Starfield's new PC patch delivers the game we should have had at launch - Eurogamer (www.eurogamer.net)

submitted 11 months ago by Goronmon@lemmy.world to c/games@lemmy.world

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[-] SkyNTP@lemmy.ml 63 points 11 months ago

Lack of graphics settings aren't why I stopped playing. It's the game mechanics. The game isn't that fun for two major immersion breaking reasons.

Loading screens. So many loading screens. Just reminds me I'm using software instead of being in a universe.
Over reliance on fast travel. Yeah, space is boring. But why have a space setting at all if we are going to skip through it? Why bother building custom ships if there are no real challenges to overcome with them because spending time in space is not necessary at all ? Worse, it's a bad experience because of the loading screens.

[-] Anticorp@lemmy.ml 17 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

There should be a happy medium. I haven't played Elite Dangerous in a year because I'm 50 jumps away from where I need to go, which means like 3 hours of nothing but travel. But the realism is out of this world. This Starfield thing of never needing to fly is too far in the other direction. I think a happy medium would be a system like Elite Dangerous, but if you need to travel more than a couple of systems over, have a long distance jump gate or something like that, and maybe autopilot. Eve online has jump gates and autopilot, but it can still take hours to cross the universe. It's more entertaining to have a quick travel option for those scenarios. Eve has wormhole systems that will let you cross the entire universe in a few jumps, but finding those connections will take longer than just flying directly, unless you're in a huge wormhole corporation that uses 3rd party tools to map all of the wormhole connections to known space.

[-] val@infosec.pub 7 points 11 months ago

Given every single system in Starfield is already explored and built on, I think they should have just given up on the jump system and gone with a gate system like Freelancer or the X series. You get to fly to every point without menus while still being time efficient. The reason they didn't go with this is presumably because of the supposed "exploring the unknown" angle, but you never explore anywhere new in Starfield anyway.

[-] omicron@lemmy.world 7 points 11 months ago

Everyone loves to hate on it, but one thing that Star Citizen absolutely nails is the sense of immersion. From the time you load in until the time you are inevitably disconnected from the server, and from ground to ship to space, you are in one experience with no loading screens

[-] lemmyvore@feddit.nl 6 points 11 months ago

Why doesn't Elite let you travel offline? Like, set the destination, close the game, and reopen it 3h later.

[-] lorty@lemmy.ml 4 points 11 months ago

Because they decided to make the game always online in a persistent galaxy so the possibility a ganker finds has to be respected.

[-] osprior@lemmy.world 6 points 11 months ago

That's not true, you can play solo (but you still need to be online) and you won't see other players

[-] lorty@lemmy.ml 2 points 11 months ago

I actually forgot that's an option, which just makes the always online an even weirder choice.

[-] Delta_V@lemmy.ml 1 points 11 months ago

Its not about good game design.
Its a kind of DRM - a move inspired by the hypothesis that making a game hard to pirate will improve sales.

The data suggests that hypothesis is false.
An EU-funded study found that profits of blockbuster movies are negatively impacted by piracy, music industry profits are unaffected, and profits from selling books and video games are increased by piracy.

[-] Anticorp@lemmy.ml 2 points 11 months ago

I'm not sure. I guess because they go hard in the simulation aspect of the game. Although if we're being realistic, it's unrealistic that you'd have an interstellar space ship without an autopilot. I read that there are mods to enable autopilot, but I also read they can get your account banned, so I stopped looking into them.

[-] c0mbatbag3l@lemmy.world 4 points 11 months ago

I'm 50 jumps away from where I need to go, which means like 3 hours of nothing but travel

If you upgrade your fuel scoop, that'll cut down your time severely. I can do about 30 jumps an hour with my Krait Phantom. Refuels before my FSD is even cooled down.

[-] Dragster39@feddit.de 2 points 11 months ago

I think the X-Series did this really well

[-] amenotef@lemmy.world 6 points 11 months ago

I must confess that sometimes fast travel removes a lot of value from a game. While it saves you a lot of time like a cheat. Cheats also save you time.

[-] randomthin2332@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago

You see this issue when one of your core game loop isn't enjoyable. It happens a lot in games, and you notice it if a game gives you and item or ability to play the game less.

This can be okay if this item comes in just as that loop gets boring (like you unlock special flash grab drives part way through the game). But if they let you fast travel from the beginning the likely case is that they found the whole space travel boring and they ended up providing a way around it.

Which leaves people asking "why'd you bother adding it in there"

[-] BloodSlut@lemmy.world 51 points 11 months ago

Hell of an article title for an update that pretty much just adds DLSS support and the ability to eat food from the environment.

[-] bungle_in_the_jungle@lemmy.world 42 points 11 months ago

Sigh. All these publishers are doing by rushing games out the door is training future buyers to not want to buy games on release.

[-] phillaholic@lemm.ee 35 points 11 months ago

Sales figures keep going up so why would they wait?

[-] Caradoc879@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago

Exactly. It was on games pass and it was still the most profitable release Bethesda has ever had. Why put in real effort when you don't have to?

[-] phillaholic@lemm.ee 2 points 11 months ago

Xbox’s M.O.

[-] lorty@lemmy.ml 7 points 11 months ago

People are even paying more to play it early, what are you talking about.

[-] Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world 6 points 11 months ago

There's always a disconnect between gaming communities and reality.

Like how many boycotts did we have, and then the sales figures say differently?

[-] ObviouslyASquid@lemmy.world 30 points 11 months ago

DLSS doesn't fix a broken game loop

[-] Bernie_Sandals@lemmy.world 1 points 11 months ago

How is the game loop broken?

[-] ObviouslyASquid@lemmy.world 11 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Did you try to play stealth my guy. And how much god damn work do I have to put in, how much useless crafting do I have to do so I can just put a silencer on my gun come on man if this doesn't mean broken what does.

[-] rbos@lemmy.ca 2 points 11 months ago

It's "come on" or "c'mon", not "common".

[-] ObviouslyASquid@lemmy.world 1 points 11 months ago

Thanks, I guess. I'll edit.

[-] rbos@lemmy.ca 1 points 11 months ago

Sorry, hadn't intended to come off rude. :(

[-] Bernie_Sandals@lemmy.world 0 points 11 months ago

Yeah, my first build was a stealth character, I did it just fine. You're mostly likely specing your builds wrong for stealth or wearing a million pounds of armor clanking around thinking you're being stealthy. There's specific armor pieces meant for stealth, which also help a ton.

The weapon modding isn't broken. If you find a gun with a suppressor, you can take that off and put it on the same model as yours. I don't think needing a skill/crafting to make a whole suppressor warrants the game being called broken.

[-] Epicmulch@lemm.ee 7 points 11 months ago

Everyone says everything is "broken" now. The game loop absolutely works so it's not broken Yet it is flawed.

[-] Bernie_Sandals@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Yeah, they could've done better with the New Game+ for sure, which to me isn't exactly surprising since it's their first main line game to have it.

I do appreciate that there are considerable differences to the story on certain replays, but it's a slog doing basically the same thing every time. I wish there was a bit more variance.

The flying between or into planets/loading screen issue, I think, is entirely due to the pressure from management announcing early, and then a rush to meet the original deadline, and then another rush to meet the Microsoft mandated delay. Fixing it could've been worth it, but it would've certainly taken an uncertain number of months, which wasn't worth it to management or microsoft.

I do think it will be remembered fondly eventually just like every other mainline Bethesda game has been, though.

[-] c10l@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago

Funnily enough, this is the first time a game’s NG+ actual felt compelling to me with how it’s actually part of the story and the workings of the universe.

[-] cobysev@lemmy.world 17 points 11 months ago

So does this mean the game is finally ready for me to buy? Just waiting on a Steam sale and I'll finally get to play this. Bugs or not, I'm not paying $70 for a base video game.

[-] Stovetop@lemmy.world 26 points 11 months ago

I'd say probably not. Unless the graphics were the only thing holding you back, this update does not appear to have done anything to improve the gameplay loop, menu system, or story content.

Compared to previous Bethesda games, it actually ran rather well at launch even when missing the features added by this update. But I'd say there's quite a lot more that needs to be done to call it a good game, with graphics/performance being the lowest priority on the list.

[-] Dudewitbow@lemmy.zip 10 points 11 months ago

Id wait till post expansion and creation kit imo.

Reletively speaking starfield is already a lot less buggy then other Bethesda game studio titles. Its just matter of fixing parts of the game some users didnt like.

[-] simple@lemm.ee 9 points 11 months ago

So does this mean the game is finally ready for me to buy?

Nope. Worth waiting for a few more fixes and proper mod support.

[-] Bernie_Sandals@lemmy.world 1 points 11 months ago

Yep, as someone who beat it several times, I agree with this. Its a great game, but is unpolished at launch like any bethesda game, 5 years from now it will have memorable gamer cultural references and a consistent modding/playerbase.

With the love of using the game engine to create entirely new games that bethesda fans have, I'm basically expecting a Star Wars/Star Trek total overhaul mod within the next decade.

[-] rambaroo@lemmy.world 1 points 11 months ago

The playerbase already dipped below Skyrim on steam. I really doubt that this game will have the usual Bethesda longevity.

[-] Bernie_Sandals@lemmy.world 1 points 11 months ago

While that's definitely possible, Bethesda games always take unpredictable trajectories.

I wouldn't take it dipping below their most beloved game in player count as it being a flop just yet.

[-] CraigeryTheKid@lemm.ee 1 points 11 months ago

Wow, I consider a game "personally great" if I like it enough to completely finish once.

[-] Phanatik@kbin.social 17 points 11 months ago

I doubt a patch nor mod support will motivate me to play this game. This is the most empty Bethesda game they've released when they could've had something special if they had any ambition.