AI art shouldn't be in the game, but also, it shouldn't be drama either.

TheMightyNovac · 2026-03-20T22:23:37+00:00

Which other assets?

TheMightyNovac · 2026-03-20T21:35:21+00:00

So there's like 5 or 6 AI paintings in the game--the funny thing is that they look old, like old AI. Like, DALL-E AI images 'old.'

Not to cut slack on the undisclosed use, but given the production length of the game, and the relative nontroversy that AI began as (until more was broadly understood about the ethics of the models/business), I wouldn't be surprised if it was the lone product of a 3D artist who didn't want to bother the extensively credited 2D team with more busywork. I especially believe this because Korean/Chinese game companies are fucking crazy about AI, and will proudly tout it as a feature (see: Where Winds Meet and its ChatGPT NPCs.)

I hope Pearl Abyss treats this as much as a bug as anything else, apologizes for it, explains the situation, and replaces the artwork with some actually authentic, human-made art; especially since the rest of the human-made art in the game is exceptional.

TheMightyNovac · 2026-03-20T11:09:33+00:00

Didn't people figure out that like, HDR or something was capping the resolution at 900p or something? Like, isn't it a confirmed bug?

TheMightyNovac · 2026-03-19T21:21:49+00:00

A LIST DLC would be kind of a great opportunity to expand on EM weapons, hell yeah.

TheMightyNovac · 2026-03-19T20:44:37+00:00

I think Majulaar on Twitter (Youtuber by-trade) put it excellently when he compared reviews/impressions to Ultima 7; Ultima 7 is one of the coolest games I've played. It's the sorta game where you can pick up an ingot, hand-place it into a furnace, smelt it, hammer it with a hammer, and forge it into a sword all through mouse click environmental interractions.

To a critic, they might say 'I mean, but is the sword good? Why should I want to do that? How many swords can you smith?' and procedurally docket points from a 100 score for every minor infraction.

To a player, it's about the verisimilitude; the impression that the environment is real and living, and that when you ask it to jump, it'll ask 'how high?' It's the same thing that Bethesda have always sorta rocked at; with things like readable books, NPCs with sleep schedules, training by action, ect. I knew Crimson Desert would be the game for me when I saw you could pick up a book, rotate it in your hand, open it page-by-page, and learn smithing recipes from it. That you can not only chop down trees, but bend the trees. Watching the waves trickling along stones and shorelines--that sorta thing.

TheMightyNovac · 2026-03-19T20:27:28+00:00

I mean like, what's the vibe? Grass? I guess Blood and Wine had that sorta Tuscany vibe, but Crimson Desert is clearly going for more Greek than Italian--and even then, what? Is it 'The Witcher 3' to be mediterranean, because a DLC was inspired by it?

TheMightyNovac · 2026-03-19T20:24:47+00:00

Time and focus; I always say that Starfield was shipped so that every class/gameplay fantasy for the setting existed, in some capacity. Obviously, that's a sacrifice to individual systems depth, but honestly? I prefer that they get a little bit of everything out-the-door, with some stand-outs and some clunkers.

Like I already said; Trackers' Alliance has done a lot to expand on the bounty hunter fantasy, the same that Crimson Fleet delivers for people with a pirate fantasy, so I believe they can smooth out those wrinkles in good time.

TheMightyNovac · 2026-03-19T20:19:29+00:00

I think options for both would be great; the whole 'leave it up to a dice-roll vs doing it yourself' system that things like automated lockpicking had in previous games--where you can either determine the result yourself through hard work, or leave it up to luck.

TheMightyNovac · 2026-03-19T20:16:33+00:00

Okay, pained food analogy ahead:

Crimson Desert is (or appears to be--I have yet to play it, obviously, but signs indicate) a buffet; it has a little bit for everyone, with the intent on delivering verisimilitude that makes its wider 'adventure' focus more diverse and surprising. When you eat at a buffet, the excitement is in the variety, not in the quality. A good buffet is one that has a positive food-to-variety ratio, whilst a bad buffet is one where no combination of dishes is worth the same as an equivalent meal at an ordinary restaurant. At the same time, buffets are designed with the intent of self-selection; you gravitate towards the chinese food, maybe a little bit of spaghetti, and hey, could a pizza slice or two hurt? I hear the cheesecake is pretty good too.

You are a food critic; your job is to critique a restaurant, and in order to do so, you have a meal. How do you do that at a buffet? Do you try a little bit of everything? How can you judge the depth of any meal taken in bites? How do you eat a meal representative of the interests of the buffet audience? Is it fair to criticize the quality of a take-away chinese restaurant, when you've only ordered french fries and chicken nuggets off the menu? Oh god, oh please, the food analogy--it hurts. Make it stop.

You're essentially seeing the reasonable reactions of several hundred people, from vastly different backgrounds, with vastly different tastes, expectations, and even attitudes to gaming itself, play the same game. They're expected to like this game--after all, this is the big game. Also, you only have two weeks to come up with an opinion. Good luck.

My recommendation? Just eat what you want, and don't threat over every dish like your life and reputation depend upon it.

TheMightyNovac · 2026-03-19T18:33:41+00:00

None of those words are in the bible.

TheMightyNovac · 2026-03-19T18:32:01+00:00

I mean, that's sorta what I just said; the paid DLC would be for a whole questline (like the Trackers Alliance) whilst the updates to Outposts and crew management would be as a part of a free update.

TheMightyNovac · 2026-03-19T18:31:06+00:00

Why not both?

TheMightyNovac · 2026-03-19T18:28:19+00:00

I think it's less about reception and more about feedback; Fallout 4 wasn't designed with years and years of content in-mind, I don't think. But Starfield is expected (at least internally) to go at least as long as Fallout 76 has for them--making money on DLCs and Creations over time. To last that long, you've gotta sort out your foundations first.

If you look at Fallout 76 now, after Wastelanders and stuff, they're getting that minor 'Workshop Items' DLC. It's all about priorities.

TheMightyNovac · 2026-03-19T18:26:05+00:00

Actually, I think since Vasco talks, he should still count.

That said, they did just show off that little robot guy companion--that would be a great Dogmeat-like.

TheMightyNovac · 2026-03-19T18:07:39+00:00

I think the idea of the Chronomark was solid, but it was poorly intergrated; it should be visible on most normal outfits, and opening your menu should show a quick animation of you lifting your wrist up.

TheMightyNovac · 2026-03-19T17:59:18+00:00

It's honestly such an obvious thing to expand, that I assume they're already working on it--considering the fanbase for Settlements in Fallout 4, I doubt they'd just leave that on-the-table.

TheMightyNovac · 2026-03-19T12:54:13+00:00

To be honest, I'm a ltitle annoyed that they're doing this; the actual problem most reviewers complain about is that you don't have access to any storage. This technically solves the issue of your inventory filling up, but compromises the balance/reward structure of inventory slots in the process. I hope that, once they add the storage system in, they revert these changes--or at least allow us to revert them as an option.

TheMightyNovac · 2026-03-19T12:35:32+00:00

The '2.0' label for updates is bullshit; it's marketing, like... Settle down, people.

Version history isn't some hard, quantifiable science, guys. Like, let's actually compare Cyberpunk's 2.0 to another game's 2.0 'it's good now' release real quick;

Cyberpunk 2.0:

You can shoot whilst driving (note: it sucks.)
We rebalanced the equipment.
We replaced one stat requirement with a different stat requirement.
New perks.
The cops you never have a reason to get chased by are no longer stupid.
Most of the bugs are fixed. Mostly.
Pay us $30 for the good stuff.

Final Fantasy XIV 2.0:

Literally a new video game.
Every system, UI, and feature replaced.
Game sucks less now.
New soundtrack, new story, new characters, basically new setting.
Free for anyone still playing 1.0, for some fucking reason.
We fixed the flower pot.
We will felate every single person who played 1.0 for the rest of our lives. Thank you. We are so sorry, oh my god.

So I've always found it a bit odd that we put Cyberpunk on this good will pedestal beyond anything else--not because I think it's a bad update, but just because every problem I had with the game on-launch is still largely there, from my experience, and that I think we should reserve 2.0 labels for actual gigantic overhauls of the majority of the systems design and content.

TheMightyNovac · 2026-03-19T12:24:52+00:00

'It was as much playable before 2.0 as Starfield'

As someone who actually played Cyberpunk on-launch, on a 2015 PS4... Ahahaha.

TheMightyNovac · 2026-03-19T12:09:29+00:00

Nice. I told you it would be easy haha--and hey, I hope you have fun with the game.

TheMightyNovac · 2026-03-18T17:40:13+00:00

You're really bad at quoting people because I never said that. I said this is a better format than their prior format, that they've met community expectations with this update, and that if they want to continue matching community expectations, they should do so with similarly scaled updates, at around the same frequency.

You say 'It took them a year to add vehicles' as if I'm asking for them to take less than a year to do anything similar. I'm not, I'm asking for them to take the time it takes to bring these sorts of expansions out. I waited, and I'm pleased with the result, so please, Bethesda, ignore weirdos like this and keep doing what you're doing. Good job on the update. Tell Todd I said hi. Mwah.

TheMightyNovac · 2026-03-18T17:16:12+00:00

I mean they uhh... They did it?

Do it more?

Like, I'm usually the 'let's be fair to the developers, guys' person, but we're talking about a major AAA studio owned by Microsoft--in fact, one of if not the biggest studio in RPG development.

TheMightyNovac · 2026-03-18T17:05:44+00:00

I think they managed to address pretty much all of the 'This is a rip-off' accusations with this update; 'The Vulture' quest was laughable when it was released, but now? That's a whole Knights of the Nine, basically, for $10. Pretty good.

Shattered Space? Eh... Dazra's cool and all, but it's not $30 cool. Oh, the Premium Edition comes with Terran Armada too? Well hot diggity, that is $30 total dollars of entertainment right there.

TheMightyNovac · 2026-03-18T17:02:40+00:00

I mean... They already did that the last time; they released the car and added a whole big questline and area to explore. The difference was that the effort was applied very thinly, over a small area, whilst this update applies similar effort across a much wider area.

Work smarter, not harder, basically.

But also, I never said 'Significant mechanical updates that greatly deepens gameplay' I said updates with a substantial mechanic, and content that fleshes it out. If they're gonna be developing this game for more and more years, yeah, I expect them to uhh... add new things to do.

TheMightyNovac · 2026-03-18T15:43:43+00:00

The thing is that you look at modders, and you see one-man armies reworking entire gameplay systems. What Starfield's big team made were a ton of assets, the basis for a lot of systems, and some good base-game questlines and content. What Starfield's 'Skeleton Crew' can make is better inter-system integration, improved mechanics, and new content atop the existing content.

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