I’m so disappointed about starfield. I didn’t play it but I watched a bunch of streams on release (cohhcarnage lauding the game while spending 80% of it in the inventory and then backpedaling while kiting an early game enemy for, I shit you not, 90 seconds really solidified the garbage gameplay). The consensus and my personal perception was that it completely lacked any and all soul. For a Bethesda game that is a low point in their dev history. Coming off the back of a morrowind playthrough a year before that game released the contrast showed one of the greatest falls I’ve ever seen in gaming. The entire reason why Bethesda games are good, the core factor, is that soul and charm. Absolute masterclass in releasing a game that feels like an alcohol wipe. I don’t have any hope for their future releases unfortunately
Might be a hot take but I also loved and played the crap out of the original cod4 and mw2. Like a lot, and was really good at it with a great group of friends. Closest I got to that feel (and in some ways it even surpassed it) was the mw2 remake (not mw3 with OG mw2, but mw2 from a few years ago). The pace was much slower, maps were solid, and the gunplay and connection all felt like the originals I grew up on. And shotguns were actually viable but that’s just a thing I like
I put in as much time into that game as I did any of the original ones and it brought back a bunch of my friends too. We played for almost the whole year it was out and even met some new friends. It’s a bit of an older title but it’s under the cod umbrella game now and there’s still a player base. Was the highest peak player count cod ever had too, which goes to show how prevalent it was and how many people it probably brought back. There is mtx but it’s generally tame I think, just avoid buying skins