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PaperclipPerfector  8mo ago (text post)   2278 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for September 1, 2023

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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Starfield thread.

Mediocre writing, animations, gameplay, many loading screens. And yet I can’t deny I played until 7am today, and I started very tired and wanting to go to sleep at 10. There’s a certain charm to this game that’s hard to describe, a sense of adventure that was in Skyrim but not - in my opinion - in Fallout 4 (although that might just be because I find post apocalyptic settings very boring). I slept for three hours, now I can’t stop thinking about playing some more. You overhear something, then the next thing you know you’re off a grand adventure around the galaxy; time vanishes.

Would I recommend it? I’m not sure, all the criticisms are valid. But I’m having more fun with it than with Baldur’s Gate 3 so far.

in Fallout 4 (although that might just be because I find post apocalyptic settings very boring).

Nah, it's not you. Fallout 4 was a shameless cashgrab trying to milk the positive sentiment people had for the previous part. It felt very sterile to me as well, but I loved Fallout 3.

I'm a little bit worried about the positive comparison to Skyrim, though. I know lots of people love it, but in my opinion it was already missing something fundamental to Bethesda games.

Starfield definitely seems more systematically complex than Skyrim, there’s a lot more to do, skills and stats are more prominent etc. I don’t know that dialogue is more complex, but then again I don’t think Morrowind had particularly complex dialogue trees vs the CRPGs of that era either.

but then again I don’t think Morrowind had particularly complex dialogue trees vs the CRPGs of that era either.

Yeah, I don't think the dialogue was particularly good, but the world-building was. The quests, the books you could find, all the little details scattered around the map... it was all very well done.

Yeah, I don't think the dialogue was particularly good, but the world-building was. The quests, the books you could find, all the little details scattered around the map... it was all very well done.

Seconded. The purpose of NPCs in Morrowind is admittedly to be walking lorebooks and direction-givers. The only character you can have in any way a dynamic conversation with is Vivec. (Which, hey, he achieved CHIM, so...) But Morrowind didn't focus on character relationships, so judging it by this rubric seems to miss the point.

Morrowind's writing is good in the same way of Dark Souls or Outer Wilds. It isn't about the interaction of characters. It's the process of collecting shards the backstory in your mind, and eventually piecing together truth out of fragments.

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