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[R6Rider]

They even went backwards regarding NPC interactions, schedules, etc. With very few exceptions (like the Constellation NPCs).

I don't think trespassing is even possible in Starfield. You can go into "restricted" areas with no consequence. Walking around and talking to NPCs with a weapon out has no effect. Shooting your gun around a guards head will result in no reaction whatsoever.

NPCs essentially don't sleep. They don't have beds or schedules like in Oblivion, Skyrim, Fallout 3, New Vegas, and Fallout 4.

That means shops never close. NPCs will endlessly stand at their counter and at most look at something nearby. You will never be that sneaky space thief breaking into homes or shops of New Atlantis.

 

[Coulomb_Barrier]

Didn't expect it to look next gen when they announced the long-in-the-tooth engine it's running on and sure enough it looks like what you'd expect from a PS4/XB1 gen game.

 

[Denton]

That means shops never close. NPCs will endlessly stand at their counter and at most look at something nearby. You will never be that sneaky space thief breaking into homes or shops of New Atlantis.

Just makes me wanna play Kingdom Come Deliverance again, with its wonderful simulation.

 

[XXL]

It goes from early Series X title to early Xbox One title minute to minute. Visually, it's all over the place.

 

[Badlucktroll]

No, and i don’t think its really that good either. Half the alien creatures just seem like reskinned mirelurks

 

[faraany3k]

We are still stuck with Spiderman, God of War linear expansions. What exactly is next gen that you are expecting.

 

[Jedi0608]

I’m loving the game but it’s not not something I’d call next gen. Graphically, it’s all over the place on the X. There’s way too many loading screens, and the usual Bethesda jank. By far their most polished game, but by no means does that make it next gen. Mods will get it closer, though.

 

[Strategize]

I don't even know what people consider "next-gen" anymore.

Could they have done it on PS4/Xbone? Considering the game runs at 30 on the X, I don't think so.

 

[Dr. Wilkinson]

no mans sky has seamless transitions and lets you land anywhere in the universe and it runs on the switch lite

I’m sure you’re aware of the differences in what each game is doing. Starfield is impressive for sure.

 

[GymWolf]

They even went backwards regarding NPC interactions, schedules, etc. With very few exceptions (like the Constellation NPCs).

I don't think trespassing is even possible in Starfield. You can go into "restricted" areas with no consequence. Walking around and talking to NPCs with a weapon out has no effect. Shooting your gun around a guards head will result in no reaction whatsoever.

NPCs essentially don't sleep. They don't have beds or schedules like in Oblivion, Skyrim, Fallout 3, New Vegas, and Fallout 4.

That means shops never close. NPCs will endlessly stand at their counter and at most look at something nearby. You will never be that sneaky space thief breaking into homes or shops of New Atlantis.

How the fuck did they regressed so much?

 

[Punished Miku]

I don't even know what people consider "next-gen" anymore.

Could they have done it on PS4/Xbone? Considering the game runs at 30 on the X, I don't think so.

Fancy graphics.

 

[killatopak]

How the fuck did they regressed so much?

Resources used for those functions had to be allocated elsewhere.

We NEED to have a huge stack of potatoes stored in a single place to be possible.

 

[Slicker than your average]

Real question. What game is a next gen game? All the highest rated games this year could be scaled down to previous generations in a way that wouldn't reduce what makes them great.

EDIT: Having read the OP's description of "next-gen," how can the game not be seen as that?

This guy is the definition of putting his fingers in his ears shouting i can't hear you.

 

[The Cockatrice]

 

[GymWolf]

Resources used for those functions had to be allocated elsewhere.

We NEED to have a huge stack of potatoes stored in a single place to be possible.

I know you are ironic but:

Those potatoes were placed with an editor, it's not even something you find organically in the game nor has any gameplay implication whatsoever.
Skyrim did the same 13 years ago and the npcs were still better.

So that's not even a good excuse

The game must be the most untouchable (for lack of better words) game i played in a while, you can move objects but you can't destroy jack shit, no objects, not even fucking glass, just your usual explosive barrells.

i have no idea why it is so heavy on the cpu, the number of npcs on screen is not even remotely impressive as some old gen games and the ia is caveman tier.

 

[killatopak]

I know you are ironic but:

Those potatoes were placed with an editor, it's not even something you find organically in the game nor has any gameplay implication whatsoever.
Skyrim did the same 13 years ago and the npcs were still better.

So that's not even a good excuse

The game must be the most static game i played in a while, you can move objects but you can't destroy jack shit, no objects, not even fucking glass.

i have no idea why it is so heavy on the cpu, the number of npcs on screen is not even remotely impressive as some old gen games and the ia is caveman tier.

To be completely serious here. I read a post here somewhere where that person linked about something while digging through CPU usage of the game. Apparently there’s a lot of time wasted. By that, I meant the engine is left on idle while waiting for a the completion of another function. It’s measured in milliseconds but since there’s a ton of these, they add up.

Not entirely sure by the way. I’m just going off through memory.

 

[GymWolf]

Tbf those are random npcs against quest givers.

But yeah after so many years they should look better anyway.

 

[Facism]

Half-life has better enemy ai and that came out in the 90s

 

[Luipadre]

Tbf those are random npcs against quest givers.

But yeah after so many years they should look better anyway.

Another bullshit comparison. Quest givers in starfield looks great. Random NPCs be... random NPCs

 

[MiguelItUp]

Beat it the other day and to me, no, no it doesn't. It feels like it could've easily come out last gen. Hell, even the gen before that with some minor adjustments.

It's a good game, I mean, I enjoyed it enough to beat it. But nothing blew me away. The combat is pretty meh, the combat AI is isn't good at all, same with the inventory UI. A lot of it just feels "fine".

 

[BossLackey]

When I'm jumping on a low-g moon and the star starts rising and pours through the atmosphere and creates these colors and shadows on individual rocks at that extreme angle. Yes.

In all other aspects? No. Hell no.

 

[Bigfroth]

Nope, not at all it's a classic Bethesda game, but that's not a bad thing in my opinion I'm enjoying it so far about 30 hours in.

 

[Spitfire098]

Who can look at the gun play in Starfield and claim its next gen. I think they would have to go beyond what Rockstar or naughty Dog had accomplished, which they haven't.

 

[GetInTheRobot]

This next gen enough for you:

Starfield is a superb physics simulator and its going to be fun to see whatthe modding community can do with it in the coming years.

 

[Redefine07]

No , looks like a fallout 4 mod.

 

[GetInTheRobot]

That's clearly not the scope that can make it look next gen, for the very reasons you mentioned. In its structure we can't say it's next gen.

I think some interiors are absolutely stunning though. There are places where the game feels very detailed. I mean it's all relative but perhaps for their engine it is next gen looking.

But it's uneven, sometimes the game looks better than Cyberpunk and other times it looks like how you remember Fallout 4 (and even Skyrim outdoor when the lighting is not there).

I think people get to caught up soely on graphics when it comes to these conversation and why so many games will push visuals but not gameplay. I'd take a game that looks like a good ps4 era game but pushes the scope to the next level as opposed to a game that pushes the visuals but ends up just being a run of the mill game. I think what starfield does is it takes alot of ideas from bethesda games, and borrows from games like NMS, Elite dangerous, FTL etc and pushes the scope in the genre of an rpg massively. I land on a random planet with a map the size of fallout 4 in every region, start a survey and leave with 4 different "wtf wow surprised that happened" moments.

 

[ThatOneGrunt]

I think it feels nextgen. It looks incredible.

Have to admit thought that I really hate the comparisons to No Mans Sky. The procedurally generated quests felt so hallow that it made playing the game valueless. I've already done quests in Starfield that have been incredibly unique from each other. I'm motivated to play and I enjoy it infinitely more than NMS. Gave up on finding the fun with NMS. I can't stop playing Starfield.

 

[ahtlas7]

I don’t think it’s describable in such a black and white experience.

 

[RoadHazard]

This next gen enough for you:

I mean, zero gravity is the easiest gravity to simulate (or just as easy as positive gravity at least), so that part isn't very impressive. 10K physics objects, maybe.

 

[Roberts]

I'm practically turning into an amateur photographer due to this game's photo mode. I think it's primarily because of the drop dead gorgeous art direction. Every aspect of the game from gun modeling to architecture to menu UI looks like giant teams of art designers just were set loose to follow their passion for 8 years.

Personally, I don't really spend time worrying about what can run on what system.

Ha, great shots. It's fun to see that your shots are almost opposite of what I do. For some reason, most of mine are very wide shots of barren planets and my character in the foreground. Probably channelling my inner Sergio Leone.

 

[anothertech]

I wish the character models looked better.

 

[ANDS]

I don't even know what people consider "next-gen" anymore.

For me it no longer means graphics, which seems like is all Todd Howard and the folks at BGS were going for. Next-gen also means next-gen AI and radiant questing to take advantage of the greater processing power available to users (or whatever the technical description is). Beyond graphical fidelity (and not animation quality), nothing about SF feels "next-gen" in game design or technical capability.

 

[K' Dash]

I have played only one game that feels next gen since next gen arrived: Tears of the Kingdom.

 

[damidu]

I don't even know what people consider "next-gen" anymore.

surely not loading screens every 5 minutes.

 

[Jormatar]

Plays like PS360 era game and looks like PS4One era game.

 

[GeoramA]

Nope. The Bethesda formula itself is several generations old and it really shows with Starfield.

 

[Spyxos]

Bad comparison. The Npcs only look at you like that when you crawl. The Npcs are really not good in this game but so you don't see the 99% of the time.

 

[SEGAvangelist]

Bad comparison. The Npcs only look at you like that when you crawl. The Npcs are really not good in this game but so you don't see the 99% of the time.

Those also aren't the quest giver NPCs. Overall I'd say the NPCs look good and animate pretty well in Starfield.

 

[SlimySnake]

Faces are pretty awful too. Sometimes they can look okay when lit well but many conversations I've had have featured bland plasticky looking faces due to the way the lighting works. It can look really awful at times. Considering how much time you spend engaging in conversations, I would have thought Bethesda would have put a lot more effort into these.

What we have here are the same dialogue scenes as Fallout 4 with higher poly models, far better lip-syncing and some semblance of humanity and emotions from basic facial animations but this is marred by them being mostly static and too many instances where the lighting makes the faces, including the eyes, look weird. It's one step forward really and two steps back.

There's nothing next-gen on display here at all in my opinion, well, maybe the lip-syncing because I think that is very good.

Yep. The most surprising thing about this game is how dialogue gave it is compared to skyrim and fallout. It is by far the most talky game I’ve played. Entire missions are you looking at faces and making decisions which is fine but they should’ve done a better job presenting these scenes.

Horizon forbidden West apparently uses some kind of procedural animation and camera system for its thousands of dialogue scenes. At first i thought they were all mocapped but DF side alluded to GG having created a system to make these dialogue scenes feel natural. Now i dont know how an AI system can animate NPCs and change camera angles so maybe I misunderstood DF and GG did spend thousands of main hours mocapping every single dialogue tree, but if GG can do it for their action adventure game that has dialogue choices making zero impact on the story, i dont know why Bethesda couldnt.

My biggest complaint however is the mute protagonist. My favorite part of role playing Mass Effect was seeing Shepard deliver those biting lines, punching people left and right, and there is none of that here.

Other than that, I dont really mind the faces, especially during dialogue scenes. They are a giant leap over Fallout 4 and while they might not animate much, they can look really great at times.

 

[Josemayuste]

Yes and no.

 

[RickMasters]

I think we are trio far into this gen to be referring to anything as next gen. It feels current. I can’t think of a game so far this gen, that made me think….”well this couldn’t have been done before”



I think this gen is just a refinement of last gen. We all still play the same sequels to the same racing games ( the newest GT or forza etc) , shooters( we all still play cod every year and that game ain’t changed much at all in 20 years) , adventure games ( assassins creed or horizon zero dawn for example)



We get nicer graphics but mechanically nothing ground breaking. That doesn’t stop starfield or any other good game from being an enjoyable experience. And what we do get is a refinement of older ideas based on the way games are currently made. I don’t thinks that’s entirely bad.



I think the no man’s sky comparisons are a bit off. Starfield is an RPG. A through and through Bethesda game. And I love it all the more for that. NMS is a lite-space sim. I enjoy both. I have well over 200 hours logged on NMS since it launched on Xbox. And still jump on it from time to time. And for completely different reasons than why I play starfield. Though both games share my love for owning multiple space ships. I’ll even throw elite dangerous and mass effect remastered in there and say as a fan of these space games. What a great time to be a gamer!




And sci fi games always give off a next gen look. Fancy space age tech rendered in 3D on your screen…… just imagine saying that to a gamer in the 80s! Let’s enjoy that we come this far and these types of games exist. Now wouldn’t it be great if they could finish star citizen on PC and then port it to consoles!

 

[MarkMe2525]

Yes but the loading completely makes the game feel last gen

Fair, acceptable loading times are subjective, but there is no shortage of next gen games with loading screens. I would imagine if you have happen to be coming from playing many first party PS5 games beforehand, seeing loading screens may be shock, so to speak. The longest loading screens in my experience top out at around 13 seconds with most sitting around 5, that to me is withing next gen expectations. Remember, Xbox never advertised no loading screens, just that they would be fast.

Due to my efforts to dive headfirst into the "role play" aspect, there are two reasons why I use the menu fast travel as little as possible.

The first is the obvious one as in it breaks immersion. The transition animations are much preferable to a loading screen, and doesn't pull you out of the world.

The second is that when you fast travel from the menu from a planet, it skips any potential random encounters that happen during travel. For example, I recently got pulled from a grav jump as I ran across a research vessel that presented a quest line for me. I would have missed this opportunity and others if I had fast traveled from the menu. (If you are already in space, using the menu will bit skip this content).

Anyways, I know you didn't ask for this info so I'll stop here

 

[Naked Lunch]

The only next gen game ive seen since this gen started is Flight Simulator.
The days of massive leaps are seemingly over.

2d to Mario 64 - to online gaming - to HD games.
Perhaps the well has dried up.

 

[DownLikeBCPowder]

I agree.

What spoils Starfield a bit for me is the inconsistency with doors. Sometimes you open a door and there is a loading screen (plus NPCs fade in and out as they enter these... very immersive for sure!) and other times they will open and you can enter a building without a loading screen. Interiors that load never have windows that look outside either which again breaks immersion.

It's a shame that Bethesda didn't do more work to minimise these to make the game a bit more immersive but I suspect they were limited by the engine they are using. A more modern engine would likely allow for this.

Pretty sure the outpost of New Homestead, the tower above it is only accessible via loading, but there is clearly a window up there and the NPC within it is visible from ground level. Same with ships - you can see out to whatever's going on outside in whatever cell you're in.

 

[tryDEATH]

I think that's what makes it feel next gen, take a game like skyrim, add in 1000 maps of its size with the same persistent worlds, including the economy, factions, questing, and space flight, ships, bases etc...no way an older console could run this game and we haven't had a game of this scope yet with what its offering so far. seeing people downplay its accomplishments is weird.

Yeah, its just a bunch of weirdos console waring to down play the the game. It almost feels like a majority of those complaining haven't played an actual game with longevity and depth, because modern gaming has simplified and compressed everything to force feed them for 20 hours and then wrap it up or design their games on quick dopamine rushes not engaging and satisfying gameplay systems. The fact that many don't want to explore and figure how things work by themselves speaks to that. Giving players the freedom to be creative is simply too much to ask from gamers these days.

 

[artsi]

Another bullshit comparison. Quest givers in starfield looks great. Random NPCs be... random NPCs

ok more fair comparison then

vs

 

[GetInTheRobot]

ok more fair comparison then

vs

Is the only concept of what is next gen the graphics? Starfield has a larger scope than cyberpunk. I love cyberpunk but 90% of the world has 0 interaction and is mostly set dressing so it’s easier to push the graphical capabilities.

 

[Last Hearth]

In the sense that it feels one gen advanced past FO4 and Skyrim. Yes.

 

[Gameplay Gods Bless]

When I say next gen I mean the XsX, ps5 generation. As I play starfield I can say that this is a game that feels like it takes advantage of the current gen hardware in its scope...of course there are some aspects that feel like they made concessions such as the lack of a seamless world, but playing starfield it does feel like a game that can only exist in the XsX PS5 era. It seems to large in scope to exist or run on last gen. I'm playing on PC so I get all the bells and whistles such as 60fps+ usually at 1440...but even so it feels like this game is one of the more impressive leaps in regard to what the future of open world rpgs can look like and the scope they can achieve. Genuinely impressed by what was pulled off and barely touched the main story. Just been LARPing as a bounty hunter.

PS4 and Xbox One couldn't run the game whatsoever so yes it is next gen (as in current gen).

 

[Gameplay Gods Bless]

no mans sky has seamless transitions and lets you land anywhere in the universe and it runs on the switch lite

Yea and some old PC games had seamless transitions and indie games like Outer Wilds have seamless transitions. But they don't do what Starfield does.