The message I got from Starfield is that everything we have on earth is infinitely more interesting than stuff in space. Our biodiversity, human culture and art, and even just food are superior. In Starfield everything is so dull and lifeless, from its planets to cities to animals to people. Too sanitary. For example, on Neon they have a drug that is banned everywhere else, so dangerous that you can only purchase it legally in one club, and that club looks like the goofiest cosplay convention anyone has ever imagined. 😆
This is also kind of backed up by a story mission where you uncover that it was some dude's fault that Earth was destroyed, because of the "limitless possibilities" he caught a glimpse of; so he chose those possibilities instead of keeping Earth as it was. Villain of the story right there... as those possibilities just lead to tedium.
You obviously haven't considered Bethesda in that analysis and are likely to get Oolam Caluphid'd at the next zebra crossing qed Please try and be more careful with the future
As a long time bethesda fan, Starfield kinda unintentionally showed me the most important part of bethesda games. Like how web-swinging and transforming are the parts of Spiderman and Transformers game that you HAVE to get right. And its the ability to just walk in a random direction and find something to do. It makes the jank charming and the world feel vast. I mean when Nintendo made their own Skyrim (BOTW) they based it off of "See that mountain? You can climb it.". When you take out that continuous immersion in the world you're just left with a worse linear rpg. And so all you see are the tradeoffs they've made to produce something very bland, because they took out the secret ingredient that brings it all together.
Exploration and the world itself is something Bethesda did best. Even something as bad as Fallout 76 launch state still had great exploration and a great map. BGS needs to go back to what they do best. I hope the expansion remedies many of the issues with exploration with Starfield since it is taking place on one planet.
after i played Starfield, i tried out Oblivion since i hadn't played it before. I was amazed at how often, despite playing very similarly, i kept getting distracted off of my path into delves, dungeons, villages and various side activities. for my first 20ish hours I didn't use fast travel once and only used it when the game ping-ponged me from one place to another through paths i had already taken before several times. I had to force myself to follow the main quest and not veer off. In Starfield, i am never not questing. I will never veer off the path on a random planet to explore unknown areas because they're 1: too far away and 2: not interesting, rewarding or unique enough to warrant being explored. Now, i like the questing in Starfield and there's enough missions in the game, and ways to approach them, that if you want to play it solely for questing, you can, but that has the side effect of pointing a light onto Bethesda's notoriously shoddy and inconsistent writing, so when you're not invested in the world because exploring it isn't worth the hassle, it'll feel like the writing is worse than it actually even is. Oblivion showed me why you believe in Tamriel but you don't in the Settled Systems.
The constant loading screens and vast emptiness of the world is what killed starfield for me. Skyrim worked because the world felt real and lived in. I could walk in any direction and after 5 minutes I could find SOMETHING. That doesn’t happen in starfield.
I think if the game was going to be empty why not try to create a fearful tense atmosphere rather than cosplaying as explorers which gets old really quickly
Starfield was the first time where I had to pause after a certain number of hours and ask myself if I actually still liked video games. I mean, it’s a fair question. I’ve been playing these damn things for over 20 years now. But I played baldurs gate 3 a couple months later (and then disco elysium a month after that!) and realized that I do still, in fact, love this medium of entertainment. I hate starfield. I hate how ok it is. I hate how long I had to play it to even REALIZE my own dissatisfaction with it. I had become so conditioned to just immerse myself in these worlds that I never stopped to ask myself if they were even pulling the right levers. Bethesda is now the poster child for ‘death by committee’ as a studio. So disjointed and haphazardly stitched together. So opinionless. There was no cohesive vision that every member of the team was on board with as they made this. I actively believe this game was made with a lot of personal resentment. I think this game was a chore to make. A chore that Todd Howard forced upon every member of his staff.
@@PensFan35 I love this comment. "I hate how long I had to play it in order to realize my own dissatisfaction" is the realest statement about this game.
A lot of video games are basically like an okay office job now. You go in and push some buttons and it occupies your time, but very few really fun or interesting things happen, but at least you pushed those buttons and was productive or something. I've pretty much stopped playing videos games because they're... Just okay like eating a piece of sandwich bread for lunch.
@@ax14pz107 there are still some that are fucking great. BG3 is a masterpiece for example. Generally anything the AAA suits didn’t get creative control over has a shot to be worth playing.
I thoroughly enjoy it and have 400+ hours in it. I don't think it deserves the level of hate it gets. I just play it through gamepass too so it's money well spent for me
I genuinely hate this game and almost everything about it. But I also love that it exists because finally a lot of BGS fans are opening their eyes to what us older fans have been saying for over a decade.
I hate saying this, cuz it sounds so “dumb”. It’s like the writers didn’t play the game? There’s just this level of disconnect from the dialogue and the rest of the game. Really took me out of it.
I would also add Noah Caldwell Gervais to the list of great video essayist who engage with the medium on a deep level. He not only talks about the games themselves but also how they fit into the broader cultural context as a whole. His prose is also excellent and a joy to listen to.
I really appreciate the way you approach subjects like this holistically. One of my favorite David Graeber quotes is "Social theory is largely a game of make-believe in which we pretend, just for the sake of argument, that there's just one thing going on" and I like that you give us analysis that resists that as much as one could reasonably expect.
It makes sense too because that game was made on the cusp of Bethesda going bankrupt. So Todd said wtf else do we have to lose. They literally went all in because it could’ve been the last thing for them.
@@dawsong5208 It also helped that all the older Bethesda developers, and writers were still around at the time and Emil was just another quest writer instead of lead writer or game director that he is now.
Morrowind was the best to me also. The only thing i didnt like was the combat system but other than that, I loved the ranking system when in the guilds or the legion.
From morrowind to skyrim, it makes me think the latter was made for mentally disabled people. It also makes me question the intelligence of people that skyrim was released 17 times and bought 17 times.
I *want* to say that Oblivion was closer to how you felt about fallout 3 than how you felt about Starfield, but to be honest that might just be my nostalgia talking. At the very least, it was a lot less interested in forcing its weak narrative on you. There was just straight up less of it than modern Bethesda games.
I find it hard to believe that the biggest complaint people have about Starfield is also the allure of it. I love exploring in Starfield. It's supposed to feel empty because it is empty. That's what's so exciting about it: knowing that you're one of the first people to climb this mountain or stand in the centre of a massive crater. I've spent countless hours stargazing, adjusting my telescope, waiting for planets to get into position... So I don't mind walking a few minutes to find another view to take in. It seems to me that the people complaining about exploration are actually just looking for dungeons to clear
There is this one guy that single handedly made me purchase Starfield. He even interviewed Todd suspiciously. He went on to say that watching him play is different to how it "feels" to play Starfield. He said that after the 20hr mark is when he just suddenly got it and the game from that point on just got better and better. I got the game and after 5 hours it got worse and worse. This game channel never plays SF after the 3-3 hr long rave videos he made about it. I mean a game that transformed him from a geek on a PC to living the life of a space pirate with deep immersion you just cant see by watching someone play and he never plays it?
I love STARFIELD because it is The Bethesda game that I have been waiting for all this time. It’s a space adventure power fantasy and I am here for it. It’s not art it is entertainment. That said I still thought the ending was pretty cool and I dig some of the characters like a lot, like Barrett who is awesome, funny, charming, he cooks you Ethiopian food; I can see why Erwin married him. And of course, best gal Andreja who is also fun and interesting if a bit messed up by her wacky snake religion but hey all religions are wacky and solely so humans don’t have to deal with their own morality and smallness in a vast ancient universe that gives zero shits about us because as just matter and energy it has no shits to give. It isn’t WAR AND PEACE. Hell no, and thank goodness for that. I am a simple man of simple pleasures. I like hanging out on barren, airless moons watching the starrise. Also, shooting space pirates in their space faces with my cool space guns. If I want a deep story and art I’ll read a book, that why I have books. Fun and power fantasies are why I play video games, not for deep meaning.
Games are in relationship with themselves and their audiences more than other mediums. The interaction makes them more complex (which doesn't mean better, there's just more layers).
So, I'm a longtime bethesda enjoyer, modder and porter for their games. I have a clear bias, but I also like to engage in critical debates and Im not blind to the faults of these games. It's just that sometimes I think that, in the rush to justify a certain perspective, people embark on a narrative of "x thing is bad" and then try to fit the pieces of why it's supposed to be bad, not really giving it the necessary time. People have already "decided" starfield is bad, so any arguments on why it's bad seems to be fair game, since the end argument has already been written in ink. Of course, if Starfield was on the level of writing of things like The Expanse, Babylon 5, Mass Effect and hit the same "emotional" (sorry) beats, it would be legendary, but it's funny because the complaints are not ostensively about the main story or the quality of the writing for the characters, these complaints are often sidelined in favor of things like exploration, quality of the in-game systems of progression, immersion factor etc. I liked that you mentioned Mass Effect 1, because in a mechanical sense Starfield as presented by Bethesda is quite similar to a Bioware game, but without the quality writing. I feel like bethesda wanted to make a "bioware" style game using "the expanse" as the main inspiration but then sprinkling the high fantasy and light hearted elements of other franchises to achieve the sci fi pastiche objective. However, Bethesda is no Bioware. And no discussion about a bethesda game is complete without mentioning mods. I know that mods shouldnt be used as an excuse for any company delivering on a half baked product, but at the same time it's mods that breathe everlasting life to these games, no matter how charming the vanilla game might be. I can say already that in less than a month of the release of the Creation Kit Starfield has become one of my favorite games, and it can only improve. With the right load order the game now delivers on the liminal, complex experience of space exploration, the prep work, the hazards of the journey, the deadliness of every combat situation, the beauty in desolation, the wonder and so on. So, if you excuse the execution of the story (which you need to do in all bethesda titles) it is fastly approaching the territory of previous games, and I think it has the potential to live on for many years.
I could go into a Fallout game or Skyrim and look up and realize I've been playing for 5 hours. In Starfield, I'd look up, realize it's been 5 minutes and it just feels like 5 hours. There was nothing immersive in that game. Then they didn't even do mods for a year, by which point everyone is already gone. They still haven't done any DLC, as far as I know. Mods might fix some of the technical problems but it's not going to correct the underlying issue that the game is just boring as hell.
Interesting watch, I don't play any Bethesda game but it's always fascinating to listen what people think and feel about them, a very passionate fanbase to say the least :D Great video!
I swear every single Bethesda release has had so many people shitting on it when I have never had the crazy game breaking bugs unless I'm trying to do that. Starfield is by no means a perfect game but no game is and it has so many different things I could talk about that make it a great game, I figured you would talk about something like the paid mods or how the game has taken over a year to get to a good state but no you talk about the problems all Bethesda games have simply by design. You and everyone else that is complaining about it sounds like they have completely disconnected from the video games you play, unless it has a substantial amount of shock factor to wake you up. Starfields gameplay is smooth and fun and it's story is intense and engaging it has me wanting more the worst thing I could say is the space travel is basically fast traveling 90% of the time which I wish the made much better because then anyone talking crap would be the minority as that's the only thing lacking in substance. And it also brought the best skill system Bethesda has made to date, I hope it's improved upon and added to elder scrolls 6
Watching you feels like a suburb in the 90s next to an overpass highway as the sun sets behind a young man walking home from school while it's all backed by lofi like some modern coming of age film.
the one thing that gives me hope for gaming as a medium is how audiences have been reacting to genuinely bad narratives in recent games. Starfield is one example, but I also remember that when Destiny 2: Lightfall came out, people were absolutely flaying it over its piss-poor narrative and it seemed to make the Destiny 2 community pay a lot more attention to its narrative and how it was conveyed than they would have otherwise. maybe if enough games come out with horrible storytelling and laughable narratives, wider audiences will take notice and push writers and developers to make better games.
Doesn't give me hope, because this same audience have wild expectations that are not possible. People wanted something like Star Citizen + Cyberpunk + NMS in Starfield and that won't be possible for years to come. It's not possible to have a space open world rpg where you can free roam and expect the level of complexity of a Nightcity everywhere you go. Procedural generation will get boring pretty soon. You can already see people bashing Star Wars Outlaws because apparently the ship goes "on rails" just like in Starfield. "Influencers" keep telling these people they are right because it's the easy way out, when in fact they should be informing the audience about current game development constraints. This hate echo chamber the gaming community has become doesn't bring me one bit of hope. Especially when people just make stuff up. Not once in their marketing videos was it said that there would be seamless landing and departing in SF. But you won't find it hard to find people swearing that they did it. It has become this Mandela effect because so many game youtubers were circle jerking opinions as facts in the way the hype wwa blowing that people bought into them. I had no ill conceived expectations from SF and I had fun. Just like I had tons of fun once Cyberpunk was released, regardless os its flaws back then.
@@fridaysatjons1097 that's literally all single player games work, are you stupid? It's not a live service game, duh, players leave when they are done with the contents.
@@fridaysatjons109714.000 players peak in June. For an action Rpg single player game which hasnt had a major update since its launch, that's a pretty solid number. This is not a multiplayer game Lies of P had less than 1000 peak in June.
@@edward3190 Just because a game has initial good reaction, due to a company having built up a decent rep and hype, does not mean it is in fact a good game in reality. It may have commercially been a success, but mechanically quite a big blunder, hence why it doesn't retain the playerbase longterm.
And! Thematic and mechanic harmony is not merely for "story-driven" games, some of the most satisfying, cohesive experiences I have had with games include Doom (2016 and Eternal), Portals 1 and 2, and Talos Principle. These games, in my opinion, do so much right. Doom (2016 moreso) perfectly supports the one thing that it really wants you to do; rip and tear. Portal is a perfect mystery. Talos Principle really wants you to be immersed in deep reflection, and rewards you for it.
I will say it again as many times as I need to. Starfield is a pretty good game. It might not be a masterpiece, but there isn't really anything about it that particularly makes me think I should be calling it a "bad" game. Saying it's bad just comes off as hyperbole. I get not everyone is going to like the type of exploration that Starfiled has, but that doesn't mean it's bad, it just means it doesn't suit your particular taste. Which is understandable, many people who have played BGS games of the past probably expected a similar exploration experience to their previous games. Starfield being a space game with the idea of being able to go to any planet or moon means it's impossible for them to have done exploration in the same way they had done in previous games where the entire game takes place in a singular small region on a singular continent, on a singular planet. It's very easy to pack everything in, when you have a small space to work with. Starfield ... it's just not feasible to do that. In fact, there isn't a game that exists that is capable of that at this scale. But I also understand this isn't what some people wanted, but just because it wasn't what they wanted doesn't mean it's bad. Starfield is actually a very good attempt at this kind of game and it's only going to continue to get better as it receives more and more updates. But, for some people... it's never going to be the game they want it to be. On a side note, BGS games tend to get hated on a lot even though most of them always end up being extremely successful and looked at fondly the more time passes by. Even when Skyrim first came out there were tons of complaints. Yet today it sits on it's thrown as one of the best RPGs to ever release. Even Fallout 4 is now looked at quite fondly even though it was crapped on constantly as the worst Fallout game ever. Even 76, with its disastrous launch isn't really seen as a bad game anymore.
You know, i didn't think Bethesda had it in them to have a thousand planets, they would need like 100 unique buildings per planet, a dozen quests per, a bunch of funny random events linked to certain planet types. And a bunch of interesting locations per planet. All this just to make it feel like Fallout in space. I wish i wasn't correct.
The problem with Bethesda games in general is they aren't incredibly good at writing 😂 and I mean dialogue because they can make set pieces that are really impressive you can tell that they can storyboard moments that are impressive with consistency and you can't take that away from them but you can take away the fact that most of their dialogue feels wooden, I was watching this great video earlier today that went into depth on Bethesda games which is probably why I got this video and it was bringing up as a comparison cyberpunk versus fallout 4 in particular their protagonists, in particular how they handle relationships everyone's favorite Irish girlfriend versus Panam which she has in my opinion the less engaging dialogue of the two major girlfriend options in cyberpunk.... And my God Panam was just so much better because you felt like she was actually a human and that was something I noticed when I was playing through the game originally as well, I mean objectively speaking I had never played even Mass effect before until recently I think it was like 2021 when I played the first mass effect and then after doing that retroactively the romance in fallout 4 got worse and then I played cyberpunk and it got a lot worse and then I played baldur's gate 3 and it got significantly worse. And that's just one of those comparative things where with more experience with what romance can be in video games it helps you realize that the faux emotional moments weren't really that good in the first place it's just you didn't have the experience to compare to, Generally speaking I find most Bethesda dialogue to fall flat and that is most certainly because they have so few voice actors and their lead writer is not the greatest there have been probably 100 of videos made on his failure as a writer and his ideology in writing dialogue that he admitted to outside of people complaining about diversity, Add an extra thing that people have brought up here is Bethesda games are really janky so you need stuff to do while you're playing the game otherwise you will just see all the faults that you ignored in fallout 3 or fallout 4 or even Skyrim in games like that.
Another great channel/website that focuses on the literary aspect of video is With a Terrible Fate. Their website has loads of great eassays on games while their channel is more playthrough focused with them providing in depth analysis of the story as the game is being played. A stand out would be their Tales of Praxis series of playthroughs where they're playing through the Tales of series of JRPGs.
I have a love/hate relationship with Starfield. I love how easy it was to become immersed in it, but I hate the points where the characters seemed to say one thing but react in the opposite way. There was a lot of emptiness, but I feel like the copy and pasting of places kind of fit in with the story. Especially if you ran through it a few times you start to find yourself reacting to the environment like the Hunter would rather than the Emissary. The game really pushed you into trying to make morally sound decisions and I often wonder if that was what they really were trying to do rather than exploration focus. There was a lot that could be improved but I did appreciate the overall universe that was created, and I am still upset I couldn't romance Delgado. As someone who doesn't have a lot of time for games I agree I wish there were more story driven games that meshed well with how you played. That being said I've been playing Dragon's Dogma 2 and its not for the story because the story was short as hell but its still really enjoyable and even immersive.
I think Starfield is a fantastic game. I've been to planets that have blown me away, had intense space and ground combat, I think the writing for side content is fantastic, and there are times where I am so incredibly immersed in the world. The hate on this game is really sad to see. Give it a second chance like I did and accept the fact that it is not Skyrim and Fallout and yes you will be doing a lot of fast traveling. I think if you let yourself get lost in the game, you will enjoy it
Honestly I agree, I understand Starfield has its flaws and things to complain about but what I saw is people either like it, or don't. And it's okay to dislike a game, that doesn't make it bad. I will admit it does feels empty, and I didnt like the loading screens but that's about all I have to complain about and the loading screens have been improved in the last big update, and as far as the emptiness I feel like it was just a failure of presentation and created too many expectations, doesn't mean content won't be added in the future. Personally I love the game, and I'm excited to see what it becomes in the future.
@kingknightisbestknight7398 didn't pay for it bud, but hey you don't have to like it. Honestly don't see why me enjoying a game somehow effects you. But you do you
I've never heard anybody be so wrong so many times in a single video. I can't think of a single person I've ever talked to that liked fallout 3 more than new vegas. I didn't even finish my first playthrough of fallout 3, meanwhile I've put over 400 hours into new vegas.
i think one of the major issues is that its a brand new IP and they havent really found its identity yet. i cant really remember a brand new IP from any AAA studio that has done well for ages. and i think theyre gonna stumble around for a bit before they figure it out i also think Starfield has some really great writing(a lot of the terrormorph questline is great). but the issue is that its very inconsistent. the game also lacks those "amazing" moments. or amazing discoveries. like giant monster, mechs ships, small but heartfelt stories(there are some, but theyre so few). im also not really worried about it not coming back, cause in all their previous games, the best storywriting came from the DLCs and their DLCs heavily fleshed out their games. theyve said starfield will have more DLCs than their previous games
Just wanted to add that Elden Ring was a new IP for Fromsoft & is easily their most successful game to date. Starfield just had all of the same problems from previous Bethesda games, but without at least the allure of exploring a world & finding unique things & stories. That’s their basic backbone for their games & Starfield might be their biggest game to date, but it certainly feels like the most empty. It also, imo, shows a blatant lack of competent writers at Bethesda if when given a new IP this is all they have to show for it. They can’t rely on the already established lore & trinkets like they could with Fallout & ES. This game completely killed my hype for ES6, but here’s hoping maybe this time Bethesda will actually listen to the good criticisms. I doubt it tho.
@dawsong5208 elden ring is not a new ip. It's a continuation from dark souls. Even sporadic storytelling is the same. Saying it's something new is insane when it's so similar. You could be pedantic and go "actually by definition it is" and do some mental gymnastics, but it's so similar it would be like calling F76 a new ip cause it's mmo
@@GoalOrientedLifting It’s a new name & universe so yea it is. The DNA of the design is similar, but the open world & vast amounts of new mechanics make it something different. You could make the same argument with Starfield. Like sure it’s a new universe with new lore, but the combat is still basically just F4 & the space combat is barely worth mentioning. The storytelling & quest design is the same as they’ve always done. So like which is which then? Both could be called similar enough to their respective past games, but both in definition & at least some amounts are new IPs.
Starfield is the only Bethesda game that I have played, and I have to say that there is a certain disconnect between the in-game environment and the in-game exploration and plot. I cannot compare it to Fallout (never played it) but I did compare it to the Mass Effect series. Mass Effect Andromeda felt like it had more exploration and better plot, than Starfield.
I’m at level 143 and still playing Starfield and just getting to the Ryujin quest line on Xbox Series X. Still creating additional outposts after the mods have come out. Unfortunately the current generation wants things without working toward a goal over time. Again, level 143 without going through Unity. Starfield is a great game. Guess it depends on what you’re willing to put into it.
@@pw6002 it's just not a true characterization to say that people enjoyed mass effect for the jank. He almost had it with the cosmic horror description, but there are actual storytelling elements in ME1. That is a much harder claim to make for starfield.
Only 2 video game stories have legitimately pulled me in. Dishonored and Red Dead Redemption 2. I've played Witcher 3, Mass Effect trilogy, and many games that are known for supposedly having great stories, but video game narratives just don't do it for me typically, so it's not an expectation that I have for them. Despite Starfield being an RPG, I fully expect the story/characters to be lacking, just like they are in Cyberpunk 2077, so i don't play for story -- I play for game mechanics and satisfying gameplay loops, and prey that the world building and scenario is good enough to hold my interest while I play through the game. Starfield's mainline quests sucked not because the story sucked (even though it did), but because there was nothing to do during those quests to compensate for the inevitable uninteresting narrative.
FINALLY! I don't feel like freak for think Fallout 3 and even parts of 4 are scary. I've been mocked by so many gamers both online and IRL for just saying I couldn't get into Fallout 3 because it legit scared the fuck out me.
I think an important part of a Bethesda game is the player being able to find a place they feel a part of it. And I would argue that the setting of Starfield just doesn't make the being able to shoot something as that. I think that it intends to have the uncovering the mystery thing as an explorer be that feeling of a part of the story, but I think that part really is not interesting. What I personally felt drawn to was maybe an entrepreneur that would find valuable resources as I built outposts. And then interact with people of the universe to turn the resources to turn those resources into better equipment, ships and new resources or ways to use them to be successful, as well as adventurer. But that all felt like it broke when I got to Neon, and everything felt like window dressing, that was silly to try and feel immersed in the seedy world. Because really nothing that is meant to be immersive.
Stories that have specific themes tend to appeal to smaller crowds who enjoy those specific themes. A game like starfield is pushed to be sold to as many people as possible and a good story that appeals to a smaller crowd could screw that up. It could end up offending... Those people and get boycotted or something, although they should have known... Those people were going to be super offended by the ability to choose a pronoun. It's very risky for a corporation that wants to just make a line go up.
I think one issue is this. Their games have gotten less and less dark stories. And I was starkly reminded of this when I saw someone play fallout 3. Compared to fallout 4. It also seems like they stopped doing the "let the devs add something they want to" like how 2 devs secretly built black reach in skyrim.
Starfield is a game where they took everything Bethesda used to be good at; World building and Lore, and instead fills it with garbage they've learned attracts the broadest audience of the last 10 years. What used to be MASSIVE 1 map games where you could go anywhere without a single loading screen is now broken up by loading screens, janky shooting balance, a boring perk system that a good amount of them should be baseline and "infinite leveling" so you don't have to specialize and eventually just become the jack of all trades, master of all.
Use your limitations to tell the story is exactly what Starfield should have done. The “clean nasa punk aesthetic” feels really bland and the lack of people and places makes the world feel barren. They should have told a story that after the destruction Humanity is barely surviving in the bleakness of space and government is teetering on collapse. The world is hostile, scary and full of dangers. I did not feel one moment of tension playing starfield. You contrast that with Skyrim which is loaded with atmosphere and world that hangs together brilliantly.
@@chriswavesthanks. The moment that ruined the game for me was trying to land new Atlantis and walking to it. On the humans new home world you can’t see cities or skylines just hostile aliens and abandoned buildings with occasional bandits. There are supposed to be billions of people on this planet but it feels like there is less than a thousand. Why not lean into that and make the story a defiant struggle for the survival of humanity
I actually loved Starfield. It's deep as a puddle, yes. All the writing seems done by the same person, so all the NPCs feel samey. But! I like playing out my space pirate fantasies. And this game let's me do almost anything. Starfield is clearly still very popular when you look at live player counts. For a single player game, after almost a year, that's huge. Let's not pretend it's dead, or anything less than "successful". And if the DLCs offer hand crafted environments, its going to be massive.
Story is a recounting of a series of events that occurred in the past Gameplay is the process of creating a series of events through the resolution of the gameplay This makes story the antithesis of gameplay Having a story in a game reduces the gameplay to meaningless button mashing and stick pushing between the cutsceens and dialogs that everybody gets Story is developed for the passive forms of entertainment mediums but games are a participatory medium and too have games ape the forms of what's familiar rather than play into its strengths is the same thing that happened with early motion pictures that simply produced stage plays with the camera fixed at the position offering the pov of an audience member sitting front tow center stage seating rather than put the camera in all the places the audience couldn't be when attending a play in a theater None of this is to say that there can't be good games with storylines incorporated within the experience At the end of the day entertainment should entertain and that can transcend a work which fails in every formal aspect yet the gestalt fails so fully it manages to fly by accident having missed the ground compleatly on the way down and the result is a Rocky Horror Picture Show or The Room See The Shape of Stories talk by Kurt Vonagut' for an inkling of how to set up the dynamic elements in a game to help drive events in a way that creates interesting stories as a product of gameplay rather than an element that supercedes it IMHO FWIW Not much, You? Subscribed by the way in case I somehow came of as contentious rather than just trying to offer a different perspective on the axiomatic assumption of storylines being fundamentally necessary to games Never allow Yourself to become comfortable with axioms There just like sandpeople course and rough and getting everywhere I hate both Do or not do Crying is for baseball
What the hell? Remember when autoincorrect used to notify You rather than just changing what You're having to type by touchscreen.on a qwerty keyboard layout which is designed for touch typing not touchscreen typing so Your often finding Your attention on what Your actually typing in the moment and forget to pay attention too what You've already typed... I say You here but I'm pretty sure I just meme Me You know it's only Luddite if what Your rejecting is fundamentally superior to what it is Your choosing to return too New has absolutely no necessary coalition with better whatsoever Anyone claiming otherwise is trying to sell You something
Thanks for the thoughtful vid, i agree that the games ecosystem is in sorry shape rn. We live in the fascinating point in history where the tension between art and product in video games (and all media) is super pronunced, to the point it feels like its gonna snap, but no ones really sure what to do about it... While we're waiting for capitalism to implode, I think a decent starting point is to get even more loud about the art we love, revel in the messy humanity of it, cultivate a passion that rubs off on others To that end, my game recommendation is Kingdom Hearts! Genuine miracle right here, baisically the only long-running story-driven game series that hasnt completely withered on the vine. Filled with so much heart and soul because of all the lovely people who poured theirs into it for nearly 25 years. I dont know where to even begin really, it just manages to hit this perfect blend of silly, thoughtful, cool, earnest, campy, and gay, so very wonderfuly gay.
Watching this video makes me think about a game that is excellent in what you’re getting at. One that is kind of under the radar. If anyone reading this hasn’t already, play Control by Remedy. Control blends a unique, interesting story that has VERY deep lore (if you read documents in game) with fun gameplay that makes sense within the world it takes place in. Cannot recommend it enough. Alan Wake 2 is also amazing by Remedy and does the things stated above as well. However I liked Control more since I found the story/lore way more interesting and the gameplay was a lot more fun imo. Both are made by Remedy and all of their games all intertwine together to create a rich and beautiful universe full of mystery and intrigue. It’s the type of games I think about and ponder even when I’m not playing.
A game is meant to be fun, what that means differs from person to person... But fundamentally it is meant to not only be fun but fun either in a novel way or be fun in a manner that is iterative to what has been done.
Cool video. I like your look into a games story. Might have to watch the video a couple times to fully follow you (I’m an old stoned fart). Starfield does many things I like, and some things I love. But playing almost everyday since early release I know what one thing hurts it most. And I think it is at the heart of every player’s struggle with the game, especially myself. It is a game that taps into the wonder of spaceflight, but removes the magic of flight. The battle against gravity to leave a world, and watching it turn into a dot. And the awe of seeing what looks like a pretty little marble turn into a world that you are standing on. Catch a smile out there. o7
I mean... If it weren't for the horror, nearly all horror games would be incredibly boring. You can't put the horror, out of its games, and just think that it will work with a new setting. Starfield just doesn't do anything new. It's like every other game they did before.... But big... But no reason as to why it is big...
no surprise its mediocrity, Bethesda given too much a pass, "the mods will do it" mindset not as a gift but a feature second half of that is sanitzation of everything cause ESG/DEI and it shows in all of it so much is meaningless cause it can't really insult or critique something without being labeled "-istaphobic" for doing so characters in the world not just the engine just aren't great looking to fit a token box of "diversity" which makes it not feel like space but instead a college campus pronoun and identity sliders show the world can't identity what the player is so all story is amorphously written (same problem in BG3) the last thing was fun and the first was quota filling and it shows doubt Elder Scroll 6 will be any better
I was baffled how they made a sci-fi space game that ended up being much less creative than their other games. They had diverse Alien races/species in oblivion/Morrowind. Starfield is just people. Boring people. It's crazy how bland & PG it is. Nothing pulls you in. Nothing gives you that wow feeling of exploration, experience, unique interactions. It's just shoot guns, fast travel, talk to boring people in the same terrible perspective every time you interact with someone. It's ridiculous. Gaming should be better than this. It doesn't need to be Huge! It doesn't need to have amazing graphics. It just needs a unique look, with fun sprinkled in alongside a creative personality! This game lacks personality more than any other game. They think they improved graphics and made a huge game but they didn't. All the technological roadblocks creates this sense of game that wishes it was big but it feels suffocatingly limited and closed in. People would rather have better art style, dynamic gameplay mechanics, unique vibes, immersive exploration, things to do when you explore besides shot gun, walk in barren empty places.. It's the most non sci-fi, sci-fi game.. oblivion is much more creative and dynamic than Starfield is. This game doesn't even give the player the OPTION to play as a different style character each time. You can't be a genuine stealth character.. It's so shallow for how grandiose it thought it was being.. How did they not see that?
the thing thats going for starfield is that its a gen 1 IP ASSUMING IT DOES BECOME AN IP most of BGS' main stream games has an established lore from Fallout to TES, also most of the time they fall into a stereortypical set of ending tropes that it becomes bland especially if you play much into it, free choice is bleh, which is why I think in FO4 you are automatically tasked to find Shaun, in FO3 there's nary foreshadowing that you are supposed to save the water supply then again same went for FO1 you were only tasked to save the vault's water supply only to end up meeting the master.... hey its like Armored Core 1 but unlike starfield at least in FO4 you are given SOO MUCH time getting to that point B that its up to you how to do it but its also to its detriment think about it how integrated is Nuka World DLC to the main game? hell I would argue Skyrim is more well integrated as a narrative than FO4 is and Skyrim CAME OUT EARLIER WTF? even then the skyrim's civil war arc is considered to be the weakest story arc of Skyrim its like the guy who wrote that arc became the lead narrative writer for Starfield and FO4
Starfield is a masterpiece... obviously the game needs to be played HOURS to understand mechanics, skills quests and so on... many people expected something else but a nasapunk game based on space exploration is exactly the way Starfield is, is not Mass effect, is not kotor.
Todd's dream game, lol, Hello Games sadly made it way before he got to it, they had the tech Todd believed just didn't exist until they started working on it.
I think games are actually way over analyzed in terms of themes/story/aesthetic and we NEED people to deeply discuss mechanics. We don't need 500 6 hour video essays about "amazing" stories and art direction that would be considered mediocre in most other mediums.
I would say the marketing also plays a part in this, because they marketed it as THE definitive space game, when it's just a Bethesda game in space. I enjoy it for what it is, it's a nice game. I like to play when I want to chill but the definitive space game, this is not.
What would be your advice to developers in regards to the point about gameplay inciting a ‘feeling’ that corresponds well with story elements? Your point about FO3 was interesting, but I don’t understand what anyone’s supposed to learn from it - it’s super subjective. I, for example, definitely did not get that feeling of everything coming together that you did. In fact, what I loved in FO3 as a teenager I loved in spite of all its surface-level wackiness, because my personal reaction to that (even as a 15-year-old) was just confusion: I’d find myself asking how it made sense in the world, what was ACTUALLY happening, what it meant. Obviously I realise now I was looking for depth where none existed. This is why pure subjectivity is so limited when it comes to conversing about art - for all we know, FO3 just happened to work for you despite it being designed with the same raw ambitions as every Bethesda game since.
It's not "dead". It's not a live service game. It's a single player game. It's intial sales are It's bread and butter. They damaged their future sales by making the game harder to mod. It was fun but not fun enough to play 10 times through
"They damaged their future sales by making the game harder to mod." It's ... not. At least from my experience the game is just as easy to mod as their previous games. What do you mean?
@SilvyReacts the stuff I have read is adding items and such to the game isn't hard but the way they siloed quests, worlds, zones, etc has made it very hard to mod.
More-so than other pieces of entertainment games are just as much machines as artistic expressions. How does the shooting feel, what about the graphical performance, is the level scaling a good choice, and so on. Reviewing and recommending games often then revolves around those “hard” aspects not the “soft” parts of the experience. The text of the game is all the parts that allow it be played. When a player feels that a game is “bad” that is what they are reacting against, not the imperfections that exist within any piece of software. What is then missing in most discourse is if all the parts of the game work together for a compelling experience. The analogy that comes to mind is if the only things literary critics cared about were things like typography, word count, or if there was a plot hole introduced on page 792.
Fallout 3 is a game where you turn your brain off and then smash your head in the console and shit yourself in a puddle of your stupidity while new vegas is where you actually play a videogame with thought put in to it
@@Here_is_WaldoI still think it was a bit of an odd point to make in a video about the literary merit of video games. Fallout 3 does create an effective atmosphere but most of the text does not really explore much of substance at all whereas some dialogue exchanges in Fallout New Vegas genuinely influence the way I think about life.
@@Here_is_Waldo FO3 missed the actual initial point of the fallout series, the environmental storytelling of fallout is about the juxtaposition of the destructive nature of humanity against the resilience of humanity, the inevitability of war against the inevitability of civilization, fallout 3 lacks this juxtaposition because it lacks the visual representation of human resilience and the push towards civilization, instead humans are existing in a bleak world but have no expression of struggling or working towards thriving.
Great video. Fallout 3 is the best game Bethesda has ever made IMO. It's only gone downhill from there. I have no desire nor reason to boot up Starfield again.
Yeah but i mean nost of the games coming out aren't "emphasizing fun" theyre just boring grindfests that function like jobs or soulless games designed purely to check boxes. And on top of that, if you say that the writing is bad, someone throws insults at you and calls you a bigot. Same with TV shows lately. Its to the point where the fallout show is merely passable and everyone acted like it was a masterpiece despite the atrocious amount of plot holes and ignoring of lore that happened.
When I was a kid, I drifted into space and a ship bumped me back in orbit. I was supposed to die, but a ship bumped me back with its nose.
@@leijten That was the universe telling you that you were supposed to do something great.
The message I got from Starfield is that everything we have on earth is infinitely more interesting than stuff in space. Our biodiversity, human culture and art, and even just food are superior. In Starfield everything is so dull and lifeless, from its planets to cities to animals to people. Too sanitary. For example, on Neon they have a drug that is banned everywhere else, so dangerous that you can only purchase it legally in one club, and that club looks like the goofiest cosplay convention anyone has ever imagined. 😆
This is also kind of backed up by a story mission where you uncover that it was some dude's fault that Earth was destroyed, because of the "limitless possibilities" he caught a glimpse of; so he chose those possibilities instead of keeping Earth as it was. Villain of the story right there... as those possibilities just lead to tedium.
Let's mix environmentalism with space exploration, what could possibly goes wrong?
You obviously haven't considered Bethesda in that analysis and are likely to get Oolam Caluphid'd at the next zebra crossing qed Please try and be more careful with the future
As a long time bethesda fan, Starfield kinda unintentionally showed me the most important part of bethesda games. Like how web-swinging and transforming are the parts of Spiderman and Transformers game that you HAVE to get right. And its the ability to just walk in a random direction and find something to do. It makes the jank charming and the world feel vast. I mean when Nintendo made their own Skyrim (BOTW) they based it off of "See that mountain? You can climb it.". When you take out that continuous immersion in the world you're just left with a worse linear rpg. And so all you see are the tradeoffs they've made to produce something very bland, because they took out the secret ingredient that brings it all together.
what a massive insult to Nintendo and BOTW. no its not anything at all like skyrim.
the ONLY similarity is "open world" thats litterlally it.
Exploration and the world itself is something Bethesda did best. Even something as bad as Fallout 76 launch state still had great exploration and a great map. BGS needs to go back to what they do best. I hope the expansion remedies many of the issues with exploration with Starfield since it is taking place on one planet.
after i played Starfield, i tried out Oblivion since i hadn't played it before. I was amazed at how often, despite playing very similarly, i kept getting distracted off of my path into delves, dungeons, villages and various side activities. for my first 20ish hours I didn't use fast travel once and only used it when the game ping-ponged me from one place to another through paths i had already taken before several times. I had to force myself to follow the main quest and not veer off. In Starfield, i am never not questing. I will never veer off the path on a random planet to explore unknown areas because they're 1: too far away and 2: not interesting, rewarding or unique enough to warrant being explored. Now, i like the questing in Starfield and there's enough missions in the game, and ways to approach them, that if you want to play it solely for questing, you can, but that has the side effect of pointing a light onto Bethesda's notoriously shoddy and inconsistent writing, so when you're not invested in the world because exploring it isn't worth the hassle, it'll feel like the writing is worse than it actually even is. Oblivion showed me why you believe in Tamriel but you don't in the Settled Systems.
@@wesleywyndam-pryce5305BOTW isn't that deep, dude. Lol.
@@wesleywyndam-pryce5305 woah chill!
The constant loading screens and vast emptiness of the world is what killed starfield for me.
Skyrim worked because the world felt real and lived in. I could walk in any direction and after 5 minutes I could find SOMETHING. That doesn’t happen in starfield.
Lol that's space... of course is empty... perhaps you have expected something star wars like like when have you played Starfield? 😂
@@nicolapellegrino1072 this is the lamest excuse ever.
I think if the game was going to be empty why not try to create a fearful tense atmosphere rather than cosplaying as explorers which gets old really quickly
I'm replaying Skyrim again right now. It's a hell of a lot more fun than Starfield.
@@nicolapellegrino1072 It's a video game. It's purpose is to entertain. Starfield entirely failed in its basic mission.
Starfield was the first time where I had to pause after a certain number of hours and ask myself if I actually still liked video games.
I mean, it’s a fair question. I’ve been playing these damn things for over 20 years now.
But I played baldurs gate 3 a couple months later (and then disco elysium a month after that!) and realized that I do still, in fact, love this medium of entertainment.
I hate starfield. I hate how ok it is. I hate how long I had to play it to even REALIZE my own dissatisfaction with it. I had become so conditioned to just immerse myself in these worlds that I never stopped to ask myself if they were even pulling the right levers.
Bethesda is now the poster child for ‘death by committee’ as a studio. So disjointed and haphazardly stitched together. So opinionless. There was no cohesive vision that every member of the team was on board with as they made this. I actively believe this game was made with a lot of personal resentment. I think this game was a chore to make. A chore that Todd Howard forced upon every member of his staff.
@@PensFan35 I love this comment.
"I hate how long I had to play it in order to realize my own dissatisfaction" is the realest statement about this game.
Holy shit this… this is Starfield.
A lot of video games are basically like an okay office job now. You go in and push some buttons and it occupies your time, but very few really fun or interesting things happen, but at least you pushed those buttons and was productive or something.
I've pretty much stopped playing videos games because they're... Just okay like eating a piece of sandwich bread for lunch.
@@ax14pz107 there are still some that are fucking great. BG3 is a masterpiece for example. Generally anything the AAA suits didn’t get creative control over has a shot to be worth playing.
@@munchkingod6 yeah I know but there's so much noise that finding good games is extremely tedious.
I never touched starfield but I watched all the videos about it. Money well preserved
I thoroughly enjoy it and have 400+ hours in it. I don't think it deserves the level of hate it gets. I just play it through gamepass too so it's money well spent for me
I genuinely hate this game and almost everything about it. But I also love that it exists because finally a lot of BGS fans are opening their eyes to what us older fans have been saying for over a decade.
I hate saying this, cuz it sounds so “dumb”. It’s like the writers didn’t play the game? There’s just this level of disconnect from the dialogue and the rest of the game. Really took me out of it.
Here's the thing, usually the devs don't play their own games, that's what QA does. But the writers surely weren't involved in the game design
I would also add Noah Caldwell Gervais to the list of great video essayist who engage with the medium on a deep level. He not only talks about the games themselves but also how they fit into the broader cultural context as a whole. His prose is also excellent and a joy to listen to.
I really appreciate the way you approach subjects like this holistically. One of my favorite David Graeber quotes is "Social theory is largely a game of make-believe in which we pretend, just for the sake of argument, that there's just one thing going on" and I like that you give us analysis that resists that as much as one could reasonably expect.
This made me realize I know a lot about video games that I have never and will never play.
@@unlimitedDada this sums up like 30% of my youtube experience
morrowind was 100% the best bethesda game imo considering there is so much passion in the world and how lived in it feels
It makes sense too because that game was made on the cusp of Bethesda going bankrupt. So Todd said wtf else do we have to lose. They literally went all in because it could’ve been the last thing for them.
@@dawsong5208 It also helped that all the older Bethesda developers, and writers were still around at the time and Emil was just another quest writer instead of lead writer or game director that he is now.
Morrowind was the best to me also. The only thing i didnt like was the combat system but other than that, I loved the ranking system when in the guilds or the legion.
From morrowind to skyrim, it makes me think the latter was made for mentally disabled people. It also makes me question the intelligence of people that skyrim was released 17 times and bought 17 times.
@@texasfuneral4787 in a way morrowind was just a better version of daggerfall
I *want* to say that Oblivion was closer to how you felt about fallout 3 than how you felt about Starfield, but to be honest that might just be my nostalgia talking. At the very least, it was a lot less interested in forcing its weak narrative on you. There was just straight up less of it than modern Bethesda games.
I find it hard to believe that the biggest complaint people have about Starfield is also the allure of it. I love exploring in Starfield. It's supposed to feel empty because it is empty. That's what's so exciting about it: knowing that you're one of the first people to climb this mountain or stand in the centre of a massive crater. I've spent countless hours stargazing, adjusting my telescope, waiting for planets to get into position... So I don't mind walking a few minutes to find another view to take in. It seems to me that the people complaining about exploration are actually just looking for dungeons to clear
There is this one guy that single handedly made me purchase Starfield. He even interviewed Todd suspiciously. He went on to say that watching him play is different to how it "feels" to play Starfield. He said that after the 20hr mark is when he just suddenly got it and the game from that point on just got better and better. I got the game and after 5 hours it got worse and worse. This game channel never plays SF after the 3-3 hr long rave videos he made about it. I mean a game that transformed him from a geek on a PC to living the life of a space pirate with deep immersion you just cant see by watching someone play and he never plays it?
I love STARFIELD because it is The Bethesda game that I have been waiting for all this time. It’s a space adventure power fantasy and I am here for it. It’s not art it is entertainment. That said I still thought the ending was pretty cool and I dig some of the characters like a lot, like Barrett who is awesome, funny, charming, he cooks you Ethiopian food; I can see why Erwin married him. And of course, best gal Andreja who is also fun and interesting if a bit messed up by her wacky snake religion but hey all religions are wacky and solely so humans don’t have to deal with their own morality and smallness in a vast ancient universe that gives zero shits about us because as just matter and energy it has no shits to give.
It isn’t WAR AND PEACE. Hell no, and thank goodness for that. I am a simple man of simple pleasures. I like hanging out on barren, airless moons watching the starrise. Also, shooting space pirates in their space faces with my cool space guns. If I want a deep story and art I’ll read a book, that why I have books. Fun and power fantasies are why I play video games, not for deep meaning.
Well said.
Oh great, another one of these channels.
Games are in relationship with themselves and their audiences more than other mediums. The interaction makes them more complex (which doesn't mean better, there's just more layers).
So, I'm a longtime bethesda enjoyer, modder and porter for their games. I have a clear bias, but I also like to engage in critical debates and Im not blind to the faults of these games. It's just that sometimes I think that, in the rush to justify a certain perspective, people embark on a narrative of "x thing is bad" and then try to fit the pieces of why it's supposed to be bad, not really giving it the necessary time. People have already "decided" starfield is bad, so any arguments on why it's bad seems to be fair game, since the end argument has already been written in ink.
Of course, if Starfield was on the level of writing of things like The Expanse, Babylon 5, Mass Effect and hit the same "emotional" (sorry) beats, it would be legendary, but it's funny because the complaints are not ostensively about the main story or the quality of the writing for the characters, these complaints are often sidelined in favor of things like exploration, quality of the in-game systems of progression, immersion factor etc. I liked that you mentioned Mass Effect 1, because in a mechanical sense Starfield as presented by Bethesda is quite similar to a Bioware game, but without the quality writing. I feel like bethesda wanted to make a "bioware" style game using "the expanse" as the main inspiration but then sprinkling the high fantasy and light hearted elements of other franchises to achieve the sci fi pastiche objective. However, Bethesda is no Bioware.
And no discussion about a bethesda game is complete without mentioning mods. I know that mods shouldnt be used as an excuse for any company delivering on a half baked product, but at the same time it's mods that breathe everlasting life to these games, no matter how charming the vanilla game might be. I can say already that in less than a month of the release of the Creation Kit Starfield has become one of my favorite games, and it can only improve. With the right load order the game now delivers on the liminal, complex experience of space exploration, the prep work, the hazards of the journey, the deadliness of every combat situation, the beauty in desolation, the wonder and so on. So, if you excuse the execution of the story (which you need to do in all bethesda titles) it is fastly approaching the territory of previous games, and I think it has the potential to live on for many years.
I could go into a Fallout game or Skyrim and look up and realize I've been playing for 5 hours. In Starfield, I'd look up, realize it's been 5 minutes and it just feels like 5 hours. There was nothing immersive in that game. Then they didn't even do mods for a year, by which point everyone is already gone. They still haven't done any DLC, as far as I know. Mods might fix some of the technical problems but it's not going to correct the underlying issue that the game is just boring as hell.
Interesting watch, I don't play any Bethesda game but it's always fascinating to listen what people think and feel about them, a very passionate fanbase to say the least :D
Great video!
I swear every single Bethesda release has had so many people shitting on it when I have never had the crazy game breaking bugs unless I'm trying to do that. Starfield is by no means a perfect game but no game is and it has so many different things I could talk about that make it a great game, I figured you would talk about something like the paid mods or how the game has taken over a year to get to a good state but no you talk about the problems all Bethesda games have simply by design. You and everyone else that is complaining about it sounds like they have completely disconnected from the video games you play, unless it has a substantial amount of shock factor to wake you up. Starfields gameplay is smooth and fun and it's story is intense and engaging it has me wanting more the worst thing I could say is the space travel is basically fast traveling 90% of the time which I wish the made much better because then anyone talking crap would be the minority as that's the only thing lacking in substance. And it also brought the best skill system Bethesda has made to date, I hope it's improved upon and added to elder scrolls 6
What's funny about the starfield is everytime I see or hear anything about it I instantly want to play cyberpunk 😂
oh hell nah, it’s the PROU-NAWWNS game 😰😱😣😩
Watching you feels like a suburb in the 90s next to an overpass highway as the sun sets behind a young man walking home from school while it's all backed by lofi like some modern coming of age film.
What if it was called starfreak, and instead of finding planets you…
you know what jail you're going to
@@chriswaves freak jail? Where instead of locking up men they…
@@wock3476What if it was called lockfreak, and instead of locking me up they...
the one thing that gives me hope for gaming as a medium is how audiences have been reacting to genuinely bad narratives in recent games. Starfield is one example, but I also remember that when Destiny 2: Lightfall came out, people were absolutely flaying it over its piss-poor narrative and it seemed to make the Destiny 2 community pay a lot more attention to its narrative and how it was conveyed than they would have otherwise. maybe if enough games come out with horrible storytelling and laughable narratives, wider audiences will take notice and push writers and developers to make better games.
Doesn't give me hope, because this same audience have wild expectations that are not possible. People wanted something like Star Citizen + Cyberpunk + NMS in Starfield and that won't be possible for years to come. It's not possible to have a space open world rpg where you can free roam and expect the level of complexity of a Nightcity everywhere you go. Procedural generation will get boring pretty soon. You can already see people bashing Star Wars Outlaws because apparently the ship goes "on rails" just like in Starfield. "Influencers" keep telling these people they are right because it's the easy way out, when in fact they should be informing the audience about current game development constraints.
This hate echo chamber the gaming community has become doesn't bring me one bit of hope. Especially when people just make stuff up. Not once in their marketing videos was it said that there would be seamless landing and departing in SF. But you won't find it hard to find people swearing that they did it. It has become this Mandela effect because so many game youtubers were circle jerking opinions as facts in the way the hype wwa blowing that people bought into them.
I had no ill conceived expectations from SF and I had fun. Just like I had tons of fun once Cyberpunk was released, regardless os its flaws back then.
"you wouldn't mind the jank if the jank is a vibe"
This game was a mistake, and a waste of resources.
I love how people call it dead, when it is one of most successful and best selling games. Literally the vocal minority.
@@edward3190 4,000- 7,000 players seems pretty dead to me.
@@fridaysatjons1097 that's literally all single player games work, are you stupid?
It's not a live service game, duh, players leave when they are done with the contents.
@@fridaysatjons109714.000 players peak in June. For an action Rpg single player game which hasnt had a major update since its launch, that's a pretty solid number. This is not a multiplayer game
Lies of P had less than 1000 peak in June.
@@edward3190 Just because a game has initial good reaction, due to a company having built up a decent rep and hype, does not mean it is in fact a good game in reality. It may have commercially been a success, but mechanically quite a big blunder, hence why it doesn't retain the playerbase longterm.
And! Thematic and mechanic harmony is not merely for "story-driven" games, some of the most satisfying, cohesive experiences I have had with games include Doom (2016 and Eternal), Portals 1 and 2, and Talos Principle. These games, in my opinion, do so much right.
Doom (2016 moreso) perfectly supports the one thing that it really wants you to do; rip and tear.
Portal is a perfect mystery.
Talos Principle really wants you to be immersed in deep reflection, and rewards you for it.
@@NielsBlok567 exactly! The Binding of Isaac is another example of this
I will say it again as many times as I need to. Starfield is a pretty good game. It might not be a masterpiece, but there isn't really anything about it that particularly makes me think I should be calling it a "bad" game. Saying it's bad just comes off as hyperbole.
I get not everyone is going to like the type of exploration that Starfiled has, but that doesn't mean it's bad, it just means it doesn't suit your particular taste. Which is understandable, many people who have played BGS games of the past probably expected a similar exploration experience to their previous games. Starfield being a space game with the idea of being able to go to any planet or moon means it's impossible for them to have done exploration in the same way they had done in previous games where the entire game takes place in a singular small region on a singular continent, on a singular planet. It's very easy to pack everything in, when you have a small space to work with. Starfield ... it's just not feasible to do that.
In fact, there isn't a game that exists that is capable of that at this scale. But I also understand this isn't what some people wanted, but just because it wasn't what they wanted doesn't mean it's bad. Starfield is actually a very good attempt at this kind of game and it's only going to continue to get better as it receives more and more updates. But, for some people... it's never going to be the game they want it to be.
On a side note, BGS games tend to get hated on a lot even though most of them always end up being extremely successful and looked at fondly the more time passes by. Even when Skyrim first came out there were tons of complaints. Yet today it sits on it's thrown as one of the best RPGs to ever release. Even Fallout 4 is now looked at quite fondly even though it was crapped on constantly as the worst Fallout game ever. Even 76, with its disastrous launch isn't really seen as a bad game anymore.
It's verry Boring
You know, i didn't think Bethesda had it in them to have a thousand planets, they would need like 100 unique buildings per planet, a dozen quests per, a bunch of funny random events linked to certain planet types. And a bunch of interesting locations per planet. All this just to make it feel like Fallout in space.
I wish i wasn't correct.
The problem with Bethesda games in general is they aren't incredibly good at writing 😂 and I mean dialogue because they can make set pieces that are really impressive you can tell that they can storyboard moments that are impressive with consistency and you can't take that away from them but you can take away the fact that most of their dialogue feels wooden,
I was watching this great video earlier today that went into depth on Bethesda games which is probably why I got this video and it was bringing up as a comparison cyberpunk versus fallout 4 in particular their protagonists, in particular how they handle relationships everyone's favorite Irish girlfriend versus Panam which she has in my opinion the less engaging dialogue of the two major girlfriend options in cyberpunk.... And my God Panam was just so much better because you felt like she was actually a human and that was something I noticed when I was playing through the game originally as well,
I mean objectively speaking I had never played even Mass effect before until recently I think it was like 2021 when I played the first mass effect and then after doing that retroactively the romance in fallout 4 got worse and then I played cyberpunk and it got a lot worse and then I played baldur's gate 3 and it got significantly worse. And that's just one of those comparative things where with more experience with what romance can be in video games it helps you realize that the faux emotional moments weren't really that good in the first place it's just you didn't have the experience to compare to,
Generally speaking I find most Bethesda dialogue to fall flat and that is most certainly because they have so few voice actors and their lead writer is not the greatest there have been probably 100 of videos made on his failure as a writer and his ideology in writing dialogue that he admitted to outside of people complaining about diversity,
Add an extra thing that people have brought up here is Bethesda games are really janky so you need stuff to do while you're playing the game otherwise you will just see all the faults that you ignored in fallout 3 or fallout 4 or even Skyrim in games like that.
It’s like if nakeyjakey uploaded more than once every 2 years
This is like an ADHD fever dream
Another great channel/website that focuses on the literary aspect of video is With a Terrible Fate. Their website has loads of great eassays on games while their channel is more playthrough focused with them providing in depth analysis of the story as the game is being played. A stand out would be their Tales of Praxis series of playthroughs where they're playing through the Tales of series of JRPGs.
"You wouldn't mind the jank the jank was a vibe." Nailed it.
I have a love/hate relationship with Starfield.
I love how easy it was to become immersed in it, but I hate the points where the characters seemed to say one thing but react in the opposite way. There was a lot of emptiness, but I feel like the copy and pasting of places kind of fit in with the story. Especially if you ran through it a few times you start to find yourself reacting to the environment like the Hunter would rather than the Emissary. The game really pushed you into trying to make morally sound decisions and I often wonder if that was what they really were trying to do rather than exploration focus. There was a lot that could be improved but I did appreciate the overall universe that was created, and I am still upset I couldn't romance Delgado.
As someone who doesn't have a lot of time for games I agree I wish there were more story driven games that meshed well with how you played. That being said I've been playing Dragon's Dogma 2 and its not for the story because the story was short as hell but its still really enjoyable and even immersive.
I think Starfield is a fantastic game. I've been to planets that have blown me away, had intense space and ground combat, I think the writing for side content is fantastic, and there are times where I am so incredibly immersed in the world. The hate on this game is really sad to see. Give it a second chance like I did and accept the fact that it is not Skyrim and Fallout and yes you will be doing a lot of fast traveling. I think if you let yourself get lost in the game, you will enjoy it
Honestly I agree, I understand Starfield has its flaws and things to complain about but what I saw is people either like it, or don't. And it's okay to dislike a game, that doesn't make it bad. I will admit it does feels empty, and I didnt like the loading screens but that's about all I have to complain about and the loading screens have been improved in the last big update, and as far as the emptiness I feel like it was just a failure of presentation and created too many expectations, doesn't mean content won't be added in the future. Personally I love the game, and I'm excited to see what it becomes in the future.
Feels like cope cause you payed for trash ngl
@kingknightisbestknight7398 didn't pay for it bud, but hey you don't have to like it. Honestly don't see why me enjoying a game somehow effects you. But you do you
"I don't like to write copy, we are all gonna die anyway"
Me all throughout college be like.
I’m gonna stop you on the description, people are right to hate on starfield and for why
I've never heard anybody be so wrong so many times in a single video. I can't think of a single person I've ever talked to that liked fallout 3 more than new vegas. I didn't even finish my first playthrough of fallout 3, meanwhile I've put over 400 hours into new vegas.
i think one of the major issues is that its a brand new IP and they havent really found its identity yet. i cant really remember a brand new IP from any AAA studio that has done well for ages. and i think theyre gonna stumble around for a bit before they figure it out
i also think Starfield has some really great writing(a lot of the terrormorph questline is great). but the issue is that its very inconsistent. the game also lacks those "amazing" moments. or amazing discoveries. like giant monster, mechs ships, small but heartfelt stories(there are some, but theyre so few).
im also not really worried about it not coming back, cause in all their previous games, the best storywriting came from the DLCs and their DLCs heavily fleshed out their games. theyve said starfield will have more DLCs than their previous games
I'm sorry but that's just imcompetence on their part or likely a lack of writing talent. No free pass here.
Just wanted to add that Elden Ring was a new IP for Fromsoft & is easily their most successful game to date. Starfield just had all of the same problems from previous Bethesda games, but without at least the allure of exploring a world & finding unique things & stories.
That’s their basic backbone for their games & Starfield might be their biggest game to date, but it certainly feels like the most empty. It also, imo, shows a blatant lack of competent writers at Bethesda if when given a new IP this is all they have to show for it. They can’t rely on the already established lore & trinkets like they could with Fallout & ES. This game completely killed my hype for ES6, but here’s hoping maybe this time Bethesda will actually listen to the good criticisms. I doubt it tho.
@dawsong5208 elden ring is not a new ip. It's a continuation from dark souls. Even sporadic storytelling is the same. Saying it's something new is insane when it's so similar.
You could be pedantic and go "actually by definition it is" and do some mental gymnastics, but it's so similar it would be like calling F76 a new ip cause it's mmo
@@GoalOrientedLifting It’s a new name & universe so yea it is. The DNA of the design is similar, but the open world & vast amounts of new mechanics make it something different. You could make the same argument with Starfield. Like sure it’s a new universe with new lore, but the combat is still basically just F4 & the space combat is barely worth mentioning. The storytelling & quest design is the same as they’ve always done. So like which is which then? Both could be called similar enough to their respective past games, but both in definition & at least some amounts are new IPs.
Starfield is the only Bethesda game that I have played, and I have to say that there is a certain disconnect between the in-game environment and the in-game exploration and plot.
I cannot compare it to Fallout (never played it) but I did compare it to the Mass Effect series. Mass Effect Andromeda felt like it had more exploration and better plot, than Starfield.
I’m at level 143 and still playing Starfield and just getting to the Ryujin quest line on Xbox Series X. Still creating additional outposts after the mods have come out. Unfortunately the current generation wants things without working toward a goal over time. Again, level 143 without going through Unity. Starfield is a great game. Guess it depends on what you’re willing to put into it.
I almost certainly intend possibly finishing the Starfield main quest.
Mass Effect was about saving humanity from the reapers. Not "what you said".
Mass Effect also had objectively deeper and arguably much more satisfying characters
I think you did not understand what he said.
@@OhNoItsArtemis no need for objective or arguable here, its a fact
@@pw6002 it's just not a true characterization to say that people enjoyed mass effect for the jank. He almost had it with the cosmic horror description, but there are actual storytelling elements in ME1. That is a much harder claim to make for starfield.
@@OhNoItsArtemis
I was not responding to you, but to the original poster.
i love starfield man yall really still a year later are on the hate wagon STILL! Get over it man some people really love this game!
Only 2 video game stories have legitimately pulled me in. Dishonored and Red Dead Redemption 2. I've played Witcher 3, Mass Effect trilogy, and many games that are known for supposedly having great stories, but video game narratives just don't do it for me typically, so it's not an expectation that I have for them. Despite Starfield being an RPG, I fully expect the story/characters to be lacking, just like they are in Cyberpunk 2077, so i don't play for story -- I play for game mechanics and satisfying gameplay loops, and prey that the world building and scenario is good enough to hold my interest while I play through the game. Starfield's mainline quests sucked not because the story sucked (even though it did), but because there was nothing to do during those quests to compensate for the inevitable uninteresting narrative.
Great video, I kept having to check if this was on 1.5 speed.
FINALLY! I don't feel like freak for think Fallout 3 and even parts of 4 are scary. I've been mocked by so many gamers both online and IRL for just saying I couldn't get into Fallout 3 because it legit scared the fuck out me.
I think an important part of a Bethesda game is the player being able to find a place they feel a part of it. And I would argue that the setting of Starfield just doesn't make the being able to shoot something as that. I think that it intends to have the uncovering the mystery thing as an explorer be that feeling of a part of the story, but I think that part really is not interesting.
What I personally felt drawn to was maybe an entrepreneur that would find valuable resources as I built outposts. And then interact with people of the universe to turn the resources to turn those resources into better equipment, ships and new resources or ways to use them to be successful, as well as adventurer. But that all felt like it broke when I got to Neon, and everything felt like window dressing, that was silly to try and feel immersed in the seedy world. Because really nothing that is meant to be immersive.
This is a pretty well made video
I still love Starfield though. Favorite Bethesda game since Oblivion
It's crazy how lifeless starfield felt to me even within the first 10 minutes.
You really nailed my feelings on Fallout 3, thanks for that.
Stories that have specific themes tend to appeal to smaller crowds who enjoy those specific themes. A game like starfield is pushed to be sold to as many people as possible and a good story that appeals to a smaller crowd could screw that up. It could end up offending... Those people and get boycotted or something, although they should have known... Those people were going to be super offended by the ability to choose a pronoun. It's very risky for a corporation that wants to just make a line go up.
I think one issue is this. Their games have gotten less and less dark stories. And I was starkly reminded of this when I saw someone play fallout 3. Compared to fallout 4.
It also seems like they stopped doing the "let the devs add something they want to" like how 2 devs secretly built black reach in skyrim.
Omg a new video released, i love your channel! 🎉
Starfield is a game where they took everything Bethesda used to be good at; World building and Lore, and instead fills it with garbage they've learned attracts the broadest audience of the last 10 years.
What used to be MASSIVE 1 map games where you could go anywhere without a single loading screen is now broken up by loading screens, janky shooting balance, a boring perk system that a good amount of them should be baseline and "infinite leveling" so you don't have to specialize and eventually just become the jack of all trades, master of all.
they need to create mass effect skyrim version. and somehow they failed.
Use your limitations to tell the story is exactly what Starfield should have done. The “clean nasa punk aesthetic” feels really bland and the lack of people and places makes the world feel barren. They should have told a story that after the destruction Humanity is barely surviving in the bleakness of space and government is teetering on collapse. The world is hostile, scary and full of dangers. I did not feel one moment of tension playing starfield. You contrast that with Skyrim which is loaded with atmosphere and world that hangs together brilliantly.
@atb8660 this guy gets it
@@chriswavesthanks. The moment that ruined the game for me was trying to land new Atlantis and walking to it. On the humans new home world you can’t see cities or skylines just hostile aliens and abandoned buildings with occasional bandits. There are supposed to be billions of people on this planet but it feels like there is less than a thousand. Why not lean into that and make the story a defiant struggle for the survival of humanity
I actually loved Starfield. It's deep as a puddle, yes. All the writing seems done by the same person, so all the NPCs feel samey.
But! I like playing out my space pirate fantasies. And this game let's me do almost anything.
Starfield is clearly still very popular when you look at live player counts. For a single player game, after almost a year, that's huge.
Let's not pretend it's dead, or anything less than "successful". And if the DLCs offer hand crafted environments, its going to be massive.
13:06 Spot on. Refreshing to hear someone say this!
Story is a recounting of a series of events that occurred in the past Gameplay is the process of creating a series of events through the resolution of the gameplay This makes story the antithesis of gameplay Having a story in a game reduces the gameplay to meaningless button mashing and stick pushing between the cutsceens and dialogs that everybody gets Story is developed for the passive forms of entertainment mediums but games are a participatory medium and too have games ape the forms of what's familiar rather than play into its strengths is the same thing that happened with early motion pictures that simply produced stage plays with the camera fixed at the position offering the pov of an audience member sitting front tow center stage seating rather than put the camera in all the places the audience couldn't be when attending a play in a theater None of this is to say that there can't be good games with storylines incorporated within the experience At the end of the day entertainment should entertain and that can transcend a work which fails in every formal aspect yet the gestalt fails so fully it manages to fly by accident having missed the ground compleatly on the way down and the result is a Rocky Horror Picture Show or The Room See The Shape of Stories talk by Kurt Vonagut' for an inkling of how to set up the dynamic elements in a game to help drive events in a way that creates interesting stories as a product of gameplay rather than an element that supercedes it IMHO FWIW Not much, You? Subscribed by the way in case I somehow came of as contentious rather than just trying to offer a different perspective on the axiomatic assumption of storylines being fundamentally necessary to games Never allow Yourself to become comfortable with axioms There just like sandpeople course and rough and getting everywhere I hate both Do or not do Crying is for baseball
What the hell? Remember when autoincorrect used to notify You rather than just changing what You're having to type by touchscreen.on a qwerty keyboard layout which is designed for touch typing not touchscreen typing so Your often finding Your attention on what Your actually typing in the moment and forget to pay attention too what You've already typed... I say You here but I'm pretty sure I just meme Me You know it's only Luddite if what Your rejecting is fundamentally superior to what it is Your choosing to return too New has absolutely no necessary coalition with better whatsoever Anyone claiming otherwise is trying to sell You something
18:37 Better lesson than any Bethesda story had tried to teach
Thanks for the thoughtful vid, i agree that the games ecosystem is in sorry shape rn. We live in the fascinating point in history where the tension between art and product in video games (and all media) is super pronunced, to the point it feels like its gonna snap, but no ones really sure what to do about it...
While we're waiting for capitalism to implode, I think a decent starting point is to get even more loud about the art we love, revel in the messy humanity of it, cultivate a passion that rubs off on others
To that end, my game recommendation is Kingdom Hearts! Genuine miracle right here, baisically the only long-running story-driven game series that hasnt completely withered on the vine. Filled with so much heart and soul because of all the lovely people who poured theirs into it for nearly 25 years. I dont know where to even begin really, it just manages to hit this perfect blend of silly, thoughtful, cool, earnest, campy, and gay, so very wonderfuly gay.
Watching this video makes me think about a game that is excellent in what you’re getting at. One that is kind of under the radar. If anyone reading this hasn’t already, play Control by Remedy.
Control blends a unique, interesting story that has VERY deep lore (if you read documents in game) with fun gameplay that makes sense within the world it takes place in. Cannot recommend it enough.
Alan Wake 2 is also amazing by Remedy and does the things stated above as well. However I liked Control more since I found the story/lore way more interesting and the gameplay was a lot more fun imo. Both are made by Remedy and all of their games all intertwine together to create a rich and beautiful universe full of mystery and intrigue. It’s the type of games I think about and ponder even when I’m not playing.
Worse game ever made, based on what it could have been.
A game is meant to be fun, what that means differs from person to person... But fundamentally it is meant to not only be fun but fun either in a novel way or be fun in a manner that is iterative to what has been done.
8:09 "You wouldn't mind the jank if the jank was a vibe"
Yeah, there are games built on this premise.
Cool video. I like your look into a games story. Might have to watch the video a couple times to fully follow you (I’m an old stoned fart). Starfield does many things I like, and some things I love. But playing almost everyday since early release I know what one thing hurts it most. And I think it is at the heart of every player’s struggle with the game, especially myself. It is a game that taps into the wonder of spaceflight, but removes the magic of flight. The battle against gravity to leave a world, and watching it turn into a dot. And the awe of seeing what looks like a pretty little marble turn into a world that you are standing on. Catch a smile out there. o7
Commenting for the algorithm because you deserve way more views 🎉🎉 great video
Alternate universe ChrisRayGun is very correct in this video.
OMG I am getting in on the ground floor!!
an economical decision
Damn I love Starfield.
You sound, talk and think like a western game developer...
I mean... If it weren't for the horror, nearly all horror games would be incredibly boring. You can't put the horror, out of its games, and just think that it will work with a new setting. Starfield just doesn't do anything new. It's like every other game they did before.... But big... But no reason as to why it is big...
What was the other game mentioned immediately after Disco Elysium?
Indika! I plan to do a video on it at some point. It's a must play...
Total Warhammer 3 is a completed masterpiece and I will be playing it for decades to come. When I like a game, I keep on liking it.
no surprise its mediocrity, Bethesda given too much a pass, "the mods will do it" mindset not as a gift but a feature
second half of that is sanitzation of everything cause ESG/DEI and it shows in all of it
so much is meaningless cause it can't really insult or critique something without being labeled "-istaphobic" for doing so
characters in the world not just the engine just aren't great looking to fit a token box of "diversity" which makes it not feel like space but instead a college campus
pronoun and identity sliders show the world can't identity what the player is so all story is amorphously written (same problem in BG3)
the last thing was fun and the first was quota filling and it shows
doubt Elder Scroll 6 will be any better
I was baffled how they made a sci-fi space game that ended up being much less creative than their other games. They had diverse Alien races/species in oblivion/Morrowind. Starfield is just people. Boring people. It's crazy how bland & PG it is. Nothing pulls you in. Nothing gives you that wow feeling of exploration, experience, unique interactions. It's just shoot guns, fast travel, talk to boring people in the same terrible perspective every time you interact with someone. It's ridiculous. Gaming should be better than this. It doesn't need to be Huge! It doesn't need to have amazing graphics. It just needs a unique look, with fun sprinkled in alongside a creative personality! This game lacks personality more than any other game. They think they improved graphics and made a huge game but they didn't. All the technological roadblocks creates this sense of game that wishes it was big but it feels suffocatingly limited and closed in. People would rather have better art style, dynamic gameplay mechanics, unique vibes, immersive exploration, things to do when you explore besides shot gun, walk in barren empty places.. It's the most non sci-fi, sci-fi game.. oblivion is much more creative and dynamic than Starfield is. This game doesn't even give the player the OPTION to play as a different style character each time. You can't be a genuine stealth character.. It's so shallow for how grandiose it thought it was being.. How did they not see that?
the thing thats going for starfield is that its a gen 1 IP ASSUMING IT DOES BECOME AN IP most of BGS' main stream games has an established lore from Fallout to TES, also most of the time they fall into a stereortypical set of ending tropes that it becomes bland especially if you play much into it, free choice is bleh, which is why I think in FO4 you are automatically tasked to find Shaun, in FO3 there's nary foreshadowing that you are supposed to save the water supply then again same went for FO1 you were only tasked to save the vault's water supply only to end up meeting the master.... hey its like Armored Core 1
but unlike starfield at least in FO4 you are given SOO MUCH time getting to that point B that its up to you how to do it but its also to its detriment think about it how integrated is Nuka World DLC to the main game? hell I would argue Skyrim is more well integrated as a narrative than FO4 is and Skyrim CAME OUT EARLIER WTF?
even then the skyrim's civil war arc is considered to be the weakest story arc of Skyrim its like the guy who wrote that arc became the lead narrative writer for Starfield and FO4
Starfield is a masterpiece... obviously the game needs to be played HOURS to understand mechanics, skills quests and so on... many people expected something else but a nasapunk game based on space exploration is exactly the way Starfield is, is not Mass effect, is not kotor.
Todd's dream game, lol, Hello Games sadly made it way before he got to it, they had the tech Todd believed just didn't exist until they started working on it.
"Empty planets" in Mass Effect feel unsettling, in Starfield they are just boring.
I think games are actually way over analyzed in terms of themes/story/aesthetic and we NEED people to deeply discuss mechanics.
We don't need 500 6 hour video essays about "amazing" stories and art direction that would be considered mediocre in most other mediums.
I would say the marketing also plays a part in this, because they marketed it as THE definitive space game, when it's just a Bethesda game in space. I enjoy it for what it is, it's a nice game. I like to play when I want to chill but the definitive space game, this is not.
Was that heel vs babyface lol
Mass Effect 1 bad mouthing should not be allowed!
I cannot stress how much I love Mass Effect
Tin foil and water will adhere to a window well, creating an effective blackout screen.
What would be your advice to developers in regards to the point about gameplay inciting a ‘feeling’ that corresponds well with story elements? Your point about FO3 was interesting, but I don’t understand what anyone’s supposed to learn from it - it’s super subjective.
I, for example, definitely did not get that feeling of everything coming together that you did. In fact, what I loved in FO3 as a teenager I loved in spite of all its surface-level wackiness, because my personal reaction to that (even as a 15-year-old) was just confusion: I’d find myself asking how it made sense in the world, what was ACTUALLY happening, what it meant. Obviously I realise now I was looking for depth where none existed. This is why pure subjectivity is so limited when it comes to conversing about art - for all we know, FO3 just happened to work for you despite it being designed with the same raw ambitions as every Bethesda game since.
It's not "dead". It's not a live service game. It's a single player game. It's intial sales are It's bread and butter. They damaged their future sales by making the game harder to mod. It was fun but not fun enough to play 10 times through
"They damaged their future sales by making the game harder to mod."
It's ... not. At least from my experience the game is just as easy to mod as their previous games. What do you mean?
@SilvyReacts the stuff I have read is adding items and such to the game isn't hard but the way they siloed quests, worlds, zones, etc has made it very hard to mod.
Oh shit, this game is so dead I forgot this is why they've been rereleasing Skyrim for 13 years
Bethesda Game Studios have unionized. It's not particularly relevant to this video but I just want people to know that it happened.
Only thing i got out of starfield was buying a gpu before prices went back up
More-so than other pieces of entertainment games are just as much machines as artistic expressions. How does the shooting feel, what about the graphical performance, is the level scaling a good choice, and so on. Reviewing and recommending games often then revolves around those “hard” aspects not the “soft” parts of the experience. The text of the game is all the parts that allow it be played. When a player feels that a game is “bad” that is what they are reacting against, not the imperfections that exist within any piece of software. What is then missing in most discourse is if all the parts of the game work together for a compelling experience. The analogy that comes to mind is if the only things literary critics cared about were things like typography, word count, or if there was a plot hole introduced on page 792.
you lost me when you said Fo3 is better than FNV.... bye
Fallout 3 is a game where you turn your brain off and then smash your head in the console and shit yourself in a puddle of your stupidity while new vegas is where you actually play a videogame with thought put in to it
I think you missed the point. Fallout 3 felt uneasy and lonely. New Vegas was an adventure. F3 was better if that's what you wanted.
@@Here_is_WaldoI still think it was a bit of an odd point to make in a video about the literary merit of video games. Fallout 3 does create an effective atmosphere but most of the text does not really explore much of substance at all whereas some dialogue exchanges in Fallout New Vegas genuinely influence the way I think about life.
@@Here_is_Waldo what a shill take , do you play video games for writing and gameplay pacing and depth or walk in the park
@@Here_is_Waldo FO3 missed the actual initial point of the fallout series, the environmental storytelling of fallout is about the juxtaposition of the destructive nature of humanity against the resilience of humanity, the inevitability of war against the inevitability of civilization, fallout 3 lacks this juxtaposition because it lacks the visual representation of human resilience and the push towards civilization, instead humans are existing in a bleak world but have no expression of struggling or working towards thriving.
Dan Olsen reference made, instant subscribe.
Great video. Fallout 3 is the best game Bethesda has ever made IMO. It's only gone downhill from there. I have no desire nor reason to boot up Starfield again.
14:03 Shout out to everyone seeing this: PLAY WHAT REMAINS OF EDITH FINCH.
Yeah but i mean nost of the games coming out aren't "emphasizing fun" theyre just boring grindfests that function like jobs or soulless games designed purely to check boxes. And on top of that, if you say that the writing is bad, someone throws insults at you and calls you a bigot. Same with TV shows lately. Its to the point where the fallout show is merely passable and everyone acted like it was a masterpiece despite the atrocious amount of plot holes and ignoring of lore that happened.
i thought this video was going to say something profound but i feel like i stepped ankle-deep into bullshit
Did you try Fallout New Vegas?