https://www.gamesradar.com/starfield-surpasses-6-million-players-to-become-bethesdas-best-launch-yet-beating-skyrim-and-fallout/
Skyrim reportedly sold over three million copies in two days
It came with my ryzen 7800x3d. Didn't even know it until amd sent me an email to a steam code for it.
Only reason I’m playing it. I’m usually not an RPG fan, but I pay for gamepass so I can try these games without buyers remorse.
Not OP, but I'm loving it. 11 hours in and already done a bunch of side quests and exploration. Spent 5 hours or so surveying a planet, building an outpost, and helping some people I came across.
It all feels very engaging and interesting.
Not op either but 52 hours in: my verdict is basically Typical Bethesda Game. For better or worse with all the quirks and jank you'd expect from Bethesda. Bugs are hit and miss for all platforms, I've played only on PC and had 0 crashes anecdotally. Have had some flashing textures, minor physics bugs like with corpses infinitely jittering around if I walk on them. Had my worst bug this AM when I was talking to my companion she wouldn't stop walking forward and eventually was just walking into a wall the entire time while we were talking. Difficulty is basically non-existent below hard unless you do something really stupid like sit in lines of fire or take a shotgun blast to the face.
I've wasted a lot of time pimping my space ship out because despite having some annoying limitations, it's a lot of fun to basically build a spaceship Lego style. Spent a lot of time building outposts to mine resources for upgrades and doing side quests for Freestar Rangers(like a sort of Wild West Themed Police Force) and the UC Vanguard(like your stereotypical starship troopers government outfit where service=citizenship) because MQL can take a while to pick up. Overall the stories are entertaining if a little stream lined.
Graphics are hit and miss for a variety of reasons, I have been both honestly awe'd by some of the wildlife, mechs/robots, and landscapes while also thinking, especially with close ups on faces, how last gen so many of the NPCs look and the jarring perspective of seeing both in the same scenes.
Combat is just...barebones. Like Skyrim with guns. You have jetpacks sure, variety of melee and ranged weaponry, but if you've played any infantry space shooter before you've played the combat in Starfield. It can be fun to come up with strats depending on the scenario like assaulting an outlaw cave versus a space out post or using the landscape to your advantage but ultimately it's just a sort of modern same old same old. You can at least customize your weaponry/armor except for melee weapons(at least so far). Space combat is also decently fun but every ship feels and fights like a space fighter. It makes no sense especially since it kind of defies the sci fi convention, that capital ships don't fight like tiny space craft.
Just the base game would be a 7.5-8/10 for me, random Lemmy user. It is on a base level a pretty good game but there is some real rough edges game design wise that some people may have difficulty looking past, like space combat not being anywhere as open as they claimed and lots of loading screens.
I had my first personal annoyance with this when I had to grav jump(like warp from star trek or light speed from star wars) from system to system manually to "explore" the path ways to the system I had a quest at. I went through 6 silly loading screens just to unlock the path and nothing of any super interest happened RNG event wise.
Seems interesting enough to keep playing. I’m only about 2 hours in since I’ve had the wonderful chance to catch Covid for the first time and have it spread to both my kids.
Straight outta my ass
But also, there are like 25 million gamepass subscribers, so I'm not surprised if upwards of 10% of them downloaded the new Fallout Scrolls in Space
I genuinely want to know how many people actually paid for it, and how many people just downloaded it cause we could. Consider this one vote for "cause I could"
Yeah I’m counted in that number because I downloaded it from Gamepass to try it on release day, thought the graphics were terrible (New Atlantis literally looks like an Xbox 360 game lol and I played at native 4K max settings on a 4090 so it wasn’t my settings), the gunplay was kind of crap, and just overall wasn’t super into it. Stopped playing after about 3 hours and bought FF16 which I’ve been playing nonstop and am loving, but I don’t count in FF16’s launch numbers since I waited to buy it. If FF16 was on PS+ I would definitely have counted towards launch numbers for that one…
Skyrim’s launch was less impressive than it’s eternal longevity. Released on 11.11.11 and ported to everything but a Texas Instrument's calculator. (Wouldn’t be surprised if that’s been done too, mods included)
I have complaints, but over all I'm having a lot of fun. Pretty typical with any Bethesda game to be honest.
Yeah. Skyrim is my top 5 favorite games of all time but I got issues with that game for sure. It's not perfect. But damn is it a blast.
Feeling the same with Starfield, I got issues, but the core of it is so fun. Having way more fun with it than Fallout 4.
Oh yeah. It definitely has that classic Bethesda jank in many of the normal places, but it still feels good in all the ways that matter. Like you’re finally awake.
You’ll fix every complaint and be able to make every man in the game into a waifu once mods are officially added. It’s gonna be a game I play for the next 5-10 years for sure.
Knowing Bethesda I decided to start Baldurs Gate and wait for them to iron out the bugs until I’m finished with that
It's honestly a really well polished game and I've only had a very small handful of bug encounters. Its less buggy than curent patches of FO4 and Skyrim
My biggest common Bethesda glitches so far was ONCE, one of the NPCs had the white squares attached to her hair and played miss sparkle for our conversation and then the occasional alien getting caught on geometry and then vibrating because the engine didn’t know what to do. Outside of that it’s been remarkably bug-free so far. Oh, I’m 30 hours in too!
Yeah, i found a couple of crates that decided to co exist in the same location as my most bethesda bug so far. I have had 1 quest fail to progress at one point but a quit out and load an earlier autosave fixed that.
That’s good to hear, and I believe you, but I’ve also been burned by Bethesda many times in the past
Ironically I think BG3 is buggier than Starfield on release.
I've experienced a few instances of bethesda jank, but nothing game breaking or even requiring a reload in ~55 hours of play. Just silly things like bodies getting stuck in a ceiling after an explosion. My SO is playing BG3 and has been getting CTD's and other more egrigious bugs since hitting act 3.
Forget Barbenheimer, I'm going full on Balder's Field and playing both.
So far, Baldur's Gate III seems deeper. Just starting on Starfield.
I'm nearing 100 hours in BG3 and absolutely loving it. I'm not even into the full Act 2 yet, still making my way through the act 1 - act 2 transition/passages.
Choices matter, characters matter, story matters... shit is so fun
I've got Starfield through gamepass just waiting to go but I'm still trying to get motivated to start...
If it helps, you have to put in some work. The first group of missions for the Freestar Rangers has a dialogue option where you can ask for a promotion and the Marshal laughs in your face and tells you to get back to work. That’s like 5 missions in and 3-4 hours. No taking the faction over in a couple of hours.
its kinda wild to me that balders gate 2 was i think 23 years ago and then i suddenly hear about 3
BG3 is definitely the deeper game IMHO.
Starfield has some charm -- it's also got a lot of slog and grind and some serious issues with immersion.
I mean, peak on Steam is still lower than Baldurs Gate 3 daily count after over a month since release. So I don't think it's THAT successful, though the numbers are not bad for a single player game.
But for anybody on both game pass and steam, it's cheaper to just play on game pass. That skews the data quite a bit. I'll play it for "free" now and then buy it on steam in 5 years on sale if I ever get the inclination.
Y'know that would almost make sense tbh. You wouldn't want to be tossing grenades or shooting guns inside a spaceship lol
Haven't tried it yet, too many good games came out recently. It's on my wishlist though so hopefully it goes on Steam sale soon
Not surprised. I'm just trying to decide if I should get an xbox or a steam deck to play it on. Xbox seems like it'll play it better, but portability is rather enticing.
I have it on PC, and performance is really hit or miss on Steamdeck, so I mostly play on my PC. There are some modded quality presets that help, but in the big cities framerate really dips.
If your options are Xbox or Steamdeck, id go for xbox
I bought a Series S specifically for this game and it plays great. I'm typically a Playstation person, but so far I haven't picked up a PS5 because the only game I don't have access to, that I want to play, without a PS5 is FFXVI.
Hmm, if the series s can play it well, that's probably the direction I'll go. Portability would be nice, but I wouldn't use it that often, I'd likely get the tv dock and leave it there for 90% of its life. The series s has the best price point, and would probably serve my needs best
i’ve had the series s since release day and have been beyond happy with it, coming from PC gaming. Haven’t found a game that didn’t run well enough to enjoy with a controller. Even Cyberpunk was great fun.
And you can pick up a used one for under £200, can’t beat that.
Is it JUST for this game? If it is, then it's fairly even, choose performance or portability. But seriously, get a steam deck, once you realize what an unlock having the entire steam ecosystem in a comfortable portable form factor is, there's just so many games to enjoy.
I am planning to go for Xbox (actually, I am waiting for Pro version, the activision case brought up that there was plan for PS5 pro soon, so Xbox Series X Pro shouldn't be far behind). While Starfield is a major reason, there is also Avowed coming up, and I have big hopes for that. Not to mention Fable.
Also, I've never had Xbox so want to play older franchises too. So, Xbox makes sense to me. Your requirements might be different.
Haven't heard of Avowed, and as much as I loved the old Fable games, I have little hope this one will do them justice. Starfield is literally the only reason I am interested in xbox (that may change once I have it, but for now that's it)
Avowed is Obsidian's next game. It's a bit Skyrim like from the trailers, but not as big.
Also, The Outer World 2 is also going to be Xbox exclusive.
But if you don't care about any of these, then maybe Xbox will be an overkill. Maybe get it and then sell it aftewards, or if you don't like to sell stuff, maybe ge Series S.