I mean, it was ok and I quite enjoyed it.

But, I’ve played Skyrim through probably a dozen times. Fallout 4, 3, NV likewise. I might play the Starfield DLC but I struggle to imagine I’ll play through the whole game start to finish ever again.

I mostly play video games to switch off and relax. So generally I play single player RPGs on the easiest setting and just explore the world and the story.

I do occasionally play something like PUBG if I’m after some excitement but I don’t have time to master games like I did when I had no responsibilities or kids!

Woo-hoo, I’m a youngster (in this deomgraphic)!

Also, Bethesda cities have hundreds of lootable objects, something most other game engines couldn’t handle. As sushibowl says it’s different tradeoffs.

I guess they could have designed the major settlements with decorative but unreachable districts surrounding the playable core to give the illusion of size but - oddly for a game with so many loading screens - they chose to have it possible to just walk out of the gate instead.

NG+ was a pretty big disappointment. There are a couple of dialogue choices which reference [Starborn] but for the most part you have to play questlines all over again as if you weren’t Starborn at all. Seriously, I’ve lived through this situation seven times already - why can’t I cut to the fucking chase that I know exists.

I think it’s because it was designed to be able to handle hundreds of persistent objects in a scene as a priority over graphical performance. That’s why Bethesda games have so much collectable junk - because they can.

I guess they could potentially do a huge DLC with alien contact. Alien races could bring significant personality to the game, I’d argue they’re the main thing that brings flavour to Mass Effect which is otherwise somewhat bland in terms of its background and world-building.

I’ve said it before. The real problem with Starfield - compared to TES or Fallout - is it’s bland SF.

TES is not just vanilla fantasy world, it has its own lore and most importantly its own character, its own feel. Fallout is the daddy of post-apocalyptic worlds and has personality in spades.

But Starfield, so far, is just… a bit meh, it has no beating heart, no joie de vivre no unique identity.

I just finished my second playthrough today.

First time around I (eventually) followed the main quest and reached NG+, but lost interest in continuing after that.

Second time around I did a manual Alternative Start and - as soon as the game let me - I hightailed it to Neon, dumped all my loot except a pistol, and started a more RP-focused game as a Neon Street Rat. Today my street rat finished the UC SysDef / Crimson fleet missions at level 65, he has an insane fully turreted ship that shreds everything, half a million credits, Revenant and Keelhauler, and he’s pretty much at the top of the world.

So I’m thinking I’ll take a break (unless I come back in to do some interesting ship design (the ship with the turrets is pretty ugly)) until mods come out for Xbox.

I’ve had a lot of fun, but the one thing that bothers me about the game is how bland the lore is. Both Fallout and Elder Scrolls have personality, whereas Starfield just feels like vanilla SF.

I’ve started playing with the shipbuilder so:

• be able to save a half-built ship design rather than having to finish it in a single sitting
• highlighting which parts are triggering a particular error or warning
• all parts you’ve encountered to be visible in the build lists even if they’re not available at the current shipyard, marked as not available but with a way to see which shipyard has them
• a way to override the automatic placement of doors and ladders
• a way to do a walkthrough of the partially built interior of a ship so you can see how the layout works before having to fit engines, gear, fuel tanks, etc
• some way for players to share / trade ship designs

I feel like Bethesda has released the game with Minimum Viable Product systems in some areas (ship-building, outpost-building, inventory management in particular) knowing that the modding community will massively improve the barebones.

• button to autofollow NPCs the game has told me to follow, at their walking pace
• option to ‘sell all up to amount of cash vendor has’
• highlight ammo used by favourited guns in the buy from vendor ammo list
• a search field for the star map so I don’t have to remember what system The Key is in.

So you harbour nothing but contempt for all Bethesda games published in the last 20 years? Cool, cool, your opinion is enjoyable.

Nice!

My wish list is pretty short and it’s been the same for almost every Bethesda RPG ever.

When I have to follow an NPC, give me a button to press to auto-follow so I don’t have to try and match their ‘faster than a walk but slower than a run’ pace.

Please?

I mean, yeah, different people like different things. I play them all and enjoy them all, but Fallout just has something that appeals to me more than Elder Scrolls or Starfield as a setting.

I’ve been playing Fallout since Fallout. It’s always had character.

“Science fiction (sometimes shortened to SF or sci-fi)” - Wikipedia

I think this is fair enough, given it’s a Zero Punctuation review. And I think he nailed it when he said that it doesn’t have much of an identity of its own.

As I said back here, “So my worry is that Starfield is just vanilla SF without any of the quirkiness, character, or personality that makes me love Fallout.”

Aw. I was hoping to see him seamlessly fly to the Volii system, seamlessly fly to Volii Alpha, seamlessly land on the Neon landing pad, seamlessly enter the Bayu Plaza and, seamlessly interact with dozens of NPCs, many of whom have branching dialogue trees, and seamlessly loot the ever-loving crap out of hundreds of interactable objects.

I’m having fun.

It’s not NMS and I don’t want it to be. NMS is great for what it does, but it’s barely an actual game (in my experience - not played it for a few months so it may have changed).

I’m familiar enough with loading screens from FO3, FO:NV, FO4, and ES:V so that doesn’t bother me much.

Also, I’m an old man, so I’m playing on easy because I want fun and to explore the story rather than have a stressful challenge. The bosses with multiple health bars are a bit shit but I’ve rarely run out of ammo.

So, yeah, I’m having fun. But my expectations going into it on Wednesday were that it would be FO4 in space. So far it’s doing slightly better than that for me.