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[Pallas]

It's a Bethesda game. If you go in expecting generation-defining graphics you're doing it wrong.

That they're managing visuals this good on that rickety old engine is a miracle. We should be grateful

To me Bethesda was never good at making good looking character models, I think most people who are in to Bethesda games already expect that and doesn't bother them.

Exactly this, Bethesda games have never been graphical power houses or detailed character models, they have always been about freedom and exploration. Funny thing is, these character models look better than anything they’ve done before. The hair in particular looks really good, even better than the 2022 trailer.

 

[Zathalus]

The 2022 reveal was almost certainly on PC considering it was running at native 4k. 2023 reveal is on Xbox.

 

[Three]

Specular highlights have definitely been downgraded. Self shadowing looks better though just based on screenshots but ultimately, who cares?

 

[Kamina]

All i see is differences in lighting, specular highlights, shadows, but neither seems better or worse.

 

[Godot25]

This is called downgrade nowadays?

Interesting

 

[Wildebeest]

If you can downgrade a game while making it look better in every way, then you would be a fool not to.

 

[SmurfMustard]

If you asked people which version was the bad version on unlabeled shots, I don't think you'd get consistent answers.

That's why we need to be told which version is worse. How else would we know what to think.

If the coping is already this hard, what will happen if we get closer to release.

 

[nemiroff]

The desperation to downplay this game is impressive.

It's funny how it scales with its positive reception..

 

[DevilMayFlyForAWhiteGuy]

To me, in a space exploration game, the environments and level details look great, which is the most important visual aspect. They nailed that graphics wise.

 

[Lucifers Beard]

Jesus, the amount of negativity towards this game at the moment is fucking tiring. The only thing I can think is that it must be generating a ton of clicks.

Let’s ignore all of the cool shit they showed off like building your own ship, fun looking first person combat, space fighting and ship boarding. Instead let’s just focus on 30fps and character models, you know, the really fucking important stuff…

I get criticism and it’s good to point these things out and talk about why they are a certain way, but at this point it is boring and almost like people want this game to be bad for whatever strange reason.

I can’t believe we’re going to get to play a game of this scale in the next couple of months and even though it will likely not be perfect, it sure looks like it’s going to be an instant classic.

 

[Gudji]

They made improvements in some areas and downgrades in others. That's fine.

 

[ChuckeRearmed]

it looks better, though they seemed slightly to cut some reflections.

 

[SmokedMeat]

I’m not giving a nobody YouTuber clicks for a video that goes after low hanging fruit. Do something original.

 

[Morrie’s wig shop]

Wasn’t this video just used last week to show an upgrade?
And someone made the the comment that if Starfield was running at 60 it would look like last year’s gameplay video??
What’s really going on here?

 

[darrylgorn]

The character models are stiff and robotic but that was in 2022 as well.

 

[Jinzo Prime]

Wasn’t this video just used last week to show an upgrade?
And someone made the the comment that if Starfield was running at 60 it would look like last year’s gameplay video??
What’s really going on here?

Denial.

All the rumors and the bad gameplay seen last year was supposed to mean that the game was dead on arrival. Fallout 76 and Redfall proved that Bethesda had forgotten how to make a good game.

But now we know that none of that shit really mattered. BSG is still one of the best WRPG studios ever, and Starfield still looks like a GOTY contender.

They got it wrong and can't cope.

 

[nightmare-slain]

I stopped getting too attached to what games look like during development because it often led to disappointment. I'll just always assume that what they show off is not going to be what I get to play. When the game comes out then I'll judge it.

 

[OmegaSupreme]

With mods this will look insane. Skyrim modded up looks insane. PC bay bay

 

[Eotheod]

With mods this will look insane. Skyrim modded up looks insane. PC bay bay

It is going to be absolutely gorgeous and I can not wait.

Also I agree in others stating there is a clear negative circlejerk going on, so it must be in some way tied to generating clicks.

 

[Calverz]

Is that it?

 

[NahaNago]

I thought the characters looked not that great from the recent trailer but i wasnt' sure if they always looked like that and we had only seen cut scenes in the past. I'm curious what the final product will look like.

 

[Doctor Hades]

The character models look fine to me, kind of on a par with something like The Outer Worlds, and certainly a massive improvement on prior Bethesda games. I like the improvements to the lighting and addition of self-shadowing to the character models which is noticeably missing for the 2022 trailer footage. The only downgrade that I could really see was facial animations which looks stiffer and less animated in the 2023 footage, e.g. the shot of the black spaceman talking looks much better and more natural in the 2022 trailer than it does in the current one.

 

[HeisenbergFX4]

Pretty much where I'm at as well. The meat in that showcase was real. I'm literally seeing myself playing this game 5+ years from now just like I still do with Oblivion and Skyrim.

Same here, YEARS

While I am building bases, building ships and raiding/exploring the universe I will never stop and say damn I wish the eyes were modeled like they showed the first time

I have over a thousand hours in ARK and look how bad that game looks

 

[Heisenberg007]

The character models look fine to me, kind of on a par with something like The Outer Worlds, and certainly a massive improvement on prior Bethesda games. I like the improvements to the lighting and addition of self-shadowing to the character models which is noticeably missing for the 2022 trailer footage. The only downgrade that I could really see was facial animations which looks stiffer and less animated in the 2023 footage, e.g. the shot of the black spaceman talking looks much better and more natural in the 2022 trailer than it does in the current one.

The Outer Worlds was a AA game. Starfield is supposed to be one of the biggest AAA games.

There should be a massive difference between the two. In terms of gameplay, Starfield has already shown the massive difference between the two. In terms of visuals (except for lighting, IMO, which is fantastic in Starfield), there isn't -- which itself is a huge negative point towards Starfield.

 

[Ar¢tos]

This is called downgrade nowadays?

Interesting

It went from sci-fi to Red Dead?

 

[Godot25]

The Outer Worlds was a AA game. Starfield is supposed to be one of the biggest AAA games.

There should be a massive difference between the two. In terms of gameplay, Starfield has already shown the massive difference between the two. In terms of visuals (except for lighting, IMO, which is fantastic in Starfield), there isn't -- which itself is a huge negative point towards Starfield.

Yeah. I'm sure visuals will downgrade Starfield toward bottom of the barrel in terms of perception. Along with...lemme check

Tears of the Kingdom
Elden Ring

 

[Helghan]

Lol, some people have a hard time coping with how awesome Starfield looked

 

[Draugoth]

Is that it?

 

[Bumblebeetuna]

Downgrade? It looks better in every shot.

 

[TBiddy]

The Outer Worlds was a AA game. Starfield is supposed to be one of the biggest AAA games.

There should be a massive difference between the two. In terms of gameplay, Starfield has already shown the massive difference between the two. In terms of visuals (except for lighting, IMO, which is fantastic in Starfield), there isn't -- which itself is a huge negative point towards Starfield.

Why is that a "huge negative point"? It's one of the most ambitious games ever - or at least, it looks like it. Who gives a shit whether or not there's a subjective "massive difference" in terms of visuals when compared to The Outer Worlds?

The game looks great. It's not the best looking game ever, but who honestly expected that?

 

[Verchod]

FFS!
Shock! An unfinished game looks different a year on ,and is still unreleased.
It's in development... You're not going to be shown what it looks like finished, because it's not finished.
Jesus, gamers these days are fucking babies..

 

[Buggy Loop]

The outside scenes look better in 23 version imo. Like there's an actual atmosphere and depth to the buildings.

 

[SF Kosmo]

What? The new version looks way the fuck better.

• Improved lighting, including some sort of global illumination
• Bokeh depth of field in 2023, much cruder DOF in 2022
• Sets have been fleshed out with more props and detail
• realtime shadows look cleaner

I do think the black levels are off on the newer version, which can give it a slightly washed out look compared to 2022, this is just a thing that happens sometimes when converting HDR content to YouTube.
Is that what people are clocking? Other than that, I don't get it.

 

[Feel Like I'm On 42]

Downgrades suck but at least we have 60 frames, right!?

 

[Stafford]

The faces I immediately noticed during the Direct. The blond lady, a clear difference, but overall the faces just don't look as good. Last year they showed an elderly dude talking, for BGS it was impressive but we've seen nothing in the new footage that comes close to that. Facial detail and expressions.

That being said, everything else looks great. And I'm very happy they decided to give the environments some color, it looked so drab and colorless last year in the city and what not.

 

[Stafford]

What? The new version looks way the fuck better.

• Improved lighting, including some sort of global illumination
• Bokeh depth of field in 2023, much cruder DOF in 2022
• Sets have been fleshed out with more props and detail
• realtime shadows look cleaner

I do think the black levels are off on the newer version, which can give it a slightly washed out look compared to 2022, this is just a thing that happens sometimes when converting HDR content to YouTube.
Is that what people are clocking? Other than that, I don't get it.

Ah man, as an owner of a Sony A95K QD-OLED I so badly hope HDR is proper in this game. But I'm not holding my breath, 76 didn't have great HDR.

And really, if they can't have proper HDR, let auto HDR do its thing. It has been great for most BC games.

 

[Feel Like I'm On 42]

Jesus, the amount of negativity towards this game at the moment is fucking tiring. The only thing I can think is that it must be generating a ton of clicks.

Let’s ignore all of the cool shit they showed off like building your own ship, fun looking first person combat, space fighting and ship boarding. Instead let’s just focus on 30fps and character models, you know, the really fucking important stuff…

I get criticism and it’s good to point these things out and talk about why they are a certain way, but at this point it is boring and almost like people want this game to be bad for whatever strange reason.

I can’t believe we’re going to get to play a game of this scale in the next couple of months and even though it will likely not be perfect, it sure looks like it’s going to be an instant classic.

Don't start with that nonsense please. 90 % of this hateful criticism you perceive has been about the 30 fps which is a legitimate issue and something Bethesda has brought upon itself with their creative DECISION. Don't conflate criticism over ONE thing with some kind of campaign against this game.

Obviously there's always going to be a tiny percentage of itrational people that are truly hating for the sake of hating. Just like is seen with every hyped game but those people as always should be ignored.

 

[Griffon]

Doesn't look like a downgrade at all. The models are the same and the lighting is better in the new screenshots.
The color balance is also different, but that's just a matter of art direction, nothing to do with technical downgrades (even tho I do prefer the higher contrast ones).

Smells like ignorant "journalist" fishing for clicks again.

 

[SF Kosmo]

Doesn't look like a downgrade at all. The models are the same and the lighting is better in the new screenshots.
The color balance is also different, but that's just a matter of art direction, nothing to do with technical downgrades (even tho I do prefer the higher contrast ones).

Smells like ignorant "journalist" fishing for clicks again.

Color differences are mostly down to global illumination, which creates colored bounce lighting, as well as time of day differences.

Although like I said there do appear to be some poorly calibrated black levels as well, most likely due to converting HDR video to YouTube poorly.

There was a similar issue with the black levels in the Hellblade trailer during the showcase but they fixed it in the standalone trailer.

 

[fatmarco]

Absolute nonsense. The only scene that looks better in the 2022 version was the meeting hall (for what ever reason). The characters outside of it look better in the new version. Everything outside of that is substantially improved, especially environmentally:

2022:

2023:

EDIT:

Damn I wish I'd scrolled just a wee bit up hahah.

 

[nemiroff]

What? The new version looks way the fuck better.

• Improved lighting, including some sort of global illumination
• Bokeh depth of field in 2023, much cruder DOF in 2022
• Sets have been fleshed out with more props and detail
• realtime shadows look cleaner

I do think the black levels are off on the newer version, which can give it a slightly washed out look compared to 2022, this is just a thing that happens sometimes when converting HDR content to YouTube.
Is that what people are clocking? Other than that, I don't get it.

Of course it looks better. It looks less gamey and has more atmosphere. Lighting is indeed better overall.

But hey the urinalists needs clicks, and there's no better way for them to get that than to create some drama.

 

[adamsapple]

This is called downgrade nowadays?

Interesting

Absolute nonsense. The only scene that looks better in the 2022 version was the meeting hall (for what ever reason). The characters outside of it look better in the new version. Everything outside of that is substantially improved, especially environmentally:

2022:

2023:

If this is a downgrade, downgrade me the fuck up.

 

[Bumblebeetuna]

This scene in the direct had me so hyped. It’s like an episode of Firefly.

 

[Neo_game]

Gfx in this game is so inconsistent. There are some good parts but mostly it looks average at best.

 

[Bo_Hazem]

 

[Dr. Wilkinson]

Good Lord. Guess we’ve gotta complain about something

 

[octiny]

Damn, nice improvement over the 2022 version.

Todd Howard's got this on lock.

 

[angrod14]

Making every frame count.

 

[Fredrik]

Great downgrade when lighting, shadows, shaders, looks better now, hope they do it again

 

[Crayon]

Looks like they had to upgrade it from 25fps to the full 30.