#fucking bethesda i hate you i hate you so much

[strangefable]

can't decide if i want to cry or set someone on fire

[nomairuins]

no sims 5 . guys im gonna

[handsomeamoeba]

WRONG.

Try again.

Actually let's get into this. As someone who loves a great many fantasy RPGs including BG3, Skyrim, and Dragon Age, let me explain what BG3 gets that Skyrim misses, in my opinion.

And this is the big one: the characters in BG3 feel like real fucking people. They have backstories, demonstrable feelings about the events and the other characters, they react to the things you do and they develop as people as you further your relationships. Even minor NPCs often feel fleshed out with distinct personalities and opinions. Hell, going out of my way to cast Speak to Animals is usually rewarded with at least one charming remark. I have never given even a little bit of a shit about 99% of Bethesda NPCs. I usually choose to travel without a companion rather than with unless I need a pack mule to carry my stuff, because their primary function seems to be to get in my way, set off traps, or attract aggro. I can't remember most characters' names unless I'm actively playing. I'm more likely to casually murder people in Skyrim than I am in BG3 or DA because Bethesda hasn't really made any of their NPCs feel like real people, and consequentially I feel no guilt. By comparison I tried to do an evil run of DA:O and gave up the instant I had to kill Wynne (the grandmotherly spirit healer) when she refused to let me go through with my plans, because I hated doing it. Lydia will watch me gut an innocent man and do NOTHING because she has no life, existence, or personality outside of me, the player. This extends to romances, obviously. While optional in all the games, most people will pursue a romance path in BG3 or DA for the additional character arcs it brings to the characters, the emotional nuances they unlock. In Skyrim romance is a box you tick of tasks to complete. In fact, once you marry them, most marriage candidates personalities change *completely* because all spouses have the same few stock dialog lines. That is, if they had a personality to begin with (again, see Lydia). You know how everyone wants to romance unromanceable characters in Bethesda games? Like Brynjolf in Skyrim, or Nick Valentine in FO4? It's because Bethesda actually bothered to give them stories and opinions.

Honestly, this extends to the player character themselves. To a certain extent every player character is a blank slate, but in BG3 and DA it at least feels possible to develop a feeling about who that character is and what they would or would not say or do. I've tried to do that with the Dragonborn and rarely feel strong feelings about them or have strong opinions about what kind of person they are. The only one I've made who I have much of an idea about is my wood elf Parafina, who is Chaotic Evil. Which again is an option I only pick because no one in Skyrim feels real.

The stakes also feel more real in BG3, more personal. Obviously there's the central quest involving the tadpoles, but more than that, it is about a credible threat to your world and the people and communities in it and the people you love. There are tons of reasons to invest yourself emotionally in the narrative. I have never, ever completed the main storyline in Skyrim nor picked a side in Skyrim's civil war. Why would it? Basically nothing happens if I choose not to. Furthermore, if you're not playing as a Nord (which I usually don't), why would you care about Skyrim as a place? You are a faceless, voiceless (pun intended) outsider who gets microaggressed at every turn being asked to choose between two different flavors of fascist. Also dragons are back but like... listen, I don't care? They get pretty easy to pick off at a certain point, it's like swatting flies, they're just a nuisance on the way to my daily errands. And isn't that such a common story? Don't you know so many people who don't really bother with the main storylines of Skyrim? Yeah it's one of the bestselling games of all time but I feel like the fact that most people don't really care about its narrative should be a sign of failure. We all know it's mostly maintained its popularity due to the modding community.

Ultimately both games have rich worlds which reward exploration with little secrets and environmental storytelling. But BG3 feels more "meaningful" because they give me reasons to care about what happens. The writers worked hard to give the game emotional resonance. So I come to the two games for different experiences. I go to BG3 to engage with an interesting story. I go to Skyrim for the quick serotonin hit of completing tasks and hoarding items.

[thefallenangelsgang]

Fuck it, I'm throwing my hat on the ring about the Emil announcing Nate from Fallout 4 is the bystander Soldier in the Fallout 1 opener.

First and foremost, it was a stupid thing to say. As he backtracks to later, the conceit of Fallout's protags is they are supposed to be anyone (and that issue is precisely why some people hate the extensive prewar character background given to you in Fallout 4). For the lead writer to pull a JK Rowling (why would you do that? None of those went over well) is such a major marketing misstep that it wouldn't surprise me if Emil gets reprimanded for it before we even get into the implication of what he said.

Emil your voice is as good as God when it comes to the canon. You can't just say shit like that and expect it to go well. Especially considering the implications.

Speaking of the implications, I'm not mad about Nate being a war criminal. It's a coloring I actually would welcome if the games discussed concepts like Capitalism, Racism, and War in any meaningful way anymore. And if Emil also didn't say this.

Fallout's canon is rooted in reality. That is part of its whole thing. It's fun to do goofy shit like becoming the Silver Shroud and having a make believe superhero fight with the Mechanist or write a woman obsessed with Nuka Cola so much she traverses two games to basically kidnap the CEO's cryogenically preserved head so she can talk to him for all eternity, but the setting is very much rooted in reality.

You aren't dealing with fictional countries, you aren't dealing with fictional races, you aren't dealing with fictional hypotheticals. That is The Elder Scrolls job. You are dealing with actual countries, actual racism, actual history, and actual fucking politics. You have to be mindful of what you are doing and saying. You can't just do things because it's an interesting plot device without first thinking about the implications.

Fallout's world is a heightened version of our own, a path we seem to stumble towards with ever passing year unless we do something about it. It fucking sucks. I'm sure writing it feels like prophesizing the future and eats your soul a bit. It would mine. But that doesn't mean Fallout can just take a sharp left in terms of story and reality and get away with it.

To have Nate be the bystander Soldier and then meet him when he has a very good thing going for him (an expensive house during an inflation crisis, a robot butler, he gets into a vault for free for fucks sake) very much speaks to life rewarding him for his crimes. There is no hatred in his words when he looks at the flag of the country that made him kill innocents. His speech is speaks of remorse for leaving his family and the cycle of war, it does not speak of the horrors. Of watching you comrades bleed out in the Anchorage snow. Of the scream of shells overhead. Of the fear in civilians eyes as your buddy puts a bullet between them.

You all have to see how it looks like the man is fine with what he had to do during the war, right?

Not interacting with these concepts enough paints a picture of apathy and acceptance. In this day and age where being keeping the government honest and responsible for their actions is so important, that isn't going to slide without it being EXTREMELY purposeful, which it is not. It's tone deaf and lazy.

I respect a lot of what Emil has done in the past, but I am not above keeping him culpable when he has something so delicate in his hands. I hope this situation is what he needed to get his head on straight, or is the light bulb moment where he realizes he needs to pass the torch onwards. There is no shame in subject matter becoming too much as time goes on. There is shame in letting a previously critical series become the very thing it was criticizing.

He is going to keep getting dragged until he realizes that or he manages to convince the fans to be complicit in the degradation of setting. In doing so he is going to lose Bethesda most of its biggest fans who well and truly love the series and what it stands for.

But that's just my take, and I'm just a kid who studies polisci and history and can't shield myself from the inherent horror of nuclear war no matter how much I try.

War really never changes

[malwaredykes]

I know you mostly post about fnv but I'm curious to know whats your opinion on the other fallouts?

fallout - really Really REALLY good. unforgiving, yes, takes some time getting used to. not without its flaws of course. for example i couldnt for the life of me figure out some very basic shit at first because the UI was designed by rodents i think. very Very engaging once you get past all of that. phenomenal first entry in the series. music, plot, worldbuilding, themes, major characters, mwah. mwah. They Dont Make Em Like That Anymore and there are many good reasons for it but time passed doesnt disappear so you can always play classic fallout.

fallout 2 - thing get weird. some of the highest highs, some of the lowest lows. the highs are really high though. unfortunately has a particular kind of needless edginess to it that gets extremely tiresome. "heeheehhee SECKS *begins to warp violently* heeiiuhehyehye" type. bizarrely racist and misogynistic at many points. contains some of the best voice acting moments in video game history. at many points its just very very tedious, like if with fo1 at some points i was like Well this is kinda rough, with fo2 there were stretches of the game where i was like What the hell am i even doing here Who are these people what is this crap. the enclave as this games evil fucked up faction is so great i love how theyre gradually introduced and then shit hits the fan. has a lot of texture to its worldbuilding and some really good fun moments but again it goes off the rails so much. i rly need to replay it but every time im like God do i really have time for this. i love that you drive a car

fallout 3 - weird fucking game. some truly unjustifiable design and worldbuilding decisions despite having also introduced a lot of rly good things. fun gameplay i mean its that classic falloublivionrim buggy grimy versatile ps3 pure brick ass gravel gamebryo bethesda. VERY funny to have so much of the games plot be like I Gotta Find My Dad like girl i dont care about my dad he can go die. oh wait he does. it has what i call The Martin Septim Problem and i think its kind of self explanatory. fawkes best boy hes my little birthday boy. fun to explore and do your own thing and discover whatevers going on out there. i HATE the brotherhood of steel in fallout the third. i HATE the enclave in fallout the third but i dont think it even comes close to how much i hate the brotherhood of steel in this game and what precedent it set for the rest of bethesda fallout. these creeps. im supposed to find any of this awesome? fuck no. oh also im ENDLESSLY amused by the prologue its like a nightmare sequence akskfnckxjnc. im being BORN?? ive just slid out of my mothers WOMB and CERVIX and VAGINA and theyre bringing up a screen to show her what an ugly monstrosity im gonna be when i grow up and shes like Waoww and she dies??? im a TODDLER? Release Me. Unhand Me You Fool. oh also that sequence where youre in a CRAZY SCIENTISTS SIMULATION is so stupid i love it

fallout 4 - havent played it for longer than 15 minutes (made me barfy). everything i learn about it is bizarre. like WHAT the fuck happens in that game. your old wrinkly son tells you youre stupid and dont need to know anything hes doing and then is like im dying can you take over for me??? also the intro is truly something i mean i dont mind having Some backstory to my character but youre saying i had to be straight married with a baby and living in a nice suburb, with a robot house servant? fuck no

everything else i havent played and have no real Thoughts about

[arsene-ee]

Can we talk about how both Preston Garvey and Wyll Ravengard are pretty much the characters that get treated the worst by their respective fandom? (Also Ik I'm being incredibly Biased here because I love both of them dearly)

Cuz like both tend to be called incredibly bland and are often times just overlooked. While both of them are incredibly complex character (as complex as a bethesda character can get in Preston's case)

Preston is consitently the butt of the same boring ass Joke. "hAhA aNoThEr SeTtLeMeNt NeEdS yOuR hElP, hAhA sO FuNnY" and yes I get it the line is incredibly repetitive, but every characters' dialouge gets repetitive with time as well. The reason this line is so repetitive is that Preston is pretty much the only Questgiver for the Minutemen for a huge part of the game, while other factions like the Railroad (and I assume the BoS) have multiple characters that give you quests. Lorewise Preston being the only quest giver for the minutemen makes sense due to him being like one of the few survivors and all (and the other characters wouldn't really make sense as quest givers, well maybe sturges but he's busy hammering the walls).

Preston has so much interesting lore if you take the time to listen to him, He feels so much survivor's guilt about what happened in Quincy. HE BELIVES HE DESERVES DEATH FOR GODS SAKE.

And I'm still so upset about how he's treated by the fandom, although I do mainly blame bethesda's lazy ass writing. (Also let's not forget that X6-88 is often completely ignored)

Now to Wyll, the love of my life, my babygirl. Wyll was extremly neglected by Larian's writing with him only having about 8.5h of content according to this reddit post. which probably has a lot to do with the fact that he was rewritten very close to release. Wyll is not boring, Wyll is not bland, Larian just didn't want to do him justice compared to other characters (Cough Cough Astarion Cough Cough 12.75h of Content Cough Cough) due to the response to him in EA being low. And let's not forget that up until Patch 7 his dialouge was bugged (apparently), it shouldn't have taken this long to fix it, but Larian was probably busy Animating the 1000000th Astarion cutscene (And don't even get me started on the racist white guy). Wyll didn't even get his own outfit like the rest of the Party (well Lae'zel is wearing Typical gith armor but you rarely encounter them, I recall like 3 or 4 times you actually wearing that armor) Wyll got the basic ass Warlock outfit, and yes it might make sense if you put it as "Well Wyll doesn't have anything anymore, he probably bought or got what was quickly available" well yes but then Astarion should wear some rags or something or at least more plain clothes cuz Cazador most likely would not pay for his clothes to get fixed or get fancy clothes for him, it was just Larian neglecting Wyll again.

And just like Preston Wyll is an incredibly complex character if you take your time to get to know him. His pact causes him pain (mostly mentally n all that) it got him disowned yet he doesn't regret taking it. Wyll was a menace of a Child, almost accidentally robbing a bank, reading smut when he was too young to read such content and then during the game reciting that shit in public. He is incredibly corny and he is proud of that and he fucking fangirls over Minsc. Wyll doesn't even hate his father for disowning him (I'm not saying Wyll should hate or forgive his father, I believe their relationship is incredibly complex), he only speaks rather fondly of him. (also if I see one more person stating Wyll is a Tiefling/Modding Wyll to look like a tiefling I wyll throw hands, he is not a tiefling he is touched by the hells. Same goes for the damn bloodstone eye mod, it's not supposed to be a bloodstone bbg lies about it). Wyll has been under Mizora's close watch for 7 years of course he wants to take romance slow.

Unfortunatley in both offical art and fanwork Wyll tends to be replaced by Halsin or straight up forgotten and in the offical art he does appear in he is often just glued to Mizora (yes I get that a Warlock pact is Binding blah blah) like in the offical art book where every character's alternate design is shown, just not Wyll instead it's Mizora. And I hate it, yes someone may percieve him as bland/boring when they just put him in camp and just don't interact with him, hell if that was a reason to call a character boring I could call Astarion boring but I'm not.

I understand that "good" characters might not be everyone's cup of tea but holy fuck it sucks so much that all the characters I like are just ignored.

The main difference between Preston Garvey and Wyll is that Prestion is the butt of a lame joke and at least is somewhat acknowledged within the fandom, while Wyll just tends to fall behind (Just like X6-88). Both of them are overshadowed by other characters in the game. Preston, Wyll and X6-88 are all pocs and all of them are overshadowed by/less popular than white/white read characters. it's honestly exhausting to see, especially for Baldur's Gate 3, when I see that Larian does indeed respond to fan complains in their content ("Fixing" Tav's expressions for Abuser Astarion kisses...dark romance has ruined fandom).

There is nothing much there can be done about Preston's lazy writing since fallout 4 is pretty much ancient by now (it's like 8 years old so almost a decade). But Baldur's Gate 3 has only turned one (1) year old recently and modern games get consistently updated, it would not be hard for Larian to just add more content for the characters that have less content and make the amount of content each character has kind of equal, hell I would write them the Wyll content for fucking free.

This casual racsim in fandom spaces, whether it's intended or not, is scary to see especially with the curent rise of right wing extremism in western countries (I'm mainly talking about germany here since that's what I can talk about, actually being from such a right wing extremist state).

[booburry]

Sam Coe Headcanon 3/??

SFW but this is going to be about Lillian and their dynamic so...read knowing you are probably going to hate her more after this.

100% Spoilers

As I am sure y'all have been doing, I have been watching Lillian like a hawk and wishing my dusty could actually give her a piece of MY mind. But it also had me thinking a lot of what type of person she is and what their relationship must have been like...

Lillian is 100% a narcissist with a capital N, A, R, C, I, S, S, I, S, T!

I truly think the reason she took Sam 'on' and 'saved him' was so that she could have the accolade of 'Saving the Last Coe'

Or because she saw how weak and vulnerable he was at that time she knew he would be an easy man to manipulate

She definitely gave false support only to get the noose around his neck tighter

I truly think she is the main reason Sam and his Dad couldn't manage to reconcile at all, even a small part, as with him moving further away from the 'Coe' name and dynasty he had in mind, the more spiteful he became of his 'ungrateful and unworthy child'

Knowing how much Jacob manipulated Sam made it really easy for him to see what he had with Lillian (atleast at the time but not in reflection) as love. He had never really known much else except for the few memories he has from his mom

She gaslit every fucking emotion he had

She would use 'logic' to diffuse any concerns or valid upsets with Sam

She kept them focused on the job, to the point where I see Sam not really knowing true details of her life--mostly just how she is/was as a ranger and surface level information (ie only child)

I think she used the promise of a family 'some day' as a carrot on a stick for Sam, keeping him tethered to her even when he was starting to become unhappy.

She 100% did not want Cora. Not only is she a confirmed unplanned baby, but given how Sam was the main caretaker, she refers to her daughter as a 'puppy' crawling after Sam and her 'closest ranger bud from Neon' has to ask her if her name is Cora. So...fuck her.

When Sam tells you that he just hit a wall one day and that is why he left, it just screams to me how she just constantly dismissed him, didn't care for his needs or upsets or discuss ANY of his emotions

It's also crazy cause in all the dialogue I have seen and experienced with her, she never talks about her emotions. The only one is jealousy towards Sam with how attached Cora is to him, which is just upset that someone could see Lillian as lesser than anyone or anything.

She would 100% hate the P/C and, outside of canon dialogue, would do everything in her power to put a wedge between them and Sam

I think every few months she crawls back to Sam only for intimacy cause that is, truly, the only way I can justify Sam still being hung up on such a bitch

Like she truly must have broken him if he can't see the vile person that she is

Pleeeeease Bethesda - let me kill her. Accidents happen in a gun fight, okay?

Okay????

[trangenderstan]

Tullius has so much wasted potential. As much as i absolutely adore Michael Hogan's voice, i wish Bethesda didn't hire a celebrity voice actor so we could have more Tullius content. He hasn't had a single update to him since Special edition (and even then i'm not sure if the lines they added were just unfinished voicelines or completely new ones)

The writers also seem to constantly be unable to decide if he should be a metaphor for the empire - a tired, old man with a heart of gold but far too much horrors seen to keep going, or a genuine person like Ulfric is (he hates speeches, despises the Thalmor, he comes to like Skyrim and appreciate it's harshness). So we get this amalgamation of symbolism and genuine character that doesn't seem go to anywhere

Especially after playing Oblivion, i wish his personality and views were explored more. He's like the first imperial General we see alive and in the flesh. There are only mentions of them in Oblivion (not sure about the other games). So seeing a man of his importance should be this monumental thing and it isn't

What are his views on the Talos ban? Talos, who is the literal founder of the Empire. Talos, who has a whole section of the Imperial City named after him. Talos, whose presence in Cyrodiil is even more prominent than in Skyrim. He's not just a God to imperials, he's the reason everything they know exists at all. What are his views on the Dragonborn? Where was he born? Is he Colovian or Nibenese? What made him a General? We get bits and pieces of his story and yet they never add up fully in the way Ulfric's backstory does

It makes me so sad that such an incredible concept for a character is completely omitted and reduced to fractions of what could have been. I wish his morality was explored more. I wish we had actual debates about his actions the way the game debates Ulfric. Hell, he didn't even get his own card in the Tarot set. Instead of him there's fucking ARVAK. As much as i love that good horse, goddamit the Chariot literally symbolises war, rebellion, leadership. COME ON

I am very frustrated by the lack of respect for this man. Tullius come here i will make up a backstory for you myself

[carrieowens]

So I’m playing Bethesda’s Starfield and I’m romancing Sam Coe. I love that space cowboy.

I just got the part of his romance where your character and him get married, and just finished talking to his dad, Jacob. And I have one question, why the fuck is his ex-wife there and why the fuck does it make me, the bride, go pick her up from the spaceport.

And don’t give me the “Oh, well, they’re friends”, I don’t give a damn if they’re friends. Unless your ex is related to the person you are marrying, then they really shouldn’t be at the wedding. Now, I know everyone has their opinions and I’m not saying you can’t have your ex at your wedding, but at least make sure both the bride and the groom (or both brides. Or both grooms. Or whatever you identify as) are completely okay with it. And secondly, don’t make the person you are marrying go pick your ex up from the fucking airport.

I know this may not be important to some of you, but I just wanted to know why Bethesda didn’t give you a choice whether or not to invite her. I mean, I know she’s the mother of Sam’s daughter but that doesn’t mean she should invited to his wedding. I mean, he hates his father and still invited his father but that makes sense cause he’s his father. But inviting his ex-wife makes absolutely zero sense.

That’s it if my weird rant about a video game, I have had too much caffeine.

Also, why the fuck can’t I invite any of the other companions? I mean, they’re probably just on the ship like, “what’s taking them so long?”, then we get back and we’re married. I mean, if you’re gonna make me invite Sam ex, then at least let me invite our other friends.

[datura-tea]

i just realized something. my player characters with bethesda-mandated family (lone wanderer gwen and sole survivor sofia) are estranged from that family. meanwhile my couriers (moz, kiwi, and avery) have pretty good relationships with their families :) that's what happens when a backstory isn't forced to your character i guess!!

details under the cut

gwen and james, though stuck in close proximity in the vault for 19 years, are as distant as can be. james has his work, his projects. gwen has all the turbulent drama of childhood and teenage life. they have their moments, but otherwise? nothing much. except for lectures and reprimands, they don't really talk, especially post-james and ellen's divorce. gwen has more of a relationship with ellen and butch than james.

their relationship gets worse topside, when after all gwen has done to get to james is pushed to the side because all james can think of is project purity. so after he dies, what does gwen do? let his pet project die as well. she doesn't even know what the passcode number is, when sarah lyons asks her. how the fuck would she know? her father barely told her anything. she didn't know ellen deloria wasn't her biological mom until after james divorced ellen and told gwen the truth. she's not even sure if he loved her for herself, or if he just loved her the way a parent loves their child - as an extension of themself and their values. now that he's dead, she'll never know for sure.

sofia has a good relationship with her family back home in the philippines, all six siblings and both parents and both sets of grandparents, and countless uncles and aunts and cousins of them. the problem is nate. and shaun, eventually. the thing is, sofia never imagined herself marrying a foreigner, much less a blue-eyed american soldier. she never would have married nate if he hadn't gotten her pregnant. but with abortion being illegal in the philippines, and with nate being "a true gentleman" in his words, there was little else she could do.

in boston, a shotgun wedding. which turned into a loveless marriage pretty quick, once the honeymoon phase wore off. homesickness. morning sickness. anti-asian racist microagressions from neighbors who've never met a filipino before, even though america annexed the philippines decades ago. a miserable life, freshly post-partum and friendless and jobless, all alone in a big house with only a baby and a robot butler for company. who wouldn't fall into a deep depression?

and don't get me started on shaun. sofia placed all her hopes and dreams and joys on meeting her baby boy and watching him grow up, teaching him tagalog and sharing with him all her favorite meals and memories. can you imagine how sofia felt, when he got kidnapped? when she spent her first year in the post-apocalypse relentlessly trying to find him? when she killed kellogg in her rage and grief over him? when, finally, they meet and he isn't a baby but an old man, the leader of the group she's looking to dismantle, and she realizes that he came from her but he's not of her, he doesn't know her and she doesn't know him, and she hates everything he stands for, but still she's his mother and she loves him but she'll never like him? can you imagine???

meanwhile: moz and her big family with her mothers dalisay and philomena, her big brother lakan with his wife guadalupe and their eight kids (all adopted), and her husband ulysses and their child ree, plus everyone in the painted hairs, everyone in their town whom she calls tito and tita and ate and kuya and bunso and totoy and nene :) nothing but love and understanding there!!

kiwi and their family of butchers and tailors - grandmother, father, mother, and brothers, all adept with shiny sharp things. strict but loving, in the "i want what i think is best for you" kind of way. kiwi would have stayed if their father didn't keep forcing the butchershop and their straight marriage to a family friend's daughter on them. honestly if kiwi went home, they'd find their father a changed man - he only wants kiwi to be happy, really; if wearing sequins and being the right-hand man of mr house is the key to that happiness, then so be it!

avery is an only son, raised by a single mother after his ncr ranger father died. he and his mother will defend each other to death - which is why avery set fire to his mother's asshole (now ex-)boyfriend's house when he hurt avery's mom. on the run, avery still writes letters home. he never leaves a return address until after he gains amnesty for his arson charge. by then, his return address is the lucky 38. his mom sends him one hell of a letter. the first thing he does after winning the battle of hoover dam is go home to his mom :)

[randomthefox]

Love how people are coming out of the woodwork to try and defend a tv shot that literally states that New Vegas and the New California Republic (IIRC) were both gone the way of the Dodo, if only because the writers didn't want to bother writing them in over what's essentially Bethesda's version of Fallout. Seriously, you can make the argument that the NCR could have disbanded after New Vegas, but outright being totaled and wiped from the maps? No, that's not happening to something like the NCR, no matter how stretched it was.

It's funny how the script stays the same, huh? The same defenses people present for Sonic IDW are also what they're using to defend the Fallout show. "Todd Howard said it's fine so you can't argue with that!" and stuff like that.

The NCR thing doesn't necessarily bother me because Chris Avellone also kind of hated how developed the setting was becoming. The Lonesome Road seeded a lot of "wiping the slate clean" ideas for getting rid of the NCR and all the development that the setting was undergoing, by having the potential to end that DLC by dropping nukes on the Long 15 and setting up this idea that The Tunnelers would eventually dig their way through and descend upon the Mojave no matter who wins the battle for Hover Dam. The creative heads have long considered the appeal of Fallout to be that it's a post-apocalypse, and it becoming too much of a post-post-apocalypse takes away from that appeal.

And while I do not agree with that sentiment, at least Chris and Josh were SMART about it. New Vegas invented new factions like the Legion and Mr House that represented new directions for the setting to go in. It created new creatures that could present an existential threat to the post-war civilization. It PRESERVED what came before and allowed the foundation previous games built to continue to exist, and thought of new inventive ways to suggest that that foundation had a rotten core and would inevitably collapse in a way that felt natural and believable. It didn't just say "Shady Sands got nuked off screen so now the NCR doesn't exist anymore. Fuck you." All for the purpose of regurgitating the same old crap and expecting us to point at the screen and go "I recognize that reference."

Fallout 1 and 2 and New Vegas had the message that "War never changes, but the world does." That's why the Super Mutants become regular citizens after being the end game threat in Fallout 1. That's why the Enclave becomes a rag tag remnant of war heroes in New Vegas after being the final boss of Fallout 2. That's why the Brotherhood of Steel are condemned as a dead end self destructive techno cult in New Vegas after being the poster boys of the series. Fallout was a series about the destruction of the world that always CREATED something NEW. Bethesda's Fallout, and this show, is just about digging up graves and making the corpses dance while wallowing in the relevance built by better creators and progressing nowhere.

[cookiesencream0]

guess ill just say this because im not doing anything rn. My stance about just like Fallout in general, I fucking hate Bethesda, and they have ruined the series since they bought it, 3, 4, and 76, garbage. All they've done is do the bare minimum which was to bring it to 3d and make it popular which shouldn't even really be credited, at least not like some huge accomplishment. I know it'll probably happen because oh my god, dumb arguments are used so much against people like me and get hugely supported for some reason so, no, I am not being "too negative" and should just enjoy the games, that argument is trying to get me to just be willfully ignorant of everything in regards to this and question nothing. No, I am not saying you can't enjoy 3, 4, or 76, my heavy and passionate criticism isn't stopping anyone from engaging with the media they enjoy, I myself play a lot of 76 even though I fucking hate it because I like the style of build making it has (although its sooooo grindy holy shit). If you want to come to this post and debate me on my stance, no, just no. I am too tired of facing those takes. I am especially not going to engage you if you're being a pretentious dick, which is very common in the numerous times in the past I have engaged in debate with the certain types that disagree with me/I disagreed with. Which, sidenote, I find it heavily saddening that the huge majority of Bethesda fans who think what Bethesda has done is justified, are always, at least in my experience, pretentious assholes and hypocrites, they seem to get away with being absolute dickwads to people with stances like mine, because, well, we disagree with them, because they somehow think our criticism ruins their fun. I am not going to deny there indeed a LOT of people amongst those like me who are aggressive dicks who try to gatekeep people who aren't like us who enjoy the games we don't. This does not justify Bethesda fans from using this and making it a stereotype to label on every single person who's like me, I've seen it heavily displayed and it usually gets backed and supported which saddens me. It'll even in turn, turn them into what they stereotype us for, as I'm starting to see a development of Bethesda fans just stereotype or be aggressive towards those who enjoy Fallout New Vegas, which is not okay. I'd say more but I'm starting to lose the right words and all, and I don't want to thus start repeating myself.

[stylish-suidae]

So apparently people think that Skyrim was *only* successful by virtue of being an open world in a time when that was rare, and that Starfield is proof that when being an open world is common, there's nothing else to make Bethesda games stand out.

Which like, very convenient for your argument that you're ignoring two entire games in between. And one of those games, Fallout 4, y'know, *still exists* today, and if you look at it's review average it's reviewing 30-40 percentage points better now than it did at launch, and I know *multiple* people who hated it on the basis of it being a Bethesda game who have returned to it in the past year and have grown to love it. Clearly there's more to these games than *just* being open world, otherwise people new to Fallout 4 today would be hating it just as much as Starfield.

And like, the whole scrapping/crafting/building loop in Fallout 4 is extremely elegantly designed, to the point that looking at 76 and Starfield almost makes me think it's a fluke with how much they fucked it up in those games. But that loop isn't in Skyrim, and I'm not here to argue that Fallout 4 has more to it than an open world.

I'm here to argue that Bethesda games in general aren't loved (and Starfield hated) because they're *just* open worlds, I'm here to argue that they're loved because they execute on the open world structure to create a sense of exploration in a way that's only been surpassed by the BotW team.

Think about your average open world game. How do you find stuff to do? Well in some, you have to go Climb A Tower, and then it vomits icons onto your map, and in others you just have icons on your map by default, and then you go to the icon and you find the thing that the icon tells you to find. That is not exploration. If I follow GPS directions to go to Walmart, I did not explore the highway nor did I discover Walmart. I knew where I was going and I followed the way the game told me to go to get there. These games are not open worlds, they are simply 3D checklists with added commute for your inconvenience.

The thing Bethesda games, as well as BotW and TotK, typically do well, is that you're not following icons. Like you do for quests but who cares about quests? The majority of my time in these games, I'm not following a map marker to find the nearest speed challenge or whatever the fuck, I'm looking around, using my eyes, until I see something that makes me think "ooh that looks interesting!", whereupon I make my way towards it to find out what's there. I'm not following where the game tells me to go, I'm following my own initiative.

And speaking of following my own initiative, another thing most open world games fuck up royally is that they literally restrict your movement, either with artificial difficulty barriers or literal invisible walls. I remember picking up Cyberpunk once everyone was saying that "oh no it's actually good now" (but still before 2.0), and I saw a part of the map that interested me. I thought "I wonder what's over there!" And started driving. And then the game said "no you're not allowed to go there yet. You have to do more missions first." Honestly I think the biggest flaw of Fallout 4 (or maybe 2nd biggest after the dialogue system) is that you start in the upper left corner of the map, which means the first several hours of every playthrough look very similar, which is a shame because one of the best consequences of Bethesda's design is that whenever any two people discuss one of their games, there'll be something that each one knows about the game that the other's never even heard of.

And now think about starfield. What does exploration look like in that game? You land on a planet, it's a barren randomly generated bit of nothing. You use your scanner to look around for a map icon, and then just beeline towards it. Just like every non-bethesda open world game, except even worse because the proc gen means you're likely heading towards repeated content you've already seen before (I say as if this is not extremely common in open worlds that are not made by Bethesda or Nintendo)

The people who loved Skyrim and Fallout 4 don't hate Starfield because it turns out a highly acclaimed formula that's even more popular now when it came out is now outdated and compares badly to other open world games. Obviously it's not that, because that's a perspective that's entirely disconnected from reality, that you could only have if you've never gelled with Bethesda games, looked at Starfield's review score, and refused to look at any other information or talk to any of the people you're theorizing about.

No, people who loved Skyrim and Fallout 4 were disappointed by Starfield because it failed to scratch the exploration itch they HAVE had scratched by the previous Bethesda games, and often don't have scratched by other open world games.

Also Starfield's review average is 63% positive on steam. That's bad compared to other games, but like, more people liked it than disliked it. It's not the universal hatred that people seem to get joy out of claiming for some reason.

[butchysterics]

this might come out of left field bc i’m such a notorious hater but i tried SO hard to hate starfield—bethesda has made some of my fav games to play but the writing is usually so wretched that my expectations were on the floor. it’s still a bethesda game but begrudgingly… starfield is honestly pretty solid

the writing has so much less WASPy cynicism than skyrim or fallout 3/4 😭 particularly at the scale of dialogue writing and voice acting, i think it feels like a much more diverse and human world. there are actually so many delightful characters who are given depth and motivation and allowed to care about shit. there are a million critiques to be had about the story and the Bethesda Worldview, but many of those issues are kinda requisite gameplay features of any first person shooter (including something very critical of militarism like fucking metal gear solid) and i’m shocked by how much starfield does relatively well ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

i’ve heard ppl call the game “empty” but it’s SPACE—i actually love the huge amount of emptiness and barren planets in between numerous planets with alien life and built cities bc it’s realistic! it makes the universe feel expansive! and it all looks rly pretty—the physics and lighting are crazy. also it’s a space mining rpg and if you so please, you can sink an absolutely excessive amount of time hopping from planet to planet looking for resources and alien life. it’s definitely a cross between no man’s sky and outer worlds, but there’s so much more to do….

idk it’s weird to feel positive about a bethesda game, but i really like starfield so far

[opha]

warning: fallout prime (derogatory) spoilers

i'm giving the fallout show a fair shot (pirated, of course; even if it was the best fallout media in existence i would refuse to give amazon anything for it). everything that isn't the plot is fine. funny, even, at times. first episode, as much as i hated having to see the BoS so soon, was pretty solid. i laughed out loud more than once at the "representation" knight titus brought to the BoS and it's exactly what they deserve.

the plot itself has very low internal logic from episode 2 on that isn't about the lore at first so much as basic inconsistencies (like "how strong is the power armor's punch", "is the ghoul supposed to be superhuman", etc) with way too many contrivances to carry the story forward. everyone is exactly where they need to be at just the right time, and sometimes they don't even bother to justify it.

then from episode 5 on, when they start to establish their original part of the fallout canon, pretty much every plot reveal makes no goddamn sense and it lapses into "we don't need to explain why this non-ghoul woman has been alive for more than 200 years" level plot craters. sometimes it feels like they're writing like the bombs dropped 20-40 years ago rather than 200. shady sands has a fucking vault under it. you know, the settlement that didn't exist pre-war and was created with vault 15's GECK? yeah. not even gonna get into the whole profit motive for the great war making no fucking sense because vault-tec knew roughly how many people were going to be left in the US after nuclear war, which could be intentional, but it still leaves a sour taste in my mouth that they came right out and said who started it at all. it was left vague in classic fallout on purpose.

before ep 5 i thought it could end up marginally better than fallout 3/4/76, at least. the only relief i have now is that i haven't had to deal with the bethesda-esque dumbing down of super mutants so far. please tell me there aren't super mutants.

[notmrkillwolf666]

Dead Internet Theory and why you should start an unionize

Ok, let me start off with two things. 1# I never done this before but I fucking corpos push me to do this because of all the AI bullshit.

two# if you don't know what is The Dead Internet Theory is like I was, there 2 video are different on it but they are a still good watch on it.

since it become no sneaking suspicion that corpos are useing AI to trying to replace artist for a lower cost (which it's fucking stupid because hasbro, xbox/Microsoft, others are multi dollar company that end up showing how fucking Greedy they are,)

This will keep happing unless we put our foot down, tell this corpos that this shit is wrong/fuck off with this, and start a union to fight back this mess.

but what this have to do with the Dead Internet Theory?... well, if at some point if we can't tell who human and who AI/bot on the Internet. we have to go outside and meet in-persons to to talk to real people (or on discord or calling your friends on your phone.)

stuff like hardcover book, DVDs, music vinyl, art, dvd movies and so much more are now going to be more rare than gold. I am serious. since AI is making all these stuff that are difficulty to tell which one is made by a human or a bot, unironically we have to go back to the past and start buying these stuff when people used to me that we don't have to buy these things no more. because they will all be on the Internet to buy and get (or you can be a 7 sea pirates to get these stuff for "free" cuz fuck them corpos.)

Now?... now all I want to do is buy older/hardcover stuff since I know that was not made by a fucking AI bot but made by a human being. now all I want to is unplugged from the Internet and go live in a cabin in the woods somewhere to never be seen again.

this shit is starting to become a real life cyberpunk and I. DO. NOT. WANT. THAT.

So you should do this.

#1: meet in person to talk to people (or discord or any other way) and if that person is a VA, artist, animator, etc. start a unions and make it loud and clear that we don't want this AI shit in our creative industries. (as well if it's somehow possibly to ban AI then do it.)

two#: start to buy all the DVDs, hardcover book, DVDs movies (or VHS Movies), music vinyl, TTRPGs and board games to play with your friends.

and 3#: find hobby in real life, like gardening, swimming, sewing, and or playing older videos games like PS1 to PS3, gamecube, N64, etc.

For one more thing I need to say before I start to wonder how long before AI become self aware. All of this remind me of pandora box, the person who made ChatGPT/OpenAI open pandora box, so much happen in 2022 to 2024 when chatGPT/other AI stuff that I can't put into words of how much this fuck over the creative industries and cost so much people to lost their job because of greedy corpos who want to cut corners. everyone is scared of AI, even the person who made chatgpt for god sake.

but I have forgotten something important to the pandora box story.

"Pandora opened a jar left in her care containing sickness, death and many other unspecified evils which were then released into the world. Though she hastened to close the container, only one thing was left behind – hope."

and you what happening in the gaming industry?... Bethesda had Unionizes. which it own by Microsft/xbox. sure it does now sound much but to me, this sound like a piece of snow that is ready to go down hill into a SnowBall.

IF THERE WAS TIME TO UNIONIZE, THE TIME IS NOW!. NO IFS OR BUTS OR WHEN!.

kick start union, support real artist, VA, animator, indie movies, indie video games, and people who are making books and so much more.

MAKE IT LOUND AND CLEAR THAT WE DON'T WANT THIS AI SHIT IN OUR CREATIVE INDUSTRIES AND FIND A WAY TO BAN IT!.

thank you for reading my hate on corpos and AI, I fucking hate it here.