Starfield - E3 2021 Preview

[TechAngel85]

Starfield E3 Trailer

Watching Bethesda's Starfield E3 video confirms three things:

• Starfield release date: 11-11-22 (they like that date...)
• Xbox exclusive (likely for the PC too, but possibly only via Game Pass; unconfirmed)
• "Creation Engine 2" is confirmed (new CK)

The video is "in-game" footage so if you didn't pay attention go watch it again and look closer at everything! They're giving us a look at what their Creation Engine 2 can do (likely maxed out). Starfield will be the first release on their truly next-gen engine, and that detail is amazing! Now take all that and imagine ES6! 

The thing about the "Xbox exclusive" detail (and all the optimized for Xbox Series S/X talk in their showcase kind of support this) is what the Xbox Series S (digital version) has for a graphics card roughly compares to  a GTX 1060. So if these games are optimized for this, then that is impressive. I would have at least expected to need at 2000 series card for that level of detail. Of course, much of that could be marketing and you only get that level of detail on the Series X, which is closer to a GTX 3060.

(...is it just me, or does the launch command voice in the beginning before the video starts and towards the end sound like Todd? His will be the first voice you hear starting the game...haha!)

[Majorman]

The release will be buggy as hell and the UI will look terrible on PC. That's part of Bethesda's trademark. It's release will be interesting to observe, seeing how gamers seem to become more demanding on release quality (Fallout 76, Cyberpunk 2077 and the latest Bioware releases being evidence for the trend). 

[TechAngel85]

7 hours ago, Majorman said:

The release will be buggy as hell and the UI will look terrible on PC. That's part of Bethesda's trademark. It's release will be interesting to observe, seeing how gamers seem to become more demanding on release quality (Fallout 76, Cyberpunk 2077 and the latest Bioware releases being evidence for the trend). 

Honestly, Bethesda players should expect buggy releases by now...and expect the modding community to fix most of the bugs never addressed during the short period patches are released.

Another thing that is trending, though, is longer term support for games with patches being coupled with free content releases. It's closer to a 50/50 split now than it ever has been between these two sides of "new content is free" vs "paid DLCs", where paid DLCs dominated the market not too long ago. Users are starting to expect more content from a $60 game than a 10hr storyline filled with a bunch of grind in between story scenes and after the story ends. In turn, developers are trending towards longer term support and continued development rather than just the "one and done" approach of the past. Bethesda is already doing that with Fallout and The Elder Scrolls with their MMOs (and the unfortunate Creation Club). It wouldn't be unreasonable to assume these next few single-player Bethesda games (Starfield, ES6, FO?) to be supported in the long term with patches, CC content, and full-sized DLC for the next decade after their releases.

I am still very excited about the quality of the visuals. They are stunning for a Bethesda game and I can't wait to get my hands on that CK. I'm also curious the approach the modding community may take. The majority of the mods released are mesh/texture mods and I'm fully expecting many of these assets to be fairly high quality from vanilla. The in-game preview we got pretty much show this. But is it going to be mod-able at all? That question has yet to be answered, but I don't see any reason it wouldn't be.