Pre-Release Starfield articles and discussion

[Zloth]

I don't think it will be a big deal at all, personally. But try getting clicks on a "Starfield partners with AMD and it just doesn't matter" video.

 

[Thresher]

Looking forward to Starfield. But like with every Bethesda title, I'm going to wait until they patch it up.

 

[mainer]

Starfield's vision of the final frontier makes space seem like a boring, barren expanse

It might be true to life, but it's not very conducive to fun RPG adventures.

www.pcgamer.com

I love PC Gamer, the web site as well as the magazine (which I've been a subscriber to since the 1980s), and I have a great deal of respect for the writers & editors, both past and present, as PCG is one of the last bastions of news/reviews/previews that is dedicated primarily to gaming on the PC.

But, I'm becoming increasingly annoyed with the negative slant and tone of articles concerning Starfield. All current info about the game is based off the showcase we had in June, no one has actually played the game outside of Bethesda studios. I think it's wrong to create negative-toned articles & headers for a game none of us have played. I mean no disrespect to any of the PCG staff, but the overall negativity seems to be overflowing as to how you're going to view Starfield once it's released (and you can actually play it).

Also, a related Starfield article concerning the release of information

Starfield's studio design director pleads for people to stop asking questions because only 'Todd Howard himself is authorised to talk'

Emil Pagliarulo took to Twitter to reiterate that he 'simply CAN'T answer 99%' of fan's questions.

www.pcgamer.com

 

[Brian Boru]

I assume the game will have Fast Travel, which will fix the boring space problem—just hop from planet to planet once your scouts have uncovered 'em.

There's also the possibility of interesting asteroids wandering around nearby—maybe the modders will grab onto that I Bethesda don't.

Wasn't there also supposed to be space combat with pirates, and maybe others?

 

[ZedClampet]

Starfield's vision of the final frontier makes space seem like a boring, barren expanse

It might be true to life, but it's not very conducive to fun RPG adventures.

www.pcgamer.com

I love PC Gamer, the web site as well as the magazine (which I've been a subscriber to since the 1980s), and I have a great deal of respect for the writers & editors, both past and present, as PCG is one of the last bastions of news/reviews/previews that is dedicated primarily to gaming on the PC.

But, I'm becoming increasingly annoyed with the negative slant and tone of articles concerning Starfield. All current info about the game is based off the showcase we had in June, no one has actually played the game outside of Bethesda studios. I think it's wrong to create negative-toned articles & headers for a game none of us have played. I mean no disrespect to any of the PCG staff, but the overall negativity seems to be overflowing as to how you're going to view Starfield once it's released (and you can actually play it).

I was coming over here to post that article. I'm absolutely fed up with them. At this point, it's clear they have an agenda against Starfield for some reason. What other game have they so consistently bashed for a year or more before launch?

I'm actually considering not going to the site anymore until Starfield launches.

I assume the game will have Fast Travel, which will fix the boring space problem—just hop from planet to planet once your scouts have uncovered 'em.

There's also the possibility of interesting asteroids wandering around nearby—maybe the modders will grab onto that I Bethesda don't.

Wasn't there also supposed to be space combat with pirates, and maybe others?

Fast Travel? This is a space game, so we call it hyperdrive

The whole point of the game, actually, is, like every other major AAA game, to put you into interesting combat situations. Exploration is something you can do, but it isn't required other than finding a planet or two with the resources you need if you are going that route. Of course, you'll be going to the planets the story sends you to, so I guess it's theoretically possible that you won't have to go to any "extra" planets at all.

So, yes, you are going to spend a lot of time in combat unless you specifically decide to avoid it and do other things. Even then, you can be attacked while going about your business.

What is really irritating is that PCG acts like you have to visit all 1000 planets. That's nonsense. I played No Man's Sky for over 200 hours and probably visited 50 planets, many of which had no life on them. And No Man's Sky is an exploration game if ever there was one.

 

[ZedClampet]

The comments on this article have restored my faith in humanity. As far down as I read, people are fed up with this and asking important questions (along with some funny ones about what Bethesda may have done to PC Gamer). I don't know what PC Gamer is up to, but I suspect they think if people are mad at what they write, as one commentor said, that it's good for business. So they are basically trying to burn the world down for business--and absurdly using a game they've never played to do it, just because they know so many people are cheering for this game. It's one of the most twisted business philosophies I've ever come across, and it could cause them long-term damage. I sincerely hope not, but it's certainly possible. As one poster said, he doesn't want to be mad all the time.

In an great twist to the story, PC Gamer's negativity seems to be spawning an abundance of positivity and actually unifying gamers. I sure as hell hope Bethesda knocks this out of the park. I hope it's the largest SP launch in history.

 

[Brian Boru]

Author's article history looks odd.

11 articles posted June 11 2023;
2 since;
2 previously for 2023.

 

[Colif]

Skyfall
Star failed
Bethesda would have been better avoiding even approaching the word fail.
It made it too easy for me to rename game.

I am consistent, I been calling this the same name since I heard it was coming out.
I hope its fixed faster than No Mans Sky was. Selling people their dreams doesn't work if you don't deliver.

 

[Zloth]

Skyfall
Star failed
Bethesda would have been better avoiding even approaching the word fail.
It made it too easy for me to rename game.

That way lies madness. There is NO name that people can't make fun of.

 

[mainer]

The comments on this article have restored my faith in humanity. As far down as I read, people are fed up with this and asking important questions (along with some funny ones about what Bethesda may have done to PC Gamer).

I was reading through those comments for that article, as well as a couple earlier ones, and it was great to see that gamers are not just blindly following along and are fed up as well with the negative tone of recent Starfield articles. I made a post on Discus myself for one of these articles and it got deleted. I don't really know why, as I was just agreeing with one of the posters and expressing my own disgust, but in what I considered to be a polite way, but it must have offended someone.

Author's article history looks odd.

11 articles posted June 11 2023;
2 since;
2 previously for 2023.

Seems like he must be a new writer if that's his total resume for PCG. I also didn't recognize the author's name as being one of the regular writers we see. That's not an excuse, by any means, for the tone of the article (my opinion), but it could be partially from inexperience.

*********************************************************************​

I really hope that some of the PCG staff writers respond here (I know many of them pop into the forums from time to time) to the negativity people are feeling from these articles. There must be some reason this is happening.

 

[ZedClampet]

I'd like to apologize for my post coming across the way it was intended. I should have had more tact. I love PCG. I've been reading it daily for many, many years. I'm just a little frustrated with them right now. They tend to attach themselves to something distasteful and run it into the ground, like when every single Hogwarts Legacy article mentioned She Who Shall Not Be Named and her hurtful stances on the trans community. I didn't want to rehash that every time I read an article even though I agreed with them.

Now they are running the "Starfield is boring" thing into the ground. One article would have been enough, particularly since they actually don't know if it's boring or not since they haven't played the game. But this was the stance they took a year and a half ago during some Starfield reveal in January 2022--after just watching a short video--and they are going to stick with it no matter what.

I'll be glad when the game releases. Then they can do their opinion pieces with actual evidence behind instead of just speculation. I probably still won't like it, but it won't be nearly as absurd as what's going on now.

 

[Brian Boru]

I should have had more tact

Oh gosh no, we love you as you are!

he must be a new writer

TechRadar is his main outlet up to 4-5 months ago, he has a couple of hundred articles there—scanning first page of titles doesn't show a generally negative slant to me. Been a bunch of other places and genres/industries too, so it's not inexperience.

There must be some reason this is happening

I fervently hope metrics of views and engagement haven't risen to the top of some exec's priority list. Those encourage click bait titles and controversial content for short-term gain of fickle fans—but long-term loss of seasoned supporters.

 

[Colif]

Jump on band wagon

 

[Zloth]

So buy an advertisement, then lock it up inside a box? The ways of marketing are mysterious indeed!

 

[neogunhero]

For Starfield I am upgrading my CPU. Not a massive upgrade, but I’m going from a Ryzen 1600X to a 5600X. With my RTX 2060 I’m expecting to be able to play the game on 1080P high settings @ 60FPS. The CPU upgrade will allow me to enable XMP, effectively making my RAM go from 2666mhz to 3200mhz. Plus, I’m getting a new M2 SSD. My mobo only supports PCIe 3.0 x4, meaning my new SSD will be maxed out at 3500mb/s. My current M2 SSD is 500mb/s (I must have thought M2 SSDs were always better than SATA SSDs, I didn’t do my research when I bought it lol). The CPU, SSD and some thermal paste is looking to be around $210 on Amazon currently. Decent little upgrade for a pretty noticeable improvement in performance! Bethesda games have never been the best looking games so I’m mostly looking to get stable frame rates when playing rather than cranking the settings up to ultra. At this point I’m still considering playing it on Gamepass rather than buying it but I’m unsure if I will be able to transfer my save data if I end up buying it on Steam… I rarely ever buy brand new games. I’m what @Brian Boru would call a “patient gamer”, but only to a degree. I think “cheap gamer” is more accurate!

 

[Zloth]

Bethesda typically pushes the envelope of whatever console generation is out at the time. That may or may not be high end for PCs. They do great with art direction, though!

 

[Colif]

recommended specs don't have me thinking I would need to upgrade

Here are the recommended PC system requirements for Starfield:

• OS: Windows 10/11 with updates
• Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 3600X or Intel Core i5-10600K
• Memory: 16 GB RAM
• Graphics: AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT or Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080
• DirectX: Version 12
• Network: Broadband Internet connection
• Storage: 125 GB available space
• Additional Notes: SSD Required

I have that AMD CPU and my 7900 xt can probably handle graphics. The thing that is unknown is what resolutions the minimum and recommended run at and what refresh rate. Console locked to 30 FPS< is PC the same?

 

[Pifanjr]

recommended specs don't have me thinking I would need to upgrade

Here are the recommended PC system requirements for Starfield:

• OS: Windows 10/11 with updates
• Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 3600X or Intel Core i5-10600K
• Memory: 16 GB RAM
• Graphics: AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT or Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080
• DirectX: Version 12
• Network: Broadband Internet connection
• Storage: 125 GB available space
• Additional Notes: SSD Required

I have that AMD CPU and my 7900 xt can probably handle graphics. The thing that is unknown is what resolutions the minimum and recommended run at and what refresh rate. Console locked to 30 FPS< is PC the same?

I'm curious how long the load times will be in Starfield considering that they specify that a SSD is required. I have Fallout 4 installed on a SSD and the load times can be pretty long, especially when fast travelling. I'm hoping Starfield won't take significantly longer, as we'll probably fast-travel even more often considering points of interest will usually not be within walkable distance (and often not even on the same planet).

Also, even if the PC version is FPS locked, there will probably be a mod within the first 24 hours to unlock it. Though the question remains what kind of system you would need to run the game at higher FPS.

 

[mainer]

I have that AMD CPU and my 7900 xt can probably handle graphics.

Does this mean that you're actually going to play Starfield?! I though from other comments you've made that you disliked Bethesda games.

 

[Hveðrungr]

Did anyone else have Discord crash during the Constellation Q&A?

 

[neogunhero]

Starfield has officially gone gold and PC preloads start August 30th (Xbox starts tomorrow if you’re playing on XSX).

Head of Xbox Game Studios Matt Booty (lol) said in June that if Starfield was released that day, it would have the least amount of launch day bugs than any other Bethesda game. Considering their last game was FO76, that doesn’t say too much to me. FO4 had some pretty bad bugs on launch but it was completely playable. I don’t remember Skyrim having much trouble at launch, but then again there are bugs from 2011 that still exist today even in the newest Anniversary edition of the game. Also with Xbox now overseeing Bethesda, I bet they took the disastrous launch of Redfall as a lesson on quality over rushing a game out the door. Skepticism aside, I hope the game launches without any major game breaking bugs and we can all enjoy it on launch day.

 

[Alm]

recommended specs don't have me thinking I would need to upgrade

Here are the recommended PC system requirements for Starfield:

• OS: Windows 10/11 with updates
• Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 3600X or Intel Core i5-10600K
• Memory: 16 GB RAM
• Graphics: AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT or Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080
• DirectX: Version 12
• Network: Broadband Internet connection
• Storage: 125 GB available space
• Additional Notes: SSD Required

I have that AMD CPU and my 7900 xt can probably handle graphics. The thing that is unknown is what resolutions the minimum and recommended run at and what refresh rate. Console locked to 30 FPS< is PC the same?

I have a good graphics card but a 9700k. Have CPUs drastically increased in performance in the last 4 years?

I'm guessing Yes.

 

[Colif]

I have a 4 year old CPU so I can't really answer that.

I don't think they are dramatically better.

 

[neogunhero]

Not sure how drastically but I would guess yes. My Ryzen 1600X is two generations behind the recommended specs 3600X, so for me it seems like a good time to upgrade. I’ve watched lots of videos comparing the 1600X to the 5600X (one I’m looking to buy), but this one from Hardware Canucks is the best. It shows generally a massive upgrade in performance comparing the 1600X to the 5600X and in terms of gaming performance you can see generally 10-25 FPS increases in most games. Overall I think it is worth the upgrade at this point personally since I tend to stick with mid-range CPUs, especially since the 5600X has been dropping in price to about ~$160.

View: https://youtu.be/w0bRnBaBvDU


What I am hoping for is smooth, stable frame rate, doesn’t have to be ultra settings but I mostly want the game to run smoothly without stutters. I get occasional stutters in a lot of open world games especially ones that came out within the last few years.

 

[Colif]

one of the more recent Bethesda titles (Fallout 76) is almost good enough to play now... its only 6 years old. So perhaps we should all do what Brian will be and wait a few years until they fix this one.