Starfield voted most innovative gameplay by community in 2023 steam awards
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It still blows my mind that people defend this game. I know it’s mostly a mixture of Xbox fanboys, Bethesda simps, and Reddit contrarians, but it’s still insane to me. The game is objectively bad.
I asked someone outright, "What was new in Starfield? What new gameplay did they bring to the table?"
They had no answer other than "It was just a really solid gameplay experience".
The reality is, nothing it does is unique nor done very well. But people have the memory of goldfish and don't want to go against the corporate hegemony that is the broader zeitgeist, so they will comply even if they know something sucks.
Yeah. I've probably put over a thousand hours into Morrowind, FO3, NV, Oblivion, and Skyrim. I bought Starfield knowing it probably wouldn't be great, but hoping it would be better than most of the garbage coming out recently. It was pathetic. The dialogue was terrible, the crafting/gunsmithing was not innovative in the slightest, the base aspect and ship building made no sense. Aside from all the other reddit tier speech options, having half a dozen characters literally say they were upset because I didn't "Trust the science" was the cherry on top.
It was relatively bug-free as far as bethesda games on release go…
"It didn't crash and wipe my progress 20 hours in a Bethesda game. That's highly innovative!"
So, it had all the same bugs as every other Bethesda game, and the same community patches fixed them?
Even all the people I know who were consuuuming at the thought of this release were utterly disappointed after the first week of coping
I like it.
Seems the same as FO4 to me. I just like to go around and shoot things with different guns and loot. And I'm not that good at shooters, so it's good that it's easy for me and there's something else to do like loot and craft.
It's not innovative, though.
I think people follow these too closely. I only vaguely knew that Beth was making a space game. When it came out, everybody was talking about it, so I bought it and came in with no expectations.
Riggers gonna rig. (tl;dr I don't accept this as a legitimate award - money changed hands)
Yeah, I gotta lean this way. Starfield is at mixed overall and mostly negative for recent reviews. Plus, even if it was done well it's the same formula as the last 5+ Bethesda game releases, so what's so innovative about it?
The Float is on the ship, rather than the player, so you have to have loading screens to go exploring to prevent critical errors. That's the innovation.
If I wanted to steel-man, I'd say writing a space game with okay graphics in a 20 year old engine is pushing the boundary. I'd still ask 'why' that boundary needs to be pushed... but eeking performance out of outdated software is somewhat innovative. It's just not necessary.
It's probably innovative because of muh Creation Engine 2
They put a 2 at the end, it's been innovated.
It's been this way since Valve started doctoring review statistics to insulate tranny developers from an audience sick of their shit.
Awards do be like that. Not just in video games.
I'm still salty that BG3 won game of the year :(
Even if you like woke stuff the game story was crap and it won outstanding story-rich game?
The reason is women. They are over the moon about ambiguously gay Twilight vampire Astarion.
I think is more about 12 -15 year old kids that liked the sexual nature of the game. I assume they are willing to ignore all the gay stuff just to get it on with either Shadowheart or Karlach.
Add fun combat and some marvel humor and you got your game of the year.
The story is complete trash but most people do not care about the story and the game does provide dopamine hits at good intervals to keep you entertained. The fact that I played it despite hating it to the core is proof of that.
All this time I thought the name of the game was D&D Dating Simulator.
Are there any good games that came out this year that you would recommend for the award?
Sadly no, a mainstream game with huge popularity - nothing comes to mind. I understand why it won I just hate it won.
I also hate how people that never played a decent CRPG tell me how great BG3 is. Not even online but in real life as well.
When I mentioned is crap I was told it was game of the year.
There is little I can describe how much I hate this game, BG2 is one of my all time favorites and BG3 is complete trash - story, setting adaptation and even most characters are trash. It's also full of woke crap I'm getting the same as when the Disney SW was released and I felt crazy for being the only one that thought it sucked.
BG3 actually made me interested in the genre, I started right after with Pathfinder wrath of the righteous since I've had it sit in my library for a while. Was surprisingly good, even better than BG3 I feel. I'm in the middle of Planescape now and wanna check out Icewind Dale or BG1+2 next.
I was not impressed with Icewind Dale, I would recommend NWN2, especially the expansion Mask of the Betrayer - is the best high level campaign I know.
BG2 is great and you can easily play it even now but BG1 is a bit hard to get in to, still great and there is a lot of overlap with BG3. I played it just to get a refreshed for BG3 and you can see how they made it full of memberberries - the entire main plot was trying to be BG1 but larger somehow, but ended up being retardedly stupid because Laryan don't ever make a good endings on their stories. Even the entire doppelganger story line it was trying to do BG1 but left it completely unfinished.
From this perspective I would suggest playing BG1. At least you would get how dumb the BG3 story is.
I admit I did not play Pathfinder Wrath of the Righteous because I did not like Kingmaker, the companions in that one were either boring, pathetic or annoying and the Kingmaker mechanic was just load screen after load screen after load screen.
I also recommend Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura - great setting, just find some graphic / resolution mods. 4
And ofc Dragon Age Origins is a spiritual successor of BG1/2 games, I assume you've already played that one.
I forget the name, but there's a mod that pulls the BG1 assets into BG2 so that you can play through the entire story in one go with BG2 mechanics.
Does it not mess up leveling and stats? BG1 had permanent stat increases and a level cap.
Either way what is the mod? Sounds great.
Did a little digging and found it, under the super generic name "BGT". Also saw an "EET" mentioned that's apparently the same thing for the enhanced editions.
https://modlist.pocketplane.net/index.php?ax=list&cat_id=130
Yes, it does get rid of the level cap, but there's a tweaks list that includes a mod to add it back.
I've actually played the base game years and years ago. Just couldn't appreciate it as a teen I feel. Same with Dragon Age Origins. Really gotta give them another chance I feel.
Does have a lot of loadscreens also, but was fun to play and in terms of characters...I liked a couple, I really liked how every path was different: going Lich felt entirely different from Trickster(I played the game twice, once on normal and once on core difficulty). Lich can raise companions, pretty fucking cool. You build a necropolis also. Trickster was the joke path, you can even say "I want a better ending" in the end which was hilarious.
I tried BG1 once before not too long ago but then went with Pathfinder first. I cannot only play cRPG's and need a break inbetween personally to try something else. BG1 is a bit..hard to get into I noticed. I'll probably get into and finish it anyways after my current game and Planescape anyways.
rogue trader also has a lot of load screens. too many in fact
Good to know, will probably avoid it since I did hear there were some big issues with game breaking bugs.
If I can add to the conversation, Robocop would be my choice. Great game on Steam that came out of fucking nowhere.
Last year? Yes, there were some fun ones: Lies of P, while super linear looked amazing, the world was cool and some of the mechanics were pretty cool too. That Bunker Amnesia game is fucking scary, actually does well as a survival horror game too. System shock remake was surprisingly good. While it's kinda a 1.5 Tears of the Kingdom is very, very fun especially with the building vehicles mechanic. The Phantom Liberty DLC for Cyberpunk actually made me finish the game for once, now actually playable. I liked Dave the Diver, very relaxing game even with a nice look.
Ready Or Not officially had it's 1.0 release.
I've started playing Ultimate General American Revolution and it's looking very promising.
Six Days In Fallujah is also playable as of this year.
Armored Core 6
Yes, a game that could not implement vehicle even tough they have had horses in earlier iteration of the engine... There were so many other ways they could have hacked something that at least would seem a bit more innovative even if forced to use that old engine.
When people complained about all the empty planets, Bethesda told them to think about the real-life astronauts who explored our own moon.
Those real-life astronauts had lunar rovers.
Haha, Bethesda also forgot the lunar landing games mechanic and used a cutscene instead
Would real scientists actually pack up an electric jeep, and send it to another planet? Does this sound like something that actually happened outside of a sound stage? Why would they do that? to play golf and drive about?
The moon is big you fucking weirdo.
Yes. And we traveled through the van allen belt in a tin can. That had a jeep in it. Because space travel is super cheap and easy.
It wasn't? We spent billions of dollars on it and a bunch of people fucking died when one blew up.
Are you simple boy?
Are you retarded... boy? There is no way through the van allen belt. No amount of money can buy you that. And someone got payed for that? We didn't 'spend' billions of dollars. That's what they laundered to their friends. Same now as it was then. No different.
Why do you think that? Where is your source for that information, your ass? Shit goes through the Van Allen Belt all the fucking time. It just needs proper shielding. The Apollo missions were a) properly shielded and b) not in the area long enough for any real issues to develop. Satellites that spend their entire lives there can have their tiny electronics fried if they're not shielded. It's not some hot zone full of deadly radiation.
Well nobody claimed it's easy, but I suppose it's cheap if you go in a tin can and use slide rules for calculations...
You can't cross the van allen belt in a tin can. You can't take a jeep with you while doing so. No, the impossible is not cheap.
Even modders had figured out how to get vehicles working. Bethesda was like nope too hard we'll do it in a DLC.
Proably consider to try once more and get the Mod Store up and running, Imagine a future where you as a company do not need to pay any devs, nor QA and only take a cut on every transaction, this is the Bethesda goal
Hilariously, the starfield ships are a rehash of the sailing ships you could buy way back in their 1996 release Daggerfall. Just like in starfield, the ship couldn't actually move and was just a place you could fast travel to and from.
Considering their engine's been upgraded once since then and not replaced...
I am not surprised.
Tears of the Kingdom was more innovative than Starfield, and that game was a $70 expansion pack.
It's also, you know, fun.
I can't really speak at any length about most of the games that were nominated, as I haven't played the majority of them myself, but I know enough about the finalists to know this list is a sham.
We all know why Baldur's Gate 3 won Game of the Year. It's certainly not for its quality writing, tight mechanics, or overall polish. BG3 won because it pushes The Message™️. The game panders to degenerate fetishism from "big muscle mommy" and "satan is bae" types. I personally voted for Lethal Company. My friends have referred to it as "streamer bait", but it does look fun.
Red Dead Redemption II shouldn't have even been nominated for Labor of Love, let alone won the award. This category is for games with ongoing support from the developer. RDR2 has been abandoned for quite some time now. I haven't played in well over a year, and I still have yet to receive any notification that it needs an update. I voted for Deep Rock Galactic. That's a game that gets ongoing support.
Sons of the Forest was the only game I played out of the Better With Friends category. I wasn't particularly impressed with it. Party Animals got my vote, though I'm sure the rest are decent enough games.
Atomic Heart was my pick for Outstanding Visual Style, but I was mildly surprised to see it had won. I figured the fanatical anti-Russia sentiment would have seen it fall by the wayside. I'm glad it's getting some love. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I'd go so far as to say Atomic Heart should have at least been a contender for Best Soundtrack.
Starfield even being nominated for Most Innovative Gameplay is laughable. It follows the same formula Bethesda has been using for years, except somehow less cohesive. I actually do not know anyone who defended this game in good faith. Most people fell on the sword for Bethesda over the pronoun issue, completely unable to argue against the game being generally buggy and unfun. All my friends who have played Starfield have told me it's boring. Even the most dedicated amongst the Bethesda modding community have struggled with this one. My vote was on Shadows of Doubt. It looked unique.
I've never played the original Last of Us, so I don't know whether or not it was worth of winning Best Soundtrack. By all accounts, it seemed like a decent enough game. Most people just seem to dislike the sequel. That being said, I voted for Hi-Fi Rush here.
I can't remark on VR Game of the Year (I don't own any VR headsets), Best Game on Steam Deck (I don't own a Steam Deck), Best Game You Suck At (I'm good at every game ever), Outstanding Story-Rich Game (I've already said my piece on BG3), or Sit Back and Relax awards (I'm physically incapable of relaxing).
Twins + Sexual Assault Fridge likely helped there.
Sea of Stars would get my vote there but Atomic would definitely be the 2nd option.
The voting in general is just a big popularity contest anyway. I forget what the other contestants were, but they weren't any more innovative than Starfield.
Now, am I saying Starfield should have won Most Innovative Gameplay? No...well maybe yes, but only as a meme. Because if there's any category it especially doesn't deserve, it's probably innovation.
The only one that would have been cool is if DRG had won Labor of Love. Hogwarts as Game of the Year would have been hilarious for the screeching, but that's about it.
In general, just pretty uninspired stuff all around. I can't say the winner don't deserve some of their awards, with what else they were against. There are better games out there, but Steam users didn't vote for them to be nominated.
Yeah, most of the games nominated for the categories were already a shit community choice. So the popularity contest for winning a category is even worse.
I voted for Hogwarts for the lulz, but I never played it. In general I voted for games I never played, cause the games I played weren't on the list.
Yep. I think they were just looking for somewhere to fit it in. I think the game is significant. If only for not delivering what people apparently want from space and planetary landing/exploration/procedural generation. There's a lesson somewhere.
I like the game though.
RDR2 winning the labor of love award shows how bad all these winners are. I don't think the online got updated much, and I'm pretty sure the single player wasn't updated at all in 2023.
DRG is one of the most perfect games I've ever played. Not necessarily the best, or even my #1 favorite, but everything in it just gels perfectly. They always hit the exact right tone with every aspect of the experience.
Most of these are just wrong. Maybe Dave the Diver deserves a win, but that game is a huge collage of other games and I'm tired of every developer trying to cobble together a Frankenstein ripoff. The game has heart and polish though, no denying that.
Best game you suck at should be Elden Ring. That game is 100x better than Sifu, which I genuinely found boring.
Edit: My bad on Elden Ring, wrong year.
Elden ring is 2022. Closest you got is perhaps reboot of Lords of The Fallen. But the nominees are weird in general, I mean FC24 and Overwatch 2 for games you suck at?
I could’ve sworn sifu was 2022 as well. Eother way it definitely should have been Lies of P, I don’t think it won anything.
You are correct in both instances. Sifu was released in 2022 but on the epic game store and moved over to steam in 2023.
Doesn’t matter about year. If The Witcher 3 can win awards for three years straight and Red Dead 2 can get award this year with its release in 2019, Elden Ring can win again.
My bad, thought it came out Q1 this year for some reason.
The difficulty in Sifu is literally just the lack of skills at the beginning of the game.
Once you play through and unlock the abilities, moves and buffs like weapons not instantly breaking, it becomes strikingly easy (save for the frame hitching, which can seriously inhibit your ability to properly parry/dodge, but that's an Unreal Engine problem more than a gameplay difficult problem).
RDR2 winning Labor of Love over something like Project Zomboid is way more egregious than Starfield winning for innovative gameplay.
Labor of Love is Red Dead? Are you kidding me? They shat on the multiplayer and have not released anything substantial on single player. There are bots involved in this voting.
NPCs that think it's funny to vote as a joke. Maybe they're even retarded enough to think the developers will change how they behave because of it. The only thing they accomplish is to remind everyone of how utterly worthless all of these awards really are.
To be fair that is an admirable accomplishment.
what did it innovate?
Innovated the new pricing point for AAA games. 10 more dollars for 50% less game.
I guess in 2023 bringing back regular loading screens was considered innovative.
Why the fuck is RDR2 on the list at all?
It WAS a labor of love... But it came out in 2018. They've literally abandoned it now.
Fucking hell the shilling is intense.
Also, Hi-Fi Rush came out this year, so did Dredge, so did Dave the Diver. All had more innovative gameplay than Starshit
Butthesda and innovation have as much in common as EA and integrity.
It was pretty innovative to deliver a more painful gameplay experience than a jellyfish sting.
100% rigged
6000 hrs on skyrim. 4500 hrs on fo4. Gave up on starfield after less than 120 hrs.
Aim downsight and dump 3 mags into a single
raiderspacer and then repeat for a hundred and fifty hours, very innovative.Considering the name of the award, there isn't a chance in hell it wasn't given that specific accolade unironically. I mean... just look at what RDR 2 got. Top Kek.
Only thing really good was the shipbuilder. But it was pretty useless with the amount of space exploration you can do and how little your ship matters in gameplay.
I loved it. Amazing way to implement the multiple play through thing.
Sure it was woke and every senior boss was an angry black woman.
That might be the only innovative thing that it does. I played it a little on game pass and watching the reviews I realized that I avoided a lot of the shit they were complaining about by using console commands to cheat. Still got boring real quick.
I enjoyed it too, despite the flaws. Honestly, the amount of complete butthurt all around the internet over this random award is hilarious. It's the most successful troll of the year so far. The whole awards seems off.