I watched quite a bit of the Starfield video last night. Looks good. The problem as I see it is that no matter how many unique worlds you have you still need to be entertained interacting with them. Kind of seems like after a while the gameplay will stagnate, even if you're on a completely different world. The good news is that with so many different environs, DLC should be quicker to crank out, and DLC should address that problem. They won't have to create Solstheim or Nuka World. They'll just need to add new things to do on their existing planets. Modders will also be able to contribute, since we're really just talking about new quests. Should have a ton of replay value. I'm certainly looking forward to it. I bet somebody could add a conquest mode and make the game damn near eternal.
Todd Howard seems like a neat guy. I've certainly known who he was, but never really watched anything about him. I watched a podcast with him last night, and not only does he really know his shit, he's pretty good at explaining it. His rundown of the game-making process was fascinating, particularly since we've all played enough of them to appreciate the concepts he's applying.
This. The Oblivion game had a pretty massive bug on PS3, but there were workarounds, and that bug was addressed officially on xBox 360. I think there was only one bug on Skyrim that prevented me from doing anything major (that was completing the Companions quests before curing your vampirism; you had to go out and kill an animal, but if you already killed them as part of the game play - and you had no idea what animal it might be - it froze the quest).
I haven't gotten into any of the substantive mods on the Oblivion/Skyrim games, but the "Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages", which gives you a rundown of EVERY known glitch or bug was invaluable in playing those games. The community has certainly elevated those games to a new level. Other than official releases, I do not know how to incorporate any of the mods on console. On PC, you can literally go in and reprogram the game in some instances to work around any glitch or inconvenience.
Yeah, like you said, the two wikis will tell you every bug that's been identified and offer up advice for how to deal with it. Usually far easier on PC since you've got the console to access. Honestly, I couldn't fathom trying to play one of these on a console for that reason. And the bug you described is exactly why I cut Beth a fair amount of slack on these games. There are so many different ways that people can interact with the world that you can't really predict the order things will happen.
Here's a dumb question, and don't judge me: any "NSFW" mods for Skyrim? I ended up marrying Lydia (probably should have held out for the vampire girl, but alas, I don't think you could legit marry her anyway) but it would have been cool to have a mod that didn't have her sleeping in full armor and battle gear. HAHA.
Literally half of the mods out there are simply adding bigger and better tits to the female NPCs, adding armor that won't cover them, and then excuses to get out of it.
Nexus mods is the main repository. This is sorted by most downloaded, so they're primarily above board. It's kind of neat in that a lot of the better mods have merged with similar ones to make pseudo-overhauls. Frostfall has combined with several other mods to make a very complete cold weather survival/camping system. Climates of Tamrial does just what the name suggests, adding complete weather systems and generally making the game look much, much better. Realistic Needs adds buffs and debuffs based on hunger, thirst, cleanliness, and fatigue, so you have to actually take care of yourself, and buying bread from the innkeepers actually does something now. This is the sort of stuff that makes the modding so important, I think. Climates makes the world pretty damned dark at night, so you really don't want to be wandering about, not to mention exhaustion, and Frostfall ensures that you're not just going to stand and wait 7 hours outside of Winterhold. You've got to plan for how and where you're going to sleep without freezing to death (including the possibility of rain or blizzard). Makes it a better game, I think.