Starfield - Bethesda Softworks - Release Date - Sep 6th 2023

[NyQuil]

So why would anyone buy it as is if the game is essentially released as a template by Bethesda for other people in the public to come in behind and actually fill the game world out behind them? I absolutely hate the business practice. If you want my money when a game is released....make the game worth my money at release.

That’s why I’m waiting awhile.

Some people think the game is worth it as is, I’d prefer to wait frankly.

Some people actually pay for early access games.

I see it as quite similar.

Personally, I never do Early Access but I’m older and patient and I don’t have to be one of those folks who want to be first to play a game.

I’ll wait and pay my money when I feel like it. I usually have a backlog of stuff to get through (including BG3 incidentally) so it’s not a big deal.

Nothing can possibly imitate the creativity and diligence of an entire population of developers - asking any studio to produce something like a currently modded version of Skyrim is impossible.

At least it -is- moddable. I’m not a a fan of their attempts to commercialize it through Steam Workshop and such.

There’s something wonderfully democratic about some guy creating high definition coinage or actual labels for every type of alcohol in the game and distributing it for everyone.

 

[RandV]

I just fundamentally disagree with this premise. If your game needs mods to become an impressive piece of work, it’s not a good game.

The original Skyrim stood on its own just fine. Mods made it better, sure, but it didn’t need mods. Not sure I can say the same about Starfield. This feels like a game that should’ve come out in 2015. It’s just boiler plate science fiction with the same old Bethesda gameplay loop.

So why would anyone buy it as is if the game is essentially released as a template by Bethesda for other people in the public to come in behind and actually fill the game world out behind them? I absolutely hate the business practice. If you want my money when a game is released....make the game worth my money at release.

No they are good games but mods also make them so much better, there is no contradiction here. What they release is a good game but one that's designed kind of to the lowest common denominator to fit the broadest market. Not just gameplay elements but also things like system specs and UI.

So what mods do is not just a method to add new content to the game, but more import is to fine tune the experience to the individual user. Like a more survival orientated game? Mods will do that. Have a big beefy PC? Enhanced graphic mods to get the most out of it. Finding little nuisances like encumbrance limits? Mods. A keyboard+mouse user not liking the UI that was designed with a controller in mind (not sure about Starfield but this was definately Skyrim). Mods.

And Bethesda gets full credit here for actually creating the environment and allowing 'other people's work'. It's not like this is something every developer does, especially in an industry that's become accustomed to releasing a bunch of shitty DLC to keep charging players more.

 

[NyQuil]

No they are good games but mods also make them so much better, there is no contradiction here. What they release is a good game but one that's designed kind of to the lowest common denominator to fit the broadest market. Not just gameplay elements but also things like system specs and UI.

So what mods do is not just a method to add new content to the game, but more import is to fine tune the experience to the individual user. Like a more survival orientated game? Mods will do that. Have a big beefy PC? Enhanced graphic mods to get the most out of it. Finding little nuisances like encumbrance limits? Mods. A keyboard+mouse user not liking the UI that was designed with a controller in mind (not sure about Starfield but this was definately Skyrim). Mods.

And Bethesda gets full credit here for actually creating the environment and allowing 'other people's work'. It's not like this is something every developer does, especially in an industry that's become accustomed to releasing a bunch of shitty DLC to keep charging players more.

Well said.

You can create an individualized, custom experience that is designed precisely for your playstyle and aesthetics.

 

[Turin]

I just fundamentally disagree with this premise. If your game needs mods to become an impressive piece of work, it’s not a good game.

The original Skyrim stood on its own just fine. Mods made it better, sure, but it didn’t need mods. Not sure I can say the same about Starfield. This feels like a game that should’ve come out in 2015. It’s just boiler plate science fiction with the same old Bethesda gameplay loop.

I’m a huge ES fan (see pic) but Starfield does a bunch of things way better than vanilla Skyrim.

 

[SettlementRichie10]

No they are good games but mods also make them so much better, there is no contradiction here. What they release is a good game but one that's designed kind of to the lowest common denominator to fit the broadest market. Not just gameplay elements but also things like system specs and UI.

So what mods do is not just a method to add new content to the game, but more import is to fine tune the experience to the individual user. Like a more survival orientated game? Mods will do that. Have a big beefy PC? Enhanced graphic mods to get the most out of it. Finding little nuisances like encumbrance limits? Mods. A keyboard+mouse user not liking the UI that was designed with a controller in mind (not sure about Starfield but this was definately Skyrim). Mods.

And Bethesda gets full credit here for actually creating the environment and allowing 'other people's work'. It's not like this is something every developer does, especially in an industry that's become accustomed to releasing a bunch of shitty DLC to keep charging players more.

FromSoft games are modded to high heaven with some truly amazing fan made content. But strip all of that away and they’re still some of the best games of all time.

 

[Turin]

FromSoft games are modded to high heaven with some truly amazing fan made content. But strip all of that away and they’re still some of the best games of all time.

I’ll play vanilla Elder Scrolls or Fallout NV (personally don’t like FO3 or 4 enough to ever replay them) over any FromSoft game any day. They’re different genres attempting to do wildly different things, and there’s millions of people who enjoy them even without mods. Personally I’ve never needed mods to enjoy these games and no BGS game has ever been very buggy for me.

 

[Dogewow]

Been absolutely loving the game so far. Unfortunately it hasn't been running 100%, but well enough for me to get by. Probably once or twice every ten minutes the game stutters or lags/freezes, but only once has the game actually crashed on me. Typically it has happened when loading into a new area (usually a city, a conversation/story event, or transitioning into a shop, ship, or what have you).

Anyone have any tips on how to improve this? I have a (Intel Core i7-9700F 4.7 Ghz Turbo (8 Core) CPU and have turned my graphics settings to low, and am still experiencing issues. I know that this meets minimum requirements so I don't know why it's running THIS bad. I've also downloaded the latest drivers, tweaked some settings, etc.

Edit: not sure if this additional context helps but I've noticed there are audio lags/stutters as well. Sometimes the music won't play in the background and ambient noise cuts in and out. It seems like the game is struggling to have all audio playing at the same time when something in the game is going on.

 

[Tw1ster]

The game gets with each new play session. Everything seems to happen so fluidly. I was making my way through a new system on my way to finish a mission when I received a distress signal from a nearby planet which I answered and now I’m on that planet doing a mission when I probably wouldn’t have stopped in the first place. It really does feel grand

 

[Jovavic]

Played about 16 hours so far, only a few technical issues on Series S. I had it stop loading the first time I went to Akila City. I had a bug in the On the Run quest line, but both times I just reloaded a save and it was fine. Some slowdown here and there in the cities are forests of the Red Mile but not bad. The particle effects from steam or wind/sand is laughable though. But, it's the weakest system and corners need to be cut to make it work well enough.

Bought a new ship in the Red Mile, haven't used it yet but it's got three times the cargo space of the starter so that's good. I'm doing the Rangers quest line right now.

 

[PeteWorrell]

Been absolutely loving the game so far. Unfortunately it hasn't been running 100%, but well enough for me to get by. Probably once or twice every ten minutes the game stutters or lags/freezes, but only once has the game actually crashed on me. Typically it has happened when loading into a new area (usually a city, a conversation/story event, or transitioning into a shop, ship, or what have you).

Anyone have any tips on how to improve this? I have a (Intel Core i7-9700F 4.7 Ghz Turbo (8 Core) CPU and have turned my graphics settings to low, and am still experiencing issues. I know that this meets minimum requirements so I don't know why it's running THIS bad. I've also downloaded the latest drivers, tweaked some settings, etc.

Edit: not sure if this additional context helps but I've noticed there are audio lags/stutters as well. Sometimes the music won't play in the background and ambient noise cuts in and out. It seems like the game is struggling to have all audio playing at the same time when something in the game is going on.

You listed your CPU but what is your graphics card? I hope you are not running this game using integrated graphics and expecting good performances.

 

[93LEAFS]

You listed your CPU but what is your graphics card? I hope you are not running this game using integrated graphics and expecting good performances.

I've heard this game also heavily benefits from using an SSD or M.2. drive. I would think almost all PC users have an SSD now, but I could see using an old HDD causing loading issues.

 

[mouser]

I just fundamentally disagree with this premise. If your game needs mods to become an impressive piece of work, it’s not a good game.

The original Skyrim stood on its own just fine. Mods made it better, sure, but it didn’t need mods. Not sure I can say the same about Starfield. This feels like a game that should’ve come out in 2015. It’s just boiler plate science fiction with the same old Bethesda gameplay loop.

As someone who has played heavily modded Skyrim, Oblivion and Fallout 4, the modding community is essentially multiplying Bethesda’s development investment several fold if not more with free new content and tweaks extending for years and years after the initial release.

Those mods will also allow you to tailor the game to how you’d like to play. For example I love playing Fallout 4 on challenging difficulties, but don’t like Bethesda’s usual ramp up on difficulty to turn enemies into bullet sponges—which it appears they’ve done in Starfield again. When I play Fallout 4 I run mods to make ammo and valuable loot more scarce, while also making it more challenging to level up your weapon tech, making many encounters still challenging without the typical “bullet sponge” approach Bethesda uses.

If anyone else wants to play the game in a different fashion there will be mods to support that play style also.

 

[mouser]

That’s why I’m waiting awhile.

Some people think the game is worth it as is, I’d prefer to wait frankly.

Some people actually pay for early access games.

I see it as quite similar.

Personally, I never do Early Access but I’m older and patient and I don’t have to be one of those folks who want to be first to play a game.

I’ll wait and pay my money when I feel like it. I usually have a backlog of stuff to get through (including BG3 incidentally) so it’s not a big deal.

Nothing can possibly imitate the creativity and diligence of an entire population of developers - asking any studio to produce something like a currently modded version of Skyrim is impossible.

At least it -is- moddable. I’m not a a fan of their attempts to commercialize it through Steam Workshop and such.

There’s something wonderfully democratic about some guy creating high definition coinage or actual labels for every type of alcohol in the game and distributing it for everyone.

I usually play the new Bethesda games through on vanilla then come back in 6-12 months and do a modded re-run.

Quite worried about my 1070ti running 1440p for Starfield though. Either going to delay playing until there are better NVidia drivers for Starfield or buy a new GPU.

Tom’s Hardware did some early benchmarks clearly showing the current NVidia drivers aren’t tuned as well as AMD for Starfield. Not surprising as AMD is a Bethesda partner.

Starfield PC Performance: How Much GPU Do You Need?

FSR 2 upscaling and optimized for AMD.

www.tomshardware.com

 

[WeDislikeEich]

The more I play this game the more I like it!

It definitely starts out kind of slow but I’m having a lot of fun playing this game now.

I know it’s good because I’ve been looking forward to playing it every day. I love when I have a game to play like that!

 

[SettlementRichie10]

I’ll play vanilla Elder Scrolls or Fallout NV (personally don’t like FO3 or 4 enough to ever replay them) over any FromSoft game any day. They’re different genres attempting to do wildly different things, and there’s millions of people who enjoy them even without mods. Personally I’ve never needed mods to enjoy these games and no BGS game has ever been very buggy for me.

We should probably just agree to disagree then, because we clearly hold different standards in games.

 

[Turin]

We should probably just agree to disagree then, because we clearly hold different standards in games.

Or we play different games for different reasons.

 

[Turin]

So far I’ve been able to use my background and traits in dialogue multiple times and I’ve only done a few quests, and it seems like there’s always options to use violence or persuasion.

Also I just got to Akila City and the hue on it seems like a big old New Vegas nod.

 

[SettlementRichie10]

Or we play different games for different reasons.

That’s exactly what I meant by different standards?

 

[Dolemite]

I'm loving this game so much. Just by wandering around worlds (below level 15) I got the following drops:

- A sniper rifle with whitehot rounds
- A rail gun hand cannon with one shot kills no matter where the shot lands
- An incendiary grenade launcher
- A Yellow sniper rifle after going to war with the UC and Freestar against pirates.

Screw crafting. The drops are fantastic.

As someone who has played heavily modded Skyrim, Oblivion and Fallout 4, the modding community is essentially multiplying Bethesda’s development investment several fold if not more with free new content and tweaks extending for years and years after the initial release.

Those mods will also allow you to tailor the game to how you’d like to play. For example I love playing Fallout 4 on challenging difficulties, but don’t like Bethesda’s usual ramp up on difficulty to turn enemies into bullet sponges—which it appears they’ve done in Starfield again. When I play Fallout 4 I run mods to make ammo and valuable loot more scarce, while also making it more challenging to level up your weapon tech, making many encounters still challenging without the typical “bullet sponge” approach Bethesda uses.

If anyone else wants to play the game in a different fashion there will be mods to support that play style also.

Bethesda hired a bunch of those modders to work on Starfield.

 

[Turin]

I'm loving this game so much. Just by wandering around worlds (below level 15) I got the following drops:

- A sniper rifle with whitehot rounds
- A rail gun hand cannon with one shot kills no matter where the shot lands
- An incendiary grenade launcher
- A Yellow sniper rifle after going to war with the UC and Freestar against pirates.

Screw crafting. The drops are fantastic.


Bethesda hired a bunch of those modders to work on Starfield.

At first I was worried about there being few really unique items but this system is definitely paying off so far. A lot of cool and useful stuff out there. I got a chameleon space suit at lvl 5. Also playing on Hard, which apparently gets you better drops early.

 

[WeDislikeEich]

Join the vanguard faction then do the “secret outpost” mission. This will give awesome rewards early.

Yes I definitely second this.

Without giving anything away, do the mission titled “mantis” as soon as you pick it up. You start the mission by looting a document called “secret outpost!” off a random dead enemy. I got it off a dead spacer while playing one of the first few main missions.

Be careful googling the name of the mission if you want to avoid spoilers (when I googled it, the first search result told the quest rewards. Not really a major spoiler or anything but just fyi).

 

[Tw1ster]

Yes I definitely second this.

Without giving anything away, do the mission titled “mantis” as soon as you pick it up. You start the mission by looting a document called “secret outpost!” off a random dead enemy. I got it off a dead spacer while playing one of the first few main missions.

Be careful googling the name of the mission if you want to avoid spoilers (when I googled it, the first search result told the quest rewards. Not really a major spoiler or anything but just fyi).

I was blown away by this mission after stumbling upon it. This game is really fun

 

[Mikeaveli]

Neutral LUTs - No Color Filters

Removes the color filters from the game + DLC, making the colors more uniformly neutral with deeper blacks.

www.nexusmods.com

I highly recommend this mod to anyone playing on an OLED display. Its not perfect but the game looks a lot better to me without the filters.

 

[Osprey]

I highly recommend this mod to anyone playing on an OLED display. Its not perfect but the game looks a lot better to me without the filters.

I've been playing with that applied, as well. I don't have an OLED display, though. I just hate filters.

 

[Jasper]

Agree with the more you play the better it gets. Really liking it after a few hours after getting the quests going, and having some half-decent weapons, and just figuring things out in general.

I really wish it had the kill cam though, hopefully that's something that can be modded in.