Starfield

Sephiroth_dude · 30-08-2023 12:36am

No review code for skill up but Mr Matty the biggest xbox/Bethesda fan boi there is got one 🤨.

Retr0gamer · 30-08-2023 12:43am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121044600#Comment_121044600

I think they timed the release badly as it's going up against Baldur's Gate 3 which has set the bar for western RPGs very high. I've a feeling it might affect review scores. TotK not going to help either.

McFly85 · 30-08-2023 7:33am

Eurogamer are generally the first place I look to for reviews. They can be more critical but that’s not a bad thing. I find they’re more likely to give full marks to something wholly original, with sequels generally getting less.

This is absolutely Bethesda padding the metascore before release which is a scummy practice.

I think this will be pretty good if you enjoy Bethesda games, but being selective about who gets review code will make me question the no doubt gushing reviews that will drop as soon as the embargo lifts.

pixelburp · 30-08-2023 8:47am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121045039#Comment_121045039

Eventually the bloom will go off the rose with Bethesda and while I'm not wishing Starfield ill or anything I'll be very curious how this launch and what cultural reaction forms. Things like Fallout 76 really damaged the brand IMO.

TotK was a minor technical miracle and kinda put on the ha'penny place any notion that open world games must involve jank and crazy physics bugs. It'll be interesting if any parallels are drawn.

Then again, maybe Starfield's engine is fine, and robust with all those legacy eccentricities finally squashed. It's always possible

johnny_ultimate · 30-08-2023 9:31am

Unsurprisingly - given they're ReedPop and UK-based - Rock Paper Shotgun also hasn't been given review code:

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/our-starfield-review-is-going-to-be-a-little-late

That rules out nearly all of the review sites I go to on embargo day, one or two US-based sites and podcasts aside (and curious to note how many of the few remaining bastions of robust embargo-day written reviews are based in the UK) 😅

It will be very interesting to see if any UK-based sites were given review copies. Code distribution definitely seems to have been far more generous in the US.

Thankfully the game won't cost anything extra to install and try due to GamePass. But between the review shenanigans and having been skeptical about all the trailers / gameplay released so far (not to mention Bethesda's recent-ish track record), I'm definitely not super confident atm that this one will hit for me.

TheAnalyst_ · 30-08-2023 9:41am

I think the new setting will sink it. Fallout games worked at the start largely because the strength of the original IP. The elder scrolls worked because of its fantasy setting.

Kiith · 30-08-2023 9:42am

Yeah, its certainly not a good look for Bethesda. I imagine it'll get a lot of 7/10 or 8/10 from most reviewers, which is just fine. A buggy but enjoyable mess, or something like that.

It'll be interesting to see if they've moved on at all from their standard Elder Scrolls/Fallout formula.

DeSelby83 · 30-08-2023 9:54am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121044740#Comment_121044740

Aside for the obviously crappy behaviour of them cherry picking who gets review codes there seems to be a very weird vocal desire for this game to be bad or fail. Granted this is from scanning through comments on Eurogamer, Reddit and few other message boards so maybe not the best places to be expecting balanced views but I can't remember seeing such negativity to a new game in a long time.

pixelburp · 30-08-2023 10:00am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121045668#Comment_121045668

I think Fallout 76 blotted their copybook, coupled with the stubbornness to persist with an engine that, by all accounts, has become a bit of a running joke among the community. A loved joke for the most part, but a lot of water has passed under the bridge since Skyrim - Open World has kinda become a default, boilerplate genre.

I don't subscribe to a kicking just for the sake of it, but Bethesda has somewhat found itself lagging and a bit of a target of AAA cynicism.

Penn · 30-08-2023 10:27am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121045668#Comment_121045668

I think it always tends to happen when so much hype has been placed behind the game, and I don't just mean marketing, developers hyping the game up etc, but even just fans putting a huge amount of pressure on this game to be an absolute game-changer, biggest Bethesda game ever etc. Eventually a lot of people end up turning against the game just because they get sick of hearing about the game so often.

And so anything less than perfection will be pushed as the game not living up to the hype and therefore being a failure.

It's the curse of there being so much online commentary about games. You can't go on the internet without people over-analysing any scrap of new information about big games which ultimately ends up working against the game. Then something like Baldur's Gate 3 drops which had no huge hype or online buzz, and people are able to enjoy the game more because they had lower expectations and so little information going into it.

I genuinely hope the game is terrific and people enjoy it. It's not for me as I generally just don't vibe with the Bethesda games (tried Fallout 3 a few times and couldn't get into it, tried Skyrim and just felt bored, tried The Outer Worlds which I know isn't Bethesda but is along the same ilk and again just couldn't get into it at all), and I don't even have an Xbox to play it. But I do hope it's at least rocking around the 9/10 mark at a minimum.

johnny_ultimate · 30-08-2023 10:41am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121045798#Comment_121045798

Not to dispute the general gist of the post, but there was immense hype and buzz around Baldur's Gate 3 too, ever since its early access launch! It helped, of course, that it seems to have lived up to most player's expectations. But the conversation around it has been just as irrational in many quarters. Speaking of Eurogamer, just look at the demented comment section on the review there because they gave it four instead of five stars (and said fifth star was deducted primarily because of very reasonable criticisms and widely reported issues and bugs with the third act).

Sadly, the hype machine in general tends to be totally out of control with AAA games these days. There's little space between 'genre-defining' and 'absolute failure' when it comes to the reception for the likes of Cyberpunk, Zelda, God of War, FFXVI, Starfield or any other 'mega game'.

TheAnalyst_ · 30-08-2023 10:43am

Weird fan hype is the worst. I was banned from the starfield subreddit a year ago because I shared my doubts.

Penn · 30-08-2023 10:47am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121045877#Comment_121045877

Was there that much hype and buzz around BG3? It's certainly possible that maybe I just didn't notice it that much because it was never a franchise I knew much about so maybe I mostly just tuned it out. I don't remember that much conversation about it in terms of the biggest games coming out this year etc, at least not until closer to release.

I think the hype for Starfield is on a different level though, especially with the preceding circumstances of MS buying Bethesda, Starfield becoming an Xbox exclusive, the delay of almost a year, focus on Starfield being the big trailers and developer dives on showcases and game shows, and Redfall and other Xbox exclusives not hitting the mark, that a lot of pressure and hype has been circulating around Starfield as the big Xbox Series X game of this generation so far.

TheAnalyst_ · 30-08-2023 10:52am

Hype isn't close to cyberpunk which resulted in a very funny launch.

McFly85 · 30-08-2023 10:54am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121045798#Comment_121045798

I agree with all of that, and I think there’s extra pressure on the game as it’s an exclusive on a platform that’s hasn’t had much in the way of big budget exclusives so far.

So not only is it expected to be the best Bethesda game ever, it’s expected to be a game that almost justifies the purchase of an Xbox and Microsoft’s Game Pass philosophy(I personally don’t agree with this, I have a series X and there’s plenty to play on it - it’s just my take of the hype that’s built around this one game).

And it’s clear from reading about the reactions to the Eurogamer piece this morning that some people have no interest in any real critique of the game anyway. They’ve bought in and just want reviews that will shower praise and tell them the game will change their lives and justify their feelings.

I’ll give it a go eventually but it sounds almost too big for me. When I hear the execs saying things like it didn’t really get going until 130 hours in I immediately think what’s the point, I’ll never finish it! But it’s on Game Pass so once the dust has settled and the broader reactions are in I’ll have a look then.

johnny_ultimate · 30-08-2023 10:56am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121045918#Comment_121045918

It was a different level and type of hype compared to the level of hyper-corporate hype that surrounds big console exclusives, but certainly, in most internet / media quarters I frequent there was pretty substantial excitement around the game pre (and post) release. I would say there was huge anticipation around it relative to the vast, vast majority of AA-AAA new releases.

But yes, Starfield is of course caught up in a whole host of other factors - I would point to it, Zelda and Cyberpunk as three particularly 'hyped' AAA titles in recent years, and the latter two weren't caught up in the various external / console war factors that Starfield is! Maybe The Last of Us Part 2 is the closest equivalent in terms of the sheer brute force of the 'discourse', but that was caught up in far more noxious culture war carry-on than Starfield is.

Penn · 30-08-2023 10:59am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121045937#Comment_121045937

In fairness, CDPR deserve the blame for what the hype did to Cyberpunk, because they drove the hype more than anyone else. Similar to Hello Games with No Man's Sky. Over-promise and under-deliver from the actual developer will crash and burn you far more than the general audience driving up artificial hype.

TheAnalyst_ · 30-08-2023 11:03am

Indeed and this is exactly what Bethesda has been caught out with.

johnny_ultimate · 30-08-2023 11:12am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121045943#Comment_121045943

"And it’s clear from reading about the reactions to the Eurogamer piece this morning that some people have no interest in any real critique of the game anyway. They’ve bought in and just want reviews that will shower praise and tell them the game will change their lives and justify their feelings."

I think this is the most pertinent point. The reality is that the most vocal audience members have absolutely zero interest in actually engaging with reviews or critiques of games in a good-faith manner. All they want is a review to either confirm their own biases or simply justify their purchasing decisions. Look at the batshit reactions to Eurogamer's four-star reviews of Tears of the Kingdom or Baldur's Gate 3, both of which are entirely reasonable pieces of writing. Or the response to their persistently skeptical reviews of the Horizon series (funny enough, they're the only major outlet to consistently echo my own 'meh' response to those games).

A review doesn't exist to reflect an individual reader's opinion back at them - that's absolutely impossible. As I've said many times before, reasonable and well-argued reviews you ultimately don't agree with are often the most valuable ones - they can expand your understanding and appreciation for a game by offering a different perspective that you hadn't taken into account. Obviously, it's nice to read a review that manages to articulately capture how you feel about a game as the author has had a similar experience. But ultimately the joy of a varied review field is to offer up different perspectives and robust analysis on what a game's trying to do. Sadly, for many, reviews are just another bludgeon in the endless console war or a way to reinforce existing biases.

degrassinoel · 30-08-2023 11:48am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121045918#Comment_121045918

BG3's early access 2 years or so ago had what might be labelled "hype" prior to that launch.

But.. it was a very honest even damagingly candid approach, showcasing some of the hilariously unexpected bugs in their livestream act 1 demo. Larian devs laughed about it, made promises, and were rightfully embarrassed.. however, they did manage to pull off a massively successful game.

I think the work they lashed in speaks for itself as much as the transparency and ability to laugh at themselves from failures and fixes all the way through early access for the two or so years to the 1.0 release.

This is something I don't believe Bethesda have. Much as i want to believe the starfield hype, I'm not buying it, and I'm not buying it til i see some letsplays after it launches.

CatInABox · 30-08-2023 12:12pm

Bethesda have always been weird with reviews, almost childish in their antics, but this does seem weird, almost like they're holding a grudge for some reason.

It's a PR faux pas as well, wasn't just me singing their praises for sending out reviews copies so early, I thought that they were very confident of the quality of the game, and now that's been totally undermined.

There is a significant backlash to this game though, more so than many others I've seen. Most likely it's because it's the first major Bethesda game since they were acquired. (Redfall excluded, as Arkane games, as much as I love them, just don't sell)

The worst example of people complaining over nothing are the people saying that Bethesda lied because you can't go to a gas giant and get out to walk around. Like, come on, it's a gas giant, how are you going to walk around?

johnny_ultimate · 30-08-2023 12:21pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121046276#Comment_121046276

Don't forget Hi-Fi Rush - still the best game of the year IMO, and possibly even my favourite ever Bethesda-published game. Hopefully, they have more of those smaller, more unique projects cooking! But it's funny how Redfall completely changed the conversation around them after the almost universal positivity around Hi-Fi Rush.

Retr0gamer · 30-08-2023 1:07pm

There's a really toxic discourse from so called gamers when it comes to game reviews. Instead of celebrating the diverse analysis you get from different media outlets they just scream about reviews that don't fit the status quo or their own inflated hype fueled opinion of the game. As mentioned already there's the 4/5 reviews from Eurogamer that caused controversy that were both reasonable once you read the content of the review. I was discussing this with a friend and they were telling me that Eurogamer were biased against Bethesda games which seems to be the running opinion from all the negativity merchants. I mean Fallout 76 reviewed poorly because it was crap but this is eurogamer that gave Skyrim 10/10 and Fallout 4 a 4/5 and yet they are biased against Bethesda?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121046276#Comment_121046276

I find the people wanting Starfield to fail are mostly the of the Sony fanboy persuasion. They're too stupid to understand that a strong Microsoft will benefit them in the long run.

TitianGerm · 30-08-2023 1:27pm

This will 100% be review bombed by the angry Sony fanboys. Just can't see it going any other way.

McFly85 · 30-08-2023 1:50pm

Fanboys gonna fanboy.

Sony heads will review bomb, Xbox heads will claim anyone who gives it 4/5 is a rubbish reviewer and 3/5 or less to have an agenda.

Both are pathetic, which is why it’s important for most people, who just want to know if a game is good or not, that the review code is sent to as many establishments as possible. Most people have sites or reviewers they trust so not having access to those on day 1 is pretty poor.