Kaldo

It did? Outer Worlds was just an over-exaggerated parody of capitalism, Starfield at least had some somewhat-believable world building in terms of how the tech progressed, how/why did humans start to live among the stars, conflict between different religions or factions, the xenomorph threat...

Like I'm not saying any of these were done well, but it did have decent worldbuilding and some neat ideas, it was just the execution that sucked. OW might have some better parts than SF, like companion writing (although it was pretty cliched and cheesy there too) so I'm really surprised you use world building as your example lol

I've heard of it and tried to get into it a few times but I think I just lack the time/patience of my youth to get into something like that anymore, its a steep learning curve and you have to make most of the fun yourself / RP.

Yep, there are definitely many comparisons between Starbound and Starfield, it is why I was excited about SF in the first place - it looked like a big budget SB made by an experienced veteran team! The joke's on me I guess lol

I too wish for a game like this but apparently it's impossible to do it, either due to lack of vision, budget or expertise (or all of the above). Starfield sounded perfect on paper and it was a good studio to attempt it but in the end it was just a bland, soulless, boring mess of a game.

As for my suggestions, I just got smaller games, not larger ,and in that vein honestly: FTL. It's a 2d sprite roguelike and yet it's the best game at giving me the feeling of being a scrappy starship captain on the run, trying to scrounge together resources in order to complete my trip despite overwhelming odds.

The second closest game is Starbound but your mileage will vary, it feels unfinished and there is no real story to speak off, although the ship you continually improve and build in over time as you explore the universe does start to feel cozy and homely. It is also basically a worse Terraria in space so if you don't like gameplay like that, skip.

If you like Mass Effect you ought to try KOTOR1 and 2, oldies but goldies, but they do have the same weaknesses you already outlined for ME, it's very much a set story.

As someone considering the switch in the other direction, what made you want to leave EOS?

Not necessarily true, I think most of those votes would go to the most popular populist candidate or the one with a better PR team, it wouldn't be truly random distribution.

That's a lot of assumptions that I can't agree are inherently true. Forcing people to participate might not make them think at all beyond fulfilling the duty and not paying a fine, and random votes might not balance out the charismatic leaders at all - if anything the charismatic populist leaders that focus on good PR over substance will probably gather up more of these uneducated "just circle something" voters than the others. It is where/why marketing and commercials work so well in the first place and I'd rather not give even more power to this type of brainwashing, it is a popularity contest enough as it is.

If anything, I'd make it so in order for people's votes to count they need to show at least a very basic understanding of what they are voting for and what are the implications of it.

How is it better if someone just goes and circles a random name on the list because its mandatory? If someone doesn't follow politics and isn't educated enough to pick a good candidate, or motivated enough to research them, I think it's better to not vote at all than to give it up to either chance or a superficial gut feeling based on constant propaganda barrage. A person that votes like that just makes your vote less impactful, statistically speaking.

Just completing the main quests afaik, if it's only been a year then there shouldn't be too many.

They actually went back and reduced the painful grinds for some of the previous stuff, like crafting railjack/necramechs and most syndicates are now much easier to progress.

I dunno if it counts as an MMORPG but Warframe has sunk its claws back into me and I can't get it out of my head. The new update is mindblowing in many ways and I'm so into whatever the devs keep cooking if they continue like this.

It's a tough game to get into but I've been playing it on and off for a decade now and there's nowhere I'd rather be

It's a weird game. You're not really supposed to play it like a game and have fun like in a game lol, if that makes sense.

For example - you should avoid combat if you can. Take only one or few enemies at a time and that's if you are in good condition (not panicked, exhausted, in pain, malnourished and drunk at the same time)

Never run anywhere, it just tires you out and creates noise. Calmly walk away from zombies and lose them by breaking LoS. This takes practice and is generally tedious

Don't do fun stuff like rely on vehicles or guns too much, at least in the early game. They are noisy and attract too much attention, you use them once you have enough ammo and a place to fall back to in case it goes wrong. Cars are great once you have a secured base away from the main city areas but aren't that useful for city exploration.

Bases are not really safe. You can barricade all you want but if one zombie starts banging on it, soon the others will join due to noise. Generally you want to be out of reach and hidden rather than well defended. Proactively clear out the areas you spend a lot of time in.

etc. etc. It's much more of a simulator than a game at times, for better and worse. I have a love hate relationship with it xd

Valheim was one of the best selling games and is still a huge success. Indies are getting better and more popular to the point that even big companies like Nexon are indiewashing their studio and pretending that Dave the Diver is an indie game with pixel art instead of a work of one of the biggest publishers there is. In my experience most of the gamers nowadays are people that grew up on minecraft, terraria or probably more likely today - roblox.

So basically no, I don't think so. Maybe big studios want you to believe that and it might be true for a casual FIFA or CoD gamer but for anyone else, there are more options than ever and the supply of good smaller simpler games is just overwhelming, the days are too short to even keep track of them anymore.