Starfield Thread - now with Shattered Space horror expansion

[processdaemon]

There are no other games like Bethesda games. They are unique and nobody ever either managed or even tried to emulate them.

Everyone who claims Bethesda games are not unique should immediately post a list of other games which achieve this level of interactivity, vastness of world, number of quests (which are quite good in Starfield, BTW, not Fallout 4 level of idiocy), economy, crafting, dialog options, C&C (even if often cosmetic or poorly written) and so on.

Starfield is far from a perfect game but it has no competition from other studios. We never got a Skyrim killer, an Oblivion killer nor a Fallout killer. Pretty much the only game that could ever compete with BSG releases was Obsidian's New Vegas... and it was an overgrown DLC for Fallout 3 which used their despised Creation Engine... which might actually be the X factor of BSG's uniqueness and lack of competitors.

The Witcher 3 is head and shoulders better than any Skyrim, Oblivion, Fallout? In what world are any of these games better than The Witcher 3? Story, crafting, vastness of world, economy, dialog, story etc? Feel free to elaborate...

At the risk of sounding Bethestardy Witcher 3 is a great game and I enjoyed the experience but I never felt like I wanted to replay it when it was done, whereas I've replayed all the Fallouts (including Bethesda's 3 and 4) and Oblivion and Skyrim several times despite having bucketloads of complaints about them. For all the jank there is a certain charm to Bethesda games that other studios don't capture well, aside from the fact they scratch an exploration itch for me in a way that most other games don't there's a slightly unreal and fantastic quality to them that makes the whole world fun to interact with. If anything the main criticism I have of Starfield is that it's lost some of that, I can forgive everything else that's wrong with it but the blandness of the setting has diluted a lot of the things I liked about Bethesda games. Here's to hoping that if they add House Va'ruun stuff in the DLC that that will help inject some of the strange magic that previous Bethesda games had, because without it it becomes really hard to ignore the other glaring flaws that this game and other Bethesda titles have.

 

[Infinitron]

LoL top tier writing buahahahaha...some dumb miner bitch have lung cancer but doesn't want to go to the doc because her dad is the CIO of the corp or some such shit. Because he is evil dude and he will find her.....

Clearly an evil white male!!!! I should find him and blow him up.....buahahahahha.

It seems that the characters in this side quest are intended to be Israeli/Jewish.

 

[Ashen_Shugar]

witcher lacks the depth of the world simulation, can't pickup objects

Pick up objects ala Deus Ex to get you what? At least with Deus Ex there was a purpose to item manipulation

also much more linear.

bethesda games are more free form, there is random, unexpected shit happening, and lots of little things to discover.

The very essence of enjoyability in the Witcher 3 is in the exploration, randomly stumbling on new quests, NPC's, finding hidden tombs, nests, dungeons etc.
The game is totally non linear (barring story breaking quests - every good game must impose some limit on player freedom for i) ease of coding, ii) focusing the players attention iii) other points that experienced devs can elaborate on) , open world and free to approach as you like. Unless you are referring to the endless procgen dungeons in Skyrim where you fight the nth Draugr/Dragon/Human/Troll and then rinse and repeat until you quit due to never ending boredom.

In every meaningful way the Witcher 3 is the best open world non linear experience i have had since playing BAK. Your comments reek of being a Bethesda shill.

"Unexpected shit" - not once in any Bethesda game i've played have i encountered any meaning or memorable unexpected shit- > not in Arena not in Skyrim and most certainly not in Fallout 3.

Bethesda's progen dungeons come at the expense of telling a tighter more impactful story and ensuring a more engaging experience when exploring. Is Elden Ring proc gen? No and for good reason. Its always been Bethesda's hallmark and IMO has always been its greatest failing. Got bored with Arena after running around Tamriel looking for the Ebony Armor, got bored with Skyrim even sooner. Fallout 3 kept me playing for longer god knows why.

obviously witcher combat is limited too because you have a set and voiced protagonist

Again a ridiculous statement if you have played both Bethesda vs CDPR. At least CDPR tried to introduce some level of complication to their combat systems (Witcher 1/3). Every Bethesda game i've played is just shoot shoot or hack/slash and repeat. Where are the choices in combat (meaningful), variety in stances, alternate combat styles something!. Shouts where a piece of crap in Skyrim and the only thing that redeemed Fallout 3 was the implementation of the VATs system.

 

[S.H.O.D.A.N.]

people are saying starfield is at its best doing cargo delivery quests like Death Stranding

So Starfield is supposed to be at its best when it resembles the worst that another game has to offer?

 

[Immortal]

When you take off all your clothes, your companion will react to it. Well, Sarah does, at least. "Wow, you must be freezing."

This isn't new. They do this Skyrim and Oblivion.

 

[Ashen_Shugar]

79% on steam and falling its over niggers.

The Witcher 3 is head and shoulders better than any Skyrim, Oblivion, Fallout?

witcher lacks the depth of the world simulation, can't pickup objects, you won't find much interesting while exploring, the world is like a set piece where everything is hand placed by the developers. also much more linear.

bethesda games are more free form, there is random, unexpected shit happening, and lots of little things to discover.

dungeons are also completely different. doing dungeons in beth games means going slowly and looking at everything around you because there is always some hidden loot

obviously witcher combat is limited too because you have a set and voiced protagonist

personally I tried to beat witcher 3, three times now and the furthest I got is to skellige because I find everything so boring. with bethesda games I just get hooked and play them for hours.

these games are totally different.

 

[VerSacrum]

Nice retard fight ITT.

Witcherino 3 vs Nu-Bethesda. Hard to decide which has the more cancerous approach to open world gameplay, but tending towards Bethesda as Witcher 3 at least had decent story, banging OST, a compelling setting and wasn't full of niggers.

 

[Immortal]

Nice retard fight ITT.

Witcherino 3 vs Nu-Bethesda. Hard to decide which has the more cancerous approach to open world gameplay, but tending towards Bethesda as Witcher 3 at least had decent story, banging OST, a compelling setting and wasn't full of niggers.

The strength of Bethesda open worlds was that every NPC had a Bed / Home / Schedule. Witcher 3 created worlds at the scale where that wasn't feasible.
For all the shit we give them, there was something cool about the Imperial City in Oblivion that had merchants who locked their stores at night and went home and slept, it was WAY under utilized by the game and really only came up to annoy you / make thief quests feel amazing.. but it was there.

Starfield takes a step back from this. New Atlantis has "apartment buildings" which are just black holes for randomly spawning NPC's to disappear into. This is a huge decline as far as I'm concerned.

They basically tried to copy Witcher 3 but did a shit lazy job of it.

 

[Ashen_Shugar]

 

[Vic]

*retard noises*

as I said different games, not going to fight over which is better

 

[VerSacrum]

Nice retard fight ITT.

Witcherino 3 vs Nu-Bethesda. Hard to decide which has the more cancerous approach to open world gameplay, but tending towards Bethesda as Witcher 3 at least had decent story, banging OST, a compelling setting and wasn't full of niggers.

The strength of Bethesda open worlds was that every NPC had a Bed / Home / Schedule. Witcher 3 created worlds at the scale where that wasn't feasible.
For all the shit we give them, there was something cool about the Imperial City in Oblivion that had merchants who locked their stores at night and went home and slept, it was WAY under utilized by the game and really only came up to annoy you / make thief quests feel amazing.. but it was there.

Starfield takes a step back from this. New Atlantis has "apartment buildings" which are just black holes for randomly spawning NPC's to disappear into. This is a huge decline as far as I'm concerned.

They basically tried to copy Witcher 3 but did a shit lazy job of it.

The only thing I remember about Minas Tirith Imperial City is that it didn't seem plausible as the heart of a world-stretching Empire the game tried to sell it as. And that it had a small vegetable patch that was supposed to support its population. Very believable world building right there compared to Novigrad with its vast wheat fields that surrounded it.
Every NPC has a bed, and a schedule, wow...Gothic had that shit already in 2001, and on a much more plausible scale.

 

[dukeofwoodberry]

*retard noises*

as I said different games, not going to fight over which is better

"We can't say other things are better because Starfield is too different (even though it isn't a good game.) Great argument

 

[Vic]

"We can't say other things are better because Starfield is too different (even though it isn't a good game.) Great argument

apples and oranges, remember?

 

[Vic]

disappearing NPCs are obvious decline from previous games, that shit looks weird in elevators. Tho NPC schedules aren't possible to implement because they chose to have a bunch of random citizens that don't have homes. That was a part of what made Cyberpunk feel so shallow and it has the same effect on SF's cities, tho it is balanced out a bit by the random conversations you can hear NPCs engage in (LIKE TALKING ABOUT THEIR RECENT TRANNY OPERATION)

 

[Immortal]

Nice retard fight ITT.

Witcherino 3 vs Nu-Bethesda. Hard to decide which has the more cancerous approach to open world gameplay, but tending towards Bethesda as Witcher 3 at least had decent story, banging OST, a compelling setting and wasn't full of niggers.

The strength of Bethesda open worlds was that every NPC had a Bed / Home / Schedule. Witcher 3 created worlds at the scale where that wasn't feasible.
For all the shit we give them, there was something cool about the Imperial City in Oblivion that had merchants who locked their stores at night and went home and slept, it was WAY under utilized by the game and really only came up to annoy you / make thief quests feel amazing.. but it was there.

Starfield takes a step back from this. New Atlantis has "apartment buildings" which are just black holes for randomly spawning NPC's to disappear into. This is a huge decline as far as I'm concerned.

They basically tried to copy Witcher 3 but did a shit lazy job of it.

The only thing I remember about Minas Tirith Imperial City is that it didn't seem plausible as the heart of a world-stretching Empire the game tried to sell it as. And that it had a small vegetable patch that was supposed to support its population. Very believable world building right there compared to Novigrad with its vast wheat fields that surrounded it.
Every NPC has a bed, and a schedule, wow...Gothic had that shit already in 2001, and on a much more plausible scale.

"other game did it too - so it doesn't matter!"

I still appreciate when Bethesda invests the time to do it.. and it clearly took a back seat in Starfield.

I actually think your obsession with accurate crop yields is far less important than the gameplay mechanics of a living world with inter faction conflict and realistic schedules that change how to tackle a problem.
AKA - If I'm a thief I can rob a store during the day, do it at night, or follow the merchant to his home at night steal his key then rob his store.

If a garden has 12 tomato plants or 200.. k?

 

[Shaki]

witcher lacks the depth of the world simulation, can't pickup objects

Pick up objects ala Deus Ex to get you what? At least with Deus Ex there was a purpose to item manipulation

To make meme videos, like with Skyrim and putting a bucket on someone's head to steal his shit, haha muh sandbox very le funny and quirky

 

[Vic]

Pick up objects ala Deus Ex to get you what? At least with Deus Ex there was a purpose to item manipulation

to simulate depression of course

 

[Immortal]

But again, I agree this was a missed opportunity for them. They should have known their limitations and made Tamriel in space or something.

I don't think a human-only universe can ever be as interesting as a multi-alien one.
It leaves too much creativity & potential on the table.

If we are truly the only intelligent beings in the universe - that removes something a little special from exploring space.

--

One thing I will give them a little credit for on Starfield was, they seem to hide or lock a lot of their more "space wizard, telepathic alien, whacky whookey" shit behind questlines..
It's almost like they wanted this to be a no-bullshit realistic space game for people who wanted a space simulator.. and then introduce that shit behind specific quests and storylines that they knew only their RPG fags would do.

This could be a head larp on my part though and it might of been completely serendipitous. It was just something I noticed though and it's probably why so many people call Starfield "boring at the start" because when you play a Bethesda game.. you kinda expect space wizards and as you said, Bethesda "writing" is pretty creatively bankrupt.. they kinda need wizards in space to make anything interesting.

 

[Delterius]

people are saying starfield is at its best doing cargo delivery quests like Death Stranding. as long as the gameplay is good modders can fix whatever dumb bullshit bethesda shipped with the game

finally a third stranding type game

 

[Vic]

reminder: Morrowind had no NPC schedules either and it's heralded as the best bethesda game

 

[Immortal]

But again, I agree this was a missed opportunity for them. They should have known their limitations and made Tamriel in space or something.

I don't think a human-only universe can ever be as interesting as a multi-alien one.
It leaves too much creativity & potential on the table.

If we are truly the only intelligent beings in the universe - that removes something a little special from exploring space.

--

One thing I will give them a little credit for on Starfield was, they seem to hide or lock a lot of their more "space wizard, telepathic alien, whacky whookey" shit behind questlines..
It's almost like they wanted this to be a no-bullshit realistic space game for people who wanted a space simulator.. and then introduce that shit behind specific quests and storylines that they knew only their RPG fags would do.

This could be a head larp on my part though and it might of been completely serendipitous. It was just something I noticed though and it's probably why so many people call Starfield "boring at the start" because when you play a Bethesda game.. you kinda expect space wizards and as you said, Bethesda "writing" is pretty creatively bankrupt.. they kinda need wizards in space to make anything interesting.

To follow up on this.. and someone correct me if I'm wrong.
I don't think Bethesda really put any aliens or space wizardry shit in the Sol System (with one exception that's part of the main story related to grav drives, their physics-breaking mcguffin).

I've never seen space ghosts spawn there.. I've never found any aliens (except maybe a space leech but that would of come from another star system). A part of me thinks Starfield wanted to preserve a "as realistic as possible" Solar system + Space Mechanics. For that small autistic niche of people who genuinely give a shit.

I absolutely could be wrong / coping.

 

[Tyranicon]

They should really stop making FPS rpgs. They suck.

1. Get new loot, it's a cool gun.
2. Shoot new gun at dude in a t-shirt
3. Dude dies after fourteen full mags
4. Throw away gun, uninstall game


Typical FPS RPG content. The problem is that standard RPG mechanics like high HP and armor don't work with FPS games. Nobody wants to shoot a gazillion flesh tank enemies except consoomers.

Proper FPS RPG combat difficulty should come from options, tactics and AI. Not just numbers go up.

But those are difficult and don't make money. It's the reason why FPS AI hasn't improved significantly since FEAR/Half Life 2.

 

[Vic]

I don't think Bethesda really put any aliens or space wizardry shit in the Sol System (with one exception that's part of the main story related to grav drives, their physics-breaking mcguffin).

if they didn't put aliens there it's because we know there aren't any on these planets, so it wouldn't make sense for them to appear after a few hundred years.

the setting is speculative fiction that deals with the scenario where humans discover FTL travel but lose their home world.

 

[Immortal]

They should really stop making FPS rpgs. They suck.

1. Get new loot, it's a cool gun.
2. Shoot new gun at dude in a t-shirt
3. Dude dies after fourteen full mags
4. Throw away gun, uninstall game


Typical FPS RPG content. The problem is that standard RPG mechanics like high HP and armor don't work with FPS games. Nobody wants to shoot a gazillion flesh tank enemies except consoomers.

Proper FPS RPG combat difficulty should come from options, tactics and AI. Not just numbers go up.

But those are difficult and don't make money. It's the reason why FPS AI hasn't improved significantly since FEAR/Half Life 2.

When I get a hostile enemy.. and I dump a full mag into it and it's health bar moved a sliver.. I generally reload and walk another direction.. It's not difficult.. it's boring.


Bethesda combat is at it's best when your sneaking around one shot backstabbing things.
In Fallout 4 there was a mod that made enemies do 10x more damage to you and you did 10x more damage to them. On survival mode, the game is actually tolerable with this mod - it feels great when a few bullets kills everything except robots and deathclaws.


Starfield hasn't been that bad yet gunplay wise.. nothing feels too spongey except giant dinosaurs and robots, and the space ghosts, also thank god they removed that retarded fucking "MUTATION UPGRADE SUPER SAYIN BRUH" mechanic after Fallout 4.. holy fuck even for Bethesda that shit was dumb.

--

EDIT
Actually now that I think about it.. they have a new system with like little armor plates that represent "extra" health bars or something.. I've only seen it on bosses that appear to be really heavily armoured.. but that's dangerously close to "oh fuck off I'm modding that out" territory.

 

[Vic]

nothing feels too spongey except giant dinosaurs and robots, and the space ghosts

and the boss enemies with 3-4 health bars and high armour