Starfield only getting one nomination–and in a category it has no chance of winning–is not at all what I would have expected going into this year.
I don’t know if that speaks to how nuts this year has been for new releases or to how much Starfield fell short, in light of the fact that its player counts on Steam are starting to fall below Skyrim.
I don’t think starfield does anything worth giving it an award for. You should give awards to things that do something unique or took a risk. Starfield is a very safe game that didn’t really do anything unique or risky. They just made Skyrim in space.
The space elements were a big part of the marketing. I knew better than to expect atmospheric flight or anything but simple space combat, but intra-system travel being only done in menus and the space sections being put in small lightboxes with planet renderings was rather shocking. That’s 20th-century stuff. It’s especially bizarre given how much of the Bethesda magic has leaned on roads in the past, and there aren’t any roads outside of cities. Even the cargo runs are 100% in menus, without talking to a single person.
To be perfectly fair, Skyrim has a decade of sales and mods in its favor when it comes to Steam numbers, and whether or not Starfield has fallen short by any metric, the things that it does were more novel when Skyrim did a lot of the same stuff 12 years ago.
Frankly Starfield didn’t even deserve the nomination. It didn’t do anything unique or deserving of merit beyond just existing. I tried it, and while it has some interesting parts it’s just shallow and bland. The lore had huge potential but got Swiss-cheesed by the game mechanics and wasn’t developed at all - in what was supposed to be a Bethesda RPG. They need to yeet Todd and bring back the Obsidian folks.
Starfield only getting one nomination–and in a category it has no chance of winning–is not at all what I would have expected going into this year.
I don’t know if that speaks to how nuts this year has been for new releases or to how much Starfield fell short, in light of the fact that its player counts on Steam are starting to fall below Skyrim.
I don’t think starfield does anything worth giving it an award for. You should give awards to things that do something unique or took a risk. Starfield is a very safe game that didn’t really do anything unique or risky. They just made Skyrim in space.
Us space sim types would tell you it took a few steps back as far as genre standards go. And I wasn’t even expecting much on that side of it.
@Ashtear @MJBrune
Was it supposed to be a space sim, though?
My impression was that it was always going to be a skyrim/fallout in space
The space elements were a big part of the marketing. I knew better than to expect atmospheric flight or anything but simple space combat, but intra-system travel being only done in menus and the space sections being put in small lightboxes with planet renderings was rather shocking. That’s 20th-century stuff. It’s especially bizarre given how much of the Bethesda magic has leaned on roads in the past, and there aren’t any roads outside of cities. Even the cargo runs are 100% in menus, without talking to a single person.
I agree, I don’t think it’s a space sim and I don’t think fallout or Skyrim in space is unique.
Skyrim isn’t full of unskippable cut scenes.
To be perfectly fair, Skyrim has a decade of sales and mods in its favor when it comes to Steam numbers, and whether or not Starfield has fallen short by any metric, the things that it does were more novel when Skyrim did a lot of the same stuff 12 years ago.
Frankly Starfield didn’t even deserve the nomination. It didn’t do anything unique or deserving of merit beyond just existing. I tried it, and while it has some interesting parts it’s just shallow and bland. The lore had huge potential but got Swiss-cheesed by the game mechanics and wasn’t developed at all - in what was supposed to be a Bethesda RPG. They need to yeet Todd and bring back the Obsidian folks.