"Get in a ship, explore the galaxy, do fun stuff": that's Bethesda's Starfield in a nutshell, according to executive producer Todd Howard. The first time I read that neat little triptych in yesterday's Washington Post interview, my brain skated over it. It's one of those broad, sweeping statements that promises something so big you end up disregarding it by default. But then I went back to it, and after forcing my mind's eye to hover over the words like a fat hawk, the words really sank in. The middle three, in particular.
Explore the galaxy. That, right there, is a premise that space games have always tended to fall short on over the years, and I'd forgotten how badly I wanted it fulfilled. Speaking bluntly, science fiction is one of the biggest things in my life. Exploring the galaxy is a big deal to me, and yet, the experience space games have delivered in the past has never quite been the one I've been after. Now, I'm daring to ask myself how I'd feel if this time, it was.