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PaperclipPerfector  7mo ago (text post)   2625 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.

I really like it, I think it’s their most interesting setting. I imagine it as a kind of world where semiconductor processes below like 500nm or whatever they had in 1990 were somehow technically impossible, and so technology progressed but computing specifically never advanced exponentially the way it did in our timeline over the last 30 years (and beyond). Obviously there are a few times the setting contradicts this but as a broad rule I very much enjoy it, an interesting alternate history.

I really like the quests! They’re breezy, they take you all over the galaxy. I think the Zero-G combat is great, the space combat has fun arcade vibes, I like that quests have lots of opportunities for persuasion, and while the main story is amateurish I respect that unlike Mass Effect it’s an attempt at actual science fiction and not Star Wars, and follows through with actual science fiction. The cities are great, and Bethesda’s best. I’m still finding interesting things after a few weeks.

I need to go back to Baldur’s Gate 3 and I just don’t want to. Back to Larian’s awful British-writers-writing-Marvel-movies dialogue, the horniness, the Wacky and Zany Events™️ and the boring story and FR setting I don’t care about.

The cities are great, and Bethesda’s best.

The cities are great, but the rest of the environments aren't, especially after Skyrim and Fallout 4. The road to Markarth is simply spectacular, as is the road to Riften, Boston sneaks up on you in an amazing way, you never notice how you end up among its skyscrapers.

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