Not surprised about the score, but I'm surprised to see IGN from all sites having the courage to call it as they see it.

Lmao.

Verdict

It’s never a great sign when someone recommends a game on the grounds that it gets good after more than a dozen hours, but that’s very much the kind of game Starfield is, and I do recommend it. There are a lot of forces working against it, and the combination of disjointed space travel, nonexistent maps, aggravating inventory management, and a slow rollout of essential abilities very nearly did it in. It was the joys piloting a custom spaceship into and out of all sorts of morally ambiguous situations in a rich sci-fi universe that eventually pulled it out of a nosedive. I’m glad that I powered through the early hours, because its interstellar mystery story pays off and, once the ball got rolling, combat on foot and in space gradually became good enough that its momentum carried me into New Game+ after I’d finished the main story after around 60 hours. Like Skryim and Fallout 4 before it, there’s still an immense amount of quality roleplaying quests and interesting NPCs out there, waiting to be stumbled across, and the pull to seek it out is strong.

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They hated that slow start, although the slow rollout of abilities feels like a more hardcore RPG...

This doesn't feel like a 7/10 based on that verdict honestly, and this same dude gave Fallout 4 a 9.5/10, Lol.

Nope, it won't, too many titles this year which can slot into GOTY will push Starfield out.

Hopefully Hi-Fi Rush gets a nomination at least, it deserves it, I fear it will be overlooked because it released in January and it's more niche than the other GOTY contenders.

Ultimately won't matter, until Baldur's Gate 3 it was assumed that TotK basically had GOTY on lockdown and nothing will stop it, BG3 has changed that mindset at least but I still think TotK will take it, either way, nothing this year is beating TotK or BG3.

Will be a “fun” few weeks of discourse, as the negative reviews are few enough (and some of them from suspect outlets) that people will be able to plausibly accuse the reviewers of bias

Why are you not surprised? I mean the average is 87 on meta and the majority scores it at 8, 9, or 10; so if anything the 7 is an outstanding score...

(Not to mention IGN Japan gave the game 10 out of 10, the dude at IGN is a space simulator fan, not the best person to review an RPG...)

I'm curious as to why you were not surprised and even seemed to expect it. Also, saying that IGN from all sites has the courage to call it, implies that other sites should have gone lower than 8, 9, or 10 too in your opinion, care to elaborate?

Looks like I was right to lower my prediction to the 80s

Can't say I'm particularly surprised by the Starfield score, with anti-Xbox and anti-Bethesda bias going against it, was always going to score at least 5 points lower than it deserved to score. There is no way that the most polished game that Bethesda has ever produced, with deeper RPG systems than their last 2 singleplayer RPG's to boot, is actually an 87 game, one point lower than Fallout 4's 88. Without the anti-Xbox and anti-Bethesda bias this would be sitting on a 92-93 average most likely.

PC Gamer gave it a low review as expected, though surprisingly the other outlet that constantly attacked Starfield pre-release, Game Rant, gave it a 5/5. Guess the hate articles were nothing but a clickbait grift because they are struggling financially.

They'll probably be 100+ reviews by the end, Lol. This could settle around 87-86 or even go lower into the mid 80s. There's a lot of 10s, 9s and 8s though, I know people focus on the negatives but it's really only a few harsh scores dragging it down, the 7s which again, I don't think IGNs review reads like a 7 and that random very harsh 5/10 outlier, Lol.

Ultimately a great score still, if a little disappointing cause it didn't break the 90 barrier but ultimately irrelevant to how well the game will do overall, vast majority of consumers don't give a shit about critic scores and Bethesda title won't matter if it's mid 80s-high 80s or 90s. It'll still sell amazing. Although I worry about the slow start causing people to drop the game before they get into it.

Does seem like it's a bit of it being a Bethesda-ass-Bethesda game too and some reviewers have fallen out of love with that, also them focusing on too much at once, too big, which causes some things to suffer a little. Don't think The Elder Scrolls VI will have that issue since it will likely be set only on one region, Lol.

I mean IGN Japan gave the game 10 out of 10 lol.

The guy that did the review is basically a space simulator fan... Not an RPG player...

F in the chat for Volition. RIP.