Luthor

Exactly, Starfield is like everything I didn't like about Fallout 4, with almost everything I did like removed.

And I did like some stuff in Fallout 4 (despite me being a New Vegas fanboy), but I always felt that I would have liked it more if it fully broke away from Fallout and established its own lore, so I could stop comparing it to the previous games in the series. Starfield felt like the perfect opportunity for that.

Honestly I played through Starfield at launch once and have no plans to ever come back, so I don't remember the Federation quest line. I might not have even done it, none of the factions really appealed to me, but I'll take your word for it.

I think the thing that got me to finally give up on Bethesda was an interview regarding the DLC of Fallout 3.

TL;DR for those who haven't played, the game ends in a very contrived choice that decides one of two endings, and you can't play further because you sacrifice yourself in the "good" ending.

People hated this as it felt jarring and wanted to see the consequences of their choices more. So Bethesda made the Broken Steel DLC that allowed you to circumvent that game ending choice and added more endgame content, allowing you to roam the wasteland forever.

In the interview, they said what they learned is that people wanted to play the same game forever, as so radient quests were born.

Apparently that's their new user base based on ESO and Fallout 76, but the reason I got into Fallout and Elder Scrolls was the well written stories and lore. I like replaying games with different builds to try new playthroughs.

Now they just want to maximize play time at all costs, so they just add content in the most corporate meaning of the word.

And I was just about to resub after stopping in January to catch up on my game backlog.

Back to the backlog I go!

I finally played through Avowed a week or two ago and went in with low expectations. I had heard all around that it was a decent 7/10 game, but I was pleasantly surprised.

It's not New Vegas 2 or anything, I think most of the people who worked on FNV have long since left, but I still really appreciate Obsidian games for what they are.

Nope, at least not on Firefox or edge.

Edit: You have to switch on large puzzle UI in experimental settings.

This looks cool, but even on my desktop the text for the rules is way too small.

I don't think it's "abandoned," I think it's just "done." It's like a $5 indie game made by a solo dev, there isn't an unfinished road map or anything.