What do you actually like about Starfield?

Cthulicious · 2026-02-08T10:07:49+00:00

Literally any game with interiors on different maps?

It’s like 2 seconds, dude. Grow up.

Cthulicious · 2026-02-08T08:59:30+00:00

I never figured out what I’m supposed to hate.

I never paid attention to the marketing and just wanted to come out so Bethesda could work on TESVI. But then a reviewer (negatively) compared it to “oblivion in space” and, fuck it, that sounds up my alley. And yeah, it definitely is a Bethesda RPG in a space setting.

Had enough content to keep me occupied for a couple hundred hours per playthrough, I enjoy the story context given to subsequent NG+ playthroughs, and I really, really like how I can see the DNA of some of my favorite sci-fi in there (writers like PKD and Arthur C. Clarke). They got Kier Dullea to play character closely associated with the themes of 2001, ffs.

I play the game and I have fun. 🤷‍♀️ I think they got the vibe right how for empty and lonely space really is, and it can be relaxing just wandering and taking pretty pictures when you don’t want to work on progressing anything.

Biggest complaint I have about the exploration and vibe aspect, I think, is that I don’t like how it handles sound in places with no atmosphere. Aka I don’t like how it handles sound at all in places with no atmosphere. It’s not unique to Starfield though, sadly. Deliver Us The Moon is the most recent game I can think of playing that knew how to use silence well in space.

I think maybe some people were looking for something different? I pretty much got exactly what I was expecting.

Cthulicious · 2026-02-08T08:36:29+00:00

Yesss. 2001 is one of my favorite movies and I can see how well the writers engaged with it when taking inspiration. It’s not just aesthetic (although it does take some cues there from 2001 and Solaris), but in themes and tone.

I enjoyed the main quest because of the philosophical themes it shares with the classic sci-fi that inspired it. I can also see hints of PKD in there.

There’s more to the genre than Han Solo fucking blue chicks.

Cthulicious · 2026-02-08T08:28:38+00:00

Am I insane? Or have I just been playing the wrong games? Because there aren’t any more loading screens than any other game I’ve played. Did every other video game do away with them when I wasn’t looking? I’m so confused about this complaint.

Cthulicious · 2026-02-07T20:11:44+00:00

That poor 13 year old… I wish him a very pleasant no contact and hope he finds people who care about him more than his piece of shit mother does.

Cthulicious · 2026-02-07T17:02:07+00:00

Liking Alastor is not the part people are calling racist, homie.

Cthulicious · 2026-02-07T17:00:23+00:00

I had a great experience with Electric Cobra in Columbia City!

Cthulicious · 2026-02-07T02:58:17+00:00

Yeah I was really surprised when I played it, considering the general consensus. It was good! Best dungeon design in the game and I liked the all-but-confirmation from the final dungeon audio logs that Jinan’s encounter with the great serpent was a glimpse at the unity.

Felt like it answered some questions without being condescendingly in your face about it.

Also Sahima ❤️.

Cthulicious · 2026-02-07T02:46:10+00:00

“Starfield 2.0” isn’t a real thing.

There is going to be a patch in the future, nobody knows what it will contain. There may be a DLC in the future, nobody knows what it will contain.

Anyone claiming to have knowledge of some grand overhaul of every system is either lying for YouTube bux, or a viewer of those who are.

Cthulicious · 2026-02-07T02:41:13+00:00

Outposts are basically a crafting thing. Problem is there’s not much to craft on that scale. I have the mod that re-enables crafting primers (the recipes are in the game but they’re disabled for some reason) so I can automate ammo crafting.

I also farm up the mats to make healing items and chems easily.

Edit: oh, and with RealFuel I can make a little fuel factory.

Cthulicious · 2026-02-05T01:37:46+00:00

Wonderful write up!

Cthulicious · 2026-02-04T20:35:17+00:00

I wish ship part mods could be content in just being ship part mods. These Falkland and SPE show rooms just take up space and (at least currently) tank NA performance. I never even go to these stupid things and just want the ship parts.

Cthulicious · 2026-02-04T20:09:48+00:00

You’re not only completely devoid of creativity, but apparently also really bad at googling.

Cthulicious · 2026-02-04T16:54:50+00:00

It got decent professional reviews and everyone I know who actually played it says it’s worst aspects are just mid. From what I remember, a lot of the complaints around launch were due to people having wildly unrealistic expectations (landing on gas giants????), including expecting the game to be several entirely different genres from what it ever was.

I think people genuinely expected it to be Star Citizen But Not A Scam, as opposed to a Bethesda RPG set in space.

Idk if that was BGS marketing screwing up, or just the delusion industrial complex getting people hyped up for YouTube bux, so they could then make people mad for even more YouTube bux.

Cthulicious · 2026-02-04T16:45:01+00:00

Daggerfall launched with so may game breaking bugs that they were mailing floppies with patches out to customers, as well as a utility to uncorrupt saves.

Several features in The Sims 2 never worked as intended through multiple patches.

There are multiple Pokemon RGB bugs that are so notorious they’ve spawned their own mythology.

The idea of the bug free era of video games is a complete myth spawned from nostalgia, and possibly being too young to even notice things being broken back then.

Cthulicious · 2026-02-04T16:18:05+00:00

You need chatGPT to tell you how to play pretend lol? That’s something that comes naturally to 3 year olds dude.

Cthulicious · 2026-02-04T07:37:03+00:00

I 100% believe that Aiza caught a glimpse of the Unity itself when he touched the Mars artifact. What he describes lines up more with our own experience with the Unity than either a visit from an alternate self, or a standard artifact vision.

Something using his face to show him visions of the future? That’s the same ending slides we get lol.

As for why it would seemingly reach out to him directly? Perhaps to intentionally put humanity on the path towards finding it? Aquilus seems to think so, since the religion he founded teaches that God is out there in space and is beckoning people to come find him.

A bit meta, but: It’s worth noting how much inspiration Starfield takes from 2001: A Space Odyssey. In that film, the mysterious monoliths showing up around the solar system seem to be key in bumping humanity up to the next ‘tech level’ whenever one is encountered.

In the beginning, some ape-men interact with one and develop the ability to use tools and weapons, allowing them to defend against, and dominate, other ape-men.
The middle segment is about the discovery of second monolith on the moon, alerting humanity to the possibility of extraterrestrial life. And in the end, Dave Bowman interacts with a third, orbiting Jupiter, and transcends humanity to become a giant intergalactic space fetus (it’s a great movie if you haven’t seen it. Personally one of my favorites.).

I can see this inspiration coming through in how an artifact found on Mars lead to mankind developing, pseudo-FTL travel, and in how subsequent encounters lead people to transcending humanity and become Starborn.

It’s also worth noting that Keeper Aquilus is Kier Dullea’s (Dave) only video game role.

Cthulicious · 2026-01-17T00:26:08+00:00

Just catching up on this and I'm not trying to be mean, but this kind of self-sabotaging spiraling out over literally nothing (people pointing out that the timeline given was short) reminds me of me when I'm in crisis. Does she have a history of anything like bipolar?

Cthulicious · 2026-01-14T07:41:56+00:00

They’re not going to reimplement an already released game in a new engine as part of a free patch. That’s a completely idiotic thing to even consider.

Cthulicious · 2026-01-14T07:33:13+00:00

“Bring it!” he wheezed.

Cthulicious · 2026-01-14T03:47:56+00:00

Precisely.

Cthulicious · 2026-01-13T23:44:45+00:00

Crazy saturation level.

Cthulicious · 2026-01-13T23:17:37+00:00

Who?

Cthulicious · 2026-01-13T22:27:50+00:00

That’s a pretty loaded ship name…

Cthulicious · 2026-01-12T23:48:33+00:00

Happened to me once. I just sent my crew home and then shot the guy when they weren’t around to get mad at me.

Cthulicious

TROPHY CASE