this post was submitted on 26 Sep 2023
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As a developer myself, I consider Starfield to be a fairly finished product in terms of quality. The outstanding bugs I've seen are uncommon and the type I would expect to end up in a production product.
My complaints about Starfield are fairly specific. I don't like how they built the bounty and forgiveness process, as it's a bit unpredictable and simultaneously gamable. I can pirate a ship and rack up a $650 bounty, or get a $30000+ bounty pirating the same ship. The way stealth works is comical (if not buggy) in that it's stealthier to be seen throwing a grenade into a room and running than to shoot someone from hiding. But those (presumably) aren't bugs or incompleteness, they're side-effects of the designed systems working as intended.
I'm not a developer, for the record, but I was also pretty impressed with Starfield's lack of bugs. It's still got some, but it's definitely at the 'normal and acceptable' level. Not how Bethesda usually releases games.
It's not about the bugs. I have no idea what bugs are in the game.
The game was advertised as "next gen" priced as a high quality AAA, then it's just not next gen, it's last/previous gen with s* optimisation, and bad physics on many parts. And not delivering well on the rest either.
NikTek did some videos on starfield. The channel is mostly news as meme or similar things : https://youtube.com/@NikTek?si=Ovu03z8y9UeIiiMo
It's a bit extreme, but we can see the care put into the character, weapon and static object physics and interaction is nothing. It's year 2000 type of quality, even then there was maybe better character physics.
They didn't even bother to add a brightness control in the game. No hdr (even if I can't run it, is a f 60+$ game !). And the start screen could have just been a style, to be "empty". But with all of this, it's more likely they just didn't bother.
And there is plenty more complaints on the game quality.
I don't call such a game "finished".
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://youtube.com/@NikTek?si=Ovu03z8y9UeIiiMo
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.
I mean, they were very clear that it was Creation Engine 2, a new iteration on the Creation Engine. What were you or anyone expecting except another iteration on the Creation Engine?
This is a surprise or a disappointment? Nobody plays a Bethesda game for the physics.
What "the rest" did they not deliver well on? Consensus seems to be that if you like Bethesda games, you love Starfield. If you don't, you don't. I mean, I don't buy the fancy new Madden Football. You know why? I don't like Madden Football. When Madden 2077 comes out with a new "throw the ball" engine, I'm not getting all amped up that this is finally the Madden Football I'll want to play. They promised us Skyrim in Space. They gave us Skyrim in Space. The only let-down is that it didn't have nearly as many "signature bugs" as I would expect from Skyrim in Space.
Extreme is an understatement. I love CP2077, but they made terrible design decisions and most gamers would have been happier if we got a little less "physics realism" and a lot more game at release. Call me old school, but I feel like "Realistic Physics Simulation" is something that doesn't belong in most games, and it's often the cause of bugs and detracts from the game itself.
You probably want to separate all those other things from interaction. You kinda shoehorned that in at the end of the rant about physics. Even that Nik guy focuses on physics mostly (and drugged out people dancing).
I'm thinking you're a fairly young gamer. You clearly don't remember year 2000 quality. Morrowind came out in 2002 and Vampire Bloodlines cames out in 2004... Starfield definitely feels like a game 20 years newer than those.
...full tilt, here? Sounds like you're looking for a year 2000 game. More and more games leave out brightness control the last decade because you can do it at system level on tv or computer. When I see one of those brightness control gauges, I think "early-mid 2000s". Bioshock 1 comes to mind.
That's a very cherry-picked feature. HDR is not "the big buzzword of the future of gaming" or some shit, it's just a color range technology. Big deal? The lack of native RTX/DLSS (otoh) is a bit disappointing, but not exactly unique to Starfield. Most new games don't have it, and it generally has to do with vendor/API lock-in (something I can respect)
Or it was just a style to be "empty" since that was a signature of Skyrim and they were trying to give us Skyrim in Space.
Go on. None of your complaints have had to do with game quality so far. They were that it isn't a Physics Simulator, and that it doesn't have certain vendor-lock video features you admitted you can't even run on your system.
I think you need to look up what "finished" means. None of your complaints are about an incomplete nature to the game, but for decisions not to include things that were unnecessary to the game's vision. This isn't "they left out major questlines halfway through to save money" or "they were 6 months short on QA time". This was "I want a physics simulator with my cheesy poofs!"
EDIT: Just to add a bit more. I find it interesting everyone wants Bethesda to be a physics simulation. Nobody expects that of a Diablo, or a Baldur's Gate, or even a GTA. A few FPS games added it. So what? Truth is, people are falling into this "FPS rut" where every game is expected to have (and lack) the features the a few FPS franchises spearheaded. I literally spent my entire life avoiding FPS games because I hate them, and everyone bitches at the good and original games for every time an FPS has a feature they don't.
You know what else doesn't have a physics simulator built in? Microsoft Excel.
I'm just gonna comment on some things :
I'm sorry, but not everyone has a high brightness display. Adding a brightness gauge can be very useful for those people.
The rest is just nonsense and Bethesda fanatism. Like
Is one of the worst take possible to save your wallet.
Like if they come out with a broken game at 150$ you are going to buy it because you like Bethesda? I cannot agree with this, and lots of steam comments neither. People are complaining about issues with the characters, broken launch mission launch bugs and bad quest variety.
And maybe you need to take a new look at what "finished" means in a dictionary. Because quest breaking bugs and missing features don't seem to mean "finished".
Sure... but that's not an indicator if a game is complete or if it's "like a circa 2000 game". I don't fault you for wanting a feature that's not present. But that's not an objective measure of the game.
You know how you can tell someone is approaching toxicity? They fault people for liking things. I disagree with you, therefore I must be a stupid fan who would accept anything.
Not sure what you mean here. Bethesda flagships are equational games. You expect "X", so if you want "X", you give them money for "X". I dunno about you, but I used to "demo pirate" games because you never knew what you were getting and nothing sucks like blowing $50+ hoping for "X" and getting "Y".
I call that a breath of fresh air. You're actually holding that against them and me. Why? Have you never bought a game that surprised you unpleasantly?
That's the opposite of what I said.
Let's put it this way. I don't like McDonalds. But I know people who do. When they order a Big Mac, it is exactly the same every single time. So if you're craving a Big Mac, you will never be disappointed when you buy a Big Mac. I'm not saying a McDonalds fan should drop $150 on a flaming bag of crap. I'm saying that you don't get a "flaming bag of crap" when you order a Big Mac. You get a Big Mac.
Bethesda didn't come out with a broken game at $150. They came out with Skyrim in Space. If you don't like McDonalds, don't buy McDonalds. But stop treating people who happen to like McDonalds like there's something wrong with them, or like they're zealous superfans.
Do you know what moving the goalposts is? It starts with the line "It’s not about the bugs. I have no idea what bugs are in the game.". Make up your mind, because we've had a fairly heated discussion where you chose to make no meaningful statements about bugs. You don't get to just drop that line, now. And you were smart to do so, because overall consensus seems to be that Starfield is overall less buggy than the new Gold Standard AAA (BG3). I've been playing it since release, and have found exactly ONE frustrating bug (related to outpost building), significantly lower than my gaming expectation of ANY game over the last 20+ years.
Let me reiterate your words: "It’s not about the bugs. I have no idea what bugs are in the game."
As a developer, someone whining to me that my product isn't "finished" because it doesn't have this silly feature they want that was never on our roadmap is annoying as hell. Can you imagine that? Is your house "finished"? I don't see an indoor pool or sauna, so it can't be.
First, you can disagree with my opinion and it's totally fine.
Sencond stop commenting every line out of the context of my answer. It makes your answer extremely long to say nothing.
I was saying that the arguments didn't make sense other than "buy it and ignore the issues" mentality, now maybe I understand better your point.
For my my point? It's on the Niktek channel.
Whatever the game is. It could cost 60$ whatever I don't care if it's bad or not, it's just a game. What I care about is if the game is worth that amount of money. And in my opinion it isn't, or maybe if you just want to play a sandbox with loading screens.
If you want game faults it's mostly on the technical, immersion + developer implication in story telling.
Just look at the latest video on that channel (don't if you don't want to get spoiled) : It presents a part of the game where you get chased. You are supposed to get fast to your ship with your crew. The crew does run, but it stops at tables, people... Like everyone is chill jogging. And there is just some cries just for "ambiance". The run is interrupted by 4 loading screens. When in the ship it's like nothing happened outside and everyone is chill around the chaser. And keep in mind it's a f story mission!
I myself cannot call such thing exciting (for a chase part) or something good quality.
Nvidia issues were present on "lower" spec cards with plenty enough vram. Not even sure if they fixed anything. (https://youtu.be/lGL3fczSXaI?si=C2bAg_k77CAkhfcN) Nvidia could also have been at fault (nvidia deivers aren't always perfect).
Call finished whatever you want, but a game slightly better than others recent releases isn't "finished" just because it's better. It's a company experimenting at what extent they can screw you before they get hurt. And companies have been doing this for a lot of time, each time, screwing up people's preorders and hopes.
Now if starfield has everything you need, it's fine. But if it doesn't have everything someone else needs to play it at a good quality, the it isn't fine by my standards of quality.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://youtu.be/lGL3fczSXaI?si=C2bAg_k77CAkhfcN
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.
I'm sorry to feel that way. Looks like sticking to the topic isn't working. Cheers.
One point, though. You punctuate your point with a statement that sounds like you think no game is to your "standards of quality" if there exists a gamer somewhere in the world who doesn't get what they want out of it. Seems a weird type of measurement. I usually consider "mostly positive" on Steam a fairly decent bar for quality. But you can consider whatever you like, of course.