Starfield

[Grogan]

I bought Starfield last night (but haven't installed it yet). Probably the last Bethesda game that was developed before they got Microsofted.

I just happened to get it 33% off last night (with about 5 hours to go)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1716740/Starfield/

It gets horrible reviews everywhere, it's a boring game. Well, I like boring games

(Others say "don't listen to them, if you liked Skyrim and Fallout games you'll like this too")

The bottom line is, I like space RPGs.

P.S. OOPS, another stupid thing I have to deselect for that media embedding plugin. We don't need it posting Steam links inline with "buy now!" WTF lol

I think only enabling what we want is the ticket (youtube and other video sites perhaps) rather than finding out we hate shit and disabling it as we go.

[Grogan]

Well, pretty good so far. It works great on "Ultra" with all those stupid resolution scaling features turned off, that reduce your graphics to increase performance (e.g. AMD Fidelity Shmidelity).

It seems like a good old Bethesda RPG. It didn't waste too much time getting off the ground. I start out as a miner that encounters a strange sample that sends me on a vision, then I'm given a ship and a robot to go to the scientists to figure this stuff out.

Then, similar to other games, when the game starts for real you're given a character creation interface. It lets you start with a preset biometric ID and change it... and it lets you create fuglios

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It has both first person (default) and third person modes if you zoom out with your mouse wheel (like previous Bethesda RPGs). I'll be playing in first person mode, so I won't have to look at my fugly character from behind

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I did some pistol combat, some space combat and now I'm headed to eliminate a pirate captain on a remote moon. I've just landed (in one of the shots below). I won't dump them all in the thread, there's a gallery here too:

http://www.mikeserv.org/coppermine/thum ... p?album=20

[Zema Bus]

I missed the sale before it ended. Kind of a pricey game particularly the digital premium edition.

[Grogan]

Yeah, I paid $90 CAD for that, on sale. I'm not one to buy a game without the DLC though.

I like the game so far though. That last moon where I had just landed, I had to explore an abandoned research facility to find where those pirates were holed up, and kill them all. I was exploring all these rooms with labs, futuristic lab equipment and loot containers etc. Now I'm in the Alpha Centauri system in New Atlantis, a city of buildings and spires. I've just joined this "Constellation" organization and I'm on a mission to find more artifacts.

For me, exploration... what's not to like. This is somewhat like Fallout meets No Man's Sky.

[Grogan]

... and just like a Bethesda game, I pressed tilde ~ to bring up a console and typed "tgm" for total god mode, where you don't take damage and you don't consume ammo

HOWEVER, unlike a Bethesda game, it warned me that certain console commands will disable achievements. I don't care. But what it also did was make all my saves disappear. I saved my game and quit, to see if they would come back but I realized it was because I enabled god mode.

Oh well, as long as it stays like that now. I'm not having any trouble staying alive or anything, it's the bloody ammo that made me want tgm.

P.S. Ahh... Here's what happens (and I don't mind this). If I go right out, all the way, my saves will all show up. As soon as I load one where god mode was enabled, they disappear and only my recent ones shows up. This persists until the game is exited completely (quitting to menu won't show the saves again). Kind of petty (like achievements matter) but as long as it doesn't mess up MY game, I don't care if they care about their silly adornments.

[Grogan]

Well, with the "tgm" god mode, where I don't have to worry about health, or oxygen, or weight, or how long I can sprint, or taking damage in space combat or pretty much anything, I love the living shit out of this game. All those nifty weapons I'm picking up, I can actually use them as much as I want now that they don't consume ammo, too

Like a typical Bethesda RPG, I'm getting caught up in side quest lines. I hope to see some more variety in planetary terrain soon (though I haven't been to that many places yet) but I'm enjoying exploring old research outposts and stuff that have been overtaken by pirates etc.

I think I can go anywhere I want with my "gravjump" hyperdrive, and land anywhere I want on a planet or available moon (on the star system map). I haven't done that yet, but I've gone off the beaten track on planets I've had quests on and found more outposts and shit. Right now though, there are so many quests that I'm busy enough that I don't need to do anything else.

They could have done a better job on the faces too, for example most of the people all seem to have the same stupid smile lol

I don't care if it isn't perfect though, I love an exploration type RPG, and especially space games. I'm seeing similarities between a Fallout game, No Man's Sky with a bit of influence by Mass Effect Andromeda. It's not terribly original and a somewhat disappointing effort from Bethesda. I can't disagree with some of the complaints, from their perspective. But from mine, they gave me "tgm" mode and all this shit to do, explore and shoot, so pffft

[Grogan]

So yes, you can go to any system you want, land on any planet you want (within reason... you can land on the moons of a gas giant). There may not be anything there, but most have at least one marked landing spot ("abandoned facility" of some type). I've found some interesting installations. They are "abandoned" because they are taken over by pirates/spacers/cultists/criminal militias and you get to go exploring them and killing them all

With "tgm" god mode, it doesn't matter if the areas are way higher leveled than me. I've got wicked guns from some baddies that are easily 3 times the damage of what I'd have just following missions.

There are campaign and side missions that take you to what I'd presume to be fixed common areas, but most of the game is procedurally generated. While shamelessly borrowing ideas from it, Starfield is far more realistic than No Man's Sky. A lot of the terrain is boring, but that's probably reality. I've also been to some nice planets now too, even some of the random ones I chose were grass and trees and cool wildlife (some of which attacks).

I'm just about to kill all the bad spacers and recover an artifact when I took this shot. There are several landing spots already marked on this planet, it's a nice one and I'll probably stay and explore it after I finish the mission. I stayed up here and sniped most of them:

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[Zema Bus]

Can you fly into the atmosphere of a gas giant? One thing that bothered me about No Man's Sky was the lack of gas giants, it's likely that most star systems have at least one. I'll have to pick up this one. Would you say it's worth the $100 US for the Premium Edition if I don't want to wait for the next sale?

[Grogan]

Shit... I thought I answered this but must not have finished composing it. I've been blacking right out at my computer at the end of the night/morning, and waking up so stunned I have trouble replying to posts and then even shutting down my computer (root password fumble, shutdown -h fumble lol). It's a vicious circle of not getting enough sleep in bed (both cause and effect).

What I (apparently, almost) said was that unless you're going to spend a lot of time at it to make your own interesting game out of this sandbox, it's probably not worth 100 bucks to you. I'd envision you liking it, playing a bit of the campaign and then on with the next. I can see why a lot of people might say it's boring. So unless it's something you're going to play for the rest of your life (there are something like 1000 star systems) wait for a sale

I don't think you can fly into the atmosphere of a gas giant. You don't actually approach planets yourself, you bring them up on the planetary map and click to choose a landing site (whether a facility is marked or not). Clicking on a gas giant simply tells you that you can't land there (I checked, just to make sure it wasn't stupid lol). There are usually several moons and some might have marked facilities. That shit is random in random systems I'd think (not sure about mission systems).

No Man's Sky was a silly, cartoony simulation of a universe (in the game I mean). Created by the "Atlas". That's why there were no gas giants and you could land on every planet.

You don't fly your ship in the atmosphere of a planet in Starfield, you only land and take off. So if you want to get closer to something, you'd get in your ship, take off, bring up the map and click for a new landing site etc.

While actually flying your ship in space, even with boost engaged, it's not fast enough to traverse any great distance in a solar system. That's more for space combat and docking approaches on space stations.

Anyway, you haven't finished Assassin's Creed Odyssey. Wonders await. Seriously, you should go back to that one.

There's still Far Cry 6 too that you haven't finished. (and I need to get back to that myself, I've been enjoying that... very nice pace etc. and I haven't gotten angry at it yet)

[Zema Bus]

Thanks Grogan.

I'm all too familiar with being sleep deprived lately, waking up multiple times with heartburn and quenching it with Gaviscon and slipper elm while watching youtube videos

[Grogan]

This game seems to let you do whatever the Hell you want. I'm with my organization's benefactor (Walter Stroud, CEO of Stroud-Eckland, a ship manufacturing company). We're in this mining colony town built on a platform, Neon, meeting a clandestine buyer to obtain a stolen artifact. I have to find the guy, somewhere in a VIP suite. I go in one and find this guy standing there, thinking he might be the guy, I talk to him and he's this arrogant, self important asshole. He owns the club, and he's the CEO of the mining corp. that owns the town. He chides me for wasting his time because I'm not important enough. There are just a few conversation choices, "so, you're the owner" and such. He informs me yes, and he can call security and have people thrown off the roof any time he likes.

I didn't like his attitude so I just pulled out a gun and shot him in the head and that shut him up, real hard and he fell over dead. I heard someone in the background shriek in surprise at the sound of the gunshot, but there were no consequences. No security came. I thought I was going to have to go back to a save because my hot headed ego just blew the mission, but nope

[Grogan]

By the way, no, the game doesn't let you do what you want. I didn't get into any trouble for popping that CEO (because of no witnesses I presume, the shot was only heard) but I got in to manufactured trouble (I think it was scripted) and got arrested by the UC (corporate authority that think they run all the colonies etc.) and they tried to coerce me into going undercover to take down a pirate organization, the "Crimson Fleet". I'm funny that way, I'd have been happy to if they'd have just asked me. But since they tried gunboat diplomacy (even after I've aided them in fighting that group previously) fuck them. The game wouldn't let me fight them (well, in god mode I could indeed keep defeating endless ships but it was just that) so I had to surrender and it wasn't a bounty that could be paid like normal. I did nothing but kill shoot first and ask questions later scavenger type pirates and take their shit, not a real crime. I refused and went to prison on Mars (Cydonia colony they call it) in a brief cut scene. They really couldn't hold me, it was just the inconvenience of the matter... and now the UC are enemies.

I also got huge bounty with the UC (and aggressively attacked in orbit with no option to surrender) for fighting "Starborn" (aliens wanting to prevent humanity from acquiring the knowledge from these artifacts and ancient temples) in the city that were attacking us to prevent our egress. I actually went back to a save for that one, I just didn't fight on the way to the ship. Let the UC deal with powers and technology they've never seen before. That's what RPGs are all about I guess, you make your own game out of it.

Thing is, I hate that "Crimson Fleet" too so I probably am going to take them down despite the UC. I was approached by a contact after I got released and now I'm a "member". Checkout this justin bieber-esque puke. You can't tell me that likeness with the backwards cap etc. is accidental. Games do shit like that, it's not actually that person and they can claim it's a coincidence

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[Grogan]

So I finished this game. The main story, and I acquired all the Starborn powers by going to all the ancient temples. I still had a bunch of side quests queued up, and still countless systems I could have gone to, but I decided I'd rather do all that in a New Game+

After acquiring all the artifacts, and assembling the device on your ship, it takes you to this "Unity" where you cross over into alternate universes. At the end you have a choice to just turn around and go back to your present universe, or go through the Unity and emerge in a new one. That starts a New Game+ where you emerge as a Starborn, with a cool, ultra fast Starborn Guardian ship.

At first I was annoyed that you don't keep your gear (you keep all your levels and stats and powers etc.) and I lost some unique weapons I'd never seen again, but it's a different universe and the game is a bit different. You go to your colleagues where you have another choice. A conversation choice one of which is to "skip the main story" and just fill them in on what's happened. It then starts you out with a bunch of quests right off the bat to find the remaining artifacts and temples in that new universe and stuff.

It left me with only a shitty gun so I just jumped to a far system that was level 75 and fought Spacers (rescued some colonists in a side quest) and looted some good weapons