Topic: Starfield

Before the 'scores' drop, I just wanna say I couldn't care less what the 'average' score ends up being - I just want to see a game that is actually ready to play on Day 1 without having to tolerate major bugs and/or performance issues.

The rest is pretty subjective and in a game like Starfield, its more about the freedom, the systems and the 'performance' that matters. If the main story doesn't interest you, you don't 'need' to follow that path for example and your playthrough could be completely different from the 'reviewers' who may have followed 'just' the Main Story to get through it for the 'review'. Therefore I am more interested in seeing how well its been 'finished', its 'polish'. The rest is subjective but you can get an 'idea' of the Performance in general because the scores tend to be 'more consistent'.

Anyway, by the time I finish this and post my reply, the first scores should be out... I'll no doubt play and 'enjoy' (like I enjoy Fallout 4) even if its only '70' on Metacritic. 90+ wouldn't change my opinion - it would more likely indicate a lot more 'polish', the most 'polished' Bethesda game at launch to get more 'consistently' high scores.

Seems i was about right with my guestimate Currently 87/88 on Metacritic and 88 on opencritic. Played around 2 1/2 hours this morning before i started work. I'm liking what I'm seeing until now. It looks and runs great on my series S.

@Lavalera That's good to know👍 I caved in and bought into the early access about 10 mins ago. So let's get work out of the way and I'll be playing on my Series S too later... Can't wait.

Gamingbolt compare this to previous 'Bethesda' games too to see where they have 'improved'. Not just in terms of polish, but also Combat, animations etc and it seems that its a 'step-up' all round. Combat is snappier and animations are 'smoother' (even the facial animations are a 'step up' over Fallout - even if they are still not the 'best' ever seen).

I wanted a typical 'Bethesda RPG' without the typical bugs/glitches and performance issues at launch - and it seems this is a typical Bethesda RPG...

A lot of feedback I keep reading about is aimed at how bland some areas can be when-ever you land. How-ever, unless I misunderstood, I got the impression from Bethesda videos, that area's are procedurally generated with land and possible events. So if you visit an area you previously visited and there was nothing happening, your next visit could be different... for example it could be populated with creatures and/or spaceships landing?? I remember Tod Howard commenting on this, how he found himself in a gun fight, boarding the ship in the process, then the ship took off with him on board. I mean, that sounds funny and random as hell.

Well, after playing it Friday evening and all day yesterday on XSX, I think I can safely say it isn't broken and there are no really serious performance issues. No crashes, hanging or anything daft (as with the launch of so many other AAA titles in the last few years).

It is defo Skyrim with a hint of Fallout 3/4, New Vegas in places. The NPC interaction, the interaction with objects, the quest builds, the general ambience. Even some of the background music and sound assets are very familiar (not a bad thing).

I really like the controls and fluidity of movement. I'm enjoying the space combat, boarding, exploring. I have scouted a few planets, mainly in the Sol system, and they are vast.

The soundscape is just amazing. The starports feel alive, the settlements sound realistic, the ships sound powerful from the outside and reassuringly comfortable inside, the combat sounds are good too. I like the soundscape so much so that I keep finding myself stopping what I'm doing just to listen to what is going on around. I'd be surprised if it didn't win games awards for that alone next year.

Visually, for me there is a definite hint of retrofuturism, with some environments and computer intraction having a 1970s/early 1980s feel. The logos, style, artwork etc. I won't go into more detail at the risk of spoilers.

Things I'm not sure about or don't like yet:

• The colour palatte is a bit washy in places, especially outdoors.
• The inventory management is a bit of a chore and needs constant attention (unless I'm doing it wrong).
• Ammo is way too expensive to buy in stores and scare on the ground. A few times I've had to resort to melee combat.
• There are a LOT of loading screens, with some lasting say 10 seconds or more. Normally, that would turn me off a game instantly.
• It is difficult to get around the major settlements, and I keep running into dead ends/impassable places. Think Deus Ex HR or that last horrible version of Thief.
• I just worked out how to land anywhere on planets, but for a lot of the time, they are pretty empty, so it turns into a bit of a walking simulator at times, without much to see. Reminds me of NMS in the early builds. perhaps I get some kind of transportation later on?

Still lots to do before I've made up my mind on where it sits with other Bethesda games. Too early to say how many hundreds of hours I'll play (LOL), but It does have that ... 'one more hour factor' that keeps drawing me back.

Really enjoying it

@Isca I agree with a lot of those points you mentioned at the end. There are some things I found out which can help to make it a bit easier:

-What i did find out that if you travel from the spacemap insteads of going to the cockpit of your ship when you travel, you encounter less loading screens and travel goes faster.
-I'm making it a habit of looking at value of the things i pick up, usually that means outside of weapons, gear, medpacks ammo etc i don't pick up much other stuff and sell my things whenever i get the chance.
-The ammo problem i recognise a bit, but you can use your Cutter as weapon too, doesn't do a lot of damage, but you can keep your range when melee wouldn't be the best idea.

The game would benefit from a map, it would be a lot easier to navigate in the cities, but in New Atlantis i know where to go now most of the time just by walking around so much there. It also has something special to not rely on a map all the time and just remember where stuff is haha.

But yeah I'm absolutely loving it. Since the release i put over 20 hours into it and even though the start is kinda slowish, I'm enjoying every minute of it.

I think the subject about being able to 'explore' so many areas but that 'most' are going to be 'empty', devoid of life and/or scripted 'reasons' to visit, that's pretty much what you'd expect in a 'Space' game a little more grounded in Reality. If we take our 'own' Solar System with all the Planets/Moons we 'could' visit, including the vastness of space in between, there is 'little/no' reason to go there - they don't support 'life' at all. If you go to the 'moon', all you can literally do there is 'walk' around a 'barren' landscape devoid of any life.

Without 'warp/hyperlight' drives, space travel would be incredibly 'tedious' - stuck on a ship for months, years, even 'generations' to travel between 'solar systems'. I don't care that I have an 'auto-pilot' to land or take-off - even if it hides 'loading' the zone. I am glad that fast travel exists, that I can 'bypass' having to go through multiple 'zones', each with a small loading section if I want - to me, its cutting out the dull bits of a Space RPG for the sake of 'game-play' in a Game of this scale. I'd hate to spend 'hours' of game time stuck in travelling from point A to B to be 'more' realistic, more 'Sim' like.

I can't say for certain that everything 'works' for me yet as I am waiting until the Standard edition release to play it myself - but I haven't yet seen anything that I think would be a major negative to me, but as I haven't played, maybe I'll feel differently.

I think the 'novelty' of landing/taking off or 'flying' from planet to planet instead of 'jumping' would wear off quickly - as would seeing how far I can go on 'barren' worlds - as long as I have 'enough' of a zone to explore, build a base or find some 'random' thing to do without having to walk for 10+ minutes, that's fine.

EDIT: well I decided I might as well just buy the 'Premium' upgrade. I didn't really have a chance to play over the weekend so I wasn't bothered about 'early access' but with 10% off in Xbox store and having a chance to 'start' this afternoon, I thought why not...

@Lavalera - Thanks so much for those useful tips, especially the spacemap idea. I'll bear them in mind

@BAMozzy - Yep - I get those points about the empty exploration. I think if I had a Mako I'd be sorted, and it would prob be fun : ) Can't help wondering if there is some sort of rover to be found later on, or perhaps added in some later DLC. Can you imagine having to walk the planets/moons in Mass Effect all of the time? It would be the same experience. Anyway, welcome to EA - have fun in this great game!

Nice to read all posts here, many interesting comments and views about this game.

I will be playing next Tuesday afternoon. The premium upgrade seemed tempting, but with the huge size of the game and the 15 GB patch, I think the download will be over just in time for the "normal" release, lol.

Anyway, happy gaming to all, and I am excited to try Starfield by myself tomorrow afternoon!

I noticed when building my outpost that you can place Gun Turrets... this suggests that you should protect your outpost from possible attacks, has anyone ever experienced this yet?

I am enjoying Starfield very much. I've played it all weekend and can't wait to get back.

However, I have a few nitpicks...

• Do you remember when someone asked Todd Howard if there was fishing in Starfield? I'm okay with no fishing, but I'm surprised with how little water I've seen. No rivers, no lakes, except in the handcrafted areas, like New Atlantis. Instead, we get water a few boring water sprouts. Even in places where you're not supposed to find liquid water, like Mars.
• I've seen plastic bags in Venus. At 350 °C... Not to mention that the hellish pressure of 90 atm in Venus has absolutely no effect in gameplay. Even the extreme temperatures have very little significance other than some inconsequential status effects.
• Sound in space is a no-no.
• The varying gravity is one of the best gameplay features in the game. I wish they went one step further and made Zero-G in all outer space segments. Artificial gravity trope is overused.

I'm sure there will be mods that will fix most, if not all of those issues.

@Isca Well you have a jump suit with boosters to get around which is perhaps 'more' fun in a 'small' area than driving a vehicle in that terrain (assuming its 'possible' where you land) across a 'small or even 'larger' bland moon or desolate planet? You'd still hit 'invisible' walls or be 'limited' by some impassable geological feature (cliffs/crevices/water).

It maybe could be 'fun' to have 'dune buggy' racing around a part of some planet but its a 'crutch' too - like a 'horse' in the Witcher - a way to get from one side of the map to the other. Those games can be considered as 'zones' if you want - as Mass Effect has multiple 'Zones' (multiple maps) and if the 'Zone' is big enough to warrant a vehicle, its necessary to make it 'less' tedious than just walking and still 'feeling' like you aren't breaking the 'illusion' by fast traveling - If the Zones are 'small' enough that you don't 'need' a vehicle because getting around with the booster pack makes those zones feel 'bigger' then you don't need them. Cities seem to have Public transport so again not 'needed'

If the area has enough to 'explore' for in the zone, whatever 'size' it is, effectively can be 'worth' the same experience or not - Driving around a bland moon is no more fun than running/jumping/boosting around a bland moon surface - the 'exciting' part is whatever you 'want' to do with that mechanic and other abilities (building for example) on that bland moon to make it 'interesting' or an 'opportunity' to do anything you 'want' when you get there within the systems the game offers...

Now that the games out, I'm curious to hear what some of you chose as your background and traits? I kind of wanted my character to be a more realistic representation of myself, so I didn't go with some cool or one I really wanted like bounty hunter, or something along those lines.

I went with Chef of all things lol. Mostly because I do the majority of the cooking in the house, and love firing up the grill, smoker, or anything in the kitchen. There's not much I can't make so I thought it was a worthy option. Then for traits i chose empath, extrovert, and task master.

@NintendoByNature I chose UC citizen and Hero Worshipped as traits. Found it very hard to make the choices since all has a downside as well. I was curious about the Hero Worshipped one, since i didn't play Oblivion but heard about the adoring fan from some story so was curious what it was. Somehow it is very funny having someone praise you all the time, on the other hand sometimes its a bit to much haha.
For the background i chose Cyberneticist. Just because the traits somehow looked the most usefull for me.
With all the knowledge i have now i would probably have chosen otherwise. But oh well for a 2nd playthrough which i probably will do one day ill just chose something different haha.

I'm like 25-30 hours in now, taking things very slowly and absolutely loving it It's such a great game.

@NintendoByNature @Lavalera I went with the Long Hauler as job because weight lifting looked to me as the most important skill at start of the game. I did not use any trait as the negatives allways looked bigger than the positives

@Lavalera very cool. I thought about cyberneticist myself. But ultimately went with chef for the "realism" of being more aligned with myself. Hero worshipped was one I was close on getting too! But I thought about having someone tag along the entire time to be annoying lol.

@Balta666 weightlifting sounded cool. I know what you mean about the negatives.