GothicWizard wrote on Oct 1, 2024, 19:11:

RogueSix wrote on Sep 30, 2024, 20:31:
I got this for "free" with the Premium Edition but I would not recommend it to anyone, unless you are a huge Starfield fan.

Just to be clear with your verbiage you were leaving the door open for it to get better the more you played. That's what I was replying to. I think any objective viewpoint at this junction wouldn't even consider that a valid possibility. Luke Stevens hit the nail on the head in his video about it. We certainly agree this isn't near a $30 value. But you (and I though I haven't had SF installed since the first week it dropped) got it 'free' so no harm no foul. But it's borderline criminal to be charging $30 for a 5ish hour story and little new content. For anyone about to question that, Phantom Liberty was the SAME price and look what you got with that. Night and day.

Well, as I said in my previous post: The original game started kinda slow/meh, but I was surprised at how good some of the content was, like the UCSysDef vs. Crimson Fleet quest line, a large part of the Terrormorph story, some parts of the Freestar Rangers story were pretty good and, even though it's the popular thing to say otherwise, I did not even fully hate the main story .
Other faction quests like Ryujin were thoroughly mediocre and the quality of the side quests/activities was all over the place. I'm just talking 'content' now, not gameplay.

That is why I was willing to not judge the DLC too prematurely. It started rather weak but, like the main game, it could have had quests/quest lines written by actual pros.

Now I know that it didn't. I finished it 100% and pretty much all of it was boring, lazy and mediocre at best. The gameplay was completely unchanged from the original game so that did not help. It is a completely forgettable DLC that is only worth playing for hardcore fans imo.

I take back my previous post. I am not willing to pay for this based on what I have seen in gameplay videos. Probably not ever, but certainly not before the price is single digit number AT MOST.

Sorry Bethesda, but between the mod community and games like No Man's Sky, I am done paying expansion prices for what should have been in the game in the first place.

RogueSix wrote on Sep 30, 2024, 20:31:
I got this for "free" with the Premium Edition but I would not recommend it to anyone, unless you are a huge Starfield fan.

Just to be clear with your verbiage you were leaving the door open for it to get better the more you played. That's what I was replying to. I think any objective viewpoint at this junction wouldn't even consider that a valid possibility. Luke Stevens hit the nail on the head in his video about it. We certainly agree this isn't near a $30 value. But you (and I though I haven't had SF installed since the first week it dropped) got it 'free' so no harm no foul. But it's borderline criminal to be charging $30 for a 5ish hour story and little new content. For anyone about to question that, Phantom Liberty was the SAME price and look what you got with that. Night and day.

RogueSix wrote on Sep 30, 2024, 20:31:
That said, I have played a couple more hours goofing off in and around Dazra. This nailed home that Bethesda is unable to listen to feedback and unwilling to change. The game still has the same exact quirks/bugs, the loot is garbage, the UI sucks as much as ever and there is absolutely no improvement to any of the core gameplay as far as I can tell. The DLC is just more of the same with a slightly different visual style.

I believe if you look up "rigid, inflexible and dismissive of feedback" in the dictionary there's a photo of Todd Howard.

Every game they've put out since Morrowind has had the same feedback. Beautiful world, fantastic walking simulator, awful models, incoherent, badly written story, badly written characters and boring mechanics, with the odd mysterious gem of absolute brilliance for no apparent reason. There's clearly someone in the team who's fantastically talented, but at no point have they ever gone "That is fantastic, lets make more!" they just keep plugging along remaking the same game in a different skin over and over, saved mainly by mod support and the odd flash of brilliance coming in at random.

GothicWizard wrote on Sep 30, 2024, 16:41:

RogueSix wrote on Sep 30, 2024, 16:27:
Just played through the prologue, took my sweet time exploring the station and made the jump to Dazra (Va'ruun planet). It was cliche, derivative and boring as fuck so far. It can only get better hopefully...

How did you think this was going to go with the way the writing quality has gone the past decade (as a whole)? Were you saying to yourself 'the past few games the writing was getting worse and worse but they are going totally turn around with the SAME exact team that put them in this creative tailspin in the first place'? I really am confused about your expectations or thinking it is going to magically turn a corner somehow the more you play.

Hm. Where did I say that I expect any magic corner turning? Oops. Plot twist: I didn't!

BTW, the base game actually did become better, the more I played. It started a bit slow but some of the faction quest lines were actually truly awesome. The quest where you infiltrate the Crimson Fleet as a UCSysDef agent is one of the best quest lines I have played in any RPG ever because you have tons of options, choices & consequences and the writing is decent.

It's always been like this with Bethesda for me. Their quality is very inconsistent. Some of it is awesome like the Dark Brotherhood or Thieves Guild in Oblivion plus standout quests like the painting, the dream world or the schizo elf and then there is also tons of mediocrity or outright garbage. It's all over the place.

That said, I have played a couple more hours goofing off in and around Dazra. This nailed home that Bethesda is unable to listen to feedback and unwilling to change. The game still has the same exact quirks/bugs, the loot is garbage, the UI sucks as much as ever and there is absolutely no improvement to any of the core gameplay as far as I can tell. The DLC is just more of the same with a slightly different visual style.

I got this for "free" with the Premium Edition but I would not recommend it to anyone, unless you are a huge Starfield fan.

I really want to play this (plus check out whatever mods have come out), but I can't get back into something with Metaphor: ReFantazio out in a week. Too many games, too little time...

RogueSix wrote on Sep 30, 2024, 16:27:
Just played through the prologue, took my sweet time exploring the station and made the jump to Dazra (Va'ruun planet). It was cliche, derivative and boring as fuck so far. It can only get better hopefully...

How did you think this was going to go with the way the writing quality has gone the past decade (as a whole)? Were you saying to yourself 'the past few games the writing was getting worse and worse but they are going totally turn around with the SAME exact team that put them in this creative tailspin in the first place'? I really am confused about your expectations or thinking it is going to magically turn a corner somehow the more you play.

Cutter wrote on Sep 30, 2024, 15:34:

OhLordNick wrote on Sep 30, 2024, 13:12:
Will pick this up soon, still play and enjoy Starfield! But I am currently enraptured with Witchfire (EA) which gets more fun the more you play it.

Sorry, which fire?


That actually looks pretty good, but I'm way past those sorts of games these days. I'd give it a go on XGP or something. $50 for an EA game is a hard pass.

It (Witchfire) should be ~ $35 USD on STEAM now. But it is EA so it's got a while to go, but the game loop has me hooked after getting my head around the game mechanics, etc.

Just played through the prologue, took my sweet time exploring the station and made the jump to Dazra (Va'ruun planet). It was cliche, derivative and boring as fuck so far. It can only get better hopefully...

OhLordNick wrote on Sep 30, 2024, 13:12:
Will pick this up soon, still play and enjoy Starfield! But I am currently enraptured with Witchfire (EA) which gets more fun the more you play it.

Sorry, which fire?


That actually looks pretty good, but I'm way past those sorts of games these days. I'd give it a go on XGP or something. $50 for an EA game is a hard pass.

I'm looking forward to seeing if this provides the experience the main game should have had (a densely packed area full of exploration opportunities). I started playing the game again yesterday and I was reminded how dull the Starfield universe is. Why they chose to have the game occur during peacetime and not wartime is confounding.

My main complaint with this game was the loading screens on almost every door. I know that this is the way of all Bethesda things but I do not accept this in 2024 anymore.

My main complaint when I tried it was the lack of content so a free story addition is definitly something that will get me to reinstall it and try agin. Particularly now that the community has had time to do their own stuff. I have a long history of relying on the community to make Elder Scrolls games better in literally every way, I never expected Starfield would be any different.

Nah crap. 8.8GB download. And its almost 8pm. Have to grab it and try it tomorrow.

Will pick this up soon, still play and enjoy Starfield! But I am currently enraptured with Witchfire (EA) which gets more fun the more you play it.