clarky
Gold Member
Get your ass out of here with those positive opinions. Your not supposed to like it.
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Bethesda responding to negative Starfield reviews on Steam - "it's not boring", it's "by design"
Panajev2001a
GAF's Pleasant Genius
Sorry, we are not paying with MS Rewards Points so it cannot pay rent to us. Lucky to be you I guess
?
John Bilbo
Member
Cool. I hope Bethesda employees enjoy playing their own game.
You’re playing the game wrong is a pretty embarrassing response really.
As soon as they said there’d be 1000 planets people were seriously sceptical that these would be meaningful places to explore and that turned out to be the case.
Same with travel - they simply did not find a fun way to traverse space and they knew it, which is a pretty big deal for a game with space exploration as a main selling point.
It’s an okay game with legitimate criticism Bethesda should be taking on board instead of telling the player base that they’re wrong.
As soon as they said there’d be 1000 planets people were seriously sceptical that these would be meaningful places to explore and that turned out to be the case.
Same with travel - they simply did not find a fun way to traverse space and they knew it, which is a pretty big deal for a game with space exploration as a main selling point.
It’s an okay game with legitimate criticism Bethesda should be taking on board instead of telling the player base that they’re wrong.
adamsapple
Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
oh no baby what is you doing, don't respond to steam reviews, it's an unending battle.
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Interfectum
Member
When has this kind of response ever worked? Someone at Bethesda needs to tell that employee to chill out and stop posting.
hyperbertha
Member
Because baldurs Gate 3 doesn't suck.
Punished Miku
Human Rights Subscription Service
I said the same thing, and I think he's right. That's kind of the big challenge with any hard sci fi space exploration game like this. You want to try and emulate realism a bit more, but also try and find the fun in the gameplay loop. I used a very similar argument months ago when the game first came out.
Say you like the movie Interstellar and you want a hard sci fi game that feels somewhat similar. Interstellar is the story of a crew flying in a spaceship to an empty planet with nothing on it at all but a piece of broken shuttle with coordinates on it. Then they fly to another barren planet with nothing on it because evil Matt Damon lied about the data. That's the movie. Every other planet they pass they don't even stop on because there's even less on it. At the very end the girl lands on another planet with better conditions for life and she builds an outpost. The end. The truth is that this is going to be a lot more niche than people think just based on the subject matter alone.
I think they have the gameplay loop down, but they can improve it a bit with some slight tweaks here and there.
1) Make the scanning more rewarding. Datalog, encyclopedia, scientific discoveries you can contribute to with scans.
2) Increase more variety in random POI
3) Survival mode
That's about it. Just some small stuff. Most people will still find it boring, but that's the subject matter. If you go to the moon and are disappointed that it's nothing but dust and rocks, well ....
Say you like the movie Interstellar and you want a hard sci fi game that feels somewhat similar. Interstellar is the story of a crew flying in a spaceship to an empty planet with nothing on it at all but a piece of broken shuttle with coordinates on it. Then they fly to another barren planet with nothing on it because evil Matt Damon lied about the data. That's the movie. Every other planet they pass they don't even stop on because there's even less on it. At the very end the girl lands on another planet with better conditions for life and she builds an outpost. The end. The truth is that this is going to be a lot more niche than people think just based on the subject matter alone.
I think they have the gameplay loop down, but they can improve it a bit with some slight tweaks here and there.
1) Make the scanning more rewarding. Datalog, encyclopedia, scientific discoveries you can contribute to with scans.
2) Increase more variety in random POI
3) Survival mode
That's about it. Just some small stuff. Most people will still find it boring, but that's the subject matter. If you go to the moon and are disappointed that it's nothing but dust and rocks, well ....
hyperbertha
Member
But you are a well known xbox stan. Your opinion won't be taken seriously.
Badlucktroll
Member
not gonna lie i was so excited for starfield then while playing it i was like 
now i am terrified for elder scrolls 6. its gonna be the same shit
if anything you’ll teleport to islands with loading screens or some shit 
now i am terrified for elder scrolls 6. its gonna be the same shit
if anything you’ll teleport to islands with loading screens or some shit
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Topher
Identifies as young
This shit is backfiring badly. Check out the responses to the "developer response".
steamcommunity.com
Steam Community :: MOONSHOT :: Review for Starfield
Boring, empty, soulless. Unpleasant to play. Todd told me I'd be exploring space, not fast travel menus. You don't really explore anything at all. You just teleport from desolate waste to desolate waste. Then your space ship sets down a 15 minute walk from the copy/paste POI you'be been...
GHG
Member
You're still a couple of points off (on the 10 scale) if I'm going to be pedantic.
You also referenced the OT and how everyone was loving it there so I responded accordingly. This is the worst rated Bethesda RPG on Steam and in general a review score under 70 on the platform is not good no matter how you shake it.
What you need to understand is the fact that on PC (and in particular on Steam) there is absolutely reason for a people to make excuses for (and continue playing) games that don't meet their expectations.
There are too many other high quality games, spanning decades. If someone wants to scratch a space game itch then there are plenty of other options like x4 foundations, spaceengine, elite dangerous (the real version, not the console port), NMS, Stardeus, etc. If you want space ship building specifically then there's stuff like cosmoteer and space engineers.
And then on the RPG side of things Baldurs Gate 3 and Colony Ship (the latter being space themed) have just released. The competition is fierce so people have no reason to mince their words and there's certainly no reason for people to waste their time.
Xbox are also suffering a similar (but much worse) fate with Forza Motorsport on PC. Why in earth is someone going to play that when they have stuff like Assetto Corsa, Automobilista 2, Rfactor 2, iracing, etc, etc at their disposal? There's even the option of emulating older Forza and GT titles if they want to revisit older titles.
So the solution is simple, instead of Xbox fans lashing out and attempting to shut down any discussion surrounding what is going on with this latest batch of XGS games on PC, you should demand better products. Instead of Bethesda wasting time in steam reviews gaslighting and begging their customers, they should make better games.
The problem exists at source, nowhere else. They have the resources (more so than any other company in this industry) to make games with universal acclaim, so it's about time they made games with universal acclaim instead of pooping unfinished/substandard games out and then instead using those resources to attempt to control the narrative after the fact.
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TerribleAtThisGame
Member
I haven't played the game so no idea about its quality but just seeing a dev equate enjoyment and excitement with "hundreds of hours of stuff" is so depressing to me.
PisswasserYellow
Member
Wow, that's fucking lame. Who actually thinks this is a good idea?
Topher
Identifies as young
GHG
Member
There are so many things ridiculous with this post that I don't even know where to begin.
But I'm happy for you.
HeWhoWalks
Gold Member
I'm sure his feelings are crushed.
Horseganador
Member
The best thing they can do is shut up and stop dragging themselves, they have not met the enormous expectations they created and that's it, accept it.
Gudji
Member
Dr. Wilkinson
Member
This is exactly what they were saying about the game in the run up to launch, knowing what people were thinking.
StueyDuck
Member
Eh.... I wouldn't consider a member of customer support for Bethesda on steam the same as coming directly from Todd Howard's lips.
This isn't really a story, a community manager can very easily be a fanboy and also wouldn't have any real impact in the games design so yeah... as I said this isn't really anything than a low end employee adjacent to Bethesda who probably is a fanboy of the game.
This isn't really a story, a community manager can very easily be a fanboy and also wouldn't have any real impact in the games design so yeah... as I said this isn't really anything than a low end employee adjacent to Bethesda who probably is a fanboy of the game.
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Dr. Wilkinson
Member
Not even remotely similar games, which you would know if you played both of them.
Lucifers Beard
Member
It's bad by design? Ok, I thought it was just me...
The more I think about this game, the worse it is. It's just so empty and boring, every time I think to myself 'I will give it another go' I remember the boring dialogue, empty planets with nothing going on, boring space powers and a game that has no personality.
It just made me want to go back and play Fallout 4 or Skyrim instead which are vastly better games (and I didn't even care for Fallout 4).
The more I think about this game, the worse it is. It's just so empty and boring, every time I think to myself 'I will give it another go' I remember the boring dialogue, empty planets with nothing going on, boring space powers and a game that has no personality.
It just made me want to go back and play Fallout 4 or Skyrim instead which are vastly better games (and I didn't even care for Fallout 4).
Thirty7ven
Banned
I would say playing it the way Bethesda wants it isn’t any better. Traversal becomes awful, loading screens are too frequent, bad pacing, quests are not great by themselves but the presentation leaves so much to be desired. It’s a game whose gameplay concepts are almost disconnected from each other. We are underestimating the audience in what is not an hard game to figure out.
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Chuck Berry
Gold Member
I cant tell if you're serious bruh lol
I play it exactly like all of the other BGS games and that's why I'm loving it so much. I figured that's why most are enjoying it
The game gives me the same sort of exploratory feels I got when playing Oblivion for the first time. And I know Im not the only one here who feels that way People are sick of that same ol 20 year old formula though, and I totally get it. Im sure Ill get there eventually. Maybe.
Dr. Wilkinson
Member
You can tell playing it, or at least it feels to me, like the game had a troubled development and lots of things were changed mid-way through. I'm no expert in game development but if I had to guess I would say they might have bit off a bit more than they could chew and realized around 2020/2021ish that the game wouldn't be done in a reasonable amount of time without trimming some scope out. Todd said development began when they finished Fallout 76, so that would mean late 2018/early 2019 they started on it.
It's not a bad game but I'm very much hoping Elder Scrolls VI is a return to form for them. Because this is two misses in a row, and there hasn't been a BGS game that blows people away in over 8 years, now. And even F4 it seemed like there were a lot of critics, despite it selling incredibly well and being generally very well-received. But regardless, they need a big win next time for sure.
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Topher
Identifies as young
Wouldn't surprise me in the least if Todd Howard fully endorsed these responses. We are talking about the same guy who flippantly brushed aside complaints about performance on PC in saying folks should "upgrade" their hardware. These responses are right in line with that nonsense. But you could be right and this is just some paid community hawk. It's stupid either way.
mansoor1980
Member
NonPhixion
Member
What’s more disappointing than Starfield is knowing that Elder Scrolls VI will be using the same shitty Creation Engine.
Even worse that some of you probably don’t see that as a problem in 2030. Grow up.
Even worse that some of you probably don’t see that as a problem in 2030. Grow up.
MidGenRefresh
*Refreshes biennially
Well yeah, exactly. It's impossible for this game to have that 'Bethesda magic' because that thing always happened in between missions when you were just roaming around and exploring.
There's very little of that in Starfield. You jump from planet to planet like a grass hopper and chase quest markers. Yes, there are some cool areas to 'discover' but the illusion shutters once you see the exact same fucking cryo lab with the exact same layout, enemies and loot placement and notes that tell the same little stories. For me it happened like 5 or 6 hours into the game.
I cant tell if you're serious bruh lol
I play it exactly like all of the other BGS games and that's why I'm loving it so much. I figured that's why most are enjoying it
People are sick of that same ol 20 year old formula though, and I totally get it. Im sure Ill get there eventually. Maybe.
Check the above. I like Starfield a lot, I still play it (220 hours) but I can't find that exploration feeling that I had in previous games. It's still there but it's buried by 10 feet of bad game design decisions.
StueyDuck
Member
Oh yeah Todd can and has made some pretty terrible endorsements since SF released.
But yeah I really don't think we all should be getting worked up about some community support guy on steam making dumb comments.
iHaunter
Member
Yes, but you used to find interesting things, right? Like in Skyrim, exploring that cave to find an entire civilization under there. Starfield doesn't have much.
Madflavor
Member
"Cops spend most of their time sitting in their patrol vehicles, sometimes going entire days without seeing a crime being committed or anyone speeding. We wanted to reflect this in our new True Crime game by having the player sit in their vehicle for 8 hours, listening to the Joe Rogan Experience while occasionally stopping at Cumberland Farms to grab a $1 coffee and hot dog."
Bumblebeetuna
Member
I can agree with that. But that’s why I love the game. I’ve spent more time exploring desolate planets than doing basically anything else. I find it very peaceful and rewarding. To each their own.
They did a really good job with the procedural generation of shit. I’ve explored loads of planets and I haven’t hit a point where they feel “samesy” at all, especially thanks to how they all have different atmospheres.
But yes, in many ways this is Skyrim in space, but most definitely not if you’re looking to explore it like Skyrim or even Fallout.
Heisenberg007
Gold Journalism
clarky
Gold Member
Got check out the Forza review thread where just yesterday you'll find me calling out Xbox and turn10 for releasing a shitty product. On PC which is were i spend 95% on my gaming time.
I'll play what I like thanks, not what some committee on the internet tells me I should like. Not sure why its so difficult to comprehend.
VectorVictor
Member
We are going to continue to warn and ban for this lame trend of console war bait persecution complexes for trillion dollar corporations. Tighten it up.
Until you get to the third act when it does.
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And it's hard to take the extreme criticism of Starfield seriously, especially since we know there's a concerted effort to slag anything Microsoft by certain folks within the industry.
Starfield isn't perfect, but it's far from being as horrible as it's being made out to be by review bombers. If this would have come out on the PS5 it would have gotten GOTY nominations all over.
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