• 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.

[PC Gamer] Biggest disappointments of not-E3: Starfield is just ugly No Man's Sky

GigaBowser

The bear of bad news
It used to be that gameplay trumped visuals, but now it's all about visuals?
This game is inline with Bethesda's art style. They put their resources into making a huge world rather than a small pretty world.
I mean, anyone saying this is a bad thing are just trolling. And on top of that, the majority of those who keep bringing up any negative shit they can find on Starfield won't have to worry about it because the game won't be released on the platform they play on.
The game will be what it is. Posting negative shit won't change the game Bethesda release. It won't change the meta score it gets, it won't influence any reviews, all it will do is to try an make yourself feel better about the fact that it's an Xbox game.
I hate to say it, but there is a portion of the gaming media that go along with the narratives spun on the internet. Look at the narrator of that article for instance. Could you really trust that guy to review this game? Some are even shills or outright fanboys. This type of rhetoric does influence scores. Maybe not the banter on this forum per-say, but in general across social media yes. Graphics performance often trumps ambition in their eyes and the gaming media is very much a part of the problem the industry faces and has contributed to driving it into the ground in recent years.
 
Last edited:

Sosokrates

Report me if I continue to console war
obVCtjb.jpg
 
I guess its like wishing GoW Ragnarok was a ps5 exclusive and not cross gen.

Would I of liked Starfield be better in some areas visually? Yes I would of. But its not all bad news, Bethesda have done a good job on the outfits, they show a lot of geometric detail with appropriate shaders for each material type, the same with the ship interiors. Man made environments with lit by un natural light also look good with colored light bounce and nice looking smoke and gas effects.


However frequent 3-10fps dips below 30fps is unacceptable on XSX or a similar powered PC, or even an XSS.
It's the fallout art style. Even Obsidian kept that type of style for The Outer Worlds.
For whatever reason Bethesda are sticking to it.
The game was running on PC, so I would hope the optimisation of it on Xbox would be better. They have a year to to optimise and polish it so you would expect it to release in better condition.
But then again, it is Bethesda.
 
Whatever. I don’t think Starfield showed all that well, but the No Man’s Sky comparisons are just beyond lazy. Starfield is clearly going to be a story/mission heavy RPG. Just because they didn’t show that doesn’t mean it’s not still obviously true. I’ve played No Man’s Sky and still not totally sure what it is/what it is trying to be, but it’s not Starfield.

Adding in the word ugly further discredits any point they were trying to make. Try harder, PC Gamer…

On a broader point, I think MS mishandled the showing of both this and Forza - some weird decisions on what to include IMO. For the record I think both are going to be amazing. This is the downside of trying to show ‘more than just a trailer’ IMO - you end up blowing it and falling short of the hype a well put together trailer can deliver.

If anyone from MS reads this, I would urge them to stop listening so much to people on Reddit and GAF and get back to promos that get people excited, rather than pandering to the ‘must see gameplay’ crew. But I know that won’t happen.
 

Sosokrates

Report me if I continue to console war
It's the fallout art style. Even Obsidian kept that type of style for The Outer Worlds.
For whatever reason Bethesda are sticking to it.
The game was running on PC, so I would hope the optimisation of it on Xbox would be better. They have a year to to optimise and polish it so you would expect it to release in better condition.
But then again, it is Bethesda.
Artstyle is completely subjective. But the technical sophistication of graphics can be identified. Art style preferences cant be debated because theres no right or wrong answer, its a matter of taste.
Yes a year is a good amount of time to polish. Hope theres a 60fps mode, but that might be asking for to much.
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
Whatever. I don’t think Starfield showed all that well, but the No Man’s Sky comparisons are just beyond lazy. Starfield is clearly going to be a story/mission heavy RPG. Just because they didn’t show that doesn’t mean it’s not still obviously true. I’ve played No Man’s Sky and still not totally sure what it is/what it is trying to be, but it’s not Starfield.
Exactly. I think gamers and PC gamer have lost their damn minds. No Mans Sky is barely even a game. This is a full blown RPG. This is fallout and skyrim in space. How hard is that to understand?

Also, ugly??

5JlaTVg.gif


IpEyFxe.gif


This is ugly to PC gamer?
 

Tams

Gold Member
They're using like "steampunk" "cyberpunk" etc. It makes sense
As I said, they don't get it. It's like any scandal being '-gate' these days.

Anyway, if we go with 'punk' meaning 'a fictional future or history' or 'world', NASA is too specific.

I'd grudgingly accept 'spacepunk', but that's about it.
 
Last edited:
I hate to say it, but there is a portion of the gaming media that go along with the narratives spun on the internet. Look at the narrator of that article for instance. Could you really trust that guy to review this game? Some are even shills or outright fanboys. This type of rhetoric does influence scores. Maybe not the banter on this forum per-say, but in general across social media yes. The gaming media is very much a part of the problems the industry faces and has contributed to driving gaming into the ground in recent years.
True. The gaming media are quite tribal with their personal gaming preferences that there has to be some bleed over.
I mean when you have John L from Digital Foundry openly coming out and saying he hates Microsoft and wishes they had never got into gaming, it does make you question his ability to put that aside.
 

Tams

Gold Member
Aesthetically that city does have Cyberpunk vibe, but Cyberpunk can only dream of having living, breathing NPC's like this game will.

It's going to be incredible.
It might end up looking incredibly (bar that silly fake shine on metal surfaces), but it's going to be yet another fetch and kill quest bonanza, just in space/alient worlds.
 
Last edited:

TissueBox

Member
People expecting surprises were expecting the wrong thing. The leaks said that it was going to be the kind of game you'd expect from Bethesda, Skyrim/Fallout in space, except in its own flavor.

Imo, if you like open ended, open world games, then chances are Starfield is going to be snazzy for you. People looking for more high-concept stuff can go check out (the as of yet to be finished) Star Citizen, which is in fact playable in its current state and also really fun with unprecedented scale and attention to detail. That will be that. Starfield will be Starfield. NMS will be NMS.

All three can co-exist and frankly, I'm glad they do. Yes, even Star Citizen. Somewhat. xP Even if some of those ship prices are laughable. >_<

Even with that said, there's a reason why Star Citizen is taking so long to come out. And it's because of aforementioned, *leans in*, expectations. Except, you know, the super high, extremely high-maintenance, mad scientist kind. Of course, scale and innovation are great. But sometimes a game's gotta go gold.
 
Last edited:

Fredrik

Member
Oh come on... I don't even cared about the game before the show, I think it could be boring af for me, but the article looks like a bait, seems like the game made good noise because I'm starting to see these clickbaity articles while the rest of youtubes are like "Oh, cool, not bad"... And I'm not fanboying cause I won't play it (makes me feel bored at seeing it like RDR2 does)
I talked with some co-workers who were oddly negative and only play on PC. After awhile I could pinpoint that the negativity originated from not liking Mass Effect and never having played No Man’s Sky post launch, there were some odd comments about Todd Howard as well, and I know one of them is playing Star Citizen and might be some sort of fanboy on that end, and they often take a sceptical stance on popular games as well.
They’ll come around sooner or later.
 

Kataploom

Gold Member
I talked with some co-workers who were oddly negative and only play on PC. After awhile I could pinpoint that the negativity originated from not liking Mass Effect and never having played No Man’s Sky post launch, there were some odd comments about Todd Howard as well, and I know one of them is playing Star Citizen and might be some sort of fanboy on that end, and they often take a sceptical stance on popular games as well.
They’ll come around sooner or later.
Well the Tom Hogward dislike is understandable, but that's not the criticism I'm seeing from some big media outlets... It's more like trying to make something, whatever, out of the trailer for the sake of shitting on the game..
 
Last edited:

mxbison

Member
That's a bit harsh, it definitely looks like it has a lot more to offer.

But yeah, I think the expectations were (as usual) way overblown.
 

Rykan

Member
These screenshots are amazing. I get taste is subjective but idk how people can see these as ugly. The last one reminds me of cyberpunk so much.
Because the screenshots do look good, but that's just what they are: Screenshots. Bullshots aside, you can make a lot of games look pretty good by taking a screenshot from specific angles or under just the right lighting conditions.

I'm not part of the group that thinks the game looks bad, mind you. I think it looks fine when you consider the scale of the game. But screenshots in general aren't the best way to judge a games graphics.
 

NahaNago

Member
The showing of the game was just terrible. They shouldn't have shown the gunfight right now but instead showed only the cities, some interesting sidequest npc interaction, and some breathtaking visuals of alien worlds.
 
Last edited:

Heisenberg007

Gold Journalism
This info shows skyrim and fallout4 to be huge successes! 🕺
Yes, who said they weren't? Everybody agrees that Skyrim and Fallout 4 sold well -- roughy 4.5 million units per platform. That's not record-breaking by any means but still very good.

But the above-mentioned 12 million units in 24 hours data is inflated and misleading, which is what I merely corrected.
 

Sosokrates

Report me if I continue to console war
Yes, who said they weren't? Everybody agrees that Skyrim and Fallout 4 sold well -- roughy 4.5 million units per platform. That's not record-breaking by any means but still very good.

But the above-mentioned 12 million units in 24 hours data is inflated and misleading, which is what I merely corrected.
Good job.
 

dispensergoinup

Gold Member
While I liked the time I spent playing NMS, it doesn't offer up the same RPG elements that Starfield has already shown in the trailers. They offer very different experiences from what I can tell.

Are journos/warriors just hand-waving their differences away for clicks/rage baiting? Don't answer, that was rhetorical.

I hate gaming sometimes.
 
Last edited:
It feels like people are putting extra pressure on xbox with graphics because the marketing was so heavily based on power and 12tf. Yet there isn't many games that seem to showcase a new standard in graphics. Starfield is a current gen only game, which puts even more expectations on it. So it's only natural, that it comes off bad that even a cross gen horizon game looks alot better than it.
 

Little Chicken

Gold Member
Exactly. I think gamers and PC gamer have lost their damn minds. No Mans Sky is barely even a game. This is a full blown RPG. This is fallout and skyrim in space. How hard is that to understand?

Also, ugly??

5JlaTVg.gif


IpEyFxe.gif


This is ugly to PC gamer?
The game isn't ugly in the slightest.

PC Gamer's associate editor just found it prudent to diminish an open world/s RPG, by comparing it to an indie game which took 4 years to fix, in order to generate ad revenue.

Starfield is going to be great, Microsoft have a lot of faith in it and Sony too, or they wouldn't have been trying to buy timed exclusivity before the acquisition.
 

Fredrik

Member
Well the Tom Hogward dislike is understandable, but that's not the criticism I'm seeing from some big media outlets... It's more like trying to make something, whatever, out of the trailer for the same of shitting on the game..
Yeah it’s a bit strange tbh.

And what No Man’s Sky is doing has always been very unique, but it has also had consequences, you don’t get AAA quality visuals, you wouldn’t get that even if there was a huge team doing it. It’s too much work.

The only game that tries to do the seamless huge universe thing with highend visuals is Star Citizen, which show how big of a mountain of work and budget that is needed.

If Bethesda can do near Cyberpunk-like cities with lots of NPCs that aren’t just standing still or walk a repetitive path and if they can do detailed planet surfaces with cool terrain and alien creatures, while also doing satisfying space wars - then I’m all for that. If that means that they need to do a cutscene of the passage through the atmosphere then fine do it.

A deep single player AAA RPG with even a fraction of what No Man’s Sky is doing is honestly a success in my book, I would’ve been fine with what Mass Effect did as well.
 
Last edited:

Kagey K

Banned
In 10 months thier headlines will be Starfield: Everything you wanted from No Man's Sky but never got. ..

Bookmark this post.
 
Last edited:

fallingdove

Member
What grinds my gears is that the gaming industry continues to praise pretty looking on rails trash but when it comes to games that offer something deeper oh no don't play this it's ugly!

Fuck sakes man, how are we ever going to get over this lowest common denominator cinematic gameplay trash when games that do more are getting shit on.

This industry is a joke.

what-confused.gif
What’s deeper about Starfield?

Nothing.

The game isn’t breaking new ground. Custom ships? Procedurally generated worlds? Come on. This is Fallout in space. It was always going to be be fallout in space. Don’t give Bethesda a pass because their 25 year old engine is shit and their devs aren’t capable of delivering Far Cry 6, Witcher3, Cyberpunk, Forbidden West, AC Valhalla, or Star Citizen level graphics. This hand waving happens with every Bethesda release.

Certain GAFers were touting this as the most graphically impressive game of all time after the first trailer. Continue to be excited but don’t pretend that this week’s gameplay wasn’t, on many levels, a graphical disappointment.
 

GigaBowser

The bear of bad news
What’s deeper about Starfield?

Nothing.

The game isn’t breaking new ground. Custom ships? Procedurally generated worlds? Come on. This is Fallout in space. It was always going to be be fallout in space. Don’t give Bethesda a pass because their 25 year old engine is shit and their devs aren’t capable of delivering Far Cry 6, Witcher3, Cyberpunk, Forbidden West, AC Valhalla, or Star Citizen level graphics. This hand waving happens with every Bethesda release.

Certain GAFers were touting this as the most graphically impressive game of all time after the first trailer. Continue to be excited but don’t pretend that this week’s gameplay wasn’t, on many levels, a graphical disappointment.
The interactions you have with NPC's in their games are more dynamic than any of the other franchises you listed, the world is markedly more persistent, and their games are generally more open ended as well. Add space combat, building ships and what looks like the best gunplay in Bethesda history and you have what looks like a dream game.

If you can't tell the difference in depth between a game make by Bethesda and something as shallow as Cyberpunk there's no point in having this conversation.
 
Last edited:

Majukun

Member
game just seem to lack personality and some kind of...something that diversifies it from the rest...they seem to have gone with the most generic of everything...the most generic setting, the most generic look, the most generic story, ther most generic gameplay and weapons.

you have SPACE as a setting, you can have everything you want up there....and we got space pirates and an overwordly (well, over-universly?) artifact with mystical powers....
 

Fredrik

Member
What exactly is so evolved in the gameplay of starfield they showed?
I wouldn’t call it evolved but it takes bits and pieces from other popular games and combines it into a nice new shiny package.
You could say it’s like Mass Effect or The Outer Worlds - but with 1000 planets instead of 10, and you can build your base, and your spaceship and do dogfighting and trading.
 
Last edited:

Hezekiah

Banned
Yep. it's the usual.
"Why can't all studios have dialogue close up that look like The Last of Us 2?"

Well, for a start because not all games are 15 hours long at most and with twelve characters saying twenty lines of dialogue each on a good day.
If Baldur's Gate 3 (just to name one) had dialogues/cutscenes that looked like a ND game it would take 15 years and a couple of billions to complete it.

P.S. Hezekiah Hezekiah for the record you can spare me the spam of your retarded reactions.
I'm not going to forget that you are the same user one that sounds like the personification of a brain tumor every time you attempt to have a discussion with someone.
Had to look up who you are, and then I saw you're the one who blew up and had a meltdown about Steam a few weeks back (and seemingly anything PC related).

You and VFX Veteran would make a great double act - Dumb and Dumber.
 

GymWolf

Member
I wouldn’t call it evolved but it takes bits and pieces from other popular games and combines it into a nice new shiny package.
You could say it’s like Mass Effect or The Outer Worlds - but with 1000 planets instead of 10, and you can build your base, and your spaceship and do dogfighting and trading.
I'm ok with that but like you said, it's not exactly evolved in any way compared to other games who have random ia generated planets, spacefighting and settlement building (at least before we get to play the damn game) , it's just a potpourri of other games ideas put together (and we don't know how well).

I have my reserve about the "shiny" parts aswell since except for the how varied the biomes are and some convincing textures here and there, production values don't look exactly otherwordly or never seen before, it's a good (sometimes great) looking game imo.

I know that the no man sky comparison is stupid as fuck because that one is not an action rpg but they kinda robbed starfield from the awe effect of some of their major features they showed in the trailer like having a lot of planets to explore or spacefighting, it's just not a new thing anymore (it was not new when NMS did it neither).

I want to see more of the game before talking about evolution.
 

Pelta88

Member
This is how bad it's gotten. THis Xbox ambassador is going to download the Starfield trailer, run it through adobe photoshop just to compress and then give the video a fake "60fps" output.

Fk7QFPd.png


The thought of helping out some billion dollar company because I don't like the way their ip is being received is straight up bonkers.
 
Last edited:

Pelta88

Member
Another KingThrash follower, I see. There are so many of them on this forum, it really explains a lot.

I'm yet to follow anyone on this forum. Also, why don't you address Colt bending over backwards to try and help a multi-trillion dollar company get vid output right because he doesn't like the reception Starfield is getting.

He's moved on from years of preaching that Starfield is going to be the best thing ever, because his sources told him so... To running the trailer through photoshop to help it's maligned reception.
 
Last edited:
To be fair I'm more interested in a game that copies No Man's Sky and FTL than a game that copies Skyrim.

With that said, you have to be in complete denial to not admit that the game is in now way visually impressive (the fact that they showed it running at 30fps is unbelievable to me), it clearly looks like a game that was developed for the Xbox One/PS4 and the was made a Xbox Series exclusive after the acquisition.

Once again Bethesda's "ambition" comes down to size instead of depth, 1000 planets is not something exciting at all and it will probably come down to procedurally generated uninteresting places.
 
Last edited:
I'm yet to follow anyone on this forum. Also, why don't you address Colt bending over backwards to try and help a multi-trillion dollar company get vid output right because he doesn't like the reception Starfield is getting.

He's moved on from years of preaching that Starfield is going to be the best thing ever, because his sources told him so... To running the trailer through photoshop to help it's maligned reception.
This happens for every highly anticipated game which runs at 30 fps in trailers.

 
"I lack imagination, I can't create a story framework in my head, it is too much for me, pls feed me cutscenes that shoves everything to my brain directly" = bethesda has bad storytelling, it is generic, hurrr durrr
You know i've been playing Ultima Online on RPG Freeshards for over 10000 hours. So I'm not lacking imagination.
I loved that because it was all about imagination and creating your own storys with other people.

The thing is, starfield skyrim etc. are Singleplayer games.
I'm not an 6 year old lonly child that has to entertain itself making up stuff.
I wanna be entertained by videogames. So I wouldn't mind getting offered some interesting story convincing dialogues, choices and most of all consequences.

Playing skyrim and bethesda fallout games is nearly as fullfilling as playing a pen&paper round just with yourself ... 🤷🏻‍♂️

Hey but thats just my opinion on these games 🤷🏻‍♂️
 

Cyberpunkd

Gold Member
but Cyberpunk can only dream of having living, breathing NPC's like this game will.
How about we first wait for the game to be released? Also knowing Bethesda's track record more things point out to NPCs being once again incredibly scripted and lifeless. Bethesda's strength is not going deep, but broad - they create a templated world sandbox for you to play with.
 
Top Bottom