Starfield - Official Gameplay Reveal

While the complaints about Beth's games are often misguided/lazy it is pretty easy to understand why they get the hate.

The trend of their games in the last 15 years has been very reductive. With the current trend I think it is fairly likely it may come down to "guns" or "swords" or "ships" as being all that differentiates their games i.e.

Daggerfall - Peak character build and systems
Morrowind - Slightly simplified but less auto-gen content
Oblivion - Large amount of simplification but still stats/skills etcs
Skyrim - Removal of class system. Large reduction in skills etc.
Fallout 3 - Reduction in skills, focus on combat.
Fallout 4 - Skills completely removed. Perks become the only form of character development. Games morphed into crafting/base building.
Fallout 76 - No NPC's at launch!!!!

To be honest I am just happy Starfield will have npc's on launch :)

On a more serious note, I am actually quite hyped. I am really hoping that Starfield does reverse the trend but I am quite worried about the base building mechanic as I worry it will end up like FO4 and I wonder if it will end up being tied up into the main story i.e. missions to build a base on a planet. Given how hokey and buggy base building was I have concerns.

You forgot Arena;)

Overall this game to me looks great. I mean yes there are issues with framerate, not to worried about that. I'm already picturing what the mod scene will be like to be honest. A lot crap on bethesda for getting people to mod things, but really how many games come with a full fleshed out ability to mod as their do? I can't think of a single game that has come close to that other then maybe back in the NWN age...but even then the number of users for bethesda games increases the mod amounts made.

Also, this game is going to reach a lot of people right away, at least 25m just on gamepass will have the ability to play. On PC and Xbox. That many people and word of mouth(assuming it's good) will get the mod community humming.
 
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Creation Engine's spaceflight upgrade revealed.

bethhead.jpg
 
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Except modding won't be implemented until 1-2 years later. Unless you're trying to market basic moddable items w/ FO76.

Mods have existed for all of their games from Morrowind on from the day they were released. And it didn't take 1-2 years for them to release official modding tools either.
 
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That's always been one thing in favor of buying Bethesda games. They use the same engine and file format so it doesn't get complicated. It's also holding them back.

I read many complaining they want a new engine and that might stop mods. Sure you can technically say Creation Engine 2 is new but at it's core it's built from Gamebryo.
 
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Except modding won't be implemented until 1-2 years later. Unless you're trying to market basic moddable items w/ FO76.

Um what it will be day one like all their single player games...
 
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Talking about real mods. Not texture packs. Mods you need the Geck/Creation Kit for - which they always delay at least a year. And have never released for FO76 because they'd rather charge real cash for something as basic as a backback.

That's always been one thing in favor of buying Bethesda games. They use the same engine and file format so it doesn't get complicated. It's also holding them back.

Yes, double-edged sword... that's really starting to wear thin.
 
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Talking about real mods. Not texture packs. Mods you need the Geck/Creation Kit for - which they always delay at least a year.

You might be forgiven for thinking in 2022 that just saying things makes them true, but I'm pesky about facts.

The Skyrim creation kit was released on February 7th, 2012. The game was released in November, 2011.

The Fallout 4 creation kit was released on April 26th, 2016. The game was released in November 2015. The Fallout 3 GECK came out faster than that.
 
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You forgot Arena;)

I intentionally left out Arena because Daggerfall is vastly better then Arena and a more complex game :) I actually played Arena when it first came out! There was once a time when BS released a game that was better in every regard than the last one. Although I do also think unmodded skyrim is better than unmodded Oblivion - the only issue I had with Skyrim is the further streamlining.
 
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Anything is better than unmodded Oblivion. :)

Funny you mention that...I recently sat down with unmoded oblivion on my xbox because I wanted something to do. I spent a lot of hours just playing and was surprised at how well it stood up...I actually like the leveling system better then skyrim for instance.

However, it also had very large drawback you could level outside your power level...making the world very hard
 
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The very first time I played Oblivion it was completely unmodded as well. While it wasn't my favourite game ever I thought it was a grand experience. The main thing I remember really not liking was the auto-leveling mechanic where it felt like most brigands you fought while walking from one town to the next were all wearing either glass armour or Daedric. It was cool the first few times but then when you realised what was happened it just felt unrealistic. Oblivion gates got a bit tiresome after the first 10 as well but at least they could be finished very quickly once you knew all the variations.

I really liked some of the quests as well. Some good writing and I remember eavesdropping and following people around was quite new for the time.
 
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Bah oblivion still gives me nightmares with the non-modded female bodies and faces. The level scaling ruined the game as well. It's fun when bandits wear better gear.:lol:
 
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Oh yes, the enemy level scaling was very annoying, I've never liked the feature.

I agree that the daedric missions were quickly repetitive too, though a little grind was OK for me, saving the world isn't supposed to be all fun. I Just thought they didn't have the time to customize them a little more.

But I was in awe discovering the gorgeous big world. And let's not forget, we had the voice of Sean Bean, not too long after The Lord of the Rings movies. ;)

A good case of impressive features vs quality of content. Mostly, there were still a few good quests.
 
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Yeah, the level scaling was the killer. I decided not to go with a tank, and play a sort of ranger/thief character. As I leveled up, the world started filling up with harder and ridiculously-equipped enemies, for no apparent reason as far as I was concerned. So, Oblivion languished in my cupboard until the overhauls came along.
 
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Oblivion (as originally released) was one of the worst games I ever paid actual money for. And the main offendors were that level scaling, as well as the hilariously dumb "persuasion" system. Those two "features" were enough to get me to quit rather quickly, but there was so much more bad in there too. I tried Skyrim when the "special edition" came out and it didn't seem quite as bad, but still pretty bad. Going forward, I don't plan on bothering with Elder Scrolls games again, obviously they aren't for me anymore. (Maybe they never were, but Morrowind was OK)

For some reason, Bethesda's Fallout games are still decent for my tastes though. Not great, but playable. So I guess Starfield is worth at least checking out, but I'm not expecting much. Bethesda is just a very mediocre RPG developer all-around.
 
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And the main offendors were that level scaling, as well as the hilariously dumb "persuasion" system.

Right, I almost forgot about the persuasion system! That was bad.

It could have been a good idea, if well implemented. Another little thing to give some personality to the NPCs. The fact they were talking to one another was great, even if that was repetitive after a while. And they had their little routine. So I found that all that was going in the right direction, a good point for Oblivion.
 
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Yeah, Oblivion was a poor game. When all the street thieves start wearing high level glass armor, you have a problem. Skyrim is a fast superior game with a world and dungeons that are actually pretty fun to explore.
 
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With all this talk of Oblivion, anyone ever play Obscuro's Oblivion Overhaul? Supposedly gets rid of the excessive scaling, amongst other things.

I never did finish Oblivion; I just got bored with how the entire game felt the same after a while due to said scaling.
 
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