I think this is a fair way to put it. But I would also emphasize that this focus on procedural exploration at the expense of perceptual exploration really does not flatter Bethesda’s core strengths and weaknesses. What Bethesda excels at is making a place feel like it has history and a sense of interconnectedness with…

I haven’t fast traveled at all except for when the game his literally forced me to. I bet most people don’t even realize you can land on planets without using the menu, because it’s not a fact the game seems to want you to know. I’m not talking about literally fast traveling everywhere, Im talking about “exploration”…

Yeah but that’s exactly the point. DA:I is about forming an Inquisition. The whole point is it’s a game about rallying allies to this particular cause. That’s very different from you walking into Winterhold knowing no magic and 2 hours later being Archmage (still knowing no magic).

I’m saying it is not a universal feature of created player character RPGs that the Thieves Guild is waiting for you to become Guild Master and the Mages College is waiting for you to become Archmage and btw those are both the same person and no it doesn’t matter if you are even a thief or a mage in any capacity.…

The irony of making an argument this grossly disingenuous while claiming its the author being disingenuous is crazy.

Again, I don’t think you understand what is being discussed here at all. We’re not talking about the characters. We’re talking about games with characters like that and how the rest of the world is structured around them.

That’s why I specifically said player-driven emergent storylines. As I said, there are bespoke quest chains that intentionally bounce you all across the galaxy to intersect you with the breadcrumbs for other quest chains there, but absolutely none of it feels self-directed.

You can certainly decide to go follow the…

That is not what is being argued, you’ve missed the point entirely. We’re talking about empty shell characters that you imbue with a personality. They’re all that, because that’s exactly what we’re discussing.

The argument is that having a cipher PC means that the entire world has to be a set of disconnected amusement…

Harder to play and also just significantly less joyful. Menuing is not exploration. There is no “ooh whats that over there” impulse except when you’re literally within cities. Something is either placed directly on your lap, or you have to just pick a location from a menu and hope there might be something interesting…

Uhh, no? Dragon Age is a created character and isn’t like this, Baldur’s Gate can be a created character and isn’t like this, every other CRPG from Obsidian/inExile is a created character and isn’t like this. I can’t think of created characters RPG from anyone that are this cookie cutter lifeless except for every…

Or just make 2 UIs. Thats what Baldurs Gate 3 did.

That is not true at all. AC6 is structured almost identically to Automata. You finish the last mission and get plopped right back out at the first mission, but with a new perspective and things start going off the rails into a different kind of playthrough shortly thereafter. Which is... pretty much exactly what…

Right, but without spoiling too much, NG+1 adds new missions that more or less directly place you on the path towards ending 2. Obviously I’m gonna do the new missions, but then in order to see all endings I need to just... last minute take a hard left turn towards ending 1? Feels bad. Kinda wish they’d just leave the…

Think I’m gonna get back to this instead of trying and failing to convince myself that Starfield is any good. I was pretty pleased with the changes early in NG+1 already, so I’m more than game to see the rest if the payoff is satisfying.

I will say though, it sure seems like theres a “correct” order to do the endings,…

You know, when I cleared that mission on NG+ I was like wow, that was extremely quick for a decent payout. It’s too bad that mission makes me feel like a monster and I was already kind of dreading doing it again, thank god nobody actually needs more money than you already get in this game.

I should’ve guessed...

As others have alluded to, I think for a lot of people these games boil down to finding the one that clicks for you. My answer is sacrilege to most musou fans because its almost certainly the least musou-y musou, but I found these games all kinda eh until I played Persona 5 Strikers which I 100%’d. That little dash…

Basho arms + Kikaku booster + Abbot FCS = Pure Profit. Bring whatever melee weapons you want, or none at all, and teach your opponents the true meaning of Core Theory.

I’m wondering if this is going to be the standard for tentpole Game Pass releases going forward. It “launches day 1 for free” on Game Pass, but really it launches on day 6 for free, or day 1 for half-off. It’s not a ludicrous proposition, 5 days isn’t an insane wait if you don’t wanna shell out, but it does very…

I mean if it helps any, the only one of those worth finishing is Jedi Survivor. But at this point you’re far enough removed that its already on the shelf, playing AC in front of it isn’t gonna hurt.

The amount of bad faith in comparing a dedicated cosplay vertical to one of the only instances of female representation in a 2 hour showcase where a bunch of men talk about the work theyve done on video games being a literal lineup of women in costumes is... I mean come the fuck on.