Whiny nerds who haven’t read a new book in over two decades shed tears over the fact their boring-ass game sucks and is getting swirlied in the toilet bowl by actual cool games

    • KobaCumTribute [she/her]@hexbear.net
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      1 year ago

      im hesitant to call Starfield actually “cool” yet.

      I’ve been tearing into it a lot, but it is genuinely the best thing Bethesda’s put out in the past 20 years. It’s still tepid Bethesda mush but the writing quality has varied wildly. The quest I posted about yesterday was just awful, but I did a questline today that entailed hunting down every member of a fascist militia and ultimately led to being able to just summarily execute a CEO for his crimes (but mostly for resisting arrest, because he was very dumb too).

        • KobaCumTribute [she/her]@hexbear.net
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          1 year ago

          No, it’s some weird revanchist stabbed-in-the-back lunatics from the FC whose entire plan was to get the warrior’s death they were denied by the war ending (the dumbest part being their side won and their primary grievance is that they were arrested when they tried to keep fighting after the war ended). You hunt them and their new devotees down in the FC Ranger questline which is a nonsensically written organization that’s trying to be a mashup of Texas Rangers and ME Specters but at the same time is a toothless federal agency with less than a dozen members who are operating on behalf of the weak federal government of a federation of ancap despotries that simultaneously grants them no legal powers but also lets them just run around doing whatever with no oversight to the point that you can literally just up and kill one of the dictators of the FC at the end of it and literally no one cares.

          • Awoo [she/her]@hexbear.net
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            1 year ago

            [Worldbuilding spoilers ahead]

            Ahhh a different fascist militia that wouldn’t end the war then! Makes sense.

            Both sides suck ass and this universe is absolutely missing a socialist faction pursuing a Star Trek-like future. If I end up starting a mod project for the game one of my ideas on the backburner is a socialist faction who are essentially neo-bolsheviks that cite Star Trek in-game as their inspiration for the future they’re fighting to build.

            I also think a project is needed to add much-needed depth to the liberal cities. The Well in New Atlantis is getting cited by libs as the “punk” part and the “dark underbelly” but it lacks punch. It’s just the old town, no longer maintained. There’s no real economic criticism in it as far as I can see and it’s only bad because it’s old. Additions like beggars, homeless and desperate peddlers selling trinkets and tourist guff spilling out into the upper level and train station entrances will make an absolutely massive improvement. Throw in some radiants for pickpockets, beggar actions, UC police beating someone to death (give them guns with no ammunition and they should beat the target to death), among other things and you’ll have an environment that gives the player a much stronger representation of the underbelly that should exist more clearly in these places. Might also be an opportunity to tell some real poverty stories, include stories about kids more for some impact, particularly as kids in Bethesda games are almost non-existent and when they do exist they’re always just incredibly annoying.

            Anyway that’s more or less my notes-taking so far for mod improvements to parts of the game that annoy me. The only other major settlement I’ve visited so far is Mars and that’s got some relatively ok critique going on because of the fracking explosions. But I haven’t seen it really tell any stories about what the impact of those explosions would be on the people though. Could be an avenue to go down to give it more depth and criticise its society better.

            Oh and I hated the quest on Mars where I had to get an admin-assistant job. Why did they send me in my own spaceship up to the spacestation to apply for a job on the planet? It’s so ridiculous. Someone getting an admin-assistant job would not have enough money to own their own starship. There should be a shuttle that the poor people pay to use and get from A to B when needed.

            • Tankiedesantski [he/him]@hexbear.net
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              1 year ago

              Someone getting an admin-assistant job would not have enough money to own their own starship. There should be a shuttle that the poor people pay to use and get from A to B when needed.

              Something about the future being as extremely car brained as present day North America is kinda unintentionally funny though.

              • Awoo [she/her]@hexbear.net
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                1 year ago

                It’s fucking weird. The idea of being a space pilot is literally the fantasy the game sells. But that’s meaningless if everyone in the galaxy with even an admin job has a spaceship like they’re cars. Why would people work as gunner/engineer on someone else’s spaceship if they have enough money to own their own? Why are all these people working with/for the player for wages?

                It’s absolutely ridiculous. You need to ground space travel in people who dream of going to the stars but are stuck due to it being out of their means vs the people who do have the means. And you need to give the player many different possible backstories for how they attained these means. Either luck. Or piracy. Or they’re a super engineer who built one. Or they’re actually rich. Etc etc. You’ve got to give the player roleplay options to properly fill this in.

                All of these things should be relatively easy to fix though, since the only places you have to change to fix these are the major cities. You can probably fix this with 10-15 new NPCs per city with dialog, and then a bunch of NPCs with no dialog other than a 1 line response.

                • Tankiedesantski [he/him]@hexbear.net
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                  1 year ago

                  Yeah I think it’s also a big problem that the money system is so compressed that it’s hard to know how much anything is worth. Like if an apple or a meal is around 100 credits, then the 10k that small ship would cost is basically walking around money for most people. A penthouse apartment on Neon is 25k is, so is property just really cheap there or is food expensive?

                  Ultimately gameplay balance and all that, but it seems like very strange world building to me.

                • KobaCumTribute [she/her]@hexbear.net
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                  1 year ago

                  It’s absolutely ridiculous. You need to ground space travel in people who dream of going to the stars but are stuck due to it being out of their means vs the people who do have the means. And you need to give the player many different possible backstories for how they attained these means. Either luck. Or piracy. Or they’re a super engineer who built one. Or they’re actually rich. Etc etc. You’ve got to give the player roleplay options to properly fill this in.

                  Yeah, the game starts you off as a laborer working on a job site that can’t even afford have a ship permanently on station, then you’re just given a decent starter ship that’s worth more than most other small ships and that’s it you’re set until you can get a better one or make meaningful upgrades to it. The Frontier really should have been a non-modifiable, non-sellable ship that’s just there to paper over the issue of you needing a ship until you can buy, find, or steal one for yourself.

                  The powers in particular seem like they can be VERY powerful and will remain strong even when you raise damage significantly.

                  Yeah, it feels like ME1 biotics all over where they’re just free hard CC options that can lock down entire rooms as every enemy is stuck ragdolling around for 30 seconds each. They really need to just get shunted to zero-g movement with maybe some “disoriented” debuff instead of ragdolling as they drift around. Enemies can literally maneuver just fine in zero-g and it even makes sense that a bunch of people used to fighting onboard ships that can lose or regain gravity at any moment wouldn’t just go limp if gravity suddenly got a bit weird.

                • GarbageShoot [he/him]@hexbear.net
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                  1 year ago

                  Why would people work as gunner/engineer on someone else’s spaceship if they have enough money to own their own?

                  For a wage? Like, idk, they still need income no matter how cheap starships are

            • Frank [he/him, he/him]@hexbear.net
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              1 year ago

              In the future nothing will be handled by e-mail.

              All the quests in futurey games where you have to go to some place in person instead of just calling someone on your phone or sending an e-mail are… upsetting.

              • UlyssesT [he/him]@hexbear.net
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                1 year ago

                FFXIV had magitek devices that allowed instant communication over vast distances and Minfilia still insisted that you “pray return to the Waking Sands (headquarters)” to tell you what she could have told you with that device. Again and again and again. :TataruWhy:

      • marx_mentat [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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        1 year ago

        Yeah that’s a good one. The crimson fleet stuff rules too. I want to make a mod that adds more communism flavor to the crimson fleet (or takes out all the individualist bs from freestar collective). Pirates are cool but building communism in space capitalism is way cooler

    • boog [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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      1 year ago

      BG3 is legitimately one of the best games I’ve ever played. They have to iron out the bugs still, frankly, but it was a pure blast to play through the game. One of the most impressive games I think I’ve ever seen, narratively, because of the sheer amount of choices with actual consequence there are in the game.

    • Mardoniush [she/her]@hexbear.net
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      1 year ago

      It gets much better, but its a really shit first 15-20 levels. The game wants you to play it in a specific way and my god it’s going to hurt you with boredom until you do.

  • himazawa@infosec.pub
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    1 year ago

    BG3 is unmatchable, not only for hogwarts legacy but for every other game.

    Starfield on the other end… is the same oblivion stuff but in 2023 and without 2023 capabilities

    • robot_dog_with_gun [they/them]@hexbear.net
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      1 year ago

      from what i head the systems are worse than a bunch of their own previous work let alone contemporary products. maybe someday i’ll play more than 10 minutes and find out for myself ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

      • danisth [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        1 year ago

        I was a fan of both DOS 1 and 2 and I’m finding the systems in BG3 much more fun. I like the action economy of 5e much more than the pips of their earlier games.

    • Awoo [she/her]@hexbear.net
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      1 year ago

      and without 2023 capabilities

      They’ve gotta rewrite the engine from the ground up if they want to bring it up to modern standards. There are fundamental problems with it at its core that can’t be resolved without a rewrite that addresses limiting decisions that were made with its overall design a very very long time ago.

      • Frank [he/him, he/him]@hexbear.net
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        1 year ago

        Gamebryo really needs to be thrown in the trash. It’s just absurd that they’re still using it. They don’t even have to, can’t they use the Idtech engines?

        • Awoo [she/her]@hexbear.net
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          1 year ago

          Idtech engines

          I suspect that ID lost one of their most important people when Steven Ash died, this man has consistently had a hand in projects that have turned into cult hits or very high quality games in some way and I don’t think that’s a coincidence, I think they were probably highly influential on every single team they were on. I would be very tentative about assuming ID’s work maintains the current quality without him.

      • himazawa@infosec.pub
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        1 year ago

        You are right, they should rewrite the engine, but they didn’t and they preferred enforce the development on the re-re-re-re-re release of titles like skyrim for every possible platform on the plant.

        Look at what Larian did instead… Took 6 years, added beta access and listened to the players. BG3 is far from being bug-free or “perfect” but they released a game that give almost total freedom on how you can play it, and doesn’t feel like you are on rails every time.

        The problem is bethesda and others “AAA” software houses for years just did the lazy job and now that a software house showed what 6 years of real development should look like everyone is doing the Pikachu face and crying because “We don’t want BG3 to set a new standard”. The issue is us, the players, that keep buying shit for too much money.

        • Awoo [she/her]@hexbear.net
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          1 year ago

          The issue is us, the players, that keep buying shit for too much money.

          Randian logic, absolute nonsense.

          Entertainment serves as escapism under capitalism and is as much a requirement for people as food. “The problem is people keep buying bad food, not the companies that make unhealthy cheap shit.”

          As long as people are captured by a system of wage slavery they will be compelled to seek escapism from it for their own sanity. The companies shovelling out dogshit are taking advantage of that, it’s not the fault of the buyers, it’s the fault of the system. If you gave these companies to the employees making the art instead of shareholders and publishers you’d get work that is a passion instead. The problem is ultimately where power lies in the companies, with the ownership.

  • thisonethatone [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    1 year ago

    I’m waiting for the modding community to overhaul Starfield in 1 - 3 years before I’ll even touch it.

    BG3 is a blast and I can’t get enough. It’s the first game I’ve played that’s felt like I’m a part of a fantasy novel. IMO it’s because unlike a lot of other CRPG’s it’s really good about pacing out it’s lore and not info dumping all over the player.

    • BynarsAreOk [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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      1 year ago

      I’m waiting for the modding community to overhaul Starfield in 1 - 3 years before I’ll even touch it.

      I’ll still hold some interest on the next TES game exactly because of this.

      But for starfield based on the reviews I’ve seen the issues are pretty much fundamental to the game as designed, e.g exploration limitations doesn’t seem like something that can be easily modded so I’m not holding any hopes that mods will fix this.

  • Tankiedesantski [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    1 year ago

    I remember around the time of the HP game release chuds were rallying around it to own the libs or whatever.

    I’m glad that the HP game is going to be forgotten in favor of two games that let you choose pronouns, one of which lets you choose a penis or vulva.

  • BelieveRevolt [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    1 year ago

    Even before release, Hogwarts Legacy looked like an extremely by the numbers TrIpLe A game by some developers who’d never made anything good. It was totally carried by the license and being released at a quiet time for big bideo bames, no wonder even the biggest Rowling fart hufflepuffers don’t care about it anymore

  • iridaniotter [she/her]@hexbear.net
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    1 year ago

    If it’s any consolation to the HP libs, your game got an all-time concurrent player peak of 879,308 while BG3 only got 875,343. But also the games this year are stacked and Harry Potter sucks, so get owned. screm-cool

  • Egon [they/them]@hexbear.net
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    1 year ago

    Why would one get mad that some people enjoy another game more than they enjoy the game one enjoys more than the game they enjoy more?

  • SpiderFarmer [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    1 year ago

    It’s wild to get angry over pronouns in SF materials, in particular. If I’m reading some spacefarring material and there isn’t at least one alien race or human being bucking a gender binary, I’ll be dissapointed as hell.

  • redditblackoutkekw@lemmy.zip
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    1 year ago

    BG3 is boring as fuck but it doesn’t excuse Hogwarts Legacy for being a bit too formulaic. Also Starfield is just a loading screen simulator

    • Comp4 [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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      1 year ago

      I dont mind the loading screens. I just dont mind that there are a lot of them since they are like less than 5seconds each ? Of course I would prefer no loading screens at all but im also sure a seamless Starfield would be a much bigger and probably expensive game to make.

      There are things that bother me about Starfield. The loading screens arent one of them.

      • Mardoniush [she/her]@hexbear.net
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        1 year ago

        I think it’s more that the transitions are jarring. If they’d made jumps and inter planetary transitions first person cutscene loads like a lot of space games like freelancer, there’d be less complaining. And occasionally they are that and they decided not to make it the only way.

        Anyway script extender is now out, so open cities and better transitions are likely a monthbor two away.

        • Frank [he/him, he/him]@hexbear.net
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          1 year ago

          Elite dangerous doesn’t even having loading screens for flying from surface to orbit to another star system. Like there are loading screens, but they’re all hidden so it looks seamless. Ten year old game.