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Bethesda On Starfield's Big, Empty Planets: Not Every Location "Is Supposed To Be Disney World"

mckmas8808

Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
Bethesda:

Temper Tantrum GIF

Yeah I'm surprised they felt the need to say this. Some of the feedback must be getting to them.
 

Carton

Member
And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years, 16 God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars: ctrl s, ctrl c, ctrl vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv. 17 And God saw that it was good (enough).
 

Crayon

Member
Well this is a big challenge for space games where you can land on planets. Even ones where you don't, to an extent. Basically space exploration. Having a game set on a space station for instance does not have that problem at all.
 

YeulEmeralda

Linux User
I didn't believe this until I watched a stream where the guy investigated a research lab and an hour later went on a different planet but the research lab was the exact same.
Come on have people already forgotten Skyrim? Copypaste dungeons with random loot is not exactly new for Bethesda.

For the record I would forgive all of this if their story and characters were Mass Effect tier- but yeah...

Commander Shepard Love GIF by Mass Effect
 

kaizenkko

Member
I admit that I have not played the game yet and I definitely will, but videos from players are downright depressing. And you can really feel the...initial wonder go into disappointment when you realize how artificial the world is. I mean....you can fly towards a planet but it's just....an image. You must go into your menus, drop on a landing spot and explore for...about 5 mins before hitting a boundary. See that cool mountain that you can't reach? Try a closer landing spot. Oh look....there's no mountain now. That is beyond immersion breaking.

You stumble on an outpost and....it's the same outpost you have cleared 15 times. Not only is it the same outpost in design, but it's the same enemies at the same exact locations. Over and over and over.

Your hear about this incredible sidequest line, and the NPC mission giver floats through the ceiling. Oh well, you can reload. Nope. Same cat is going to fly away again. Only fix is a new file and hoping that the NPC doesn't Poochie through the fucking boundaries of the game.

Oh you invested in the persuation skill? OK. You know what it changes? Nothing. The quest will continue in the same way no matter what you decide. Sometimes there are quests with two endings but...they are insignificant side distractions. When the game clicks and does that Bethesda magic, then yes, it becomes truly something to behold. But....you have to get lucky with that random RNG of "something cool happening".

This isn't quite "Wide as the ocean but deep as a puddle". It's wide as a puddle, and as deep as some water you sprayed in your driveway.

But hey Skyrim is still one of the top 10 best games of all time. Come at me.
1) The planetary exploration itself is selecting planets on the menu screen.



2) When you're flying, it gives you an illusion that you're exploring space, but you are in a box that you can't go outside of. The planets you're seeing in front of you don't even come closer to you, no matter how much you fly.


After seeing these posts, I think that reviewers were way too generous with this game. lol
 
Come on have people already forgotten Skyrim? Copypaste dungeons with random loot is not exactly new for Bethesda.

For the record I would forgive all of this if their story and characters were Mass Effect tier- but yeah...

Commander Shepard Love GIF by Mass Effect

Exactly. Its a typical Bethesda game. Illusion of freedom and depth but once you put in a few hours you realise it's shallow and repetitive with a lot of copypaste content.
 

F0rneus

Tears in the rain
Come on have people already forgotten Skyrim? Copypaste dungeons with random loot is not exactly new for Bethesda.

For the record I would forgive all of this if their story and characters were Mass Effect tier- but yeah...

Commander Shepard Love GIF by Mass Effect
In Skyrim, yes there was some copy paste here and there, but not on the level that you have the same enemies standing at the same locations everytime. This is just way lazier. And I love Skyrim to death but Starfield is on another level of literally dropping the same location on your randomly generated seed of a landing spot.

I think the scale they aimed at, got in the way sadly. And said scale is now loading screens. Their ambition was there for sure.
 
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Draugoth

Gold Member
Fallout 3/4 and Skyrim had a lot of loading screens, but the open world did not.

Starfield does and takes the cake on the loading screen department, there are so many loading screens it becomes annyoing,

i can see why they made the SSD mandatory, can you imagine playing this on an HDD?

In Skyrim, yes there was some copy paste here and there, but not on the level that you have the same enemies standing at the same locations everytime. This is just way lazier. And I love Skyrim to death but Starfield is on another level of literally dropping the same location on your randomly generated seed of a landing spot.

I think the scale they aimed at, got in the way sadly. And said scale is now loading screens. Their ambition was there for sure.

All of the Dungeons were handcrafted in Skyrim, the only difference is that every 72 in game hours their loot and enemy spawns would change according to your character.
 
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DeepEnigma

Gold Member
In Skyrim, yes there was some copy paste here and there, but not on the level that you have the same enemies standing at the same locations everytime. This is just way lazier. And I love Skyrim to death but Starfield is on another level of literally dropping the same location on your randomly generated seed of a landing spot.

I think the scale they aimed at, got in the way sadly. And said scale is now loading screens. Their ambition was there for sure.
But Todd said he is 150-200 hours deep and barely seen everything there is to see. Maybe because you're seeing the same shit too often?
 

Draugoth

Gold Member
Is this game like Halo Infinite? Everyone praises it but in 1 month time everyone finds out how shit it is? Still wanna try it for myself tho, I finished Halo Infinite, but it was a 6/10 at best.

It doesnt have the shitty microtrasaction hell that is the multiplayer,

Halo Infinite Campaign had a very satisfying gameplay but that was it, everything else was so mediocre that if felt like an Ubisoft game.

Also Starfield still had much more replay value than Halo Infinite, so it's superior.

Starfield is good, but nowhere near as close as to this Magnum Ops Todd wanted, honestly i think you would have a better experience buying Fallout 4 or waiting for a sale and patches.
 
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Good thing they told us months ago that this was a much more realistic approach to Sci-Fi that they were attempting to create and that only ~10% of the 1000+ planets would have some form of life. I'm sorry you were expecting Mass Effect.
Good thing you completely skipped DeepEnigma DeepEnigma post where he calls out your Todd Howard bullshit claim about the game not being about space exploration. How many times will you fanatics make up stuff, rather than call out when you've been lied to repeatedly.
 

analog_future

Resident Crybaby
Is this game like Halo Infinite? Everyone praises it but in 1 month time everyone finds out how shit it is? Still wanna try it for myself tho, I finished Halo Infinite, but it was a 6/10 at best.

The problem is that, like Halo, the game isn't on Playstation.

That's where all of this "concern" is coming from.


Meanwhile those who are actually playing the game are having a blast.
 

theclaw135

Banned
Desolate moons might not be exciting, but they're crucial for immersion. A space explorer thrives on adventure. Lounging in the captain's chair, to send a remote probe down to the surface just isn't the same.
 

Arsic

Loves his juicy stink trail scent
I love playing a game for 10 hours on a day off and coming away from it feeling like I accomplished nor experienced anything meaningful or interesting.

The crashes were the most eventful thing I did in this game today.

What’s the opposite of Disney world ? Epstein island ? Cuz I felt like I was raped of my time.
 
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bitbydeath

Member
I love playing a game for 10 hours on a day off and coming away from it feeling like I accomplished nor experienced anything meaningful or interesting.

The crashes were the most eventful thing I did in this game today.

What’s the opposite of Disney world ? Epstein island ? Cuz I felt like I was raped of my time.
Meanwhile those who are actually playing the game are having a blast.
Ha Ha Smile GIF by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon
 

Draugoth

Gold Member
Think I managed to make a fairly good looking character, will definitely tweak it some more though
u98VXRD.jpg


Some good star wars mods would be amazing here.

She does look very good.

The problem is that, like Halo, the game isn't on Playstation.

That's where all of this "concern" is coming from.


Meanwhile those who are actually playing the game are having a blast.

Nah, im a Bethesda's little bitch, i liked the game, but i was expecting much more.

Todd aimed for the Stars with the game but actually only reached orbit.
 
"The point of the vastness of space is you should feel small. It should feel overwhelming," Cheng said. "Everyone's concerned that empty planets are going to be boring. But when the astronauts went to the moon, there was nothing there. They certainly weren't bored."
President Biden Politics GIF by Joe Biden
 

SF Kosmo

Al Jazeera Special Reporter
The gaslighting about the disappointing aspects of the game is top notch. Totally worth it.

I'm enjoying the game but I think the most astounding thing about it is how in your face most of the poor design choices are. They could have hid most of this stuff.
Most of these things feel like technical limitations too. I think Creation Engine is really being pushed to its limits here.
 

sigmaZ

Member
LOL I knew this game would bring some lovely dissonance.
Captain America Lol GIF by mtv

"Wowee Dur... I get to expwore space! Dee hee! I'm a man.. Dur... I like machines... Dur... So wealistic. But why der no nothing on da planets. Dis not wealistic. Durr..."
 
After visiting two moons and I am absolutely not going to waste my time exploring dead worlds.

Mass Effect had funny Mako physics and a badass soundtrack. Starfield has you huffing and puffing across barren wastelands with Inon Zur's generic epic music. Goddamn I fucking hate Inon Zur. Crysis is his only good score. He can shove that wailing brass up his ass, might finally get some new sounds out of it!
 

MMaRsu

Member
LOL I knew this game would bring some lovely dissonance.
Captain America Lol GIF by mtv

"Wowee Dur... I get to expwore space! Dee hee! I'm a man.. Dur... I like machines... Dur... So wealistic. But why der no nothing on da planets. Dis not wealistic. Durr..."

WHY ARE THERE INVISIBLE WALLS???

BUT CAN I EXPLORE THE ENTIRE PLANETS????

SPACE IS TOO BIG NOW, TOO MANY PLANETS

TOO MANY WORLDS
 

MMaRsu

Member
After visiting two moons and I am absolutely not going to waste my time exploring dead worlds.

Mass Effect had funny Mako physics and a badass soundtrack. Starfield has you huffing and puffing across barren wastelands with Inon Zur's generic epic music. Goddamn I fucking hate Inon Zur. Crysis is his only good score. He can shove that wailing brass up his ass, might finally get some new sounds out of it!

Use a boostpack

even 'dead worlds' have handcrafted points of interest

do whatever you want noone is forcing you to explore anything
 

Pimpbaa

Member
I loved exploring in Elite Dangerous, and that was before they added thargoids. The only planets you could land on with life were small human bases (and that was on planets with no atmosphere). And that game simulates our entire galaxy (procedurally generated of course). I dunno have much was added with the last expansion since the developer gave up on consoles in regards to Elite Dangerous. I will definitely explore the lifeless planets in Starfield, if they have interesting sights to see. Even if it considerably more limited than Elite Dangerous or No Man’s Sky (In regards to full planet exploration).
 

MMaRsu

Member
I loved exploring in Elite Dangerous, and that was before they added thargoids. The only planets you could land on with life were small human bases (and that was on planets with no atmosphere). And that game simulates our entire galaxy (procedurally generated of course). I dunno have much was added with the last expansion since the developer gave up on consoles in regards to Elite Dangerous. I will definitely explore the lifeless planets in Starfield, if they have interesting sights to see. Even if it considerably more limited than Elite Dangerous or No Man’s Sky (In regards to full planet exploration).

I love Elite Dangerous, I love manually docking ships there but this game is something else
 
Fallout 4 was far from perfect, but it delivered on the exploration aspect, you could go nearly anywhere you wanted in the map and only needed loading screens to access buildings, which is what we want from Bethesda games. Starfield doesnt offer the same level of exploration.

That's why it's not called Fallout 5.

I think lot of people are jumping the gun here.

Each game is designed to play differently, there are different gameplay hooks, different intention from developers on how to best enjoy a game.

From what I have seen, Bethesda did what they did to avoid pacing issues. They want you to stay within their handcrafted areas. Space is too big while Fallout games are set in a small section of a city.
 
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