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Oh no, Starfield is like... really good.

  1. #1
    Meikai Heck This Schlong
    I got it on game pass and then paid $40 for the premium edition (despite the fact that I don't actually own the game) like the dirty little paypiggy consoomer whore that I am. Just for the early access, y'know? And I gotta say: I have approximately 0 regrets. I will probably buy the game outright at some point in the future, but doing it this way saved me like $30 for this month. First impressions? "Shit's lit." It's everything The Outer Worlds could have been... should have been.

    It really hit me while I was reading computer entries in the pirate base you're sent to near the start of the game, on a miserable little shithole called Kreet. In The Outer Worlds, every terminal would have read something like this:


    ATTENTION EVILCORP™ EMPLOYEES
    YOU ARE CONTRACTUALLY OBLIGATED TO 200 HOURS OF UNPAID LABOR EACH MONTH BEFORE YOU START RECIEVING PAY.
    COMPLAINERS WILL BE SHOT AND THEIR CORPSES TURNED INTO DELICIOUS EVILCORP™ NUTRIENT PASTE.

    "MAKE HASTE, MOM'S COOKING PASTE!".

    PS: CAPITALISM IS THE BEST THING EVER.


    And instead of being greeted with the most quirky, ham-fisted, shitty satire ever put into words, I was instead greeted with... just... intriguing logs about the trials undertaken at that location by a faction's "xenowarfare" research division. Not to say it was completely devoid of Quirky Humor - you can't escape completely from that in the Year of our Lord 2023 - but Bethesda opted to avoid beating you over the head with it (whereas Obsidian seemed keen to pulverize players' heads into Evilcorp™ Nutrient Paste with their writing). What I'm sayin' is it was a lovely. Compelling lore! Flavor! (Relatively) restrained attempts at comedy that don't make you groan constantly! Refreshing. Haven't been playing it for long (well, I have, but I am slow and haven't gotten far - I just reached "the Lodge"), but holy shit this game's got alotta potential.

    I fiddled with the shipbuilding for a good 45 minutes before giving up on it because I couldn't figure out how to rebuild mine in a way that met all of my functional and aesthetic needs. It's some pretty in-depth shit though. I was considering getting Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon because I had an urge to customize mechs, but surprisingly this is satisfying the underlying desires behind that urge pretty well. I mean what is a spaceship if not a... mech... bird? I guess?

    Anyway, 10/10 would recommend.

    Or like, more genuinely, tentatively 8.5/10 (it's nailing the tone and atmosphere, gunplay is solid, ship building is cool, no bugs to speak of so far... but it's Bethesda so you can count on there being some hilariously bad ones at some point, *and* my 1070 can actually run it despite technically being below minimum specs!). Maybe even a 9/10 tbh, but I'm not very far into the game. Would 100% still recommend. It's grrrrrreat.
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  2. #2
    Meikai Heck This Schlong
    Was genuinely expecting my poor workhorse of a 1070 (not even a 1070ti!) to burst into flames, but the only issue I had was with building shaders the first time I opened the game. Took ages. That process seemed to go a lot more quickly/smoothly on streamers PCs, with their 4080ti (or whatever monster card they use). Sure I'm playing with everything set to low (or medium in a couple settings when I'm feeling frisky), and I'm probably not getting a consistent 60fps, but then... I have never been wealthy enough to get a consistent 60fps. And I grew up watching ~30fps TV.

    One day, I will experience a considerable windfall (please someone buy my domains) and I'll never be able to go back to playing games like this, but until that day arrives... it's really quite pretty, even with the settings on low.

  3. #3
    Meikai Heck This Schlong
    Oh also I can be white in this game. Like actually white. Like my pasty ass, seldom blessed by the graceful caress of UV radiation shade of gingery white. Well, maybe not quite that white, but close enough that I was satisfied. I can't remember the last big RPG like this that let me be actually white. Not that these games are coming out every year, but like... Mass Effect: Andromeda and Cyberpunk do be making me feel like my characters are a bit too swarthy. And if The Outer Worlds let you be that white, well, it's still not a lie to say I can't remember the last time because I don't remember shit about that game beyond its godawful cringe writing.

    (As hard as I'm ragging on Outer Worlds ITT, I will say:



    I liked this guy.)
  4. #4
    totse2118 Space Nigga [my ci light-haired pongee]
    i herd it bad
  5. #5
    Lanny Bird of Courage
    It’s an open secret that commercial reviewers rarely play past the first ~10 hours of a game before writing, and developers know this and focus their resources accordingly. My money is that after the second or third story mission the game turns into cut content from wayne gretzky‘s 3d hokey where todd howard inserted himself as a max stat rookie.
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  6. #6
    Meikai Heck This Schlong
    Originally posted by Lanny It’s an open secret that commercial reviewers rarely play past the first ~10 hours of a game before writing, and developers know this and focus their resources accordingly. My money is that after the second or third story mission the game turns into cut content from wayne gretzky‘s 3d hokey where todd howard inserted himself as a max stat rookie.

    Yeah. Hence my "tentative" and openness about how not-very-far I've gotten. That said: the core gameplay is pretty solid. I can honestly see myself fucking around just doing odd jobs and exploring. Space combat was neat - not quite Elite: Dangerous, but it's about as close as you could get to that without being so obtuse you risk alienating 90% of the market in the process. Kinda sad though... I don't think you're able to kill your engines and use maneuvering thrusters to quickly flip bow over stern to blast a nigga who's chasing you, but I wasn't expecting that from Starfield really - too complex. "Dogfights... IN SPAAAACE!" is the standard model for space games for a reason - that kinda complex shit is more "sim" territory than "game" territory.
  7. #7
    Meikai Heck This Schlong
    Or rather... like... I don't think momentum is conserved when you reduce engine output, to enable both ships at a given speed to maintain equal distance - I think reducing your engine output just kills your momentum. Or the pirates were all just faster than me, which is plausible. But nah, no way Bethesda would conserve momentum, shit gets too confusing. Sadge tho. It's like... the one thing that makes space combat more interesting than aerial combat (aside from the lack of gravity, so killing your momentum doesn't mean stalling out, but like... pilots cut engines to let pilots overtake them and gun them down in old timey dogfights, I want SPACE FIGHTS).

    EDIT: "Top speeds" is a wacky concept in space. Ignore that if you read it. Ha ha. Spaceship physics is conceptually fucky and hard for brainlets to wrap their heads around, and I know this because I am one of them.
  8. #8
    Lanny Bird of Courage
    Originally posted by Meikai Or rather… like… I don't think momentum is conserved when you reduce engine output, to enable both ships at a given speed to maintain equal distance - I think reducing your engine output just kills your momentum. Or the pirates were all just faster than me, which is plausible. But nah, no way Bethesda would conserve momentum, shit gets too confusing. Sadge tho. It's like… the one thing that makes space combat more interesting than aerial combat (aside from the lack of gravity, so killing your momentum doesn't mean stalling out, but like… pilots cut engines to let pilots overtake them and gun them down in old timey dogfights, I want SPACE FIGHTS).

    EDIT: "Top speeds" is a wacky concept in space. Ignore that if you read it. Ha ha. Spaceship physics is conceptually fucky and hard for brainlets to wrap their heads around, and I know this because I am one of them.

    lol, so every other year or so I fuck around in Unity or raylib or something for a week usually doing some kind of space ship game kinda thing. A lesson I keep relearning is that we have basically no intuition for acceleration and velocity mechanics without traction or at least air resistance. Like space ships are actually very simple physical systems to model and you can do it quite accurately without much difficulty but you end up zooming the fuck past everything constantly and even if it’s totally what should happen it feels intuitively and deeply wrong to our terrestrial primate brains. You can do conservation of motion without it feeling fucky but without something like air friction you’re doomed from a game-feel perspective.
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  9. #9
    Meikai Heck This Schlong
    Okay sorry they have The Adoring Fan from Oblivion in this (if you take a trait). He can join your crew and you can shake him down for gifts and credits. I'm basically a findom dominatrix now. This game is officially and unironically 10/10.



    Originally posted by Lanny lol, so every other year or so I fuck around in Unity or raylib or something for a week usually doing some kind of space ship game kinda thing. A lesson I keep relearning is that we have basically no intuition for acceleration and velocity mechanics without traction or at least air resistance. Like space ships are actually very simple physical systems to model and you can do it quite accurately without much difficulty but you end up zooming the fuck past everything constantly and even if it’s totally what should happen it feels intuitively and deeply wrong to our terrestrial primate brains. You can do conservation of motion without it feeling fucky but without something like air friction you’re doomed from a game-feel perspective.

    Yeah, this tracks with my experiences in Elite: Dangerous with flight assist turned off. I mean it's not... terrible... but it is totally unintuitive. Monkey brain no like like rotation and speed not change but no more energy being put into it. Why not slow down?

    But it's one of those things where, if it had any real world application, I feel like mastering the skill/gaining an intuition for it would impart godlike powers upon you. Being the best pilot in Elite: Dangerous is cool or whatever, but it's not... y'know... "legendary spacer sung about in every station bar across the galaxy" cool. So what's the point. I'm jaded. Also a terrible pilot. But maybe I wouldn't be a terrible pilot if I applied myself. But why apply myself.

    Anyway the enemy's gate is down.
  10. #10
    aldra JIDF Controlled Opposition


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  11. #11
    aldra JIDF Controlled Opposition
    Originally posted by Meikai I was considering getting Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon

    FUCK I forgot that came out
  12. #12
    Meikai Heck This Schlong
    Originally posted by aldra

    Apparently this is nothing new for Todd.
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  13. #13
    Meikai Heck This Schlong
    Originally posted by aldra

    Originally posted by Meikai

  14. #14
    totse2118 Space Nigga [my ci light-haired pongee]
    https://www.pcgamer.com/starfield-has-a-short-sweet-tribute-to-one-fan-who-didnt-live-to-see-launch-day/
  15. #15
    Wariat Marine/Preteen Biologist
    I wanna play skyrim again in VR.
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  16. #16
    Meikai Heck This Schlong
    Mmmmm, this is my ship.



    She started out as a stolen Va'Ruun Hymn. Loaded her up with ample cargo space, some shielded cargo and jammers for a bit o' light smuggling, and kitted her out with a battery of lasers for popping shields, EMP cannons for shutting down niggas engines to board their ships (although for some reason they do a fuckton of hull damage - probably a bug, none of the higher tier versions do any hull damage - so that's not going so well... works amazing for blowing people up though), and some missile launchers.

    She's a beaut, imo.

    I am autistic and Starfield is a great LEGO® simulator.
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  17. #17
    Obbe Alan What? [annoy my right-angled speediness]
    I'm gonna get this.
  18. #18
    totse2118 Space Nigga [my ci light-haired pongee]
    this is my ship the S.S. (space sheep) Big Ape

    featuring 1 space monkey and 1 fax machine

    coming soon:
    sheep
    a big ass laser cannon

  19. #19
    Meikai Heck This Schlong
    Ugh I got it on Game Pass and I regret that. I might buy the Steam version next month, but then I'll lose access to my pre-order skins (and considering there are literally 2 sets of skins in the game, that means losing access to 50% of them) and I'm out $30 I could have spent on crack or dildos or food or whatever.

    Might be a small price to pay in the end though, 'cause like... SFSE, the script extender, is apparently incompatible with the Game Pass version and it doesn't seem like there's plans for that to change? S'what I get for being a cheap nigga I guess.

    (Although I saw some comments saying someone on reddit got it to work... but I think I'd have to recompile it with some minor tweaks to do that... and like... maaaaaaaaaaaan, fuck. This is assuming the reddit nigga even posted a guide and that it actually *worked* and wasn't a prank - I saw a video of it "working", but I suspect that's a lot easier to fake than actually making it work or it'd just have support by default. Probably. Modders are weird dickheads sometimes and will make completely arbitrary and shitty decisions that fuck over huge swathes of people because lol lmao. "Shoulda bought it on the Good Storefront, idiot" is sadly plausible from some folks/fucks in that community.

    And even if it is possible to figure it out, I really don't wanna figure it out just to recompile this ish and then do that forever on every update. I'm a brainlet.)
  20. #20
    Obbe Alan What? [annoy my right-angled speediness]
    I'm probably going to pick it up this weekend.

    Been playing Prey in the meantime.
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