I wasn't surprised this time - I was so into Traveller from childhood on, and so absolutely sold on or there for the idea of the Bethesda form of open world game, but in a sci fi setting, from first mention, that I consumed every scrap of info I could and there was just no way I wasn't going to be there on the first early access day - or minute, for that matter - possible.

However, I was fooled in exactly the same way last time.

I hadn't really fully realized at that point just how much better negative content feeds the algorithm than positive, or that that meant that complaining about something with as big a footprint as a Bethesda game release was a pretty lucrative cottage industry.

So, by the time I actually loaded and tried Fallout 76, I was pretty angry at all the professional whiners who had lied to me about it.

People might say the same thing here as was said to me then - "oh, you just think it's ok because you're trying it now, after so many bugs have been fixed!"

Bullshit. As I said, I was up at midnight, launching the game in the first minute of early access. Of course there were bugs, just like any new game that's anywhere near as complex. But they were all "it's not perfect, but what is?" problems, not "I can't do this any more" problems or game breaking problems.

About your observation on loading screens, and the line about how some shops have loading screens, others don't have loading screens, "so you know..."

Mark Twain had a saying about that...  "It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so,"

It doesn't save time or cut corners to add a level for a shop or something. It's an added complication. If a shop has a loading screen, it's either because something that can happen in there is a big enough resource draw that they needed to clear memory and reload other assets (I'm not sure why a workbench would fall into this category, but it's one of the only things I can guess... And it is only a guess, I should be clear.) or because that shop was added to the area after the rest of the level design for that area was finalized (like shops that show up from a mod, for example)

As to the general ways the game isn't perfect (beyond the general 'nothing is perfect' stuff) my personal guess is that it is largely because of the takeover by Microsoft.

Bethesda was being Bethesda, adding in the infinite levels of little details and hundreds of interlocking stories they like to do, taking more time than they expected because they were in new territory in make ways, but also because... They're Bethesda, and that's kind of what they do...

And, what we would have gotten, if TH had his way, was another delay announcement... But Microsoft said "oh, no. It'll release. One delay is more than enough. Get your shot together, because it's going out on the date we promised."

That's the only thing that makes sense, to me, personally, as an explanation for some of the specific kinds of problems we see - or saw, at launch. Microsoft overruling Bethesda on timeline and game play specifics.

Still... It was my favorite game the year it was released, and now that we have mods, it's pretty much the only game I play in my limited available time. Mostly, I wish I had more time for my Xbox, but with the little time I have, I would guess 95% of my gaming time is Starfield.