Really good discussion on reviews. I largely disagreed with how hard The Besties was on Starfield, but I could not imagine ever being upset over someone’s perspective on a piece of art. It’s more interesting to me since 90-99% of the time, I align with Griffin (also Kirk from Triple Click) on liking a game or not. It gets me thinking what shapes a difference of opinion in the cases where it’s completely different.
Funny - I tried NMS when it came to Xbox, and I was bored within minutes. I was expecting this great thing, but immediately was told to laser some lumps off rocks for a while. This is also the first thing you do in Starfield, but the narrative and atmosphere excited me to move past that and get on with the weirdness to follow.
Do y'all ever get that "I want to play a game but I don't know what" sort of feeling? Like opening a fridge to eat something, but the fridge is full of video games. Any go-to in a situation like this?
I'm about 50 hours in and its still looking like game of the decade for me. It's along the same lines as fallout nv/4 or morrowind/skyrim for me, games that's ive played for years and years and still revisit regularly.
Also games that i would not play unmodded. Starfield is the first one I haven't sought out mods for. It's really bringing to light that maybe people can decide if they like something or not before it's even arrived.
I for sure fell in love with fallout 4/ skyrim/ starfield before they even came out and nothing after the fact could change it, and conversely people who wanted to dislike it before it was out wouldn't have their minds changed by actually playing it
I'm knee deep in BG3, I just preordered Lies of P (demo was just what I was looking for) and now I'm being called back to the Sky no single man has claimed. Curse you Russ for reminding my how amazing NMS is
The reviews discussion was really solid. I did struggle a little bit listening to the review for Starfield last week, as I was waiting to check it out on gamepass and hearing folks (particularly Griffin and Russ,) have not-so-great things to say about it made me immediately apprehensive. I think it made me boot the game up ready to dislike it and be disappointed, and my frame of reference and context coming from that negative space kinda sucked initially. It eventually wore off, I love the game and have had a great time with it... but I'm also only able to play it in short bursts due to my busy schedule.
I think it would be really cool to have more philosophical discussions like this about games and reviews, and just.... taste in general? I trust The Besties, and listen to them and Triple Click because I'm a 36 year old with progressive tendencies and share similar hobbies and ideas with the hosts of these two shows when it comes to gaming and pop culture... so it's always interesting when I feel like I disagree pretty heavily with their takes on things I'm into.
Loved Handler Plante's debriefing. Balteas took me like nine hours to beat until I figured out consistent damage while his shield was down is more important than burst damage when he first stunned. I also like the mission structure, makes it much easier to pick up and put down as needed.
A really good model for integrating lots of reviews into an overall picture of how some media is being received is the book review website https://bookmarks.reviews/.
Book reviews are not scored, so the website just classifies each review as either "Rave," "Positive," "Mixed," or "Pan," and you can quickly see the distribution of each and read a few of each type, if you're inclined.
I would love to see something similar for games. Rotten tomatoes and Metacritic are, to me, a little silly -- giving a kind of false super-precision to the question "Is this supposed to be any good or what?"
Based on other reviews (because I haven't finished it), it sounds like Starfield really shines when you get through the main quest line. I know y'all aren't excited about media that takes time to marinate, but I'd love to see if the "meh" review turns into an "ahhh" review once someone on the Besties finished the story.
Armored Core 6 and a starter emulation handheld
I'm going to need to see a picture of this cake.
Really good discussion on reviews. I largely disagreed with how hard The Besties was on Starfield, but I could not imagine ever being upset over someone’s perspective on a piece of art. It’s more interesting to me since 90-99% of the time, I align with Griffin (also Kirk from Triple Click) on liking a game or not. It gets me thinking what shapes a difference of opinion in the cases where it’s completely different.
I am more upset about the fact that I cant see this cake, than any criticism any of you have given a game ever.
These No Man's Sky settings are going to push me back into the game. I can feel it
Funny - I tried NMS when it came to Xbox, and I was bored within minutes. I was expecting this great thing, but immediately was told to laser some lumps off rocks for a while. This is also the first thing you do in Starfield, but the narrative and atmosphere excited me to move past that and get on with the weirdness to follow.
It feels very Frushtick to take pictures of your screen instead of screenshots 😆.
This is a great push to jump back into NMS like I've been meaning to forever. Thanks for sharing!
Do y'all ever get that "I want to play a game but I don't know what" sort of feeling? Like opening a fridge to eat something, but the fridge is full of video games. Any go-to in a situation like this?
They had a lot of fun with that first ad break. Very big dad energy.
I'm about 50 hours in and its still looking like game of the decade for me. It's along the same lines as fallout nv/4 or morrowind/skyrim for me, games that's ive played for years and years and still revisit regularly.
Also games that i would not play unmodded. Starfield is the first one I haven't sought out mods for. It's really bringing to light that maybe people can decide if they like something or not before it's even arrived.
I for sure fell in love with fallout 4/ skyrim/ starfield before they even came out and nothing after the fact could change it, and conversely people who wanted to dislike it before it was out wouldn't have their minds changed by actually playing it
I'm knee deep in BG3, I just preordered Lies of P (demo was just what I was looking for) and now I'm being called back to the Sky no single man has claimed. Curse you Russ for reminding my how amazing NMS is
Looking forward to seeing what y'all have to say about the Miyoo Mini +. I too have recently fallen down the retro handheld rabbit hole.
The reviews discussion was really solid. I did struggle a little bit listening to the review for Starfield last week, as I was waiting to check it out on gamepass and hearing folks (particularly Griffin and Russ,) have not-so-great things to say about it made me immediately apprehensive. I think it made me boot the game up ready to dislike it and be disappointed, and my frame of reference and context coming from that negative space kinda sucked initially. It eventually wore off, I love the game and have had a great time with it... but I'm also only able to play it in short bursts due to my busy schedule.
I think it would be really cool to have more philosophical discussions like this about games and reviews, and just.... taste in general? I trust The Besties, and listen to them and Triple Click because I'm a 36 year old with progressive tendencies and share similar hobbies and ideas with the hosts of these two shows when it comes to gaming and pop culture... so it's always interesting when I feel like I disagree pretty heavily with their takes on things I'm into.
Loved Handler Plante's debriefing. Balteas took me like nine hours to beat until I figured out consistent damage while his shield was down is more important than burst damage when he first stunned. I also like the mission structure, makes it much easier to pick up and put down as needed.
Starfield might mostly have bog-standard voice actors, but one of them is Brian David Gilbert, so…
(I got sufficient amusement out of a YouTube video of his character to not get FOMO.)
A really good model for integrating lots of reviews into an overall picture of how some media is being received is the book review website https://bookmarks.reviews/.
Book reviews are not scored, so the website just classifies each review as either "Rave," "Positive," "Mixed," or "Pan," and you can quickly see the distribution of each and read a few of each type, if you're inclined.
I would love to see something similar for games. Rotten tomatoes and Metacritic are, to me, a little silly -- giving a kind of false super-precision to the question "Is this supposed to be any good or what?"
Based on other reviews (because I haven't finished it), it sounds like Starfield really shines when you get through the main quest line. I know y'all aren't excited about media that takes time to marinate, but I'd love to see if the "meh" review turns into an "ahhh" review once someone on the Besties finished the story.