Starfield Thread - now with Shattered Space horror expansion

[Fedora Master]

many of the games I've played in the past decade were a lot worse than Starfield

Sounds like a You problem

 

[ArchAngel]

Yeah dude you totally trolled us by... consuming the worst goyslop of the past decade

Spoken like a true AAA 'tard.

Kid, many of the games I've played in the past decade were a lot worse than Starfield. All I see is butthurt Morrowind fanboys that their precious Bethesda didn't make another game on the same "grand scale".

Yet, Looking at the picture above, it's just another new generation of console 'tards.

Same cycle, new 'tards.

Damn man, why would you do that to yourself?!

 

[Law]

Damn man, why would you do that to yourself?!

they said BG3 was good

 

[cvv]

Morrowind vibes...

Spoiler

ahh I guess I shouldn't troll you guys too hard or I'll get a stupid tag again, it's hard sometimes

Are they giving out free Xboxes with the game now?

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Yeah. Just the box

Morrowind vibes...

Spoiler

ahh I guess I shouldn't troll you guys too hard or I'll get a stupid tag again, it's hard sometimes

Are they giving out free Xboxes with the game now?

 

[Silverfish]

Morrowind vibes...

Glad to have you back, Vic. The thread wasn't the same without you.

 

[Child of Malkav]

It would be impressive if they managed to make just 1 planet, inspired by Earth's geography, fauna, flora, landmass, water bodies, populated areas and less populated areas, with NPC schedules, no loading screens, entire continents, oceans, seas, lakes, mountains etc. Cities being actual living cities, each NPC and vehicle whatever being just a small cog in a machine functioning without your presence or interference. And so much more.
But nah brah......1000 planets is where it's at.

 

[Cryomancer]

Fo4 was technically a step up from Fo3 and NV in terms of combat mechanics

Are you crazy? Was a huge step back. Armor by percentage is awful. In fnv a 45 acp smg will tear apart unarmored targets but be worthless vs power armor while an .308 ap round in a rifle or a .50 bmg ap will be much better vs armor. In fl4, the smg would be the best vs anything.

The guns look like toys. I enjoy immersion in fp games and bugthesda is no longer delivering it

 

[Crispy]

Oblivion, Fallout 3 and Skyrim all had supremely strong art direction

 

[Ryzer]

Oblivion, Fallout 3 and Skyrim all had supremely strong art direction

Skyrim has a pretty good art direction.

 

[Crispy]

P. good is not the same as "supremely strong". When I walk in to (unmodded) Windhelm, for example, the last thing I'm thinking is, "Man, this game's art direction is superb!"

Even heavily modded most of the game other than portions of the wilderness look the same as one another and are generally uninspiring. I'd even go so far to say that, strictly from an "art direction" standpoint, Oblivion was done better than Skyrim was.

 

[Ryzer]

I'd even go so far to say that, strictly from an "art direction" standpoint, Oblivion was done better than Skyrim was.

Not even close

It's just that the game does a terrible job at transcribing the art direction. Oblivion in comparison is just bland Disneyland art. In Skyrim there is a strong mythological vibe added to the nordic tombs similar to what Morrowind did, even the cities look uncanny.

 

[Shaki]

Oblivion, Fallout 3 and Skyrim all had supremely strong art direction

It's true tho, art direction used to be decent in Bethesda. I wouldn't call it "supremely strong", but it was good enough, it was immersive and along with decent worldbuilding and exploration, even if their games were a slop, it was at least well seasoned slop that could be judged as edible if you were really hungry. I had some mindless fun with them occasionally.

Starfield on the other hand, literally lacks everything decent previous Bethesda titles had. Art direction is non-existent, worldbuilding is complete garbage, exploration is dead. Then on top of it, the whole thing is so sanitised, so PG-13, that it makes me want to puke. Even absolutely cliche things that always work simply because they're inherently entertaining concepts, like working for space pirates, or visiting a classic "hive of scum and villainy" type of city, feel absolutely disgusting here, because even these braindead foolproof concepts, are pushed through a kiddie filter and made as bland as possible.

 

[Crispy]

If Skyrim actually looked like this then I might be inclined to agree.

It does not and I do not.

 

[Ryzer]

If Skyrim actually looked like this then I might be inclined to agree.

It does not and I do not.

It's one of the concept art for the game that they released following the death of Adam Adamowicz
https://en.m.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Concept_Art

 

[Crispy]

Starfield on the other hand, literally lacks everything decent previous Bethesda titles had.

There are sections of Starfield that have impressed upon me some thought towards being "artistic". Neon City, for example, almost evokes a better cyberpunk atmosphere than even Night City in Cyberpunk 2077 does. Akila is also rather convincing, imo, as a frontier-type town.

However, I've had to modify the game somewhat to get it to where it pleases my eye. That has included texture replacers and, most importantly, a LUT replacer.

 

[Crispy]

Ryzer, do we really have to compare concept art? Jesus.

 

[Shaki]

Starfield on the other hand, literally lacks everything decent previous Bethesda titles had.

There are sections of Starfield that have impressed upon me some thought towards being "artistic". Neon City, for example, almost evokes a better cyberpunk atmosphere than even Night City in Cyberpunk 2077 does.

You're joking, right?

 

[Crispy]

No. I could show you some screenshots if you need convincing.

And, bear in mind, I said sections. There are large portions of Starfield that are downright visually boring, such as many of its moons, planets, interiors, even the main city itself. But there is the occasional gem clustered in that bowl of shit, make no mistake about it.

 

[Shaki]

No. I could show you some screenshots if you need convincing.

And, bear in mind, I said sections. There are large portions of Starfield that are downright visually boring, such as many of its moons, planets, interiors, even the main city itself. But there is the occasional gem clustered in that bowl of shit, make no mistake about it.

How are the dancing teletubbies a "great cyberpunk atmosphere"?

Whole Neon is like that, as I said in my previous post, you're expecting a "hive of scum and villainy", and instead you get PG-13 city, where strippers are fully clothed teletubbies, thugs don't kill anybody but instead break into shops to grafitti shopkeepers' robots coz that will show them, and you can go and convince every criminal to stop being bad with a persuasion check. City is supposedly all about drugs but junkies don't exist, and the only homeless beggar you meet is akshually super smart and talk like she has a business degree. The whole thing feels like a goddamn parody. You can't be serious here dude.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

And, bear in mind, I said sections. There are large portions of Starfield that are downright visually boring, such as many of its moons, planets, interiors, even the main city itself. But there is the occasional gem clustered in that bowl of shit, make no mistake about it.

It was an astonishingly poor decision on the part of the developers to direct the player to New Atlantis at the beginning of the game and furthermore to locate the Constellation Club there so that the player needs to keep returning during the main quest to the worst city in the game. This doesn't mean the other cities are well done, though; far from it. And there are only four proper cities in the game, with one of them (Cydonia on Mars) being entirely underground, along with a few smaller settlements.

Bethesda should simply have emulated Syd Mead artwork for Starfield's aesthetics, except that the company no longer has sufficient talent to pull it off:

 

[Crispy]

you're expecting a "hive of scum and villainy"

I wasn't. I had no idea what to expect. Between this and your posting that particular screenshot I'm thinking you've got some sort of agenda going on here, or for the game itself.

Are you okay?

 

[Crispy]

You can't be serious here dude.

We were talking about art direction. The aesthetics. How things look. You're sort of freaking out on me.

 

[Lemming42]

Oblivion, Fallout 3 and Skyrim all had supremely strong art direction

Oblivion = very evocative of 80s fantasy movies, as I said.

Fallout 3 = the DC area has a wonderfully rich, lavish 1930s feel, with all the towering ornate buildings. The incorporation of the retrofuturistic and art deco elements from Fo1 is done brilliantly as well. Sadly, the wasteland kind of sucks compared with the DC area. The visual design of monsters is also fantastic, IMO - compare Fo3 feral ghouls (which look very distinctive) with Fo4 ones (which look shit), for example.

Skyrim = places like the Dwemer ruins and Blackreach are both very visually striking. The game does a great job of mixing the rather barren and desolate tundra with the strange alien-ness that's always lurking just under the surface in TES.

You'd have no trouble immediately recognising a screenshot from each of these games, which I don't think is true of Starfield.

 

[Crispy]

You'd have no trouble immediately recognising a screenshot from each of these games, which I don't think is true of Starfield.