• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

CDPR dev defends Starfield amid criticisms that its character animations don't match up to Cyberpunk 2077

Tedditalk

Member
These "defenses" are nearly impossible to tolerate when developers have access to more resources then they ever had, publishers are reporting record breaking profits, yet their new work fail to compare to even some of their old work, let alone their contemporaries.
 

Certinty

Member
People can defend and like what they want but the fact is Starfield is heavily outdated in so many ways. The dialogue, NPCs, character models, gunplay, constant loading screens, animations, camera switches and fuck knows what else would have been dated in 2013 let alone for a game released in 2023.

After playing Starfield for a while and jumping back into Cyberpunk 2077 for Phantom Liberty, saying it was like a night and day difference would be an understatement.
 

nowhat

Member
They took their L, took their kusoge and made it into the game that was promised.
Like hell they did. It still isn't an RPG where your choices matter much, or at all. I didn't expect that to change with patches, and the game is nowadays enjoyable for what it is, but the RPG aspects were way oversold and never delivered.
 

GymWolf

Member
It makes little sense to compare a game that had many patches after the release and a game that has just come out. As I said before, the two games should then be compared in their original form 1.0 and not after 3 years of extra development.
And many things were still better in vanilla cyberpunk.

Less loading times\more seamless world
Way better acting from npcs
Way better charas and general writing
better and more varied combat and stealth
Better graphic

2.0 didn't introduced all the cool shit you do in combat, they were already there, now they are just remixed with some addons (big overhaul but the core was there)
 
Last edited:

Spyxos

Gold Member
And many things were still better in vanilla cyberpunk.

Less loading times
Way better acting from npcs
Way better charas and general writing
better and more varied combat and stealth
Better graphic

2.0 didn't introduced all the cool shit you do in combat, they were already there, now they are just remixed with some addons (big overhaul but the core was there)
Yeah Cyberpunk was clearly the better game even at release.
 

F0rneus

Tears in the rain
Like hell they did. It still isn't an RPG where your choices matter much, or at all. I didn't expect that to change with patches, and the game is nowadays enjoyable for what it is, but the RPG aspects were way oversold and never delivered.
Choices are more important in Phantom Liberty for sure but, yeah core game not that much. But now at least I can be a nomad hacker who does not need to shootbang my way through every mission. Now I can go in-depth, become one with tech and turn enemies's defenses and weapons against them, which...is far more RPG than "Ok you can hack some stuff but here's 4 shotguns!" lol!
 

nowhat

Member
But now at least I can be a nomad hacker who does not need to shootbang my way through every mission.
But apart from just a few missions, it doesn't matter afterwards. Even the available endings are a matter of whether you've completed certain side content, not how you've completed them. Witcher 3 offered much more choice, BG3 is on a completely different level.
 
Last edited:

F0rneus

Tears in the rain
But apart from just a few missions, it doesn't matter afterwards. Even the available endings are a matter of whether you've completed certain side content. not how you've completed them. Witcher 3 offered much more choice, BG3 is on a completely different level.
I can't disagree with that. Now I will admit that I do not like The Witcher 3 at all, but Baldur's Gate III should win GOTY everywhere and at the Game Awards. Sorry Zelda but this game is just a top to bottom masterpiece and easily the best DnD game ever. It's magical. It's perfect.
 

calistan

Member
I'm not talking about quality of the animations but that each conversation has has unique mocapped animations.
If you look at the normal conversations of Mass Effect games or The Witcher 3 you will notice that NPCs use similar hand and body gestures cause they reuse few dozen different animations for conversations. BG3 has for most part mocapped its conversations so you wont see same hand and body gestures all the time. Cyberpunk obviously has almost everything but the very minor stuff completely mocapped.
The main scenes are good but the conversations kept reusing the same reactions. Wry smile, lean back and fold the arms, make a face like somebody farted... Better than Starfield though.

I think not having the characters zoomed in to a head and shoulders shot and cutting back to your own character when you have something to say is an improvement. The Starfield way is a throwback to when RPGs just had a couple of static hand-drawn images for each character. They could have been more creative with the camera angles.
 

RavionUHD

Member
I wouldnt say that Starfields Animation are that bad if you consider the huge amount of NPC's.
wqGNVSv.jpg

0TjeFz4.jpg

ROhW6ln.jpg

Iw251lC.jpg
 

Gambit2483

Member
I wouldnt say that Starfields Animation are that bad if you consider the huge amount of NPC's.
wqGNVSv.jpg

0TjeFz4.jpg

ROhW6ln.jpg

Iw251lC.jpg
Even still, most npcs are either walking, sitting, standing still, or leaning against something. Then you have the 10 or so specialty animations like, wiping off a counter, lifting weights, dancing, mining using a cutter etc. And that's it.

If you look at other games like the recent Assassin's creed games or GTA there are npcs doing dozens of unique activities within the world. NPCs in Starfield don't feel like they are individuals going about their daily life but rather set dressing to give that illusion.
 
Last edited:

sendit

Member
It looks great, but to be honest you should compare release combat in Cyberpunk to just released Starfield. It's only since the 2. 0 update that I really enjoy fighting in Cyberpunk. Before that, it was just okay.
Why would anyone do that? The comparison is about the current state of the game. Both are current commercial releases.
 

Roni

Gold Member
Like hell they did. It still isn't an RPG where your choices matter much, or at all. I didn't expect that to change with patches, and the game is nowadays enjoyable for what it is, but the RPG aspects were way oversold and never delivered.
It's neither great nor bad. That aspect of the game is middle of the road. Your choices still affect relationships and ending possibilities. A very small mod could make it reach greatness...
 
Last edited:

Tedditalk

Member
Like hell they did. It still isn't an RPG where your choices matter much, or at all. I didn't expect that to change with patches, and the game is nowadays enjoyable for what it is, but the RPG aspects were way oversold and never delivered.
There plenty of choices that matter. I don't understand this contrived narrative.
 
Top Bottom