im hesitant to call Starfield actually "cool" yet. BG3 is rad though.
im hesitant to call Starfield actually "cool" yet.
I've been tearing into it a lot, but it is genuinely the best thing Bethesda's put out in the past 20 years. It's still tepid Bethesda mush but the writing quality has varied wildly. The quest I posted about yesterday was just awful, but I did a questline today that entailed hunting down every member of a fascist militia and ultimately led to being able to just summarily execute a CEO for his crimes (but mostly for resisting arrest, because he was very dumb too).
hunting down every member of a fascist militia
I get to kill Vanguard???
No, it's some weird revanchist stabbed-in-the-back lunatics from the FC whose entire plan was to get the warrior's death they were denied by the war ending (the dumbest part being their side won and their primary grievance is that they were arrested when they tried to keep fighting after the war ended). You hunt them and their new devotees down in the FC Ranger questline which is a nonsensically written organization that's trying to be a mashup of Texas Rangers and ME Specters but at the same time is a toothless federal agency with less than a dozen members who are operating on behalf of the weak federal government of a federation of ancap despotries that simultaneously grants them no legal powers but also lets them just run around doing whatever with no oversight to the point that you can literally just up and kill one of the dictators of the FC at the end of it and literally no one cares.
[Worldbuilding spoilers ahead]
Ahhh a different fascist militia that wouldn't end the war then! Makes sense.
Both sides suck ass and this universe is absolutely missing a socialist faction pursuing a Star Trek-like future. If I end up starting a mod project for the game one of my ideas on the backburner is a socialist faction who are essentially neo-bolsheviks that cite Star Trek in-game as their inspiration for the future they're fighting to build.
I also think a project is needed to add much-needed depth to the liberal cities. The Well in New Atlantis is getting cited by libs as the "punk" part and the "dark underbelly" but it lacks punch. It's just the old town, no longer maintained. There's no real economic criticism in it as far as I can see and it's only bad because it's old. Additions like beggars, homeless and desperate peddlers selling trinkets and tourist guff spilling out into the upper level and train station entrances will make an absolutely massive improvement. Throw in some radiants for pickpockets, beggar actions, UC police beating someone to death (give them guns with no ammunition and they should beat the target to death), among other things and you'll have an environment that gives the player a much stronger representation of the underbelly that should exist more clearly in these places. Might also be an opportunity to tell some real poverty stories, include stories about kids more for some impact, particularly as kids in Bethesda games are almost non-existent and when they do exist they're always just incredibly annoying.
Anyway that's more or less my notes-taking so far for mod improvements to parts of the game that annoy me. The only other major settlement I've visited so far is Mars and that's got some relatively ok critique going on because of the fracking explosions. But I haven't seen it really tell any stories about what the impact of those explosions would be on the people though. Could be an avenue to go down to give it more depth and criticise its society better.
Oh and I hated the quest on Mars where I had to get an admin-assistant job. Why did they send me in my own spaceship up to the spacestation to apply for a job on the planet? It's so ridiculous. Someone getting an admin-assistant job would not have enough money to own their own starship. There should be a shuttle that the poor people pay to use and get from A to B when needed.
Someone getting an admin-assistant job would not have enough money to own their own starship. There should be a shuttle that the poor people pay to use and get from A to B when needed.
Something about the future being as extremely car brained as present day North America is kinda unintentionally funny though.
If you tell me I have to play either Harry Potter games or No man skies but Bethesda, I'd choose the latter in a heartbeat.
BG3 is legitimately one of the best games I've ever played. They have to iron out the bugs still, frankly, but it was a pure blast to play through the game. One of the most impressive games I think I've ever seen, narratively, because of the sheer amount of choices with actual consequence there are in the game.
isn't it just like a once-and-done single player game? of course other newer games are gonna overtake it
By, like, C-list devs iirc. Not exactly AAA title material, even with the IP.
How you gonna diss the Hannah Montana: Spotlight World Tour devs that way?
BUT YOURE A WIZARD NOW, 'ARRY
If I wanted to play a good shitty wizard game I'd re-install Magicka
Dunka dunka! Was Magicka 2 any good? I had a lot of stupid fun with the first one.
Remember all the streamers throwing a fit about how they had to play it even if it meant shoveling more money at a transphobe because it was the biggest game of the year (in February lol)
"Biggest game of the year" just means whatever game got the most advertising
Pizza Tower is still the best game to come out this year, fight me nerds.
EDIT: So TIL that Pizza Towers dev is a shithead (see replies below) so pirate that shit
pizza tower dev is iffy af tho from what i hear
Wdym?
He put a Native American stereotype in the game because Nintendo removed one from Mr. Game & Watch in Smash Bros and has a history of using slurs. CW: racism and homophobia https://batz.tumblr.com/post/710753810688180224/i-dont-pay-attention-to-pizza-tower-stuff-what
Oh that fucking SUCKS, god damn it. Why can't one thing I like not be connected to some kind of bigoted shit
I might need to make an antistreamer aktion emoji
Not interested in Starfield, but 2023 has games like Pizza Tower, Pikmin 4 and Baldurs Gate 3. Why would I ever play Hogfarts Legacy of Piss?
BG3 is unmatchable, not only for hogwarts legacy but for every other game.
Starfield on the other end.. is the same oblivion stuff but in 2023 and without 2023 capabilities
from what i head the systems are worse than a bunch of their own previous work let alone contemporary products. maybe someday i'll play more than 10 minutes and find out for myself ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Pretty much. Bet if they re-released oblivion, prior to BG3, it'd still roflstomp horkboris legacy
and without 2023 capabilities
They've gotta rewrite the engine from the ground up if they want to bring it up to modern standards. There are fundamental problems with it at its core that can't be resolved without a rewrite that addresses limiting decisions that were made with its overall design a very very long time ago.
I'm waiting for the modding community to overhaul Starfield in 1 - 3 years before I'll even touch it.
BG3 is a blast and I can't get enough. It's the first game I've played that's felt like I'm a part of a fantasy novel. IMO it's because unlike a lot of other CRPG's it's really good about pacing out it's lore and not info dumping all over the player.
I'm waiting for the modding community to overhaul Starfield in 1 - 3 years before I'll even touch it.
I'll still hold some interest on the next TES game exactly because of this.
But for starfield based on the reviews I've seen the issues are pretty much fundamental to the game as designed, e.g exploration limitations doesn't seem like something that can be easily modded so I'm not holding any hopes that mods will fix this.
I remember around the time of the HP game release chuds were rallying around it to own the libs or whatever.
I'm glad that the HP game is going to be forgotten in favor of two games that let you choose pronouns, one of which lets you choose a penis or vulva.
Even before release, Hogwarts Legacy looked like an extremely by the numbers TrIpLe A game by some developers who'd never made anything good. It was totally carried by the license and being released at a quiet time for big bideo bames, no wonder even the biggest Rowling fart hufflepuffers don't care about it anymore
If it's any consolation to the HP libs, your game got an all-time concurrent player peak of 879,308 while BG3 only got 875,343. But also the games this year are stacked and Harry Potter sucks, so get owned.
You just reminded me that I need to hop back on BG3.
Still on my first playthrough and I want to do several more eventually. 😭
Same! I'm barely out of the nautiloid wreckage, and already having a blast.
879,308 s
It's wild to get angry over pronouns in SF materials, in particular. If I'm reading some spacefarring material and there isn't at least one alien race or human being bucking a gender binary, I'll be dissapointed as hell.
Why would one get mad that some people enjoy another game more than they enjoy the game one enjoys more than the game they enjoy more?
I would simply not attach my personality into triple A by the numbers garbage made from the IP of Terf-Queen.
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