its miscu

bethesda has solid writing mainly in the big picture, they're less invested in the minutiae of individual people or the places they live in

the UC quests in starfield are a good sample of that. it's really obvious that they're going for a broad satire of any militaristic coalition trying to present itself as dignified or its colonies as truly meritocratic. they have a stupid little museum during initiation that pulls double duty of explaining the general history while highlighting the type of outfit they are: petty, domineering, and willing to throw whomever under the bus to salvage their reputation

over the course of their quests, you learn about their structural incompetence, the flagrant cloak-and-dagger undermining any notion of real diplomacy, that their empire is a shithole to live in for anyone not in top-level government, and that the corrupt leader they claimed to execute still pulls all the strings behind the curtains

it generally works. obsidian are better at nuance and character-building, but bethesda can do the surface level stuff

oh right I played through bomb rush this past weekend. it's unfair to not say anything about it, because it's as good as the pitch suggested it could be. sharp character design, fantastic soundtrack picks (hi former mod-buddy 2mello), and level design which elegantly creates a fun playspace while still feeling like real places

it's a little on the easy side and I wish the story was a bit more mundane, but those are nitpicks. it's great

(I was somebody who backed and played hover: revolt of gamers, which was a real fake videogame that illustrated how you could totally botch every component of that JSR-inspired structure)

yep, starfield has a lot of fo4's streamlining, but with that game's annoying excesses (crafting, settlement building, managing a combat machine) pared down or at least not shoved in your face right away. also uncharacteristically polished, like there was a "don't even ship with C-level bugs" management mandate. first impression is certainly good

it's bad form to use one work to put down another, but it's something I can't help sometimes, especially when one of my friends brings up the same comparison. she was playing through goodbye volcano high at my recommendation and said "I hate to say it but this game is working for me way more than night in the woods did"