Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast - Starfield Update Review - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Episode Date: May 16, 2024

Bethesda dropped a major quality of life update on its 2023 RPG. Is it worth coming back for? Find out from Parris, Mike, and Greg! Run of Show - - Start - EA Sports College Football 25 is ALMOST HERE! - The Oreo Fairy is Here! - Housekeeping - Recapping Our Thoughts on Starfield at Launch - Starfield’s Big May Update Review So Far - NEW GAME PLUS SPOILERS - Ads - Was Starfield Given Too Much Pressure? - SuperChats - Is the Update Enough to Bring You Back? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What's up, everybody, and welcome to another kind of funny games cast for Thursday, May 16th, 2024. I'm Mike. That's Greg. That's Paris. And we're here to talk video games. Greg, you were on the green set, which means Mike and Paris are reunited and it feels so good. It's an ex-cast reunion. I'm happy to see you guys here together. Thank you, Greg. The one thing missing is Gary Witta, but of course, he's always defending democracy and liberty and turning his back on Xbox. That's what he's known for is right. Paris, what up, Big Dog? How are you?

It's great to see you on the screen and talking games with you again. Yeah, it is great to see you, Mike. It was so funny. I love that we do this live now, so you see the chat. The chat yesterday was like, Mike is on the back of a milkbox carton. Like, where is he? Why is he not here talking about this? Mike, you want to talk to the Hellblade two dev?

He's like, nah. I'm intimidated. All right, I guess. I will say that yesterday there was a great games cast interview. you and Paris conducted with the Hellblade 2 team from Ninja Theory. It was really good. You guys did a fantastic job. I told Greg this yesterday during the live stream,

but it is always awesome to watch you guys conduct an interview. Truly impressive stuff. So shout out to that. Go check that out. Of course, Greg and Paris, we got a little BS before we start today's podcast. We're going to be talking all things Starfield with the big May update. But before that, we got to celebrate.

Because we're the sports boys here in the office. Our best, maybe. And NCAA College football. see what's going on July. Let's fucking go. Ferrofield. Memorial Stadium. We got the cover athletes and we got the date. Gregi.

Yeah. You brought the hype. Give me the rundown. What do we need to know about? What you need, I mean, like, it's one of those, we can be excited as we want to right now. That, of course, EA has brought back college football. EA college football 25 is coming out July 19th, 2005. of course, we'll be playing it on July 16th

because the special deluxe editions, whatever, those get you the early access. And you know we need the early access. I can only assume the first game is going to be Colorado coming to Columbia, Missouri, to take on my Missouri Tigers. You'll lead Colorado, I'll lead to Missou. I like that quite a bit.

It's back. It's been so long since we had a college football game, but it is back. And tomorrow we see more of it, which is super exciting. really exciting about that. We have some very special guests in the studio right now that I want to hit pause on this conversation beforehand.

Hi. Who is this lovely lady right here? Oh my. It's the Oreo fairy. I think a little widow has brought me sour patch kid Oreos right there. Thank you so much for bringing those out here. Thank you. Hi. That's Mike. Do you know Mike?

Yeah, you remember me? Okay, good. Thank you for the cookies. How are you? Are you having a good day? Yeah. Does your daddy toot a lot? Yeah.

Yeah. I thought he did. He struck me as a stinky. He struck me as a stinky. Are you going to host the Kind of Funny Gamescast one day? Yeah. Great.

And that's what I love to hear. Thank you so much for these cookies. Can I get a big hug? Oh. It's so good to see you. It's been so long, all right? I'll say how to bend for you, okay? Thank you.

Now, if you're an audio listener, you probably can see that beautiful. moment right there. The winners are in the building. Drop it off some Oreos. We're back, baby. Come on. Greg, you're number one, big duck. I try to be number one around here. You know what I mean? But Gary Whitton, he's the real champ. When he sees an Oreo at the store and he texts me and says, do you need this. And I say, yes, I do, Gary Witta. Please bring me that cookie.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the sad. Gary Witta. Bring the whole crew together. Sit on. Sit down and talk to the mic. It's not free. She wants one. Oh, yeah, got to have a cookie. Yeah. Let's get a live taste test right now of these Oreo. Sour Patch Kills. edition. Paris, give me your...

I'm very interested to hear your verdict on these, Greg. Did you know these existed? Oh, yeah. Oh, wow. Yeah, that's going to be...

The patented orieration first look, let me tell you, you're getting a sour patch smell there. You're getting a sour patch smell there. All right. Cheers those Oreos and let's try it. Cheers.

Hit them together, go. There we go. Then we eat them. Right? Oh, yeah. Big bite. There we go. Oh yeah, oh yeah, of course I want an Oreo, please and thank you.

Slide it over to your saloon style. Wow. Oh, wow. Okay, ladies and gentlemen, the smell of that smells just like you've put your face into a patchy-staff patch, kids. You can taste the gummy in there. You can feel the gummy in there. But it's got like a fruity pebbles taste to it, which I'm a big fan of. Yeah.

Little sour, a little tart. All right, that's all. I wanted to make sure you got your cookies. Enjoy. What's the instant verdict? Good. Yeah, really? No.

Oh, no one in, no one in. I don't like, I'm like, but no one in the house. Well, it's a big fruity pebble fan. I like that. I like that. I like that. I'm not getting a lot of sour.

Paris, would you eat these? Paris, would you eat these? I would definitely try them for sure. Thank you, Gary. All right, no worries. You too, love you.

We love you. Thanks for stopping by. Those are something special right there. There's something else right there. Bye. Bye. What a great interruption. Some nice cookies right there.

You'd love to see it. Let's bring us back down to Earth right now. Let's talk about it. Enough of these goddamn kids. Let's talk about college football. It's back, maybe. You want to go back to college football? Let's do it, of course.

No, he has it. We have our three college athletes as grazing the cover. You got Colorado superstar Travis Hunter, my guy, a two-way athletes, playing both sides of the ball. I am, I can't believe I live in a world where a Colorado Buffalo is on the cover of an NCAA sports game. Well, the record is so good. You know, the first four weeks were good.

Then we jumped out really quick. I didn't see much after that. But we'll let it go. Whatever. Paris, are you hyped for this? Are you ready for college football? I answer it this way. So you do realize on July 16th

after you have your little grudge match or whatever you guys are going to do, the winner will have to get on the I-10 and head south down to Tallahassee, Florida to Doe Campbell Stadium to play to Florida State Seminoles because I will be in person. I'm telling you right now, come up. My plan is simple, all right?

We do the review, then we go into the parking lot, we tailgate for at least three hours, then we come in a little drunk, probably a lot drunk and we play the game. We just play the game. All on stream, all on stream. Well, keep an eye out for that, of course. You said the reveal tomorrow. So if you're listening to this late, probably today, but right now

if you're watching live, of course, on YouTube and on Twitch, we will see you tomorrow to talk all about NCAA. I'm not wrong about that, right? I read it in the call. Yes, I saw that as well. So you're right. But of course, let's bring it back to today's gamescast topic because of course this is the kind of funny games cast. Each and every weekday, we get together to talk about the biggest reviews,

previews, and topics in the video game world live on YouTube and on Twitch and of course on podcast services around the globe. If you love what we do, please consider supporting us with the kind of funny membership available right now on Patreon and on YouTube to get the very best of kind of funny. You'll be able to watch our shows live as we record. them you'll get ad-free viewing and of course you'll get your daily dose of Greg Miller with your daily Greg ways of course for a chance to be a part of the show don't forget if you're watching on YouTube you can submit your thoughts and opinions via YouTube super chats as we go I'll be keeping an

eye on that and of course today we're talking all things Starfield and the big update so if you're on YouTube and you want to share your initial thoughts off this update please YouTube super chat I'll read those throughout some housekeeping for you don't forget that kind of funny isn't 11-person small business. That's all about live talk shows. Today, you've already gotten news about Xbox dropping the red line around certain titles, possibly coming to other platforms on Kind of Funny Games daily available on YouTube, Twitch, and on podcast services.

Up next, Nick Scarpino completes his final training for the Pokemon finale tomorrow to become Pokemon master. We will go out there. We will catch Pokemon. We will grind. some levels and we will prepare for the finale against the Elite 4 to become Pokemon champion tomorrow live on Twitch and on YouTube. If you're a kind of funny member, don't forget that today's Gregway is all about,

hey, does time move too fast for you? Enjoy life. Think about the moments. Celebrate those moments that you have with friends and family. Does it move fast for you, Paris Lily, whose son just turned 18? You just said it. It's insane. And my daughter graduates college tomorrow.

God damn, dude. Which is insane. Yeah, my sister also turned 18 a couple months ago and is also graduating next week. Amazing. So go out there, listen to today's Gregway. And of course, you can get Mad Max Fury Road in review this afternoon and, of course, on tomorrow on YouTube and on podcast services. We'd like to give a big thank you for the Patreon producers who make our dreams reality.

Carl Jacobs, Fargo Brady, and Deliney twinning. Twining. Thank you. It's been a while since I got the host. Today we're brought to you by... You keep up this performance. It'll be a long time again. Today we brought to you by the kind of funny membership. But we'll tell you all about that a little bit later.

From now on, let's start the show with Topic of the show. Topes, Top of the show today. Your big May update for Starfield. That's right. We're returning to the Bethesda title. We're going into the Stars with the big. May update. And I'm going to ask Greg and Paris all about their experiences

thus far with the update. And I'll give you the big details you need to know about. But of course, guys, it's been eight months since launch. Outrageous. Pretty wild to think that. Talk about it's time moving fast for y'all. Eight months ago, we were in this room talking about it on the review, talking

about it on Xcast, doing the big live stream. And so I wanted to start this conversation off before we get into the details of the update of, hey, if somebody missed it, or we've forgotten about some of your initial thoughts, and reviews from the game when you did the big review. Why don't you give that to me in short detail, Paris, Lily? Of course, lead reviewer at the time of Kind of Funnies' Starfield coverage, Paris, Lily.

Yeah, so I'm actually going to use the current kind of funny scale, as I say this. Love that. When I originally reviewed Starfield, I was saying you got to judge it for what it is at the time, not what the potential of what it could be. And if we were to use the current kind of funny scale, I probably give it a 7.5. Looking back on it now, thinking about it, that it's good. It is well worth your time, is well worth the investment to play this game. But there were a lot of quality of life issues with it, specifically UI.

The UI with the map, you know, some things with the outpost, some of the weapons. there were various things in the game that they definitely could have cleaned up some of the camera work with the NPCs as other examples. So when I look back and I think of where the game is today and we'll get to that in a second.

I'm jumping too far ahead. But yeah, I'll say 7.5 on what Starfield was eight months ago and I definitely have an updated number. Oh. Okay. Greg Miller, what was some of your early thoughts back eight months ago?

I went back and watched the review actually again to get back in there and refresh myself on where we all were and what I was thinking and yet-e-e-y-eater. What I said back then right was that this is, on the old scale, a four out of five great time I'm having with this game, but I worried that it was a three out of five good game. Of course

from that review, I would then go on to do that spoiler castes I was super proud of as a game's cast which was just me talking after or after starting my fifth new game plus run, spoiling everything, talking about where I am what my character is done and what I mean when I say this is the first RPG I've ever actually role played in and da-da-da-da-da.

And I would assume we're going to have to spoil things in this review thing now, but we don't have to do it right now. So anyways, bringing up to speed, that's what I said. Then I went and did that. And then, of course, infamously for many, for my top 10 of last year, I put Starfield as number one. And that is wholly admitting and agreeing with Paris. When I was thinking about what I would give Starfield, right,

on the new kind of funny scale, I would go 7-5 as well, good. There were plenty of other games last year that were better video games that were more complete, less friction points, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. No video game for me last year

matched the experience I had with Starfield and the journey I took my character, Becky Lynch on, and the things we did and where it left me and where I wanted to start my new game plus number five and what I wanted to do in that. game. No game I played last year had that lasting of an impact on me where I think so fondly about Starfield. And I think about Starfield a lot. And it has been over these past eight months,

a lot of like, I'd love to get back to it. I'd love to go run another thing. I'd love to go do this. So that is the, you know, very TLDR version of everything there. There's lots of reasons not to like Starfield. I get them. When people, like blessing in that review saying it's a three out of five and really listing off like where he got hung up, I get all of that. But for me, the parts that work in Starfield and work so well as a Bethesda fan are what made that experience I'll ever forget. We talk about the game releasing in September. I want to just get a quick vibe check on our final pre-question before we jump in. Have you been keeping up and playing the game since it's launched in September?

Did you fall off and kind of put it on pause until this big update, Greg Miller? As you pointed out when I booted up the stream yesterday, no. I have not touched it. My save is from September. That's not a reflection on the. the game. That's a reflection on the industry and what we do as a job where, you know, when I started New Game Plus 5 and I was like,

this is the seed I want to build. I'm going to build my church on this rock. You know what I mean? I was like, this is where I want to start from when I come back. I knew I was walking away to review a plethora of other games, preview other games, live my life and do all these different things, knowing one day I would come back. And yesterday

it was the day with this update because we wanted to test the update. We're going to talk about it here. In reality, shattered space is on the horizon, right? We're obviously going to learn more about that here at SGF in a little bit or the SGF Xbox Bethesda conference that happens on Sunday, right? We'll learn about it there what that

actually is and I think that'll really be the return, but maybe not. We'll have a few conversations, I'm sure about that a second. I like that. Paris, have you been playing since the eight months after launch? I stopped in December. I played until the end of the year and then kind of similar to Greg. It's like

there's just real life happening. There's a ton of other games that you want to play. You know, I I had run through Starfield through the new game plus multiple times. So I felt I had a good gauge of what the game was. So I purposely put it down and started focusing on other things because I knew they were going to improve it over the year. And we knew Shattered Space potentially would have been coming this year. I actually thought it would have been 2025.

So it's a pleasant surprise to hear it is dropping this year. So I knew I would be returning to the game at some point. And this big update was the excuse to jump back back in and start playing it. All right, guys. Well, let's talk about the Big May update. This is a big deal, a lot of quality of life, stuff coming, and of course, a lot of bug fixes that I'm going to fill you in on right now. But before that, I want to just inform everybody.

We might talk about some spoilers in this. We're not going to go super spoiler-heavy, but if you're trying to stay clear of this, now is your kind of moment of I'm going to give the update, and we're going to talk. We're going to have a real conversation about this. So there's your clear warning right now. But here's your update from Bethesda from the blog for the Big May update.

So here's what I'll tell you. improve surface maps. We've heard your feedback and we've made some big improvements to surface maps so you'll always know where you're going and no longer get lost. You have new gameplay options

for those who like a bit of an extra challenge or want to make some aspects of the game easier you can customize your experience with brand new options in the settings menu. Want to make ground combat harder but ship combat easier? You can do just that. They've added ship decoration mode

to the interior of ships. Now you can decorate your ships just like you can without posts. Added tabs to container menus to make managing your inventory easier. Added the ability to change traits and appearance after entering the unity. Added dialogue camera, toggle in settings, and then added display settings for Xbox Series X to prioritize visuals or performance, adjust frame rate targets, and toggle V-sync for Series X. That's just the tip of the iceberg.

There's a bunch of bug fixes. and later on I'm going to tell you about the future of Starfield with more updates coming. But Greg, Paris, now we're going to talk about your guys' experiences with the big update. Greg, I'll start with you because you and I played it yesterday on the stream. Give me your first overall impressions of it. It was shocking to return to Starfield yesterday and have a micro dose of what it was reviewing the game, where if you remember we got it, we all jumped in. And there was a lot of like, whoa, right, where do you, what's the menu system?

How do I get to the, like, this is such a particular game or particular game in terms of what it does and how specific it wants to be about things and its menus and everything else. That yesterday on stream, I was having such an interesting push and pull of I am currently obsessed with fall at 76 after getting the fallout bug after the show and running around and then coming back to that for the first time in years and finding a completely different game. to start up Starfield, I was like, I know that I want to do a new Starfield run. I know that I need to build this out. But jumping in after so much time and literally starting from the start of new game plus five, right, with you, trying to learn all that, talk to you and stream,

I was out in the water, right? I'm like, fuck, I don't know. What's, yeah, blah, blah, blah. And I kept staying on the stream, I can't wait to get back to my desk and sit there with it. I can't wait to get home with it tonight. That happened. We finished the stream, went to the meeting.

Then I played for a good, uh, 45. then I went home last night and went to the basement and just played. And it's an interesting one to talk about reviewing and talking about the update. The update, I think, isn't the most exciting thing in the world. The maps are welcome and great and they're well done. The 60 frames a second is welcome and looks awesome. You know, again, I think playing it yesterday on our TV and jumping through the hoops Kevin had to do to make it work, getting to go home last night,

plug it into my 80 inch. let it go 4K, let it do the thing, you're like, holy shit, like, this looks great, like the the reactions, the missions I'm playing, you know what I mean? Get to all that in a second. But it's not that those are the biggest

headlines, I think. And I know that this solves carrying capacity. I know that this solves being close to the cargo ship and all that stuff. But mileage will vary how much this means to you. Because again, going back and

to the review, right? Like, the things I was saying in it where I'm like, I didn't want to build an outposts, so I don't care that it's like that. I think you level slowly in the game. I don't like the craft or the research stations to get the thing because that directly pertains to your skill points. And like, that stuff for me is still an issue now in this game.

Where I was last night, like, especially coming off of fall at 76, where I'm fucking crafting shit left and right. I'm making diluted med packs. I'm having a great time. I was like, shit. I keep using up my med packs. I should really learn in Starfield

how to make med packs here. And I went to that station. It's like, well, remember, you're locked out of everything because you don't even have chemistry rank one. Chemistry rank one. And again, you level so painfully slow in Starfield that I think it really penalizes you for wanting to get outside of what you do. I finally popped the skill point last night.

And I was like, it'd be great to start investing in chemistry, but I'm using shotguns way more. So I'm going to shotgun rank three. Like I'm not going to stretch and go out there. And I think, Again, maybe by design of how the new game plus runs. We were talking yesterday with the chat. There's a guy in there where that was 159.

Like, there are people who are getting the most out of this and playing the game to find those things to do that, to get those chemistry points. But for me, it's like, no, you, I'm not being encouraged to experiment. I will stick with what works and I will do this and I will just fucking pay for med packs over and over, which I'm fine with and I enjoy the game. I'm getting off in the weeds.

If you had a major problem with how Starfield's menus worked or that there was too many menus or that any of the things I just listed or blah, blah, blah. Like, that's still there. I think it sucks that we couldn't get Gary for this show and he didn't have time to play and yada, because, like, Gary was the one who was like, I fucking hate being overencumbered. So it's like, cool, play this for a week and tell me, did that fix your problem with Starfield or are you still like, ah, that's not what I want to be? Like, I think it still is, everything I loved about Starfield is still there.

I went from, you know, our stream finishing and being like, I really wish I could play fall at 76 tonight, but I'll play more Starfield. Finishing Starfield, like, all right, well Tim and I have a trip this weekend. Am I passing the Xbox S? Am I bringing the S in the little screen, the X screen to play in the plane to play in my hotel?

Am I getting, like, I have to pick a, I have a big choice right now. Do I keep playing Starfield and be obsessed with it, or do I keep playing Fall as 76 to be obsessed with it? The changes in improvements here are welcome. They are noticeable. I don't know if they're going to fix, quote, Starfield for people who had a major problem with Starfield.

Parris, he's kind of putting some stuff down. I think a lot of people talk about like that's cyberpunk 2.0. That kind of changed the game. This isn't that, correct, Paris? This is quality of life, as Greg says. This is definitely not cyberpunk 2.0 to use that as a comparison. This added some quality of life updates for sure.

And I'm a key on one and then I'll jump into my thing. So Greg was talking about Gary and how he didn't like being over-encompassing. in the game. That was probably my number one thing that I took out of this was being able to resolve that issue. So I was going to say, did you boot the game immediately go into the menu and turn it all off or turn it as low as possible?

10,000 percent. Yes. That's exactly what I did. Because for me, I think I even said to send a review. I didn't go back and watch it. But I think I was even talking about it's like this game encourages you to want to pick up everything that you see, but then it penalizes you for picking up everything that you see.

Whereas now this quality of life fix kind of resolves that. So even so the way I'll just jump into it. So the way I approached this was I played the game, you know, for hundreds of hours. I already know what the game is. I didn't need to try and replay anything from a story standpoint. So I took this more from from the technical standpoint of playing the update. So first and foremost, the UI updates with the maps. Fantastic.

Being able to go to New Atlantis and know exactly where to F everything was, was great. Can I jump in with one thing? I think that that also speaks to what a lot of people were missing from this is exploration. Whereas when I lit it up and I was like, okay, cool,

let's fast travel to that gun shop. And it was like, oh, you haven't discovered it yet. Now, great, this is because I rolled a new thing, right? And I went in there.

And then it was sudden like, oh, so I got to go into every shop and I'm like, fuck now it's like, that's a checklist unto itself of I can easily see me sitting there. I was just playing on the cloud.

That's why I got a controller right here. I'm just sitting there while Jen watches something and me going, shop to shop just to light up the fucking thing and clear the map. Sorry, go ahead. So that's interesting that you said that because I just jumped into a save. So I already had discovered everything. So I didn't realize that was a thing. So actually that that's good that you're pointing that out,

that you will still have to discover everything that that will show up as an icon on the map. I did love when you go to planets, the new surface map that they have to kind of give it that more 3D look of being able to check out everything that's, you know, within that quote unquote tile where you're on a planet. My other biggest thing that I checked out was a difficulty slider. I maxed everything out to extreme on both ends, me as far as extreme and as far as enemies

taking damage and giving damage. Brutal. Yeah. It's brutal. And I love it. I love that. I love that that option is there now. It makes it very strategic

of how you're going to go into certain encounters because it will be very punishing to you doing that. I will admit I did scale it back because I just wanted more freedom to be able to kind of roam around and get into a few encounters, things like that. But I kind of think, because Shatter Space will be when I really jump back into this, you know, and full on play it. I'm definitely going to have an extreme run. I think that that'll be a fun, fun challenge to be able to have in the game. Again, another technical thing that I wanted to check out. I played this on console because I wanted to see the Xbox Series X.

should have played. We're going to make him the right choice for a change, ladies and gentlemen. But I wanted to check out the 60 frames per second performance mode and the 40 performance and visual modes as well. Did them all. They all worked fine. I had no issues with that. It was a pretty smooth experience, whether I was playing at 40 or 60 on performance or visual. But what I would recommend, and you even said you had the OLED at home. If you have 120 hertz TV with VRR, play on. visual at 40. That was perfect. I felt you could definitely tell the difference from 30. I mean, obviously it's not 100% like 60, but you could tell the difference from 30 and you had all the visual effects that were there. That's one thing about Starfield on the series X. It's a very pretty game on

series X. It really is. I love the visuals. Yeah, that it's on. So to me, that was kind of the sweet spot with this update, which I will give Todd Howard credit on this when, when he's, He talked about it with us last year. He specifically said there are a lot of areas that go well beyond 30, but they wanted to make sure everyone had a consistent experience. And I think watching Digital Foundry's video and my own experience with this, you can see that the game, even back then, definitely could have on above 30. They just obviously played it safe and locked it at 30.

So I'm glad that now they're able to optimize it a little more and give us various degrees of performance mode and visual. modes at different frame rates. But overall, I think it's a good update. I think this is a solid update. I will say this is probably what the game should have been at launch. They obviously listen to feedback from what people want it. Because remember, even with the encumbrance things, a lot of,

a lot of stuff that Gary was talking about, he didn't like. The pushback on that I saw from different comments was, well, it's Bethesda game. This is, this is how you're supposed to play a Bethesda game. So I'm selling it, Gary. Yeah, there's going to be a rule in how you play a game, right? Yeah. You want to have a fun experience that, and again, this is a game that is encouraging you to explore, but then they were putting all these controls in place that limit you wanting to go out

and explore and pick up things and what's around this corner, that corner, et cetera. So I feel they've unlocked that now with this update. And it seems like once we get to Shatter Space, they're going to add the land vehicle, things like that, they're going to be able to iterate and improve on this even more. I love hearing about the new maps. I really dig the 60 frames. I think it's noticeable. It is a big deal.

A lot of people, when we first reviewed this and talked about it, was, hey, it's 60 frames. We're in the next gen. What is going on? And we talked about the 30 frames like Paris brought up, but it is great to see that is now a priority. A big one that I'm interested in is the ship decoration mode. I know, Greg, you're not a big outpost guy,

but Paris or Greg, did you jump in to check out designing the interior of your ships? No. It did not. Okay. I'm a starborn. All right. I'm here. I got enough going on in my life to getting back to Andrea.

All right. That is the point in here. All right. All right. Well, I know you haven't checked out, but I will get to something you did check out, which is going through the unity and being able to change your traits and the, of course, appearance if you wanted to.

Yeah. So again, not me. I mean, this is a major spoiler for end game and how new game plus works. Again, if you've never heard me rant about this, I would ask you as a friend to put in kind of funny star cast or star,

or Starfield spoiler cast and go listen to me, tell you why I think Starfield's so special at length and spoil everything. But the idea is that you go through the unity every time you start a new game plus. We had confusion when we started of how to do it because I wanted the new traits, but I didn't have a save right at the end. So I was like, you know what?

This is my new game five. It's good enough. We went there and then you get to do it in the actual lodge when you're there talking to the team. Thought that was cool. Went in there, gave myself parents. Still haven't found them, but it was traditional Bethesda last night of. all right, I'm going to do this and then like, you know what?

Not the main quest. Let's go do the UC Vanguard thing and just run on that. So what was even the question? Because now I'm just ranting again. What you thought about that? Yeah. Like,

I think it's a brilliant move, right? It does, that was one of the things of, I think Starfield works so well for me and the fact that this is the first game, I think, where a new game plus has made so much sense and is such a conscious decision.

And again, for the character I've created and the role I am playing, it is that big decision of would you do this? would you go through, would you, blah, blah. And I've gone through now, this is my fifth run here, right? So I've gone through four times. And it is that idea of I am groundhog doing it.

I am quantum leaping it. I have had this experience. I had my love of my life, Andrei Jadae, right, before I can even tell her. And it was that thing of now I'm trying to save her every chance I get. And so this is the one where I'm going to do it. And so like back even to this of like, this is again just about Starfield, more than about the patch, right? Is that again, I told you yesterday playing it, because we went and started the Vanguard stuff, that I had never done that in my original play-through. On one of my new game pluses,

I had started it, and I was like, I'm going to do this. And when I got to the thing where they're like, all right, walk through here to, you know, actually take the test, I turned around, walked out, went and did it and went through the unity again. And I was like, I am going to come back. I'm going to do this. I'm going to get the apartment and then I'm going to go get the girl. Like, that's the plan here. And I'm still nine months later, eight months later, whatever you said it was, I am still that character. I pick up the sticks and that is what I'm doing. And again, for us to have this weird stream yesterday where we're fucking around, talking,

chat, this, that, the other. That's not how I ever play video games, right? Let alone a Bethesda RPG, you know, story-based one. To get home last night and go all in on the vanguard stuff and just run those missions and I started rolling Barrett's with me. I didn't, I'd bear it later in the game as a companion. I never spent a lot of time with him. I liked him as a side character.

Now he's been there since the jump with me, basically. Him and me doing this, going through and spoilers for this quest a bit, right? Of like, it's, like, like, this quest line is just like, see, this is Starfield. This is why I love it. This is why I love Bethesda Games. This is why I love Starfield in a different,

in a way I love, in a different way of why I love Fallout 76. Fallout 76 is a lot of fun, and it is me roaming the wastelands and fucking shit up with my shotgun. seeing a robot every now and again, right? And talking to an MPC. But this is, we found the fucking Xenomorph or we killed it. We did the thing. That's great. We go to report to the fucking crew there be, or the council, there being assholes about it. Guess what? They're attacking the spaceport. Like, I'm like, I didn't see this coming. Let's go. Fuck, this is great. And you're running out then. You're doing the thing. And it's like the way that quest is evolving. You

and I talked yesterday. Did you ever do this? You never did UC Vanguard, right? Yeah, I did the UC Vanguard. But somebody else played it for you? Because when we were in the thing going through, you're like, oh, why didn't they do more with these gibbonies. And then those gibronies are right there. I'm like, oh, okay. So like, Oh, how faroon we asked about?

No, aliens. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But anyways, it's the idea that like doing this and I'm like, wow, this is unexpected,

this is cool and it's fitting into again, like, I'm doing this to get to the apartment to get to Andresia, so, but I'm doing this and I'm liking why I'm doing it. I'm still making the choices

as I think Becky Lynch would say them. And it's like, it's just so fucking good and it's so fleshed out and, you know, we had done the same thing Paris did, right, where we went in and like extreme difficulties.

I want them to hurt me as much as possible and I'll do as little damage as possible. And I had forgotten how to play the game and I'm shooting with a pistol and I'm just dead. I, you know, when I got in there, I was doing this last night, it was cool. Take them up to very hard or whatever. Leave my, take my damage up or down, I guess, one notch technically in terms of how much I'm giving out. Like I'm seeing the XP percentage change over here and I'm balancing it that way. And it is a very like, this is a cool way to customize this. Because again, like for my play-throughs of Starfield,

like they're kind of that point where it's just like, I'm just beating the shit out of everything. I don't need to think I can run and gun. I can, blah, blah. And it wasn't because of my build. It was just how it was. Going in here and really being able to tweak that, I love my only complaint.

And I think something to think about team at Bethesda is what you talked about at the top there a little bit, Paris, right? When you're like, there's no wrong way to play the game. Right? When I was, it's a Bethesda game. They're supposed to be blah, blah. Like, you know, go in there and just, just let me change XP percentage overall.

Let me, because I would love to be crafting this and doing that. But the fact that I'm so slow, I'm like, well, I'm one away from completing the shotgun damage tree. I already have my pistols maxed out. I already have my ballistics matched out. It just makes sense to do this. But that means in the way this game is played, hours from now when I'll actually start on Kems.

And it's like, well, at the point, we'll even matter. That's something I really enjoy, like when we play a game, like Arc Survival Evolved, that me and my predities can just change the XP multiplier, multiplier by whatever and it feels like I'm leveling up a bunch so we can get all that and just have fun with it. You're talking about the terramorphs, the aliens. Yes, I love

that. I love that. Yeah, that was dope when they showed up and this is cool. Oh yeah. And again, like, I understand why you don't necessarily like Starfield, why it's a butt of jokes a lot of times, whatever. But like, meeting the red devils and they all have the red eyes because to do it, they have to work in the mind and the

and I'm like, this is fucking cool. Like, this is just fucking cool. You know what I mean? This character I'm talking to, she's rad. She's a clone. I'm like, this is fucking awesome. Like this is like, and it is like such a weird choice I have of like, I'm working on review stuff so I won't actually get back to this probably until the weekend. But it's like when I sit down, I'm like, do I just keep playing Starfield and get everything ready? So when Shattered Space gets here, I'm ready to go. Ready to go. Paris, we're going to talk to you about more of this update right after a word from our sponsors. What's up everybody? I'm Greg Miller with a kind of funny programming update for you.

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Thank you. And as always, it's been my pleasure to serve you. Welcome back, everybody. Guys, we're having a great conversation about Starfield and the Big May Update. I want to give a shout out to the chat watching on Twitch and on YouTube. We have a number of super chats coming in. Don't forget, you can support us here at Kind of Funny and get involved in the conversations with that YouTube.

Super Chat feature if you would like to share your opinions and thoughts on the May Starfield update please super chat away I'll get to those in just a moment but Paris I want to get to you because of course I went to the ad right as you were getting ready to talk so Paris let's talk a little bit more about this May update and some of your thoughts so I'm actually not going to talk about the update itself I want to piggyback off of a comment that Greg had made just talking about Starfield and basically how polarizing it's been it's not going to be a game that's for everyone, but I have a hot take on this, especially since, you know, some time has passed and, you know, we've seen the reception of it and just the changes and everything that has had since

launch. This game, in my opinion, had too much pressure put on it to basically be the savior for Xbox. Of course. Remember, game in the generation, all these things. That was me. There was a lot of hype. A lot of people were saying it. I mean, you know, we obviously had the anticipation of this.

This was such a highly anticipated game. And then you play it and you see that, hey, it's not a perfect game, which is okay because nothing's going to be perfect, but it is still a really good game. And I think really good wasn't good enough in this instance, unfortunately, because people expected this to be that next great IP coming from Bethesda and Xbox Game Studios to put up there with a halo and a gears of war and all of that and that's just simply not what starfield is if i'll say this if bethsda would have never been acquired by Microsoft and the same exact game came out as a bethsda game i personally believe the praise would have been a lot higher for this game

and it wouldn't have been so controversial interesting my opinion i know some people will disagree with that i disagree with you on that one yeah yeah okay good that's fine but i i do i will stand by the review that we had at the time, obviously what we're saying right now, that this is a game that's absolutely worth your time to play. It really is. I mean, I've truly enjoyed my time.

Go ahead, please. So here's my question, because I agree with you, obviously. I think there's so much to love in Starfield, but then I do think there are things, like I still think that it's kind of ridiculous that the main menu, when you go to and your characters in the center of the screen,

like, how horrible that is. And you got to imagine, it's dated. Huh? It's dated. I can't fathom why that is still what it is. That would have been a quality of life thing I would have gotten out.

So I understand, like, Blessings take when he gave it a three out of five on the initial review was, and I'm going to get it wrong. I want to say he's like, it feels like a 2015 game. He was saying it feels like an RPG that's been from a different time period and way back, right? So to your thing, Paris, of like, if it wasn't an Xbox Acquire thing, I think there still would have been the hype and criticism. And I think it would have been just as bad, if not worse, with more people playing. because of course, as I talked about in the interview,

God Howard, right? Like, Bethes has been goaded forever, and it's like, fall of 76, they took their lumps. Then this comes out. I think people would still be doing the same thing. But again, there is so much to like in this game. It just is a very polarizing game. And I don't think this type of game

could have ever been Xbox's saving grace. We talked about that a lot, you and me, Mike, of coming. When you said it needs to be game of the generation, I was like, there's no chance. Like, that's just not possible. Yeah, it was a very uncertain time and a big moment for Xbox, right? You talk about that, Bethesda deal going through.

This now being announced as not coming to other platforms, an Xbox exclusive, and that's a Bethesda title, a new Bethesda title over 25 years, stepping away from Elder Scrolls and Fall Out, and people, I mean, people love Bethes and they want that, and now the

idea of it not being on other platforms was a big deal, and Xbox needed a win. They still need a win to this day, and Starfield could have been that, should have been that or really right now it is a good game underneath the Xbox umbrella in this current era but at the

same time there was a lot of baggage coming into this launch that this game had to overcome and I don't know if it quite did Paris like it should have but it was good it wasn't great and it wasn't the savior Xbox that they needed here's a question I have for you guys and I'll

start with Paris Paris in the review you said four out of five you could see being a five out of five one day we're talking right now about well this is a great update, but it's not the cyberpunk 2.0 update. Paris, you and I had a long conversation at the tail end of yesterday's games cast about Fallat 76.

My return to it. You're playing it. How great that game has become. Do you see this game, Starfield, getting to a point where it is, it has that cyberpunk 2.0 moment where everybody's like, shit, this is great. Is it possible that shattered space

would be their phantom liberty and everybody would be Gaga for it? I'll say it this way. If Bethesda is committed to continuing to update this game beyond Shattered Space, obviously the mod community is going to factor into this as well. But if it's going to get continued support, let's say another 12 to 18 months from now, I think there's that chance. Because this to me almost feels like let's lay the baseline foundation for the game.

And this is why I say again, this is probably what the game should have been at launch. Now Shatter Space is the opportunity to add that additional layer of content. on top of it that could truly put this over the top, very similar to what happened with cyberpunk. I'll be fascinated because, like, I, you and I talked a little bit yesterday on what we want shattered space to be. Paris, I want to hear your take as well.

But like my pitch was like, yeah, you know, it is something, it'd be cool to see the unity and the new game plus thing they've set up. Touch on that. That it is shattered. It is a bunch of people coming in.

It is all these different things. But that would serve me. And Bethesda is great at serving their audience and the people who consume their game. I don't think it would serve so many people who are like, hey, it's weird that there aren't aliens in this universe. It's weird that we are doing this giant thing and it mass effected it in a very specific way, right?

Onomus Prime and Super Chat, I realized I started stepping on top of it. That's right. Thank you for taking it from me. It says it's unfair because it's not what the game is, but in hindsight, I wish Starfield was Bethesda Game Studios Mass Effect, alien races that are playable, more sci-fi fantasy, etc.

Right? Like, so many people were turned off by that aspect when I never had that expectation. I'm not a big space guy. I wasn't looking for that. So I was fine with not having it. So I don't know how with this laundry list of complaints people have and the loading screens and everything,

the cumbersome nature of certain things and systems, how you get that to a point where you could have the cyberpunk moment. Does it need the cyberpunk moments? No. Cyberpunk came out and it was like unplayable, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was a whole big issue. Like Paris said, I think these quality of lives are laying a better

foundation for the future of what they wanted. This was a good game. Let's not steer away from that. Starfield is a good game. It might be dated in some aspects, but it's not bad to awful to unplayable. This is a good game that we were going to build off of, especially with mod support and the future updates, maybe even one day coming to other consoles, right? If that's what to happen. I know people, people say that's crazy. If I can get a fucking platinum trophy in this game, God damn. God damn. But I don't think we'll ever have that of Starfield is now Starfield 2.0. Yeah. You already have Starfield and it's good. It's just now we'll add content and make it

better. But I don't think there is a, hey, we need a whole shakeup to the system of this. I don't think it needs that. Paris, do you think that? And what do you want from Shattered Space? No, I'm in agreement that I don't think this needs to be quote, quote, 2.0. I think, like I said, the base game as it is today is just fine. I think they can add improvements to it. Like again, the land vehicle. When you take it back to when we originally talked to South Howard, he was like, no,

there's not going to be land vehicles in it. They clearly listen to the community and they're going to put land vehicles in there now. That's a great quality of life perk. Last night I was sprinting across one of these planets and I was like, God damn it. I want this fucking vehicle. Do my little jump pack and just gliding. But since

we're bringing cyberpunk in there, shit, I should have had the freaking yellow chair to really highlight this. But that, you already mentioned, Mike, that had things about it that were just completely broken that they had to fix and then they were able to go fix it and then layer on top of it that expansion with phantom liberty starfield doesn't need that they just needed to clean up some things which they've done with this update and then now they're going to be able to add additional content quest stories you know probably new mechanics without pose shipbuilding exploration

all of that that just enhances it even more and i think you said it greg this doesn't need to be mass effect. I never wanted it to be Mass Effect. I wanted something that lean more on the realism side of what space exploration really is. But clearly you had to video game it and make gamify it. So that's fine too. Like I said, it's such a polarizing game. And it

doesn't need to be, but it is. It is just, it is what it is at this point. So I'm I'm actually very curious to see what they're going to present. We assume at the June showcase for for shattered space to see what direction they're going to lean in. Do you have a preferred like story direction of what shattered space would be? No clue. No clue.

That's why I'm actually very fascinated to see what they do because the fact that we already have Starborn in the new game plus stuff and the more you do it, the more things start changing, you know, with the various NPC characters. Do you do that with Shatter Space? Do you lean into that more? I mean, I don't know. I really don't know. So I'll be very interested

to see what they do. And one last thing before, before I handed over, with Shattered Space, because not everyone's going to be you, Greg, where they go through New Game Plus 5, 6, 7, 8 times.

Okay. So Shattered Space probably has to integrate into the first playthru somehow, you would think so. You would think. My thought on it, and that's the thing. I think if I was betting,

I would say doesn't have to do with New Game Plus, because you know, we always talk about this. The amount of people who never roll credits on a game they play, whatever. We had people in chat. The big game. I haven't really. The 135 level 135 guy,

it might have actually never gone through the unity. You might still be doing it. But you could, I think at this point, people probably know the unity. People kind of know how the game ends if you care about Starfield. You could still have it be shattered space and it is like shattered dimensions and it is people intruding in multiple versions or whatever. And it's like,

you don't have to have done it, but you might know about it. But this would also tip you off. and like, do we need to protect the ending at this point if we want to do something there? But I see so many people talking about a house for run, right? It could be that. Like, the people want more of that. There's so much going.

It could just be the shattered alliances, right? Of this, the colonized new system they're in, right? Where it is, so many people are at each other's throats. And it's a very tentative peace you have there. Let's talk about the future in just a second. I want to give a big shout out to, of course, those who have supported with their superchats and wrote in. Greg Red one, I want to shout out Nightlife with the $10 super chat and says, I turn on a KF stream and see a bevy of talent

testing the new Oreos talking college football and now the Starfield update did I pick a four leaf clover today or just get lucky. Hi Mike, Paris and Greg. Thank you, Nightlife for the nice little positivity on that one. Think about it in 15 years when it's Ben and Gary's daughter hosting Games Daily. You know what I mean? Boom, there it is.

Let's talk about the future, of course. This isn't the last update. You have so much more coming your way, of course, but that did promote the future with a land vehicle, official mod support, the massive Shattered Space Expansion, which is yet to be dated on that one. So some exciting stuff coming your way. Greg, how important is this land vehicle?

How exciting is it? Is it important where that might get more people to come on than just this quality of life update? I, well, I'll be interested to hear Paris's thoughts and, of course, the audience in Superchets, is it that important? No. I think what it is is just what Paris talked about, them listening to the audience

and saying, okay, this is your game and we're turning stuff over and putting things in there. Like, again, last night, me was like the first time, even I think in my main playthrough

where I'd been like, man, a lane vehicle would be great right now. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like I like the, you know, low atmosphere, low gravity,

you know, fly it around that jetpack kind of thing. But I was like, okay, that'll be a nice addition. I think what, when you do that, you're going to get into a very similar

to fallout 76 situation where someone who does pick this game up 12 months, 18 months after launch has like, oh, look at all this cool shit that there. And it's like, well, yeah, they piecemeal these bullet points in to get you to the over encumbrance, the XP, the land vehicle, whatever else shattered space has, right? I think that builds and rounds out what we're already talking about. We're already talking about the fact that this game is good.

We're already talking about there's a lot to love here. You keep putting more and more on the plate that's good and more and more to love. That only go, when you get to the game of the year edition, which they wouldn't call it, I don't think. I don't think they got the balls to do that. when you get to the Starfield Complete Edition or whatever it is Because have they talked about

How many expansions they're doing Or is it just we know shattered space is coming? That's it. We just know shattered space. I would imagine again with the way Bethesda supports their games This is not the last expansion for them, right? No, I think we're looking at at least two

It's what I thought. Two is what I thought on the season past type of shit. So that's the thing I think is you build that out And you go further and further with that You keep adding in, you keep doing updates like this You know eventually again They are going to redo that menu that you sit at so it doesn't look so weird.

So I think, silly. Give me more shortcuts to get to things I want to get too faster than having to. Anyways, I digress. But you get to a point where somebody's going to pick that game up and it will be, not that the game is night and day, but all of the things surrounding it and connecting it are night and day. And I think that'll go really far for them. For me, if you said the land vehicle was in this right now,

that would get me more excited to turn this on. Wow. Yes, 100%. The maps. the camera toggle on when I'm talking to other characters is not enough to be like, man, I got to turn this on. But if you were like, hey, Mike, there's a land vehicle that you can now jump on right around the planets with.

That would get me more excited than where I'm at right now because I am firmly on. I am waiting for shattered spaces to jump back. I need content. I want things to do. I don't want just quality of life, which I'm glad it's there. But these are things that should have been there from the beginning that I wanted there. Now I'm too far gone to be like, hey, this is enough to reel you're back in today. I'll be back when Shattered Spaces come.

And see, I think that's... If they had it, I would have been there. Again, I think that in a way is by design. Hey, let's get all this stuff out that they did in this update, these quality of life things. So you stoke the fire for the community that's already there and didn't leave, these people who are 156 right now in levels. You get the good headlines. You get shows like this. Hey, it's coming along. Then you get to get to Shattered Space and be like, like, boom, here's the big story thing, the big expansion, here's the vehicle.

Here are a few, I'm sure, quality of life things we're doing on top of that, so that then it is, like, you take that and you pair it with this and we're back to what I'm talking about. It's damage by bullet points where somebody does look at it and like, shit, I do want to jump into Shattered Space. They jump in. Holy shit, this game's totally different. Of course, official mod support as well

will be exciting. I love mod support on all the other Bethesda game, so I'm excited to see that, and you get to see the community run wild with the possibilities, right? We talked about all these planets and what the community could do to help elevate that. That is something I can't wait to see. But, Paris, let's start ramping down this episode of the

kind of funny games cast. And I got a simple question for both of you. We've kind of talked about it, but we'll make the clear definitive statement. Is this enough to bring people back today? Or is everyone waiting for shattered spaces, Paris Lily? I think the majority will still wait for shattered space. I think this is, like I said before, this is a good baseline update to get the game probably where it should have been.

I think anybody that were to pick it up now and have their first run through will have a better overall experience than someone that picked it up in September. Greg? The definitive, is this enough? No. I think again, if you were

alienated by Starfield and had a bad taste of your mouth and only put five hours in and I walked away, I doubt that it was just the over-incumbrance or the lack of 60 frames that did that. I think that's a core gameplay menu narrative, whatever issue for you. I'm hopeful Shattered Space can make changes, do whatever, and less than that. I think this is enough of if you are a, I don't even want to say lapsed.

Like I did a lot of Starfield. I played a lot of Starfield, 50-some hours of Starfield, right? And it was like, I'm good here and I can leave. This has been all I needed. This was the hit I needed where now, again, like I'm talking about literally packing the Xbox and the X-Screen to go to L.A. this weekend when I go. So I can keep going, finish this Vanguard thing, get my apartment, go back, meet and Drejah, keep it, just get back. And then, because now it is, of course,

I need to get all my ducks in a row for shattered space. I need to be where I want to be when Shattered Space drops. Yeah, I like that. Of course, down in the comments below here on the YouTube video, I would love to hear from you. What did you think of the Big May update if you jumped in? And are you waiting till Shattered Spaces, or is this enough to get you back in playing? Because of course, this has been the kind of funny games cast each and every weekday. We get together to talk about the biggest reviews, previews, and topics in the video game world live on YouTube, Twitch, and podcast services around the globe.

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