Starfield

[Battlelyon]

This game looks like it will be a once in a generation game, that will change the industry and won't be able to replicated.

September 6th can't come fast enough.

 

[Battlelyon]

I Don’t Even Understand How ‘Starfield’ Exists

Very clearly, Starfield is using elements of No Man’s Sky as a base, but it is also going lightyears beyond that.

www.forbes.com

Microsoft promised that after all this time, we would finally get a proper look at Bethesda’s Starfield, set to be released in just over three months. No more in-engine footage, no more brief previews. Starfield instead did a showcase that was nearly as long as Xbox’s entire show. And I don’t think anyone expected it to be as wild as it was.

Very clearly, Starfield is using elements of No Man’s Sky as a base. A thousand planets, instead of infinite ones, but the same concept: exploration. Plus mining, plus cataloguing wildlife, plus building homes and finding ships to sail the stars.

But soon enough, the similarities stop, and you remember that oh wait, there’s also an entire mainline Bethesda RPG layered on top of this, and also, they are doing some things that almost sound too insane to be real.

I almost cannot comprehend the scale and complexity of what was shown off yesterday in the Starfield showcase. If Tears of the Kingdom is baffling people with just how Nintendo made these wild physics puzzles and playgrounds, I am baffled at how Starfield has made a game that seems to be this intensely detailed on every single possible level Among the wildest things that were shown yesterday:

• The ability not just to customize ships, but that adding modules changes the entire layout and interior of the ship when you traverse it to interact with your crew and various workstations you build there.
• A thousand procedurally generated planets but with specific, handcrafted locations to find inside them. A few main planets also have the largest, most sprawling cities Bethesda has ever made.
• The ability not just to dogfight other ships in space, but board those ships, taking out their interior crew and then claiming the entire ship as your own. This translates to becoming a pirate yourself and raiding civilian vessels. Raiding them for sandwiches, if you want.

• Power management for your ship depending on what you’re trying to do, explore or fight. A similar system for managing your crew which you can assemble from main storyline characters or random people you encounter or rescue in the wild.
• I’m not sure anything blew my mind quite as much as the exploration of gravity, something nearly every sci-fi game is content to ignore most of the time. Each planet has their own gravity which can mean a slightly higher jump or literally traversing entire buildings in a single bound. It also dramatically changes combat, turning you into an AC-130 raining death from above, or in zero G, firing a weapon actually propels you backwards. What? What!

Believe me, I understand how AAA video game hype works. We all remember being fooled by early looks at Cyberpunk 2077 or the aforementioned No Man’s Sky. But this feels different, namely because this game comes out in three months. This is not some years-early preview, and Bethesda has famously barely shown us anything about the game to this point outside of a few scarce minutes of gameplay and proofs of concept. What we’re seeing here is what the game is. Nothing is going to be cut or reduced in scale at this point.

There are questions, sure. How many of the thousand planets will have two neat buildings and then you move on? Or is there true exploration to be found? And just how buggy will this game launch, given that A) it’s this absolutely massive and B) it’s a Bethesda game, home of the most voluminous and hilarious bugs in the industry?

But it is hard not to be blown away by what was shown yesterday. Yes, the vistas of the planets and the surprisingly polished-looking combat. But all of these other things that seem almost too good to be true. If they can pull this off, this feels like a game that we have not seen in this industry before, and one that might set a new standard for competitors going forward. At least I hope so.

 

[Battlelyon]

 

[Superbelt]

Maybe it's great. But let's not crown their ass until we actually can play the game and see if it actually delivers on what the say. We've seen plenty of counter-examples, and MS hasn't had a great track record recently.

If it turns out to be Skyrim in space, cool with me.

 

[Clayton]

I'm really skeptical of over-promised space games. It took No Man's Sky years to get off the ground. It took Destiny about a year and it was ambitious in different ways. Mass Effect Andromeda needed some work and EA just sorta patched it up and left Mass Effect to die. Im not too familiar with Star Citizen but I think that game is a meme.

Whats working against Starfield: Bethesda is notorious for releasing some jank ass games that get patched up. Often notably improved over time. Often by mods and the user base. Arguably the best Fallout was created by a different team (Obsidian). Microsoft also managed to have Arkane release a bad game and they managed to make Halo Infinite a mediocre and forgotten title.

Why Starfield could be awesome: Its mostly the same people that have been behind previous Bethesda games and its still a fairly good track record. Its pretty clearly Microsoft's biggest title of the past two years and they almost certainly have a blank check to make the game as good as possible.

You can't really compare this to Tears of the Kingdom or Cyberpunk, tbh. Tears of the Kingdom was basically built around an already existing game. Cyberpunk, at the start anyways, tried to be a Bethesda game and a Rockstar game at the same time and the scope of that ambition was way higher imo and unfortunately they had to scale back the Bethesda style elements.

This is definitely the year of the RPG. Final Fantasy 16 is the Sony style RPG. Baldur's Gate 3 being the CRPG. Diablo IV is the Blizzard style RPG. Octopath Traveler 2 is a rock solid JRPG. I think getting a proper Bethesda 'banger' would be the one type thats missing.

 

[Battlelyon]

People on the internet trying to act like Fallout 76 was his teams doing, his team's last game was Skyrim. They have been working on this game for 8 years for what he said. But you're right, we know officially until we get our hands on it. What makes it more interesting, this is a new ip.

 

[calsnowskier]

I didn’t see this addressed anywhere, and it is kinda massive…

Solo or MMO?

 

[Battlelyon]

I didn’t see this addressed anywhere, and it is kinda massive…

Solo or MMO?

solo

 

[calsnowskier]

solo

Nice. I won’t play it on launch, but I will put it in my queue.

 

[Nasty_Magician]

My hopes are through the roof on this one. Todd Howard hasn't directed a dud yet, when he's fully involved you get the classics. He also acknowledged what a disaster the Fallout 76 launch was and that they learned a lot from that do hopefully this hits the ground running.

Assembling a crew and designing the ship will be my main focus.

 

[calsnowskier]

My hopes are through the roof on this one. Todd Howard hasn't directed a dud yet, when he's fully involved you get the classics. He also acknowledged what a disaster the Fallout 76 launch was and that they learned a lot from that do hopefully this hits the ground running.

Assembling a crew and designing the ship will be my main focus.

I ended up playing 76 for about a year or so WELL after launch. It turned into a decent game.

Launch was supposedly a disaster (I say “supposedly” only because I didn’t experience it myself…. By ALL accounts it was a complete shit show), but the final product wasn’t bad at all.

 

[Nasty_Magician]

I ended up playing 76 for about a year or so WELL after launch. It turned into a decent game.

Launch was supposedly a disaster (I say “supposedly” only because I didn’t experience it myself…. By ALL accounts it was a complete shit show), but the final product wasn’t bad at all.

76 is a great game. I didn't play it at launch but I can see why people were upset, the world wasn't fleshed out yet. It was also a satellite branch of Bethesda in charge of it. Starfield is the main focus of the Bethesda main studio but it's the flagship Xbox game as well so there's no shortage of resources on this one.

 

[Mebert]

I ended up playing 76 for about a year or so WELL after launch. It turned into a decent game.

Launch was supposedly a disaster (I say “supposedly” only because I didn’t experience it myself…. By ALL accounts it was a complete shit show), but the final product wasn’t bad at all.

This is becoming more common. Cyberpunk was also a mess for most at release. Great now. Hopefully the expansion build on it.

 

[Clayton]

Starfield is the main focus of the Bethesda main studio but it's the flagship Xbox game as well so there's no shortage of resources on this one.

Yeah, and unlike Halo you have a situation where Bethesda is making something will almost no recent competition so there is that 'Skyrim' pathway of being a game that people play for a decade.

 

[seattlefan75]

I cant wait for this game to drop. I'm thinking that it's Fallout but you are traveling to different planets. Fallout 76 was ok I am not a fan of the house building and weird leveling of the enemies. I hope this game becomes a blockbusters because I am a huge fan of Bethesda.

 

[Battlelyon]

I had to get my Starfield controller, lol

 

[cezero]

bitd i would preorder bethesda games, but never again since the shit shows that were andromeda and fallout 76. i've heard most of their subsequent releases have also been pretty shitty.

but i have game pass for xbox for other games, and since it's free to play i'll be digging into this one. looks great in the demos i've seen, but i still wouldn't have preordered it. hoping i'll love starfield as much as skyrim and fallout 4.

 

[Clayton]

bitd i would preorder bethesda games, but never again since the shit shows that were andromeda and fallout 76. i've heard most of their subsequent releases have also been pretty shitty.

Andromeda is bioware and F76 was different people, right?

I think Starfield is pretty safe but I never preorder

 

[cezero]

oh, oops about andromeda then.

i think i might give 76 another chance since people say it's gotten better. i only played it for a couple weeks at launch.

 

[calsnowskier]

oh, oops about andromeda then.

i think i might give 76 another chance since people say it's gotten better. i only played it for a couple weeks at launch.

I quit 76 about 6 months ago because it is a multi-player game which means it is a time sink. But it is a good game. There is lots to do and for the most part, the community is quite helpful.