**** Starfield ****

Retr0gamer

To be honest, I'd rather put up with Bethesda jank than shader comp stutter. Hopefully Behesda can avoid that.

pixelburp

Could you imagine the whole next level of jank and bugs if characters could walk around dialogue scenes as the scripts were being read out? The games barely hold it together when those non-interruptible dialogue scenes take place (see Skyrim and putting buckets on shopkeepers heads)

Retr0gamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120704427#Comment_120704427

Speedrunners: hold my beer.

Actually can't wait for the first appearance of starfield at gdq when they finish it in under 20 minutes.

The Morrowind Speedrun in less than 5 minutes is one of the weirdest bits of using Bethesda jank against itself.

SuperBowserWorld

I'm less excited for this after TOTK and also because I'm slowly working my way through Mass Effect 2. And there is only so much time ...

Maybe Nintendo can give us a Super Mario Galaxy 3 built with the TOTK engine.

Sierra Oscar

The showcase far exceeded my expectations in terms of what was shown and how in-depth it was. There was a good chunk of it devoted to combat too, something which people have criticised with the earlier reveals. It seems so much more improved.

Retr0gamer

That Atlus game, Metaphor, looks amazing as well. Always up for a game from them that uses the press turn system which is probably the best rpg battle system of all time. It's pretty much turn based combat perfected.

SuperBowserWorld

Nice summary ...

https://www.theguardian.com/games/2023/jun/12/the-more-you-give-it-the-more-its-gonna-give-back-bethesdas-starfield-explored

TheValeyard

Collector's edition for PC and consoles for sale in Smiths online.

Urquell

300 yoyos in Smyths. What exactly do we get with the watch? Can it be used with the game?

Potential-Monke

From the scant information, it matches your in game watch and runs on Android. If there were game integration, which may still be possible in the future with an app specific for that watch, it looks like it's just an Android watch.

I watched most of the direct, and I think someone summed it up right by saying it's No Mans Skyrim. Nothing really popped for me, but at the same time it held my interest until I decided to stop spoiling it for myself. Being "free" will help, but if I had to pay for it I'd be waiting. It's borderline NMS expectations at this stage, and it won't live up to it imo. Or, it will to people who ignore the Bethesda jank and bugs, which is apparantly expected so that makes it ok?

30fps is after killing this for me though. Recently upgraded to an LG C2 so I'm getting 120 on most games I play, so dropping back down to 30 for this? Nah. My eyes won't let me, and regardless of whatever your own personal opinion on the 30/60/120 debate, I can tell the difference. We can see how it affected Redfall on launch. I reckon people will be more willing to give this a go, but shocking that it's 30 on "next gen" console. All that good work, potentially overhyping it, and then drop this. Curiosity may get the better of me, so I'll probably end up giving it a go anyway. If it's anything like, say Outer Wilds before the 60fps patch, I'll get sick playing it.

Urquell

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120706639#Comment_120706639

Its a shame it doesnt work with the game, that would have been a nice touch. Its a nice looking trinket but 300 quid?

Potential-Monke

Exactly, it'll be a collector and that's about it. Albeit a bit more useful than the Pipboy, it's still a "look at me" accessory. And probably crap. I'm not a watch person anyway, so won't bother me.

TitianGerm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120706639#Comment_120706639

What are the most games you play at 120 FPS?

Potential-Monke

Funny you ask, as a quick Google is indicating that the LG is telling me it's 120 but it's actually not... However, my main one is Rocket League and that does 120. As does Ghostwire Tokyo, Ragnarok, Hogwarts Legacy. The rest are 60fps. Regardless, I can't play 30 anymore. I've tried it a few times, and my eyes just don't like it. Take Ghostwire for example, I consider it unplayable on the 30fps mode. When I tried Outer Wilds before the patch on the PS5, I had to stop. I don't remember it being that bad when I first played it, but I was mostly playing 30fps at that time. I'm now used to 60+. I can't go back.

I'm not gonna get into a debate over it though. Just giving my opinion, and 1 less Starfield player won't make a difference anyway. I'll wait for the 60fps patch most likely, but will probably try it out.

TitianGerm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120707236#Comment_120707236

I guess you couldn't tell the difference between 60/120 FPS then 😜

I definitely didn't think Hogwarts ran at 120 FPS though. You sure that's correct?

In all seriousness though 60FPS is the sweet spot for me personally. I've said it before but a solid 60 FPS at 1080P is better than 30FPS at upscaled 4K.

Jordan 199

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120706650#Comment_120706650

€300 is crazy money for the Collector's Edition IMO.

I got the controller instead, which I hopefully should have by Friday. It's in a United Parcel Service facility in Eindhoven at the moment.

Mr Crispy

How many controllers in your collection now, @Jordan 199 ?

Jordan 199

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120707597#Comment_120707597

Six now. I had seven, but I sold a controller I barely used on Monday. It will be be back up to seven by the end of the week again.

SuperBowserWorld

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120707236#Comment_120707236

30 FPS on OLED in optimized game mode looks awful to me. I play TOTK in other modes and it's way smoother, but I think it increases input lag. Hard to tell on TOTK.

YMMV

Video and comments convey this + workarounds + gotchas

https://youtu.be/w6qRPLcAec0

Potential-Monke

Yeah, me thinks I need to do a bit more Googling for my tv. Days of plug n play are gone! But I do notice the difference in Rocket League! I swears! And correct, HW is not 120 either, but it's a smooth mf'ing 60!

So yeah, 60 is my norm so. 60fps>realistic graphics. I will give it a go, but I'm fairly confident I won't stick with it because of that. I also don't think it will live up to the hype, and I reckon the launch will be a disaster. But I'm basing that purely on personal opinion. Will save me €50 on a Wingman XB2 though. For a while at least.

ahnowbrowncow

Can you still not delete posts on?

johnny_ultimate

As much as every developer should strive for 60FPS, an inconsistent frame rate is the worst possible option. I’ve played dozens of hours of ToTK and haven’t thought twice about the frame rate (only notable drops I’ve noticed are when moving around mad multi-object creations you’ve made). Whereas playing FFXVI demo tonight was an infinitely more graphically impressive game and yet an inconsistent 60fps made moving around even the opening town area feel surprisingly terrible (I’d imagine there’s some bad frame pacing at play too). It’s bad enough that I’d even consider decreasing it to 30 - something I haven’t really contemplated in any other next-gen game I’ve played.

So yes, absolutely 60+ ftw, but if the options are an uneven 40-60fps in standard gameplay or a consistent 30… the latter may well be the better option.

TheIrishGrover

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120705002#Comment_120705002

I love the Altus games. Really looking forward to their remake of Persona 3 (And bring on Persona 6). I miss turn-based RPGs. the combat system for P5 Royal was pretty much perfect.

Varik

VRR on most displays/TV only goes down to 40hz.

VRR solves the hard stutters and any tearing, a game going 40-60fps with VRR is going to be smoother than a mostly 30fps game without VRR.

It's why more console games should have the 40fps unlocked option.

If you had a newer high end TV that could do VRR down to 20/30 then great but it's only a minority that have those right now.

Retr0gamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120708974#Comment_120708974

VRR isn't a magic solution that can steady frame rates at 20-30 frames. There's an upper limit of about 50 FPS that if it falls below then it will drop to 30.

johnny_ultimate

VRR doesn’t fix the FFXVI performance. VRR is great for smoothing over small or modest dips, but for a game with more serious performance issues it’s not a magic fix.

Again, 60 FPS should be the target from the off. But it was interesting playing both ToTK and FF last night and seeing how much I preferred the smooth 30 to the unstable 40-60. The difference in gameplay responsiveness was remarkable. But it goes without saying a consistent 60 will trump 30 any day of the week, no matter what graphical bells and whistles are added to the latter.

Varik

The Lower limit is 48 without LFC but the Xbox has that by default and for PC the 2 main standards from Nvidia/AMD also have it, but for the PS5 there's a proprietary version but for some reason FF16 doesn't have it implemented whereas many other games do.

Potential-Monke

So, Starfield then. I see Hello Games recent Expeditions are hinting (shouting) that there's a lot more narrative focussed events to come, and some that will have "far reaching consequences":

we launched Interceptor, which brought the first hints of a broader narrative playing out in the No Man’s Sky universe.

...

We want to keep the mystery, but this is a story about AI corruption, robotic uprisings and strong hints of what’s to come in No Man’s Sky.

...

The expedition concludes with the player having to make a choice which will have far-reaching consequences…

On top of all this there are even more strange clues to decipher that hint at a deeper story to come!

I've always wondered that with all the amazing free updates they've given NMS since release, that they've never really focussed on updating or expanding the story. Looks like that's changing. Played a few more hours of it lately, and it's still more of the same, but better. Wonder if the timing is conincidental or planned.

Sephiroth_dude

Never had any issues playing games at 30 frames , never got the hullabaloo about FPS but ok everyone is different and some people need higher frames, the only time I ever had issues with frame rate from memory was when I played a atelier game on the vita and frames were so shocking I couldn't play it anymore and also a sword art game.

pixelburp

Whatever else about the engine etc - I am looking forward to the soundtrack. Have enjoyed what I heard so far.