OS Neutral StarField (Bethesda 2023, Spoilers)

[Spaceboi Scaphandre]

I've never understood why the appropriate textures can't be selected during the installation process - seems it'd save space for a ton of folks, not to mention bandwidth on the server side.

It's shocking how few games have high def texture packs be optional. The only ones I found is Rainbow Six Siege, Halo Infinite, the Far Cry games, and some of the recent Call of Dutys. The option to make high def packs optional is already an existing API on Steam, but hardly anyone uses it! These games are wasting so much space not just on my PC, but on my Steam Deck too, a handheld PC that's display is 720p. What the hell developers?! I gotta use a 1TB MicroSD on my Deck just to use the damn thing because of certain titles like FF7R just taking up so much space on assets I don't even use

 

[Bodhitree]

I left AAA games behind after Mass Effect, but this is tempting…

 

[VietKinh]

Day 1 purchase. It looks like they learned their lesson from Fallout 4. Was going to buy an Xbox Series X just to play this game.

 

[Spaceboi Scaphandre]

I left AAA games behind after Mass Effect, but this is tempting…

Bro there's so many amazing AAA games you missed including but not limited to:

• The Last of Us
• God of War 2018
• Doom 2016 & Eternal
• The entire Yakuza franchise (or as it's called now Like a Dragon. Seriously you need to play Yakuza. Start with Yakuza 0)
• Persona 5 Royal
• Grand Theft Auto 5
• Red Dead Redemption 2
• Insomniac's Spider-Man, the best superhero game ever made
• Resident Evil 7, 2 Remake, and Village
• Devil May Cry 5
• Monster Hunter World
• Modern Warfare 2019
• Ghost of Tsushima
• The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt
• NieR Automata
• Death Stranding (which is getting a Mac port this holiday)
• Uncharted 4: A Thief's End
• The award winning MMORPG Final Fantasy 14 which has a very generous free trial with unlimited playtime up to level 60 and includes the award winning expansion Heavensward and is also available on Mac
• Dragon Quest 11

Man it just occurred to me all those games I listed were PS4 games. Man last generation really was incredible

 

[Bodhitree]

Yeah well… I had had enough of killing virtual creatures while seated behind a screen.

 

[Spaceboi Scaphandre]

Yeah well… I had had enough of killing virtual creatures while seated behind a screen.

AAA games nowadays are a lot more than just "killing virtual creatures." God of War is a father and son story about overcoming loss and accepting who we are. Ghost of Tsushima is essentially a big Akira Kurosawa samurai movie you're playing, to the point they even added a Kurosawa Mode that sets the language to Japanese with English subtitles, and makes everything black and white. The entirety of NieR Automata is an existential crisis and tearjerker. Yakuza is a Japanese crime drama with sad and fun moments that each game is an incredible emotional roller coaster.

Video games have expanded tremendously into a media entertainment empire with incredible stories that has now overtaken the movie industry, as evidenced from the fact games gross more than movies now, and Geoff Keighley's Game Awards now attract more viewership than the Oscars. The Last of Us alone pushed how far video games can push a narrative, to the point it was adapted almost word for word from the game into the HBO TV show

 

[Bodhitree]

That’s true, and that was also what attracted me to Mass Effect, that it was a huge sprawling space opera storyline with decent voice acting. But at the core the actual gameplay was still about shooting enemies, and a lot of the game was about optimizing characters towards that end.

My experience of AAA games is that they add a cinematic wrapper around what is basically a combat game… Cyberpunk does this, Witcher does this, Skyrim does this, Uncharted does this. It all comes from D&D, which early on designed the game around table-top dungeon crawls, and since then computerized adventures have kept the mechanic of challenge through combat and rewarding challenges overcome.

I’ve found if I want to be authentic in who I am in the real world, virtual combat doesn’t fit with that. But even more, the conditioning that games instill has proven to me to be unhealthy to a more spiritual life.

Just my 2c. Your mileage may vary…

 

[maflynn]

nah, 4k textures are the best, I don't want no low rez muddy rock texture

Agreed, I'd rather have a wonderful visual experience then trying to squeeze out 10 more frames per second.

My guy most people are playing at 1080p prioritizing framerate over fidelity

Imo, there's folks who take gaming so seriously that frame rates and competative edges are king, They'll take lower res as a fair exchange for image quality. Then there's what I consider the normal, casual player who enjoys the experience. I include myself in that category. I'd rather have a game look stunning and get 30 or 40FPS. Its the immersion and experience over squeezing the most FPS out of a given game.

Plus what's the allure of getting 120FPS out of a single player game? A case can be made for a live service PVP game, where every millisecond matters, I don't think its that important for single player games - just my $.02

 

[maflynn]

I left AAA games behind after Mass Effect, but this is tempting…

I pick and choose the game that tickles my fancy. Less about AAA games vs. small indie developers. If something looks interesting I'll play it. I'm still dong play through of fallout 4, 3, and New Vega - while the graphics are definitely dated, they're incredibly fun games

 

[maplepants]

I've never understood why the appropriate textures can't be selected during the installation process - seems it'd save space for a ton of folks, not to mention bandwidth on the server side.

It'd be too hard to slide it out like that, and then many users would probably download them all anyway since they don't know how the game will run on their system until it's installed.

That might mean that the bandwidth savings are minor, but the annoyance would be extreme. Would the game UI just not let users select textures they haven't downloaded? Or would it let them select the textures and then spend who knows how long downloading them?

 

[diamond.g]

It'd be too hard to slide it out like that, and then many users would probably download them all anyway since they don't know how the game will run on their system until it's installed.

That might mean that the bandwidth savings are minor, but the annoyance would be extreme. Would the game UI just not let users select textures they haven't downloaded? Or would it let them select the textures and then spend who knows how long downloading them?

You also have to take LOD into account. Texture streaming from disk is a new feature that very very few games are using since most systems don't have the storage speed for it.

 

[Spaceboi Scaphandre]

Agreed, I'd rather have a wonderful visual experience then trying to squeeze out 10 more frames per second.


Imo, there's folks who take gaming so seriously that frame rates and competative edges are king, They'll take lower res as a fair exchange for image quality. Then there's what I consider the normal, casual player who enjoys the experience. I include myself in that category. I'd rather have a game look stunning and get 30 or 40FPS. Its the immersion and experience over squeezing the most FPS out of a given game.

Plus what's the allure of getting 120FPS out of a single player game? A case can be made for a live service PVP game, where every millisecond matters, I don't think its that important for single player games - just my $.02

The higher the framerate the lower the input delay is from when you push a button. Even in single player it is very beneficial in a combo oriented game like Devil May Cry, or Insomniac's Spider-Man. So not only will it look better, but feel better, as what you see is what you get.

 

[diamond.g]

The higher the framerate the lower the input delay is from when you push a button. Even in single player it is very beneficial in a combo oriented game like Devil May Cry, or Insomniac's Spider-Man. So not only will it look better, but feel better, as what you see is what you get.

That is assuming the game loop is tied to the framerate, which isn't always the case.

 

[maflynn]

The higher the framerate the lower the input delay is from when you push a button.

I understand the mechanics behind high frame rates.

What you fail to grasp is that not everyone is a hardcore gamer - someone who goes out of their way to squeeze out every last FPS. I think there's way more casual players wanting an immersive fun then you realize

 

[itsboi]

Gonna get immense FOMO with this one. I have a PS5 and can't be bothered to build a PC as I already have a Mac. I also don't want another console. Praying for at least low settings + 30 fps through game porting toolkit. ☠️

 

[maflynn]

Starfield’s New Exclusive Partnership Just Made PC Gamers Angry

Starfield could be the biggest PC game of the year. It also might be heading for a lot of unnecessary annoyances on that platform. Bethesda revealed an exclusive PC partnership with card maker AMD, causing a mini-revolt among PC gamers in the process over concerns the massive open world RPG will face stuttering issues and not support competing features like DLSS and XeSS as a result.

The issue seems to be, then games that support DLSS also support FSR, but AMD is pushing exclusives to block DLSS adoption - very anti-consumer. I'm sure AMD showed up with a boatload of money for this exclusive, but it seems to be causing a bit of a brouhaha

 

[diamond.g]

Starfield’s New Exclusive Partnership Just Made PC Gamers Angry



The issue seems to be, then games that support DLSS also support FSR, but AMD is pushing exclusives to block DLSS adoption - very anti-consumer. I'm sure AMD showed up with a boatload of money for this exclusive, but it seems to be causing a bit of a brouhaha

I am kind of surprised more xbox games on pc don't have AMD backing. Especially since it would help with performance on the xbox itself.

 

[maflynn]

I am kind of surprised more xbox games on pc don't have AMD backing. Especially since it would help with performance on the xbox itself.

And yet Starfield's FPS is capped at 30 fps on the Xbox. I'm not seeing any major benefit

 

[diamond.g]

And yet Starfield's FPS is capped at 30 fps on the Xbox. I'm not seeing any major benefit

Supposedly it is a CPU limit more so than a GPU one. This will be easily provable when the game comes on PC and we see how a 6700 performs in the game (roughly the same TFLOP as the Series X).

 

[Spaceboi Scaphandre]

Gonna get immense FOMO with this one. I have a PS5 and can't be bothered to build a PC as I already have a Mac. I also don't want another console. Praying for at least low settings + 30 fps through game porting toolkit. ☠️

You can just get a Steam Deck. The game will probably run on Deck since all of Bethesda's other games are all Deck Verified. Plus getting a Deck means you can play Starfield portably.

Steam Deck

Available now.

www.steamdeck.com

Which reminds me, the Steam Deck is now up to 20% off during the Steam Summer Sale!

 

[Random_Matt]

30 FPS = Unplayable to me. Even 60 FPS is pretty drab, you will understand if you have experience north of a 100. And guess what? You can have max fidelity and high FPS, no need to make sacrifices.

 

[diamond.g]

30 FPS = Unplayable to me. Even 60 FPS is pretty drab, you will understand if you have experience north of a 100. And guess what? You can have max fidelity and high FPS, no need to make sacrifices.

There are always compromises.

 

[itsboi]

You can just get a Steam Deck. The game will probably run on Deck since all of Bethesda's other games are all Deck Verified. Plus getting a Deck means you can play Starfield portably.

Steam Deck

Available now.

www.steamdeck.com

Which reminds me, the Steam Deck is now up to 20% off during the Steam Summer Sale!

It's either that or run it through GeForce Now, which I tested last week and ran flawlessly. Indistinguishable from running it natively. The only issue is the uncertainty of being available there Day 1, or even 6 months after launch.

Thanks for the heads up on that sale, it's tempting.

 

[Spaceboi Scaphandre]

It's either that or run it through GeForce Now, which I tested last week and ran flawlessly. Indistinguishable from running it natively. The only issue is the uncertainty of being available there Day 1, or even 6 months after launch.

Thanks for the heads up on that sale, it's tempting.

The official dock is also available for sale as well if you’d like to plug it into a display

 

[salamanderjuice]

You can just get a Steam Deck. The game will probably run on Deck since all of Bethesda's other games are all Deck Verified. Plus getting a Deck means you can play Starfield portably.

Steam Deck

Available now.

www.steamdeck.com

Which reminds me, the Steam Deck is now up to 20% off during the Steam Summer Sale!

We'll see. It's a true current gen game and the Steam Deck is very much portable PS4 territory. The requirements currently list 125GB SSD storage as a requirement so I'm curious if it's even doable on the 64GB Steam Deck or how well it runs off a microSD card. Maybe it will work OK at low since it's aiming for 720p but it might be worth holding off especially if you only want to play Starfield.

The official dock is also available for sale as well if you’d like to plug it into a display

Even on sale I'm not sure it's worth it unless you really want a 2nd OEM power supply for the deck. I've been pretty underwhelmed by mine. It "supports" DP1.4 but it still can't do 144Hz 1440p. I am not even talking in game, just on the desktop, you're capped to 120Hz. It also only does 45W power passthrough which while fine for the deck is less good for stuff like laptops (which I regularly do). I also got a random 3rd party dock that does 144Hz 1440p fine and 100W power passthrough and has all the same ports plus a random VGA port that I actually prefer. I was hoping the OEM dock would fix the problem of the DP port always being on with the 3rd party dock powered but nope it's just my ****** monitor I guess not being up to spec.