Halo was trend-setting back in its day. It set standards and was a legitimate system-seller. I'm not sure the same could be said for Starfield. I suppose we'll know more over time and with more data on whether it moved consoles and subscriptions.
Starfield | Review & Discussion Thread
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Halo was trend-setting back in its day. It set standards and was a legitimate system-seller. I'm not sure the same could be said for Starfield. I suppose we'll know more over time and with more data on whether it moved consoles and subscriptions.
The only source of levity in this game comes from the adoring fan unless you want to role-play as an annoying, snarky individual with the dialogue options.
Awesome post from RexNovis on ERA with all the receipts showing the narrative was Starfield would beat everything. It changed so quickly after the reality came out.
Starfield has reached 325,000 concurrent players, and has beaten Skyrim's all-time peak (STEAM)
I was certainly expecting a higher CCU count on steam than what is currently reflected on the steam charts. The increduslousness being levied at folks surprised by the lower than expected Steam CCU is something else after seeing folks come into every thread about Baldur’s Gate 3 CCU to remind us...www.resetera.com
And the user was banned
And the user was banned
Of course he is. Exposing others crap is probably antagonism i guess. :/
7/10 game for 7/10 console, a match made in heaven I guessHe said Xbox = Starfield, the same way Zelda = Nintendo
Todd Howard compares Starfield to Zelda when it comes to Xbox exclusivity
Bethesda’s Todd Howard continues to defend the decision to make Starfield Xbox only, directly comparing it to Nintendo and Zelda.metro.co.uk
He made the interview while sitting on Phil's D
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Starfield has a lot of content. I'm 25 hours in and the only major Star systems I've been to are Alpha Centauri and Sol. I'm currently following the UC Vanguard questline and I've reached the point where it splits into 2 tracts. One major thing Starfield is trying to convey is the concept of humanity spread across a galaxy, that's probably why they chose to have so many planets in the game. This is a very hard concept to convey convincingly in a narrative even for books or films. So far, I've found that Bethesda was somewhat successful at this. Different religions and cultures have sprung up around the fact that space travel exists, UC is a very good example of human bureaucracy spread across different star systems and their conflict with Freestar Collective is interesting.
However, the biggest flaw I've found with the game is how disjointed everything is. Usually, exploration in a BGS game is intrinsically rewarding with meaningful narrative discoveries that can start whole questlines, here you'll just find points of interest that are randomly placed on massive maps. It's frustrating to trek a bunch of kilometres just to find some abandoned mining facility or a meaningless cave. The best way to experience the narrative is by doing missions. Within the missions is probably where I've experienced the most sense of wonder and I think Starfield has some of the best mission structuring in a BGS game since you get to learn a lot about the world. One of my favourite missions in the game so far was a tour of a colony settlement. There's an issue here because some missions are complete duds only handing you XP and credits.
The world-building in this game, character progression and features like spaceship & base building, weapon and spacesuit modding make me feel like it's a great game despite the issues I'm facing. If Bethesda had managed to cohesively connect the world together in something like No Man's Sky we'd be talking about something that's truly special.
However, the biggest flaw I've found with the game is how disjointed everything is. Usually, exploration in a BGS game is intrinsically rewarding with meaningful narrative discoveries that can start whole questlines, here you'll just find points of interest that are randomly placed on massive maps. It's frustrating to trek a bunch of kilometres just to find some abandoned mining facility or a meaningless cave. The best way to experience the narrative is by doing missions. Within the missions is probably where I've experienced the most sense of wonder and I think Starfield has some of the best mission structuring in a BGS game since you get to learn a lot about the world. One of my favourite missions in the game so far was a tour of a colony settlement. There's an issue here because some missions are complete duds only handing you XP and credits.
The world-building in this game, character progression and features like spaceship & base building, weapon and spacesuit modding make me feel like it's a great game despite the issues I'm facing. If Bethesda had managed to cohesively connect the world together in something like No Man's Sky we'd be talking about something that's truly special.
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One thing I'm finding exceedingly cumbersome and borderline broken is the scanning of planets. When I get to a new planet, usually via a questline but sometimes just by exploring, I like to scan it fully. Yesterday I was scanning Procyon III and identified all flora, all but two fauna, and all but one of the elements. That's when the problems began, and this has happened before.
For the missing fauna, I had to find a coast biome which is otherwise the same as other biomes and flagged as 100%, and then walk along the coast to identify the missing fauna. Since you can't land on the Sea, and it's not really a fleshed-out biome on its own, forcing the player to deal with shitty water physics and a non-existent biome is just broken.
Then... Oh boy. I spent almost 1h trying to find the missing element, and have not found it yet. I've tried online suggestions, I've landed on 5 different sites, and it's simply not there. I'll probably try today after completing a couple of mainline quests and side quests, but for Bethesda to fuck this up when this system is already a watered-down version of what No Man's Sky has is just impressive.
Links below of people facing similar issues.
For the missing fauna, I had to find a coast biome which is otherwise the same as other biomes and flagged as 100%, and then walk along the coast to identify the missing fauna. Since you can't land on the Sea, and it's not really a fleshed-out biome on its own, forcing the player to deal with shitty water physics and a non-existent biome is just broken.
Then... Oh boy. I spent almost 1h trying to find the missing element, and have not found it yet. I've tried online suggestions, I've landed on 5 different sites, and it's simply not there. I'll probably try today after completing a couple of mainline quests and side quests, but for Bethesda to fuck this up when this system is already a watered-down version of what No Man's Sky has is just impressive.
Links below of people facing similar issues.
See for me I vehemently disagree with this for a few reasons. The scope of humanity feels quite shallow for a few reasons. First is the tile systems, everywhere is empty. Okay, of course not EVERY place has to be settled, but the issue extends beyond this. Akila City is tiny, you walk for 1m and you're out of the city, same thing for Paradiso, Neon is small, but contained due to it's location, but then again how is an important city on a planet so limited? New Atlantis appears bigger, but the tram masks some of the size. It doesn't take much longer than Akila City to get out to where the farms are, and the dreaded long empty flat ground. And the emptiness directly contrasts with the idea of humanity spreading, undermining it. So many times I've been in the middle of nowhere, then a colonist ship lands. So the world is so empty, but also settled, and a lot of places you go to you're never alone because random events make it alive, but they have no effect they're just flashing lights. Humanity spread across the galaxy...leaving behind abandoned robotics bases and no other infrastructure? It's just strange. It doesn't feel believeable to me. House Va'Ruun is another sore spot for me. I can only assume they were cut from the game because "they all left to another galaxy beyond here" seems so strange when all the planets are empty. Go to Baal on the far edge, empty. empty. empty. but they had to go out of the settled systems to find space? It's dissonant with the world you actually see, the setting doesn't fit with the scope of the game. The different religions and cultures feel like window dressing. Two issues with the scope I noticed: there are 12 Freestar Rangers. 12. For how many people? How many planets? That sounds like the police for a population of 10k-20k or so, but they're travelling light years to resolve disputes. Second issue is quest to do with Paradiso, which you can read here (spoilers) which highlights the narrative issue with the quest and the broader problem for the game is belies. It feels so strange that all these factions exist, this diverse world, and you can simply join them all at once? I did the Ryujin questline, it was alright maybe 7 out of ten if I'm generous, but I didn't have any companions with me when I did it. Then I went back to Constellation and Barret is really hostile at me for my decisions. What?? I was an undercover operative and yet NOW my choices have an impact? I can go join the UC, Freestar, all after Ryujin, but Barrett is personally offended at espionage actions I took when he wasn't there with me? It's just weird. The different factions don't really feel like different factions, just different flavours of good guys. I didn't finish it FWIW, only 30h, so maybe it changes, but there wasn't any deep political struggle that made me feel like there was some spiritual-political conflict within humanity and our place in the stars. I know it might seem hypocritical to say I didn't like factions not reacting, and then companions did and it was a bad thing, but it's simply the inconsistency of my place in the world. I'm bad for my choices in one faction, to someone who wasn't even with me, but it's not a big deal to the UC when they're letting me transport top secret documents? It seemed at every step that there wasn't anything deep to make it real, it was all smoke and mirrors, and I don't think this was totally unsurprising in some ways. E.g. Mechs. They planned to have mechs, couldn't get them working, so retconned them into being illegal. But why don't Va'Ruun zealots use them? Pirates? Ecliptic Mercenaries? The game's world is undermined logically by their technical failings, and I'm sure this expands into all else, ie. my comments on the game design systems conflicting with the narrative of the Paradiso quest.This is why I don't think flying between planets would help. They're all shallow, it wouldn't change how you managed to get there. I don't think there is any way to salvage this as a BGS RPG, at best it's going to be a looter-shooter sandbox with some light roleplaying direction.
I agree that the cities are small but I have to contextualize that making a believably large city is like a whole dev cycle for any large studio, See Metro City in Cyberpunk or Manhatten for Spider-Man or any of the GTA Cities. I could expect Bethesda to produce that but I could also expect Toyota to manufacture a car that could take me across the globe on one fuel tank. Elden Ring wants to portray a massive conflict between demigods, GOW Ragnarok wants to portray Ragnorok, a mythological great war where reality is at stake, Halo Reach is a recounting of a war that leads to the glassing of a planet. To depict such scenarios realistically would involve large armies, grand strategy etc. I don't expect any video game company to produce that realistically. There are real-world limitations to creative endeavours, especially for video games. Starfield isn't a story of Human political struggle, there isn't any major political statement within the game, no major political conflict. It's a story of humans venturing out into space and an extension of their own earthbound experience but in a space setting. How would the UN be like in space? What does human tradition mean in a space setting? What about religion? etc. The only thing I truly agree with you is that factions need to have some negative reinforcements if you choose to work with one over the others, it's a major sore point I have with BGS games.
I think that some people see MS sending their engineers to assist with a game as some kind of secret weapon that will make any game polished and great.
The lack of support from MS was used as an excuse many times for redfall, or some said things like ms should have delayed redfall a few months and sent their engineers".
Thankfully, at least MS has two truly next generation games that run at a nearly locked 30fps and Sony has none! Vrrrrrr vrrrrsssss rrrdddnnnnaaaa amd what not.
But BGS is who chose that scope for the game. Hard to say "it's too hard to make good cities" when BGS were the people who decided to make a game about humanity in the stars and several important cities. I think games like Reach, Elden Ring, do portray what they are trying to do effectively. The scope of their narrative fits the scope of the gameplay. Reach moves you between levels with narrative cutscenes, and uses the backdrop of the planetary war to hone in on the tactical and interpersonal dynamics of such a conflict. Elden Ring gives you big demigods to fight, has their deaths change the world (Radahn), and Starfield does give you lots of planets to explore, but it's not really about exploring lots of planets since it is meant to be a narrative RPG. So what does it do to support the narrative? Well, not much, since the gameplay scope severely undermines the narrative and they do little to reinforce it. It's the textbook definition of a mile wide and an inch deep.
I also don't think "What would the UN be like in space" is even remotely like what Starfield is going for. Why is there Ryujin corporation? "What would evil corporation be like in space" is not only incredibly contrived to begin with, it's so poorly implemented that there is quite literally nothing to take away from it. "What would humans be like in space...if it was like the Western frontier?" Well to begin with, on the frontier they had to fight to survive, so I don't think they would be calling people from several star systems away to help with raiders on the farm. Why isthe Freestar Collective really close to the main systems of UC if they're frontiersmen too? Again, really weird.
I didn't finish it of course, maybe I'm wrong here, but besides some comments from Matteo I did not once see anything about religion. Then again, I'm glad. I can only imagine what Emil Pagliarulo would have to say on the topic and it makes me nauseous. The one faction I was interested in joining, House Va'ruun, isn't even joinable, so I feel some depth from "outside" the traditional structure is lacking. One of the reasons I wanted to play them was to experience this antagonistic position, but you cannot.
Don't take this as an antagonistic comment however, I recognise some of this is subjective, but this is how I viewed my experience of playing it and left a bad after taste.
One thing to add about Starfield and how shallow it is: There's an NPC in Galbank in New Atlantis who you can interact with. Without saying much, she's... Peculiar.
Thing is, while there's actual recorded dialogue and a few choices to interact with, that conversation leads to nowhere. There's no quest, no follow up, it just ends.
Really dumb.
Thing is, while there's actual recorded dialogue and a few choices to interact with, that conversation leads to nowhere. There's no quest, no follow up, it just ends.
Really dumb.
Is a full rendition of multiple cities necessary for BGS to convey the theme of human colonization of the stars? If such a thing is necessary then that concept may never be fully realized in a video game any time soon. If you take the stories in Reach & Elden Ring(both of these are really special video games) both the stories they are trying to tell would have better been serviced with a real depiction of conflict. For these games I needed to suspend my disbelief to enjoy the game on their own terms There is a certain depth in Starfield's narrative about humanity's story in the stars.
I was prompted to write my checkpoint review after my experience on New Homestead where these human colonists were insistent on living traditional lives, but Tradition to these folks meant wind power and horticultural pods and mining methane, something which I found to be hilarious, they took great pride from being able to trace their heritage from Earth and they seemed very offended with outworld tourists viewing their way of life as a quant curiosity.
I also enjoyed the bureaucratic stuff in Trevor's questline from Cydonnia, who was trying to get mining equipment for his miners but had to go through a lot of red tape due to Deimos & UC entanglement. The story here tied in a corrupt governor and there were actual decisions I had to make that'd affect the lives of people on Mars
These sorts of stories are what I find really great about Starfield's narrative. It might break down further as I get furtherinto the game but so far I find them great
I also enjoyed the bureaucratic stuff in Trevor's questline from Cydonnia, who was trying to get mining equipment for his miners but had to go through a lot of red tape due to Deimos & UC entanglement. The story here tied in a corrupt governor and there were actual decisions I had to make that'd affect the lives of people on Mars
These sorts of stories are what I find really great about Starfield's narrative. It might break down further as I get furtherinto the game but so far I find them great
Don't worry about me taking your comments antagonistically, I fully understand the subjective nature of the topic and I can even see people not finding anything special with what I shared in the spoiler, but hopefully, you can see where my points are coming from. I actually appreciate an actual discussion on the content in the video game
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With the amount of scanning you do on this they might as well have just called it starfield snap (Pokémon snap)
Jesus Christ, you really do have an excuse for every deficiency of this game, don't you?