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  1. #1

    Will "Starfield" be what Andromeda was supposed to be?

    One of the trailers for Starfield


    reminds me of one of the Andromeda trailers


    I hope Starfield will be great. I hope it will give me the same feeling that the original Mass Effect gave me when I played it for the first time.

    While the Mass Effect trilogy was inspired by BSG, Babylon 5, Star Wars, and Star Trek while Andromeda was clearly inspired by the J.J. Abrams Star Trek movies I hope Starfield will have a story inspired by sci fi like "Interstellar" and/or "Rendezvous with Rama".

    Will Starfield be doomed to be the Andromeda of the 2020s or will it be our generation's Mass Effect 1?

  2. #2
    I really don't know what to expect of Starfield. I'm genuinely curious, but i doubt it will be the saviour of all things sci-fi. After the disappointment that Fallout 76 was i'm careful.

  3. #3
    Quote Originally Posted by CmdrShep2154 View Post
    I hope Starfield will be great. I hope it will give me the same feeling that the original Mass Effect gave me when I played it for the first time.

    While the Mass Effect trilogy was inspired by BSG, Babylon 5, Star Wars, and Star Trek while Andromeda was clearly inspired by the J.J. Abrams Star Trek movies I hope Starfield will have a story inspired by sci fi like "Interstellar" and/or "Rendezvous with Rama".

    Will Starfield be doomed to be the Andromeda of the 2020s or will it be our generation's Mass Effect 1?
    I don't think it'll be anything like BioWare games. Bethesda makes games that are focused almost entirely on the game world and game mechanics, where BioWare's main focus has always been on story and characters. Not sure you can really compare, for example, Skyrim and Dragon Age: Origins.

  4. #4
    Honestly looks interesting, sci-fi always get me a bit excited. No mans sky made me hesitant with its release, however I really should give it a try now that its improved. I'd love a crafting/survival with decent multiplayer/group construction like Ark: Survival evolved set in space.
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  5. #5
    Apples to oranges comparison.

    Bethseda makes unpolished sandbox RPGs that are fixed and enhanced by a passionate community of unpaid modders. The stories of Bethseda games are almost always shit, but people don't play Bethseda games for the story. They play for the gameplay, which is great.

    Mass Effect games are linear, story focused RPGs that live or die based off of the quality of their writing (which is overall shit and only tolerable in the first game). Gameplay was tolerable in ME1 and only got worse as the franchise went on. Also, there isn't a modding community to fix and enhance the game, so if the game is shit then you're at the mercy of the devs to fix it, who are the mercy of executives and their nonsensical mindsets.

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    Quote Originally Posted by CmdrShep2154 View Post
    I hope Starfield will have a story inspired by sci fi like "Interstellar" and/or "Rendezvous with Rama".
    No one will be playing Starfield for the story.

    The only upcoming sci fi game people might play for the story will be Squadron 42... if it ever releases, that is.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by CmdrShep2154 View Post
    will it be our generation's Mass Effect 1?
    ME1 is grossly overrated. It was a big fish in a small pond. People mistook the relatively high quality presentation (close up shots, filmic feel of the cutscenes, etc) for good writing. Big budget, linear, story heavy RPGs were pretty much nonexistent outside of Asia. Chinese and Korean singleplayer RPGs didn't get brought to the West, and during the 2000s the mainstream gaming media turned against Japanese games and tried their damndest to demonize them, while instead playing up crappy shooters. ME1 was only popular because that is what people were exposed to on IGN. People didn't know any better, so they didn't have high standards.
    Last edited by Val the Moofia Boss; 2021-08-12 at 06:06 AM.

  6. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by Val the Moofia Boss View Post
    Apples to oranges comparison.

    Bethseda makes unpolished sandbox RPGs that are fixed and enhanced by a passionate community of unpaid modders. The stories of Bethseda games are almost always shit, but people don't play Bethseda games for the story. They play for the gameplay, which is great.

    Mass Effect games are linear, story focused RPGs that live or die based off of the quality of their writing (which is overall shit and only tolerable in the first game). Gameplay was tolerable in ME1 and only got worse as the franchise went on. Also, there isn't a modding community to fix and enhance the game, so if the game is shit then you're at the mercy of the devs to fix it, who are the mercy of executives and their nonsensical mindsets.

    - - - Updated - - -



    No one will be playing Starfield for the story.

    The only upcoming sci fi game people might play for the story will be Squadron 42... if it ever releases, that is.

    - - - Updated - - -



    ME1 is grossly overrated. It was a big fish in a small pond. People mistook the relatively high quality presentation (close up shots, filmic feel of the cutscenes, etc) for good writing. Big budget, linear, story heavy RPGs were pretty much nonexistent outside of Asia. Chinese and Korean singleplayer RPGs didn't get brought to the West, and during the 2000s the mainstream gaming media turned against Japanese games and tried their damndest to demonize them, while instead playing up crappy shooters. ME1 was only popular because that is what people were exposed to on IGN. People didn't know any better, so they didn't have high standards.
    Not to claim ME1 is the pinnacle of video game storytelling, but ME:LE and its "unexpectedly high sales numbers" more or less proves that the Mass Effect series is still beloved to this day, ME1 included.

    I'd even go so far as to claim ME:A is in fact a great game. Which isn't to say it's necessarily a great follow up to the ME trilogy, but it has by far the best combat and sense of exploration in the franchise.

    As far as Starfield is concerned, we've barely really seen anything so far. I'll hold my opinion until we see actual gameplay. Bethesda honestly hasn't got the best track record as of late, so my expectations are generally low.
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  7. #7
    Ehh, I loved Mass Effect trilogy and the Dragon Age games(all of them), but I was hoping this was gonna be more like Fallout 3/NV in space.

    Edit: Bioware should re-imagine KOTOR. I always thought it was better than Mass Effect in most ways that count. Bastila.
    Last edited by Zenfoldor; 2021-08-12 at 01:32 PM.

  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by Val the Moofia Boss View Post
    ME1 is grossly overrated. It was a big fish in a small pond. People mistook the relatively high quality presentation (close up shots, filmic feel of the cutscenes, etc) for good writing. Big budget, linear, story heavy RPGs were pretty much nonexistent outside of Asia. Chinese and Korean singleplayer RPGs didn't get brought to the West, and during the 2000s the mainstream gaming media turned against Japanese games and tried their damndest to demonize them, while instead playing up crappy shooters. ME1 was only popular because that is what people were exposed to on IGN. People didn't know any better, so they didn't have high standards.
    Shit take as always.

  9. #9
    Starfield looks like an asset flip. Bethesda is just throwing shit at the wall in the hope something sticks.

  10. #10
    Last I checked we don't even know what Genre Starfield will be other then 'something sci-fi'.
    Feels a bit premature for "will it be what X was supposed to be".

    This is how you get unrealistic expectations based on absolute nothing that can only lead to disappointment later.
    It ignores such insignificant forces as time, entropy, and death

  11. #11
    Over 9000! Santti's Avatar
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    Bethesda, as the developer? Who made Fallout 76?

    Not touching that game with a barge pole held by somebody else. It's fucked.

    I'll keep an eye on it, though. The bugs and other controversies Fallout 76 created were hilariously fucking dumb. And seeing how they will even use the same engine, I can guarantee it's going to be a janky bugfest, yet again.

    Oh whoops, not the same engine. Creation Engine -> Creation Engine 2.

    Sounds even worse... I'm going to have a fan blade embedded two inches into my eye socket, for running this game, aren't I?
    Last edited by Santti; 2021-08-12 at 02:40 PM.
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  12. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by Val the Moofia Boss View Post
    but people don't play Bethseda games for the story. They play for the gameplay, which is great.
    lol....

    Please remind me when Bethesda ever had good gameplay. Their gameplay has always been shit, people just put up with it because they where one of the few devs making a massive sandbox world. Now, a lot of devs do that which is why they can no longer get away with their shitty ass gameplay and buggy releases.

  13. #13
    Quote Originally Posted by Val the Moofia Boss View Post
    Bethseda makes unpolished sandbox RPGs that are fixed and enhanced by a passionate community of unpaid modders. The stories of Bethseda games are almost always shit, but people don't play Bethseda games for the story. They play for the gameplay, which is great.
    Yeah, they're buggy messes (IT'S A FEATURE GUIS!), but the gameplay of their games isn't anything terribly exciting. Hell, FO still suffers from awful fake third person shooting that doesn't work properly leaving you to miss a ton of shots as your crosshair doesn't actually line up with where the bullets will be going, leaving you shooting some debris right in front of you until you enter first-person and can shoot just fine.

    Their stories aren't the best either, but they're plenty fine and have some good writing. They excel in world building in a huge way, though. Environmental storytelling, unexpected missions leading to little adventures and exploring interesting areas etc. Hence why there are such fanatical devotions to the ES and FO franchises. Because people are deeply invested in those worlds and their factions, be it the races of ES or some of the various orders, or the various factions of FO like the Steel Brotherhood.

    Real though, the combat/core gameplay of their games is pretty standard fair. It's serviceable even if it can get janky at times, but nobody is playing Skyrim for the amazing melee/spellcasting combat or FO for the tight gunplay. Neither game has that, their gameplay is in part in the service of that world building.

  14. #14
    I Don't Work Here Endus's Avatar
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    We still have no idea what to expect from Starfield. I do have a few hopes, though;

    1> Limited/no procedural generation. If you have repeatable sidequests, you can use it there; it would be an improvement (slight) over repeating the same few quests. You could use it to adjust aesthetics for planets, if you want every user to have their own unique experience, but the maps and layouts and placements should absolutely not be procedurally generated. Procedural generation always results in a generic mess where nothing is meaningful or impactful. The real world is "procedurally generated". Go wander at random out in the woods and see how many memorable scenes or geographies you come across. Chances are, you won't. It's all just . . . more woods. Oh look, another fir tree, basically the same as all the other fir trees. No Man's Sky is the best example of this; billions of unique planets, more than the community can collectively explore in their combined lifetimes. And basically none of them stand out as unique. Even the "rare" biomes are a dime a dozen and you'll find 8 of them that all look the same. Procedural generation was a fun experiment but you need to start evaluating where it's useful, and that's not in exploration or story elements.

    2> Free space travel. We need to start moving beyond "here's a map, point to a location and we'll fast-travel you there in a cutscene" style stuff. We had that in Mass Effect. And Outer Worlds. It's annoying. If you're giving me a spaceship, let me fly.

    3> Extensive ship hulls and/or customization. Let me make the ship mine. Inside and out. It shouldn't be that hard to let the player control ship lighting colors and paint jobs and such. Given Bethesda's customizability in general, I'm hoping this makes it in. Getting kind of tired of being given a ship I can't decorate except for the default trophies that get auto-placed in the captain's cabin. FO4 let you build multiple settlements from the ground up, building a ship design module should be a primary goal, even if it boils down in many ways to "base chassis type plus optional stick-on aesthetic modules".

    Quote Originally Posted by Unlimited Power View Post
    I'd even go so far as to claim ME:A is in fact a great game. Which isn't to say it's necessarily a great follow up to the ME trilogy, but it has by far the best combat and sense of exploration in the franchise.
    The mechanics to the game, outside of the space component, are easily the best in the series.

    The writing is atrocious. Not just in that it's clumsy, but the concepts are mostly so egregiously cliche compared to the original trilogy, when the entire point was "all new galaxy, all bets are off", that I can't really forgive it. The villains are boring. The Kett and the Archon? Boring as hell. Just generic conquering baddies.

    The worst part is they had a fascinating element that sets off the entire plot; the Scourge. That and the Remnants are the only things interesting about Andromeda's plot, and Andromeda's plot goes out of its way to ignore and downplay them both, to focus on the goddamned Kett. I honestly can't recall the Scourge being much mentioned after the initial damage to the ship; it's just . . . there, and everyone ignores it for the most part.

    I was also pretty unhappy with how few planets there were and how it really didn't expand much over the prior games. It's a whole new galaxy and you get to explore, what, 5 planets?

    Quote Originally Posted by Edge- View Post
    Yeah, they're buggy messes (IT'S A FEATURE GUIS!), but the gameplay of their games isn't anything terribly exciting.
    People complain about the bugs, but the games are still some of the hottest-selling games out there, generally. And that bugginess comes alongside an attitude towards user modding that is one of the best in the business. If bugginess is the price I have to pay for that, I'll take it.


  15. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by Endus View Post
    People complain about the bugs, but the games are still some of the hottest-selling games out there, generally. And that bugginess comes alongside an attitude towards user modding that is one of the best in the business. If bugginess is the price I have to pay for that, I'll take it.
    Yeah, I was more mocking the folks that defend how deeply buggy Bethesda titles are because "it's a feature" when your game constantly breaks or when your save file is corrupted because it gets too big and there's nothing to do about it.

    If they still had their old attitude towards modding I'd be less annoyed, but given what they tried with FO4 I'm skeptical that they'll maintain the older line, and that still does a whole lot of nothing for console folks who don't have access to the PC modding community.

  16. #16
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    Buggy mess that's still enjoyable somewhat? Yes.
    Remember: Words are not violence.
    Make your own groups!!!

  17. #17
    Quote Originally Posted by unfilteredJW View Post
    Shit take as always.
    But it's so edgy it must be cool!
    A better way to think about Casual v Hardcore: https://www.mmo-champion.com/threads...asual-Hardcore

  18. #18
    Given it is Bethesda, i wouldn't expect anything but mediocricy at best.
    With their trackrecord, i'd even expect it to be even less RPG than the previous few games, since they seem to strip their games of RPG features over time.
    From Skyrim not even having stats like intelligence or strength anymore, to FallOut having barebones dialogues and even worse main story than Skyrim and all of them somehow still barely working, since the tech behind is an absolute mess and would be shot in the face if it was a living being.
    Their games are HARD carried by passionate people in the modding communities that fix their shit and make them playable, improve the gameplay and pretty much all aspects up to making entire overhaul mods.
    I hope Microsoft will force them to use tech from atleast 2000 going forward, but unless Starfield flops hard, i doubt they care.

  19. #19
    Quote Originally Posted by Shakzor View Post
    Given it is Bethesda, i wouldn't expect anything but mediocricy at best.
    With their trackrecord, i'd even expect it to be even less RPG than the previous few games, since they seem to strip their games of RPG features over time.
    From Skyrim not even having stats like intelligence or strength anymore, to FallOut having barebones dialogues and even worse main story than Skyrim and all of them somehow still barely working, since the tech behind is an absolute mess and would be shot in the face if it was a living being.
    Their games are HARD carried by passionate people in the modding communities that fix their shit and make them playable, improve the gameplay and pretty much all aspects up to making entire overhaul mods.
    I hope Microsoft will force them to use tech from atleast 2000 going forward, but unless Starfield flops hard, i doubt they care.
    MS is probably more concerned with them actually releasing the game then it being great at this point since they are basically starved of blockbuster exclusives to push their consoles and services further compared to their competition. Indeed, don't expect MS to magically fix the problems Bethesda have it will be same shit with a new coat of paint.

  20. #20
    after the constant failures of fallout 76 and the bugginess of andromeda (i had barely any bugs when i played and i loved the game. the writing wasn't the greatest but i was interested in sequels.), it's better to just expect nothing worth while.

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