Starfield’s Retro-Futuristic Look

Posted on by Jay

Starfield is a game that is a mostly unpopular game amongst the gaming community—not because it’s unknown to a lot of people, but because not a lot of people enjoy it. The game was created by Bethesda Studios, who created the Elder Scrolls series (the more well-known games in the ES series are Skyrim and Oblivion), and has been a game in the making for quite a long time. The game is set in the future—the 22nd century—and in a universe where people can travel easily to different civilized planets by star ships, and live in planets that are not that hospitable by any standards; it’s a game with alien creatures, and different gangs, and foods inspired by astronaut and high climate foods, and the capabilities of traveling to different universes. There is the inclusion of NASA that fits within the main storyline (that actually plays a vital role that led to…almost everything that exists in this game). You can visit Earth in its desolate space, and the other walk-able planets that are within the Sol system.

As someone who enjoys playing fantasy games more than sci-fi games, it’s been a game that I have enjoyed playing a lot despite the criticism that it has received from many, many people. What’s more, there are many structural things that are incorporated into the game that take on a very universal and astronautical appearance—almost a…modern retro-futuristic look.

The video above is a showcase of the outfits (not armor/spacesuits, though you will find some stats on some outifts) found in the game. Some of my favorite designs come from Ryujin Industries; my go-to base game outfit, however, is the White Neocity Poncho, for no reason other than it looks nice when worn on my own character.

There are still some current day influences to the way that some of these outfits look (e.g. the Freestar Rangers outfit look more western and have a “cowboy” flair, but still fit within the universe of having that futuristic concept to it); but for the most part, many of these outfits do have many resemblance to a retro-futuristic look that I think fits well for the universe.

“Xbox Series SX Controller Starfield Limited Edition” by Oleg Kuznetsov is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 .

Being Immersive in Media and Virtual Realities: What Does That Mean?

Posted on by Jay

Media such as virtual realities give the feeling of immersion due to the fact that the user is able to engage in these worlds by their own means. A great example of this is experiencing virtual realities with a VR headset. VR headsets give the user a first-person perspective of the world that they’re set in, and they’re able to look around as though they’re the ones that have been transported within it—they have to physically turn their heads and their bodies to get a 360-degree view of the world. The controllers that they use allow the user to mimic hand motions such as gripping and swinging, which further enhances the experience and immersion.

Outside of using a VR headset to immerse oneself in virtual realities, I do believe that using snapshots and videos can be immersing for some people. As I have stated, immersing someone into media that they’re consuming means being able to elicit emotions out of them, and give them a sense of like they are part of that media. Graphic novels do this well, as they use art to convey character emotions and actions that people reading can relate to; in turn, they can also become attached to that same character. If something were to happen to that character, or if that character were to do something, that could cause someone to react in accordance with it. That person becomes immersed with the media, as well as the character they pay attention to the most.

My experiences with immersion come very easy to me, as I am someone who becomes attached to certain characters, as well as be someone who can become immersed in media that I engage with (granted I am also a bit more sensitive than others, so I feel emotions towards characters a bit more than the average person perhaps). I often find myself role-playing silently in my head when I play games such as Skyrim (which even has its own virtual reality version to really immerse the player into the game), or Baldur’s Gate 3, which are categorized as role-playing games, which encourages the player to create their own characteristics of the character they play, as well as make their own choices that affect gameplay and story.

When a piece of media becomes immersive to someone, it means that media is not only engaging, but it is something that the person has connected with in a way that elicits emotions, as well as a sense of feeling like they’re part of the media they’re experiencing. It gives that person that they’re physically in that world the media is presenting.