splodge

@nodima: agreed, one of the things I think I love so much about this game is that they genuinely want you to have pleasant moments of down time just moving around an environment and taking in the sights and having sometimes very funny conversations with people. You don't have to be scared ALL the time. When you're in it, you're in it, but in between you can relax fully.

Thats what makes the ratcheting up of tension so effective. You have to mentally take stock and prepare yourself to dive back into the nightmare. At times you might be exploring an area, having nice conversations with funny weirdos, and in the back of your mind you are thinking at some point this place is going to be realllllllll fucked up.

@mellotronrules: I would say that the story and writing is so self confident and absolutely unapologetic in how much they go for it, it would genuinely be a shame not to play this game if you like seeing and experiencing either of those things done really well, in any setting. It is in my mind, for lack of a less cringey comparison, "prestige TV". It oozes skill end expense.

In relation to the twin peaks-Ness of the whole thing, the comparisons are sometimes very deliberate (shot for shot in some cases) but I have not found it grating. It's really very clearly out of love. And it is wrapped with a film of remedy goofing that reminds me of twin peaks in the best way, like those times when it would be silly and laughing with the audience and then in the next moment dealing with a brutal side effect of a murdered family member, and while you should probably resent the transition, you don't, because it's just done so damn well.

There is also no other game I can think of that blends FMV and gameplay like this. It is really masterful at times, I am having jaw drop moments regularly.

There are some "jump scares", random flashing screaming faces, but they are relevant in a way, and sometimes there to transition you from exploration mode into combat mode. To kind of wake you up and get you ready for combat. I have definitely jumped a few times, but they don't outstay their welcome.

The spookiness is all atmosphere and tension, build up and suspense.

I'm gushing a bit now but damn it's just good. 17 hours in today and it's my GOTY.

I am about 11 hours in. It is fucking incredible. The sheer balls of the story being what it is. The monsters are genuinely scary as in you feel like you could die during any encounter. Theres a good mix of wandering around and combat, tons of secret shit. Even your standard collectibles all feel like some kind of meta puzzle.

The only other two survival horror games I ever really enjoyed were Silent hill 2 and RE village. This is so far top of the list. IT really is something VERY unique.

Now, I do have some issues. Im playing on a series S, which actually looks pretty good, and not as many frame rate issues as I imagined. However, there are frequent little graphics issues and light bloom spots that kind of take me out of it sometimes. The most major performance issue I have though is straight up hard crashes. Game just nopes out from time to time. I played 7 hours yesterday and it happened three times. I have never lost a lot of progress, but at one point it was about 25 mins worth which was frustrating. I am writing this in downtime after a crash a few minutes ago.

The level design can also be tough to deal with. The first "boss" as such, I died so much because it was entirely unclear which loose and light foliage I could walk through and which I couldnt. The areas are also quite sprawling and when you have to backtrack either for story reasons or to mop up loose ends, it can be a little daunting.

I have also noticed on occasion that I have completed tasks required to finish story missions before I even have the mission to begin with. This results in Saga saying something bizarre , as the game thinks I have already gotten to that part. It has only happened a couple of times but its frustrating because i panic and think I have missed some huge chunk of the story. I have actually had to google it to be sure I have not majorly fucked up. I find the case board can also behave this way too sometimes.

Overall though, having a blast these issues aside. Can't wait to see where it goes.

It's still in the works I think, Jan is toiling away!

Definitely email support, or even DM @jeffbakalar about this. I know in the past Jeff G had similar issues with some dynamic ads IIRC and he was able to reach out to them and remove those companies from the ad service they were provided with. (I might have imagined that but I think it's something that can be done?)

Either way, just please be sure you contact the crew and don't rely on them seeing this post

What a gigantic fuck up this is.

Going by the review round up over on https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/166f36h/starfield_review_thread/

Seems like pretty much universal praise and Bethesda have largely pulled off one of the most ambitious games ever made.

Decide for yourself obviously, I know I wont be watching any actual coverage until I have dug into it myself for a few days.

I rememebr the systems feeling ancient and they made almost zero QOL improvements over the second game. The quest system has alway felt unnrecesarily clunky and it has not improved.

The guns which were a novelty in the previous two games, are now just kind of samey. None of them feel all that unique. The billions of guns thing was a huge part of their push for 3 as always, but they managed to make most guns just kind of lame.

These two things combined with the God awful writing (who the fuck was that even for) make 3 easily the worst of the series for me. It bored the arse off me and made me actively hate it. It's a bad game.

Jesus christ these kinds of posts always bring out the dregs of this community.