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

[Fedora Master]

People spend too much time thinking about the Space RPG they wanted Starfield to be that they don't consider what Todd wanted Starfield to be. In early interviews he said Wing Commander and Star Control 2 were some of his favorite games. Goddamn if Starfield isn't a Bethesda game with Wing Commander space combat and Star Control 2 space exploration.

I'm sure that's just as true as his chess club stories.

 

[Zeriel]

The only thing epic here is the microstutters in a prefilmed video. Bethesda truly always finds a way.

 

[Norfleet]

But, still... Space!

 

[whydoibother]

The only thing epic here is the microstutters in a prefilmed video. Bethesda truly always finds a way.

IIRC I spotted one NPC running with its face turned 180 degrees backwards. It was either in this game, or another Bethesda presentation.
And of course the NPC going calmly from crouching animation, slowly standing up, slowly turning, and then exploding into dying animation, not reacting to the 20 bullets it ate in the meantime.
The jank is obvious, and its obviously a modified version of the same old engine.

 

[ADL]

People spend too much time thinking about the Space RPG they wanted Starfield to be that they don't consider what Todd wanted Starfield to be. In early interviews he said Wing Commander and Star Control 2 were some of his favorite games. Goddamn if Starfield isn't a Bethesda game with Wing Commander space combat and Star Control 2 space exploration.

Todd also cites Betrayal at Krondor, Ultima 7 and Darklands as his favorite RPGs when talking about Skyrim and Fallout 4 so I wouldn't put too much stock in what inspired him. He doesn't seem to appreciate depth.

A worthwhile reminder that Todd Howard has more prestigious taste in computer games than most Codexers.

Shame his games don't resemble what "inspired him" at all.

 

[whydoibother]

>listening to what Todd says
lol. lmao.

https://groups.google.com/g/comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.rpg/c/S72d8jRFAaE/m/Dio4dERpgL8J
https://groups.google.com/g/comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.rpg/c/S72d8jRFAaE/m/MG4g74PQbDMJ
etc, I think someone archived other links.

 

[Zeriel]

IIRC I spotted one NPC running with its face turned 180 degrees backwards. It was either in this game, or another Bethesda presentation.
And of course the NPC going calmly from crouching animation, slowly standing up, slowly turning, and then exploding into dying animation, not reacting to the 20 bullets it ate in the meantime.
The jank is obvious, and its obviously a modified version of the same old engine.

Honestly I'm used to the non-performance jank and just find it funny. But the performance side of it is godawful. I remember having to spend actual days editing the (sometimes not working) ini files of Fallout 4 just to make it run at a basic level of performance and have proper mouse aiming, and even then it really wasn't that playable.

It's always a huge fucking red flag to me when a marketing department is spending months culling footage they can pre-select to have the best fidelity and smoothest quality, and it still comes out looking like the PC is using 10 year old hardware.

 

[Zeriel]

>listening to what Todd says
lol. lmao.

https://groups.google.com/g/comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.rpg/c/S72d8jRFAaE/m/Dio4dERpgL8J
https://groups.google.com/g/comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.rpg/c/S72d8jRFAaE/m/MG4g74PQbDMJ
etc, I think someone archived other links.

Make Todd An Intern Again

 

[Norfleet]

IIRC I spotted one NPC running with its face turned 180 degrees backwards. It was either in this game, or another Bethesda presentation.
And of course the NPC going calmly from crouching animation, slowly standing up, slowly turning, and then exploding into dying animation, not reacting to the 20 bullets it ate in the meantime.
The jank is obvious, and its obviously a modified version of the same old engine.

It just works.

 

[DeepOcean]

The shooting looks weird, is it scripted bs for the trailer or will be like that at release? It looks awful, sub Fallout 4.

 

[taxalot]

Sneaking in a space suit...!? How the fuck do you pick pocket people in spacesuits?

You are fighting pirates on a world where you can only survive inside a pressurized, anti-radiation, heat moderating space suit.. But still everyone has regular pant pockets full of digital-only currencies and space-lint, I guess...?

At least there'll be a plausible explanation about why there's no ladders.

 

[Gargaune]

At least there'll be a plausible explanation about why there's no ladders.

Oh, no, they have ladders now. But you can only climb them all the way up, you can't stop halfway. You see, the middle of the ladder is really hard to process, we'll need quantum computing before we can have real-time dynamic ladder climbing.

 

[Robotigan]

Whole game looks bit goofy, ships look like they have been made from scrap.

Modular, utilitarian designs make a lot of sense for a space game. Aerodynamics doesn't make much sense in a vacuum. That it incidentally works really well with a building system is an exciting coincidence that I'm glad Bethesda has taken advantage of.

 

[Skdursh]

Yep - the more you look at it, it is more No Man's Skyrim.
It has survival mechanics, of course.
And crafting.
And settlement building.
And all other Bethesda checkboxes.
i think I even saw space Cazadors in one moment.

But, still... Space!

Todd always sounds like he just got done huffing an extra large helium balloon.

 

[purupuru]

you own two of the most important and historical IPs in gaming

And that's exactly why when you do the biggest update on your development tool-chain since 20 years ago, you test the water with a shitty new IP no one cares about.

 

[Shog-goth]

And that's exactly why when you do the biggest update on your development tool-chain since 20 years ago, you test the water with a shitty new IP no one cares about.

In words it always seems to be the biggest update, in fact reality is instead a little different. And potentially throwing away nearly a decade of development I wouldn't call it anyway "testing the water" but rather "risk of drowning".

 

[Gastrick]

It's always a huge fucking red flag to me when a marketing department is spending months culling footage they can pre-select to have the best fidelity and smoothest quality,

Are you sure about that?

Spoiler

 

[Zeriel]

It's always a huge fucking red flag to me when a marketing department is spending months culling footage they can pre-select to have the best fidelity and smoothest quality,

Are you sure about that?

Spoiler

They're probably dumb enough to think that's a selling point.

 

[Not.AI]

[Trigger Warning]

I wish the graphics were better. I need the graphics to be better.

 

[ropetight]

Whole game looks bit goofy, ships look like they have been made from scrap.

Modular, utilitarian designs make a lot of sense for a space game. Aerodynamics doesn't make much sense in a vacuum. That it incidentally works really well with a building system is an exciting coincidence that I'm glad Bethesda has taken advantage of.

Ship design can be modular and still not look like something scavengers put together.
Aerodynamics aside, for radiation shielding in deep space and armor (for combat and against space debris) you would want ship modules to be grouped more tigthly, to have more form.

Bethesda stick with this design probably because it was easier to implement in ship designer.
But, somehow I have feeling that scrap freighter ship design will be the least of our concerns when Starfield launches.

 

[Zeriel]

[Trigger Warning]

I wish the graphics were better. I need the graphics to be better.

There's something off or just plain bland about the art style. People will say "Skyrim is ugly in comparison", and sure, maybe technically, but it is evocative. There is nothing evocative about this. It just isn't exciting to look at, save maybe the space battles.

 

[Late Bloomer]

[Trigger Warning]

I wish the graphics were better. I need the graphics to be better.

There's something off or just plain bland about the art style. People will say "Skyrim is ugly in comparison", and sure, maybe technically, but it is evocative. There is nothing evocative about this. It just isn't exciting to look at, save maybe the space battles.

I heard the same thing from a few different friends. None of them like sci-fi much at all though. Are you a fan of sci-fi?

 

[Zeriel]

[Trigger Warning]

I wish the graphics were better. I need the graphics to be better.

There's something off or just plain bland about the art style. People will say "Skyrim is ugly in comparison", and sure, maybe technically, but it is evocative. There is nothing evocative about this. It just isn't exciting to look at, save maybe the space battles.

I heard the same thing from a few different friends. None of them like sci-fi much at all though. Are you a fan of sci-fi?

Not as much as fantasy. But I do like it a lot when done well. Certainly more than modern day stuff.

Pandorum is one of my favorite films, I even enjoy average but mediocre stuff like Oblivion. I just don't think there's much interesting here. Ironically I kind of digged the "NASA-punk" thematics they were teasing originally, but the final result just looks extremely generic to me where it's not very exciting. Not sure why, I'd have to really drill down and think about it.

 

[Gargaune]

There's something off or just plain bland about the art style. People will say "Skyrim is ugly in comparison", and sure, maybe technically, but it is evocative. There is nothing evocative about this. It just isn't exciting to look at, save maybe the space battles.

Agree on what we've seen on Starfield, but I wouldn't say Skyrim had great art direction either regardless of tech. It was pretty in the way natural vistas usually are, but both it and Oblivion were pretty subdued in their visual compositions. Bethesda's Fallout entries had a stronger visual identity, but that's 'cause they leaned into the original aesthetic.

 

[DeepOcean]

I noticed that a few youtubers that still cover Star Citizen all got videos to calm down their sheeple, it turns out some whales were asking for a second if it was still a good idea to waste 35000,00 dollars on a game when there is a risk of Bethesda, of all developers, releasing a more functional version of their 7 years still in alpha game.