I currently expect about 85 for Starfield. I expect that mechanically it will be solid, it'll obviously have bugs. Skyrim to this day still has quest breaking bugs for vanilla quests. I think I had to use console commands 3 times in my play through this year to fix things.

The world design is also a cause for concern. Over 1000 planets means it'll be using procedural generation to a greater extent than before and I imagine a lot of the planets you visit will be uninteresting.

So yeah I'm expecting the game to still be a solid RPG, it just might be more lacking in personality and feel a bit bland. We'll see if the event next month changes my mind from 85 one way or another.

When you block a user quicker than than you block Sega, it says a lot lmao. Empire ragging on my favourite game since the OG days, a dark day for Empire Indead.

Redfall actually plays better at 30fps than I was expecting. Unfortunately, the game suffers from an identity crisis and bad core design. A delay wasn't going to fix it when the core aspects of the game is broken and barebones. This game screams "make a live service game" and Arkane pushed back on the live service part and this is what we got. You can tell they spent a ton of time just getting the characters, co-op, and gunplay to work while everything else got neglected.
The best thing would have been if they scrapped it completely or reworked it into strictly single player. Hopefully this is a wake up call for MS and Zenimax to let Arkane make the kind of games they do best and not force them to follow the trends to make more money. Does Xbox get some blame? Yeah, but they are in a weird situation since this game was well into development and they probably didn't want to start off their new partnership with Zenimax by ordering them to scrap a game. Now they need to be more involved or at least make sure Zenimax isn't forcing Arkane and other studios to make games like Redfall.

I hope I can drop a bucket on a ships head and they lose sight of me.

It'll of course have bugs, I mean, I'm not trying to make excuses but it's going to be fucking gigantic, coupled with Bethesda's saved state system, which console users don't really give Bethesda enough credit for, their engine under the hood does a lot of incredible things that Unreal Engine is only now just catching up with them on such as what Josh Sawyer mentioned, and the whole thing about recognising and saving the position of every single physical object in the world, allowing you to interact and move a huge portion of them is incredibly difficult.

Obviously game breaking bugs are unacceptable but it will have bugs, I hope they're minor, it might have a lot of minor bugs, I'll look past it if the game is brilliant, and some of the minor bugs add to the charm, we all remember the giants smashing you into outer-space or the whacky stretching bug, hilarious rag doll physics, stacking spoons to create a ladder, etc.

I'm not concerned about the world at all, I'm actually excited, I absolutely fucking love space and this sounds brilliant to me, I think the complaint is overblown, if you don't want to visit 1,000 planets then you don't have to visit 1,000 planets, Lol. It'll have more than enough hand built planets, more handcrafted environments than any previous Bethesda RPGs which are already large.

But space is massive, it's a cold and mostly dead environment, it's almost mystical, you can't wrap your head around how big it is and it's a scary, lifeless place, being stranded in space would be terrifying but it would also be beautiful, despite how "lifeless" it is, planets and the stars, they can be beautiful and put you in awe even with no life on them.

And when you do finally find a planet with life on it, or a planet with a mystery on it, it makes it so much more special.

The 1,000 planets to me, adds to the atmosphere, I don't want to only go from planet to planet teaming with lush life because you'd lose the scariness of space, you'd lose the mystical atmosphere, you'd lose the sense of discovery, you'd lose those times you do find something and it's like "oh shit, I found something"

And finally, I can build an entire network of buildings anyway, so I'm just going to colonise every planet I come across and create a massive empire

Geeking out bout space.

Those 1,000 planets are going to add a shit ton of stuff for modders to do as well, I bet we'll see Fallout and Elder Scrolls entire worlds recreated, Lmao.

Starfield will be fine, I imagine whatever Zenimax suit they sent to BGS to try and make em do “multiplayer game this multiplayer game that” was promptly followed by Todd asking who he is and GTFO out of his office.

You have to pray to Todd Howard to get a response, I hear.

Pete Hines was promoted to Head of Bethesda Softworks Publishing recently so I wonder if that changes anything. (Redfall/Starfield are published by Bethesda Softworks, not Xbox).

We don't have to worry about Multiplayer stuff anymore Imho. These projects were all from when they were independent and jointly owned by a private equity firm, they had to find the money and chased multiplayer after a series of flops, I think they'll find some relief under Xbox now and go back to doing what they do best.

He/She :) Don't assume too quickly!

But I'm with you; that's the thing I really want Microsoft to focus more, amazing single player games (and esp. Fantasy or Si-Fy RPG if possible).

I believe Arkane Austin has already an “Arkane like” game on the pipeline. I want to believe that RedFall is another Zenimax push to bring in more revenue, at the tail end of their turbulent independent reign.

I think Starfield will be a great game, based on the attention Zenimax gave it and resources Xbox is pouring into it right now. All the factions relationship, politics and world exploration, makes Starfield a unique role playing title.
A game of this magnitude and ambition comes once a decade and always pushes the boundaries of the genre.
I believe BGS should be a 1000 deep developer studio, with support studios partnership to work on Fallout, Elder Scrolls & Starfield in tandem.

Bethesda Game Studios should be like Rockstar with studios all over the world.

• Bethesda Game Studios (According to Linkedin) - 445 Employees.
• Locations: Maryland, Montreal, Texas, Texas.

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• Rockstar Games (According to Linkedin) - 5,381 Employees.
• Locations: New York, Edinburgh, California, London, Toronto, Leeds, Lincoln, Massachusetts, Bangalore.

I know Rockstar sells a lot more but I can't think of anyone more comparable: Fallout, Elder Scrolls are both at least 10m+ selling IPs per entry, with Skyrim being one of the best selling titles of all title. Starfield is about to be added onto that and they also work on Fallout 76 and other minor things.

I think it's partly Todd's insistence on wanting to be the director of every Fallout, Elder Scrolls, etc.

Imagine if you have a Bethesda UK which creates a Fallout London, take some pressure off Maryland to direct every single one of their major IPs, now that they have 3 they'll be alternating almost 10 years between each entry, Lol. That's way too long for the fans and to keep the IP in the mindshare of people.

It'll also mean the rest of Bethesda Softworks (Arkane, ID, Machine, etc.) doesn't really have to assist Bethesda Game Studios anymore.

I think Todd can keep directing Elder Scrolls, Starfield if he wants to but there should be a major Bethesda studio set up to take over Fallout. They should allow the possibility of more spinoffs, Rockstar takes a massive gap between GTA's now and they only have two IPs to worry about, Bethesda has 3 now. So I do agree, Bethesda needs to be a 1,000+ studio. One 300-400 Fallout studio, one 300-400 HQ for Elder Scrolls/Starfield and the rest providing assistance work.

So unfortunately it scored higher that ReCore so now I have to actually play it, if ima rag on a game at the very least ima play (I ain’t no fraud) and ofc I chose Remi because that’s the only correct choice. Graphically it reminds me of Valves cellshading combined with Arkanes unmatched art direction. Gun play is atrocious and plays rigid af and the AI is dumber than dumb but …. It’s not the worst game I’ve ever played. 6.5/10 so far.