STARFIELD discussion

[Bob Gray]

I just feel the overall vision of the game and marketing is at odds with what the game actually is. It was hyped up to be this massive universe that’s fully explorable. Turns out there are invisible walls all over the place and nearly all travel is down through fast traveling. Where’s the sense of immersion? That’s what originally sold me on their pitch. It sounded like No man’s sky on a massive budget but now it turns out all these explorable planets aren’t fully explorable and most are just filled with rocks and nothing else. It’s not just me, the Reddit forum is filled with thread after thread of disappointed gamers. If you know anything about Reddit sub forums. The subreddits are usually fanboyish so if it’s hitting them then something is off with the game. Maybe people will have a fun time but best to set expectations because it’s looking more like a 7 than a 10 and I think user scores will reflect that when the hype dies down.

That right there? Thats your fault. Theyve explained what it was since the beginning. A sci-fi space RPG with explorable planets. You created a vison of something in your head that they never advertised, and now that the game doesnt fall into the expectations you had, that were never promised, you think Todd lied about everything.

I havent done a deep dive yet, but the game has Bethesdas fingerprints all of it. The same sense of immersion, of a living, breathing world full of other groups that have a massive influence over everything else. Sure, theres also criticisms. I wish thered be less load screens. The inventory UI is still console oriented and all the sub menus feel like more screens to navigate than are necessary.

Basically, there were people that thought Bethesda would make a Bethesda game, but with sci fi planet hopping angle. Those people are like "Man, this is cool". And then theres always a group that think anything short of complete VR of an entire galaxy is somehow less than what was promised. bethesda games are always about overlooking the mechanical flaws, which are always numerous and easy to find if you look for them, in trade for incomparably immersive experience since the big notes are hit so expertly.

This is still a game. They didnt create entire planet sized planets to explore, much less 1,000 of them. There are tricks they do to present to you an illusion of actually being on a planet. Or in a spaceship flying through space. If you spend enough trying to see through the illusion, itll be easy to spot where the seams break.

Its like that guy that has to tell you how a magician does every card trick. "Oh, hes just palming the ace. Oh, thats where he floated his card from the bottom of the deck to the top. Oh, thats actually not the same card he gave you". Yeah, dude, we get it. He isnt actually using magic, hes using tricks. Just like Bethesda isnt actually building planets or a galaxy sized game. Theyre giving you a sense of those things, if you want them. But if all you want to do is look for the strings and say "Oh, SEE?! LOOK EVERYBOY! Its not real!", you're missing the point and no one really cares except you.

Dude, your breakdown of reddit is completely the opposite of my experience. Reddit is filled with haters, just like any other forum.

 

[Schoolboy Q]

I caved in, was going to wait till the 6th to play starfield but I can’t wait any longer. Sorry armored core 6, barely knew ya. Only 15 minutes till it finishes downloading!

 

[Zazen]

That right there? Thats your fault. Theyve explained what it was since the beginning. A sci-fi space RPG with explorable planets. You created a vison of something in your head that they never advertised, and now that the game doesnt fall into the expectations you had, that were never promised, you think Todd lied about everything.

I havent done a deep dive yet, but the game has Bethesdas fingerprints all of it. The same sense of immersion, of a living, breathing world full of other groups that have a massive influence over everything else. Sure, theres also criticisms. I wish thered be less load screens. The inventory UI is still console oriented and all the sub menus feel like more screens to navigate than are necessary.

Basically, there were people that thought Bethesda would make a Bethesda game, but with sci fi planet hopping angle. Those people are like "Man, this is cool". And then theres always a group that think anything short of complete VR of an entire galaxy is somehow less than what was promised. bethesda games are always about overlooking the mechanical flaws, which are always numerous and easy to find if you look for them, in trade for incomparably immersive experience since the big notes are hit so expertly.

This is still a game. They didnt create entire planet sized planets to explore, much less 1,000 of them. There are tricks they do to present to you an illusion of actually being on a planet. Or in a spaceship flying through space. If you spend enough trying to see through the illusion, itll be easy to spot where the seams break.

Its like that guy that has to tell you how a magician does every card trick. "Oh, hes just palming the ace. Oh, thats where he floated his card from the bottom of the deck to the top. Oh, thats actually not the same card he gave you". Yeah, dude, we get it. He isnt actually using magic, hes using tricks. Just like Bethesda isnt actually building planets or a galaxy sized game. Theyre giving you a sense of those things, if you want them. But if all you want to do is look for the strings and say "Oh, SEE?! LOOK EVERYBOY! Its not real!", you're missing the point and no one really cares except you.

Dude, your breakdown of reddit is completely the opposite of my experience. Reddit is filled with haters, just like any other forum.

I never expected planets to scale of real ones but having a unique map for each one would have been nice even if they were small and no I don’t think it’s my fault. Todd Howard always does this crap

 

[idrankyourbeer]

i did the thing where i topped up my xbox live gold to 3 years and then spent $1 for game pass ultimate which in turn converted all of my 3 years of xbox live to 3 years of game pass ultimate...well my game pass ultimate/xbox live subscription is finally expiring at the end of this month and i dont think i'm gonna be able to get that deal again, so i dont know if i'll bother to renew it again for a while, but anyways god bless the internet. starfield was already cracked and put out there on the seven seas within an hour of early release yesterday. grabbing it now.

im probably gonna end up buying this shit anyways. but screw these guys and their early access scheme. either i have to pay like 30 bucks for the premium edition just to play now on game pass, and then have to top up my game pass just to be able to play it, id have to buy the premium edition outright which will be junk in 4 days, or i'd have to wait another 4 or 5 days just to play the game that everybody else is already playing. screw that. playing off the hype just to try to pinch more money out of me for a game that could and should be released universally to everybody at launch it's almost like they're forcing me to go the dirty route. fuck that noise. they had me on diablo 4 but i'll never get played like that ever again.

 

[Bob Gray]

I never expected planets to scale of real ones but having a unique map for each one would have been nice even if they were small and no I don’t think it’s my fault. Todd Howard always does this crap

Except he didnt say that each planet would be unique. He explicitly talked about how theyre procedurally rendered. This has been known for some time and you still wanted to have something that was profoundly different than what they presented, and then you blame them for not providing you with what they never said theyd give you.

Again, the problem is you.


https://www.ign.com/articles/starfi...ted-content-todd-howard-procedural-generation

"We do a lot of procedural generation [in Starfield], but I would keep in mind that we’ve always done that," Howard explained. "It’s a big part of Skyrim in terms of questing and some other things we do. We generate landscape using procedural systems, so we’ve always kind of worked on it. [The Elder Scrolls 2: Daggerfall is] one we look at a lot in terms of game flow. And we had been developing some procedural technology and doing some prototypes, and it really started coming to a head with Starfield, in that we think we can do this."


But what Howard seems especially clear about is that there is a 'golden path' (or perhaps 'golden freeway' might be more appropriate) through Starfield, which represents the full, handcrafted Bethesda RPG fans would expect, and he stresses that the team has created more handmade content than ever before, set within its giant procedural galaxy:

"I should also add that we have done more handcrafting in this game, content-wise, than any game we’ve done. We’re [at] over 200,000 lines of dialogue, so we still do a lot of handcrafting and if people just want to do what they’re used to in our games, and follow a main quest, and do the questlines, you’re gonna see what you’d kind of expect from us. But then you have this whole other part of, ‘Well I’m just going to wander this planet, and it’s going to provide some gameplay, and some random content, and those kinds of things.’ Kind of like a Daggerfall would, if you go way back."


"We’re also careful to let you know that’s what [that procedural content] is. So if you look at space, you know there are a lot of ice balls in space, so that was one of our big design considerations on this game is, ‘What’s fun about an ice ball?’ And it’s OK sometimes if ice balls aren’t- it is what it is. We’d rather have them and say yes to you, ‘Hey, you can land on this.’ Here are the resources, you can survey it, and then you can land and spend ten minutes there and be like, ‘OK, now I’m going to leave and go back to the other planet that has all this other content on it, and I’m going to follow this questline.’

"So we’re pretty careful about saying, ‘Here’s where the fun is, here’s this kind of content,’ but still say yes to the player and, ‘You want to go land on that weird planet, check it out, and build an outpost, and live your life there, and watch the sunset because you like the view of the moons there? Go for it.’ We love that stuff."

 

[GearSolidMetal]

I've come back to this thread to eat my crow.

For months, throughout the VG forum in multiple threads, I've openly stated my prediction Starfield would be a giant disappointment.

'The biggest disappointment of the year' I think I said.

The first thing I saw yesterday about Starfield was the 7/10 review score from IGN and immediately posted it here.

But after watching the reviews from MrMattyPlays, Mortismal, and GManLives - All of who are on my 'Trusted YouTubers' list, I have to conclude its not 'The biggest disappointment of the year' and it must be pretty good (at worst) to great but with some flaws (at best).

I have a Series X but with an overloaded backlog, so I'm going to be waiting for a while before playing it for all the updates to be released, including (hopefully) a 60FPS mode because I'm sticking to my opinion that 30FPS is borderline unplayable.

For the Bethesda fanboys, I'm happy for you, and perhaps after the buyout by Microsoft it actually is the new beginning for the development teams and it'll eventually earn back its status as one of the most loved, and not most loathed, developers in the industry.

 

[Substance Abuse]

I just feel the overall vision of the game and marketing is at odds with what the game actually is. It was hyped up to be this massive universe that’s fully explorable. Turns out there are invisible walls all over the place and nearly all travel is down through fast traveling. Where’s the sense of immersion? That’s what originally sold me on their pitch. It sounded like No man’s sky on a massive budget but now it turns out all these explorable planets aren’t fully explorable and most are just filled with rocks and nothing else. It’s not just me, the Reddit forum is filled with thread after thread of disappointed gamers. If you know anything about Reddit sub forums. The subreddits are usually fanboyish so if it’s hitting them then something is off with the game. Maybe people will have a fun time but best to set expectations because it’s looking more like a 7 than a 10 and I think user scores will reflect that when the hype dies down.

You're mistaken as the game never claimed to be that. You're also misrepresenting Reddit, as it has just as many haters as it has fanboys. Based off of what Bethesda has given me in the past, I knew for the most part what I was getting into. At the end of the day, I'm going to play the game, which I've enjoyed so far, and you're going to read other people's opinions of it and shit on it without experiencing it for yourself. Enjoy. Life moves on.

 

[GtehMVP]

I've come back to this thread to eat my crow.

For months, throughout the VG forum in multiple threads, I've openly stated my prediction Starfield would be a giant disappointment.

'The biggest disappointment of the year' I think I said.

The first thing I saw yesterday about Starfield was the 7/10 review score from IGN and immediately posted it here.

But after watching the reviews from MrMattyPlays, Mortismal, and GManLives - All of who are on my 'Trusted YouTubers' list, I have to conclude its not 'The biggest disappointment of the year' and it must be pretty good (at worst) to great but with some flaws (at best).

I have a Series X but with an overloaded backlog, so I'm going to be waiting for a while before playing it for all the updates to be released, including (hopefully) a 60FPS mode because I'm sticking to my opinion that 30FPS is borderline unplayable.

For the Bethesda fanboys, I'm happy for you, and perhaps after the buyout by Microsoft it actually is the new beginning for the development teams and it'll eventually earn back its status as one of the most loved, and not most loathed, developers in the industry.

I don't know why you thought it would be a big disappointment in the first place.

Their last game was Fallout 4 and that was solid. It was even more dumbed down than Skyrim was compared to Morrowind/Oblivion but it was still excellent in many aspects. They showed us in Far Harbour that they can still deliver the goods.

I didn't put 76 on BGS, but Howard didn't help anything boasting about the game before it released.

With Starfield, you can feel the love and passion the team had everywhere. They clearly learned a ton from from F04 too. This is definitely more in line with Oblivion/Skyrim, role playing wise.

I've seen review quotes calling this game cold, dead, and uninspired, that just makes me laugh. Those reviewers must be projecting.

I played for about 7 hours now, barely scratching the surface, and I'm already blown away. It's a ridiculous sandbox of possibilities. I'm actually a little concerned about how much time this game is going to take from me lol, especially once I dive into base building.

Having such incredibly ambitious Sci-Fi and medieval dark fantasy games (my two fav genres) in this and Baldur's Gate coming out so close to each other is one for the books.

I haven't even fired up Armored core yet. With Zelda, Re4 remake, lord of the fallen around the corner m, that lies of Pi coming, and several others, this is one of the best years in gaming we've had in a long time.

 

[GearSolidMetal]

I don't know why you thought it would be a big disappointment in the first place.

*Bethesda games have been getting buggier with every major release.
*Fallout 76.
*Practically every developer gets worse after being bought out by Microsoft.
*The delay.

But I'm happy to say Starfield has bucked the trend.

 

[ookii]

Play a little bit for an hour or 2. I'm getting a No Man's Sky and Death Strandling vibe about the game. Both of those games I got bored with and never finished. Hopefully it turns out better for Starfield

 

[snowbro]

It makes me sad that things are procedurally generated. I understand they kinda have to because how are they gonna make 1000 planets. It is just fun for everyone to have the same map, you can learn about secret locations. Tell your friends about something cool you discovered. From the gameplay I've seen, it looks kinda dead and lifeless. I am quite bummed they didn't just give us the next elder scrolls a few years ago with a Fallout 5 release in a few years from now. Oh well. I will download and play on Sept 6th at 30 fps on my Series S which I heard is choppy as hell and then maybe have to go back to Fallout 4 and Skyrim.

 

[GtehMVP]

*Bethesda games have been getting buggier with every major release.
*Fallout 76.
*Practically every developer gets worse after being bought out by Microsoft.
*The delay.

But I'm happy to say Starfield has bucked the trend.

Fair enough on the bugs. Fallout 4 always felt like it was about to blow up my PS4. I wish I waited and did my first playthrough on PC, but I was in between upgrades at the time. Even when I got it on pc a year later, and I had a beastly system, it always chugged.

I figured the delay here would only help with bugs/performance and not be a Cyberpunk thing, glad that was true.

As much as I'm liking the game, it doesn't have the magic Oblivion and Skyrim had early on (not sure how to describe that) but it's definitely a big step up on FO4. I have so much to experience yet, but I feel the massive amounts of content in different gameplay styles will be what makes it special in the end.

 

[Deadwing88]

*Bethesda games have been getting buggier with every major release.
*Fallout 76.
*Practically every developer gets worse after being bought out by Microsoft.
*The delay.

But I'm happy to say Starfield has bucked the trend.

I think mostly the games that have come out from the acquired studios have been mostly of a good standard (pentiment, grounded, pyschonauts 2, HiFi Rush, starfield etc).. Redfall being the exception.

Just the big hitters like avowed, fable, hellblade 2 etc are taking eons to release.

 

[method115]

I think mostly the games that have come out from the acquired studios have been mostly of a good standard (pentiment, grounded, pyschonauts 2, HiFi Rush, starfield etc).. Redfall being the exception.

Just the big hitters like avowed, fable, hellblade 2 etc are taking eons to release.

Yea MS is releasing a lot of highly praised indies but it’s the AAA they need to get more consistent with.

 

[idrankyourbeer]

alright here we go.

 

[idrankyourbeer]

god damn. at 1440p ultra with FSR off this game is really putting my 4070ti to work.

 

[Fury]

god damn. at 1440p ultra with FSR off this game is really putting my 4070ti to work.

Optimization is not Bethesda's forte.... That and ladders

 

[Fury]

So far though... I'm meh'd.

 

[Dinkin_Flicka]

A couple hours in and I can tell I'm really going to enjoy it. Loved FO4 and this feels a lot like it with much better gun mechanics. Definitely feeling a bit overwhelmed with the amount of skills available and what to choose.

 

[NoSmilez]

It's not Fallout. It is serviceable but not great? I can see people sinking hundreds of hours easily though. I like the ship customization but rest of the game is a bit meh. I don't know why but my attention span is much lower when it comes to gaming nowadays. I would like to say I enjoyed Outer Worlds. This feels like a bit of death stranding for me in terms of a grind. I will probably keep playing this like how I play fallout 4. Beat all the side stuff and never touch the main mission. Drop the game then return to it years later and repeat.