The Cseekly Recap #11 Crimson Desert, Bethesda and Starfield

JustCsomm

Hello there. Welcome to The Cseekly Recap. I’m your host, Csomm and here I'm going a bit deeper into the topics that I’ve covered in my shorts.   #thecseeklyrecap #gamingnews #opinion #discussion   Like, share, subscribe and all that good stuff!  Timestamps: 00:00 Intro 00:22 Crimson Desert Status 08:50 Former Bethesda Exec thinks life is unfair 11:59 Starfield is very deep, mkay 17:16 Outro  Sources:  Article 1: https://www.polygon.com/crimson-desert-second-update/ Article 2: https://crimsondesert.pearlabyss.com/en-US/News/Notice/Detail?_boardNo=82 Article 3: https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/former-bethesda-exec-thinks-the-studio-should-get-more-respect-for-the-complex-open-worlds-it-creates-go-try-that-s-t-in-red-dead-redemption-2/ Article 4: https://www.gamesradar.com/games/rpg/todd-howard-says-that-starfields-new-game-plus-was-us-asking-you-this-weird-deep-question-that-i-actually-think-got-lost-on-a-lot-of-people/  For more content check me out at https://www.youtube.com/@realcsomm

Transcript

00:00Hey hey hey, it's time for another edition of the Cheekly Recap! I'm your host Chom,

00:05and I'm here to go a bit deeper into the topics that I have covered in my shorts.

00:09The footage behind is from the game Graveyard Keeper. Let's get the show on the road!

00:14The first topic of the day is all about Crimson Desert. Yeah, the hottest shit right now,

00:20so we are talking about it. Anyway, Crimson Desert's latest updates have significantly

00:25improved the game, but also highlight how rough the launch version really was.

00:30While the patches have meaningfully improved the game since its March 19th launch,

00:35it is fair to say that people who bought the game at launch paid full price for an inferior experience.

00:42This reflects the double-edged nature of post-launch updates. Developers can fix and refine their version

00:49over time, but early adopters often bear the brunt of a rough release.

00:53And this is precisely what I have been saying all the time. Yes, the game was released, and yes,

00:59it was in playable state, but if you look how many fixes and patches they have released over time,

01:06it really makes you wonder, was the game ready, or we were just playing a early or late beta,

01:13or something along the lines. And one of my viewers, when I was kinda commenting on this whole situation,

01:19said, plain and simple, that the game was unfinished. And when you think about it a couple of years back,

01:25when a game came out in this particular state, everybody would say it's an unfinished mess.

01:30But for some strange reason, this is not a thing anymore, and now people are just, you know, rolling with

01:37it,

01:37and you know, they will fix it sooner or later, and we will get the game that we are supposed

01:41to get.

01:42Which to me, that line of thinking is very unorthodox, at least in my opinion. And it makes you really

01:49wonder, if the game was 10 out of 10, or amazing, or whatever superlatives people are using these

01:56days to describe Crimson Desert, then why are we having all these patches and updates and fixes

02:02nonstop? I remember people saying at launch that the controls aren't the problem, I am the problem,

02:07inventory management isn't the problem, you just need to get good, or organize a bit better. And

02:14every single aspect that I have pointed out, they kinda patched. Obviously they cannot patch the story,

02:20because it is what it is, and they said multiple times that they will not do that. But other stuff,

02:25mostly gameplay-focused elements, yeah, it's getting patched nonstop. And recently,

02:30Pearl Abyss released a blog post, or update, or whatever you want to call it,

02:34that they have new features and content currently in development, shaped by your feedback, including

02:41a variety of content for those looking for more ways to enjoy the game, and those who want to

02:46further challenge themselves. What are they adding? Well, boss rematches, because you don't have anything

02:51to do in the endgame, although that's a problem on its own, re-blockading, and difficulty settings.

02:57When it comes to improvements to character play, they are adding new skills for the two remaining

03:02characters that you can play, hiding back weapons, and addition of new outfits. New specialized storage

03:08is coming too, as well as new pets and mounts. And then you have system and graphics improvements,

03:14like UI improvements, improvements to controls, and improvements to distant scenery quality.

03:19It seems to me, when I'm looking at these particular things that they are fixing and adding,

03:24it's basically like this. We have cobbled something from all the other games, took their systems,

03:30and put it in one package. There you have it. Go, test it for us, give us your feedback, and

03:37then

03:37we will introduce things that are obviously lacking in our game, so that the others who haven't progressed

03:44that much can kinda enjoy it a bit better, in comparison to people who already played 200-250

03:52plus hours or something like that. And when you think about this current situation, how I worded it,

03:58to me this just looks like you paid 70 bucks in order to test-stress the game, give them feedback,

04:05everything for free mind you, so you're not getting paid, you are giving them the money to play the game

04:11and give your hard work of commenting and all that stuff and suggesting new features for absolutely zero

04:18money. And this would be okay, you know, if you said the game is like 7 or 6 out of

04:2410, but people are

04:25still claiming that the game is 10 out of 10 even with these issues. This has to be some kind

04:31of the

04:31weirdest dystopian game development future that I have ever seen, because to me it just feels wrong

04:38to keep praising the game that's unfinished. One recent example that I can pull up to make a comparison

04:45was the situation with Diablo 4. That game, when it came out, everybody saw it was feature barren,

04:52so to speak, and there was a continuous blasting of Blizzard because they released an unfinished game.

04:59And only recently, with the latest expansion, some might say that the game finally came out of beta.

05:06So, if Blizzard is getting that treatment, why isn't Pearl Abyss being treated the same? And obviously,

05:12you can pull the big corporation versus small studio or independent studio or whatever the

05:17fuck they are card, but essentially those are just double standards. You can love or hate Blizzard,

05:22I don't really care, but they are basically doing the same like Pearl Abyss, and yet they are getting

05:28more hate. So, I don't know, it's very fucking weird, the situation. Now, I wouldn't say that you

05:34shouldn't strive to improve the game, far from it, and what Pearl Abyss is doing is really commendable,

05:41but that shouldn't be an excuse for them. Everyone should acknowledge they fucked up,

05:46and it's only because they have goodwill they are trying to quote-unquote fix the game,

05:52or make it more playable, more enjoyable, however you want to put it. So, at least there is something

05:58positive out of this whole situation. I am just worried that other studios are going to take the

06:04same approach, and while some of them might have the same success at the end when they released a

06:12broken or unfinished game, I think more often than not the situation is going to be as follows.

06:17Developer releases unfinished game, expects to have the same treatment like Pearl Abyss,

06:23but what happens is total opposite, and people start hating on it, and the game crumbles, and so on and

06:28so

06:28forth. And then that developer will be like, oh my god, didn't the players have totally different

06:34sentiment for this game or that game? But sadly, we live in a world of double standards,

06:41and you really cannot apply the same logic to every single situation. Otherwise, the world would be a

06:48much better place to live in. It makes you wonder though, now that developers are kind of fixing

06:53their game. Did they have these fixes available already, or they are crunching the living shit

06:59out of themselves in order to deliver what the player base is requiring of them to do? And no

07:04matter how you look at it, both of these situations look bad. Either they had everything ready, but they

07:11didn't have a lot of time, and they were pushed by publishers to release the game in that particular

07:16state, or they were completely blindsided by all the things that were happening, and judging by certain

07:22reports, it appears that the QA testers pointed out that these things aren't really good, but developers

07:28just, you know, decided to ignore. Which then results in a huge crunch for the devs in order to make

07:36the

07:36game more playable, so to speak. Anyway, these new updates are going to be gradually released from

07:43April through June, so again, if you don't have anything better to do, you can try jumping in back

07:49in the game if you abandoned it before at launch and see what changed, but if you want to wait

07:53a bit

07:54more, I reckon start playing it around maybe May. At least read the patch notes in order to see whether

08:01or not they released something that was interesting to you, for example, playing with other characters

08:07and using the same abilities that the main character has, because apparently that wasn't a thing, so other

08:13playable characters were pretty much useless. I will definitely follow what's happening with this game,

08:19and if my plans are going to be according to what I have envisioned, I might jump into the game

08:25after

08:26I'm done with Diablo 4 expansion. So who knows, maybe they will introduce more of the things, and I'm

08:33definitely checking out the patch notes to see whether or not it's going to be satisfactory in comparison to

08:40what I have experienced back when I made my first impressions with you. I guess sometimes it's not

08:46that bad to be a bit patient in order to get a better experience altogether. And speaking about

08:51getting better first experience, well, we are talking about Bethesda again. Because a former Bethesda

08:58executive says the studio deserves more respect for its complex open worlds, but many players argue that

09:03freedom comes at the cost of polish. And by polish I mean fuckton of bugs that Bethesda themselves

09:10aren't fixing, it's the modders that are doing the fixing. Anyway, the exec says that he used to be

09:16frustrated by the way Bethesda seemed to be held to a different standard than others, less ambitious

09:22studios. I don't know what's the deal with these former Bethesda people, but they all seem to be

09:27delusional. If people actually didn't apply double standards, especially in Bethesda situation,

09:35those games would be doomed. And let's not forget them re-releasing Skyrim for gazillion times. I was

09:41waiting for them to release it on a fucking mp3 player from 2000s, the way that they were releasing

09:47for every single fucking platform, not to mention re-releases and new additions and all that stupid

09:51shit. But let's go back to the original topic. The problem that Bethesda games have isn't about their

09:58ambition or rather what they want to show to the world. When you look at that particular situation

10:05from that particular approach, the games are amazing. You can go wherever you want, you can do this,

10:10you can do that. But the problem as always is execution. Nobody says that their way of designing the

10:18games is bad. In fact, I think it's amazing and most people do because we were playing those games

10:24and enjoying them thoroughly, or at least I have. But we are talking about bugs. We are talking about

10:30things that unofficial patches are fixing instead of developers doing that. And you can compare the

10:37patch notes, for example, Skyrim, what they have been fixing all that time and what is fixed by the

10:43unofficial patches and you can clearly see that they don't give a fuck. Otherwise, the unofficial

10:48patches would become simply obsolete. Why would you patch something that has been already patched?

10:54It makes no fucking sense. And yeah, you can say that the jankiness that Bethesda games have

10:59might be a part of the charm, so to speak. But to be honest, I'm getting tired of that shit.

11:06It's always

11:06nice when someone makes a compilation about all the bugs that they have encountered and then you

11:12laugh your ass off. But when you are playing a game and you cannot progress because there is a bug

11:17in

11:18the main quest because it wasn't tested properly, even though the games were in development for several

11:23years, that actually makes you wonder what kind of fucking product are these people pushing out.

11:28And more importantly, when will we say it's enough and hold them accountable for what they are doing?

11:37Because I sure as hell will not tolerate such stupid behavior when Elder Scrolls 6 comes out.

11:44And I believe that the level of bugs that the game possesses at launch will definitely have an

11:49influence on whether or not the game is going to be good or bad. Because again, that's only one aspect

11:55of it, because you have gameplay and story to assess as well. Which brings us to the next Bethesda

12:01article and this is all about Starfield. Apparently, Todd Howard says Starfield's new game plus system

12:07was meant to ask players a deep philosophical question. Jesus Christ. But apparently, many players

12:16missed the point. Now Bethesda is changing the system to let players keep some items when restarting,

12:22making the experience less punishing. I mean, you just cannot make this shit up, right? So apparently,

12:28Todd Howard, bless his little heart, things that Starfield was so philosophical and deep.

12:34And for a moment, I thought that we went into past and it was April's Fool's Day, but apparently it

12:40was

12:41not. So the guy is actually serious about this. But let's break it down a bit. So for those of

12:47you who

12:47haven't played Starfield, when you finish the main story, so to speak, and essentially you do everything

12:53that you can do in that game, you have an option to go through this unity thing, which is essentially

12:59you being teleported to a different parallel alternative universe, which by the way, only

13:05changes maybe 1% of the whole storyline, but we don't talk about that. And then you can restart your

13:10journey again from, well, I suppose from zero, having your levels, perks, and I assume superior

13:18knowledge of the events that were happening in the game. And then you play again. And then our boy

13:23Howard says this. The unity was our way of doing New Game Plus. It was us asking you this weird

13:29deep

13:30question that I actually think got lost on a lot of people. It asks if you are just this power

13:36gamer who

13:37wants to get everything or are you willing to leave this world behind? How do you feel about

13:42your own life choices? Would you leave that all behind and start over? Some of that pain,

13:49having to give up all of your stuff, Sarah Morgan not loving you anymore, and so on is supposed to

13:55make

13:55you feel all of that. Ah, poor Todd. He really is a sentimental creature. But this is how most people

14:02think about this shit. You want to go through unity for two reasons. Number one, to see the

14:07changes that Lodge has the first time you visit them. And number two, maybe to save all the Lodge

14:13people because you cannot do that in the first playthrough. And that's about fucking it. And it

14:20would have been nice if the New Game Plus kinda, sort of, maybe, gave you different opportunities and

14:26different ways of completing stuff. But no, you just have the option to get all the fragments

14:32immediately, which is like playing it for, what, two, three hours until you gather stuff. Or you can

14:38slog through all those fucking secondary quests like nothing changed, but only with a slight change

14:44that you have this starborn option in brackets as a new line of conversation where you say something

14:50philosophical deep and all that shit and people are like, huh, how do you know that? And then they

14:55ignore you completely. I said so many times that the New Game Plus was such a missed opportunity

15:01because there were so many things you could have done differently and make the game more enjoyable

15:07or new, so to speak. And by the way, all that power that you kinda get when you go to

15:12the next universe,

15:13that's just bullshit. You gain that power by literally spamming thousands of adaptive frames like

15:20you're on some ADHD meds. And that's how you get your levels, because that's the only efficient way in

15:26that game to gain levels and by that extension power. And also installing the mod that removes those

15:33stupid mini-quests for each perk in order to unlock it, because that's by far the most stupidest shit that

15:39I

15:39have ever seen. So yeah, Todd, if your game, the New Plus game that is, was a bit more different

15:46than the

15:47original one, then maybe people would think in a different way, you know, whether or not I want

15:52to do this or I want to do that. But if you give me the same shit all over again

15:56and then you expect

15:57me to contemplate life after I did this or I did that, that ain't gonna happen, my boy. That's not

16:02how people work. And I think when you guys were designing New Game Plus, it wasn't anything along

16:08the lines of being philosophical and deep. It was all about spending more time in game like you saw

16:14people were doing in Skyrim and you thought to yourself, well, let's let them go through this

16:20portal gazillion times and maybe that will prolong their playtime. Which coincidentally, it does do

16:26that. But once you figure out that all of this is a huge fucking charade, then what's the fucking

16:32point of playing the game when you essentially finished it? And I know because I did that. I played

16:37the game for 250 hours because first time I finished the game fully and then the second time I went

16:43to

16:43finish the game again in the same manner to see whether or not there is any change with the

16:48secondary missions. But there wasn't any. It was just an illusion. And I'm not even gonna go into the

16:55other issues that Starfield had. That's a whole different video by itself. And it makes you wonder,

17:01it took him what, 10-15 years to develop this game conceptually or something along the lines before

17:07it was ready to be released, only to give us this, what we have right now. Out-fucking-standing move,

17:14Todd. Well done. And on that note, that's basically it when it comes to the news that I covered this

17:21week.

17:21Thank you very much for watching and as always, I encourage you to leave comments. I read all of them

17:27and I'm very happy to interact there with you guys. If you enjoy this content, consider liking it and

17:32subscribing for more discussions like this. And that's it from me, until the next one.

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