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PaperclipPerfector  7mo ago (text post)   2624 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for September 15, 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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I've finally gotten around to playing Starfield and after fixing the terrible lighting (and not fixing the terrible UI, I think I've missed something when installing SkyUI) I think it's peak Bethesda at its worst. The only thing that keeps me going is "player sees number go up: neuron activation".

The main quest is surprisingly anemic even for Bethesda. The planets are realistically barren and I really want a land vehicle to get around on. Fast travel is essential, but it's such a kludge. Lore and exposition? Ah, you'll glean enough if you play enough. But I want to put more mods on my gun and for this I need to level up this and level up that, to gather this and to gather that and so on.

To expand on the questline anemia, the start of the game at the same time resembles Mass Effect and doesn't. Before Shepard interacts with the beacon, we already get a lot of information from the starting mission:

  • aliens exist and there's some residual mutual mistrust
  • humanity has been playing technological catch-up with them
  • humanity has been establishing colonies in places no one has tried to settle before
  • the aliens have some form of galactic government
  • the galactic government has some sort of elite special agent force
  • Shepard is the first one to join them
  • there's some weird shit in the universe
  • the galactic government is very interested in it
  • evil robots exist
  • one of the elite special agents is a traitor that likely works with the evil robots

What do we learn in Starfield before we interact with the beacon?

  • humanity has been mining asteroids(?) with lasers
  • humanity is split into a group that prefers more order and a group that prefers more freedom (have to pay attention to the banter)

What do we learn in the tutorial mission?

  • there's some weird shit in the universe
  • there's a literal super adventure club that tries to investigate weird shit and no one else cares about it or them
  • there's a bunch of annoying pirates
  • there's a place called Neon that is a wretched hive of scum and villainy (have to pay attention to the banter)

Yes, the former is a space opera and the latter is a sandbox, but when the training wheels come off in Starfield you end up knowing practically nothing about the game world or the key plot hooks. At least in Skyrim you get to see the big bad dragon and the two civil war factions.

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