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I started posting on there frequently just recently and I'd have to agree with what you've said. Too many bots and whilst these users do get banned fairly efficiently (almost too efficiently, to the point whare I wonder why that particular account was banned as the posts on it were harmless), thier posts never get removed. It's badly moderated as well to be frank. Reported another member on thier several days ago because they just snapped me for some reason despite barley even knowing this person and I've heard nothing. Even if the mods decided to take no action, that's fine, but people who know my style of moderation know that I keep people informed and give them feedback. It's important that believe thier concerns are at least being heeded, especially if the mods don't agree. The thing that really bothers me is that members, including staffers, use posts as a front to peddle things and for SSP and that is literally thier only reason for being there. I'm not going to name names or link to it, but one individual, a member of JoyFreak's editorial team no less, posts articles to peddle things that would be considered "controversial" at the very least here on VGR. For example, he posted an article examining the pros and cons between Steam and EGS which is fair enough but further down the page he hyperlinks to a site whare you can buy accounts. Just in case you weren't aware, doing this sort of thing breaks the TOS of both these platforms and could get that account banned. He also peddles online casinos, NFT's, cryptocurrency, you name it. All in the form of hyperlinks hidden in his articles, so even though it's shameless he isn't exactly being up front about it. To be fair, some of these articles make a decent read, but how is anyone supposed to take is seriously when he's only posted it to peddle a bitcoin casino or some other bollocks? There are some good folk over there, but a few things I would consider strange in how the forum is run put me off and it has an effect. No exaggeration, at least 80% of the posts are either SSP, bots or the aforementioned articles. Most of what's left are posts on the junk threads like "what are you listening to" or a thread to post random YouTube stuff. Now, it's not all negative. it's great looking forum with a nice, clean interface and a good variety of in-built features that are fun to use. And like I said, there are some good discussions and people to be found on there. The place also seems accepting and neutral when it comes to social politics, even if some of the members aren't. Overall, it's not a bad forum, but I'm ready to believe it's seen better days.

I for one do find myself getting more exited, but still intend to keep my expectations in check and this game at arm's length given Bethesda's track record. I'm impressed by the sheer scale of this whole thing and admire it's ambition. A couple of induvial points I wanted to bring up that stood out to me. It looks like they're stepping away from the "unique" weapons thing that we've seen done a lot in Fallout and TES and instead just giving you a large verity of weapons that you can customise them to suit you needs in specific situation and to suit play style and skills, and to me that's a good move. The companion system looks very similar to what we saw in Fallout 4, just expanded and integrated into the ship and it's mechanics in a way that reminds me of the Lieutenant's mechanic from AC Odyssey and I'm fine with that. I too love the customisation. It seams like you can change both the function and appearance of your ship by how to customise it. That's going to be a lot of fun to play around with. Because somebody will, if you purposefully make your ship look like a great big flying cock, just know that you're a lot like your own penis. Not big and even less clever. Looks like they've learned some valuable lessons from Fallout 4 when it comes to the outpost building mechanics and that's good because that feature was horrid in Fallout 4, especially for console players. So again, nice work. But of course, the biggest concern with any Bethesda game, will it... you know... work? They didn't even address this in this showcase, they are not even claiming this game will work OK. Considering that while showcasing Fallout 76 Tod Howard infamously said to the world "It just works" makes me wonder. The systems in place look mostly like the kinds of things Bethesda has used a lot in the past with a few things thrown in like the space combat, but thankfully that and the other new things don't look overly complicated. Having said that, they do seam to be using these systems on a scale way beyond what even Bethesda have done before. So given thier track record, not to mention the fact Bethesda's Creation Engine is looking very much like Mr House; I'm choosing to remain less than optimistic. In my opinion for a AAA, next gen game in 2023 this is not exactly the best looking game in the world either, especially considering what we've been seeing with Unreal Engine 5 recently. But like I said, this is Bethesda, so perhaps pegging back the graphics a bit would be for the best. One thing I'm really not sure about is how this procedural generation thing will work with the hand designed environments with another system to add locations like enemy outposts and... to be honest, that just sounds like something to go wrong. If this does work as advertised, this could be game of the decade potential, so come on Bethesda and please don't fuck this up.

I'm not sure if this counts as a genre, but I do avoid the "Soulsborne" type games as much as possible. The closest thing I've played to such a game that I've actually liked is Jedi: Fallen Order. I've long since accepted that, despite loving RPG's and 3rd person action/adventure games, the "Soulborne" just aren't made for me. I hate thier gameplay tropes, like no pausing (And that really is ridiculous in a single play game) and the sluggish combat. I hate the way they look, it the same dreary, demon underworld cliché every time. But most of all, I hate the trial and error philosophy behind the so-called "challenge". There're not hard games, merely cryptic ones loaded with beginners traps and cheap enemy AI that prays on one's natural instincts as a gamer rather than combat your techniques and strategies in a natural way.