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Starfield Has Spoiled Us On Other Games
701 Plays29 days ago
Duane and Michael discuss some of the games they have been playing recently and how they have felt spoiled by Starfield and other Bethesda games. They also discuss exciting changes in the Starfield Normal People community and some upcoming plans for the future.
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Transcript
Introduction and Humorous Takes
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey Lois! In this episode of Starfield with Normal People, Michael and Dwayne are gonna talk about how Bethesda games have spoiled them. They're such Todd Howard simps. That's a word the kids are using these days.
00:00:11
Speaker
Also bussin, riz, no cap, slay, sus, goat, ate, lit, flex, bop, mid, ha, midfield. Anyway, Michael and Dwayne made this intro with Fish.Audio. Fish.Audio is ranked as the top two most realistic voice generators in 13 languages.
00:00:26
Speaker
It's fast and realistic and one of the cheapest on the market, but not as cheap as Michael and Dwayne. So yeah, check out Fish Audio and play around with it. The link is in the show notes.
Starfield Updates and Speculations
00:00:35
Speaker
Now they're going to talk about Fallout in space or whatever it is.
00:00:48
Speaker
Hello everyone, it is a brand new episode of Starfield with Normal People. My name is Dwayne and I'm here with Michael. Michael, how are you today, sir? I'm doing great. I'm really excited to talk about Starfield and I'd be even more excited to hear some news about Starfield.
00:01:04
Speaker
There is huge news, Michael. according According to a few YouTube videos, right? That's true. Yes. in There was a massive, massive drop from yeah official Bethesda Starfield X account.
00:01:22
Speaker
That's right. It was a giant block of text that said, we are working on things. and that And that's it.
00:01:33
Speaker
And this tweet has spawned 20-minute videos across the board. If you go to YouTube... It's about to it's about to spawn a one-hour podcast.
Bethesda's Communication and Reassurances
00:01:46
Speaker
That's right. It sure is.
00:01:49
Speaker
Yeah, I wanted to to start out the podcast by saying we are your number one source for toxic positivity. Right. Which is the funniest term. Stand aside, no sodium star filled subreddit.
00:02:02
Speaker
Yeah, we're here.
00:02:05
Speaker
That's right. That is right. But yeah, I think you know you and I got into just you know what we were going to talk about, and I just find it so hilarious when a very short tweet gets turned into these YouTube videos that essentially don't say much.
00:02:25
Speaker
And I actually said to you, was like, what are we even going to talk about? But from the beginning, when we started this, we had no news. We just had pure speculation. And we were approaching it from the standpoint of playing the game in a manner that would could go on for years. And we're like, we could talk about this game endlessly, regardless of whether or not there is you know exciting news coming down the pike every time. yeah And the funny thing is...
00:02:51
Speaker
As soon as we release this podcast, they'll probably do that that big update that they've got their heads down yeah working on right now. Yeah, probably.
00:03:02
Speaker
So in a way, we we are responsible for when the release happens. So going to this out. Yeah, are willing it into existence. Mm-hmm. But yeah, the the exact tweet was, and actually we joke about it, but I do think that this is very important.
00:03:17
Speaker
they The exact tweet was, we know you're eager for an update and we truly appreciate your passion for Starfield. The team has been hard at work and while we're not ready to share specific details just yet, we have a lot of exciting things planned for the game this year that we can't wait to talk about when the time is right. Mm-hmm.
00:03:36
Speaker
It is a big deal because we hadn't heard anything for quite some time. And a lot of people erroneously were saying, oh no, maybe they're done with it.
00:03:48
Speaker
No, not not by a mile. Yeah, that's right. And they've been pretty forthcoming with information up until this last spell. So that's, I think, why people are a little bit surprised that there's been this space of...
00:04:03
Speaker
Silence, essentially. And so I could see it's a little a little worrying for some of the Starfield faithful. ah Personally, i you know i have more faith in Bethesda, than such a huge title And I don't think they're just going to abandon it.
Bethesda's Game Development Insights
00:04:21
Speaker
i know they're not. No. We've seen how they handled Fallout 76. It sort of came out less than favorably among fans. And they worked so hard to add to it and improve it and give the fans what they want.
00:04:37
Speaker
I had lost face at faith in that one. I thought that one was completely dead. And they really surprised me yeah with how they fixed it They take pride in their work, and you can trust that they're going to make sure that they deliver like what they promise that they're going to deliver.
00:04:53
Speaker
But Starfield has had this ebb and flow with how they deliver content. We saw last year, before they released the paid expansion of Shattered Space, they released the Rev 8 for free.
00:05:09
Speaker
And afterwards, you know, like everyone was so excited about the Rev-8 and it was ah very much a goodwill moment for Starfield because a lot of people that had sort of hated on the game were ah impressed, and rightfully so, with how they added this vehicle, which people some people thought couldn't be done.
00:05:30
Speaker
But then afterwards, after Shattered Space... Todd Howard said that, well, you know, maybe if we released the Reve at the same time as ah you know as Shattered Space, that maybe the reception would have been a bit more favorable.
00:05:49
Speaker
So it is one of those things where they with they are kind of constantly deciding, like, okay, this is how people reacted towards these things. Maybe next time, instead of...
00:06:02
Speaker
drip feeding a lot of small bits of content, which I think a lot of us fans would like. and They want to drop everything in one big update. Yeah. So you're kind of saying the Rev-8 got a little bit lost in the pre-excitement of the big DLC of Shattered Space.
00:06:23
Speaker
So Bethesda potentially learned their lesson, and now there's a bigger gap between significant drops in terms of new stuff for the game. Yeah, sort of. I mean, the Rev 8...
00:06:35
Speaker
was received very favorably. People thought it was really cool, but then they sort of said that Shattered Space didn't have enough. Like some people were saying, oh, Shattered Space didn't have enough new things.
00:06:48
Speaker
And so Todd is looking at this, you know, the team is looking at this and going, oh, well, maybe if we, you know, release all of our good ideas in one big content drop,
00:06:59
Speaker
then people look at it as a big thing. And I don't think they're wrong. Yeah. I come from a different school of thought. There's been a few games where i I've played some early access games.
00:07:12
Speaker
So The Long Dark and Subnautica were both games that I joined or in early access. So the game's not done. And what I love about that is you're getting drip-fed a lot of new content like right all the time. You're getting like a new update every month.
00:07:32
Speaker
Yeah, it's because it's not done yet and the game is in active of development. But I guess different gamers want different things. I like that kind of thing. I like the drip feed of of content.
00:07:47
Speaker
Yeah. Especially on a game that you just like playing like every week. Yeah, you know, we had Eric on one of our earlier podcasts as a guest. yeah He's a friend of mine.
00:07:58
Speaker
And he i remember he was talking about the pre-release for Baldur's Gate. That's right. And it sort of long term ruined, not to be negative, but it ruined the game a little bit for him because he played that first ah act.
00:08:14
Speaker
ah Dozens and dozens of times. times Yeah. So he he's like at the point where he can't finish act three ah because he kind of got bored with it and stopped.
00:08:26
Speaker
um So my point is you just kind of have to be a little careful when you do decide to... to play game before it's finished, yeah um even though it's tempting.
00:08:37
Speaker
um i did the same thing. Actually, I bought the game on his recommendation, and it was in pre-release. I played it a couple times through, didn't really like it at that point, and then decided to give it a second chance after it had been fully released.
00:08:51
Speaker
I'm glad I waited. but So Subnautica for you, though, i mean that was fine. i mean You still had to start over once the game came out, right? Yeah, you do. And I think that it works better.
00:09:03
Speaker
i think it works better for survival games. Because what's funny, and i and I know we're getting away from Starfit a little bit here, but I promise we're going to get back.
00:09:14
Speaker
What's funny about a game like The Long Dark is The Long Dark had very good survival elements. And then when they did the actual story, they started releasing it in episodes.
00:09:29
Speaker
it wasn't that good. Like most, most people just preferred the actual, just the gameplay, just straight survival and didn't even enjoy the story. I've never even gone back to finish the story, yet but I have gone back to do the survival elements.
00:09:46
Speaker
That's funny. It's the the game itself. The concept of the game has so much merit that adding the story actually took away from it. I feel that way about some, some big sandbox games sometimes,
00:09:58
Speaker
Starfield hasn't really had that problem for me, but Grand Theft Auto often has. I'll just get in there and the game is so fun as a sandbox. but I could care less. I've never played any of the GTA stories all the way through and probably not even maybe 50% through and that's a i've even I've thought many times ah about games, like especially RPGs, similar to Baldur's Gate, where it's D&D style, is why can't we have a game that is less of a big RPG story?
Open-World Design and Player Agency
00:10:40
Speaker
like i almost don't want that overarching story. Give me... this land over here and this little mini quest and this mini quest. I feel like a lot of RPGs would be better served if there wasn't one big world-ending story.
00:10:59
Speaker
Just give me let me travel the lands and discover little stories along the way. i don't know. i don't has I would love to know if anyone is listening and knows of a game where they did that. Instead of one big story, just several smaller stories.
00:11:19
Speaker
I wonder if... If Sean Murray's new procedurally generated game, what is it? Eat, Pray, Love? Something like that. Eat, Pray, yeah. I wonder if that will be more like that because No Man's Sky doesn't really have that that hardcore storyline, right? It has a story.
00:11:37
Speaker
It does. It does, but it's all... um So there's no voice acting. It's all through sort of text, um you know which is kind of the old school way of doing games. but But yes, it's like...
00:11:50
Speaker
It is very light on story. Like to compare it to Starfield, where Starfield is definitely big production. There's a story, there's voice acting, like No Man's Sky has a story, but it's more of a sandbox.
00:12:02
Speaker
um No, if if Light No Fire is like that, i i'll I'll love it. I was thinking about staging, which is the the art of placing you know camera or replacing actors in front of the camera and how they move across the screen.
00:12:19
Speaker
There's a whole staging that happens within Starfield when you enter into like dialogue with characters. And it one scene just happened to me in the Shattered Space DLC. was You're looking for, i think, Varric. don't know if you remember the Varric storyline.
00:12:36
Speaker
And I apologize if I'm saying that wrong. He's the son of the one of the faction leaders. Yeah. Yeah. There's a scene where you're talking to an NPC that goes along with you to help him find it. And Varric, like, appears behind him before the NPC realized.
00:12:54
Speaker
saw down. don't know it was purpose. I remember. Yes. That happened to me. Yeah. Yeah. I'm just like, he's standing right behind you. That's so funny. And then it's funny because once you start that dialogue, it's probably a bug. He shouldn't appear. He appears too soon, basically, because you start the dialogue. That's thought, too. And then he gets the drop on you with the gun. But anyways, minor spoiler for those who haven't played that storyline.
00:13:22
Speaker
Well, it's so funny because, ah well, fortunately, like if you don't if you don't know what we're talking about, then you won't know until you see it, i don't think. so But yeah it's I started laughing because I i remember that happening. and i played that all the way back it you know when it released, like September, August, or whenever it was.
00:13:42
Speaker
And um yeah, I was laughing because I was like, don't think he's supposed to be standing there already. But yeah, that happened to me too. That's funny. Oh, man.
00:13:54
Speaker
Well, speaking of people dropping in unexpectedly, our friend Davit Doombringer will be taking over the SAC, Michael. Super excited about this, right? Yep. SAC standing for Starfield Adventure Club, if anyone is new.
00:14:08
Speaker
Yes, yes, yes. And of course, we want to thank Cherry Bomb for her 10 years of service. Amazing. yeah we We have a special patch for her ah that she will don for her service. So thank you, Cherry Bomb. But seriously, she's been awesome.
00:14:26
Speaker
And Davit offered to kind of step in and pick up the... ah the reigns as it were. Yeah. Well, we've got some exciting things planned for the Starfield Adventure Club and for anyone listening that is brand new.
00:14:45
Speaker
you should see a link in our description for our Discord channel. Definitely join. We've got some amazing people there. We're talking about all games, but also many of them, most of them are Starfield fans.
00:14:59
Speaker
So we have the Starfield Adventure Club, which originally started as us choosing a planet every week. And now what we're transitioning to is we're doing a new system every month.
00:15:13
Speaker
Now, David Doonbringer creates an in-universe magazine called The Odyssey. So it's very cool. Davit's been putting together this fake magazine that sort of blends the world of Starfield with our own community.
00:15:32
Speaker
And it's been a very cool thing to see. And it just was a natural thing. ah Davit offered to receive the torch. And that's what we're doing now. So you can go see what system we're exploring this month.
00:15:48
Speaker
and please submit funny clips or or just cool clips or pictures or whatever you want to do. And I would actually, if we get enough clips, I'm going to turn it into a video.
00:16:00
Speaker
Yeah, you were saying that. You were going to take some select clips and create a video out of it, which I think is very cool. And it's honestly my number one reason to try to go through Shattered Space. quicker is because i I don't want to leave yet.
00:16:13
Speaker
Like I don't want to go leave the story and go, cause I know I'll get distracted and go do like one of the the adventure club locations. So I'm going finish Shatspa and then I'm going to start joining in on these destinations.
00:16:27
Speaker
Yep. That's how I felt when I first played Shattered Space as well. It just, the story lent itself to where it's like, once you're there, you got to stay there until the end of the story.
00:16:39
Speaker
Right. Well, Michael, I don't know if I should even really say this, but here it goes. But i I reached out to one of the, let's say, premier heads of departments over at Bethesda.
00:16:51
Speaker
And this was a person that I was interested in in interviewing. I said, hey, we're having our 50th podcast of Starfield with Normal People. Would you be interested in coming on? And This person actually responded very enthusiastically yeah and said, yeah, I'd love to. However, this kind of thing has to be cleared through our PR department. And I thought, okay, well, that's either a nice way to say no, or it really does have to. So i actually reached out to their PR person over at Bethesda, and they gave me an interesting response. They kind of said, not right now, but ye come back later after we are done with
00:17:32
Speaker
what we're working on right now. He said, everybody here Bethesda has their heads down with this, whatever it is they're working on. Yep. um Hopefully the next Starfield update. Reach out afterward and we'll go from there.
00:17:46
Speaker
I mean, I'm hopeful that that, and I don't want to say who it is in case it doesn't happen, but I think you'll be happy. It's not Todd. But I feel like if we if we interview this person, then why not ask for Todd next time? Like see, you know, see if the process can continue.
00:18:06
Speaker
Absolutely. Anyway, thought that was interesting.
Community Engagement and Mods
00:18:09
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. Without saying too much, because we we want to see if it comes to fruition first. Yeah, it is exciting. and And honestly, I know that you received this response before we even heard about that tweet.
00:18:24
Speaker
Yeah, this was weeks ago. Right. The tweet that said, you know, we're working on a big thing. Yeah, we we actually got this response saying that that everyone is heads down working on the next thing.
00:18:35
Speaker
So it was it's just it was cool. It was very cool to to get that response. And um we're going to we promise we're going to stay on top of this until we interview this person.
00:18:48
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Well, I bet that person at Bethesda has a favorite creation. Michael, you had a creation that you wanted to give a shout out to Yeah, I thought that this was interesting. And I do want to actually specify that I don't think that this particular mod is in the creation okay kit or creation club.
00:19:10
Speaker
So apologies um for the purists, but the Rizzler in our Discord posted about a ah Nexus mod that lets you...
00:19:23
Speaker
Transfer a spaceship that you have created from one save to another. um So this is a pretty big deal because... That's fantastic. Yeah, they're pretty much locked.
00:19:36
Speaker
ah They are. They are locked to your save. Sure. we've We've talked about the philosophy of letting go in the past, and if you're going to get out of a save... and But here's the thing. I do understand...
00:19:49
Speaker
that sometimes your game corrupts. that There are things beyond your control, right? So if something is beyond your control and you've got to create a new save, this lets you basically export a file that,
00:20:06
Speaker
That is that spaceship. That's really cool. And then you create a new save. Yeah, you import that spaceship into your new save file. So, hey, I mean, if you've put a lot of work into that spaceship, it's nice way to hold on to it.
00:20:22
Speaker
Oh, yeah. I mean, this is great for people that are really into the spaceship building element because you could spend hours and hours in there creating something that you really love. And if you do have that save corrupt, if you get it corrupted or if you go through the unity, whatever happens, start a new character and you want that ship again.
00:20:45
Speaker
do you really want to sit through the editor for another three hours creating that same ship? Well, this is the the mod for you if you don't. Yeah. It is called Transfer Spaceships Across Universes-SFSE.
00:21:01
Speaker
And that is created by Laren Kiar. Okay. Well, thank you, Laren. Well, Dwayne, are you ready to talk about our main topic?
Immersive Gameplay and Design Comparisons
00:21:12
Speaker
Yes.
00:21:13
Speaker
And because great minds think alike... We literally had the same idea. we did. At pretty much the same time. It was wild.
00:21:23
Speaker
yeah is Yeah. We might be long lost brothers. I don't know. We might be. We might be. Twins. um You know, not with that height.
00:21:34
Speaker
No. We are not twins. Well, it's like they the Danny DeVito. Danny DeVito. There you go. See, Yeah. It happened again. Yeah. Oh, man, scary. yeah As part of our main topic, we both, yes, scarily had the same thought that playing other games recently have had us looking at how Bethesda games have spoiled us.
00:21:59
Speaker
You said to me, you're like, I was playing and you listed a couple of games and I knew right away that you were going to go into that topic. And I said, I experienced the same thing because, know,
00:22:10
Speaker
In this kind of lull that we have between content releases for Starfield, a lot of us have been playing other games. And there have been a ton of new releases out there that are spectacular.
00:22:23
Speaker
Avowed, yeah um The Great Circle. there's just there's There's a lot to play right now. i've I've played a bunch of different games, and then I went and played Starfield. yeah And this game is It just feels so like so much more was put into it. I'll give you example.
00:22:43
Speaker
I've been playing The Great Circle, Indiana Jones and The Great Circle. it's Which some people might say is published by Bethesda, but it is not developed Bethesda. it's not developed by them. and it's a completely different different game. It's an action kind of adventure, first-person treasure-finding game.
00:23:01
Speaker
It feels very two-dimensional. It's fun and it's a really cool game. And i I like exploring. It feels kind of like that first time i was playing Tomb Raider, but in the Indiana Jones universe, you know, us ah kind of Gen Xers or millennials who grew up with the Indiana Jones, seeing one of them in the theater. Yeah.
00:23:26
Speaker
This is the video game we have been waiting for for so long. I mean, it it does everything right in terms of like the tone and the the textures, the feel, the music, the voice acting.
00:23:39
Speaker
It's all really, really good. And the graphics are amazing. However, it's not it's kind of... I always feel like it's this... paper facade.
00:23:51
Speaker
And if I were just to kind of reach my hand over, I would easily tear through the facade and behind it is nothing. Right. in That's interesting.
00:24:05
Speaker
Yeah. ah Starfield, I've never really had that feeling. For today, I was playing one of the quest lines on Shattered Space. Pretty much every moment, I felt like there were 10 choices.
00:24:19
Speaker
Yeah. With the Great Circle, I feel like there's there's choices kind of, there's false choices, like there's little side treasure things that you can find. There's all these little, it has an illusion of a sandbox, but it's not a true sandbox like Starfield is.
00:24:36
Speaker
And correct me if if I'm wrong, but you had a similar kind of experience maybe with Avowed or with a different game that you're playing, right? Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. and and i think it's important to say that I don't think every game should be like a Bethesda game. yeah And I don't want that.
00:24:55
Speaker
But... The problem is is I do feel spoiled because what happens is, you know, like, well, with The Great Circle, you know, to add to that, it just, it does feel like it's, ah you know, most games are like this. It's point A to point B. It's linear. well true Yeah.
00:25:13
Speaker
Yeah. They're trying to make you feel like it's this big world and they do a great job. but But, okay, so with Avowed... Number one, Avowed is great.
00:25:27
Speaker
And... I was really enjoying it, but then some things start to happen where the world is beautiful. Like I'll find these like really cool looking areas.
00:25:39
Speaker
And then after a while I start to like, my brain starts to pick up on the fact that, Oh, those enemies over there, they sit there, they stand there and wait for you to, to come over. And then there's a little fight.
00:25:54
Speaker
It starts to feel much like a, like a game board. Like they're just, game pieces that are set and that's where they are. Maybe some of the enemies sort of patrol a small area, but it does, it starts to feel less alive.
00:26:10
Speaker
You have to go engage with that game board. Yeah. right like if you're on If you're next to it, you don't necessarily have to go over there and start that checkers game.
00:26:21
Speaker
They're just standing around waiting yeah for you to come over and start battling, right? They are. And in fact, they sort of have a way to deal with that where I saw some enemies dancing in place.
00:26:35
Speaker
And then they even have your companion character make a joke about it. Like, oh, that... that That creature over there seems to be dancing or something. At first, it was like, ha-ha, that's funny. It's a little funny moment.
00:26:49
Speaker
But then where it starts to break down is I was up really high somewhere looking down, and I saw some enemies doing the exact same thing in an area, and it just never changes unless I go down there, and then we fight. Isn't that every video game ever, though, kind of in a way, I mean, to be fair?
00:27:11
Speaker
And it's just how... Yeah, and we're we're and that's the thing is I know I'm being very unfair to this game, but I know that in a Bethesda game, if I am... ah To talk about Starfield, where you can see very far, you can see enemies very far away, you're going to see an alien creature attacking another alien creature or an and a person.
00:27:37
Speaker
Mm-hmm. the world is much more living. you know, characters are reacting to each other. If you don't influence anything, like that's, what's crazy in a Bethesda game. You can walk around.
00:27:52
Speaker
Like if you were to make yourself invisible, the characters will still interact with each other. And in Skyrim, um, You know, foxes are going to try and attack, you know, the wolves are going to try and attack deer. And and ah there's hunters hunting deer. There's ah people, ah soldiers escorting, you know, prisoners.
00:28:18
Speaker
There's a whole world that is living. Yeah, I think Red Dead Redemption 2 is probably the very best at this, right? It makes you feel like this is a living, breathing world because things happen. And those things that that happen and interact with each other keeps it fresh. yeah If I were to stand around and at the same thing in the in the Great Circle, the Nazis are there and they kind of patrol a little bit and they do the same route.
00:28:44
Speaker
They could do that indefinitely. yeah You feel that. as as a player. Like, they don't go to bed, they don't change shifts, as far as I'm aware. And they never stray beyond their little path. Like, they're confined to a little bubble.
00:28:59
Speaker
It works for the game, but... Yeah. Yeah. well It's not like, kind of, when you would you land and you find starboard ship, like, sometimes you'll just come across a starboard ship and no one's around. It's because the crew had already, like,
00:29:15
Speaker
got down and started walking away. Yeah. yeah And you'll find them, maybe they come back. It's, I don't know. It's interesting. It definitely feels more, more alive and more lived in.
00:29:25
Speaker
Yeah. And definitely, sure, I know that Bethesda games also have their tricks to make things seem more alive. But yeah, a ship will land, someone will go to a nearby POI, and if you go talk to them, they tell you, I'm looking for supplies.
00:29:43
Speaker
It's these little things that make the world feel very alive. It's sad to say it, but the whole time I'm playing Avowed. And yes, I've praised it a lot.
00:29:55
Speaker
And there is much to praise about it. But i'm I'm not joking when I say that almost the entire time I was playing Avowed, I was thinking, i need to finish this game so that I can create a new character in Skyrim.
00:30:08
Speaker
Which is... Over 10 years old. It's such, it's an old game. I have to say, like, another example, to shout out our friend Cherry Bomb RN, because in the Discord, she had mentioned that she was talking to a friend about Avowed, and how the companions, sometimes, like, in conversations, they'll disagree with you.
00:30:30
Speaker
But it it amounts to no change whatsoever, where they'll just say, oh, I don't know about that decision. and then they're But they're right back to you know whatever.
00:30:42
Speaker
Whereas if you... accidentally throw a grenade or something in start field in if you kill a civilian in front of sarah or sam or you know any one of those constellation members there are dire consequences they will leave yeah they will they will tell you disgusted they are by your behavior And they they'll leave. And sure, it's a game. There's a cool-down period. You can convince them to come back after a certain amount of time.
00:31:18
Speaker
But that is such a huge difference from a game that gives you the illusion of choice...
Interactive Elements and Realism
00:31:26
Speaker
And a game where these people won't even talk to you anymore.
00:31:31
Speaker
Right. i always tell the story of the vendor that's in Fallout 4. she's She's in my home base. What's the name of the the first base that you make? Oh, is it Trashcan Carla or something? It is. yeah Yes, Trashcan Carla like accidentally shot her and then just kept playing.
00:31:51
Speaker
And so I have a save, my main character that I've been playing for 10 years. And she's just pissed at me, won't trade with me. i never fixed the save at that point. I just kept playing.
00:32:05
Speaker
And she's walking around inside my my home base. It's so funny. She's like, oh, the would-be assassin. That's so funny. And that's, see, that's, and here's, it's, in a way it's frustrating, right? Because you can't trade with her.
00:32:19
Speaker
But that is what makes a Bethesda game so amazing is that character will never forgive you. Right. She hates you. I was reminded of something in the great circle that just kind of made me laugh and sort of cringe. But you're in an area and you get to a doorway that you can't go back. Basically, it's a portion of the level that progresses to the next box or the next storyline.
00:32:48
Speaker
Yeah. Right. Or the next scene. So Indiana will say things like, I should take care of my business before I do this. You know, it's this little yeah developer's way of hinting that, hey, listen, if you progress here,
00:33:04
Speaker
you're moving to the next scene and you're not gonna be to find all the little things that you spent all the time trying to figure out where they are. Um, yeah, but it's just, I find it kind of funny because I was playing the next scene.
00:33:17
Speaker
He said that i wasn't sure what the thing was that moved it forward. I thought it was just another temple and it actually progressed the story. And I was like, Oh, mother father figure. Cause I wasn't done with that section, but that would never happen in a Bethesda game.
00:33:33
Speaker
Right. Generally not. No, it's rare. yeah It's rare that you get locked out of any any location. i think I think you can actually revisit scenes in The Great Circle, so I think you know I'll be able to go back and and finish up those treasures, but it just it does feel a little bit like... It kind of takes you out of it a little bit because you're forced to move on. Right.
00:33:57
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. It just feels... It definitely feels more restrictive. I mean... I don't know who it was at Bethesda that that said this, but I keep going back to this statement.
00:34:09
Speaker
They said players want to play other games, but or it was something like people don't want to play our games. They want to live in our world.
00:34:20
Speaker
And this was something that just kept coming back to me as I was playing Avowed because it's this big... ah sort of like mostly open world.
00:34:31
Speaker
Um, it's sort of sectioned off, but, but kudos to them. It's the, but the sections are huge. They're there. They are big open worlds, but it just, it doesn't feel like stuff like really matters.
00:34:45
Speaker
And, You want to come back to this design decision that Bethesda makes in all of their games. And it seems so funny.
00:34:56
Speaker
The decision to have clutter, little items that you can pick up, picking up stuff that does not matter at all. So it's like, you know, in Skyrim, you've got the brooms and the cheese and whatever. And it's like, oh, you can eat the cheese. And and what? Gain a point of health? Like it's it's insanely small.
00:35:16
Speaker
It's almost pointless. And then in Starfield, you've got little knickknacks and just stuff that you can't do anything with it. But my point is that it makes the world feel very alive.
00:35:30
Speaker
Yeah. Okay, Hopetown. Hopetown has that building that you can go in, and then there's a garage over to the left side. Right. As far as I know, there is absolutely no reason to go over to that garage.
00:35:46
Speaker
But I'm the type of player that goes over there and wanders around. And and it's because you know what it feels like? It feels like like you ever drive down the street like in real life and you see some office building and you're like, I wonder what it's like in there. Yeah.
00:36:04
Speaker
like Starfield lets me... Severance. It's like Severance....poke my head in. Yeah. i Starfield lets me poke my head into all these places that normally you'd be like, sir, what are you doing? Why are you here?
00:36:21
Speaker
Mm-hmm. I don't know. I'm i'm that weird player. like I don't need legendary gear to be in there. I just enjoy walking around and seeing it.
00:36:32
Speaker
I love what you said about that because, i for example, in Aquila City, I've spent maybe 20 hours in the city because I started doing all the quests in there.
00:36:44
Speaker
I don't feel like I know the city like the back of my hand. And I don't feel like I know every room or every character. There's still a lot to discover. And that's that's a testament to your garage. Like just these spaces, these extra areas that are fleshed out.
00:37:04
Speaker
And when you talked about the objects... I thought, you know, that could be an improvement that they could make with the planets. The cities are great. There's lots of little objects and spaceships and stuff, but out in the terrain, there's not as many loose objects that are meaningless.
00:37:22
Speaker
And that but might kind of cool to have rocks and whatever that you could just pick up like little plants and stuff that have no meaning, but help you to interact with the world.
00:37:36
Speaker
That's actually, yeah, that's really interesting, yeah. It might be a big ask because of the limitations of processing power and all that, but you never know.
00:37:47
Speaker
Yeah, you absolutely never know. Again, like, ah apologies to the developers at at Avowed because it is a great game, but I'm telling you, yeah I just start to i start to ask why.
00:38:00
Speaker
i just, ah like, the world... It just feels... ah You know what? It's like what we were talking about where it's okay for games to just be gamey and like the point is just to go from point A to point B. That's totally fine.
00:38:15
Speaker
But my problem is Avowed feels like it's supposed to be more open world like Bethesda. But it's really not. it's It's really just...
00:38:27
Speaker
It's just game, game, game, game. It's just go to the objective. Right. And that's not how I feel playing any Bethesda game. Fallout, like all these games, you feel like you are moving forward just by exploring and finding stuff.
00:38:45
Speaker
Yeah, i think that's part of the root of the criticisms of Starfield. Part of it could be the gamer type wants to experience a game that is more similar to a vowed or The Great Circle.
00:38:57
Speaker
And what they're getting instead is analysis paralysis, over overwhelming misdirection of things that can be done and places to go and things to see. And yeah so I can understand. It's too much choice for some. It's too much choice. And it's also that can create a ah feel of boredom because you don't know what to do. And there's nobody necessarily, you can't just like push forward on the controller and then kind of, oh, okay, this is a wall.
00:39:29
Speaker
Like another another yeah slight criticism about indian Indiana Jones is, boy, it's really hot in this desert. Okay, I'm getting to the edge of the desert. i'm goingnna I can't go any ah can't go this way, right?
00:39:43
Speaker
Right, yeah, yeah. Like I'm going to die. of I can run for 100 hours within the city and not be thirsty, but if I go another five feet this way, I'm going to die in the desert. Yeah, yeah.
00:39:54
Speaker
To your point about Aquila City, how you can explore that place a lot and still not know, you know, you still don't know like every corner of it. Some of the criticisms that Bethesda has gotten is, oh, these cities are so small.
00:40:08
Speaker
Whatever. There's lore reasons for the cities to be small, especially like if you can just travel from planet to planet to planet. You don't need a huge hub anymore. yeah Whatever. There's lore to explain it.
00:40:19
Speaker
But my point is, recently, before Assassin's Creed Shadows came out, which... I won't go into it, but it's an incredible game. Freaking love it so much.
00:40:34
Speaker
Before that came out, I got Assassin's Creed Mirage on for a very good discount. And was playing it. Yeah, yeah just as long as you can run faster than the clerk.
00:40:49
Speaker
It's a very good game, but I want to talk about the city size because you can send your eagle or whatever up and the cities in Mirage are...
00:41:02
Speaker
but just gigantic. Like it's, it is a sprawling, vast city. And in a way it is very impressive. We're talking like you just look out and it's, it's, it's like, I don't know, a thousand times bigger than Aquila city.
00:41:20
Speaker
But the thing is like all the buildings are pretty much the same. It's like, yeah and so like, as I wander from this street to that street to that street,
00:41:32
Speaker
there're there's nothing interesting. It's not like I'm seeing, oh, wow, I never noticed that there's like... You know, whereas like Aquila City, it's very small. But I probably got hundreds of hours into the game before I realized that there was this whole right side. Like you go off to the right, there's like a little soccer field, like a little dirt soccer field back there.
00:41:55
Speaker
I didn't even know it was back there. Like there's there's these places in there and like... I don't know. It was like hundreds of hours before I even went to the Laredo Firearms store.
00:42:08
Speaker
They're small cities that Bethesda makes, but it's very handcrafted. Every corner of it is different from the other spots. Yeah. I've been playing Uncharted as well.
00:42:21
Speaker
Uncharted 4, I think it is. and there's a scene where you're in a city and it's populated by it by a ton of NPCs. I was struck by how lifeless and non-interactive all the NPCs are. kind of like they they tried They really tried hard to... But I was spoiled by Starfield and Bethesda Games.
00:42:49
Speaker
yeah To your point, Rockstar also does it very well. i mean I'm sure that when Grand Theft Auto 6 comes out, it's going to be... Next level. Oh, for sure. it is Very real.
00:43:02
Speaker
But most games can't pull that off. Again, some of it is is player type. If they're you're not the right kind of player, if you need a game that's more linear, you're probably not going to enjoy Starfield like a lot of us who are just into straight up.
00:43:18
Speaker
exploring and kind of being submersed in, in this ah world. Yeah. I mean, that's the thing is like, I'm, I'm playing these other games. I'm really enjoying Assassin's Creed shadows.
00:43:32
Speaker
It's like, to me, it's the best in the series, but there's that corner of my brain that I, I am often thinking about Starfield and knowing for sure that I'll be back.
00:43:45
Speaker
And And I don't know, like Assassin's Creed, ah it's too early to say because i'm I'm playing it, but I feel like I'm going to play the heck out of it. Maybe 100% if I really like it.
00:43:59
Speaker
And then I feel like I'll be done. Is it like an RPG lite? Yeah, it's RPG, but it's you don't make the kind of big choices that you make in a Bethesda game.
00:44:11
Speaker
It's combat focused, right? Yeah. It's combat focused, very good combat. It ticks a lot of boxes because you can also build your settlement in Assassin's Creed Shadows.
00:44:24
Speaker
So that is very Bethesda-like. The more characters you meet, they populate your settlement and they walk around the buildings that you've built. It's honestly the closest thing I've seen to a Bethesda-like settlement.
00:44:38
Speaker
a sort of experience, but only, only in that place that you've built. Um, so I don't have a lot of complaints for Assassin's Creed shadows, but like I said, I feel like I'm going to play it.
00:44:51
Speaker
I'm going to really love it. And then that I might be done. And that's the difference because star field, you can always create a new character and,
00:45:04
Speaker
um I don't know. like Starfield, I'm really grateful that they made it feel... ah It doesn't feel like super far in the future. It feels like just...
00:45:17
Speaker
Within the next hundred years. You know what I mean? It just feels so rugged and lived in and realistic that it's the it's the closest thing Bethesda has ever given us to a game just set in our time, in our world.
00:45:34
Speaker
It just happens to be little bit in the future and we have space travel. But it just feels like... but It feels almost like now. It is. It's very relatable.
00:45:46
Speaker
And like we said before, it feels like timeline diverged in the 70s and they figured out warp drive somewhere 100 years after that. Yeah. You know, as compared to our timeline. Yep. So, I mean, there you go. It's like when I think about Skyrim these days,
00:46:04
Speaker
i I'm not thinking like, oh, I can't wait to play Skyrim again and play through that storyline. Like what I'm thinking is i can't wait to, oh, maybe I'm going to try this type of character and going to really build out my house.
Personal Reflections on Gaming
00:46:22
Speaker
It's more about not about the storyline. It's about the adventure and the living in the world. Yep. Is your son playing? Absolutely. still Because he started, right? Yes. Yes. we we Man, he's getting pretty far. And honestly, he was trucking along and got pretty close to the end of the game, but it was pretty high-level stuff.
00:46:45
Speaker
So it was really challenging. And he just finished like the Dark Brotherhood storyline. Yeah. So he's going back and and doing those kind of side quests. But yeah, he's he's been really loving it And it's been really fun to to watch you know him kind of experience that. and Right. and And then on the flip side, my other son um just finished Metal Gear Solid Sons of Liberty. He's been really into Metal Gear. And that's like been one that was one of my favorite franchises.
00:47:16
Speaker
And you know he's about to start. Metal Gear Solid 3 Snake Eater. And I'm just like, it's been so exciting to talk about these, you know, past game experiences that I've had and yeah my kids are having.
00:47:31
Speaker
It's fun to see my son is very competitive. I remember being like that too. So he loves oddball RTSs, like ah Supreme Commander 2. He's really into that. And then he loves Risk of Rain. He's been playing that a lot lately. Again, he played that yeah years ago and kind of is back into it again. So that's interesting to see.
00:47:54
Speaker
But yeah I wanted to ask you just real quick. I feel this update
Future Speculations for Starfield
00:48:00
Speaker
is coming. It's coming soon. So quickly, Michael, I want you to tell me maybe five things you really want out of it, like five wishes. And then I want you to tell me like five realities that you're like, okay, they are definitely going to do this. If you can think of that many. Five, okay. So what do you got for me? Okay, I'll try to lightning round it.
00:48:22
Speaker
Number one, survival I want actual, like, not just every 30 minutes you have to eat, but, like, what you know what they've done with Starfield. Or, excuse me, what they've done with Skyrim and Fallout, where...
00:48:37
Speaker
bulkier meals that you've created feed you more. Um, so it gives you a reason to cook. So that's what I want. I want reasons to cook, um, reasons to have like a water purifier at your, you know, at your space station.
00:48:52
Speaker
So I want that. I want a survival mode eating. um give me a reason to build outposts, fuel, Oh, and then we were just talking about this in the Discord, and you and I have talked about it in the past.
00:49:07
Speaker
Give us a reason to have multiple spacesuits. I want to have a room on my ship, and that spacesuit is for hot planets.
00:49:17
Speaker
This spacesuit is for cold planets. This one is for toxic environments. And I want to, like, land on a planet... Quickly pick one. my reading of it. Yeah, just quickly pick one. Equip and go out of the ship. Hallelujah. love that. So that is what I want.
00:49:35
Speaker
Yeah. I'm going to count all everything I just said as four items, and then I'm going to say my fifth wish is I want to i want them to bulk up ah being in space.
00:49:52
Speaker
So as an example, want it to feel more like we're traveling in the system between from planet to planet. And I want to be able to hook up a tube and spacewalk. I want to go outside of my ship.
00:50:09
Speaker
Yes. Because I think that will be terrifying and exciting. I totally agree. That would be very cool. People have modded that. Yeah. yep It does cause some some weird things to happen, but yeah.
00:50:24
Speaker
I'd love to see it as an official update. who um Okay, the reality. Let's see. Five things that are the reality. We're going to get two new weapons.
00:50:36
Speaker
so okay We're going to get... um some palette swaps of existing suits. So like some new colors and they're going to be 200 creation credits each.
00:50:51
Speaker
I'm being really mean now. Oh man, we're never going to get that interview. In reality, I do think we'll get another... I think maybe we'll get another city, like Dazra.
00:51:05
Speaker
okay. I don't think we'll another city, but I do think we'll get the Deimos vehicle. Wait, no, no, no. We have the Deimos vehicle.
00:51:15
Speaker
The DMOC. Oh, yeah, yeah Sorry, not the DMOC. No, but you're talking about the... There was a there was a a Dazra... um That's right. There's the third silhouette, wasn't there?
00:51:27
Speaker
Or no? Yes, it was Varun. Yes, there was a Varun vehicle that we didn't get. So yeah, you're that's what it is. Man, i haven't even driven the DiveMog forgot about that.
00:51:39
Speaker
It's good. It's like better in every way. Yeah. I'll have to pick that up. Yeah, another i think another realistic thing is probably not an overhaul of POIs, but they might adjust how POIs... You know, there's there's been a lot of complaints.
00:51:59
Speaker
I think it'd be awesome if you visit a POI, then that means it's not going to show up again for like 50 POIs. like 50 appearances.
00:52:11
Speaker
Right. All those things sound doable and they sound like they would improve the game. You know, the major difference between the Fallout 76 that they released and the one that they have now is probably night and day, right?
00:52:25
Speaker
Yeah. They made a bunch of big changes. Are we going to see something drastic like that? And I don't know that anything you really said is like a drastic gameplay mechanic or change.
00:52:37
Speaker
And that's, I'm kind of expecting something along those lines. I don't see anything necessarily drastic. i mean and I'll pitch you i'll hit you one.
00:52:48
Speaker
Yeah. yeah i think I think they're going to up the ante on violence and rated R content.
00:53:00
Speaker
We've already talked about. well I think you're, we've seen a little bit of that. And I think, so I think you're right. Have we? In what way? Well, i've I've seen some pretty grim-looking stuff in Dazra, in some of the outskirts. There's there's been some pretty bloody scenes.
00:53:19
Speaker
And in addition to that, the the very well-done $5... five dollars expansion that you can get called Escape was lot very R-rated in in language too. They added a like characters were swearing a lot and a lot of blood and a lot of violence and and just like a pretty grim setting.
00:53:43
Speaker
yeah But I think you're right that it will continue. I feel like they need to get back back to their core audience, back to the basics of a more gritty, a more dangerous, a more edgy product.
00:53:59
Speaker
And... Whether for me, like if if you were to ask my top five wish, all five would probably be um melee improvement of some kind. Oh, I would love that so much. in in I don't know. Is it weird that I'm i'm sort of like giving up on it?
00:54:15
Speaker
I'm sort of giving up on it, but I hope not. I don't want to give up on it. Yeah. Yeah. I played earlier today and it's satisfying to punch someone and knock them down. it's It's kind of crazy. It's it's a very Bethesda unrealistic thing. You're in a space suit and you're punching like a phantom, you know, whatever. Yeah. ah But it's still satisfying. And I think there could be so much more. You you talked about two new weapons.
00:54:41
Speaker
And we had a podcast probably 15 episodes ago that talked about... all the cool stuff that they potentially could do with weapons like plasma and blobs and these futuristic kind of things that yeah they just didn't do so yeah i hope they do bring some new weapons that are that are really outside the box Yep, absolutely.
00:55:05
Speaker
Well, in any case, I'm excited to see ah you know what is coming. There was that rumor that they that the next DLC might be called the Starborn. So it could be an expansion on on on that type of thing. So we'll see.
00:55:21
Speaker
Yeah. Oh, one more big wish that I want is more space stuff. like We talked about black holes in the past. We talk about Oh, that's right. cool things that you can find out in space.
00:55:33
Speaker
Meteors, comets, shooting stars. Nebulas and who knows what. Like just other space phenomenon that you can run into um to kind of flesh out percent the actual space portion.
00:55:46
Speaker
Yep, absolutely. Michael, our last episode we talked about is Starfield a
Listener Feedback and Closing
00:55:51
Speaker
cozy game? I think both ah you and I agree that it is. It can be. It's not necessarily designed as one, but definitely for a lot of us, it ah it's it is our cozy game.
00:56:02
Speaker
And we had some great comments. Do you want to ah read a couple of them real quick? Yeah, it it was great to to see this feedback because we got a lot of um yes it is and no it's not. But we've got Danger Fox who said that they said I do consider it um a cozy game. I literally get cozy in a blanket with my headset and explore planets.
00:56:24
Speaker
I also find new creations every time I log in. It's literally a game I can play forever. Yeah, absolutely. I'm glad that Danger Fox said that because we just talked about how we can keep coming back to these games forever.
00:56:39
Speaker
And we didn't even bring up the fact that the creation kit, of course, has yeah a constant drip feed of new things. I want to read Cindy Kumec's comment. She says, I absolutely think Starfield is a comfort slash cozy game. It is the game I go to when I just want to hang out.
00:56:57
Speaker
Sometimes I want to pew pew. Sometimes I want a space dogfight. Sometimes I want to explore in that crazy dune buggy. Sometimes I want to build a ship or an outpost or run around a new town.
00:57:08
Speaker
Sometimes I want to be the good guy. Sometimes I want to shoot up stuff. It just feels like home. I'm so glad you guys do this podcast. Thank you. Well, thank you, Cindy. Absolutely. I mean, that that encompasses my thoughts as well.
00:57:21
Speaker
White Mojo Wolf said it's absolutely a cozy game. Mm-hmm. C. Ken P. said Starfield is absolutely my comfort game. So, I mean, we're finding a lot of um kinship here.
00:57:36
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. Well, Genghis Bobber did say that they feel like it's a cozy game after 2,300 hours, depending on what they're doing. That's a lot of hours.
00:57:47
Speaker
Because, sure, that's a good point. And I think we made that point as well in that when you first play the game, no, it's not a cozy game. you're You're doing missions and things are getting crazy.
00:57:58
Speaker
But then Willia451 said that the first 10 minutes of Shattered Space proves Starfield is not a cozy game. And there was nothing that could have prepared me for what i encountered on Varun Kai.
00:58:12
Speaker
Yes. So sure, that's a good point. da They continue, Dazz are blown to bits, over half the population dead or missing, horrors, redeemed, phantoms roaming the landscape at will, and an ethereal madman trying to start another galactic war.
00:58:27
Speaker
All against the backdrop of cult speak gone horribly wrong. Incredible, chilling, shocking, disturbing. These would be some of the words I would use, but not cozy.
00:58:39
Speaker
You know what? I can't argue with that. um So there you go. it's It is and it is not. You know, in that same podcast, we were talking about how statistically flying on a plane is is super duper safe.
00:58:53
Speaker
Nothing ever goes wrong. That's right. And the whiz bang chimed in and said, yo, all this talk about planes being safe has aged poorly since 2025 began. Right? Yeah. ah We said that, and then ah planes just started crashing left and right. Just dropping out of the sky. It's time to watch Lost again. Let's do a Lost marathon. Right.
00:59:17
Speaker
That's right. Let's do a lost podcast. Yes, let's do it. I'm in I will totally do a lost podcast. ah The last one I wanted to read was just a compliment from MemcoloJai858,
00:59:33
Speaker
who says, one of the realest content I've come across online for so long. Feels like I'm hanging out with the guys. On second thought, it's not just the content at all. It's you guys keeping it normal. Yeah. We do want to keep it normal, for real.
00:59:46
Speaker
um Well, thank you very much for listening, and we do have a Patreon that sort of keeps the wheels turning, and we want to say a very special thank you to all of our Patreon members, and I'm going to read them all off real quickly. We've got Josh Baxter the Dog, Shellshock, Kai the Deer Guy, The Great Serpent, Sasha, Silent Crisis, Bergenstock, Pete, Daniel Griffith,
01:00:13
Speaker
Afrobird, Dingo Dan, The Dragon Reborn, Darren Flores, Mel Archivals, Malcolm, Jorah's Grayscale, Lycos, Peter, Kitalahara, Agrivar, Gilly, Hicks, Illnist, Todd, Shantz, Shenanigan, Lucas, Cherrybomber, and Ben, Olivier, and ZegraRox.
01:00:33
Speaker
Thank you so much for your support. And ah pop into the Discord, because we will chat with you. And thanks to everyone that listens on Spotify, Apple, and thanks to those watching on YouTube. All links are provided in the show notes below.
01:00:48
Speaker
Extra special thanks for comments and feedback. If you have a comment, suggestion, or an in-game story to share, leave that comment and we might read it in the future. If you like the show, consider dropping a five-star review on your favorite podcast app.
01:01:01
Speaker
That would really help us out. Thank you for traveling the Starfield with us. Make sure you subscribe because we will be back for more. See ya.