Bethesda's new RPG, Starfield, utilizes procedural generation to create over a thousand explorable planets, but this approach leads to dull and repetitive gameplay, highlighting the need for a balance between AI-generated content and hand-crafted design.
Starfield, the highly anticipated space RPG from Bethesda Game Studios, is finally available on PC and Xbox Series consoles, offering players a vast and immersive space adventure with numerous activities and the potential to become a Game of the Year contender in 2023.
Bethesda's use of their proprietary Creation Engine for Starfield has sparked a discussion among players and game developers about whether the game would benefit from using newer technology like Epic's Unreal Engine, with developers arguing that the Creation Engine is tailored for open-world RPGs and has years of tech and tools built specifically for that genre.
Bethesda Game Studios' next big focus will be on Starfield, a gigantic game that offers hundreds of hours of role-playing adventure and will be supported by Bethesda for years to come, while The Elder Scrolls 6 is likely to take several more years to develop.
Bethesda development chief Todd Howard has highlighted the advantages of Starfield being exclusive to Xbox, emphasizing the ability to focus on one console and deliver a better product, similar to the brand association Nintendo enjoys with its first-party games.
Starfield development chief Todd Howard responded to why Bethesda hadn't optimized Starfield for PC, stating that the game is running great and is a next-gen PC game, suggesting that players may need to upgrade their PCs to fully enjoy the game.
Starfield, Bethesda's biggest game launch with over six million players in less than a week, sees players creating unbeatable ships and encountering amusing bugs despite Xbox execs claiming it to be the least buggy launch ever.
Bethesda's Starfield has a poorly explained ship combat system, but players can improve their experience by getting a new ship, purchasing necessary upgrades, learning effective maneuvering techniques, buying weapons, obtaining a Class C license, and utilizing the ship builder feature.
Bethesda has announced upcoming quality-of-life improvements and expanded graphical options for Starfield, starting with a hotfix to address bugs and stability, and following with features such as support for Nvidia's DLSS tech, an FOV slider, HDR customisation, and mod support in early 2024.
Starfield is a game with a massive scale that allows players to explore over 1,000 planets, including the iconic planet Reach from the Halo universe, offering endless opportunities for exploration and discovery.
The writer expresses their disagreement with the implementation of New Game Plus in Starfield, as it forces players to lose all their progress and restart from scratch, which goes against the typical playstyle of Bethesda games.
Bethesda's new game Starfield offers players 1000 planets to explore, but with many of these worlds generated by algorithm, the experience can feel predictable.
Starfield's side quests are disappointing and lack fun, resembling early MMO missions rather than the acclaimed masterpiece it was built up to be.
Bethesda's upcoming game Starfield may incorporate regular updates and content additions to maintain player engagement and encourage continued subscriptions, similar to the approach taken with Fallout 76 and No Man's Sky, in order to prevent players from canceling their Game Pass subscriptions.
Bethesda should work on bug fixes for Starfield while also considering Quality of Life changes such as reworking the oxygen system, allowing in-progress ship saves, transferring items to storage more efficiently, increasing ship size, implementing skill respecing and origin respecing, and adding more flexible companion interactions.
Bethesda has released an update for Starfield on Xbox Series X|S and PC, addressing performance and stability issues, as well as gameplay bugs.
Bethesda scaled back the complexity of hazardous environments and afflictions in their upcoming game Starfield, opting for a more manageable and flavorful gameplay experience, according to the game's director Todd Howard. The enemy ship AI was also deliberately made less intelligent to avoid overly challenging space combat scenarios, but changes to the affliction system may be addressed in the future.
Bethesda has revealed that it made Starfield's environmental hazards less punishing by reducing the impact of extreme temperatures and radiation, making the effects more for flavor than genuine risk to players.
Bethesda had to tone down the atmosphere effects in Starfield and make them less punishing due to the complexity and annoyance it caused for players.
Starfield players are divided over the New Game Plus mode, with many feeling that the rewards of subsequent playthroughs are not worth giving up their ships, and while Bethesda is unlikely to change the mode, players hope that the modding community will address the issue when official modding support is released in early 2024.
Starfield, the highly anticipated space RPG by Bethesda, has received positive reviews but also faced criticism for its shallow narratives and repetitive environments, leaving some uncertain about its future success and whether it can match the enduring popularity of Skyrim and Fallout. However, with its vast scale, growing modding community, and planned updates and story expansions, Starfield's journey has only just begun.
Starfield has sparked various debates among players, including discussions about where it ranks among Bethesda's titles, with many acknowledging its potential while also recognizing areas for improvement.
Bethesda plans to become more involved in the modding scene for Starfield in the future, but until then, fans have already created notable mods like one that replaces all the ships with Thomas the Tank Engine.
Some players on the Starfield Reddit page are expressing disappointment with the game, feeling that it lacks the same immersive experience and compelling content that previous Bethesda Game Studios releases had, leading to concerns about its longevity and lasting impact.
Bethesda's former design director proposed that the space role-playing game Starfield have only around two dozen systems instead of the 120 it ended up with, as once one solar system is done, doing 100 more doesn't add much work, but the decision was made to include more systems for the exploration aspect that players love.
