**** Starfield ****

https://www.gamesradar.com/former-starfield-dev-says-there-might-be-too-much-content/

😬

Mr Crispy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118990903#Comment_118990903

Ha! The thing that strikes me most is the guy potentially sabotaging his own career by breaking NDAs, all for what essentially amounts to very little "insider info"!

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118990977#Comment_118990977

Yeah, despite the "verified source", I'm still skeptical.

Why would a dev ruin his reputation?

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118985039#Comment_118985039

Damn, that's some good shít; really propels me back to those days when "space adventure" truly meant something awe-inspiring and exciting. Those endless horizons of discovery, before the genre kinda got sullied by cynicism n' all. Love that misanthropy in The Expanse, truly, but that music made me remember how I used to dream of what it would be to travel the universe.

SuperBowserWorld

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118991621#Comment_118991621

Nail on head.

Yep, this game has to capture the romantic side of (space) exploration and adventure. Skyrim and BOTW do that. Especially when you need to be involved for so long in the world.

mewso

Number of planets is an interesting metric for these kind of games. I want to see space stations, derelict ships and so on. Could nab the migrant fleet idea from BSG/Mass Effect. Some added flavour would add to this rather than here are 5 planets in which you play out the story with side quests. Cautiously optimistic though.

EoinMcLovin

https://twitter.com/bethesda/status/1524721132720566272?t=khCzw6V3HrHBZZPagJDiXw&s=19

Delayed until next year

ShaneU

Knew there was no way they'd make it this year when all they've shown is that CGI trailer

CatInABox

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119050977#Comment_119050977

In fairness, Bethesda like doing the "reveal nothing until a few months before launch and then saturate the media with content" method more than most publishers.

SuperBowserWorld

Hmmm.

Double hmmm.

Triple hmmmmmm.

EoinMcLovin

https://twitter.com/jasonschreier/status/1524724800949833732?t=YovL46cPjjRt91n2d0d2rw&s=19

____

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119050977#Comment_119050977

Which is what they've done for every release to date.

pixelburp

While there are plenty of Duke Nukem Forevers in the graveyard of gaming, delays are IMO a good thing. More time for polish, bug fixing and extra runway for development.

Although it's a Bethesda RPG so presumably the bugs will still be present as standard.

Mr Crispy

Sounds like common sense prevailing over on-brand marketing. Pleasantly surprising.

johnny_ultimate

Very sensible move to delay it rather than have it come in hot, although I'm a bit surprised as it's been quite some time since I've seen a publisher (at least a AAA) be so committed to a release date so far in advance. Indeed, didn't Todd Howard say they wouldn't announce a date unless they were confident of meeting it?

At the same time, it was weird that they had a marketing blitz going without any actual game being shown! I mean, it's great in a way - it makes much more sense to hold back on showing gameplay until you're sure it's representative of the final game rather than wasting developer time on fake gameplay demos. That should be the norm! But makes sense in this case if it just wasn't quite ready to show yet.

Sephiroth_dude

Disappointed by this tbh but for the best if it was only going to be another cyber punk like disaster.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119051711#Comment_119051711

"At the same time, it was weird that they had a marketing blitz going without any actual game being shown!"

It's not weird, it's how Bethesda tend to approach game releases. They only showed Fallout 4 gameplay a few months before release. Howard has stated several times he likes to wait for as long as possible before releasing gameplay.

SuperBowserWorld

Still waiting on the new MS killer app.

johnny_ultimate

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119052504#Comment_119052504

It's been a while, but my recollection was Fallout 4 was only officially announced at the same time they revealed in-depth gameplay footage, a few months before release. That's great! I wish more developers did that.

And I have zero problem with them holding back Starfield gameplay if it's not ready! But they're releasing monthly promo videos, official soundtrack cuts etc... and we still haven't seen the game. Quite different to the Fallout situation IMO, albeit one now explained by the delay. They say they're showing something soon, anyway: hopefully that'll be representative of the final game since they're so far along in development.

EoinHef

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119052086#Comment_119052086

Cyberpunk was delayed aswell, didnt help that much.

In general id agree though,release these games only when they are ready.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119052690#Comment_119052690

Cyberpunk's major problem was how much the company lied in it's marketing. And there was a massive marketing campaign too.

Starfield has been relatively low key, by comparison. About six YouTube videos of vague descriptions.

Sephiroth_dude

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119052690#Comment_119052690

Last gen console held it back as well , should never have been released on them.

Sierra Oscar

I'm disappointed with the delay but we've been here before with Bethesda, Morrowind and Oblivion spring to mind.

I'm glad they're announcing it well out from the original release date before the hype really sets in, if the delay was announced in September I'd be annoyed!

I'm having a splendid night of insomnia and I was thinking since Starfield was due to release Day 1 on Game Pass, did that actually take the financial pressure off to release to a tight deadline and give Bethesda the flexibility to delay?

Contrast this with Fallout 76, where they (surely) knew the game was in a dire state but probably felt the financial pressure to just get it out and generating revenue?

Kiith

Proper gameplay trailer out now, and it looks fantastic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmb2FJGvnAw

EoinMcLovin

The spaceship and base customization looks unreal, can see me spending hours on that alone

johnny_ultimate

Doesn't look like my kind of game at all based on what was shown today. It looks really like a Bethesda remake of No Man's Sky but with a much blander, grey/brown look. Very strange to lead with a boring combat encounter in the most generic possible setting. And bog-standard features like character customisation, levelling screens, base building etc is exactly the type of stuff I couldn't care less about.

The space fighting looks much more impressive than the ground combat, to be fair, and it's impossible to tell how rewarding the exploration - always the strength of Bethesda game - will be from a mere 10 minutes of random promotional footage. My major overarching concern is the thing will simply be too big, with a lot of cut/paste or procedurally generated 'space' filling all those systems Howard was boasting about. That's one thing for a freeform game like NMS, quite another for a more story-focused RPG. We can but wait and see, as a glimpse is only a glimpse... but certainly if this is the game's best foot forward it doesn't immediately seem like my kinda thing.

Music's great tho.

I honestly don't get the comparisons to No Man's Sky. A game I've played extensively. I mean, they are both space games and I can see the similarities with the mining etc, but I think it looks more like Star Citizen. Far more similar to that game.

No Man's Sky has a very stylized feel to it, very cartoonish, not much of a story. Not much NPC interaction. Combat is limited. No cities. Very different game in style.

ricimaki

I wasn't sure what to make of this when it was first announced, but am really interested now.

It's certainly ambitious, but being a Bethesda game, I'm expecting it will be fairly rough around the edges, with plenty of mods to smooth it out.

quokula

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119194122#Comment_119194122

Agree with this entirely. It was all very No Man's Sky, but with a less interesting art style. When he boasted of the number of planets you can fully explore at the end, that pretty much confirmed vast uninteresting procedurally generated area as it's simply not possible to handcraft that amount of space. The ship customisation looked good but the combat didn't look great - it looked better than the ground combat for sure, but nowhere near proper space combat games that are out there. As for the gameplay on the ground with that fight against pirates, that was just utterly dreadful. How could they think that was a good showcase for the game. Very generic sounding story too but maybe it'll be told well. At least they seem to have moved on from the trademark Bethesda janky conversations towards NPCs that look more like actual approximations of humans.

And I also agree, the music was one element that was absolutely fantastic.

Mr Crispy

I mean, it looks exactly like I imagined it would, for better or worse. I don't think it's being helped by the inundation of space exploration games we're seeing lately. Where this had a chance to stand out though, was with the cities; vibrant, futuristic space ports, exotic tourist locations... that's where they can set themselves apart from the pack. The fact they chose not to show too much of that is a disappointment - some gameplay in a city rather than another Bethesda wasteland would have been cool.

Edit: Forgot to say, the brief story elements we were told about kinda line up with a so-called leak I read a few months ago. In that leak it was claimed that the story would

Spoiler Warning

be religious/philosophical in nature. That could be an interesting take on space exploration, or if handled badly could be cringeworthy to the max. We'll see.

pixelburp

I swear I heard a little nod to The Expanse: some of the pirates' voices had a distinct Belter twang.

The music was fabulous; the rest? Looks very Bethesda, for good and bad. As Crispy says, what makes it stand out are the more populous areas and it was a pity we saw little of that, cos the barren wastelands looked ... well, barren and a bit dull. Almost like something an algorithm would spit out. Maybe some planets are more curates than others, but if that's the boastful demo it doesn't give immediate excitement.

CatInABox

Sounds like the vast majority of those planets will be entirely optional, completely empty apart from resource gathering. I guess that's an ok compromise for me, because I was left completely disappointed by the procedurally generated stuff in No Mans Sky.

Mr Crispy

How do we feel about no alien races in the game? Well, I guess they could be holding them back for a later reveal (maybe that's why they didn't go in-depth in the cities). It could even be a quest line, making first contact or some such.

J. Marston

90% of the planets will have radiant quests like "collect 5 collectibles" and "kill space monster."

Howard is the biggest spoofer going.

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119195113#Comment_119195113

DLC. I guarantee they're being held back for expansions.

Sierra Oscar

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119195056#Comment_119195056

I wonder how vast most of these planets will actually be? The reveal didn't go into much detail, other than pointing out that we can land at key locations or choose to land wherever we want.

Is it a case that most planets will essentially just consist of a couple of explorable and hand crafted locations with the remaining areas just consisting of wilderness? Obviously aside from a few main planets which will be much larger in terms of areas to explore.

EoinHef

Looks like the same old engine, the player is moving so slowly in the videos and the framrate still looks like it's all over the shop in some parts.

Pretty standard for Bethesda I suppose but it's getting old. Like just use Unreal 5 at this point!!

I know it wasn't out while they were developing It, it just sux we have to have another game with the same engine

No Man's Sky crossed with Outer Worlds. Meaning a core set of planets where the story will be progressed along with filler go off and mine a load of resources. I'm guessing there is no multi-player? So no chance of stumbling across a giant dildo shaped spaceship on your travels. Is there any trading aspect to it along the lines of Elite?

I'd probably be interested in doing the core campaign story and leave all the resource gathering except for whatever is required to progress the story.

Things are ominous for Xbox though. This was supposed to be a biggie in their catalog. Not another meh.

murpho999

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119195367#Comment_119195367

I'm surprised at this and other comments here. Just seems to be anti Bethesda/Xbox trend on this as the game won't be on Playstation.

Thought the game looked really good and don't see how for example one can say he player is moving so slowly and the framerate still looks like it's all over the shop in some parts.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119195536#Comment_119195536

It's the same as every new game release these days. You have the hype train who'll expect a life simulator and you have people who will hate it without even playing it. Gaming community is just toxic.

I think Starfield has exceeded my expectations so far, but I'm also mindful of recent disastrous launches so I'm going to remain skeptical until I play it.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119195536#Comment_119195536

You'll always get a bit of that. But there's also people wondering if the hype is justified. I hear 1000 planets to explore and all I can is is grinding resource gathering. I mean no-one can argue there are 1000 planets filled with story content, if that's the case then they really are onto something spectacular.

The other thing worth mentioning is we only got a very brief hint of the story.content, which seems to be faction based. If this jas a strong story to it and I'm not forced.to going out resources then I'll be very happy.

EoinHef

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119195536#Comment_119195536

Not sure how that's the case when I'd be buying the game on PC anyway, like I do with most single player games.

The engine is infamous at this point so yeah this criticism goes back further than when MS owned Bethesda.

Do you remember Fallout 4 at launch? Do you remember Fallout 76 at launch?

I'd say your being a little precious if someone pointing out the framrate looks dodgy is viewed as some kind of anti MS conspiracy.

That's just my observation of trailer.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119195844#Comment_119195844

I doubt all planets have story content. But, it does give Bethesda massive scope for DLC, and plenty of room for modders to work with.

As for resource grinding, it will probably be completely optional, depending on whether you want to get big into base building, which will also probably be optional.

It's like Fallout 4, where the settlement building was mostly optional, bar one quest. Though if you listened to critics of that game, you'd swear it's mandatory.

https://twitter.com/BethesdaStudios/status/1536369312650653697?t=lLgvqw3r1-DHLWimpXG8fA&s=19

Silent protagonist. Good.

Potential-Monke

Not sure what I was expecting, but about 3 minutes in (skipping Howard) I dawned that it's Bethesda, and that's why it looked like a space Fallout. Some parts of it looked spectacular, the detail in the draw distances are very good, and some photo realistic parts, but also within those first few minutes I saw the first issue I have. All this lovely looking grey, metal, dirt, etc, but they can't code prints in mud? Mech walks out and doesn't leave a single print... It's small things like that which stick out to me.

Facial animations are definitely better, but they still all have fairly dead eyes. Having played Forbidden West, I now have a high bar for character interactions, and I don't think this will come close to it. But again, it's Bethesda so... I too thought that the characters were moving quite slowly, and I reckon it was to ensure there was no tearing, etc. But that didn't work fully either. Didn't show going from space to land, not much of the cities. Could be a case of keeping story content secret or there's nothing good to show. Still early days though.

I'll keep an eye on this, if it's GP day 1 I'll surely play it. But I may also wait for the first few patches. Doubt we'll get Dysmantle levels of issue free gaming!

pixelburp

The caveats commence: apparently Todd Howard confirmed that you won't be able to fly from space down to a planet seamlessly. Not that shocking, cos then the whole planet would need modeling, but still.

CatInABox

Weird, I thought that people knew that already? I mean, the first thing in the video was the landing sequence onto a planet, which was clearly a scripted event. Then they have the planet screen, where you can select where you want to land. Reminded me of Mass Effect actually, just finished playing through it recently.

Sierra Oscar

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119204703#Comment_119204703

I think the 'land anywhere' teaser from the reveal got people's expectations up, but I agree - I certainly never thought you'd be able to land outside of a scripted sequence. Pretty unworkable.

I suspect most planets will consist of a few explorable places, a main 'hub' and then a few other locations dotted around the place (thinking of your dungeons from TES). I'd say the 'land anywhere' could essentially just be fast travel to the explorable places that we have discovered. So, you can land at the main 'hub' right off the bat once the planet has been discovered and then you can land in proximity to the 'dungeons' once you've discovered the location. Discovering the location might also include reading about it or being told about it and whatnot, not necessarily just having to stumble across it.

That's how I suspect it will work anyway. If it's truly point and click anywhere on the planet and you land then wow, that would be fantastic. I just find it hard to see how they can implement it though - they'd have to have tens of thousands of landing sequences and whatnot. If the landing system is closer to the former setup then I hope they don't over egg the 'land anywhere' stuff in the coming months because it will just end up with a lot of people being disappointed.

johnny_ultimate

Howard said you can "land and explore anywhere on the planet" - that's a pretty unambiguous promise of freeform exploration. Now we get the caveats. No Man's Sky is a deeply flawed game, but the seamless transition between space and planets and the ability to land anywhere (landscape dependent, of course) remains its most magnificent and often awe-inspiring technical achievement. If Starfield is going to crib so much stuff from NMS, it's a shame they're not sticking with that game's best idea: if a tiny indie studio could do it, Bethesda could do it (and of course there could still be scripted landing sequences as well where appropriate).

Again, I think Starfield aiming for pure size could well be its undoing - but if you're going to do it, at least do it right.