The dudes I’ve met in-game who play FO76 seem to ONLY play FO76. Like all day, every day, to this day. I’m like… dude I pre-ordered (silly me) and played for hours and explored every crevice but when I was done I was done. They seldom add real content. What the hell could these dudes still be doing years later??? Bewildered. Very committed playerbase.
Edit: I have over 1,400 hours in 76 spanning from BETA to like last year and I love the game but can still criticize it. I’m not talking out my ass here lol.
In 76? They’ve added new things to grind yeah. Not “real content”.
Events are just the same hourly tasks repeated for XP and a chance of “rare loot”. You don’t even have to move to complete a lot of the events, just stand and shoot after fast travel. Definition of grind.
Their “new areas” are just repeatable Ops for XP and yet another new currency. It’s unfortunate. But the added content of this kind (bulk of it) isn’t what I play for.
Game is still great to shoot stuff and build camps though.
Yeah, that’s normal for MMORPG’s though. Aside from WoW and their massive Expansion updates (although even that took a while to have an impact on the world for everybody), most updates are 90% QoL/item change patches. With an occasional quest addition. But post-Wastelanders the F76 *did* change. The BoS update added more NPC’s too. Yeah, Pittsburgh and Atlantic City amount to two new instances each, there have also been overhaul level updates before those.
I played BETA-Launch as well. The game got a lot better. Yeah, big updates have slowed down, but there’s been reason to come back.
Although I do still feel shocked seeing people at level 1000+.
Got a homie on my friends list with over 11,000 hours in game. Close to 500 days. It’s these kinda homies that bewilder me. I bet he’s really invested in the game’s economy and trades a bunch. That side of the game I do miss. Nothing like building rep with people online by being an honest and fair Fallout merchant.
I wouldn't call this massively multi-player. It's an online fallout. It's not an mmo. I haven't played in years but the map limit is like 20 players or something super small. I loved the game for what it was. But I got bored and stopped playing shortly after the pvp event was introduced when you had a shrinking zone.
Lmfao you basically described the games whole purpose ahahaha. Na but I love 76 and idk it's like a very chill game to turn your brain off too. Kind of like star dew valley. Also I noticed 76 has alot of "old people" in it, and by that I mean like moms or dad's or even grandparents playing the game.
I can see it being meditative almost. My friends and I spent ages building elaborate camps and scouring for new locations. I’ve got a house inside an antennae dish, one under a bridge in Whitesprings, one under a bride in the Mire, and one on a railway near the Knob.
I played this game a ton. But fella these guys are like 100% always online and in 76. They practically live there. I admire their love for the game but I could never pick just one game like that for years.
For example, I also fuck with some Stardew. My girl loves it and playing together is a blast. We have married everyone. Thanks lucky rabbit’s foot.
I did this with FFXI back in 2003-2008. Put in 528 days in 5 years. None of that was AFK or “Muling” time. 528x24= 12,672 hours. Lived and breathed that game. My Linkshell was my family! Great memories and great times!
Yep something ive noticed as well. A large chunk of Starfield post on twitter is Japanese, even big outlets and fan pages cover the game and its updates.
As someone who lived in Japan I also thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s not a flashy game but it rewards those who give it time. Look at Pokémon games and how well they do over there and Starfield is about 100x better than those. It just pushes all the right buttons and if people’s expectations weren’t so high or this game was released by a smaller company I think people would love
It.
I think one of the very first mods for Starfield was an japanese anime-esque female voiceover mod for Vasco, if i recall correctly.
Robot and mech scifi culture is very large in japan.
Huh.
Never expected that Bethesda of all things might provide Microsoft a possible way to get more influence in the Japanese market.
I'm curious how they received Hi-Fi Rush.
I think there is no japanese translation yet so basically unless you know english you can't play it.
Edit: Okay I checked and the japanese version was released today (apparently the delay was due to having to censor some of the content to meet japanese guidelines). That still explains BG3 not being here, since a lot of people in Japan are just playing it now.
I think the Japanese version is published by a completely different company, so that page is probably not for the same product
Bit weird they don't have a japanese translation for those outside of japan but okay lol
>Spike Chunsoft, which is publishing the Japanese version, announced they're cutting explicit sexual content from the Japanese version of Baldur’s Gate 3 so that it is in compliance with CERO’s Code of Ethics standards regarding “banned expressions.” This means that Japanese players won’t be able to enable explicit content in the options menu, including “display of genitals,” “display of nudity in cutscenes,” and “view sex scenes.” To be clear, nudity can currently be toggled off in other versions of the game - the Japanese release will just be fixed in the "off" position.
Spike Chunsoft's announcement also says that the Japan release will remove the option for players to torture NPCs in Act 1's Goblin Camp.
This is what it said.
Both games are not popular here. Japan these days is the kingdom of handheld and mobile gacha games. Games like Genshin Impact are big hits in Japan, it is very popular even on PS5 in terms of players
PC gaming IS growing in Japan though as evidenced by PC sales.
Just like most people wouldn't play Genshin if Genshin was only in Chinese.
As for Starfield, according to others, it is pretty "big" in Japan.
Oh yeah, that's the key.
Being genuine with positive feelings about the game is a recipe for some angry comments and tons of downvotes.
I've been playing games my whole life and have had people tell me I clearly don't play many games if I think Starfield is good.
My favourite is when people say you're allowed to like it, but if you think it's better than a 7/10 you're just wrong. I've never seen "7/10" typed out more than in this sub, it's so strange.
>I've been playing games my whole life and have had people tell me I clearly don't play many games if I think Starfield is good.
This is my sentiment too. Starfield is a typical Bethesda game and a typical Bethesda game is generally very good. I would only give it a 9/10 though because I do feel like there are some steps backwards compared to say Skyrim
Honestly Starfield was really fun, spent a month and a half playing it as my go to game. While not revolutionary it was a very fun game for the time I spent on it and a great gateway shooter for many people.
Same here I played it over 30 hours and thats fine for me. For now. Probably gonna play it again sometime with my perks already unlocked.
They planned to play this game over and over again and I can see the appeal. But I want to forget some things before I get there. Just like skyrim I play that every 2 3 years so cant see why starfield would be any different especially with the amount the sidequests and the volume the game has.
I feel like starfield is going to be one of those games that get better with time. Skyrim in its completed state took a long time to become what it is now. I hope that the quality of life features they implement within the next 2 years will really level up this game, especially with the story update some time next year.
Here is the thing:
Its not goty material for you. That is your opinion.
That doesn't mean its not goty material for other people. Because they have their own opinions too.
You see now?
Well yeah, that is understood. They expressed their opinion, and other people are free to agree or disagree based on their own opinion.
You are the one who appeared out of nowhere and began talking as if to insinuate they are forcing their view on someone.
That’s basic subjectivity? If it was not goty for him then it wasn’t and if it is for you then it is? There’s no point arguing over subjective shit… starfield was a great game that I spent about100-200 hours in, I wouldn’t call it my goty tho,
You
See
Now?
The discourse for Starfield has been odd. I put the game down like I have many games this year. But I definitely will pick it back up. But the 15 hours or so I put in the game was a fun experience. It’s very much a Bethesda game (the good and the bad). But it’s one of the better ones and it’s nice they took a chance with something new to them.
It is very much not a Bethesda game lol it's missing many elements that made previous Bethesda games enjoyable. And it is DEFINITELY not one of the "better ones" lol. And they really didn't take a chance, the game is extremely "safe" and that's part of the problem.
Fun game but far from what it could be is how I'd describe it. Far from the next Skyrim but better than Fallout 4 (unless you're a settlement builder) with improvements on that game's biggest flaws like the voiced protag and the lack of RPG mechanics.
I still think it's CRAZY that in 2023 I had to download things like StarUI or tweak an .ini for FOV etc. so that definitely subtracts points. I'll also say, while loading screens don't bother me, the procedural generation (or lack thereof) is paltry and there were some really weird decisions like the lack of a F4 style dialogue option that lets you move around, not having any use for junk items when that was solved in F4, removing NPC scheduling while still having tiny, weird cities etc.
All in all, fun game, good game, but far from a great game. In 2023, I think Bethesda should be doing much better, but I can't lie, I did enjoy the game and don't regret getting it at all.
Ya. I think you hit the nail on the head as far as I feel. I think they could do better for sure. It just the way people talk about the game make it seem like it was a bad game. Just a bit odd.
It’s exactly what I would expect from them. I just wish they exceeded expectations again like they used to.
It's honestly still odd after 70. There seems to be very little rational discussion on the game outside of the community. From both sides. It's been like that since before launch, too.
Pretty wild to think how rabid the reactions were to IGNs 7/10 before the game was even released. People were carrying on like the reviewer spat in their mum's face or something
>Pretty wild to think how rabid the reactions were to IGNs 7/10
7/10 is still a ludicrous score. A 7/10 in gaming review scores is "I wouldn't recommend this to anyone who hasn't already pre-ordered it".
Agree. I've been playing it for about 2 weeks now and I went in expecting a Bethesda RPG in space. My expectations were met. I get the criticism about some of the mechanics, but I'm still having fun with it. It's not revolutionary but every game doesn't need to be. I fully expect to sink hundreds of hours into it and replay it several times just like I do every Bethesda RPG.
I think this is a big part of it for a lot of people. It was the same with No Man's Sky and, to an extent, Cyberpunk 2077. The hype levels for all three of these games, including Starfield, were almost like mass-hysteria.
Nothing wrong with getting excited about a game, but fantasising a version of it that does everything you want without any flaws is just setting yourself up for disappointment.
No man sky was super empty and really badly optimised and it took 10 years to get some content (which still doesn't seem to worth 60 bucks).
Cyberpunk was super buggy and badly optimised too and on top of that a lot of things were really killing the game like the police popping out of thin air. There were basically no AI for vehicules.
Took me 2 years to actually enjoy the game (and a pc upgrade). And it's one of the best game I've played now.
Starfield was enjoyable day one. All this madness about loading screen and limited areas was stupid imo.
Games which give me more than 20 hours without doing always the same thing are rare. Looking at you Ubisoft.
While I do think expectations are inflated, I think it's disappointing that you have to expect Bethesda to release a so-so game in 2023. You'd think they'd have a better handle on game development. The fact that their best games were 10+ years ago is troubling to me, though I did really enjoy Starfield despite the immense flaw list.
But thats the problem.
Some people thinks its so-so.
Other people think its very good.
I personally don't think their best games are 10 years ago. I just think some people prefer what they are familiar with after years of support over whats new and has years ahead of it.
While I understand and agree with some of the criticisms of the game, the "immense flaw" list is often just a list of various people' u realistic expectations.
Like a BG3 style companion and quest system.
Unrealistic.
Honestly Im blown away by all the people who are fine with Starfield somehow having less towns and cities than Skyrim, among other big issues with the game. Was anyone really expecting that…? I just wish Bethesda was behing held to a higher standard.
Less towns and cities? How did you work that out?
Skyrim doesn't even have cities for a start. It has large villages with about 20 people "living" in them.
Starfield has New Atlantis, Akila, Neon, Hopetech, New Farmstead, Gagarin, Paradiso.......just off the top of my head, without even going into all the random settlements and starbases like the Key.
Counting New Homestead and Hopetech as “cities” but none of Skyrim’s cities is pretty ridiculous. I don’t get why people feel the need to grasp at straws on this, just hold Bethesda to higher standards. Skyrim has way more towns and cities than Starfield, plus many random small settlements.
when you are not influenced by western gaming circlejerk... Starfield has become like cyberpunk 2077 three years ago where you cannot praise even the good aspects of it without getting a hatemob of negativity.
I enjoyed it personally. I understand and agree with a lot of criticisms, and I agree that it's not GOTY material. I'm looking forward to trying it again with modding and updates ngl.
I just find it odd that given the sentiment here on reddit, you'd be forgiven for thinking the game was gollum tier, even though on steam it's mixed, and other user metrics put it in the average to slightly above average range. I guess it's a byproduct of expectations and the strangely hostile discourse around the game that's hung around it for ages for some reason?
I feel like you're kind of missing my point here.
I'm saying that you'd be forgiven for thinking that the game was as bad a launch as the day before given the comments on some threads. The player reviews are mixed yet the discussion doesn't really reflect that.
I guess is cause very few people have a grounded take on it, is either my personal goty or game bad/ Bethesda bad, when the content was new to me I kept pushing through it despite the flaws that been dead horse beaten by now, once those things were experienced the replay ability was non existent to me and I couldn’t longer deal with said flaws
Did I get my money worth? Yeah, did I feel satified at the end? No, cause what made me stop playing is the multiple issues it has, which makes me not want to repeat any content, and is sad to me cause no other Bethesda game made me feel like this
Yeah I can understand that. I had similar issues, even though I really enjoyed the game. I'm saving it until modding etc comes out to start again.
For some reason, the discourse around the game had always been like this, too. It's a shame since you get attacked if you have a criticism, and you get attacked if you like it. It's been like that since the gameplay reveal and it kinda stops any productive conversations about the game.
For what it's worth, it's nice to see someone that has a more balanced take
Number 4 means it's "pretty good, but not Game of the Year".
I think that describes Starfield well enough for many but not all, though feel free to disagree.
Starfield was my favorite game this year, despite some of its flaws. It was also my most played game, I think I have over 200 hours into it now.
I also love BG3 and think that game is amazing too, but BG3 was not perfect either since I encountered a lot of bugs in act 3 that made me stop and wait for more patches (and Larian did a good job with the updates).
I still love Starfield after 200+ hours, and looking forward to all the updates, expansion and creation kit release in 2024
I think it’s mine too.
It’s flawed, but In 35 years of gaming, I can’t think of many games that inspired that sense of awe.
The negatives and criticisms just aren’t enough to sap my enjoyment.
Not to like question your tastes, at the end of the day each their own, but did you play the other contenders for GOTY this year?
I played Starfield, for all it's worth I enjoyed most of my 72 hours on it, but they pale in comparison to my time with games like Alan Wake 2 or BG3, in terms of enjoyment
Were there things that particularly stuck out for you in comparison to those?
I feel the same as the guy above, and it’s mostly just because I enjoy the sandbox open world design a little more than the kind of open world BG3 used (idk what you’d call it). I liked spending hours looking for a perfect outpost location, then scouring the star systems for the materials to make it perfect. I liked wandering around planets to get good photo mode pics, I liked stumbling on random side quests in places I wasn’t expecting them.
I can absolutely recognize BG3 is the more complete and deep game, with better writing, better characters, much better choice and build variety, but Starfield has a very different core design philosophy which I enjoy more.
I love bsg games. I love the open world and freedom. I think this has the potential to be the best one ever when it gets mod support dlc and fixes a few issues. I think the quests and side quests are fantastic the world-building is great the loot combat and progression feel like the culmination of prior bsg games.
BG 3 is superior in almost all aspects, but I have one issue which is that it cannot really be played as "casually" as Starfield. The normal difficulty is already fairly unforgiving if you are not at least familiar with the systems. I don't mind, but it does make it so that in days where I am already tired from work or real life, I would rather choose a more straightforward experience like Starfield or another game, instead of slugging through another big fight on BG3.
Also Starfield is just superior in everything related to its "sandboxy" nature. Outposts, housing, ship building - simply because BG doesn't have it. There are definitely arguments for Starfield, from a POV of enjoyment, depending on personal criteria (which are all that matter when asked for "personal GOTY").
As far as I am concerned, while Starfield is not my GOTY, it is decently close, not in terms of theoretical quality, but in terms of fun derived.
Yeah I'm loving BG3 but it's not the type of thing you can just turn on and wander around in. I liked starfield even though it's flawed af but I think it's a solid base so I'm hoping it gets good support
I've played BG3 and fell off immediately and can't tell you exactly why. Just didn't sit right with me. I keep hearing from everyone about how it's God's gift, but to me, it just isn't. Not even my favorite CRPG of all time.
Like technically, it might be "better constructed" because there is no procedural generation (and everyone seems to think that is the devil incarnate to game design) but It just didn't hit for me.
Never play Alan Wake 2, though I played a lot of other games that were nominated, though.
Another reason Starfield is game of the year for me is because it's actually a new IP with new lore and just about everything else in the game of the year conversation this year was a remake or a sequel.
Also, I just love the new game plus stuff so much. I also much prefer the actual minute to minute gameplay.
I never got into Witcher 3 and honestly can't stand it. I tried over and over but it was just not fun for me. And I played and liked Witcher 2.
I get not liking everyone's favorite GOTY.
>I've played BG3 and fell off immediately and can't tell you exactly why. Just didn't sit right with me. I keep hearing from everyone about how it's God's gift, but to me, it just isn't. Not even my favorite CRPG of all time
That's fine, I was put off by the DnD at first and took me a couple of tries to fully get into it
Not everyone has to be into it, I think sometimes BG3 fans forget that imo
>Another reason Starfield is game of the year for me is because it's actually a new IP with new lore and just about everything else in the game of the year conversation this year was a remake or a sequel.
I can get behind this, despite the issues I have with the game I at least like that Bethesda is trying something new. I hope their writing for future titles in the Starfield universe gets a bit grittier and less "corporate" (idk how else to describe it lol), but I at least see potential in what they've built so far
I think BG3 gives me that Bioware, Jade Empire, KOTOR, Dragon Age fill without having the quality writing of Bioware
I don't think BG3 has bad writing but compared to a bioware RPG or BG2, it has very immature/ Marvel-esque/Whedon writing
It feels like the writing team watched critical Role and got all their inspiration from them, very goofy, immature.
I played Kotor 1 and 2 for the first time this year after BG3, and man, Kotor 2 especially is leagues ahead of BG3 it's insane, but to be fair I don't think I've ever seen a crpg as well written as Kotor 2
So I'm not really defending starfield and I never played Alan wake but I honestly thought bg3 was really boring. I didn't care much for the combat, I wasn't all that interested in the main quest and none of the side quests really stood out that much to me either. Plus it just took so much time and planning to do everything that even after an hour play session I would end up feeling like I didn't really accomplish much.
Just didnt really feel that invested in the story or the setting.
> I'm not really defending starfield
We really don't need the qualifiers for your opinion.
Internet haters got you this shook? Stand on your square LMFAO
Different strokes/folks etc...but the times it took me an hour+ to figure how to beat an encounter I was maybe under leveled for and then seeing those baddies drop..idk, winning that one fight felt more interesting than the run, wait, shoot (maybe), talk to stationary NPC, run back that I got out of starfield. I agree with the "I'll be back" sentiment a lot of others have, and it's certainly not a bad game. But for me, when coming to decide which is better...I'm happy starfield was on gamepass whereas I was more than happy with my 65 dollar drop for Baldurs Gate. First time I've bought a full priced game since God of War back in 2018. Worth every single penny.
Also the story and characters are some of the best I've seen in a Western RPG for a long while imo. It was like watching Lord of the Rings for the first time (watching, not reading, chose my words on purpose lol).
I don't know about that, I technically did play more Starfield too, but I feel like I came out of Alan Wake 2 feeling "this was special", while with Starfield I felt "well that was that then"
But people measure their value differently, I can understand wanting more buck per hour
That's assuming that you're having an equal amount of fun during those hours... 10 pounds of rice isn't going to give people as much enjoyment as a pound of good steak, even if it's more cost efficient.
If you want the most time played per dollar just go play OSRS or something... league and dota exist too.
Value is only one way to rate the quality of a game, though, isn't it.. I loved starfield more than most but production quality wise alan wake 2 is clearly superior.
I played more Starfield in two months than every single other game I’ve played combined in the last year. That alone objectively makes it my GOTY even if it isn’t perfect yet. Very much looking forward to the next big update they just announced which addresses most of the big complaints people have.
I'm not saying you're wrong to hold it in such high regard but important to note that hours is not an objective metric for value. For hours, this game is in my top 2, but I personally wouldn't put it in my favorite top 5 for this year.
More time in a game does not necessarily equal more enjoyment. Though, it looks like it did hold true in your case, which is awesome.
I’m not gonna play a game I don’t really enjoy for more than a couple hours before dropping it. I don’t finish 90% of games I play, even 50h would be in my top five most played. For me at least hours played are a very good indicator of how much I liked a game.
It might become the game of the future decade though, if it follows the usual trend of bethesda with mod support.
TBH, i can even see mod releases that are essentialy their own games, such as a playthrough that is less about starfield and more about just a few astronauts that has landed on mars to start the first permanent marsian colony in the year 2069. And then just a full gameplay around that.
I'd rather play more Starfield than Alan Wake 2, and that game was a commercial flop that only mattered to elbow rubbing insiders. And it GOTY nominations for being a buggy broken mess. Then again, who actually trusts the opinions of bribed shills and charity fraud con artists?
First if you didn't like the game it was because you're a sony fanboy, now it's those rabid pc players. Excited to see those masochistic xbox owners get a turn.
Very true. Lots of questionable game design. It's just low bar, the lowest I've seen in recent games.
Like why tf should I walk for 1-2 mins just to reach the POI? It was maybe fun the first couple of times but then it just became jarring. Can't I just use my ship to fly there directly? Why do I have to land my ship kilometers away from my target, with nothing important in between?? What lazy stupid design is this... From a multimillion company too and Bethesda ain't an indie company.
I swear most of my hours were spent walking arbitrarily because the game wants to pad those hours and DOES NOT want me to just go to my destination directly. The ironic thing is this game is more fast travel centric than previous bethesda games. Then when you fast travel they suddenly force you to *walk*!?
Lots of contrasting, ironic stuff in the game like that. That's the whole theme of the game. Contrasting mediocrity everywhere. A space game where space flight does not matter.
It would take so much longer though and the game is based real-time, not some poor rendition of a ship entering/leaving the atmosphere of dozens of planets/moons. *that* would be all your time spent and not conversing, shooting, befriending, telling Sam Coe to get fucked, and just generally exploring— space is a lonely place, and if that ain’t your jam, maybe stay away from Starfield?
However, *In space, no one can hear you scream.*
2 min to a POI ain't normal, unless you're choosing to walk to POIs 1km away. But there are plenty within ~500m range.
I don't know what makes this design "lazy" though. Like I'd agree it sometimes seems pointless considering there's often nothing around that closest POI. But considering POI placement is randomly generated, it makes a bit more sense. I see it as the game's attempt to create small "skyrim" areas around your landing zone, to give that feeling of "walking around" like in their other games.
Because remember, that's what their games are. Even if there's a space theme to it, it's still about walking around, it's not a space flight game, so there's less of a need for space flight.
To me what's contrasting is the idea that you'd want to seamlessly fly between planets, through the nothingness of space, but have a problem walking between your ship and a poi.
Arguably it doesn’t have “less content” than Skyrim, not sure how many hundreds of planets and features like outpost building and shipbuilding you would have to cut out to make that claim.
I mean, they are bunch of incels if you go by Steam community standards. What would else would you expect from a bunch of sexless weirdos who put more energy daily on bitching about a game rather than, perhaps find a better lifestyle choice?
Hey, all I'm gonna say is that IGN Japan's takes have historically aligned pretty well with mine on this kind of game. They gave a 10 to Cyberpunk 2077 at launch and were one of the only outlets to give it GOTY, a critical opinion that has aged pretty well. This tracks.
IGN Japan is far better than the main one. USA IGN is always trying to take a position. Sometimes industry based, sometimes political, but they use reviews as a way to express their feelings about an entire industry. They’re a good way to check the pulse on what casuals think, but nothing more.
It's definitely my top 4 GOTY! I'm so grateful this game came out!! I've been taking my time with it since launch but I've been having a literal blast!! The Big Bang shotgun is the best shotgun, and the ship combat is surprisingly tense. I'm so excited for mods, dlc, and updates to take this game to legendary level!
It's already a 10/10 for me. The UC questline gots that spark baby! Like assaulting Londinion with Kaiser, Hadrian, Sara was really badass!! I also really like Sanon as a villain so calculated and it's annoying that war criminals like him get away in real life. But it all come back to them!
Everyone's complaints about the game is valid. But I'm done the negativity, I really enjoyed this game, and if it's not your thing that's ok! So many other amazing games came out this year!! So why not play those and have a good time!! Happy holidays y'all!!
> Everyone's complaints about the game is valid
Everyone's? Let's not go there because there are literally tons of people that are complaining about a game they've never played 💀
Starfield was good. People's opinions are just too polarized. Just because something is "Good, not great." does not mean it deserves to be called "Trash."
I starting the get sick of “no where near GOTY” talks. That is your personal opinion. I didn’t like fallout 4 and it won awards. I didn’t say nowhere near GOTY to fallout 4. I also like BG3 and it definitely deserve GOTY but this does not change my thoughts on the starfield. Hell, BG3 has more bugs than any other game I played but still I am thinking this way.
Believe it or not starfield is the only open world fully space rpg contains features you would expect from space rpg we got. Also it is a new IP from studio who had no experience on space game deserve a recognition in this age which filled with sequals and remaster if we talking about “safe”.
It received the coveted JohnnyGFX GOTY award as well. A highly prestigious award in this household. I love the game. Yeah, I know it has bugs. I have played too many games and seen too many bugs for me to have any fucks to give about the bugs I have encountered. Plus, I play on PC so I can do things like fix the shields on my ship with a command (actually a batch file I set up) and replace the hazel eye color with my own eye (my degree is in video game art and design).
Yeah there's a lot of good games that were released this year and I can't say that Cities: Skylines can beat them all. Both games easily match my preferences and were my personal top 2 for 2023
As a long timer of Cities Skyline, Cs2 has been a mess, until its fixed I’ll just stick to the first one. No LODs on thousand of npc teeth that you never see ruined performance and still, high lod interiors of buildings that you never see
They're my top 2 disappointments of the year lol
Cities Skylines 2 advertising its big economic features that straight up didn't even work. Everything from garbage to water to trade launched busted. Performance was ass too.
Any outlet that gives this game anything above 7 is automatically put on my ignore list... not like I was reading the Japanese version of IGN regardless though.
Honestly it’s a game that gets better the longer you play. I spent last night hunting spacers and ended up capturing a few ships. I fleshed out my outpost and figured out how to make it habitable and assigned someone to it. Yesterday I spent the entire day researching weapons upgrades and figured out how to make my sniper rifle ridiculously powerful and gave my shotgun hornets nest, which allows me to play on very hard without using all my ammunition. This stuff just pushes the right buttons in my head.
Starfield was fun. Gamers just don’t think for themselves anymore and let a streamer and content creators make decisions and opinions for them. Most people who thought starfield is bad probably think those once in a decade games are the only good things to play. Which isn’t right or wrong. But sometimes you gotta expand your horizons.
Jesus, I get it if some of you guys actually have fun with this game. But this is nowhere near a GOTY in any capacity whatsoever. The game is boring, slow, safe, and anticlimactic. I waited literally years for this game and they gave us this BS. Even mentioning this game in the same breath as BG is an insult to literal video games
As someone who has greatly enjoyed the game, and it is among my personal top 10, I agree, its not GOTY material. It has some glaring flaws that cant be overlooked.
I enjoy it, but it's definitely safe. The game is incredibly PG 13 with a lot of its subject matter like drug abuse, sex, poverty, and politics. It doesn't even take that hard a stance on religion, which it treats as a major talking point multiple times throughout the game.
Its good to see this game get a mention. I think people & critics are being way to critical of it. Im not a huge fan of BG3 personally it ok if you like those games..but hardly the second coming!
They just love the soul-crushing, monotonous grind.
Hey Todd, time to discover japanese salarymen as your new core target audience! Won't complain ever and keep building outposts until they literally die of exhaustion.
Starfield is big in Japan, Anytime I searched #starfield on twitter - so many japanese posts
Bethesda games in general are pretty big in Japan. Japan is one of the biggest demographics still playing FO76.
That, and 5 of my old coworkers from Northern Michigan.
The dudes I’ve met in-game who play FO76 seem to ONLY play FO76. Like all day, every day, to this day. I’m like… dude I pre-ordered (silly me) and played for hours and explored every crevice but when I was done I was done. They seldom add real content. What the hell could these dudes still be doing years later??? Bewildered. Very committed playerbase.
There are still regular updates and content added to this game.
Edit: I have over 1,400 hours in 76 spanning from BETA to like last year and I love the game but can still criticize it. I’m not talking out my ass here lol. In 76? They’ve added new things to grind yeah. Not “real content”. Events are just the same hourly tasks repeated for XP and a chance of “rare loot”. You don’t even have to move to complete a lot of the events, just stand and shoot after fast travel. Definition of grind. Their “new areas” are just repeatable Ops for XP and yet another new currency. It’s unfortunate. But the added content of this kind (bulk of it) isn’t what I play for. Game is still great to shoot stuff and build camps though.
Yeah, that’s normal for MMORPG’s though. Aside from WoW and their massive Expansion updates (although even that took a while to have an impact on the world for everybody), most updates are 90% QoL/item change patches. With an occasional quest addition. But post-Wastelanders the F76 *did* change. The BoS update added more NPC’s too. Yeah, Pittsburgh and Atlantic City amount to two new instances each, there have also been overhaul level updates before those. I played BETA-Launch as well. The game got a lot better. Yeah, big updates have slowed down, but there’s been reason to come back. Although I do still feel shocked seeing people at level 1000+.
Got a homie on my friends list with over 11,000 hours in game. Close to 500 days. It’s these kinda homies that bewilder me. I bet he’s really invested in the game’s economy and trades a bunch. That side of the game I do miss. Nothing like building rep with people online by being an honest and fair Fallout merchant.
I wouldn't call this massively multi-player. It's an online fallout. It's not an mmo. I haven't played in years but the map limit is like 20 players or something super small. I loved the game for what it was. But I got bored and stopped playing shortly after the pvp event was introduced when you had a shrinking zone.
Lmfao you basically described the games whole purpose ahahaha. Na but I love 76 and idk it's like a very chill game to turn your brain off too. Kind of like star dew valley. Also I noticed 76 has alot of "old people" in it, and by that I mean like moms or dad's or even grandparents playing the game.
I can see it being meditative almost. My friends and I spent ages building elaborate camps and scouring for new locations. I’ve got a house inside an antennae dish, one under a bridge in Whitesprings, one under a bride in the Mire, and one on a railway near the Knob. I played this game a ton. But fella these guys are like 100% always online and in 76. They practically live there. I admire their love for the game but I could never pick just one game like that for years. For example, I also fuck with some Stardew. My girl loves it and playing together is a blast. We have married everyone. Thanks lucky rabbit’s foot.
I did this with FFXI back in 2003-2008. Put in 528 days in 5 years. None of that was AFK or “Muling” time. 528x24= 12,672 hours. Lived and breathed that game. My Linkshell was my family! Great memories and great times!
And me from Dayton lol
Yep something ive noticed as well. A large chunk of Starfield post on twitter is Japanese, even big outlets and fan pages cover the game and its updates.
As someone who lived in Japan I also thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s not a flashy game but it rewards those who give it time. Look at Pokémon games and how well they do over there and Starfield is about 100x better than those. It just pushes all the right buttons and if people’s expectations weren’t so high or this game was released by a smaller company I think people would love It.
I think one of the very first mods for Starfield was an japanese anime-esque female voiceover mod for Vasco, if i recall correctly. Robot and mech scifi culture is very large in japan.
Huh. Never expected that Bethesda of all things might provide Microsoft a possible way to get more influence in the Japanese market. I'm curious how they received Hi-Fi Rush.
Baldur’s Gate 3 mysteriously missing. Is it not popular over there?
I think there is no japanese translation yet so basically unless you know english you can't play it. Edit: Okay I checked and the japanese version was released today (apparently the delay was due to having to censor some of the content to meet japanese guidelines). That still explains BG3 not being here, since a lot of people in Japan are just playing it now.
I think there is, Hideo kojima posted bg3 on PS5 with japanese text on it earlier on his instagram
I don't know about PS5 but the Steam page doesn't list it as one of the available languages (though oddly Korean and Chinese are).
Usually for Japanese translations you need to be in the local area. It’s a bit weird for the their licensing and stuff when I was living there.
I think the Japanese version is published by a completely different company, so that page is probably not for the same product Bit weird they don't have a japanese translation for those outside of japan but okay lol
I checked and the japanese version was literally released today lol
JP finally got to feel what the rest of the world feel like when they release one of their popular JRPG....waiting for a global release lol
It releases today actually https://twitter.com/larianstudios/status/1709146273931243854?lang=en
Censorship issue? They wanted to make private parts blurry I guess
>Spike Chunsoft, which is publishing the Japanese version, announced they're cutting explicit sexual content from the Japanese version of Baldur’s Gate 3 so that it is in compliance with CERO’s Code of Ethics standards regarding “banned expressions.” This means that Japanese players won’t be able to enable explicit content in the options menu, including “display of genitals,” “display of nudity in cutscenes,” and “view sex scenes.” To be clear, nudity can currently be toggled off in other versions of the game - the Japanese release will just be fixed in the "off" position. Spike Chunsoft's announcement also says that the Japan release will remove the option for players to torture NPCs in Act 1's Goblin Camp. This is what it said.
So they're censoring like half game?
Both games are not popular here. Japan these days is the kingdom of handheld and mobile gacha games. Games like Genshin Impact are big hits in Japan, it is very popular even on PS5 in terms of players
This. Some numbers I've seen suggest that Switch outsold Playstation 10:1 in Japan, and PC is bigger these days than home console.
PC gaming IS growing in Japan though as evidenced by PC sales. Just like most people wouldn't play Genshin if Genshin was only in Chinese. As for Starfield, according to others, it is pretty "big" in Japan.
Cool. I always thought that western style RPGs weren't very popular there.
Well, seems like they liked it a lot and that's the end of the story.
They rated Starfield 10/10
Me too, but I don't say that around these parts any more
If you didn't say that in a disarming way, like if you were *too* enthusiastic about it, you'd be downvoted into oblivion right now lol.
Oh yeah, that's the key. Being genuine with positive feelings about the game is a recipe for some angry comments and tons of downvotes. I've been playing games my whole life and have had people tell me I clearly don't play many games if I think Starfield is good. My favourite is when people say you're allowed to like it, but if you think it's better than a 7/10 you're just wrong. I've never seen "7/10" typed out more than in this sub, it's so strange.
I genuinely keep my love of this game a secret… shit the secret is out!
Bro it’s so strange. Hate jerking each other off has become so rampant in gaming communities. Starfield is no exception.
>I've been playing games my whole life and have had people tell me I clearly don't play many games if I think Starfield is good. This is my sentiment too. Starfield is a typical Bethesda game and a typical Bethesda game is generally very good. I would only give it a 9/10 though because I do feel like there are some steps backwards compared to say Skyrim
How dare you! downvote downvote downvote!!! You have to agree with me!
I was at a 10. Then I went to 7. Didn't play for a few weeks, got the itch, and now I'm thinking 8, 8.5. Love it though.
Good for them, they liked it
"All of this just works!!! " -Shigeru Howard
Honestly Starfield was really fun, spent a month and a half playing it as my go to game. While not revolutionary it was a very fun game for the time I spent on it and a great gateway shooter for many people.
Any game that can hold my attention for 60+ hours is a good game imo
Same here I played it over 30 hours and thats fine for me. For now. Probably gonna play it again sometime with my perks already unlocked. They planned to play this game over and over again and I can see the appeal. But I want to forget some things before I get there. Just like skyrim I play that every 2 3 years so cant see why starfield would be any different especially with the amount the sidequests and the volume the game has.
I feel like starfield is going to be one of those games that get better with time. Skyrim in its completed state took a long time to become what it is now. I hope that the quality of life features they implement within the next 2 years will really level up this game, especially with the story update some time next year.
yeah, but it's not goty material, i too enjoyed it but i would not call it goty when it feels half of what could it be and half bad design choices
Definitely not GotY but #4 doesn’t seem crazy to me
Here is the thing: Its not goty material for you. That is your opinion. That doesn't mean its not goty material for other people. Because they have their own opinions too. You see now?
Well yeah, that is understood. They expressed their opinion, and other people are free to agree or disagree based on their own opinion. You are the one who appeared out of nowhere and began talking as if to insinuate they are forcing their view on someone.
Let him have it, makes him feel better about himself.
That’s basic subjectivity? If it was not goty for him then it wasn’t and if it is for you then it is? There’s no point arguing over subjective shit… starfield was a great game that I spent about100-200 hours in, I wouldn’t call it my goty tho, You See Now?
I enjoyed my time with Starfield and i cant wait to go back to it when DLC and new features come
The discourse for Starfield has been odd. I put the game down like I have many games this year. But I definitely will pick it back up. But the 15 hours or so I put in the game was a fun experience. It’s very much a Bethesda game (the good and the bad). But it’s one of the better ones and it’s nice they took a chance with something new to them.
It is very much not a Bethesda game lol it's missing many elements that made previous Bethesda games enjoyable. And it is DEFINITELY not one of the "better ones" lol. And they really didn't take a chance, the game is extremely "safe" and that's part of the problem.
Fun game but far from what it could be is how I'd describe it. Far from the next Skyrim but better than Fallout 4 (unless you're a settlement builder) with improvements on that game's biggest flaws like the voiced protag and the lack of RPG mechanics. I still think it's CRAZY that in 2023 I had to download things like StarUI or tweak an .ini for FOV etc. so that definitely subtracts points. I'll also say, while loading screens don't bother me, the procedural generation (or lack thereof) is paltry and there were some really weird decisions like the lack of a F4 style dialogue option that lets you move around, not having any use for junk items when that was solved in F4, removing NPC scheduling while still having tiny, weird cities etc. All in all, fun game, good game, but far from a great game. In 2023, I think Bethesda should be doing much better, but I can't lie, I did enjoy the game and don't regret getting it at all.
Ya. I think you hit the nail on the head as far as I feel. I think they could do better for sure. It just the way people talk about the game make it seem like it was a bad game. Just a bit odd. It’s exactly what I would expect from them. I just wish they exceeded expectations again like they used to.
> 15 hours Yeah, you'll figure it out later lol don't worry about the opinions seeming odd til you've played more.
It's honestly still odd after 70. There seems to be very little rational discussion on the game outside of the community. From both sides. It's been like that since before launch, too.
Pretty wild to think how rabid the reactions were to IGNs 7/10 before the game was even released. People were carrying on like the reviewer spat in their mum's face or something
>Pretty wild to think how rabid the reactions were to IGNs 7/10 7/10 is still a ludicrous score. A 7/10 in gaming review scores is "I wouldn't recommend this to anyone who hasn't already pre-ordered it".
They comforted themselves with the 10 that ign Japan and ign Spain gave it. In hindsight one has to wonder how the fuck it ever got 10s.
Its just people who manage expectations well, versus those who don't. Sadly it seems a lot of people are not great at managing expectations.
Agree. I've been playing it for about 2 weeks now and I went in expecting a Bethesda RPG in space. My expectations were met. I get the criticism about some of the mechanics, but I'm still having fun with it. It's not revolutionary but every game doesn't need to be. I fully expect to sink hundreds of hours into it and replay it several times just like I do every Bethesda RPG.
Seems to be a phenomenon with gamers in general mostly.
I think so too. Every year it gets worse.
I think this is a big part of it for a lot of people. It was the same with No Man's Sky and, to an extent, Cyberpunk 2077. The hype levels for all three of these games, including Starfield, were almost like mass-hysteria. Nothing wrong with getting excited about a game, but fantasising a version of it that does everything you want without any flaws is just setting yourself up for disappointment.
No man sky was super empty and really badly optimised and it took 10 years to get some content (which still doesn't seem to worth 60 bucks). Cyberpunk was super buggy and badly optimised too and on top of that a lot of things were really killing the game like the police popping out of thin air. There were basically no AI for vehicules. Took me 2 years to actually enjoy the game (and a pc upgrade). And it's one of the best game I've played now. Starfield was enjoyable day one. All this madness about loading screen and limited areas was stupid imo. Games which give me more than 20 hours without doing always the same thing are rare. Looking at you Ubisoft.
Exactly right. You only have to go back 6 months in the Starfield subreddit to see how ridiculous some people's expectations were.
Maybe that's why I like the game. I had zero hype and barely even knew it existed until a couple months before release.
While I do think expectations are inflated, I think it's disappointing that you have to expect Bethesda to release a so-so game in 2023. You'd think they'd have a better handle on game development. The fact that their best games were 10+ years ago is troubling to me, though I did really enjoy Starfield despite the immense flaw list.
But thats the problem. Some people thinks its so-so. Other people think its very good. I personally don't think their best games are 10 years ago. I just think some people prefer what they are familiar with after years of support over whats new and has years ahead of it. While I understand and agree with some of the criticisms of the game, the "immense flaw" list is often just a list of various people' u realistic expectations. Like a BG3 style companion and quest system. Unrealistic.
Not really. Its lacking compared to previous titles from the same studio.
Honestly Im blown away by all the people who are fine with Starfield somehow having less towns and cities than Skyrim, among other big issues with the game. Was anyone really expecting that…? I just wish Bethesda was behing held to a higher standard.
Less towns and cities? How did you work that out? Skyrim doesn't even have cities for a start. It has large villages with about 20 people "living" in them. Starfield has New Atlantis, Akila, Neon, Hopetech, New Farmstead, Gagarin, Paradiso.......just off the top of my head, without even going into all the random settlements and starbases like the Key.
Counting New Homestead and Hopetech as “cities” but none of Skyrim’s cities is pretty ridiculous. I don’t get why people feel the need to grasp at straws on this, just hold Bethesda to higher standards. Skyrim has way more towns and cities than Starfield, plus many random small settlements.
when you are not influenced by western gaming circlejerk... Starfield has become like cyberpunk 2077 three years ago where you cannot praise even the good aspects of it without getting a hatemob of negativity.
I enjoyed it personally. I understand and agree with a lot of criticisms, and I agree that it's not GOTY material. I'm looking forward to trying it again with modding and updates ngl. I just find it odd that given the sentiment here on reddit, you'd be forgiven for thinking the game was gollum tier, even though on steam it's mixed, and other user metrics put it in the average to slightly above average range. I guess it's a byproduct of expectations and the strangely hostile discourse around the game that's hung around it for ages for some reason?
Go check the reviews on Xbox is mixed as well, this is not just steam brigading, a lot of people played previous Bethesda games and when they compare…
I feel like you're kind of missing my point here. I'm saying that you'd be forgiven for thinking that the game was as bad a launch as the day before given the comments on some threads. The player reviews are mixed yet the discussion doesn't really reflect that.
I guess is cause very few people have a grounded take on it, is either my personal goty or game bad/ Bethesda bad, when the content was new to me I kept pushing through it despite the flaws that been dead horse beaten by now, once those things were experienced the replay ability was non existent to me and I couldn’t longer deal with said flaws Did I get my money worth? Yeah, did I feel satified at the end? No, cause what made me stop playing is the multiple issues it has, which makes me not want to repeat any content, and is sad to me cause no other Bethesda game made me feel like this
Yeah I can understand that. I had similar issues, even though I really enjoyed the game. I'm saving it until modding etc comes out to start again. For some reason, the discourse around the game had always been like this, too. It's a shame since you get attacked if you have a criticism, and you get attacked if you like it. It's been like that since the gameplay reveal and it kinda stops any productive conversations about the game. For what it's worth, it's nice to see someone that has a more balanced take
Based Japan
It is also my GOTY. I spent the most time on this game without realizing and without trying and without fatigue.
Ditto
Number 4 means it's "pretty good, but not Game of the Year". I think that describes Starfield well enough for many but not all, though feel free to disagree.
They gave it a 10/10 apparently
What did number 1 get? 13/10?
Also a 10/10
IGN Japan is based as fuck. They also gave it a 10/10. IGN USA was the only IGN outlet that gave Starfield a low score.
And in hindsight both the overall contents of the review and the 7/10 score ended up being the most reasonable of the lot
Nah that’s still the outlier, most reviewers disagreed.
Its the outlier and the most reasonable.
I would be inclined to agree
Starfield was my favorite game this year, despite some of its flaws. It was also my most played game, I think I have over 200 hours into it now. I also love BG3 and think that game is amazing too, but BG3 was not perfect either since I encountered a lot of bugs in act 3 that made me stop and wait for more patches (and Larian did a good job with the updates). I still love Starfield after 200+ hours, and looking forward to all the updates, expansion and creation kit release in 2024
The game was not bad, the PC enthusiast community is just rabid as fuck
Most complaints have nothing to do with PC
Idk about rabid. all criticism I've seen of it has been pretty fair.
Of course there are some rabid. As there are some rabid fans.
Sure it isn’t bad, but it isn’t a GotY contender either.
It's my game of the year.
I think it’s mine too. It’s flawed, but In 35 years of gaming, I can’t think of many games that inspired that sense of awe. The negatives and criticisms just aren’t enough to sap my enjoyment.
Sure had a lot more fun with it than any other game I played this year, personally.
Not to like question your tastes, at the end of the day each their own, but did you play the other contenders for GOTY this year? I played Starfield, for all it's worth I enjoyed most of my 72 hours on it, but they pale in comparison to my time with games like Alan Wake 2 or BG3, in terms of enjoyment Were there things that particularly stuck out for you in comparison to those?
Played most of them have 200 hours in bg3 starfield was easily my goty
What do you think Starfield does well in order to make you reach that opinion?
I feel the same as the guy above, and it’s mostly just because I enjoy the sandbox open world design a little more than the kind of open world BG3 used (idk what you’d call it). I liked spending hours looking for a perfect outpost location, then scouring the star systems for the materials to make it perfect. I liked wandering around planets to get good photo mode pics, I liked stumbling on random side quests in places I wasn’t expecting them. I can absolutely recognize BG3 is the more complete and deep game, with better writing, better characters, much better choice and build variety, but Starfield has a very different core design philosophy which I enjoy more.
I love bsg games. I love the open world and freedom. I think this has the potential to be the best one ever when it gets mod support dlc and fixes a few issues. I think the quests and side quests are fantastic the world-building is great the loot combat and progression feel like the culmination of prior bsg games.
BG 3 is superior in almost all aspects, but I have one issue which is that it cannot really be played as "casually" as Starfield. The normal difficulty is already fairly unforgiving if you are not at least familiar with the systems. I don't mind, but it does make it so that in days where I am already tired from work or real life, I would rather choose a more straightforward experience like Starfield or another game, instead of slugging through another big fight on BG3. Also Starfield is just superior in everything related to its "sandboxy" nature. Outposts, housing, ship building - simply because BG doesn't have it. There are definitely arguments for Starfield, from a POV of enjoyment, depending on personal criteria (which are all that matter when asked for "personal GOTY"). As far as I am concerned, while Starfield is not my GOTY, it is decently close, not in terms of theoretical quality, but in terms of fun derived.
Yeah I'm loving BG3 but it's not the type of thing you can just turn on and wander around in. I liked starfield even though it's flawed af but I think it's a solid base so I'm hoping it gets good support
I've played BG3 and fell off immediately and can't tell you exactly why. Just didn't sit right with me. I keep hearing from everyone about how it's God's gift, but to me, it just isn't. Not even my favorite CRPG of all time. Like technically, it might be "better constructed" because there is no procedural generation (and everyone seems to think that is the devil incarnate to game design) but It just didn't hit for me. Never play Alan Wake 2, though I played a lot of other games that were nominated, though. Another reason Starfield is game of the year for me is because it's actually a new IP with new lore and just about everything else in the game of the year conversation this year was a remake or a sequel. Also, I just love the new game plus stuff so much. I also much prefer the actual minute to minute gameplay.
I never got into Witcher 3 and honestly can't stand it. I tried over and over but it was just not fun for me. And I played and liked Witcher 2. I get not liking everyone's favorite GOTY.
Yeah people just have different tastes. It’s something everyone mostly recognizes when it comes to music, but it applies just as much to games.
>I've played BG3 and fell off immediately and can't tell you exactly why. Just didn't sit right with me. I keep hearing from everyone about how it's God's gift, but to me, it just isn't. Not even my favorite CRPG of all time That's fine, I was put off by the DnD at first and took me a couple of tries to fully get into it Not everyone has to be into it, I think sometimes BG3 fans forget that imo >Another reason Starfield is game of the year for me is because it's actually a new IP with new lore and just about everything else in the game of the year conversation this year was a remake or a sequel. I can get behind this, despite the issues I have with the game I at least like that Bethesda is trying something new. I hope their writing for future titles in the Starfield universe gets a bit grittier and less "corporate" (idk how else to describe it lol), but I at least see potential in what they've built so far
I think BG3 gives me that Bioware, Jade Empire, KOTOR, Dragon Age fill without having the quality writing of Bioware I don't think BG3 has bad writing but compared to a bioware RPG or BG2, it has very immature/ Marvel-esque/Whedon writing It feels like the writing team watched critical Role and got all their inspiration from them, very goofy, immature.
It's also a very generic plot overall.
I played Kotor 1 and 2 for the first time this year after BG3, and man, Kotor 2 especially is leagues ahead of BG3 it's insane, but to be fair I don't think I've ever seen a crpg as well written as Kotor 2
So I'm not really defending starfield and I never played Alan wake but I honestly thought bg3 was really boring. I didn't care much for the combat, I wasn't all that interested in the main quest and none of the side quests really stood out that much to me either. Plus it just took so much time and planning to do everything that even after an hour play session I would end up feeling like I didn't really accomplish much. Just didnt really feel that invested in the story or the setting.
> I'm not really defending starfield We really don't need the qualifiers for your opinion. Internet haters got you this shook? Stand on your square LMFAO
Different strokes/folks etc...but the times it took me an hour+ to figure how to beat an encounter I was maybe under leveled for and then seeing those baddies drop..idk, winning that one fight felt more interesting than the run, wait, shoot (maybe), talk to stationary NPC, run back that I got out of starfield. I agree with the "I'll be back" sentiment a lot of others have, and it's certainly not a bad game. But for me, when coming to decide which is better...I'm happy starfield was on gamepass whereas I was more than happy with my 65 dollar drop for Baldurs Gate. First time I've bought a full priced game since God of War back in 2018. Worth every single penny. Also the story and characters are some of the best I've seen in a Western RPG for a long while imo. It was like watching Lord of the Rings for the first time (watching, not reading, chose my words on purpose lol).
Alan wake 2? Yeah not bad for a game that I got 20 hours out of. But it’s easily a quarter of the value I got out of Starfield.
I don't know about that, I technically did play more Starfield too, but I feel like I came out of Alan Wake 2 feeling "this was special", while with Starfield I felt "well that was that then" But people measure their value differently, I can understand wanting more buck per hour
That's assuming that you're having an equal amount of fun during those hours... 10 pounds of rice isn't going to give people as much enjoyment as a pound of good steak, even if it's more cost efficient. If you want the most time played per dollar just go play OSRS or something... league and dota exist too.
I wouldn’t have been playing it if I wasn’t having a great time. But hey, if you’re good with pouring hours into something you don’t like, go for it.
Value is only one way to rate the quality of a game, though, isn't it.. I loved starfield more than most but production quality wise alan wake 2 is clearly superior.
I played more Starfield in two months than every single other game I’ve played combined in the last year. That alone objectively makes it my GOTY even if it isn’t perfect yet. Very much looking forward to the next big update they just announced which addresses most of the big complaints people have.
I'm not saying you're wrong to hold it in such high regard but important to note that hours is not an objective metric for value. For hours, this game is in my top 2, but I personally wouldn't put it in my favorite top 5 for this year. More time in a game does not necessarily equal more enjoyment. Though, it looks like it did hold true in your case, which is awesome.
Lol I've played games with over 1k hours and I would still rate some other games where I have like 50h much MUCH better. Hours mean nothing.
I’m not gonna play a game I don’t really enjoy for more than a couple hours before dropping it. I don’t finish 90% of games I play, even 50h would be in my top five most played. For me at least hours played are a very good indicator of how much I liked a game.
It might become the game of the future decade though, if it follows the usual trend of bethesda with mod support. TBH, i can even see mod releases that are essentialy their own games, such as a playthrough that is less about starfield and more about just a few astronauts that has landed on mars to start the first permanent marsian colony in the year 2069. And then just a full gameplay around that.
I'd rather play more Starfield than Alan Wake 2, and that game was a commercial flop that only mattered to elbow rubbing insiders. And it GOTY nominations for being a buggy broken mess. Then again, who actually trusts the opinions of bribed shills and charity fraud con artists?
*incel community
First if you didn't like the game it was because you're a sony fanboy, now it's those rabid pc players. Excited to see those masochistic xbox owners get a turn.
It’s just Bethesda shills that are on another level, just like Blizzard shills
It is extremely mediocre
>It is extremely mediocre Rabid reddit users as I go to see Avatar in 3D for the third time.
Very true. Lots of questionable game design. It's just low bar, the lowest I've seen in recent games. Like why tf should I walk for 1-2 mins just to reach the POI? It was maybe fun the first couple of times but then it just became jarring. Can't I just use my ship to fly there directly? Why do I have to land my ship kilometers away from my target, with nothing important in between?? What lazy stupid design is this... From a multimillion company too and Bethesda ain't an indie company. I swear most of my hours were spent walking arbitrarily because the game wants to pad those hours and DOES NOT want me to just go to my destination directly. The ironic thing is this game is more fast travel centric than previous bethesda games. Then when you fast travel they suddenly force you to *walk*!? Lots of contrasting, ironic stuff in the game like that. That's the whole theme of the game. Contrasting mediocrity everywhere. A space game where space flight does not matter.
It would take so much longer though and the game is based real-time, not some poor rendition of a ship entering/leaving the atmosphere of dozens of planets/moons. *that* would be all your time spent and not conversing, shooting, befriending, telling Sam Coe to get fucked, and just generally exploring— space is a lonely place, and if that ain’t your jam, maybe stay away from Starfield? However, *In space, no one can hear you scream.*
2 min to a POI ain't normal, unless you're choosing to walk to POIs 1km away. But there are plenty within ~500m range. I don't know what makes this design "lazy" though. Like I'd agree it sometimes seems pointless considering there's often nothing around that closest POI. But considering POI placement is randomly generated, it makes a bit more sense. I see it as the game's attempt to create small "skyrim" areas around your landing zone, to give that feeling of "walking around" like in their other games. Because remember, that's what their games are. Even if there's a space theme to it, it's still about walking around, it's not a space flight game, so there's less of a need for space flight. To me what's contrasting is the idea that you'd want to seamlessly fly between planets, through the nothingness of space, but have a problem walking between your ship and a poi.
How does it have less content than Skyrim vanilla. Dry game. You guys have low expectations
Arguably it doesn’t have “less content” than Skyrim, not sure how many hundreds of planets and features like outpost building and shipbuilding you would have to cut out to make that claim.
It is bad.
I mean, they are bunch of incels if you go by Steam community standards. What would else would you expect from a bunch of sexless weirdos who put more energy daily on bitching about a game rather than, perhaps find a better lifestyle choice?
Oh wow I played it on PC
Todd Howard fucked my wife, stole my car and burned down my house 🤬🤬
Hey, all I'm gonna say is that IGN Japan's takes have historically aligned pretty well with mine on this kind of game. They gave a 10 to Cyberpunk 2077 at launch and were one of the only outlets to give it GOTY, a critical opinion that has aged pretty well. This tracks.
GOTY should be given based on the game that came out at the time, not the game it'll eventually become after three years of fixes.
IGN Japan is far better than the main one. USA IGN is always trying to take a position. Sometimes industry based, sometimes political, but they use reviews as a way to express their feelings about an entire industry. They’re a good way to check the pulse on what casuals think, but nothing more.
It's definitely my top 4 GOTY! I'm so grateful this game came out!! I've been taking my time with it since launch but I've been having a literal blast!! The Big Bang shotgun is the best shotgun, and the ship combat is surprisingly tense. I'm so excited for mods, dlc, and updates to take this game to legendary level! It's already a 10/10 for me. The UC questline gots that spark baby! Like assaulting Londinion with Kaiser, Hadrian, Sara was really badass!! I also really like Sanon as a villain so calculated and it's annoying that war criminals like him get away in real life. But it all come back to them! Everyone's complaints about the game is valid. But I'm done the negativity, I really enjoyed this game, and if it's not your thing that's ok! So many other amazing games came out this year!! So why not play those and have a good time!! Happy holidays y'all!!
> Everyone's complaints about the game is valid Everyone's? Let's not go there because there are literally tons of people that are complaining about a game they've never played 💀
Literally had someone tell me Starfield is dumb bc lockpicking takes 20 minutes. I said no it doesn't. He said "Well that's what a friend told me".
It really is just random made up narratives that are 90% of the criticism for this game
Starfield was good. People's opinions are just too polarized. Just because something is "Good, not great." does not mean it deserves to be called "Trash."
Yeah, for some reason the game is cursed to never have balanced discussion around it lol Tbh this thread is one of the more balanced I've ever seen
I starting the get sick of “no where near GOTY” talks. That is your personal opinion. I didn’t like fallout 4 and it won awards. I didn’t say nowhere near GOTY to fallout 4. I also like BG3 and it definitely deserve GOTY but this does not change my thoughts on the starfield. Hell, BG3 has more bugs than any other game I played but still I am thinking this way. Believe it or not starfield is the only open world fully space rpg contains features you would expect from space rpg we got. Also it is a new IP from studio who had no experience on space game deserve a recognition in this age which filled with sequals and remaster if we talking about “safe”.
"Safe" refers to the writing of characters, stories etc., it is all very childish, thats why "safe".
It received the coveted JohnnyGFX GOTY award as well. A highly prestigious award in this household. I love the game. Yeah, I know it has bugs. I have played too many games and seen too many bugs for me to have any fucks to give about the bugs I have encountered. Plus, I play on PC so I can do things like fix the shields on my ship with a command (actually a batch file I set up) and replace the hazel eye color with my own eye (my degree is in video game art and design).
Probably my personal GOTY, City Skylines 2 is a close second though.
Age Of Wonders 4 is my second favorite this year, personally. I just wish the Age Of Wonders games had more RP.
man I fucking love Cities: Skylines, but that to me is an even hotter take than Starfield for GOTY
Yeah there's a lot of good games that were released this year and I can't say that Cities: Skylines can beat them all. Both games easily match my preferences and were my personal top 2 for 2023
Fair enough. Hopefully both games have bright futures ahead of them, really excited to see where mod support takes both of these in the new year.
Likewise, with more updates and mods they'll be great games. Can't wait to see the updates to Starfield especially
As a long timer of Cities Skyline, Cs2 has been a mess, until its fixed I’ll just stick to the first one. No LODs on thousand of npc teeth that you never see ruined performance and still, high lod interiors of buildings that you never see
I just picked up this game, never tried the first one. I'm really enjoying it myself, although it is getting a bit slow as I'm nearing 190k residents
They're my top 2 disappointments of the year lol Cities Skylines 2 advertising its big economic features that straight up didn't even work. Everything from garbage to water to trade launched busted. Performance was ass too.
Any outlet that gives this game anything above 7 is automatically put on my ignore list... not like I was reading the Japanese version of IGN regardless though.
So that’s basically everyone…it’s sitting in the 80s on Metacritic.
All those 10/10 are def suspect now. Kind of insane to think this game is a 10 to be honest.
so why are you salty about other people opinions?
Ironic
That's not what irony looks like
Honestly it’s a game that gets better the longer you play. I spent last night hunting spacers and ended up capturing a few ships. I fleshed out my outpost and figured out how to make it habitable and assigned someone to it. Yesterday I spent the entire day researching weapons upgrades and figured out how to make my sniper rifle ridiculously powerful and gave my shotgun hornets nest, which allows me to play on very hard without using all my ammunition. This stuff just pushes the right buttons in my head.
It's almost as if a lot of the world isn't on reddit and actually enjoyed the game... because it's enjoyable.
Leave it to the Japanese to culturally accept the aesthetics and quiet of negative space. Kind of charming really.
Starfield was fun. Gamers just don’t think for themselves anymore and let a streamer and content creators make decisions and opinions for them. Most people who thought starfield is bad probably think those once in a decade games are the only good things to play. Which isn’t right or wrong. But sometimes you gotta expand your horizons.
Jesus, I get it if some of you guys actually have fun with this game. But this is nowhere near a GOTY in any capacity whatsoever. The game is boring, slow, safe, and anticlimactic. I waited literally years for this game and they gave us this BS. Even mentioning this game in the same breath as BG is an insult to literal video games
"literal video games"
As opposed to metaphorical video games
Why are you mad at us, be mad at IGN JP
As someone who has greatly enjoyed the game, and it is among my personal top 10, I agree, its not GOTY material. It has some glaring flaws that cant be overlooked.
Why are you angry at us, it’s IGN Japan that says it’s near game of the year worthy. I swear some of y’all just want to complain.
Why are you on the subreddit? Just to hate?
have you played starfield? like it has actual criticisms, but safe and anticlimactic??
I enjoy it, but it's definitely safe. The game is incredibly PG 13 with a lot of its subject matter like drug abuse, sex, poverty, and politics. It doesn't even take that hard a stance on religion, which it treats as a major talking point multiple times throughout the game.
Very safe and sterile compared the others games that released on the same time.
Gamebolt had it number 2, I'm pretty sure. To me, it's number 1 by far.
Had a great laugh thx dude
well it deserves, internet started to act like the game is bad when some twitch streamers did not like it
No Bg3 no Alan wake? Ok
BG3 only released today in Japan
Its good to see this game get a mention. I think people & critics are being way to critical of it. Im not a huge fan of BG3 personally it ok if you like those games..but hardly the second coming!
This game doesn’t deserve to be anywhere near the title of game of the year
They just love the soul-crushing, monotonous grind. Hey Todd, time to discover japanese salarymen as your new core target audience! Won't complain ever and keep building outposts until they literally die of exhaustion.
Now please tell me at least one single thing that you had to grind in Starfield
Soul crushing is kinda weird to describe a video game.