Starfield

[Bobfoc]

I suppose how you find the game will be partly down to what you were expecting. That Forbes quote more or less aligns with what I thought it was going to be. Bethesda games have never had the best main stories and have always had their own brand of clunkiness, but the best ones are still absorbing and fun to explore and muck around with. If you want something revolutionary, this won't be it, but it sounds like another slice of Bethesda, for better or worse.

[Kaney]

2 hours ago, Bobfoc said:

So much unnecessary emphasis is put on review scores that some publishers will take any mildly negative press as a grave insult. Warner Bros. were apparently especially selective when it came to giving out Hogwarts Legacy review codes - not just in terms of sites, but individual reviewers themselves. Sony recently stopped giving review codes to The Escapist because they don't like the "tone" of Yahtzee's comedic reviews.

Jesus, does yahtzee still do those video reviews? I had completely forgot about them, it feels very decidedly 2000's. Genuinely surprised that they're still going.

[apsham]

Yeah - to me it's very much a "what was to be expected?" kind of thing.

I think it was 1997 that there was a post from Todd Howard on a message board - something to the effect of "an RPG in space? interesting idea..." so it's something that has been cooking for a while. I think it's meant to be the culmination of every system that has been in a Bethesda game to this point. A little piece of everything that has come so far to come together in something that's a far grander vision than any game before it (from them) - so there's been leagues of space-faring RPGs before this, but never one with the kind of stuff that draws people into Bethesda games and that's primarily why I'm hyped for it.

[Bobfoc]

He's been doing them every week (other than a week off at Christmas) for the last fifteen years. I still enjoy them, but I got a load of flak for saying so on a stream once, so I'm hesitant to say it again.

1 minute ago, Kaney said:

Jesus, does yahtzee still do those video reviews? I had completely forgot about them, it feels very decidedly 2000's. Genuinely surprised that they're still going.

 

[apsham]

1 minute ago, Kaney said:

Jesus, does yahtzee still do those video reviews? I had completely forgot about them, it feels very decidedly 2000's. Genuinely surprised that they're still going.

He does. It blew me away when I saw one pop up in my recommended videos the other day and it wasn't an old one. 

[Maxx]

I do very much enjoy the people on r/Starfield whose brains have been broken by two 7/10 reviews.

[Your Mom]

Anyone know when I can start playing if I have the early access?

I found it. I can start now!

[Ruki]

39 minutes ago, Your Mom said:

Anyone know when I can start playing if I have the early access?

I found it. I can start now!

How is it?! What kinda character did you make?

[apsham]

This is going to be a very special game. Even just some of the options on character creation are very interesting - and I'm excited to see their implication! I went with a space rogue-ish Han Solo type character that's going to specialize in conversation/persuasion and pistols if things don't work out. These are things you can setup at the start on character creation but I went with;

 

Spoiler

Adoring fan - which of course has that implication of that adoring fan from Oblivion following you around and joining your crew and giving you gifts
Wanted - I'm going to be hunted and attacked at random times - but I hit harder when I'm low on health
Family - I forget what it's called, but it said that I have living parents and that I can visit them - but I have to send them 2% of my money every week

There were some other more straightforward ones and you're not forced to take any, but all of these felt neat. There's also one that starts you out with owning a big house, with a huge mortgage you have to pay off that'd be fun for a second playthrough.

I got past the intro and the first little bits, and now I'm in the first proper city. This is a game where taking your time, paying attention and taking everything in is going to be immensely rewarding. Even the little things and the little side-quests have felt quite special so far.

I'll put it this way. Alien is in my top three favourite movies of all time and a big part of that is the aesthetic. Everything in this game from the world, to the colours, it just screams that very same inspiration to me. Getting in the ship, getting behind the wheel and boosting it and feeling/seeing the ship shake and jutter a bit? It's absolutely amazing. It has a lived in feel that just makes everything feel super authentic.

[Your Mom]

1 hour ago, Ruki said:

How is it?! What kinda character did you make?

Taking only a short break so I won't get too in depth but I am really enjoying it so far. Haven't made it too far yet basically the first encounter after the tutorial stuff and I am a Chef and the first thing the NPC lady said after character creation was the crew had been taking bets on which critic I pissed off. Pretty sure I'm going to love this  

[RPS]

I haven't played Starfield but I have played most other Bethesda games. I have found that it's their games are by and large diminishing returns for me. The core game play loops feel very similar between each game. Graphics and UI change. Scenery changes. But it still feels like the same game experience between Fallout 4 and Skyrim, just in one you have a gun and its a post apocalyptic world and in the other you have a bow and arrow and its fantasy. 

My question for those that played - is this a further refinement of the module or are we breaking new ground? 

[apsham]

23 minutes ago, RPS said:

I haven't played Starfield but I have played most other Bethesda games. I have found that it's their games are by and large diminishing returns for me. The core game play loops feel very similar between each game. Graphics and UI change. Scenery changes. But it still feels like the same game experience between Fallout 4 and Skyrim, just in one you have a gun and its a post apocalyptic world and in the other you have a bow and arrow and its fantasy. 

My question for those that played - is this a further refinement of the module or are we breaking new ground? 

Here's what I can say with 10+ hours into the game. Keep in mind in that time I've;

• Done the basic tutorial opener
• Created my character
• Followed steps to do a mission on a planet
• Followed steps to get to a city
• Side-quested in that city for the rest of the time

It feels like a culmination of everything that Bethesda has been doing with Skyrim and Fallout up to this point - as I think I noted before, Todd Howard has been wanting to make this game since at least '97 and a big part of some of the things that happened with those other series feel like experimentation to see if the tech and concepts were where they needed to be for him to do this.

I'm still coming to terms with it a bit. I guess the closest thing I've played is The Outer Worlds - and that even felt like "oh, this is a Bethesda game in space" but there are other things here that I'm picking up on and they feel so out of place because I'm not USED to being in a room that is fully lootable in a space game. I've played dozens, but ultimately yeah, this feels like a Bethesda game set in space. We have some things that switch that up like more verticality added due to the fact that you can mantle onto ledges now, added with the jump-pack. I still feel like when I go into a new area, I want to find everything I can, go into every nook and cranny - and all the improvements are there. Characters look great, the dialogue sounds awesome, game systems are refined versions of what came before (persuasion reminds me of a much better done version of Oblivion's conversation system, for instance) - it's hard for me to put into words how changing the whole setting and conceit to being 'you're in space now' makes it feel like such a different experience while you're still doing some of the same things you've done in these games before, but I think it really has to be experienced to be fully grasped.

I did really like that I fully talked down a situation pretty early in the game, because I wanted to roleplay as a negotiator type character - and they've hinted at some systems for being able to do that in combat that I'm really interested in. That stuff is all there, but I don't have access to it yet because I'm just enjoying being fully immersed in the world. That, and the system for hiring crew members, etc - means that there is for sure more stuff in there than they've had before and not just reskinning an engine.

 

[apsham]

Okay so, there's a few concepts that I love in this game. I could probably talk about it in length for a very long period of time, so I'll just try to get the basics out of the way here.

• I have spent hours today on just the Earth and the Moon. Most of it on the Moon, and a lot of that time even in one location poking around, and fully uncovering a story that I could've missed bits and pieces of but still gotten the gist of from environmental storytelling. It's amazing.
• Building and modifying your own ship, seeing it looming above you when you turn around and customizing it for exactly what you want it to be is a great feeling.
• I found contraband! It's worth a ton of money. But I know that if I try to take it to the places that I know about, I'm going to get scanned and it's going to get found - so I have to weigh my options. Leave it behind? Come back for it later? Spend money on a shielded cargo bay that I can hide on my ship and maybe slip on past? Combine that with the skill that makes their scanning less likely to catch me? Or do I try and see if I can find an outpost on an outer rim world that doesn't scan for contraband?
• I've ran into a lot of characters and a lot of them are really heartfelt. I took a character creation perk that gave me... parents. I thought it sounded interesting. It very much is. It's lovely, they are some of my favourite characters in the game and every interaction with them has been so wholesome. 
• My companions are great as well, and this even just extends to a lot of individual shopkeepers I've found. I spoke to a clothing salesman and acted cynical about fashion and he just told me that he doesn't think anyone has it figured out and he just wants to help people feel good in what they're wearing, I met a guy who said that he came to the city as a kid and wants to make something of himself so he's going to make his shop big and franchise it, I met a couple who are working to get out of the city because they want to explore. They're really nice people, so I bring the girl a coffee every now and then and she thanks me by giving me things she found during her janitor job. There's a lot of dimension here to characters that usually are just "Shopkeeper" and "character that says quirky thing" and it's genuinely nice to see.

[Bobfoc]

How are you finding the map? It seems to be the most common area of complaint.

[apsham]

I haven't read a lot but I do know some sites are mentioning stuff like that. I think it's kind of overblown, to be honest? I saw some articles claiming that you get stuck in menus or that it's really confusing - I don't really think it is.

• Got a mission based place you want to go to? Select that mission from your log, hit the 'Chart course' button and then watch as it shows you where you're going. Hit another button and you can fast travel there OR if you haven't been there yet, a short-cutscene later you're in front of the planet/space station you wanted to go to. Then you either, scan the planet using a button and select where you want to go. Or if it's a space station, fly close enough and dock with it. It's really quite easy.
• There's like, three layers of maps for star systems - nothing more complicated than what was already in Mass Effect, etc. Once you're on a planet I'd say 95% of the time you're going to land at one of the points of interest. Otherwise you'll choose another location - and there isn't a TON of detail on the map, but with 1,000 planet I don't expect a 1-to-1 mapping there. Any place you've found, you can fast travel to, any place you've spotted but haven't been to yet - that's marked in a different colour. Once you're on foot, it's easy to user your scanner to find that.
• Get far away from your ship? You can fast travel to it from anywhere on the planet.

It's pretty straight-forward and easy to use. Once you're on foot or free-flying in space, the scanner picks up the work of guiding you towards things you might want to go investigate or look at.

OH! OH! And another thing. I ran across a guy on Mars the other night. Heard his voice and just could NOT place it - but I knew I had heard it before. I spent 20 minutes listening to his dialogue.

And then it clicked! It was Brian David Gilbert! I should have picked up on the stack of papers in front of him which were a total reference to the Skyrim Book Report.

 

[Ruki]

What's it like being a space pirate for those who have played? I've been a charismatic goody-goody in Baulder's Gate 3, so I want to do something a bit different. 

[apsham]

11 minutes ago, Ruki said:

What's it like being a space pirate for those who have played? I've been a charismatic goody-goody in Baulder's Gate 3, so I want to do something a bit different. 

• You can choose your background, space scoundrel is the one I took and there are some very specific dialogue options.
• You can hail ships and demand they hand things over with a [Piracy] tag before it.
• You can skill into being able to target ships systems, disable their engines and you can board them. You can even take the ships.
• You can find contraband. Places WILL scan you and you'll get bounties but in some places and some ships you can find - you can get cargo bays that lessen the chance you'll pick up in scans. And you can skill into that too.
• Main companions wise? Most of the group you end up with for that will turn an eye to things that you do - depending on who you choose to role with, IF you choose to roll with them. So roleplay wise I think you'd be fine. I'm kind of doing a "smuggler with a heart of gold" kind of thing, so I have mostly just taken from the bads. But if you want to lean in fully, there's a group just above the 'spacers that'll attack you no matter what' that you can get in with, their shiptyard has all the stuff that'll help you with your moral wrong doins'.

[Lint]

WAtched an almost 5 hour stream of the game on Saturday.  He did mostly no spoilers, not doing any story missions, just side quests. 

It took me from "Not interested" to "Ok...maybe interested"

[METALMAN]

On 01/09/2023 at 14:25, RPS said:

I haven't played Starfield but I have played most other Bethesda games. I have found that it's their games are by and large diminishing returns for me. The core game play loops feel very similar between each game. Graphics and UI change. Scenery changes. But it still feels like the same game experience between Fallout 4 and Skyrim, just in one you have a gun and its a post apocalyptic world and in the other you have a bow and arrow and its fantasy. 

My question for those that played - is this a further refinement of the module or are we breaking new ground? 

Yeah I feel the same. I generally really like the worlds and the setting but I usually don't find th quest system or the gameplay to be that much fun. The last one I sunk a meaningful amount of time into was Skyrim and so much of that was just bloat. What's the point of having a million quests if half of them are "Oh, I'll give you what you want but first you have to do me a favour and go and get my special helmet that I inexplicably left in an underground cave system crawling with monsters'?

[Ruki]

Ah heck, I thought this was going to be available on gamepass early tomorrow morning. Turns out I gotta wait until tomorrow evening!