Slaughtahouse

Fallout 3 and Oblivion need remakes. I'm not sure a remaster (updating to 4K, nicer textures etc.) is enough in ~2024 onward. That schedule doesn't make sense... Calls for Starfield in FY21 (E = end?). Starfield was delayed quite a while ago so I assume this is really out of date.

Thanks for the heads up I'll get back into it as my top priority after I finish the current UC mission I am on.

Not sure what that is yet but noted I'm playing a character a "lawful neutral" type character. In it solely for the credits and not concerned about the bigger picture or who's right or wrong. That's largely why I am avoiding the Constellation / main quest.I think any faith / religious groups I will stay clear from assuming that what Starborn is. I'm doing the UC faction right now. I thought it would be self righteous but it's surprisingly interesting. When you start, you can walk through their museum and learn about the history of the universe from the UC perspective. The Narion War, Treaty of Narion, Colony War etc. It's insanely skewed but what I found interesting were the NPCs walking the halls of the museum calling out the BS. There was an old man, a veteran to be specific, who saw through the fallacy of their actions and was asking why they were not providing support for those who served in the Colony War. The first quest goes a bit sideways (no surprise) and it plays out like a scene from Alien. Screenshot from the first mission. Small spoiler.

I understand your sentiment and can agree that there are a lot of things to factor, objectively, that pushes Starfield from "exceeding expectations" or moving the medium forward in a way that RDR2 has done. For all of it's missteps, I do feel the game does get a lot right, especially for those who are fans of Bethesda RPGs. Why anyone would defend this game outright, saying it's perfect would be astonishing. They took a large gamble on the exploration and well, it works. Even if most planets are "empty", I can recall every planet I've visited thus far. Empty planet exploration is part of the fun and makes those little discoveries memorable. For example, I had just completed a faction quest and was looking for a trader on a near by planet to make some cash, drop some mass. There was a gas giant near by that had 3 or 4 moons. When I flew around the gas giant, I got a radio call from a farmer's distress beacon. I ended up ignoring it at first, and went to the first moon I found. I discovered an outpost and was immediately throw into this large battle with raiders and robots. I scrouged the base and came across a large stash of contraband. I took it, ran out of dodge, got on my ship, and flew to the next moon. Which conveniently was where the farmer was at. I landed at his farm, convinced him to pay me extra to help him out with his little problem, and I dumped my contraband on his farm since I can't return to a United Colony (UC) faction planet without flagging authorities. I started to do his quest which was basically just repair a satellite. Now i'm involved and getting mixed up with his farmers alliance and pissed off neighbours. This ended up being about 3-4hrs of gameplay which started off as me just wanting to go to a trader. It's really a game of what you make of it and I enjoy those moments. I do think they would have been better off by reducing the scope and finding a way to make the space to planet transitions a gameplay feature and not a loading screen but I am still have a great time with their exploration system. My opinion, which very subjective, is that I've had some really memorable moments from Bethesda games that I haven't had in other RPGs. It doesn't mean this game is better or superior in any way, none of their games are perfect, and most games aren't, but I do enjoy the way their games offer a sense of freedom with the right mixture of RPG elements to make each playthrough feel unique. Whether it's their factions and quest lines, their questionable, less so in this title, physics, and the moment to moment gameplay. I can't throw a number at it but like any Bethesda game, it grows on you. I've got about 15-20hrs of gameplay in and I haven't even done a main quest yet (besides the mandatory one) and I'm having a great time getting lost in it all.

Starfield High (Custom) - 4K

Ughh... whats going on there lol Looks like a sky level from Tears of the Kingdom

2023-09-15 - Updates Preface: A long time coming, I've revised the thread name to not limit this discussion to PC only. Mod feel free to move this to "General Gaming". The majority of people here are on PC but the sheet itself (embedded in post #2) filters out PC release vs. Console only. Furthermore, this will still be the thread to discuss 2023 releases. I'll continue to update the data page within the google sheet with all releases that trickle in 2024 and in 2024, I'll create a new thread to discuss those releases. The pivot tables filter out everything to keep the list(s) clean. The other thread in the console section can be deleted. With that out of the way... First, new Nintendo Direct and a PlayStation State of Play Notable Updates: Princess Peach: Showtime! title announced and release date (NS) Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door (Remake) announced (NS) Mario vs. Donkey Kong (Remake) announced and release date (NS) Another Code: Recollection announced and release date (NS) Tomb Raider I - II - III Remastered announced and release date (PC, XB, PS, NS) Wargroove 2 announced (NS) Luigi's Mansion 2 HD release date (NS) Contra: Operation Galuga (PC, XB, PS, NS) Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth release date (PS) Helldivers 2 release date (PC, PS) Ghostbusters Rise of the Ghost Lord release date (PSVR2) RE4 Remake DLC Separate Ways and Merc update (PC, XB, PS) & VR mode (PSVR2) Other notable updates: Hades 2 developer Supergiant Games announced that the early access would could Q2 2024 to PC (originally 2023). Last but not least, I've added more games to the list, in addition to the titles listed above, including: Lies of P (PC, XB, PS) Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora (PC, XB, PS) Super Mario RPG (NS) Super Mario Bros. Wonder (NS) Detective Pikachu Returns (NS) Tintin Reporter: The Cigars of the Pharaoh (PC, XB, PS, NS) Smaller updates I'll work on during the day include Metacritic scores for titles released between Sept 1 to Sept 15th Last but not least, there is a Steam 20th Anniversary Sale going on. They have a nice infographic that's a fun little read. Steam 20th Anniversary STORE.STEAMPOWERED.COM Steam 20th Anniversary

You got me a little concerned… I’ve only beat the very first mission so I wasn’t aware I need to go fetch more artifacts and there could be some bugs but… noted. With 1000 planets, odds are low… right?

That’s how I felt with CP2077. Expectations were extremely high. Started to enjoy it and it began to fall apart quickly. I’ve got 15-20hrs tops and really haven’t invested time since launch. I jumped in again after 1.5 but drew back out after my Delamain quests were buggy as heck. Starfield is so far the opposite. Low expectations and I didn’t really start following it until earlier this summer. I’m going through it super slow and I even have my own log of my progress on the side that I am drafting to keep track. I can’t understand all the frustrations (yet) because I’m fairly early on (12hrs?) but having a good time. I’ll share my logs in the discussion thread soon. RE: this year, I was chatting about this at work with some colleagues and I think RE4 Remake is my GOTY so far. They just nailed the gameplay and IMO, were pretty successful remaking a classic game from 2005 that is still fun to play today. Many more games to play this year so don’t get blinded by Starfield

A heck of a lot updating to come with more releases, a new State of Play (Sony), and a Nintendo Direct. Also this is how it feels in the thread now lol

Anyone have experience with a GPU over thunderbolt? Mixing 240w of power + bandwidth on one cable sounds like a bad time to me.

Not sure if this is a slap in the face or they actually think they're adding features. FOV Slider, Brightness / Contrast controls, eating food without going into their complicated UI is pretty basic. I under the rest are not common but yeesh. Woohoo, after 25 years of games, they're adding an FOV slider. *slow clap*

Same engine but completely different team. As far as I know, Obsidian had a very short prod cycle. They just took those shitty tools from Bethesda and try to salvage an RPG out of it. I've experienced way more bugs in NV than 3. I couldn't even complete the main quest / ending because the final mission was bugged to hell for me. The final guy in the casino was glitched up, I can't recall the details but I couldn't speak to him. No amount of save scumming would recouver the game for me. I agree those elements were done much better, but Fallout 3 has a charm to it. Even if its inferior from an RPG standpoint, I prefer it more. P.S. Thanks for making this a discussion thread OP.

Starfield High (Custom) - Native 1440p

Excited for a new Nintendo console irrespective of the hardware spec. If the rumours hold true, and it this point, it seems rather likely, then I am hopeful for some decent tech with the new system. DLSS would make a noticeable impact in a lot of games and if there is a custom SoC based on Ampere or Ada… that will be quite the jump from the current Maxwell (Tegra X1) chipset. My one requirement: Switch games are supported (backwards compatible). I’d love the new console to be able to use DLSS to upscale my older titles but I believe it will require devs to go back and support such features in a updated build for the new console. If it [Switch 2] doesn’t support my Switch games, I will be very hesitant to jump in early. My Switch library is fairly robust (see above) and I use the system almost exclusively in handheld. I can sacrifice the mobility if it’s necessary but I simply refuse to have any more consoles setup.

BTW, I really recommend that mod (fix) @UltraMega shared. I went back and forth a few times with it (on/off) last night as I was unsure if I should keep it. I like some of the colours the dev's were going for but... theres no questions that contrast is much better with the fix. I wonder if I could tweak it to ~50% strength to retain the original colours but also keep the contrast.

I really like NV, especially the factions and ammo system but the desert / atmosphere and the excessive jank pulls it away from being a contender for the top. You skipped Fallout 3? Well, I aint no better, I haven’t played Morrowind. It’s likely difficult to play it now by today’s standards but when Fallout 3 came out, it blew my feeble mind. Atmosphere drives the experience (look and feel) for me and Fallout 3 nails it. From the radio and music, pipboy interface, towns like Megaton, which can be nuked from Tenpenny Tower with the old aristocratic ghoul sniping peasants from his balcony. I felt Bethesda nailed the DC vibe, even if the main plot is meh and no real factions, the side quests and characters lift it up to the top for me. As odd as it is to say, you wouldn’t have NV without Fallout 3. I haven’t done a full playthrough of Fallout 4 yet (35 hrs in) but it seems to be objectively better but I’m not picking up on the vibes as much. Feels more iterative like a 3.5 than the jump from Oblivion to Skyrim. Oblivion is right there too. The guilds quests, like the Dark Brotherhood are still memorable. The world helped me get my LotR RPG fix at the time and really introduced me to large RPGs. I also love the fact the entire game is voiced by 6 or 7 people, the lock picking mini game and well all the jank. I haven’t played it in a while but I remember skills were ranked up by just completing actions. I think you could boost your acrobatics to max by just jumping everywhere. Mod your stats in command prompt and you could jump over the city walls lol. Speaking of Oblivion, I played about 4 hours of Starfield last night and I’m getting some serious Oblivion vibes. I think because of the little things like the skills system and the lock picking (difficulty / learning curve).

I only played it for about 4 hours but yes… I feel Starfield has potential to be one of their best games I’m gonna deep dive this weekend and I cannot wait. Woot! My personal list is: 1. Fallout 3 (Point Lookout DLC a must play) 2. Oblivion (Shivering Isles DLC a must play) 3. Skyrim 4. Fallout 4 NV sits in between Oblivion and Skyrim but it’s Obsidian.

LOL I'll never mod on my first playthrough. I usually mess around with them after but I wouldn't call this filter removal really a mod. I also really like the colours of the default filters but what I don't like is the super, blown out dark areas. In Fallout 3, I've installed the silly mods like killing kids or in Skyrim, making the dragons Macho Man Randy Savage. What I am tempted to mod in Starfield is the menus. I really don't like them and I am a fan of all of their menus in past games. This just feels... bad. Way too many button presses to get some decent info.

@UltraMega Your .zip works! Thanks Before: After:

Thanks! Downloaded:) I’ll give it a try tomorrow.

I can't open your link (404). I've tried to install but no luck. Edit: See new post below.

I've decided to fulfill my life long fantasy of becoming a space trucker (Long Hauler). I've tried to pair traits together that seemed to align with my background. Introvert (better stamina alone, worse when with human parties) Spaced (better health and stamina in space / weaker on the atmosphere) Taskmaster (bonus to ship health with crew but crew costs are higher). I was tempted to get the annoying loyal fan but... I don't think I can handle that on my first playthrough. I'll save it for a evil character run and have fun with the command console... lol

I just booted it up for the first time and this is how weak the contrast is. No controls in the menu to enable HDR or modify contrast.

2023-09-06 - September Highlights Happy Starfield day (now that is out of early access) Instead of doing a larger update (not much has changed), I'll simply highlight this month's releases. There are likely some that I have missed, especially on the indie side. If there are any that worth noting and you would like to add to the list, let me know or leave a comment. TITLE NAME Starfield SYSTEM PC, XB DATE 9/6/2023 The Crew Motorfest PC, XB, PS 9/14/2023 Baten Kaitos I & II HD Remaster NS 9/14/2023 Mortal Kombat 1 PC, XB, PS, NS 9/19/2023 Warhaven PC 9/20/2023 Payday 3 PC 9/21/2023 Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty PC, XB, PS 9/25/2023 Mineko's Night Market PC, PS, NS 9/26/2023 Infinity Strash: Dragon Quest The Adventure of Dai PC, XB, PS, NS 9/28/2023 Cocoon PC, XB, PS, NS 9/29/2023 Most of these I won't touch anytime soon because of Starfield but I've got Cocoon on my wishlist.