Gaming

Haha, PCG really hates Starfield. Calling it worse than FO76 and ES:Arena? Lmao.

Before it released I remember their articles about how it wasn't going to be as good as BG3, despite no one inviting that apples-to-oranges comparison but them themselves, and now they're out to do their best to convince everyone they were right.

Personal note: in that last linked article, they compared BG3 vs SF to Disco Elysium vs Outer Worlds, and I think this is hilariously just showing how much this is about their predilection for narrative-core games.

• I like Disco Elysium. I like BG3. They are much better narrative RPGs. I also feel absolutely no desire to go back and replay them.
• I go back to Outer Worlds and Starfield. They are much better open world RPGs.

Like, chill PCG. It's a good game, enjoyed by lots of people. If your staff is more into narrative-core RPGs with linear progression, that's cool, but you don't need to demonize Starfield to enjoy BG3. The worst Bethesda game? Worse than '76? Come on.

It's all a matter of personal taste. But yeah, Beth's best games are definitely in the past.

Weird that the author includes ESO. That's an outsource game using Bethesda's IP. They might as well include Fallout NV (which would of course top the list if it were included)

I stopped playing ESO years ago after around 10,000 hours of playtime. It's nice (or perhaps unsurprising) to hear that they still haven't addressed how badly they messed up the story structure and pacing. Rather than have the expansions be an accessory to the main story and tutorial - they acted as replacements. A game design choice I'm 99.9% sure was made by management and not by any actual dev team. It was a confusing, convoluted mess with only a few expansions but I can't imagine how bad it is now with even more.

checks which game is "best"

This list is 100% accurate.

I’m just glad Daggerfall got some appreciation. It is horribly outdated now, but back then it was the first game that really let me explore an open world and role-play as whoever I wanted to be (within the limitation of the game of course). I could do anything I wanted, go anywhere I pleased.
I don’t think I ever got far in the plot, but I spend months exploring every other nook and cranny. I still remember the vibrant online community it created in the form of webrings where people shared tips or showed off their screenshots in self-made geocities websites.

Either the world's standards are low or mine are high, none of these are very good compared to FNV

While I know they just wanted to shit on Starfield, but at least I like how they've put Oblivion & Morrowind at the top, because I agree those two are by far the best on this list.

As for Starfield, It's basically Skyrim in space. To me most of the criticisms Starfield gets outside of the -to me- irrelevant technicalities (loading screens, performance) apply to Skyrim as well. I played Skyrim at release and I was super disappointed, now playing Starfield felt largely the same, but a wee bit better. I don't think the whole RPG progression system makes sense in a scifi rpg shooter, so that part is worse than Skyrim obviously, but at the same time the planets & various biomes make open world exploration more fun to me, though the main story is equally bad & there are a lot of immersion breaking things that make no sense "in space". For example I love the digipick minigame, but it's immersion breaking as f. (and then there is that part where I just joined a serious intergalactic organization & after like 1-2 missions they sent me on a diplomatic quest to decide the fate of the galaxy, basically)

I immediately know Morrowind would be the top. The game has not aged well.

I almost gave up on Starfield because the main quest is just chasing MacGuffins around the universe, apparently? But I started doing the Ryujin Industries side quests and those are kinda fun I guess.