#i'm a bethesda fan

[goodnight-islanders]

i'm probably a pushover but I won't mind starting over later when more stuff is rolled out

for the most part

cuz having to clean up the ocean again is gonna drive me UP THE WALL

[sie-sharp]

So, I guess I'm giving Starfield another shot.

I hate to admit it, but once the shine wore off after launch, I was a bit disappointed with Starfield. Mostly, I would've liked if the devs focused on more diverse activities on planet surfaces (the "Ayleid Ruins" problem from Oblivion), and given us more diverse ship parts.

But at the same time... Starfield got so much right. I love its optimistic tone, I adore its genuine affection for exploration. Every time I roll another character and head to Constellation, it's hard not to be infected with the crew's enthusiasm for the artifacts, and for knowledge overall. Maybe I'm just a sucker for a bunch of excited nerds -- after all, I also adore the Scions in FFXIV.

And its aesthetic isn't for everyone, but I can't get enough of that "NASA-core" look the game has. Ever since I was a kid I was fascinated by the sleek-yet-mechanical designs of satellites, shuttles, solar panels, etc. and Starfield captures that aesthetic so well.

I see the game has had a few patches since I put it down last, and another one is in beta fixing quite a few of the big issues I had. Maybe this time, I'll finally get lost in this world like I so desperately want to.

[prettiestvisitors]

Coming back for the first time in a million years to tell you all that I have fallen in love with this little idiot

[maggotwithanf]

I got into the Fallout franchise BECAUSE OF Fallout 3 and yeah that's ridiculous and yeah I have no taste but someone out there's favorite game is Fallout 3 and it means a lot to them because it holds a special place in their heart

[piningprecussionist]

no lights this time. but you hear a strange noise... it's like a harp mixed with white noise. you see a minor flash of white and, darting out of it a vaguely perceptible being. clad in a suit and tie. it kind of hurts looking directly at him for too long. "...the reason the mortal you call 'Scott', is so dull and unthinking. *might* have to do with some... inhuman lineage. Zetan brain-death cults *have* occasionally visited this particular point of being... and there's records of Zetans intermingling with humans. or, perhaps one of his ancestors worshipped a certain... blind idiot..." Doc sounds... anxious? when he mentions this 'blind idiot'.

*Hearing the sound, Kim quickly swivels her head about, trying to figure out where it was coming from. It was a strange one to be sure, but almost sort of pleasant- at least to her. Noticing the flash of white, she quickly turns to face him.*

...?

*Kim tries to look at him in confusion as he speaks, but swiftly looks away, rubbing at her eyes again. She blinks out the spots and tries to look at the floor near him instead, having a marginally easier time with that approach. (Zetans...? Brain-death cults....? What?) Kim wonders vaguely if this was something she could have heard about in one of the weird college courses she passed up, but lets go of the thought rather quickly; there was no point in giving herself a headache over it, especially when answers could be a simple question away. Besides, Doc had claimed to have otherworldly knowledge- that could just as easily be the case here.*

Wait. Are you saying he's this stupid because he's like, brain dead in some sort of alien sense?

*She does try, but she's unable to stop herself from snickering a little at the notion, shaking her head. She doesn't miss the anxious edge to his voice at the last part though, letting her smirk dissolve. She glances back up at him- and then quickly away again, with some swears directed at herself- with some concern.*

Blind idiot? You wanna elaborate on that, Doc?

[slime-crafters]

I love when Elder Scrolls fans get into little tiffles about which game was the best and which were garbage.

Have we considered that all the games are hot garbage and we're all chumps before?

[chocmoon-latte]

My biggest dream is Fallout 4 getting an update that finally turns it into a complete game. Which yes, is 100% wishful thinking, but could you imagine if such a thing were possible?

I know the next-gen update is a thing that's supposed to happen, and obviously won't involve any of the following (because that's me getting my hopes up too high), but imagine waking up one morning and there's this new DLC or version of the game out that adds in a whole bunch of stuff that got cut out of the final game: additional quests, new character dialogue, higher quality renders, things of the sort. Nothing too much that's going to change the existing lore, but rather add onto it.

I mean, a lot of fans of every kind across multiple platforms are still talking about this game almost a decade later like it just came out a couple of months ago. A lot of people still discuss the lore and are finding things they've never found before, are still putting hundreds of hours into it, are still talking about things that could've been done better, making mods, etc. etc. Bethesda still likes using these characters clearly, and another user said something similar to this (forgot who), but things like Death Shroud is literal proof that even the voice actors themselves still love playing these characters.

I'm just saying, if they ever wanted to, they could very easily do something with that (assuming it wouldn't mess with the good aspects already there).

Am I unrealistic for thinking this? Yeah, probably. But a Fallout girlie can dream.

[sharkbatez]

Me, just clicking and reading up on Starfield stuff out of curiosity while I mentally debate if I should play Skyrim for the 16th time in my life or Fallout 4 (because I'm focusing on building big settlements that can rival Diamond City).

[transcourier6]

alright hear me out. a fallout character who was in a loveless marriage pre-war and ended up having, or almost having, an affair with their robot butler. they turned into a ghoul when the bombs fell and spent years learning about robotics + searching for parts to fix their closest companion. this could either work as a weird-yet-sweet story about true love or a more comedic tale.

[mostlygibberish]

Apparently the Fallout show is out and did something to retcon NV, and I just have one question: Who gives a shit?

[melancholy-thots]

That's Not Even a Game Yet?

I'm super hype for this one! This is my first ever time trying an Early Access game! I've had it sitting in my Steam library for like a month though, so it's already seen a number of updates and the only bug I saw was not game-breaking at all. That being said, here's a look at Snacko!

I had a WAY cuter picture of Mikan, but apparently my desktop decides it wants to occasionally not remember multiple screenshots in a row and sometimes it does. Wack computer, but adorable writing!

Oh I love when these games let me have a birthday. If freaking Clint gets gifts on his birthday, why can't I? Oh, also yeah, I'm shipwrecked or whatever.

Hehe, can't believe I received your mom. Heh. Gottem.

I really like that you invite whichever characters you want to your island. Issue: this lad is perfect, but I didn't vibe with the guy who replied to be my carpenter. But I can't reject him, I'm not a monster!

Took me a week of setting up my farm, but I finally decided to branch out and explore, but good god! Look at these areas! They're gorgeous.

This intro scene lasted like 30 seconds. So hard to pick a spot to screenshot. It all looks so good.

If I haven't sold you yet, look at how your little kitty sleeps each night! Overall, this is an awesome little game. I will 100% be coming back, especially after it gets fully released. I should've screenshot, but there were multiple things like "this mechanic is not available in Early Access." That's probably super standard, but like I said, I've never done this before, so it's super novel for me. Got me hype to keep coming back to see the new stuff. Go ahead and check this out if you've been thinking about it, these devs are cooking up something good.

[lighteffexor]

You ever consume a piece of media that came out years/decades and think "man, I wish I grew up with that, that would have been awesome", and then you look at how the franchise is now and think "what the fuck happened here"? That's how I feel about a few things.

But then I look at what I grew up with, and, aside from the things that have moved on to greener pastures in their prime, they're doing alright. Nothing absolutely beloved by all or record-breaking, but they're still doing pretty well for themselves. Just chugging along and not being poster children of how things are fucking awful.

[mitheryn]

this is like the 5th time this has happened

[vexwerewolf]

I always figured the Imperials were the good guys.

Nnnnnngh… no. Imperials are the better of two bad options, and it's really muddied because Bethesda lost its good writers years before Skyrim came out. I can feel a hyperfixation coming on, so a quick TL;DR: the Empire is an Empire so it's still bad, the Stormcloaks are just racist saboteurs led by a Manchurian agent and Tiber Septim is a gigantic piece of shit who ruined everything.

Okay, so the Empire functionally lost its equivalent of the Mandate of Heaven when Martin Septim died heirless at the end of Oblivion. His sacrifice forged a new compact to end the Daedric incursions, but by that point Imperial infrastructure throughout Tamriel had been so badly damaged that it could no longer maintain order. By the time the Mede dynasty got its feet under it, several provinces had either risen in revolt against the Empire or and were busy violently settling bitter generational rivalries with each other.

Most notably, this included the Thalmor, who are openly and proudly an Altmer supremacist movement. Their primary goal is to end the dominion of Men on Tamriel and institute a second Merethic Era dominated by them. This is the most obvious reason for why they want to ban Talos worship - the idea that a Man could become Divine is grossly incompatible with their worldview. (I must note that there's also a much-discussed fan theory stating that they intend to unmake creation in its current form and destroying Talos worship is part of that, but it's partially based on sources whose canonicity is in doubt, so I'm not going to discuss it further at this time.) The Thalmor are pretty much explicitly Elf Nazis, right down to invading foreign countries and rounding up their religious minorities.

It should be considered, however, that Tiber Septim was an UNBELIEVABLY MASSIVE PIECE OF SHIT. There's credible evidence that during his mortal life he assassinated the Cyrodillian monarch to whom he had sworn fealty and then seized his throne. He had a dalliance with Berenziah that ended up getting her pregnant, then forcibly abducted her and had the child aborted without her consent. After gaining Numidium from a treaty with the Tribunal of Morrowind, he discovered that they hadn't given them its power source (Lorkhan's Heart - understandable, since it was the source of their false divinity), and so he created a new one, the Mantella, by tearing the souls out of Ysmir and Zurin Arctus, two of his most loyal companions. He used Numidium to brutally conquer the rest of Tamriel and then turned it on all the noble families in Cyrodil who hadn't supported him. His empire - as all empires are - was built entirely on murder, pillage and rape. And - as all emperors do - he rewrote his own history because nobody dared openly oppose it. If the Aedra truly did award him a seat amongst them after this (and the fact that his bloody armor counts as "the blood of a divine" in Oblivion suggests that they did), it's questionable whether any of them are worthy of worship.

Nonetheless, worship of Talos was of extreme cultural importance to the Nords, because he was considered by history to have been a Nord, and indeed born in Atmora, the mythic first homeland of the Nords (although, again, it's likely he was just fucking lying - heterodox historical accounts suggest he was born in High Rock and never saw Atmora in his life). The White-Gold Concordat was formulated specifically to provoke division between the remaining provinces of the Empire - the Thalmor correctly predicted that the Nords would never tolerate being stripped of their right to worship Talos, and would rise in revolt against an Empire that mandated it.

The specific cause of the Stormcloak Rebellion is also… dubious. During the war with the Thalmor, the Imperial Legion had all but pulled out of Skyrim. This allowed an uprising by the Reachmen, an ethnic minority within southwestern Skyrim who, notably, had been brutally disenfranchised and stripped of their land by… Tiber Septim! Thanks, Talos, you continue to be a gigantic piece of shit! Anyway, they seized control of Markarth and held it for two years, during which by most accounts they ruled it as an independent kingdom that was making overtures towards being recognised by the Empire. After the signing of the White-Gold Concordat, Ulfric Stormcloak raised an army to retake it, and was promised by the Jarl of the Reach (and, allegedly, the Empire itself) that worship of Talos would be freely allowed in Markarth. Ulfric Stormcloak then proceeded to lay siege to the city and butcher it, ethnically cleansing the city of every last Reachman down to the women and children, slaughtering any Nord who had collaborated with them and allegedly even killing those citizens of Markarth who hadn't answered his call to arms.

Inevitably, the Thalmor found out about the Talos worship anyway and the Jarl was forced to sell out Ulfric and his men. This is generally considered to be the betrayal that sparked the civil war, but at this point we must examine who Ulfric is.

Ulfric was trained in the Thu'um from an early age by the Greybeards, but abandoned his tutelage to fight in the Great War. We know little of his performance other than that he was captured by the Thalmor, tortured extensively, and falsely made to believe that the information he had given under torture was instrumental in the fall of the Imperial City. His father, the Jarl of Windhelm, died while he was in prison, and he was forced to deliver a eulogy via a letter that he had smuggled out of the prison. He claims he escaped from captivity, while Thalmor records claim that they let him go intentionally; neither source is particularly reliable.

From a sociopolitical standpoint, Ulfric is a staunch Nordic traditionalist who openly states that he doesn't believe Skyrim has had a "true" High King for centuries, considering recent monarchs to simply be puppets installed by the Empire. He also seems to be deeply racist: in contrast to his father, he banned Argonians from entering Windhelm proper, confining them to the Assemblage on the docks, and he's allowed racist sentiments towards the Dunmer residents of the Grey Quarter to worsen. Even citizens of Windhelm who support the rebellion comment that isn't doing very much governing, since the civil war eats up most of his attention.

One point I will give to Ulfric is that establishing Skyrim as an independent kingdom that can actively resist the Thalmor isn't actually as far-fetched as it seems. After the White-Gold Concordat ceded half of Hammerfell to the Thalmor, Hammefell said "how about fuck you," broke from the Empire entirely, and smacked the Thalmor down so hard they had to sign the Second Treaty of Stros M'Kai and retreat from Hammerfell entirely. This rendered the nation a haven for those opposed to the Thalmor, and they're in such a strong position that the Alik'r can actively hunt Thalmor collaborators like Saadia in other nations. Hammerfell is in a better position than Skyrim, and it did it without any Imperial aid.

(A hilarious fact about the Hammerfell situation is that the Thalmor tried the exact same thing there - inciting a civil war between the Crowns and the Forebears, two factions that have hated one another for generations. Unfortunately, they fucked it up so badly that it actually managed to end the rivalry and unite both of them against the Thalmor.)

But this is where Bethesda's inability to actually capitalize on the good parts of their writing really gets to me.

The Empire in Skyrim… sucks. Like, from your perspective as a player, the first experience you have of the Empire is "okay, so you were at the border alongside this guy and we're executing him today so I guess you get to die too." The only decent Imperial you meet is Hadvar, who makes a lukewarm plea for your life but doesn't press the issue.

All of the Imperial Jarls except for Balgruuf and Idgrod Ravencrone are dogshit. Elisif is a naive, incompetent teenager. Siddgeir is an arrogant, incompetent ponce. Igmund is a spineless Thalmor toady reigning over stolen land, having broken a promise he made to Ulfric and thus being partially responsible for the civil war. The replacement Jarls you get if you side with the Empire and conquer territories the Stormcloaks hold at the start of the game fall into two categories: "who?" and "oh fuck not you." If I say the names Brina Merilis or Kraldar, I bet you won't even remember who I'm talking about. Brunwulf Free-Winter, the replacement for Ulfric Stormcloak, has ONE personality feature and it's "I'm slightly less racist than Ulfric." But when you capture Riften for the Empire, the new Jarl is MAVEN FUCKING BLACK-BRIAR, THE SECOND-WORST PERSON IN SKYRIM.

But the Stormcloaks suck worse. Laila-Law Giver is a puppet for the Black-Briar crime family. Skald the Elder is a grumpy, hidebound old man. Korir might as well not be ruling anything at all. If you side with them, you have to sell out Balgruuf when the matter of Whiterun comes up - a man who has never been anything but helpful, supportive, trusting and forthright with you. Oh, and let's not forget that if you take the Reach for the Stormcloaks, the new Jarl is THONGVOR SILVER-BLOOD, LITERAL SLAVEOWNER AND WORST PERSON IN SKYRIM.

(There is an absolutely cursed timeline wherein during the "territory trade" at the peace talks you can hold during the main quest if you haven't finished the civil war quest yet where Maven gets the Rift and Thongor gets the Reach, meaning you have just installed the two most powerful crime families in the country into positions of executive power.)

This isn't just a case of "of course both sides aren't perfect and have issues." This is just "both sides fucking suck." A better game would allow you to make some headway in resolving the massive issues that face Skyrim, but I've already written like nine billion words here so maybe I should go into that at a different time.

[galoogamelady]

What’s Fallout like? Like I know I can google what kind of game it is but more than that what games would you compare it to? and is it more story-based or gameplay-based?

That's a difficult one to answer and I'm not sure I have the authority to do it lol

But I'll try!

The Fallout fandom is fairly complicated due to the IP being passed around and the lore/values of its storytelling being muddied over the years. That being said I think both old-school and new fans would still agree that the story is the most important element, as they're meant to be role playing games where you make decisions on often heavy matters (especially in the games of the original devs).

Fallout 1 and 2 are turn-based isometric rpg-s from the late 90s. If you like that type of gameplay, they're fantastic games and cult classics. They don't shy away from heavy themes.

Then the IP got sold to Bethesda and their version of Fallout is a FPS/TPS action experience, as seen in Fallout 3 and 4. The combat is fun but even the newest game is shit by shooter standards. If you played an Elder Scrolls game (like Skyrim), they're like that but set in a retro futuristic post apocalypse. A large slice of the fandom has only played these ones and skipped the original turn-based games.

Fallout New Vegas was made by the original team but using Bethesda's engine. Many fans would tell you that out of the modern titles, that's the one with the best writing.

Fallout 4 was a very popular title due to the scrap and build system. As you adventure, you can scavenge all sorts of trash and then build your own little settlements in the wasteland and populate them with settlers. Add mods to that, and the community really did some magic. It made people connect with the world of Fallout on a personal level.

The story in a nutshell: in an alternate timeline, survivors of a devastating nuclear war are trying to rebuild and make the irradiated wasteland of the United States liveable again but every group and faction has a different take on how society should be rebuilt. When the writing is done well, your choices have weight and it's impossible to be fair and please everyone. You get to discover a variety of different factors that lead to the Great War and you have to wager whether humanity is doomed to make the same mistakes all over again. Is there a way to avoid them? What kind of sacrifices does that require? Etc.

A lot of it is supposed to be a critical look at war, 50s Americana and the dangers of nationalism, rampant consumerism, xenophobia, etc.

Hope this helped a little! It's difficult to find two Fallout fans who are on the exact same opinion of all the games. I personally think, the fun part of the games is when you get to carve a little slice out of the wasteland for yourself and your community and the stimulating part is the overarching story and lore.

It's no wonder the original writers made The Outer Worlds too, which I don't consider a legendary game but the similarities are obvious in the themes.

[autumnbrambleagain]

It's like, you go up to Baldur's Gate 3 and you're like, hey, you're a fantasy game. Can I play as something weird? Like maybe a centaur? That's a fantasy race, right?

And Baldur's Gate 3 says, uhm, no. You can play as a human. If you really must be different you can play as a dragonborn.

And it's like. oh, neat! That's like, a dragon?

And they're like, well, it looks more like some kind of fish... maybe like, you know those shrink-wrapped dinosaurs from the earlier days of paleontology?

And it's like... oh. Okay. What about modded races? Did someone mod in a centaur?

And BG3 is like, buddy. Buddy. Do you know how hard that would be for fans to animate? We don't even have a modding toolkit for you to use. Of course not. You can't play as a centaur. You play as a human.

And it's like... no, sure, of course, I'm sorry for bothering you.

You go to Caves of Qud and ask if you can play as a centaur.

CoQ says oh, sure, one of the first npcs you run into is a taur! The extra legs let you outspeed enemies and also give you a carry weight bonus! But what's that over there is that your fursona

and i'm like, oh, what, uhh

and CoQ is like, yeah! What is that, two-headed, four-armed foxthing? Why don't you play as that instead?

and i'm like, I'm sorry, what?

and CoQ is like, yeah, having two heads lets you wear two kinds of helmets for different bonuses, and also lets you use mental abilities quicker AND helps you shake off mental effects faster! the extra arms lets you stack up a whole bunch of weapons at once, it's a really powerful base to build your character around!

And I'm like... well... what about the visual representation of it?

and CoQ goes, we use sprites with 2 colors and negative space, so you don't need to relearn 3D modeling and animation to have your guy represented in the game with the same fidelity as everything else that already exists in it! no problem!

and like... of course, the Thing You Can Play As isn't the only factor that makes a game good! but after experiencing this, it's so hard to enjoy games like BG3. Like yeah the story and its writing and your ability to affect it are unmatched in BG3 it especially makes Bethesda look like hot steaming garbage!

but i have to either play as a human or a shrink wrapped fish dinosaur from 60s paleontology to do it? and every game makes me just play as a human. the most fantastical games with the craziest settings all mostly moderate themselves to "medieval europe... with a little bit of weirdness"

meanwhile in CoQ turning a locked door sapient, recruiting it, and giving it a chaingun so i have a literal metal door wielding a chaingun is a perfectly viable answer to getting through a locked door

anyway that's why i think the developers of CoQ should be given the budget of BG3 tyvmia