted another Bethesda game.
They got what they wanted.
I said in 2008, after playing the first Fallout game by Bethesda instead of Black Isle: "Only Bethesda could manage to make a post apocalyptic prostitute boring."
They've always been boring, they've always had ugly character models, and the writing has always been bad. You get what you paid for. A Bethesda game.
- I think the fundamental problem is that people had different expectations for a game set in space, both because Bethesda stoked them (all of that talk of having the idea decades ago / first new franchise in however many years / Microsoft bought the company just to get it as an exclusive / etc) and because after No Man's Sky people kind of expected that with their budget / resources they would manage to fix that game's problems and create something richer + more seamless.
  In retrospect, if they'd simply sold it as "Skyrim in Space," admitted to the limitations up front - same underlying engine, limited amount of variety to procedurally-generated content, loading screens instead of seamless takeoff/landing, etc - and not pretended that it was something new, the response would have probably been much more uniformly positive.
  
  But they kind of already did say most of that stuff.
  They said long before the game came out that there was no seamless takeoff/landing. They said they upgraded their Creation Engine for Starfield, AFAIK they never said it was entirely new.
  Either way, I like it. Its fun.
  
  The setting lowered my expectations. Modern sci-fi has this weird obsession with being sterile and boring. Compared to the magical fantasy of Elder Scrolls and the zany retro-futurism of Fallout, it was guaranteed to be boring.
  
  I think you're on the right track, but I think it's also because recent games did better with similar ideas. People shat all over Mass Effect Andromeda, but it hid loading screens behind interplanetary and FTL travel that was actually visualized. In my brain, I know they're cutscenes to cover for loading data, but it's enough to take you out of it being a "game" and allowing you to suspend your disbelief. It's hard to suspend disbelief when there's a loading screen constantly in front of you.
  
  after No Man's Sky people kind of expected that with their budget / resources they would manage to fix that game's problems and create something richer + more seamless
  That was basically what I hoped for. NMS type game, but with Skyrim/ fallout level modding, stories, quests and deeper meaning to it.
  And with better procgen. They have the manpower and expertise to do that.
  I haven't bought the game yet, waiting to see the initial responses. Now.. I'll probably pick it up on sale sometime, when bugs are fixed and there's solid mods.
  
  I just want Spacerim tho
- They’ve always been boring
  Strongly disagreed. Pre-Oblivion their games were great. Hoping for a return to engrossing stories taking place in a rich, expansive universe was not entirely unreasonable.
  
  Morrowind was their best, but I would say 21 years on, it's really tough to be like "Yeah, this time they'll get back to their roots." No, it's time to move on. All the people who made those games what they were have retired, moved on, or died.
  
  I'd recommend you go back and read some critical reviews of Arena and Daggerfall. The complaints are exactly the same: the graphics engine is out of date, the characters are lifeless, the writing is just okay, the story is shallow, etc. Bethesda has scaled back the RPG mechanics since Morrowind, for sure, but their games ultimately have the same Bethesda DNA, for better or worse. For what it's worth, I'm enjoying Starfield at launch much more than Fallout 4 even now, updated, expanded and modded.
- Not always, n'wah
  
  Skyrim is literally one of their worst-written games and only has a saving grace of a wide open world that is interesting to explore.
  Personal opinion, Morrowind was still boring, but had the best writing, best style, and required the most from the player. Morrowind was peak Bethesda and that was over 20 years ago.
- As an enjoyer of both Oblivion and Morrowind I'm going to say that I think it's more likely that the people at Bethesda who were key at making their past games good have either been promoted beyond their positions of expertise or simply left for greener pastures. Bethesda hasn't always been trash, and people are quick to forget transgressions from nearly a decade ago (yes! It's been that long!)
  
  It's been 21 years since Morrowind, and 17 years since Oblivion. Been longer than a decade. Two in Morrowind's case. I would put Morrowind down as "peak Bethesda," and their games have been slowly turning to crap since. I agree, I think they lost a lot of key players who worked for them, and they've never been able to regain their footing.
- I'm fine with their writing and their overall gameplay. It's just that they managed to make space feel boring and tiny. All those little areas in-between the loading screens really don't feel like a vast space opera at all.
  Also I wish they would just invest into some new game mechanics. Proc gen planets look great and exploring them could have been so much fun 🥲
  
  Yeah one of the best parts of the game, the planets look great. There's just not much to do on them.
- Thanks Todd Howard 🙏
  
  "He can't keep getting away with it!!"

There's a trait you can pick that exactly explains my problems.with the game. The trait is 'Dream Home'. It is described as
'You own a luxurious, customizable house on a peaceful planet! Unfortunately it comes with a 125,000 credit mortgage with GalBank that has to be paid weekly.'...
I thought this was a cool way of adding increased difficulty for myself. I tend not to play at the hardest setting because I don't have much time to play. But having to plan ahead and work around this limitation sounded like it would add an interesting wrinkle to the strategy I'd have in the game.
However, when you start the game you discover that the loan has to be paid off in full... And you have unlimited time to pay it off. The only way to be foreclosed upon is if you actively go tell the bank to foreclose on you. It's like they had the idea, but couldn't be bothered to implement it.
What's worse is 120k is nothing in the game. You can easily get there within a few hours of play. This is just one example, but it speaks to the game's complete unwillingness to give the player anything negative or push them any way from their 'freedom'. The sheer fact you are not locked out of any faction or faction mission is another example. There are 0 stakes in the game and you feel 0 connection to the people you meet or places you visit. Not helped by Sarah potentially being one of the most annoying judgemental characters in any Bethesda game I've ever encountered.
Update: I eventually visited this 'Dream House'. It kinda sucked. The planet it is on is kinda ugly. There is more to this mechanic than I originally thought, however. When you visit you can pay 500 credits for 1 week of access as a 'payment' towards the principal. Still very deceptive of the original description.
- The only way to be foreclosed upon is if you actively go tell the bank to foreclose on you
  Bethesda once again being so scared of the player making a choice, so they lock down anything that actually changes the game behind a giant 🚨 ARE YOU SURE??? 🚨
  
  I mean there are a whole bunch of players that seem to have a problem with actually dealing with consequences. Just look at the bg3 players who are so pissed about "missing content" when they murderhobo their way through the game. Like no shit you killed the people who give you quests, of course you're going to miss out on their stories.
- The sheer fact you are not locked out of any faction or faction mission is another example.
  Ah, so Skyrim in space
  
  vast as an ocean but as shallow as a puddle
- Someday I’m interested in making an open world game (short on features because I’ll never have giant budgets) that embraces the friction of inconvenience, but finds enjoyable ways for people to circumvent them.
  Eg: You can’t easily locate yourself on the map, but you can use a radio to ping towers and triangulate, which gives a breezy interface - or just ask locals. You can’t fast travel, but train stations get you where you’re going - and you might get an interesting conversation or even a whole questline on board.
  
  When ARMA Reforger released it was chaos, with 95% of the people hopelessly lost at all times. It's because the game gave you a map, a compass, and nothing else for navigation. Best. Immersion. Ever.
  Always on instant GPS with augmented reality waypoints between abstract objectives is what kills player immersion (and developer creativity). If I can just follow an arrow from point to point and complete a game: it wasn't worth making the game.
  
  There's a little open world game called Miasmata with that triangulation system! It's an open world survival horror. It's pretty short though, and I bet you could get it for just a few bucks on sale. I really enjoyed my time in it, and the world is the perfect mix of dreary and serene.
  
  I think Zelda does this pretty good already.
- So if you don't pay, they still won't foreclose on you? So what's the point of paying lol
- Man. Was really hoping to be wrong about it, but I mean, it is bethesda. Can't expect a full up to date game without gamebreaking bugs or missing features when they could just rely on unpaid mod creators for that.
  
  There are no (known) gamebreaking bugs
- Why didn't you pick any of the more negative traits? Like your example is the most basic harmless one. There's ones with way more downsides. Did you pick the '2 loving parents' trait and are mad they don't kill you on sight? lmao. Like I picked wanted where I always have a bounty and it's cool. I've had a bounty hunter show up in the middle of a boss fight before. Both in space and on ground. Added a decent complication. A few of the others are pretty long term negatives like weakening aids and food.
  I also don't know if you explored much because the game has a pretty robust ailments system. Like if you pre-plan sure you can have all the expensive cures on hand, but you can get quite a few ailments at once from fucking around. I had a cough for like 4 hours because I couldn't find an aid for it. I eventually had to go to a doctor to get rid of it.
  
  I did pick other negative traits. My problem with this one is it straight up lies to you in the description. You think it is going to be negative but instead it is the most basic boring version of what that trait could be. I've explored many hostile environments where conditions are common and haven't had a situation where I didn't already have the sure on hand but I tend to loot a lot.
  You can't change your traits after starting. For my play style, this one should have been perfect. Instead it just sucked all fun out of the potential mechanic.

My wife, a couple friends, and I have all put a ton of hours into this game and absolutely love it. I put several hours into the shipbuilder alone. Every hand built sidequest I run into feels like a TNG episode. And I love the kinda Becky Chambers / Star Trek-style utopia with mystery and drama theme they've got.
This is the most Bethesda game they've ever made, for better of worse. It doesn't hand hold you. There are plenty of times where I've looked at my quest log, found nothing i could do except the main quest, and then decided just to jump to a random system - only to get pulled into some crazy new adventure for a couple hours. You're supposed to be an explorer, if you put even the smallest effort into exploring, you will be rewarded.
A lot of people complaining were never going to like this game or any Bethesda game and I don't know what to do with those people. The amount of constant negativity on the internet makes me really appreciate stories like TNG and writers like Becky Chambers and Cory Doctorow, because they're so positive and affirming and optimistic and when they criticise, they also offer solutions. And this game really scratches that itch for me.
And after almost 40 years of life dealing with the constsnt cycle of negativity and hatred and anger and frustration and drama, on the internet, a global scale, and in my own life.....I'm just tired. I can't play games with "edgy dark stories" anymore. I can't go back to New Vegas because its bummer after bummer. And i know a lot of people thrive on that "scortched earth" bullshit but I just can't anymore.
I just...wanna sit down and play a game. And maybe one where everything is okay for once. And this is that game for me.
- I don't get the hate, fuck 'em. I'm absolutely loving the game, it's exactly what I wanted and more. In fact, I get the same feeling I did playing Skyrim, you're doing some side mission, then you see something absolutely stunning. Earlier I was on some grey barren moon looking for resources, I look to the right, see the red planet, it's ice caps, and other two moons with the milky way behind them.
  I like the TNG comparison. The side missions are so much better than in other Bethesda games I've played. Even little interactions with the NPCs or little events and conversations that just happen as a part of the world and not some quest. Love it.
  
  Damn it. Now I might have to try to buy it. In was thinking game pass as I would probably just do the main story and be done... But if the side quests aren't just some, go pick up this item and bring it back, id love that.
- Yeah that's fair. Even if you see negative stuff about a game online, if you enjoy something then just enjoy it. Online toxicity and negativity are out of your control. Just get comfy and find peace in knowing that you're having a good time.
- Head to Paradiso for a StarTreky adventure.
- Man that last quest for Sarah was a such a TNG moment. Overall the writing in this game is a cut above most - that quest was sort of an obvious twist, but it was executed really well. I find myself wishing the animations could keep up with the writing and voice actors sometimes, but we can't have it all.
  
  Are you hoping for cut scenes with specially rendered segments? Because I hate that stuff and would rather see animations built within the game world, like we have in most of these Bethesda games.
  Cut scenes ruin games for me. It's why I never finished a Mass Effect game.

Rule of thumb. Wait until you see top ten mod lists for Bethesda games and is at least on sale.
- Well... MxR just dropped an immersive mod list.
  
  Impossible. There is no time to have created a list of mods. Unless the list is just BetterHUD and a few options for Reshade
  
  I hear the word immersive in his voice now
- i have gamepass unrelated to this game, i'm probably going to try it out if the dlss mod can be installed on the gamepass version (which looks like it can be). if the game sucks, i'm happy, nothing kills excitement better than actually experiencing the thing and getting disappointed, so i can finally evict this game from my head. and if the game doesn't suck, i'm also happy because all these years later i finally get to play star citizen, i just apparently had to wait for bethesda to make it.
- I'm waiting for the Moddinglinked (Viva New Vegas and Midnight Ride) guide before I starts torrenting it

Why are people pretending the game isn't getting glowing reviews? Is the Bethesda hate circlejerk still going on?
- It didn't come out on PS5.
- I like the game, but reviews are pretty unreliable these days. Cyberpunk 2077 also got a load of 8/9/10s on release and that game ran like shit and was full of bugs.
  
  Every game gets and 8, 9, or 10 lol.
- this game is a negative -5/7 in my heart

When this is the first meme I see a community make. I know the game is mid as fuck.
- thanks for summing me up

you guys really think it's boring? :/
- At this point I don't trust anyone. Reviewers obviously paid off to give positive reviews, but then just as annoying is all the pure anti Bethesda hate here. I don't trust anyone to separate their Bethesda love/hate from the review of the actual game.
  I think there was one review that was like "it's a sci Fi Skyrim in space" and that sounds like it'll be the most accurate.
  
  "it's a sci Fi Skyrim in space"
  Tbh, that DOES sound pretty great IMO 🤷
  
  For me this is the first Bethesda game I’ve played (other than a few hours of Skyrim but I didn’t get far), and I’ve been enjoying it quite a bit. It’s not a perfect game, probably not even my game of the year, but I’ve been finding myself wanting to play it over all of the other games currently in my backlog.
  I really don’t see what the hate is about, Bethesda promised space Skyrim, and that’s basically what we got.
  
  The one time ign was actually on top of it, and people mass disliked the video. That 7 was deserved.
  
  Buy it and return it after 2hrs if it's not your style. Or you can pirate it and pay them if you feel like it lol.
  
  Yea I felt the same way and spent the $30 bucks on Xbox to play it early. I really think this game is a huge "Your mileage may vary".
  If you have a PC I would look into a gamepass trial or something to try it out before buying it. Or like someone said buying it on steam and then refunding if it's not your thing.
  I didn't have super high expectations but honestly it's really solid and it does have its flaws that are sometimes in your face, but I've had a lot of highs so far when playing too. If you've played a Bethesda game before, you can expect what you're getting into.
- People are weird when it comes to Bethesda. If you like Bethesda games, you'll probably like this one. I haven't gotten to play myself yet but watching friends who have it it looks fun. Does it look 10/10 GOTY? Not really. But it looks full* of fun stuff.
  I think in some way all Bethesda games can feel 'boring', but kinda in a good way? Like sometimes you're just wandering a city with no real goal. It isn't thrilling or adrenaline pumping, but it's cool and immersive. Some people find that kind of slower pace boring. I think it's cool. Not everything gotta be full throttle all the time.
  *edit
  
  I think they've been putting out very similar games since like fallout 3. If that's what you are looking for, it's fun. People for some reason seem to put unrealistic expectations on things. I assume this game is just improved graphics fallout 3 in space. Which isn't a bad thing, but if you expect a revolutionary game you are in for disappointment.
- I played 10hrs on Steam then refunded.
  I was expecting a 2023 game with 12 years of development and 6 months delay for polish.
  I got Fallout 4 (2015) with scifi-skin.
  The thing that pissed me off the most:
  It's not as open and "huge scale" as people seem to think it is. It's kind of "fake open" if that makes sense. You cannot get into your ship and fly 800m east to your mission. If you do that, a new instance is loaded and your mission is not there. You have to run that 800m.
  
  How do you refund after 10 hours? You get 2 hours max i thought
  
  Oh that's gonna suuuuuuuck for me
  I am the person who will cheese distance running in NMS by triangulating an objective and summoning my ship to it, and Starfield apparently says "lol nope motherfucker you're walking"
- Bethesda hasn't really changed their formula, so if you've played Skyrim or Fallout 4 you quickly fall into the 'quest marker->dungeon->vendor->crafting' loop and the game stops being stimulating
  
  Except you've left out a huge bullet point from that loop that has always kept me enjoying their games: quest marker->EXPLORATION->dungeon->vendor->crafting.
  The procedural generation of this game immediately told me I wouldn't enjoy it (even though I hoped they knew what they were doing), because walking around Bethesda worlds has always been one of the best parts of the exoerience, and they went and optimized it out so that it's mostly a series of menus. And damn if that's not been their game design strategy for the past decade-plus—'optimize' out all the fun parts, make the game as simplified as possible, even if it means cutting out core features fans love.
- It really is. At first I was excited about the apparent scale, but the way they've hashed it all together all it does is make you jump through a bunch of janky menus and poorly done travel sequences to get to your next carbon-copy action sequence. Combine that with forcing you into a walking simulator when you COULD just use your god damn space ship and it's just boring and procedural.
  I can see some people really getting into it: the grind to gather resources and build bases etc but really it's nothing new and if you don't get off on this kind of mindless gameplay then you are going to be disappointed. Just raid, pick up a bunch of random junk, sell it, build shit. God, how many times have we got to play the same game in a different setting?
  I will say that they have dramatically improved gunplay compared to past titles. Like REMARKABLY, and I found the graphics to be pretty decent but if you want to play with everything on ultra and no resolution scaling, you'd better have a supercomputer. Indoor fights are difficult to lose even in the very early game, but trying to raid abandoned space bases etc will put you in a situation where the AI has got a bead on you from 4 or 5 different angles at once. Top, mid and bottom levels, incoming fire from enough places that you simply can't find cover - the way that you win is by not attempting to take these bases until you have sufficiently upgraded your HP and shields. Literally you are corralled down the story path through sheer necessity until you get to the point you can just jetpack to each enemy whilst taking fire and take them out without too much worry.
  EDIT: Another bit of playtime.
  Imagine if they left you free to use your ship as you see fit? Crew it with NPC's, upgrade the firepower and put in a few manned turrets. Maybe let you play with friends and form a pirate crew? You know, the way that battlefield has allowed for this sort of open world vehicular co-op for the last what, 13 years? Once you got good at flight maneuvers you'd be just about unstoppable low flight altitude and it would be fun as hell.
  Alas, the ship is nothing more than a teleporter with some janky, repetitive space combat out the front window. What a missed opportunity.
  
  are you playing on PC? I'm on xbox and the shooting feels harder and less natural than it did in FO76 or 4. I wonder if they optimized it for PC more than xbox
- How could they? They haven’t played it.
- This is sadly the first Bethesda game that hasn't held my attention. The moment I had to deal with that space combat tutorial I knew I would never want to fight in space again for how boring it felt rotating in circles to keep hitting the same button to fire locked on attacks. Nothing about that felt fun or enjoyable and then trying to fast travel and having to go through the menus was worse.
  Then when i got to the first area after the prologue I kept getting my AI robot companion running into as I tried exploring. I lost count of the number of times I tried looking in corners of small rooms only for Vasco run straight up to me and push me into a corner I have to spend 1 minutes trying to jump over.
  Finally New Atlantis made me ask for a refund from how horrible the map system was. Trying to explore the large place was tedious and just such a step back from all Bethesda's previous work with making the maps detailed for you to see where stuff was. Here I was just using the mission waypoints and ignoring everything else.
  I had fun at the beginning but there are just many things that caused me sway my opinion into not wanting to play it again. Hopefully I can get the $32 refund for the premium shit since I don't think I'll be sticking around for the DLC.

I somehow entirely missed the hype around this game and came across it again only accidentally on early release day when looking at some other sale on Steam. Been playing it and it seems fine to me in a vague Skyrim-in-space sort of way, which is all what I was expecting from a Bethesda RPG.
The world seems alive enough and there are plenty of side-quests and amusing / interesting things to discover. Now suddenly I have been coming across a bunch of posts everywhere where the game is supposed to be terrible or something. Still seems fine to me, but maybe I have lower standards after decades of gaming. shrug.
- Its fallout 4 in space.
  But with a worse interface and a lot more menus that are annoying to navigate.
  
  that's just console first UI design school Bethesda have subscribed to since Skyrim.
  
  Honestly this plus "Skyrim-in-space" make me feel pretty confident that this game is going to have staying power just because we know how good the modding community is for bethesda games. Skyrim was panned up front as genre generic fantasy with a pinch of viking magic but has been played continuously for a decade plus because it made for such a good blank slate to add onto. Also I guarantee every current UI issue already has modders working on it. Starfield script extender just dropped and the game hasn't even officially been released
  
  Some mods have attempted to fix the menus.
  I'd like to see some complete UI overhauls at some point, but right now I'm using a mod that increases the refresh rate to 120hz from 30 in the menu's
  
  Yeah the interface is awful.
  On the other hand, I came across pirates boarding a freighter yesterday. I shot down the pirate ship and boarded the freighter. The gravity generator was malfunctioning so it would sometimes have gravity and sometimes be zero g. There were navigation puzzles, some of which could only be done in normal grav and some in zero-g.
  None of the random side content in FO4 is anywhere near that interesting.
  
  Fallout 4 is a much better FPS. But Starfield is a much, much better RPG.

I don't understand why is it popular to shit on Bethesda games? Just don't play it if you don't like it. At least it has no microtransacrions or Battle Pass nonsense.
- Bethesda games tend to have awful writing, released with an unacceptable amount of bugs, and not having micro transactions and a battle pass shouldn’t be praised, it must be the standard.
  
  Right now it needs to be praised so it becomes the standard.
  
  So it should be praised as it currently isn't the standard in the gaming industry. But hey, let's shit on it so we can totally tell the industry that this is the wrong path and micro transactions are the way to go!
  
  I expected it to be buggy. I have not yet encountered a bug in my first few hours.
  That being said, there's lots im not liking about it so far.
- I imagine a lot of people bought it, enjoyed it for a few minutes too long to refund, and are now stuck with 60 bucks down the shitter
  Makes you wonder why game demos aren't a thing anymore
  
  Well steam is really pushing devs to use demos again, given it's mostly indie at this moment but slowly more and more demos start showing up, which is nice. One can hope AAA will do this to but I highly doubt they will
  
  There are so many ways to inform yourself beforhand. You can also try it out on Gamepass. If you buy an 70 bucks game blindly its kinda your own fault.
  
  70 bucks*
- I don't understand why it's so popular NOT to shit on them. Remember when Andromeda came out with many of the same issues, and people fucking REAMED it (rightly)? Now Bethesda is finally getting SOME criticism for their shitty business and game development practices and we have lots of people out here suckling at their teat defending them for some reason. "Leave them alone, it's just a Bethesda game, why do people love to hate them, wahhhh."
  As if Bethesda isn't one of the most beloved companies of all time, and most everyone started from a place of WANTING to love this game. But they've been making shitty decisions for years, hiding behind the nostalgia of their past titles, and they are overdue some criticism. It doesn't mean everyone hates them.
  
  I dont know why pepole shited so much on Andromeda.it was fairly ok title and i personaly was looking forward to next part( which sadly probably wont happen ). Certainly gameplay fitted andromeda more than inquisition. Alghtough from what i have seen i definietly wouldnt be so amazed as some journalist seem to be but Its a ok title. Not a BG3 for certain. Alghtough i admittedly never really liked bethesda style games.i even prefered dragon age 2 rather than skyrim. Bethesda games are too diluted for my tastes.
  
  Remember when Andromeda came out with many of the same issues, and people fucking REEMED it
  No, enlighten me, because I fucking hated Andromeda.
- I dont think gamers know what they want.
  
  They know exactly what they don't want at least

I think it's fun, but I'm a run and gun kind of guy. So I'm having a blast shooting dudes in the face. The shooting is much better than Fallout. I LOVE fighting in the zero gravity arenas. It's so cool like floating between pillars and headshotting a guy off in the distance and his body is now bopping around. Those are so rare though. Idk how I can find more.
But overall I find the game frustrating outside battles. It's like death by a thousand cuts though. There's no one thing that's egregious but there's just stacking outdated design choices that continually build up. The games indecision around flying your ship being an easy catch all for the multiple failures in making your ship mean anything outside of battles and the map system. For the love of God fix the slide, you slide like 2inches. There's also a constant battle with backing out of menus. Idk.
But then I find some spacer trap house and have a good time blasting away. Excited for when I can actually can craft bespoke weapons.
- Apparently id software helped with the shooting part. They are the best in town for it, I am not surprised that it's improved compared to fallout games, that have pretty bad shootings
  
  maybe i just haven't gotten 'the feel' for it yet, but it seems much worse to me than FO4 or FO76
  
  They also helped with the gunplay in FO4 as well. There is a clear improvement over it than FO3.
- Yea menu navigation is terrible, lack of explanation on how to do anything is confusing, basically no map isn't great. I'm about 10 hours in and enjoying it, but could have been a lot better.
  Also, maybe it's just me but I can never tell if I'm buying or selling to a vendor and end up totally messing it up and needing to reload multiple times.
  
  yeah inventory management is the worst! i don’t get it

Starfield is fun to me 🤷‍♂️
- People keep saying it's Skyrim in space. Great, I got a good 400-500 hours out of Skyrim.
  
  It's not. No exploration or interesting story, no 'wow' factor like Alduin flying down on you for the first time. Don't expect Skyrim. Not even close.

I’m not surprised. I haven’t seen vids or played Starfield, but just judging by how Fallout 4 and Skyrim play, I was gonna expect the game to get old and boring really quick between the bland gameplay and milquetoast writing of those two games.
Oblivion, Fallout 3 and Morrowind were probably their last good games, with Morrowind being Bethesda at their absolute best imo.
- I'm quite sure you're in the minority judging Skyrim as boring.
  
  I mean I'm gonna have to agree with the guy though. Skyrim was all but earth shattering.. In 2011. Have you tried playing it recently? It feels old and repetitive. There is obviously still some fun to be had and some memorable bits but on the whole it's just outdated plain and simple.
  I think the vast majority of enjoyment people derive from it is nostalgia driven which I can totally respect, but that only lasts for like 4-5 hours once a year tops. I feel like a new player who never touched it in the golden years would likely get bored fast
  
  I can get the sentiment about the combat being uninspired and a bit bland, and things being formulaic but... There is still something that draws me in. I really have no words for what it is, but somehow these games suck me in despite their problems and "boring" mechanics.
  
  Probably. I haven’t played any of the DLCs, but I just can’t get into Skyrim nowadays because I get quickly bored of it all. The only time I managed to complete all of the quests and the main quest was back at release, but now whenever I play it feels like a slog to go through a painfully bland world and setting. I usually give up after a few hours of playtime, and now I just haven’t played in years.
  Meanwhile, I was around 30-40 hours into my latest Morrowind playthrough before BG3 dropped, and was putting a fair whack of time into Battlespire, so maybe I’m finally becoming old lol.
  
  It depends, I think as unmoded would many say it is boring. The whole game is kinda of a meme even tho it wasn't supposed to be. like killing a chicken and hell breaks loose, and how sweet rolls are an addiction to all the guards, how they keep saying the same thing and seem to live the same life. All of them could just have been one person (or two because there are female guards too). Some npcs are a bit interesting the first few times but it gets old quick.
  I have played skyrim a lot but it is heavily moded. Every new playthrough do I throw in new quests and places, try a different mix of combat mods and Ai mods to make my enemies actually enemies and not just obstacles, everything to make it less monotone. I tried to play it again last month but my motivation just fell and I never felt like playing again.
- I'd say Starfield is in a lot of ways a return to form. So far, none of the actual quests I got from NPCs were as simple as "Go there and kill bandits", like the majority of quests in Fallout 4. Those proc-gen quests have been relegated to Mission Boards for various factions (and there's also more variety of them. Beyond killing, you have smuggling missions, cargo transport, passenger transport, surveying and some other stuff). Most of the quests I've done so far have also been very interesting, I've talked my way out of multiple confrontations/bossfight and I've robbed a valuable trophy and bank credentials from a luxury cruise ship with not a single shot fired, just using my cunning, persuasion and a little bit of blackmail and bribery. I keep thinking that I am going to get those "please kill those raiders" quests, like when I got a distress call from somebody having trouble with spacers (this games version of generic raiders or bandits), but instead I had to repair communication satellites and negotiate a mutual defense pact with the settlers of that system. Like, I'm 50+ hours in (yes, genuinely) and the game keeps surprising me with new and interesting content. I feel like I've barely scratched the surface of the content available.
  Sure, you can't completely fuck everything up and go murder everyone in the game like in BG3 or FNV or something, but it is actually a really solid RPG. The writing isn't as deep, philosophical and politically charged as New Vegas, but it's good. Way better than Fallout 4s main story (and better than Fallout 3s main story, which secretly sucks.) I actually had some interesting conversations in the game and chuckled quite a few times at some of the responses I could choose. My background and traits actually do come up in conversation, even had one of my traits help me win a persuasion minigame (which is actually quite interesting in this as well). Skills like Persuasion, Intimidation and Bribery actually matter and allow you to finish quests in different ways. I get a little bit angry everytime somebody calls it Fallout 4 in space, because unlike Fallout 4 Starfield is actually a roleplaying game, even if it doesn't live up to the heights of Baldurs Gate 3. If you're gonna call it anything in space, Oblivion would probably be the most apt comparison.

I doubt that OP has played starfield

I literally spent my entire Labor Day weekend playing this game so anybody that says it's boring I'd really don't understand what they're talking about
- I have so many hours on my save for a game that just released Thursday night that I should be ashamed... It's literally in the days, not hours anymore.
  I can't stop lol

I like the game

hmmm people seem to like this thing i don't like
ah it's because they're actually lying for the purposes of fooling me, the objectively correct main character

So how much R is in this RPG game? Is there any character customisation? Like at least Skyrim-level (which is already a pretty low bar to conpare to)
- More than you expect but somehow still less than you want. Just look at the beard options and that will describe the whole game experience so far.
  
  Are there 3 beards and 17 mustaches again in this one?

Am I the only one who noticed the gun animations are just the fallout 4 ones? Like the pistols use exactly the same animations. I know because I played hundreds of hours of 4.
- I mean, you don't always have to reinvent the wheel: if 4 achieved realistic-feeling energy weapon animations, why fix what isn't broken? Third folksy saying.
  
  Yeah, Elden Ring for example has tons of DS3 animations. It's just more sensible to use the existing ones rather than completely remaking the same thing.
  
  Yes but we need to go vertically, not horizontally.

Uhh just play Outer Worlds you nerds

Surprise twist on an old comic

I’ve got about 15 hours in it. So far so good. Not 10/10 GOTY material no, but good. Probably about a 7 maybe 8/10
- Says it comes out tomorrow for me? How are people playing it
  
  early access or piracy
  
  If you bought the deluxe edition you got a few days early access

This thread feels like everybody is pointing guns at each other.

Ha you got me with that last panel

The game has incredibly bad performance issues and dogshit politics.
For a game they've dubbed "Nasa punk". There's no punk at all. It's 98% corporate fantasy wish fulfillment for musk-brained techbros and 2% punk. The criticism of capitalism is so paper thin that you can barely notice its presence anywhere at all.
The space pirates use guns with anarchist symbols on them and say anarchist slogans but are clearly not anarchists in ideology and instead are straight up thugs and raiders.
The UC military is presented as real professionals, which is not really correct. If they accurately represented the US military that they're based off of then they'd being jarheads, except for the recruiters and media where the professional show is put on. This is fantasy wish fulfilment at best, or propaganda at worst.
There is no bigotry, patriarchy, etc in this universe and it's absolutely absurd. The universe would have these, capitalism provides an incentive to exploit. Marginalised people are the easiest to exploit. Capitalism has an incentive not to solve marginalised people's problems fully and the further away you get from states enforcing laws to try and mitigate these problems the bigger they would get. So in space and because of the colony wars these issues would have gone through the roof.
It is bizarre that there are wars occurring and yet there are no space refugees anywhere? Where are they? Also there's no homeless people which is fucking weird again. Also no slums or self-constructed accomodation on the periphery of the cities which really ought to exist given that the player can do just that. It's all so idealised to a ridiculous extent.
Everyone doesn't have the money for a starship, there is one absurd mission where you apply for an admin assistant job. You're expected to fly into space and to a space station with your own starship to apply for an administration and assistant job? There should be a private shuttle company that people use to taxi around space for things like this.
--
In short, the politics are dogshit and the performance is bad. But, the gameplay is good if you like other bethesda titles it plays just like them. Additionally, I think it's probably the strongest ever game they've released for modding.. And probably their best title since Oblivion (not counting New Vegas which they didn't make).

Damn starfield is bad? With its premise being Another basic america glass towers neolib united federation in space, while also made by bethesda? Who could have known.
- Yes but this game is political because it lets you pick pronouns. Give me back my wholesome, unpolitical, giant stars and stripes robot spouting anticommunist catchphrases, Bethesda game!
- Probably not very class conscious. But I have not played it

I didn't play starfield but watched around 2 hours of gameplay. The story was kinda nonsense, the gameplay I can respect but I know it wouldn't be for me. Like everyone says it's fallout in space, but it seems like it takes itself much more serious
- With how many call backs, jokes and references I've seen in the main plot: it doesn't take itself too seriously. Half of the jokes have been directly related to the lack of dialogue options and having a silent protagonist.
  
  I wish it took itself more serious. It's tongue in cheek non stop but the jokes rarely land.
- It's "fallout in space" but without the stuff that makes fallout good.
  
  "fallout in space but without the stuff that makes fallout good."
  So Fallout 4 in space.

Cmon guys stop being mean to Todd
- Tell me lies, tell me sweet little lies.
  
  Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/watch?v=hFcLyDb6niA
  Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
  I'm open-source, check me out at GitHub.

Stop complaining. Play it if you want, don't if you don't want to. People just like to be popular and liked. Everyone bandwagoned on Baldurs Gate being good but I can't think of a type of game I hate more than that. Now everyone is bandwagoning on this because A- they don't have an Xbox or a PC, or B- they want to be cool and alternative.
I mean come on, last week everyone was saying "omg Baldurs Gate has no microtransactions! Roleplaying! GOTY!" And now with Xbox/Bethesda making a game just like that, you guys instantly roast it for being......a Bethesda game.
- I cannot stand turn based combat and generally avoid RPG's these days and even I think this is a ridiculous take.
  I don't own BG3 but I've played at a friend's place and that game is about a thousand levels deeper than Starfield. If you like RPG's and mucking around with dice whilst you play computer games, BG3 is a god damn masterpiece.
  
  I hate those types of games and I've still managed to sink 50 hours in bg3 and I'm not even done with the first act yet. It's the new standard for AAA gaming.
- Well if you want to get nitpicky there's no "roleplaying" in a Bethesda games because there are no bad outcomes. Minor spoilers about BG3.
  For instance in BG3 I went into a camp swords blazing and murdered everything in sight. Turns out I killed a recruitable companion along the way that I never would've found out if I hadn't read about it online. Technically speaking that's an undesirable outcome because I'm going to miss out on some content but at that moment I didn't give a fuck and similarly the game just went along with it. At no point did the game even hint that maybe I shouldn't kill that character, if anything the game told me the objective is to kill that character. Had it been a Bethesda game I 100% would've been prevented from just murdering that companion and the game had given me a chance to recruit them.
  Similarly I reloaded one hard fight 4 times to save a character who was relatively important to the story. That removed just kept on running into AOE effects and getting herself killed. BG3 didn't give a fuck if that character lived or died because the story would've continued without her. We all know how Bethesda handles characters that are important to the story, they literally cannot die.
  And finally I'm currently at a point where the game gave me 2 choices, either I send one of my companions into eternal servitude or another character important to the story dies. Maybe there's a third option that lets me save both but I might've missed it. If this was a Bethesda game there wouldn't even be such a situation because it doesn't matter what you choose, either option has a bad outcome.
  And those are just examples from my current playthrough. From what I've seen others play you might not even get to those decisions, which means some decisions will lock out other decisions down the line and that's once again something Bethesda does less and less with each game
  Baldurs gate 3 gets praise because it's a great game, Starfield gets shit because underneath it's just Skyrim in space. Are we supposed to give praise for a game that follows a decade old design philosophy? If Doom 93 came out today should we lose our collective minds? No, because the industry has moved forward. Our expectations should be higher than Skyrim. There are good things about Starfield. The moment to moment combat seems excellent and Bethesda clearly has improved the visuals compared to FO4 and FO76. But the rest of the game seems it could've just as well been released back in 2011.
  And before you think I'm some hyped up tweeb who is now disappointed that Starfield didn't live up to the hype, I haven't been hyped about a Bethesda game since Fallout 3. I'm well aware how easily Bethesda springs up hype and how the final product doesn't really match the hype they promote. I had pretty basic expectations of what Starfield might be and I feel like Starfield was pretty much in the ballpark to the expectations I had: good shooting, lots and lots of loading screens and menus and very little of actual "space". That's to say I didn't have high expectations in the first place.
  
  That would explain why out of all of Skyrim i only remember the fact that you could kill the girl that invites you to dark brotherhood amd subsequently destroy it.
  
  Was looking for a legit review and this seems to be it. Thank you :)
  BG3 freedom gaming forever
  
  All that gameplay you described? Is ancient. The industry has moved on as you say. You clicked through menus and virtually rolled dice to do that. That's so old, it predates video games themselves.
  At least Starfield is more modern than turn based gameplay.
- I think the microtransactions praise was more are, non predatory marketing / extracting every last cent praise. Didn't Stanfield have a premium cost to pay a week earlier or something? Is that not a similar concept, albeit nowhere near as shit as microtransactions.
  Are we not all tired of being wrung out for our cash? What's so wrong with just charging what you need so that you can make a game.
- Yeah, I've been wondering about BG3. It seems like the main game mechanics are horrible, but perhaps the story is good. So it sounds to me like a fantasy Disco Elysium.
  
  My GF played it a lot and I saw so many bugs, quests breaking, and crazy difficulty spikes. But when Bethesda has some bugs? Oh my gosh, people start rioting. People just love to hate when they get the chance.

Its like the 3d version of starbound
- So... No Man's Sky?

Had me in the first 2/3, ngl
- That's how these jokes work. Gj

Me as fuck. Though I just keep it to myself instead of trying to ruin my friends' enjoyment.

...not 100% clear on the point of this comic...

I think it's a fantastic game.

Kinda reminded me of Hogwarts Legacy, except it was a great game.

I’ve put about 200 hours into Oblivion and 180 into Skyrim, 150 each into Fallout 3 and Fallout 4, all without mods. Been happy every time. I think the whiners need their attention spans checked. Go watch Paw Patrol if you need constant action, you big babies.

Is the performance difference big if you play from HDD or SSD?
- I've seen posts elsewhere that say 5min+ loading screens on HDD that tried to install it to their HDDs. game does a LOT of asset streaming.
- I saw a massive difference, had my original target drive set as an hdd, could barely open a menu without a hangup, dialog and character face movements suffered as well.
  I moved the entire file over to my ssd and it was a night and day difference. No lag issues anymore.
- There should be no performance difference. The only difference should be in loading screens and possibly pop-in from streamed assets.
  
  This won't hold true if your RAM gets to the limit, and you end up creeping into swap space. If you do, everything becomes a potentially streamed asset! While certainly not ideal, you'll feel it harder on a HDD vs. SSD. Remember, you need at least 16GB of RAM for this monster, which these days is basically standard on most PCs (and about 70% of all Steam users as of August have no more than 16).
  
  Is the game generally demanding, though? Don't exactly have a top of the line setup.

Lol even the title screen just looks like the Starbound logo

I have zero issue with people saying a boring game is boring.
I have 100% issues with people making the most unintelligible takes on any game though.
Within a week of release I’ve heard about Starfield because of Pronouns and not being able to land on gas giants.
I am convinced, now more than ever, that XTwitter is worse than lead poisoning.

I does indeed start out slow, but it gets better after a certain point in the main quest. It's a fairly standard Bethesda open world game, so just don't be expecting something more and you should enjoy it. One thing I've appreciated as a hoarder is that your run speed doesn't decrease even when you're hugely encumbered, your stamina (oxygen) just goes down as if you were sprinting.
- I'm curious, as a skyrim guy if this would be for me.
  
  Probably if you're okay with a sci-fi theme and don't mind that you have to load into most locations rather than being able to run to them. It has more in common with Fallout than Skyrim.