Pre-Release Starfield articles and discussion

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Frindis

Dominar of The Hynerian Empire
Moderator
What is everyone’s predictions on review scores?
I predict either an 8,5/10 or a 9/10. From what I have seen there isn't really that much to give it a bad score for, so a lot will come down to possible performance issues (no sh.it Sherlock) and how the critics take the whole border thing. which did blow up a little while ago but seems to have calmed down a bit after recent updates.

Still, transparency is often the best way to go about things or it might just bite you in the butt. Larian Studios has for example gotten some pepper for Act 3 that has not been up to par compared to Act 1/2 and perhaps being honest about it would have been better or even just waiting a bit longer for release (obviously still a fantastic 10/10 game). The same thing could be said about Bethesda and how they didn't get into details about the exploration but rather talked in "big words". It could potentially give them a slightly worse score because of it or it could be that people really don't care that much when they start playing the game.

Throwing in that at 9 am PT today the review embargo lifts.
 
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For PCGamer, I'm guessing a 9. I suspect there'll be a bunch of 10/10 on other sites and maybe an occasional 7/10 from a reviewer who thinks Bethesda should have never deviated from the game mechanics of Morrowind.
Personally, I think you're underestimating the number of gaming outlets that rely heavily on Sony funding and will want to please their paymasters. There will be a wide variance, I suspect, that wouldn't have existed if it hadn't been a console exclusive.
 

Frindis

Dominar of The Hynerian Empire
Moderator
I'm not worried about PC Gamer's score. They bashed the game for a year.
Yeah I don't want to knock on PCG in their own forums—I even subscribe to the print magazine, please don't ban me!—but the Starfield community has been laughing at PCG's bizarre hatred of the game for months. It's been one shoe-horned negative article after another. I'll be finding out for myself soon enough.
 

Brian Boru

King of Munster
Moderator
Deep breath: main hope achieved, ie it's not broken on launch! Surely that was the big danger, even with the optimism of Microsoft's influence?

From reading just the 2 reviews above—PCG & GR:

Sounds like a game which you'll like the more you play it. Slow to take off, and slow for you to figure out which bits you prefer and want to focus on, but then should be very enjoyable.

"Starfield is letting me write my own personal crime story, one that's already entertaining me more than most of the official questlines have"
"Starfield isn't really a game you play to complete, it's more about living whatever sort of life you want in the literal universe Bethesda has created"

Now that is music to my ears. A framework within which to write my own story.

The inventory and mapping sound like crap, so hopefully those will be targeted by the early patches and mods.

Ships, weapons and save system sound good so far.

All in all, happy days—should be in great shape when it reaches Patient Gamer status :)
 
The inventory and mapping sound like crap, so hopefully those will be targeted by the early patches and mods.

I was kinda hoping they would have finally figured out how to make a decent inventory screen. I hope the ship and settlement buildings UIs are better. One of the reasons I ignore the settlements in Fallout 4 is because the UI is such a bother to work with.
 
From scanning the summaries on the Reddit review megathread it seems the major issues are the weak main quest, the bad inventory UI and that (space) navigation mostly consists of menus and loading screens. The first two major complaints (and a lot of minor ones) were problems in other Bethesda games as well and I enjoyed those games nonetheless, so I don't care too much about those.

The last point has me worried a bit though. Roaming around and stumbling upon random points of interest was one of the best parts of past Bethesda games and it seems that isn't really a thing in Starfield. At least not to a similar level.

Then again, as a compulsive hoarder I often end up fast traveling to my house/hideout after every POI anyway, so perhaps it wouldn't be all that different anyway.
 
The last point has me worried a bit though. Roaming around and stumbling upon random points of interest was one of the best parts of past Bethesda games and it seems that isn't really a thing in Starfield. At least not to a similar level.
Surely you can do that on planets, just not in space. I may be misunderstanding what you are saying though. I connected this paragraph to your other statement about space travel being mostly menu based (which is probably the way it will work in real life, but isn't as much fun inside a game).
 
Surely you can do that on planets, just not in space. I may be misunderstanding what you are saying though. I connected this paragraph to your other statement about space travel being mostly menu based (which is probably the way it will work in real life, but isn't as much fun inside a game).
The difference is, as I understand it, that when you get a quest now, you can just fast travel to its location immediately, you don't have to walk past other POIs on your way there to unlock it as a fast travel location.

Maybe you still have to jump past solar systems that have other POIs, but that isn't quite the same.
 

Frindis

Dominar of The Hynerian Empire
Moderator
Went through a lot of reviews and didn't really find any problems with preordering. The combat is looking good, the ship/base building looks to be amazing (few have even tried that at all) main story is supposedly one of the better ones, and the graphics/music are fantastic. I can live with bugs, I can live with it not being the greatest Bethesda game ever, because for me that will always be Morrowind anyways as it is hard to beat that first true RPG love. I'll get a few days of fun, some digital stuff/DLC, and most likely some pretty cool exploration experiences. For a "low price" of 84,99 USD, that is a win in my book.
 

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