Starfield

[Paton]

3 days out from gaining early access.

Anyone else looking forward to the latest RPG from Bethesda? I know I am.

[Your Mom]

Yep! Got it downloaded and even though I said I wasn't going to spend any money on it I got the early access anyway. There is no way I could have sat around for that long hearing about people playing it  

[Ruki]

I have gamepass, so I am gonna play it next week. But I have it downloaded on my PC and my Xbox, so my wife and I are gonna play at the same time. 

[apsham]

My Gamepass is ending soon and I don’t think I need it so I buckled down and bought the full version. With this and some other stuff that’s out - I’m quite sure I’ll be good the rest of the year.

[RazorsEdge]

Won't be getting this at launch as tempting as it is. Still have FFXVI and Baldur's Gate 3 to take up my time for now. Really excited for it, though.

[Bobfoc]

I'll play it on Game Pass, but I'm not caught up in the hype yet. The footage they showed in June didn't wow me, but it didn't completely put me off either.

The social media fanboy wars surrounding the game certainly are silly. Xbox die-hards are insisting that it's going to be the best game of the generation, while Sony devotees are adamant that it will be utterly dreadful. It's not helped by the fact that pundits have latched onto the "last chance" fallacy that Microsoft will never recover if the game is anything less than an all-time classic.

I'd be happy with a fun space game and the kind of enjoyable side content Bethesda has put together in the past. If I don't enjoy it, there are plenty of other recent Game Pass games to play.

The review embargo lifts this Thursday, so we will hopefully get a better idea about the game then.

[Baddar]

Been seeing clips of this online. It looks like one that the modding community could make great over time, but I do wonder how bare-bones most of the planets are at release.

Having no land vehicle is also an issue but maybe not as much to others. Again, depends how empty a lot of these areas are.

[King Ellis]

There was a quote I saw the other day that was words to the effect of 'Starfield really gets going after 130 hours' and...just no,

That coupled with the way they're hyping up that there's this vast number of places to explore does give the sense that they're just padding the game out for the sake of it being big rather than just delivering a refined experience. What good is it to have 800 different planets to explore if they're all just copy pasted?

Personally, I'm not on the hype train for it but I'm sure it will be fun to mess around in in that FAllout kind of way where I just pick a random direction to wander off in and find what's out there with no chance of ever finishing the story.

[Gazz]

I assume this will be along the same lines as Elite Dangerous, which has a squillion planets and 99.99999999999% of them are barren, featureless rocks, and No Man's Sky, which has about 100 plant models, just with randomised colour palettes, so once you've seen all the models, you've seen all the plants in the universe.

It's also Bethesda, so I'm expecting this game to be as optimised as a 1970 Ford Capri.

[Maxx]

I feel like its over promising, but I do hope I'm wrong.   If its good at being a Skyrim or Fallout style game, with all the fun and freedom that comes with that, plus a No Mans Sky style space exploration aspect then that's going to be great.   I worry all these promised and hyped up features are going to end up being super shallow, and their inclusion means less time was spent delivering on the things that make games like Skyrim or Fallout so much fun.

[GoGo Yubari]

oh people seem to like this game. This might be a really long week for me.

EDIT: Mind you, "like" means stuff like 7/10 reviews on IGN and GameSpot. I'm literally just listening to two people talk about it right now. Sounds like unsurprisingly there's a bit of "reach exceeding grasp" on stuff like the exploration.

[Maxx]

7 is by far the lowest IGN has ever scored one of these Bethesda games. It sounds like exactly what I was worried about is what happened.  Feels very reminiscent of Mass Effect 1, where a lot of the really hyped up features were pretty shallow, but there was still a good game and story to enjoy.

I'll still play it because its free on Game Pass, but it won't be until after a deep run with Baldur's Gate.
 

[jrhodes]

Was tempted to get Gamepass on the PC so I could play Starfield but the reviews have left me thinking I'll be better off with Baldur's Gate 3.

[Bobfoc]

It seems that the game takes a long time to get going, which might put some people off. I'm also not surprised at the common complaint that the procedurally generated planets aren't much to write home about. That seems to be the case whenever anyone attempts a big-scale idea that relies on non-curated generation methods.

The shipbuilding has got a lot of praise, though. Mods ought to make for some eccentric designs.

[King Ellis]

I'm seeing a lot of talk about outlets over here being denied review codes such as Eurogamer and Metro. Is that a widespread thing? That's always a worry when a big game comes out and they want the reviews to be kept quiet during the opening days.

[zero]

This sounds like a game I will enjoy as I typically enjoy Bethesda and "hangout" games, but I'm sure it will also be a much better game whenever the "Complete Edition" with all DLC comes out next year. I'll get around to it. Eventually. Like the other games in my backlog that I probably don't have enough lifetime left to play. 

[Bobfoc]

8 minutes ago, King Ellis said:

I'm seeing a lot of talk about outlets over here being denied review codes such as Eurogamer and Metro. Is that a widespread thing? That's always a worry when a big game comes out and they want the reviews to be kept quiet during the opening days.

Generally, yes, it's quite a common practice among publishers to withhold early review codes to outlets they don't trust. Many have specific reviewers they refer to as "wildcards". Forspoken was a recent case.

The case of Eurogamer is curious because Bethesda gave a code to Digital Foundry, whose articles appear on Eurogamer, but were specifically told not to share it with Eurogamer itself. Then, after that was reported, Eurogamer was given a review code that wouldn't give them enough time before launch. There was an instance in which Zoe Delahunty-Light and Aoife Wilson were being snarky about the game in the not E3 live reaction stream, so maybe that's something to do with it. Eurogamer has also just started using a five-point review scale (1-5 stars, with no half-stars), so a four-star review can bring down the precious Metascore.

 

[King Ellis]

Yeah, I saw that live stream clip being banded around as the reason and if that's what they're withholding it for then that's a massive overreaction. There's a world of difference between initial first reactions to a trailer and giving a measured review, especially given the performative nature of a live stream which is going to be quite riffy.

If developers and publishers are going to get upset at someone saying "yep, that looks brown" then it's a bit late given the last twenty years of gaming.

[Bobfoc]

So much unnecessary emphasis is put on review scores that some publishers will take any mildly negative press as a grave insult. Warner Bros. were apparently especially selective when it came to giving out Hogwarts Legacy review codes - not just in terms of sites, but individual reviewers themselves. Sony recently stopped giving review codes to The Escapist because they don't like the "tone" of Yahtzee's comedic reviews.

Sometimes, they're a little more justified. Nintendo blacklisted Kotaku for posting leaks about their games, which seems fair enough.

[apsham]

5 hours ago, Maxx said:

7 is by far the lowest IGN has ever scored one of these Bethesda games. It sounds like exactly what I was worried about is what happened.  Feels very reminiscent of Mass Effect 1, where a lot of the really hyped up features were pretty shallow, but there was still a good game and story to enjoy.

I'll still play it because its free on Game Pass, but it won't be until after a deep run with Baldur's Gate.
 

Everywhere else I'm seeing mild-sorts of the opposite. IGN and Gamespot have seemed to be the only places that took the idea that the game took a little while to get going at full steam (12 hours or so, maybe?) into their considerations for the review score. Which in and of itself isn't all that much of a concern for me. I think the quote from Forbes did it the best for me;

Quote

“If you wanted a giant Bethesda RPG set in space with better combat and a whole lot of time to level and build things and explore and find secrets, yeah, this is it. They did it. Enjoy.”

Which is very much what I'm here for. Either way, I'll have my hands on it in 2 hours or so and I'm hoping to sink some time into it.

Never thought for the life of me I'd see Eurogamer singing the praises of a Bethesda game for being polished and/or mostly bug-free at launch.