NeverKnowsBest just dropped a video that includes a pretty damning take down of you. Kinda makes you look like a con man who has no clue what he’s talking about.
Thanks for this. parasocial as it may be, i do enjoy glimpses into less scripted aspects of the personality behind the c o n t e n t, and usually never watch streams
@Patrician. Dont apologize for all the Starfield streams leading up to release. As a major oblivion fanboy, part of what made the streams so appealing was to learn so much about how Bethesda functions. PS and your commentary on the insanity of Bethesda inner workings was food for my jaded soul.
i like how PS says that he's had depression and anxiety his whole life but Starfield was the thing that pushed it over the edge XDDD all jokes aside, look after yourself b
Scary bro, Steam need to put a warning on starfield store page that this game is so bad it might give suicidal tendencies if you're suffering from depression no joke.
Starfield's price tag alone at 70 bloody dollars does mental damage to me. I just kind of get really angry whenever I think about it. So I don't blame him for just straight up entering full breakdown after having to play it _and_ make a big project on it. In my eyes he's sacrificing himself documenting some incredibly lethal radioactive material.
16:30 The funniest thing about all the complaints I've heard about Starfield regarding space travel is that all of the things people are asking for are in Elite Dangerous and I'm not sure they would actually want it if they knew what they were asking for
Todd said he wanted a game like the old space games like SunDog, starflight. In StarFlight (1991), you could traverse one side of a solar system to the other in around 30 seconds. You could also 😊 the system and traverse stars with fuel, in reasonable time. Kinda like a
In fairness, yeah, Bethesda is right when they say that straightforward fuel isn't fun, but it was still a failure of imagination: they could have just done something like pair the artifact to the ship (or rather, a moveable reactor in the ship,) and player both, and make the limiting factor in power use to be fuel instead of time. And bam, there, the player now has a reason to care about fuel, and outposts have a reason to exist.
The fact people gave Starfield a 6/10 was insanely generous. It couldn't be any more bland and safe. I'm not shocked in the least it was a breaking point for sessions.
I told people it was like a 6/10 because I've been trying to not be as negative about stuff lately. and everyone else I knew was having fun with it. so I was like "I mean, I guess it's like a 6/10 and I'm just missing something?"
Back in the day 6\10 was meant for flawed but still good games. Nowadays 7 is the worst possible score, lol. People are so afraid to be percieved as negative
A friend was staying with me during the launch and following the month of Starfield. He was playing that, and I was Cyberpunks Phantom of Liberty, I would look over sometimes, and I felt as if I was having a better experience. When I got around to playing it, I was correct. I'm glad to hear Session's is back on and in a better place. The timeline and lore of the year for your channels was a delight.
You guys are the absolute pinnacle of this form of content for me. You go together like Batman and Robin… or maybe like the Ambiguously Gay Duo. Seriously you guys are the best. Glad to hear you again, PS
I am a Bethesda fan boy who HATED Starfield. That game alone almost made me quit all games altogether. The insult of that abomination was deep. And your video helped me make sense of that.
Really glad to see PrivateSessions is doing better. I played maybe 10 hours of Starfield and was so bored and annoyed at stupid design that I quit and never reinstalled.
I work in a different but related creative field, and your discussion of the "scope creep" about project size really resonated with me. Glad Sessions is doing better, wishing you both a more positive 2024
Can relate to PS' troubles with the west virginia trip. The nervousness is obviously totally irrational. In his place i would have probably just declined in the first place. After a while you just realize that even in a familiar setting you might just have a very unpleasant time for seemingly no reason. It sucks and it's important to escape that mindset somehow and it's not a one way door, you have to stay out. Otherwise you end up not doing anything anymore. Can't say how, to be honest i haven't figured it out either.
First up, Private Sessions I'm glad to hear you're on the mend dude. Keep at it! On the meat of the podcast: One of the low key fascinating things about the Starfield debacle, in a meta sense for the industry, is how it's kind of laid bare a lot of the "this is how things are supposed to work" nonsense. With hype and reception, I mean. A lot of UA-camrs don't understand they are cheap labor for PR, and up until now they've generally relied on AAA releases being safe bets. Their careers are not built on analytical thought, but just being first out the gate, or just being positive-PR shills. And going past the independent PR channels, the awards / accolades aspect of Starfield getting snubbed is so goddamn funny. It had the advantage of its release date essentially making it the "Oscar bait" of video game awards ceremonies, and it didn't pan out.
Maybe irrelevant and ignorant, but: I think the Oblivion video has the best audio quality. There is a softness (as opposed to a crispness) to your (voice) sound setup that can make me listen to it any day all day, whereas with your Skyrim video I feel the need to take a break every hour
It's interesting to see how your friendship progresses. I'll go and see that Private's Starfield video, I guess. The benefits of watching something long after the fact.
The first time I tried pulling a premier back to the beginning it didn't save my position in the video when it reloaded. I wasn't going to try that again so I'm forced to either sit down for 8hrs or wait till tomorrow to watch it. The premier was just a shit idea really, it's the worst parts of streaming and static videos. Can be neat to talk to the guy that made the video while it's ongoing but when there's lots of people you can't actually have a back and forth or pause on a topic or whatever, so why bother?
Can you imagine having a mental breakdown over Starfield?😂😂 I wasn't planning to buy that game anyway but after hearing this imma deffo stay away from that game😂💯 Jokes aside glad you recovered bro
Honestly greatly appreciated the Outer Worlds video because I felt like I was going crazy seeing it receive near universal critical praise - it seemed like I had played a wholly different game from everyone else, so it was nice to see that there were other people who also thought it was a bit shite.
Make the vent podcast a patreon exclusive if you don't know what to do with it; definitely would love to hear it. It was interesting in the Fallout 76 video
I can't say I hate Starfield, or even dislike it. It's so mediocre but that's what I expected. However what surprised me (in a bad way) was how amazingly bad their quest design and story continues to be. They had the alt dimension starborn thing in mind , and yet, outside of a way to skip a few bribes and save one character, it has NO IMPACT on the story. I distinctly remember doing NG+ for the first time and just... Being in disbelief that nobody outside of ship technicians and the contraband scanners acknowledged I was on essentially a freaking alien ship and wearing whacky alt universe armor and using magic powers. It got even worse as you get further in and everyone sees the starborn..... Yet they suspect nothing of you. The newcomer who has a crazy ship, crazy outfit and has had powers this whole time. Not constellation, nobody from any of the factions. How can a dev team be so inept at design that they can't account for something EVERY PLAYER is going to have going into NG+
Starfields bad as a whole it’s dog water and mocks you for playing it. Definitely was either on purpose, internal problems, or stagnation due to self glorification.
You think that's depressing? In 6-12 months when Bethesda adda a bunch of (Minecraft) base building DLC people will sing its praises and say how could you ever doubt the Todd. Cough cough No Man's Sky still has no story and Cyberpunk still doesn't fulfill its original promises cough cough. Also, PLEASE STOP CENTERING YOUR MENTAL HEALTH AROUND CORPORATE PRODUCTS AND SOCIAL MEDIA. This is not okay. Just because something is "normal" doesn't make it okay. Slavery used to be normal. Doesn't make it okay.
one of the greatest tragedies of gaming in 2023 is that we never got a full Single Player mode for Valheim... being co-op required game is exactly what is going to drive this game into obscurity... game companies don't understand that "gamers" don't have a fixed schedule, let alone a COMBINED fixed schedule to play co-op obligatory games
On the topic of your Outer Worlds video, I watched your video on it /specifically/ because I didnt care too much about the game. To me it looked more Oblivion in Space, and since Oblivion is my least favorite of the Elder Scrolls games I have played to date... its not hard to understand why I would experience the game vicariously through you. Zaney fun is all and good, but dont expect me to take you seriously like Fallout if your writing is High on Life.
Bethesda has only one high level voice left - Todd, who is the action and procgen guy. That's what starfield was built around. First problem is, the tech bethesda uses is really bad at both of those things. The second problem is, that's not what bethesda makes, what people like about their games is the handcrafted storylines and exploration (starfield is a great example of having lots to explore does not good exploration make). So i think Todd is a net negative on the studio, they can't make what he wants to make, but his influence is too high not to shape the projects towards his "vision"
I said it on the Starfield video, and I'll say it here too: Its absolutely mind boggling that they don't, yet it explains so damn much about how their games are getting so much worse with time. Its a miracle that a shippable product comes out the other end at all, when you really consider it.
@matrix3509 Like I keep ruminating over the implications of it... I'll be staring off into space, trying to picture an approximation of Bethesda's org charts or internal workflow systems, roadmaps, timelines, anything... but all I see in my mind's eye is an etch-a-sketch of eldritch glyphs and spaghetti code. Tinnitus ear-ringing distracts from the images for long enough for the realization to dawn that I've been holding my breath for several seconds. I gasp; wait for my senses to normalize. I close my eyes to reset. Briefly, my thoughts flicker to Todd. The lifeblood of an empire and its single point of failure. The father of non-lies. The alpha and omega production bottleneck. "It just works," he says. I scream.
@@logancade342 LMAO, but yes. Literally the entire structure of BGS rests on Todd's shoulders, and suddenly it makes much more sense in all those developer interviews when every Bethesda employee mentions how Todd doesn't have time for anything anymore. His entire job now is just 24/7 trying to ensure the Rube-Goldberg machine of Bethesda continues to run. The moment Todd retires, Bethesda comes crashing down in flames.
I just wanted to say this, I’ve watched all of the elder scrolls retrospectives, the fallout 76 retrospective and the starfield retrospective and even your review of starfield despite being competently written and edited is a blur in my mind compared to the others. At least the negatives of the other games were due to interesting things like an overly complex and poorly constructed level scaling system. Starfield is just too soulless to remember.
I've always been a fan of bethesda. I love Fallout and The Elder scrolls but I refuse to play Starfield. I'm a new parent and both of guys videos made it so i would never waste my time on that horrible car crash of a game. I barely have time to play games so you guys saved me from wasting precious time.
BG3 would be a great video for your quality and depth of analysis that is a positive project. Obviously it would be an incredibly large project given the way you analyze quests and their various outcomes, but I'd love to see it!
The reason I think Bethesda keeps talking about mods is that at some point Todd Howard talked to Gabe Newell (or watched one of those interviews or talks that Gabe gave that are still floating around on UA-cam) and Gabe told Todd that Valve has all the money in the world and its because they realized they could monetize modders. So Todd wants to repeat that success story, because that is what Valve did. Steam was originally for Valve games and some successful mods that got turned into games of their own (the most promising ones being bought out and released by Valve itself), and both Valve and Bethesda's bread and butter (or used to be in Valve's case) is action RPGs. But what he doesn't understand is what makes people want to mod a game. Because Half-Life was exquisitely crafted with a great story and combat, but also had an innovative engines that could do things nobody else was offering and a suite of assets that were as good or better than just about any other game up to that point. Of course people would want to make their dreams come true using cutting-edge technology which suddenly made it possible. Starfield, on the other hand, is space game #5. The engine isn't particularly easy to work with, it doesn't allow for anything unique, there isn't much of a story to expand, or novel game mechanics to explore or tweak. That's just my theory, though, and I don't have any evidence if that's what Todd Howard has in his head somewhere. Would be pretty cool if there was a quote or two though.
The Far Harbor stream you guys did is one of my favorite streams from this year. It was a journey and you guys broke the problems with the narrative down in an entertaining way. The Destiny stream was a highlight as well, that one was more depressing though lol. Glad to hear PS is doing better. I know you guys are trying to be more positive but I think we'd all like to hear the starfield ventcast lol.
Pat you could release the starfield podcast on your second channel with little to no editing or on private's. Would love to the Spartan ops clown cars perhaps also on the second channel or even as Livestream
2:24:30 For an update, Starfield went on sale on steam and the recent reviews *dropped* to 37% positive on recent review, putting the game into "Mostly Negative" territory. "All reviews" is at 66% "Mixed". It's also interesting that out of 271 reviews on Christmas day (the day I'm listening to this), 205 were negative. Paints an awkward picture for those getting it as a gift.
Glad private is doing better. And Pat, definitely take the year like you wanted to next year and make videos on games you actually like Edit: A spartan ops video would be great for a negative video because of that "so bad it's good" quality. I have war flashbacks every time I hear them say "phantom" in H4. Can confirm solo is miserable and not the intended way to play it, I soloed the whole thing just to say I did it
@@jossricketts4452I think it's honestly hilarious that Spartan Ops probably has a better story than the actual campaign. I found it to be far less egregious to the worldbuilding than the main story. They still can't help but ruin the main characters and dragged Halsey into this mess though, now she's some sociopathic war criminal even though there's so many things wrong with that depiction if you ever knew the character.
Honestly Skyrim really could have been a fluke that it worked, rather than intentional design. Considering how badly 76 and Starfield utterly fumble at being good exploration, rather than what you would expect to see from a skilled designer learning/improving their craft.
I think your Outer Worlds video did as well as it did because you pinpoint why it's such a mediocre game in terms of everything, despite the reception at the time being "wow Obsidian REALLY know how to make an RPG, unlike Bethesda" purely because Fallout 76 was so bad that they all gave it a pass. I felt so frustrated after finishing that game and feeling my time was wasted, with everyone else considering it as some masterpiece - so your analysis was vindication to me personally.
Everyone else considering it a masterpiece? That game had a middling reception and a sea of criticism from day 1. It's been recommended as "buy on a 75% sale" by like three weeks after launch.
@@kabletar1332 Yeah, and the launch week it got a bunch of 8.5s and 9s from all the outlets, giving it a nice Metacritic score of 85, a point higher than Fallout New Vegas. How is that a "middling reception"? I understand being disagreeable runs in some people's blood, but geez dude.
@@thesunthrone Outlets being wrong when it comes to game scores? Imagine my shock. The non-journalist response was between calling it awful and forgettable, not worth full AAA price for something that was described as an AA game.
I agree I really do hope someone talks about Inon Zur's music. Not because its bad, it isn't. Its just really nice forgettable background music that you could play in a cinema lobby.
I haven’t seen any of your other podcasts, but listening to this now and hearing the creative process behind your long form content is definitely interesting and gives me a load more respect for you all. I think I tend to take UA-cam for granted, not realizing the amount of labor and passion that goes into this sort of thing. It’s especially interesting because I myself have considered making similar (albeit shorter) content about books and other forms of storytelling. It’s definitely food for thought, and has also shown me that I’m *really* not in a place to be doing so. Especially considering it’s enough to send PrivateSessions over the edge. I relate to his anxiety issues a lot and could see myself stressing a little too much with the workload as well. Oh well, thanks for all your hard work, guys. I’m looking forward to next year’s endeavors :D
Hey @privatesessions happy to hear things are getting better. Anti-depressents made a world of differnce for me personal. Hope things keep improving for you ❤
Ya Gopher ended up doing the same thing. He's usually incredibly nice to Beth games so to see him of all people knocking it was a pretty major red flag. Too bad I already bought it at that point lol
We, need _need_ *NEED* full blown collab PattySesh joints--two of my favorite longform creators and boy would they be BANGERS. The bromance and comparability of styles, m'wah, perfect.
You probably won't read this, but you can't rewind premieres or any other live stuff on the phone app. That's why people are complaining. Rewinding only works on the desktop app
@Patrician I really enjoyed your Fear video and have watched it about 3 times now. I also like your Harry Potter and Star Wars videos. I love your negativity but I enjoy your positivity more. I am likely a niche person, but I really like your content. What I find best about your videos, is that a person, like me, who hasn't played the games can enjoy the coverage of them. I like to dedicate lots of time to very good games, and this channel is a fantastic way to filter certain games from my interest. Tires replacing blood is 10/10 btw in that old ass CoD video.
Just wanted to say I'm glad you're doing better, Sess. I had only heard something on a comment on a video that wasn't yours or Pat's, so I had no idea of the voracity. Regardless, very good to hear you're on the right track again, duder.
If you would like the watch the rant episode, I've uploaded here unlisted - ua-cam.com/video/HFla0mDd4I0/v-deo.html
NeverKnowsBest just dropped a video that includes a pretty damning take down of you. Kinda makes you look like a con man who has no clue what he’s talking about.
Thanks for this. parasocial as it may be, i do enjoy glimpses into less scripted aspects of the personality behind the c o n t e n t, and usually never watch streams
@Patrician.
Dont apologize for all the Starfield streams leading up to release. As a major oblivion fanboy, part of what made the streams so appealing was to learn so much about how Bethesda functions. PS and your commentary on the insanity of Bethesda inner workings was food for my jaded soul.
i like how PS says that he's had depression and anxiety his whole life but Starfield was the thing that pushed it over the edge XDDD all jokes aside, look after yourself b
Scary bro, Steam need to put a warning on starfield store page that this game is so bad it might give suicidal tendencies if you're suffering from depression no joke.
Starfield's price tag alone at 70 bloody dollars does mental damage to me. I just kind of get really angry whenever I think about it.
So I don't blame him for just straight up entering full breakdown after having to play it _and_ make a big project on it.
In my eyes he's sacrificing himself documenting some incredibly lethal radioactive material.
It's usually like that, the cup fills until something makes it overflow
Its like the mirror version of that one guy who said Dark Souls saved his life from depression and suicidal thoughts.
@@SwampGreen14NakeyJakey?
Hope you've had your homies back Pat. You and Sesh are a damn dynamic duo.
Take care and hope you're better Sesh!
Hope you’re doing better private, good to hear you back! Loved the starfield video Pat 😊
16:30 The funniest thing about all the complaints I've heard about Starfield regarding space travel is that all of the things people are asking for are in Elite Dangerous
and I'm not sure they would actually want it if they knew what they were asking for
Todd said he wanted a game like the old space games like SunDog, starflight. In StarFlight (1991), you could traverse one side of a solar system to the other in around 30 seconds. You could also 😊 the system and traverse stars with fuel, in reasonable time. Kinda like a
In fairness, yeah, Bethesda is right when they say that straightforward fuel isn't fun, but it was still a failure of imagination: they could have just done something like pair the artifact to the ship (or rather, a moveable reactor in the ship,) and player both, and make the limiting factor in power use to be fuel instead of time.
And bam, there, the player now has a reason to care about fuel, and outposts have a reason to exist.
The fact people gave Starfield a 6/10 was insanely generous. It couldn't be any more bland and safe.
I'm not shocked in the least it was a breaking point for sessions.
I told people it was like a 6/10 because I've been trying to not be as negative about stuff lately. and everyone else I knew was having fun with it. so I was like "I mean, I guess it's like a 6/10 and I'm just missing something?"
Back in the day 6\10 was meant for flawed but still good games. Nowadays 7 is the worst possible score, lol. People are so afraid to be percieved as negative
@@Brandelwyn Back in the day reviews were allot more honest.
And it won “most innovative gameplay” for the yearly vote on steam LOL
@@marsbron767 it truly takes a genius to sell this pile of procedurally generated crap to so many people
We love the pentamonthly upload schedule, best podcast schedule around
A friend was staying with me during the launch and following the month of Starfield. He was playing that, and I was Cyberpunks Phantom of Liberty, I would look over sometimes, and I felt as if I was having a better experience. When I got around to playing it, I was correct. I'm glad to hear Session's is back on and in a better place. The timeline and lore of the year for your channels was a delight.
Shout out UA-cam for featuring Starfield in the description instead of Valheim
Dystopian future sure is badass
You guys are the absolute pinnacle of this form of content for me. You go together like Batman and Robin… or maybe like the Ambiguously Gay Duo.
Seriously you guys are the best. Glad to hear you again, PS
Arent they married too? lol
@@andreyu5640its my headcanon
Are they actually? That's cute
1:16:34 Private Sessions takes the mantle of “The Critic” after the tragic death of Doug Walker
Well, the review must go on, as they say…
Playing Starfield is a mental and physical health hazard. Take care of yourselves everyone o/
The Outer Worlds video got so many views because nobody finished it and they were curious how it actually ends.
I am a Bethesda fan boy who HATED Starfield. That game alone almost made me quit all games altogether. The insult of that abomination was deep. And your video helped me make sense of that.
With which game did you become a fanboy?
@@kabletar1332 for me all the way back to Morrowind
Really glad to see PrivateSessions is doing better. I played maybe 10 hours of Starfield and was so bored and annoyed at stupid design that I quit and never reinstalled.
Amount of "I forgot about that" form Privatesessions makes me worried that those are signs or early dementia :(
Rooting for Private Sessions. A random internet stranger here stoked to hear that you’re getting help. Fuck starfield.
You two make such a cute couple. A couple of bros that is 8) (bros in love) - platonically, of course. [with benefits]
(No homo), (very gay for each other)
I work in a different but related creative field, and your discussion of the "scope creep" about project size really resonated with me. Glad Sessions is doing better, wishing you both a more positive 2024
Can relate to PS' troubles with the west virginia trip. The nervousness is obviously totally irrational. In his place i would have probably just declined in the first place. After a while you just realize that even in a familiar setting you might just have a very unpleasant time for seemingly no reason. It sucks and it's important to escape that mindset somehow and it's not a one way door, you have to stay out. Otherwise you end up not doing anything anymore. Can't say how, to be honest i haven't figured it out either.
59:21 I don’t always agree with the points you guys make, but at least y’all sound like good friends. Very wholesome
First up, Private Sessions I'm glad to hear you're on the mend dude. Keep at it!
On the meat of the podcast: One of the low key fascinating things about the Starfield debacle, in a meta sense for the industry, is how it's kind of laid bare a lot of the "this is how things are supposed to work" nonsense. With hype and reception, I mean. A lot of UA-camrs don't understand they are cheap labor for PR, and up until now they've generally relied on AAA releases being safe bets. Their careers are not built on analytical thought, but just being first out the gate, or just being positive-PR shills. And going past the independent PR channels, the awards / accolades aspect of Starfield getting snubbed is so goddamn funny. It had the advantage of its release date essentially making it the "Oscar bait" of video game awards ceremonies, and it didn't pan out.
Release the Starfield venting cut! ❤
Maybe irrelevant and ignorant, but: I think the Oblivion video has the best audio quality. There is a softness (as opposed to a crispness) to your (voice) sound setup that can make me listen to it any day all day, whereas with your Skyrim video I feel the need to take a break every hour
yes even for sleeping the Skyrim videos didn't sound as "soft", really weird
It's interesting to see how your friendship progresses.
I'll go and see that Private's Starfield video, I guess. The benefits of watching something long after the fact.
glad to hear Private Sessions is doing better
glad to hear this one hope this next year doesn't repeat the same issue with Dragon's Dogma 2
The first time I tried pulling a premier back to the beginning it didn't save my position in the video when it reloaded. I wasn't going to try that again so I'm forced to either sit down for 8hrs or wait till tomorrow to watch it.
The premier was just a shit idea really, it's the worst parts of streaming and static videos. Can be neat to talk to the guy that made the video while it's ongoing but when there's lots of people you can't actually have a back and forth or pause on a topic or whatever, so why bother?
Preach brother, premiers are dumb.
A positive video for forspoken? Thats a first
Can you imagine having a mental breakdown over Starfield?😂😂 I wasn't planning to buy that game anyway but after hearing this imma deffo stay away from that game😂💯
Jokes aside glad you recovered bro
Honestly greatly appreciated the Outer Worlds video because I felt like I was going crazy seeing it receive near universal critical praise - it seemed like I had played a wholly different game from everyone else, so it was nice to see that there were other people who also thought it was a bit shite.
TOW is good though. Hating on it is trendy and smooth brained.
20:45 Xbox Game of the Year…
The *Console*-ation Prize
Bungie died before the release of Destiny 1, it just took everyone a long time to catch up to it.
Recently found your channel, have you talked about Baulders Gate (3)? Will you make any video about it?? Would be super interessting if you did 😊🙏
People hate Jacob's quest because everyone marooned on that island for decades is inexplicably using thermal clips
Glad you’re doing well!
Dude literally just thinking 2 minutes ago "I could go for some PatricianTV right about now"
Glad to see PS is doing better. Looking forward to your guys' next project!
Make the vent podcast a patreon exclusive if you don't know what to do with it; definitely would love to hear it. It was interesting in the Fallout 76 video
I hope one of you makes a kenshi video
Would’ve loved to see that Human Revolution video
I can't say I hate Starfield, or even dislike it. It's so mediocre but that's what I expected. However what surprised me (in a bad way) was how amazingly bad their quest design and story continues to be. They had the alt dimension starborn thing in mind , and yet, outside of a way to skip a few bribes and save one character, it has NO IMPACT on the story.
I distinctly remember doing NG+ for the first time and just... Being in disbelief that nobody outside of ship technicians and the contraband scanners acknowledged I was on essentially a freaking alien ship and wearing whacky alt universe armor and using magic powers.
It got even worse as you get further in and everyone sees the starborn..... Yet they suspect nothing of you. The newcomer who has a crazy ship, crazy outfit and has had powers this whole time. Not constellation, nobody from any of the factions.
How can a dev team be so inept at design that they can't account for something EVERY PLAYER is going to have going into NG+
1:42:00 Yeah that's Elianora all right.
Glad to see you back, PS!
Rant recordiiiiing!!!
2:30:41 it is so weird watching this section after the Xbox showcase
What was the Morrowind challenge? I'm gonna be doing a Morrowind run after Christmas, would it be worth doing?
Tetramore no longer part of the podcast team?
Starfields bad as a whole it’s dog water and mocks you for playing it. Definitely was either on purpose, internal problems, or stagnation due to self glorification.
Starfield gets good after ng+50 lmao
I would love to see the rantcast.
You think that's depressing? In 6-12 months when Bethesda adda a bunch of (Minecraft) base building DLC people will sing its praises and say how could you ever doubt the Todd. Cough cough No Man's Sky still has no story and Cyberpunk still doesn't fulfill its original promises cough cough.
Also, PLEASE STOP CENTERING YOUR MENTAL HEALTH AROUND CORPORATE PRODUCTS AND SOCIAL MEDIA. This is not okay. Just because something is "normal" doesn't make it okay. Slavery used to be normal. Doesn't make it okay.
Whats the game they are playing
Valheim
one of the greatest tragedies of gaming in 2023 is that we never got a full Single Player mode for Valheim... being co-op required game is exactly what is going to drive this game into obscurity... game companies don't understand that "gamers" don't have a fixed schedule, let alone a COMBINED fixed schedule to play co-op obligatory games
Elite the original game from 1985 was a better space exploration game than starfield
On the topic of your Outer Worlds video, I watched your video on it /specifically/ because I didnt care too much about the game. To me it looked more Oblivion in Space, and since Oblivion is my least favorite of the Elder Scrolls games I have played to date... its not hard to understand why I would experience the game vicariously through you. Zaney fun is all and good, but dont expect me to take you seriously like Fallout if your writing is High on Life.
Bethesda has only one high level voice left - Todd, who is the action and procgen guy. That's what starfield was built around. First problem is, the tech bethesda uses is really bad at both of those things. The second problem is, that's not what bethesda makes, what people like about their games is the handcrafted storylines and exploration (starfield is a great example of having lots to explore does not good exploration make). So i think Todd is a net negative on the studio, they can't make what he wants to make, but his influence is too high not to shape the projects towards his "vision"
Reminds me of me and my best friend going over scripts
YALL starfield was a big reason/catalyst me and my gf broke up.. something to be said there lmao
Glad you’re feeling better!
Depression and anxiety together is hard to deal with. It’s understandable you need breaks.
Comparing your mid video game to the single greatest achievement in human history is fucking *insane*
Right!? Starfield nowhere near as amazing as sliced bread.
@@player0additem0noiffound the good egg
starfield is the most biblical story we everwritten ähm wait...^^@@player0additem0noif
A recurring intrusive thought which is likely to haunt me for a long time is, "Bethesda doesn't even USE design documents" 😐
I said it on the Starfield video, and I'll say it here too: Its absolutely mind boggling that they don't, yet it explains so damn much about how their games are getting so much worse with time.
Its a miracle that a shippable product comes out the other end at all, when you really consider it.
@matrix3509 Like I keep ruminating over the implications of it... I'll be staring off into space, trying to picture an approximation of Bethesda's org charts or internal workflow systems, roadmaps, timelines, anything... but all I see in my mind's eye is an etch-a-sketch of eldritch glyphs and spaghetti code. Tinnitus ear-ringing distracts from the images for long enough for the realization to dawn that I've been holding my breath for several seconds. I gasp; wait for my senses to normalize. I close my eyes to reset. Briefly, my thoughts flicker to Todd. The lifeblood of an empire and its single point of failure. The father of non-lies. The alpha and omega production bottleneck. "It just works," he says. I scream.
@@logancade342 LMAO, but yes. Literally the entire structure of BGS rests on Todd's shoulders, and suddenly it makes much more sense in all those developer interviews when every Bethesda employee mentions how Todd doesn't have time for anything anymore.
His entire job now is just 24/7 trying to ensure the Rube-Goldberg machine of Bethesda continues to run.
The moment Todd retires, Bethesda comes crashing down in flames.
I've worked on software projects without docs, it's a fucking nightmare and for a huge company like bethesda to do it is mind blowing
@@logancade342 gddamnmake a game about this instead haha
I just wanted to say this, I’ve watched all of the elder scrolls retrospectives, the fallout 76 retrospective and the starfield retrospective and even your review of starfield despite being competently written and edited is a blur in my mind compared to the others. At least the negatives of the other games were due to interesting things like an overly complex and poorly constructed level scaling system. Starfield is just too soulless to remember.
Imagine spending millions of dollars and not even being able to wipe your ass with it, that's what Starfield feels like
get a bidet… its much better
@@covert0overt_810average Bethesda fan vs average Bidet enjoyer
@@jeremytitus9519 you made my day fren
Starfield inflicted ego death is something else
I don’t blame them though. It’s literally sh*t. It makes fallout 4 look like a magnum opus.
@TheAnthonyMarlowe Starfield is Bethesdas rectum anus
That's hilarious
Imagine going to the doctors over it and they just sit quietly and nod sagely
Release the rant cast! Even if it's on plebTV
I've always been a fan of bethesda. I love Fallout and The Elder scrolls but I refuse to play Starfield. I'm a new parent and both of guys videos made it so i would never waste my time on that horrible car crash of a game. I barely have time to play games so you guys saved me from wasting precious time.
*Picks up and wipes off crown*
@PrivateSessions
"You've dropped this, King"
Glad you’re doing well @PrivateSessions!!
BG3 would be a great video for your quality and depth of analysis that is a positive project. Obviously it would be an incredibly large project given the way you analyze quests and their various outcomes, but I'd love to see it!
The reason I think Bethesda keeps talking about mods is that at some point Todd Howard talked to Gabe Newell (or watched one of those interviews or talks that Gabe gave that are still floating around on UA-cam) and Gabe told Todd that Valve has all the money in the world and its because they realized they could monetize modders. So Todd wants to repeat that success story, because that is what Valve did. Steam was originally for Valve games and some successful mods that got turned into games of their own (the most promising ones being bought out and released by Valve itself), and both Valve and Bethesda's bread and butter (or used to be in Valve's case) is action RPGs. But what he doesn't understand is what makes people want to mod a game. Because Half-Life was exquisitely crafted with a great story and combat, but also had an innovative engines that could do things nobody else was offering and a suite of assets that were as good or better than just about any other game up to that point. Of course people would want to make their dreams come true using cutting-edge technology which suddenly made it possible. Starfield, on the other hand, is space game #5. The engine isn't particularly easy to work with, it doesn't allow for anything unique, there isn't much of a story to expand, or novel game mechanics to explore or tweak.
That's just my theory, though, and I don't have any evidence if that's what Todd Howard has in his head somewhere. Would be pretty cool if there was a quote or two though.
when's the wedding?
The Far Harbor stream you guys did is one of my favorite streams from this year. It was a journey and you guys broke the problems with the narrative down in an entertaining way. The Destiny stream was a highlight as well, that one was more depressing though lol. Glad to hear PS is doing better. I know you guys are trying to be more positive but I think we'd all like to hear the starfield ventcast lol.
It really doesn’t matter what the subject matter is, it’s always just so nice to hear two people in love talk to eachother
Pat you could release the starfield podcast on your second channel with little to no editing or on private's. Would love to the Spartan ops clown cars perhaps also on the second channel or even as Livestream
Some Starfield boards are mind blowing. It's crazy how much people are scolding those not blindly praising it and coping over this soulless pos.
2:24:30 For an update, Starfield went on sale on steam and the recent reviews *dropped* to 37% positive on recent review, putting the game into "Mostly Negative" territory. "All reviews" is at 66% "Mixed". It's also interesting that out of 271 reviews on Christmas day (the day I'm listening to this), 205 were negative. Paints an awkward picture for those getting it as a gift.
Glad private is doing better. And Pat, definitely take the year like you wanted to next year and make videos on games you actually like
Edit: A spartan ops video would be great for a negative video because of that "so bad it's good" quality. I have war flashbacks every time I hear them say "phantom" in H4. Can confirm solo is miserable and not the intended way to play it, I soloed the whole thing just to say I did it
I like the story of spartan ops, more than the main campaign. But actually playing it solo...
@@jossricketts4452I think it's honestly hilarious that Spartan Ops probably has a better story than the actual campaign. I found it to be far less egregious to the worldbuilding than the main story. They still can't help but ruin the main characters and dragged Halsey into this mess though, now she's some sociopathic war criminal even though there's so many things wrong with that depiction if you ever knew the character.
I could listen to you guys talk shit about Bethesda all day
Honestly Skyrim really could have been a fluke that it worked, rather than intentional design. Considering how badly 76 and Starfield utterly fumble at being good exploration, rather than what you would expect to see from a skilled designer learning/improving their craft.
I think your Outer Worlds video did as well as it did because you pinpoint why it's such a mediocre game in terms of everything, despite the reception at the time being "wow Obsidian REALLY know how to make an RPG, unlike Bethesda" purely because Fallout 76 was so bad that they all gave it a pass. I felt so frustrated after finishing that game and feeling my time was wasted, with everyone else considering it as some masterpiece - so your analysis was vindication to me personally.
Everyone else considering it a masterpiece? That game had a middling reception and a sea of criticism from day 1. It's been recommended as "buy on a 75% sale" by like three weeks after launch.
@@kabletar1332 Yeah, and the launch week it got a bunch of 8.5s and 9s from all the outlets, giving it a nice Metacritic score of 85, a point higher than Fallout New Vegas. How is that a "middling reception"?
I understand being disagreeable runs in some people's blood, but geez dude.
@@thesunthrone Outlets being wrong when it comes to game scores? Imagine my shock. The non-journalist response was between calling it awful and forgettable, not worth full AAA price for something that was described as an AA game.
It’s okay bro I would be depressed too if I had to play starfish seriously
Glad you’re doing well Private. Pat, release the Ventcast
I agree I really do hope someone talks about Inon Zur's music. Not because its bad, it isn't.
Its just really nice forgettable background music that you could play in a cinema lobby.
welcome back private sessions! i played starfield for about 50 hours and only had a mild corneal ulcer
Starfield is one of the most impressively unimpressive games I've ever played
I haven’t seen any of your other podcasts, but listening to this now and hearing the creative process behind your long form content is definitely interesting and gives me a load more respect for you all. I think I tend to take UA-cam for granted, not realizing the amount of labor and passion that goes into this sort of thing. It’s especially interesting because I myself have considered making similar (albeit shorter) content about books and other forms of storytelling. It’s definitely food for thought, and has also shown me that I’m *really* not in a place to be doing so. Especially considering it’s enough to send PrivateSessions over the edge. I relate to his anxiety issues a lot and could see myself stressing a little too much with the workload as well. Oh well, thanks for all your hard work, guys. I’m looking forward to next year’s endeavors :D
I'm happy to hear that private is doing well!
I'm watching this while in the hospital. Keep making great content
Hey @privatesessions happy to hear things are getting better. Anti-depressents made a world of differnce for me personal. Hope things keep improving for you ❤
28:00 you had to have been referring to Fudgemuppet here, they gave it a glowing day 1 review only to back step later.
Ya Gopher ended up doing the same thing. He's usually incredibly nice to Beth games so to see him of all people knocking it was a pretty major red flag.
Too bad I already bought it at that point lol
Great to see you and private back in action. 2 lads I will always come back to watch on youtube
PS and Pat are my favourite homosexuals on the internet
You two really come off as great friends. I hope Sessions feels better. Don't work too hard, try and have fun more often! Hang out with your bro.
We, need _need_ *NEED* full blown collab PattySesh joints--two of my favorite longform creators and boy would they be BANGERS.
The bromance and comparability of styles, m'wah, perfect.
You probably won't read this, but you can't rewind premieres or any other live stuff on the phone app. That's why people are complaining. Rewinding only works on the desktop app
It doesn't work well on desktop either.
Well.. I heard 70% of the team that made Dishonoured left during redfall.. so... what is Arkane now any way
#fireEmilPagliarulo
Fire every member at Bethesda
Fire Todd Howard
@Patrician I really enjoyed your Fear video and have watched it about 3 times now. I also like your Harry Potter and Star Wars videos. I love your negativity but I enjoy your positivity more. I am likely a niche person, but I really like your content.
What I find best about your videos, is that a person, like me, who hasn't played the games can enjoy the coverage of them. I like to dedicate lots of time to very good games, and this channel is a fantastic way to filter certain games from my interest.
Tires replacing blood is 10/10 btw in that old ass CoD video.
Just wanted to say I'm glad you're doing better, Sess. I had only heard something on a comment on a video that wasn't yours or Pat's, so I had no idea of the voracity. Regardless, very good to hear you're on the right track again, duder.