Nerds of a certain age may remember a game called Desert Bus. Released (and then quickly canceled) for multiple platforms in 1995, Desert Bus was the monotonous brainchild of Penn & Teller. It was the highlight of an infamously bad collection of minigames called Smoke and Mirrors. As the name suggests, you are the driver of a bus in the desert. That's it. There's no winning the game. It takes eight hours of driving the bus down a straight, pixelated desert road to score one point. There are no cars on the road, no bumps or rattlesnakes you have to steer clear of squishing—just focus and tedium.

Two years ago, Bethesda released Starfield. From the way people talk about it, you'd think it was the new Desert Bus. There's a lot to do in the game: space battles, epic quests, and exploration. Y

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