Games

I may never pursue the main mission. Looks kinda dumb.

It very much is, and the 'ending' was enough for me to drop the game and uninstall it same day. I barely made it to the end, and goddamn was it not worth it.

I never really understood that. Everyone hyped up skyrim so hard and when i played it it was... Meh? It was all grey and jank that apparently is enjoyable for some people.

I really liked new vegas and when fallout 4 came out, i never watched a trailer or anything, but i was sick on release day, so on that day, i watched the release trailer and thought why not. I was truly shocked how god damn ugly the game was and how shallow and broken it was.

People had high hopes for starfield and i thought i was taking crazy pills. It's just the same thing again but somehow even worse. I think i just don't get it.

Because we all loved morrowind...

Not really an engine problem, but Bethesda not caring to make the setting even remotely believable and making the mechanical parts feel isolated and meaningless is what hurts the game the most.

Exploring and collecting materials almost serves a purpose, as you need them to craft/upgrade armor and weapons, or to create stuff around your base, but you can just buy the stuff you need off vendors, which makes both the exploration and the point of having a base pointless. Crafting is almost something you might care about, but you can buy pretty much anything you need off vendors (heal kits, drugs) or get them as drops. None of the crafting targets the ship or its parts, for whatever reason.

If the game was just Dungeon -> Vendor -> Dungeon loop, it'd be much, much better rated and less hated. The lack of variety is felt very early on anyway, it's not like cutting the bullshit would make it worse to endure.

Also, considering how nearly everyone using UE besides Epic themselves seem to do a really shitty job, including Bethesda with Oblivion Remaster, I'd expect that SF remaster to be even worse than the original 😆

Fans patching the Bethesda games is as at least as old as Daggerfall, if not earlier. Daggerfall didn’t have Helseth and Barenziah as Dark Elves until fans fixed it. Pickpocketing in Morrowind is broken unless you use the code patch. The Oblivion leveling problem punishes you for playing the game.

Like every guide for every Bethesda game is going to start with download this unofficial patch, and the unofficial patches for the DLC, and this installer. They’ve relied on fans and treated the community like it’s an FOSS community, without realizing that without good product, the volunteers won’t come.

Ok, but apart from that, it’s okay, right?

No. Not by a long shot. You're better off playing Fallout 4.

what is a good space exploration/trading game that doesn’t require a huge learning curve?

Freelancer. It's old (2003), but it's still effectively the Explore/Trade/Fight space sim that every other game gets compared to. I'll note that it's focus is on getting good combat ships and flying around, exploration exists but is the least developed aspect, I'd say. Gotta get it thru the high seas, tho.

Evochron Legacy is an indie game that might scratch your itch, it also lets you fly into planets' atmospheres and it accounts for the friction, so while you can fly fast, doing so will damage your ship. I don't think its learning curve is too steep, but it can take some time to get used to. Try the demo before buying it, as one negative review suggests

Lastly, check out Underspace's demo. Still in Early Access, but seems promising.

I second No Man's Sky.

But if you want something a lot more serious, a proper simulator, but also requires time to learn (for when you get bored of the simplicity of No Man's Sky), maybe give X4 a shot.

Have you tried No Man’s Sky or Elite Dangerous?

Where do they land on your scale?

Reading your comment, I've just learned more about the story that nearly 250 hrs of gameplay got me. So the end is hokey, huh? Big surprise. I hate Sarah.

It actually makes sense in Fallout since it's post-apocalyptic. Yes, the apocalypse happened hundreds of years earlier, but most people still live in squalor while only a privileged few have high tech stuff. Starfield, though? The "apocalypse" took like 50 years to happen and everyone escaped Earth. There's no excuse for widespread telecommunication to not exist.