Starfield Pre-Release Thread [GAME RELEASED, GO TO NEW THREAD]

[Clockwork Knight]

"The title screen looks like shit lmao"
"Nooooooo! Nazi!"

I wonder if Bethesda and their journofans are worried about Starfield being sandwiched between BG3 and Phantom Liberty. I don't think they NEED to be, there are people playing review copies of Starfield and while they don't say much it doesn't sound like a disaster.

 

[Late Bloomer]

I wonder if Bethesda and their journofans are worried about Starfield being sandwiched between BG3 and Phantom Liberty.

You mean to ask if Bethesda is worried they didn't include bestiality and a dick slider? I don't think they are worried. One is a game, the other two are degenerate piles of shit that should be shunned by everyone other than absolute filth.

 

[Fedora Master]

I wonder if Bethesda and their journofans are worried about Starfield being sandwiched between BG3 and Phantom Liberty.

You mean to ask if Bethesda is worried they didn't include bestiality and a dick slider? I don't think they are worried. One is a game, the other two are degenerate piles of shit that should be shunned by everyone other than absolute filth.

None of the three options are good games.

 

[N'wah]

Clutching at straws to make a judgement on the game's development from a start screen, which was obviously going for a minimalist design (even if it's a bland one). Biggest sin is having that "thank you for playing" crap plastered on the top right. Corpos talking in the first person is cringe, please stop it (although of course it's just a placeholder for future dlc/creation content they will advertise there, which makes it even worse).

 

[TheCumGuzzler]

Clutching at straws to make a judgement on the game's development from a start screen, which was obviously going for a minimalist design (even if it's a bland one). Biggest sin is having that "thank you for playing" crap plastered on the top right. Corpos talking in the first person is cringe, please stop it (although of course it's just a placeholder for future dlc/creation content they will advertise there, which makes it even worse).

Grummz (Mark Kern) is so retarded he got fired from his own company by popular vote, not to mention his game "Firefall" was absolute shit even though it had more work done on its start screen.

 

[Busyman]

The absolute chutzpah on Pete Hines to call anybody else unprofessional. Best play was to take the L and say something like "It's just the start screen. We figured it was more important to focus on gameplay." Letting the world know that you wanted your start screen to look like a bland piece of shit isn't a great look.

I can't stand that smug bitch. So many companies act like this guy nowadays too..like we should be thankful just to play their shitty ass, buggy mess of a game.

 

[Silverfish]

"The title screen looks like shit lmao"
"Nooooooo! Nazi!"

That response makes sense when you remember that Hitler was an artist.

 

[Orud]

Forget what you know about the game. Tell me this doesn't get you 100x more hyped to press New.

Another great main menu example:


During my visual storytelling classes in college 'less IS more' was literally shoved down our throat almost every lesson. Alternative design philosophies weren't even taught anymore. The truth that I've only seen more and more confirmed as time has gone by is that the correct statement is 'less CAN be more'. Just like with everything; there is no secret sauce, no 'silver bullets'.

Strict adherence to ideology or scripture when it is not needed or incompatible is far too common these days. Afterall, if you need confirmation for your bad choices you can just pick and choose the voices that agree with you from shitholes like reddit or twitter.

 

[InD_ImaginE]

'less IS more'

this is why modern gaming is dogshit

"ayooo we have barebone mechanics but its actuall deeeeeeeep"

 

[Immortal]

"The title screen looks like shit lmao"
"Nooooooo! Nazi!"

I wonder if Bethesda and their journofans are worried about Starfield being sandwiched between BG3 and Phantom Liberty. I don't think they NEED to be, there are people playing review copies of Starfield and while they don't say much it doesn't sound like a disaster.

You've got it backwards. BG3 released a month early because Larian was shitting bricks that they wouldn't get their release uptick sales numbers.
As long as starfield boots up and you can walk around a bit.. I don't think Cyberjunk will be anything to worry about.

Honestly, listening to pawel kvetch on and on about how it's the best game ever now, no really, we promise this time.. as he wraps a zip tie around it's corpse and kicks it out the top window of the CDPR office. Cyberjunk is dead. Not worth a second glance.

 

[racofer]

Modded menus will fix it.

 

[deuxhero]

The title screen does look very bland, though I hate 3D main menus (loading them is a huge pain in the ass when you're start/stopping a game to check config/modlist issues). Plenty of good 2D menus out there though.

The real worrying thing I've seen is mention the tutorial is 4+ hours long. That tells me they've polished that one section so they can avoid refunds.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

You've got it backwards. BG3 released a month early because Larian was shitting bricks that they wouldn't get their release uptick sales numbers.

Yeah but that already happened and the game sold way more than anyone expected, including Larian.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

My instincts are telling me this game will be a total disaster. Am I wrong, and if so, why?

diablo 4 is objectively a total disaster. it still sold like it had been the best game ever.

 

[Be Kind Rewind]

Clutching at straws to make a judgement on the game's development from a start screen

It's not grasping at straws, I can't think of a game with a start screen that didn't reflect the rest of the game. It's especially important on consoles which have a stronger tradition of keeping the attract mode from arcade games, replacing the insert coin request with a press any button to play. If the start screen is shit then the rest of the game is almost certainly shit, and they are always a microcosm of the entire game. Take the main menu of Wizards & Warriors.

You can see the strong and prestigious CRPG lineage of the game right away, with old school fantasy art featuring an adventuring party and the sort of situation you can expect to find yourself in when playing. I've just started a playthrough of Might & Magic VI and the same is true there.

The focus on the core of the game, a whole adventuring party facing off against a dragon. The Early 00's pre-rendered buttons gives you a taste of the change in presentation from the last game, Darkside of Xeen. It's simple, but tasteful and evocative of what the experience of playing the game is like. Tradition meets the new. Finally, take Dungeon Lords, the only good ARPG ever made.

The flames on the sides are animated, the buttons animate when you press them and the gate to the dungeon opens when you start the game. Everything you need to know about the game before you even start playing it. D.W. Bradley's name is faded just as the style of RPG he was legendary for being a thing of the past on the market.

A more comparative example since this is a bad looter shooter with pretenses of being an RPG Mass Effect's title screen made the intentions and style of the game clear. An arcade like console action game first with the press start to play, but also what was at the time an attempt to recapture a science fiction genre that was dead at the time (still is). If you actually press the button the menu consists of blurry images of the characters of the game phasing in and out, emphasizing how the game is for storyfaggots that want to chat with poorly written characters.

 

[Be Kind Rewind]

All modern Bethesda games look very non-immersive when it comes to UI and menus.

How about the likes of Morrowind?

Morrowind's main menu is very representative of the game, the discerning game menu race science expert can make out the subtle difference between this and later TES iterations. Whereas Skyrim's main menu looks like total ass with everything but one shiny object being corpo minimalism showing us how the game is empty and devoid of value beyond the shiny graphics at the time Morrowind's main menu is stiff and awkard, just like the game, and the highlight is the lore, represented in the back. Unlike traditional fantasy CRPG art however it's very distant, there is no art of demi-gods at play, no party of adventurers fighting monsters, but the good ideas of Kirkbride are still in an outline, the letters in the logo having the supporting sketchmarks still intact giving the game an unfinished appearance and the lore is set on an otherwise empty parchment. The best part of the game is somewhere in the distance, static, for you to read about.

You will not be going into challenging dungeons with a party of adventurers, there is little of the old school CRPG spirit in the game, the game is unfinished, but the lore is pretty cool. All this can be seen in the main menu screen.

 

[mediocrepoet]

Clutching at straws to make a judgement on the game's development from a start screen

It's not grasping at straws, I can't think of a game with a start screen that didn't reflect the rest of the game.

Totally. Every classic, or even decent game, starts with an awesome title screen.

What sort of uncultured philistine doesn't know that?

Spoiler

 

[Latro]

This is still gamebryo? Why?

 

[Be Kind Rewind]

Totally. Every classic, or even decent game, starts with an awesome title screen.

Classic games start with classic titlescreens that are representative of the game. I know this is hard concept for a Cucknadian to understand but I can't make it much clearer for retards. Wizardry started with a splash screen that accurately tells you a lot about the style, graphical fidelity and tone of the rest of the game, as well as what the developers are going for, how much effort they were putting into the game, how talented they are and in which areas. It also tells you about the technology of the period, among other things. (Edit: None of those are classics by the way.)

 

[Gargaune]

What an odd thing to bicker over, the internet's grown too angry these days. In any case, I'd rather take a bland main menu over a slow, animooted wank like we got in PFKM and BG3, or something that takes multiple key prompts, like CBP. What is it with all this "press X to continue" before the main menu anyway - I clicked the .exe, of course I want to continue to the main menu, what else would I be fucking doing?

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

this is the codex. we argue over ANYTHING.

 

[Elthosian]

Can find great games with shitty title screens and great games with great title screens. Deus Ex had nice music on its title screen yet it was rather bland compared to something like Metroid Prime. Don’t really think it’s something worth losing time on but yeah, this is the Codex.

 

[Zombra]

The real worrying thing I've seen is mention the tutorial is 4+ hours long. That tells me they've polished that one section so they can avoid refunds.

If they really wanted to do a pump and dump cash grab, they wouldn't have postponed release for almost a full year of additional QA.

 

[Robotigan]

A more comparative example since this is a bad looter shooter with pretenses of being an RPG Mass Effect's title screen made the intentions and style of the game clear. An arcade like console action game first with the press start to play, but also what was at the time an attempt to recapture a science fiction genre that was dead at the time (still is). If you actually press the button the menu consists of blurry images of the characters of the game phasing in and out, emphasizing how the game is for storyfaggots that want to chat with poorly written characters.

Planet (or space station) silhouettes are a staple of scifi. Space is vast and empty and these shots impress that upon you.

This last one is a real photo of space shuttle Endeavor on an ISS docking approach over Earth's horizon. I have a print hanging in my room.

I'm going to say this comes down to diverging tastes. Personally, I dislike the busy renaissance scenes depicted in most fantasy cover/menu art. I prefer things kept simple and clean, conveying the tone without depicting much at all. Brevity is the soul of wit and all that. That seems to much more mainstream in scifi while fantasy is very character-centric. Bethesda is one of the few that go the more subdued route in fantasy likely because Todd's a scifi buff.

 

[Grampy_Bone]

Just let me know when all the porno mods come out.