I haven’t tried Starfield because it’s still getting patched, but Bethesda games are some of my favorites. Yes they’re janky and everything but I love exploring and looting and they really nail that.
There are some films I enjoy which are objectively bad, and that’s okay.
If people want to enjoy Bethesda games, it’s fine, each to their own.
However, if you want to talk about game design, there is a lot of evidence which supports the claim that Bethesda don’t know what makes a (objectively) good game anymore.
Unfortunately, Bethesda are the only ones in town who are capitalising on “Bethesda style games”. (With the exception of a few, like The Outer Worlds, and Cyberpunk 2077).
Bethesda’s strong suit is their physical world building - but everything else has been getting worse.
The running joke is that the players mod the game to fix after launch. Except it’s not a joke, and it’s really not funny when the devs actually expect the community to fix their game. They could simply pay someone to implement every single fix from the UFO4P and UESSP, but choose not to. They do not care about quality.
Unfortunately, Bethesda are the only ones in town who are capitalising on “Bethesda style games”.
I thought a lot of games are like that now. I personally love the fallout universe but hate the game style. Hate now things like horizon zero, Witcher, Elden ring, assassins creed and all those games have slow pace open world with huge RPG elements.
More like Bethesda game style become an industry standard. That’s my perspective though, im sure those who like the format don’t agree.
Never play Starfield; it’ll make you hate Bethesda, especially Emil Pagliarulo (the lead designer and writer of the story).
I used to feel the same way as you, until I played it. Now I have zero interest in anything Bethesda has coming out in the future. They’ve proven to me that they’re incapable of making a modern game with a good story. Only thing that would convince me to play another title of theirs is if they finally ditch Gamebryo and never let Emil in the writer’s room ever again, two things that’ll never happen.
I won’t discount them unless an Elder Scrolls or Fallout game drops and is garbage. 76 has turned around into an actually enjoyable experience, for instance. At the same time I don’t particularly care if a studio pumps out good or bad as there will still be idiots preordering and buying day 1. I am more than happy to wait for the reviews. A good game is a good game, and a bad one, bad. Who develops it makes no real difference apart from an expectation.
Thaaaat saaaid: Todd, my dude, you do actually need to hurry up. A great entry into the Fallout universe would restore some of the old faith you have caused to fall away.
It’s in the same engine with the same mechanics that the last 2 Single-Player Fallout and Elder Scrolls games used (the gunplay is Fallout, the magic is Skyrim shouts, exploration is the same in all of them), to pretend Starfield doesn’t reflect on what future BGS Games will be like just because it doesn’t have the same name as their other series is patently silly
Nothing more than a 7/10
Your standards are way too low if you think Starfield is anything close to a 7
This is one point I contend with: Fallout 76 didn’t become good with patches. I’m not unconvinced that there’s a conspiracy for Bethesda to create the impression online that the game became good with updates.
I tried it after repeatedly reading it was good now. The main change is the servers work. If you disliked the structure or content it’s just more of the same. A few boring npcs were added I guess.
Right 76 is structurally boring. Just like star field, and kind of lik3 fallout 4.
They are bad in the writing department and gameplay is super lack luster. Previous games got away with bad gameplay because the story was good, but they are diamonds in the rough because of it. These ones are partially polish concrete.
I was going to say Fallout 4 was the stinker and the only reason it gets as high of praise as it does is just how bad Fallout 76 was and after a lot of patches still is.
Come on now, let’s be honest : as long as the community keep doing the work for them, their games will be popular.
All they gotta do is make it easy to make mods and the jankiness and stupid decisions can be patched over and made into something great that actually pleases everybody, because everybody can decide to fix what they want.
The problem is their delusion that people love their games as they are.
Even this is a stretch to be honest. Their games aren’t easy to mod. Minor updates break shit. You need to consider mod load order. You need to “clean” the base files before loading in any big mods.
Their games are made of fucking speghetti code and they don’t care. They could fix it, but they don’t. They could clean their own base game files so this isn’t necessary, but they would rather force people into the ecosystems of Creation Club.
Who cares? Bethesda is long past the point of developing a good game.
They could take all the time in the world and it would still be shit because their formula for game development is pathetic.
I haven’t tried Starfield because it’s still getting patched, but Bethesda games are some of my favorites. Yes they’re janky and everything but I love exploring and looting and they really nail that.
There are some films I enjoy which are objectively bad, and that’s okay.
If people want to enjoy Bethesda games, it’s fine, each to their own.
However, if you want to talk about game design, there is a lot of evidence which supports the claim that Bethesda don’t know what makes a (objectively) good game anymore.
Unfortunately, Bethesda are the only ones in town who are capitalising on “Bethesda style games”. (With the exception of a few, like The Outer Worlds, and Cyberpunk 2077).
Bethesda’s strong suit is their physical world building - but everything else has been getting worse.
The running joke is that the players mod the game to fix after launch. Except it’s not a joke, and it’s really not funny when the devs actually expect the community to fix their game. They could simply pay someone to implement every single fix from the UFO4P and UESSP, but choose not to. They do not care about quality.
I thought a lot of games are like that now. I personally love the fallout universe but hate the game style. Hate now things like horizon zero, Witcher, Elden ring, assassins creed and all those games have slow pace open world with huge RPG elements.
More like Bethesda game style become an industry standard. That’s my perspective though, im sure those who like the format don’t agree.
deleted by creator
Never play Starfield; it’ll make you hate Bethesda, especially Emil Pagliarulo (the lead designer and writer of the story).
I used to feel the same way as you, until I played it. Now I have zero interest in anything Bethesda has coming out in the future. They’ve proven to me that they’re incapable of making a modern game with a good story. Only thing that would convince me to play another title of theirs is if they finally ditch Gamebryo and never let Emil in the writer’s room ever again, two things that’ll never happen.
Pretty similar for me. I’ve been a fan of Bethesda since morrowwind but starfield was the last straw. It’s a a slap in the face to fans
The faction quests were pretty good.
They patched it, with paid mods
I really like Starfield. It’s not perfect, but it’s great.
Sounds like a Bethesda game to me
I won’t discount them unless an Elder Scrolls or Fallout game drops and is garbage. 76 has turned around into an actually enjoyable experience, for instance. At the same time I don’t particularly care if a studio pumps out good or bad as there will still be idiots preordering and buying day 1. I am more than happy to wait for the reviews. A good game is a good game, and a bad one, bad. Who develops it makes no real difference apart from an expectation.
Thaaaat saaaid: Todd, my dude, you do actually need to hurry up. A great entry into the Fallout universe would restore some of the old faith you have caused to fall away.
It was called Starfield and it dropped last September
Which is neither fallout or elder scrolls. I played starfield to it’s completion. It was fine. Nothing more than a 7/10. Had a lot to work on.
But I don’t get the fallout 4 hate. With a few mods and shutting up the protagonist, the game was more than enjoyable.
It’s in the same engine with the same mechanics that the last 2 Single-Player Fallout and Elder Scrolls games used (the gunplay is Fallout, the magic is Skyrim shouts, exploration is the same in all of them), to pretend Starfield doesn’t reflect on what future BGS Games will be like just because it doesn’t have the same name as their other series is patently silly
Your standards are way too low if you think Starfield is anything close to a 7
This is one point I contend with: Fallout 76 didn’t become good with patches. I’m not unconvinced that there’s a conspiracy for Bethesda to create the impression online that the game became good with updates.
That’s just me though.
I tried it after repeatedly reading it was good now. The main change is the servers work. If you disliked the structure or content it’s just more of the same. A few boring npcs were added I guess.
Right 76 is structurally boring. Just like star field, and kind of lik3 fallout 4.
They are bad in the writing department and gameplay is super lack luster. Previous games got away with bad gameplay because the story was good, but they are diamonds in the rough because of it. These ones are partially polish concrete.
I was going to say Fallout 4 was the stinker and the only reason it gets as high of praise as it does is just how bad Fallout 76 was and after a lot of patches still is.
Come on now, let’s be honest : as long as the community keep doing the work for them, their games will be popular. All they gotta do is make it easy to make mods and the jankiness and stupid decisions can be patched over and made into something great that actually pleases everybody, because everybody can decide to fix what they want.
The problem is their delusion that people love their games as they are.
Even this is a stretch to be honest. Their games aren’t easy to mod. Minor updates break shit. You need to consider mod load order. You need to “clean” the base files before loading in any big mods.
Their games are made of fucking speghetti code and they don’t care. They could fix it, but they don’t. They could clean their own base game files so this isn’t necessary, but they would rather force people into the ecosystems of Creation Club.