Okay, but then we have to ask how skewed BG3's scores were. They had less cash, but not WAY less, so they could "buy" reviews if they wanted (though I doubt 'buying' reviews is what's going on here.) And BG3 has received a lot of glowing reviews that we have to, by now, assume were not completely honest, or were based off totally incomplete information - nobody can go through BG3's final act, especially the way it was on release, and honestly claim the game deserves a perfect score. Do I think they *paid* for reviews, and that's why these reviewers handed out undeserved perfect scores? No, but I think there's a lot of hype that's skewing BG3's score way higher than it fairly ought to be. And some of that is down to outright bullshit marketing, too. (Remember the '17000 endings' claim?)
I think you just like to say things to say things :P
1) Larian had 1/4 the budget of Starfield 2) The only way you "buy" user scores is by making a game people like. Bg3 had Excellent User and Official review scores. Starfield has ok review Scores and REALLY bad User scores.
I can't defend the unfinished state of Act 3 - but I also think you are reacting to incomplete information and you are misdirecting your anger. I think, given what I have seen and know, that Larian chose the best of a series of bad options. You want to think about the relationships that Larian has and how that affects decisions they had to make.
So not to put too fine a point on it, I don't blame Larian, I blame WOTC/Hasbro.
Every commercial enterprise Hasbro has engaged in over the last 3 years has failed - except this one. The D&D movie may have broken even, investor calls indicate that it didn't bring in the increased player base they hoped. The other D&D game hasbro did was a total buggy mess and flopped (Dark Alliance).
Since then, Hasbro/WOTC has cancelled 5 planned video games. FIVE. They realized that making a successful video game is not an easy thing to do. You can't just hire a random studio to make a successful game in a market this big.
Up to this point Hasbro had been suffering from the problem of not being able to get out of their own way. However, they seem to finally be waking up to how valuable Larian studios is and that they need to do whatever they can to keep Larian engaged with them - just based on recent comments they have made.
Anyway, Larian should have more leverage now and we should see that pay dividends.
