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The problem with Starfield, apart from outdated engine and all the problems resulting from it, is the fact that Bethesda plays it safe. Just look at Cyberpunk - despite its issues the guys who made Cyberpunk are not afraid to be creative. The cutscenes are dynamic. The same goes for dialogues. While having a conversation with NPC we see them walking, sitting, doing other stuff. It looks natural and creates a believable illusion of a real world. As of writing, Cyberpunk touches many adult themes, the characters use foul language, scream, shout, chatter, tell jokes, etc while Starfield is like a family friendly sitcom from the 90s. It's so safe on every level. I am not an English native speaker but I hope you got my point.

I still don't understand how Todd thought 1000 empty planets were better than 10-50 planets of solid content. Such a shame.

Starfield has run into the same problem that earlier broad-scale space sims like Elite Dangerous have faced; the only practical method to populate the +1000 planets you have created is to rely on pre-made and procedurally generated content. Unfortunately, the desire to explore is effectively killed when you encounter the same abandoned listening post that is inhabited by the same number to Crimson Fleet pirates three times in a row.

oh, they added maps? Yay, they finally added a very basic feature of basically every open world game!

I 100% agree on you map theory. I think they probably took them out because it showed how empty planets were and how small cities actually were

Confirmed: talk too much shit and Todd Howard will straight up brick your whole rig

That was a good explanation of the "performance" mode. Way too many people on Reddit are saying it's a "60fps mode"

Only in 2024 are we giving a AAA developer kudos for adding in a map a year after the release of one of the most hyped games of 2023. God I hate being a fan of gaming sometimes.

Only 5 more years until the game is good, yay!

A vehicle is a neat feature but that isn't gonna fix the issues with exploration. The travelling wasn't the problem, the destination was, it doesn't matter if you get there in 5 minutes or 30 seconds, it's still just gonna be another empty cave, or the same cryo lab you've already cleared on 3 other planets. They need to add more (and better) POIs and dungeons. What's the point in a rover if you don't wanna bother exploring in the first place?

Too little, too late...

I have an idea, why not just add fog of war to the uncivilized planets, that way we can stil have that sense of adventure, and have a detailed map as we go explore that planet.

We'll never have a DLC as well written as Far Harbour because the person behind it was their only competent writer, and he's left the company.

The detailed mini-maps reveals just how *barren* and *bleak* the game actually is. I had a small sense of exploration before, just like how fog in the distance adds the sense of scale

For those on Xbox Series X who want to check if they have VRR. Go to Settings > General > TV & display options > Video modes > Variable refresh rate towards the bottom.

Very good point about the immersion/illusion being broken. Once it's broken, there's not really much that they can do to bring us back. The problems of this game are way too baked into the core of it that it will always be just meh.

The PC tried to kill itself rather than run Starfield

i got burnt out when every single action required a loading screen. That breaks immersion.

14:48 They made the same assumption with Fallout 76. Everyone in the game was a real person. People don't play like NPCs making soup, giving quests, and running a shop, etc. They assumed reality would be enough and it wasn't. They should've learned there that "realism" has limits on "fun". If reality was as fun as video games we'd all be outside haha.

Regarding the map: It only shows markers on POI you discovered, thats why there are many close to you and none anywhere else, because you still have to discover those places. (Source: Just tried it out)

Starfield feels like Bethesdas game design philosophy taken to its final conclusion. Every game post-morrowind (I’m sure daggerfall enthusiasts would say before this even) gets a little more shaved down, and unlike past bethesda games it doesn’t have an already established world to use as a crutch to hide the flaws.

Honestly at this point I feel like Bethesda is just an actual vault experiment on how long they can make modern day games using decade+ outdated business practices to build them

I cannot handle the amount of loading screens.

There's not a single support feature such as maps, cameras, framerate settings that can ever fix Starfield. It's an inherently broken, terrible foundation that cannot be fixed.

Todd Howard is big brained, Starfield can't be broken if it breaks your computer first.

Can't wait for Bethesda to finish fixing Fallout 5 in 2042

This game needed just one galaxy with more hand crafted planet content and variety. Could have been so good, daamn.

My problem with Starfield is that strictly speaking there are no planets, no space travel, only instance 'dungeons'. Also while almost every planet has something little on it's surface "because that's how it is realistic", however for some reason, even on unexplored planets there are buildings by humans. How is it unexplored, if people already built on them? This is the basic stuff, there would be many more however it's announced as a game of exploration, while you have 0 chance to explore. I've played 319 hours with it in 3 months, there are good points to the game, but it becomes boring. With Newgame+ I've tried how many differences come in the game (story or quests) after 'reborning', but was underwhelming. I deleted it in October or November, waiting if they could make it enjoyable. I hope they can, also hoping the modders could make it better.

"At the end of the day its still Starfield"

The guy who made skyrim together was making a mod for this game, until he literally got bored. That sleaks volumes.

What's the point of having a vehicle in a world with nothing to do or see?

I had to artificially remove 40 points in my IQ in order to roleplay this game and somewhat enjoy it :D

No update can make it less boring.

Bethesda: We've added little maps in cities! Gamers: Can you improve the writing and RPG elements? Bethesda *in sad voice*: Oh my no.

The FPS issue with this game is yet another symptom of running with a decade-old engine that has long been surpassed by competitor studios.

Luke you are not right about terrain maps and markers. If you move further outside of the initial bubble more markers would pop out.

Never underestimate Bethesda's ability to disappoint.

Adding new modules to the shipbuilder?! What the fuck, thats the LAST thing they should be doing. How bout giving a purpose to the ones that are already there.

more immersive navigation would make this game actually enjoyable to me. it doesnt even feel like a space game the fast travel is egregious

Putting some flowers on a pile of trash ain't gonna make it any better

starfield is such a good example of how CEO-brained developers have totally lost track of what makes games fun lol

Elder Scrolls- Multiple races. Fallout- Multiple races. Vast universe where anything is possible Starfield- Humans only.

Is this update likely to break the mods I have installed? I reinstalled the other day and im enjoying playing personally speaking. There is a diamond under the surface but its got some scuff on it which Bethesda seems to be polishing off.

What they should have done was make Starfield smaller like have 10 planets around the size of Skyrim map each with everyplace you go unique and interesting! Instead of repeat stuff that's boring over loads of planets you don't want to go!

I wish they let us fly the ships manually into the planets, land manually, etc! That's why I droped the game. I have a feeling that I don't need my ship for anything! That's horrible. It breaks the freedom that Bethesda games always had

Bethesda thinks adding maps and a vehicle to explore nothing in fish bowls faster will save Starfield 😂

I'm late to the party, but I have a question for you. When you land on a planet with the new map mode, to me it looked as though it revealed the terrain but only POIs within normal range. Did you actually explore the empty areas and they were still empty or did you pretty much just stay put? Maybe I'm being hopeful but I would assume that POIs outside of your range do not show up on the map until you are in range. Are you able to confirm or deny? Thanks!

The thing about barren planets is that it CAN be fun but really on in the context of a game where the space sim aspects are the focus (i.e. Elite Dangerous). Flying around as a space trucker to a largely empty world works there because you're actually doing the flying.

Heres a boost buggy so you can explore absolutely nothing slightly faster

Revisiting Skyrim made me realize why it has such a lively modding scene, making the game essentially immortal - there is this handcrafted world, rich with lore and locations, which modders can piggyback on. For example, Gods and Worship builds on existing temples, quests and NPC to give you an all-encompassing religion experience. Or Song of the Green involves you taking Auri to see all those beautiful locations Skyrim has. I just don't see any of that being possible in Starfield, where modders only have barren planets and 1,5 caves to work with.

Why is it normal for these games to be rough at launch and then were expected to come back a year later. That’s early access NOT a full release. SMH!

What camera do you use? Ty!

Even your PC is like "Yeah...... No" 😂

I fully agree that the maps show the real lack of content in Starfield. This was the first thing that also popped in my mind when you showed the map of a planet lol

I just can NOT comprehend why they hell you wouldn't include FINISHED maps for a game.

They need to heavily optimize this game. That would give it a ton of improvement in the performance portion. I'm not sure how it's so terrible optimized since they reuse assets everywhere. Looking at the planet map. They could cut the area around out, so it's not loaded as unneeded empty space.

Can't wait for one person to make a more vivid, adept version of Starfield in a few years

maybe in 3 years i'll come back. the core issues are much deeper

6:05 idk, man. I played a lot of Starfield when it first came out, 369 hours according to Steam, and I did a lot of exploring on planets. Yes they were largely empty however from what I recall, they were not as empty as that map makes them appear. Points of interest seemed to be spread around the maps because I'd only see some of them pop up on the HUD once I had gotten a fair bit away from my ship. It was almost always the case that if I took off running away from the ship, toward nothing, within a few minutes I'd have a point of interest pop up on the HUD somewhere ahead of me. I suspect this surface map you showed only shows points of interest once you've gotten close enough to them.

Even Oblivion had a horse because they figured walking everywhere would be tedious. 1000 full-scale planets and they didn't figure it.

Every single time I see this game in action I'm reminded how much better base Cyberpunk was in comparison lol.

It's not just the fishbowl maps and loading screens that break the illusion of what this game is presenting itself as. It's also once you reach the point of the story where you learn that there's an infinite number of multiverses and an infinite number of you, it makes everything feel pointless.

Just played the update on console and it looks like the map shifts as you move. The map doesn't give a full 100% view of the whole area. Tried this on Jemison and whole sections of New Atlantis start to disappear the further you move from it.

on the map POIs, they show up when you get close enough, so your map section/critique is a little off. ALSO the map moves with you, IE if you go far enough a new square map will generate. This means the old maps, where there were only 3 or so POIs to look at are now proper large maps with dozens of POIs if you go find them. That being said, each POI is still a 3-5 minute slog of running around. I haven't had it kill my PC yet though lol that being said my favorite change is the difficulty adjustments...you can now do the fallout 4 style survival mode where both you and the enemy do tons of damage, no more bullet sponges.

Regarding the map: NEVER waste the players time. And with sci-fi planetary scanners, it makes sense that we can see where points of interest that aren't even tagged may be. However, this also gives modders a great chance to see the maps and start ADDING new stuff to these 'empty' worlds.

It’s crazy how instead of having a lot a content refreshing, studios limit your ability to go through original content to drag out playtime. That what lack of a Land Rover was in Starfield. Looks like it’s still gonna be the way when they finally add it. The Constant still isn’t fixed for me!! Like come on Bethesda.

You do know that the fishbowl area adds POIs as you walk around in random directions, right? I'd bet $ that if you picked a direction and walked it would add more to the map than you currently could see.

Bro got the authentic Bethesda experience with that crash

2:46 I wish the 3rd option was "[ Cyber Run] Go play Cyberpunk instead?".

Starfield feels like a game that was designed by a committee. It has everything in it, but nothing stands out. But to me, the biggest problem is RPGs either have to have a real feeling of exploration and discovery or an amazing story, and Starfield has neither. It's a universe where you can't really "find" anything since it's all procedurally generated with a story full of bland characters, worlds and writing that never pushes you to keep advancing. My dream was Freelancer mixed with Mass Effect and I didn't get anything close to that.

I'm not sure if anyone else is having this issue, but 4K isn't working on PC. The window size keeps going to 1200x700. And it won't go to 4K no matter what i do.

whoever is capable of releasing a fully functional game, running at 4k 60 fps with all content included for 70 bucks, will win the videogame war. it has become a unicorn...;)

Nice. The update is like chocolate sprinkles for a poop cake :D

Noticed that the map only seems to show icons for stuff within a certain range from you. When you moved south-west a bit from the ship. One marker to the north-east disappeared.

The fact the small amount of anything "interesting" to discover on planets draws from such a small pool of assets to procedural generate also hurts massively - you know it's a problem, when you can not only recognize the assets from just glaring at them from a distance, but also remember the exact location of landmines and other things.

yesterday i was on a mission near mars and having played 40+ hours i thought erm there's phobos, and it's not far away, lets actually fly to something, , having never needed to really do it, apart from space stations, fly right up to , and tried to land on it, went right through it , Elite 40+ years ago had better space exploration, hell Asteroids did

Honestly, just filling the maps with a bunch of interesting pois would go a long way. I think that would be good for any update, for any game

My biggest problem with this space game is that i have to travel through 14 load screens just to have a conversation with someone. Do they not have communication devices? Even when on the same planet you have to travel back to someone's house for them to say "thanks for your help." I can travel to far away planets but can't make a simple phone call. Basically every mission you do forces you to travel to a planet to have a conversation with someone that just pads time and slows everything way down.

They should add in-game mods so the player can create any type of content they want while on the planets. Like able to add creatures and enemies to fight you and each other. And other things to make the game a bit more interesting.

"Finding THIS box was the most exciting thing in this video. That should say a lot..."

That crash reminded me of a friend who played Oblivion on his Xbox 360 waaaay back when and it crashed. Not all that uncommon, but not only did it crash it seemed to completely wipe his Xbox Live account clean. It appeared to be just gone... Not sure if that was ever resolved for him or what actually happened but i've never seen anything like that before or since. Truly a Bethesda moment.

Did you do the song starting at 17:59? Or is that from something ekse? I want that for my ringtone :D

You know why they didn't use the map,it shows the whole squares..

I genuinely forgot this game is a year old

if they could also procedurally generate interesting cities, characters, stories and quests for all those planets it would be genuinely awesome, which is where i think the future of these big open world story games will go

I remember once just wandering for 30 minutes looking for a store I needed to go to for a side quest, I probably passed the store like 10 times

The map conspiracy you mentioned is spot on because the first moment I saw the map you showed in the video I thought to myself "this definitely describes the lack of scale and was probably left out intentionally and they knew they shat the bed".

They can easily fix that "map" stuff by just adding some fog of war - once you visit area it will reaveal on that minimap

Wake me up when they rewrite the entire story and characters, fix exploration, and make ship combat more interesting.

7:44 I think Stephen is spot on here. The map on planets suddenly make planets just look like a small cell of very little, not like an explansive planet of many things to find. It's literally like removing the curtain and seeing it really isn't that great.

3:20 reminds me when you ride in the train in Fallout 3 Broken Steel DLC where the train is just an NPC that walks really fast.

The fact that they even lie about your movement speed kills me; no matter how much you upgrade your skills, jet pack and starborn powers you will only go as fast as the games animation allows! Cant believe people gave this a "most innovative game award" where? Innovated once maybe but come on, this whole game is a wad.

I don't think it's better 87 hours and nothing here is compelling. Perks bad, travel bad, npcs boring, no cheek clappable Sarah morgan mods yet

Maps in an open world rpg. So brave. So bold.

The changes that would bring a solid amount to Starfield are encounters. - Sentient alien species (preferably bipedal, and even easter eggy like the aliens from Fallout) - Reasons to be in space and not fast travel - More space battles or anomalies (derelict ships, scavengers, raiders, pirates, bounty hunters, authorities that seek to board the ship, not always destroy) - Possibly building out own space station which we sometimes must defend (scavengers, raiders, pirates, bounty hunters, authorities that seek to board the ship, not always destroy) - General anomalies and incidents amongst the NPCs. Elder Scrolls and Fallout have had so many random fights between the inhabitants of the world. Starfield has some animals fighting sometimes, some space factions space fighting sometimes, always around populated areas, not exploring themselves.

when Bethesda said they will put more interesting quests into Starfield they weren't lying, New Quest started, your PC is dead, will not work till next update in 6 months

Light a Todd candle, Luke fired up SF again!

Need more no mans sky integrated. Here's what I want from starfield. I go to a new system, pick a planet, fly to it, no loading screen, let me fly along over the surface for a bit and see if something looks interesting. Ok I land. Now at this point perhaps I get on a rover that's stored in my ship or I deploy some suitcase device that unfolds into a buggy. Or some orbital drop thing. Ok I start driving and not far for the moment because I parked my ship near something. I investigate for a bit. I fight some enemies for a bit. I get some goodies. I look up at the next hill and something looks interesting so I get in my car and drive to it. It's an ancient artifact or landmark or something else mysterious. I keep going for a bit after I get there because the terrain there is fun. Perhaps some jumps over small canyons or driving through canyons. I've been going in a zigzag pattern around the world. For miles and miles. I start thinking about making a base on this planet because of the resources I've found here and the cool shape of the terrain. I bring out a scanner and find something useful nearby and walk to it. I hear something. A ship lands between me and my buggy. They get out, take my buggy and start shooting at me. I trick them and kill one of them and take their "keys" to their ship. I board their ship while they chase me and kill the two guarding the ship. I get into the cockpit and use their ship to fly back to my own. I gut a few useful things from theirs and essentially break their ship. I fly back to that area and gun down (from my ship) the remaining enemies that had tried to hunt me down. One of them was riding my buggy that they took from me. I park there. i make a quick base. And I deploy a new buggy to continue roaming aimlessly for 20 miles. I find all kinds of small settlements, abandoned ones and populated ones, and creatures and loot. If you're going to procedurally generate worlds, don't half ass it. Keep going. Make it interesting and dense and fun. Go find out out minecraft and no mans sky did these kinds of things and replicate the concepts. I should be able to pick any world in that game and have fun for 20 hours on just one planet. More if I want. Perhaps it's a good mix of proc gen rules on that world so I find I can spend 200 hours there and not get bored (think, minecraft, you don't get bored on the one planet there). My issue with starfield is feeling like I'm just in the fishbowls as you call it and in loading screens between everything.

There’s still no point in vehicles when there’s nowhere to drive to