Starfield – probably not game of the year (Picture: Bethesda)
The Friday letters page tries to make sense of the mixed reviews for Starfield, as one reader recommends Outer Wilds for astronomy fans.
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An eventful week
Up until this week I would’ve said that PlayStation owners were generally the most thin-skinned and aggressive of fanboys and that Xbox owners were generally more chill and laidback. However, watching a certain section of them whipping themselves up into a fervour over Starfield has been quite disturbing.
Their reaction to Bethesda withholding review copies from those sites likely to give more thorough reviews has been particularly disturbing, as they revel in the idea that their corporate heroes have stopped journalists from reporting on issues that could save customers money. And now the mystery of why Bethesda was doing it is laid bare via the initial reviews: the game isn’t that great.
Personally, I think GC and others should be proud of being singled out in this way (as should the UK media landscape in general) as the decision was obviously: ‘Which sites are most likely to give the unvarnished truth?’ I will also give credit where it’s due to IGN, where I think the standard of their reviews has increased greatly in the last five years or so.
They do still tend to overrate games but in the case of Starfield they seem to have been very objective. I don’t know if the likes of Eurogamer and Edge will end up saying the game is even worse than it currently appears (that Paste review worries me, because they’re also very good) but it seems clear that Bethesda’s post-Skyrim decline has continued.
I doubt Starfield is a bad game, and it’s probably worth playing on Game Pass, but it appears the Game of the Year award has now been tied up by Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom.
Loto
Subject to change
Yeesh, IGN gave Starfield a 7/10. And that’s IGN!
No wonder us cynical Brits games media got left out of review codes!
Maybe Bethesda top brass would only get a bonus from Microsoft on its Metacritic, like how Obsidian missed out on theirs by 1%?
That would be supreme karma…
Tundra_Boosh
GC: The current Metacritic score is likely to change, once the sites that were left out get their reviews published in a week or so.
Not whelmed
So, those Starfield reviews are… underwhelming. It doesn’t seem to be a disaster but also pretty obviously flawed, with a lot of weird design decisions and a lot of stuff that’s a lot less interesting than the trailers made out.
In particular, I’m disappointed to find out that the way space travel works is little more than a cut scene and some fast travel. It doesn’t seem to work like No Man’s Sky at all, which was an indie game with a tiny budget and far less people working on it. And even then apparently the planets are boring and don’t even look that good.
I know I shouldn’t get excited about games and the warning signs were right there, with the lack of previes and withholding review copies but, dammit, I was looking forward to this.
Buddy
Unspectacular reaction
Cranston was right, no review copies of Starfield because of the quality of the game.
You can generally knock a point off an IGN score to get a GC score, so I predict an unspectacular 6 from you if you ever get your review copy. What an anticlimax for one of the most (over)hyped games in memory!
StellarFlux
GC: We have our copy now.
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Streamfield
So… Starfield is launching next week and the big question for Phil Spencer is will it shift consoles or, more importantly, boost Game Pass subscriptions?
Are there any fans of Bethesda games who do not own a powerful enough PC and don’t want to pick up an Xbox planning to stream the game to their PC/tablet/smart TV in the GameCentral community?
As I’m unable to afford a PlayStation 5 at the moment I would absolutely stream Spider-Man 2 if I could but wondered if others felt the same about Starfield.
DarKerR (gamertag)
Gun Souls
So, a few weeks ago I started to see things pop up for Remnant 2. I began to look into it and read it was supposed to be like a Soulsborne game but with guns. I enjoy the Soulsborne genre but I am not great at them and I don’t have anywhere near as much time to game as I used to (family).
Anyway, I decided to take the plunge and I have to say that I do not regret it. The similarities with soulsborne games predominantly are that if you die or rest minor enemies respawn; however, you don’t have actual souls to lose, so it takes some of the pressure off.
I have just finished my first area and world boss, which felt good to do as I had found some region bosses challenging, but I think any experienced player would be able to do them within a few tries.
The game is also multiplayer, offering tougher enemies with better rewards.
Essentially. what I am saying is the game is really enjoyable and I would recommend it.
WAYNEOS
GC: It’s a great game and not the straight clone that most indie Soulslikes become.
A cornucopia of gaming
Having taken advice from numerous sources on trying No Man’s Sky after the PlayStation VR2 update I have to say it’s fantastic so far. I won’t go into tedious detail of why it’s enjoyable, other than the simple act of getting into your ship, taking off into the atmosphere, passing through it to reach star speckled space, and then seeing another planet which you can head off to, land on, and begin again without any interruptions.
The sense of immersion you get is quite thrilling. The big shock I’ve had is that I obviously hadn’t read up enough on Starfield because that was what I assumed would happen there too. Not exactly the same, but I didn’t expect what the reviews pointed out, about it basically being load screens and not a hop, skip, and a jump from planet to planet. I find it a completely odd omission for a game about the vastness of space. Reviews seem to be mixed but no-one seems to be saying it’s less than decent.
On the other hand, I think Nintendo’s Direct yesterday confirmed that I’ll be playing Super Mario Bros. Wonder over Spidey 2 on release. Looked quite bewildering but in a Nintendo way. Which to me means ‘Take my money.’
Wonk
Organised chaos
I’m kind of shocked by how many people are working on The Witcher 3 and other CD Projekt games. It makes me wonder how much of the quality of modern AAA games is down to artistic creativity and how much is just boring project management.
All those people must be a nightmare to organise and you’d have to go about it in a very clinical fashion. And yet The Witcher 3 was excellent and while Cyberpunk 2077 obvious had its problems these seem to be down to greedy execs and if they’d gone with a more realistic release date there would have been no problems.
Ubisoft is often criticised for just throwing developers at a game and that’s why the come out so bland and unimaginative, but I don’t think it’s as simple as that. Sometimes a huge team can work, and is presumably necessary, it’s just how you use them and organise.
Games have become such a massive undertaking now that they’re at risk of becoming like blockbuster movies, where any creative spark becomes lost amidst the bureaucracy and the technology.
Banshee
More: Trending
Strange new worlds
Anyone who thinks Destiny is the modern space-based game that gets closest in terms of imaginatively applied science really, really needs to play Outer Wilds.
At the very least quantum physics, special, and general and relativity (including gravity, black holes, wormholes, time manipulation, etc.) all factor into the gameplay and environments, and within a single solar system that operates seamlessly in real-time.
And yeah, I think it probably makes room for the odd huge geyser, as well as spectacular storms that are half the size of a planet, etc.
The fact it was made by an indie team that was barely out of university almost makes me feel bad for the lack of conceptual ambition in games with much bigger budgets. I can’t wait to see what Mobius Digital does next.
Panda
Inbox also-rans
Skeletor in Call Of Duty? At this point what is the limit? Why not throw Barbie and the Care Bears in as well? (Spoiler: I would play as these.)
CyberKraken
Volition has been shut down? Inevitable I think, after what a disaster Saints Row. Just like a reader said the other day, a single failure can mean the end of a whole studio. And this wasn’t even a particularly big budget game (I hope because if it was…).
Aggie
This week’s Hot Topic
The subject for this weekend’s Inbox was suggested by reader Frpgman, who asks what is your favourite side character in a video game?
Assuming a side character is anyone that’s not playable or the primary antagonist, which is your favourite character who’s not the main focus of the game? It doesn’t matter how long they’re in the game for but tell us why you enjoyed them and how well you feel they were used.
Is the character popular and did they ever turn up in any sequels? If not, why do you think nobody else took to them like you did?
E-mail your comments to: [email protected]
The small print
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MORE : Games Inbox: Bethesda’s war on British Starfield reviews, Tomb Raider re-reboot, and Switch 2 AR
MORE : Starfield early access is landing soon – here’s everything you need to know
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The Friday letters page tries to make sense of the mixed reviews for Starfield, as one reader recommends Outer Wilds for astronomy fans.