Starfield Omnibus Thread

[Death From Above]

There's a very real possibility that if they don't fuck this up, this could be the video game I've been dreaming about since I was 12, thirty years ago.

 

[odessasteps]

I guess we aren't waiting until next week to start the thread.

[Chaos]

I paid for the early edition access through Gamepass, and I'm not sure that I'll get to touch it early. Leaving for the beach, and I haven't decided if I'm taking Friday off or leaving afterwards. Sadly, it would not go over well if I took my Series S with me. 

[Contentious C]

This game may be the death knell of PC gaming for me.  My PC can *just* squeak past the minimum requirements, and I'm not really in a position where getting a Series X is a good idea at the moment.  But damn if it isn't a much better idea than upgrading my PC, which would need...everything, and would run up a $2000 tab in the process. 

Luckily, it's a "Play Anywhere" game, so hopefully that just means I can shift it over someday if it turns out my PC runs worse than a Series S.

[Kevin Wilson]

So here is my big debate and I've been thinking about it all summer. I have GamePass Ultimate. In my living room I have a beautiful 4K 120Hz 65 inch TV with a very comfortable couch.... and an XBox Series S. In the basement I have a powerful desktop gaming PC that can play the game on "recommend" settings with an Alienware 240Hz 24.5 Inch Full HD Gaming Monitor and a fairly comfortable computer chair (but not as comfortable as my couch). My general preference is to play games on my giant TV in my comfy living room. But I recognize the game will look better on my 24 inch gaming monitor. So I am just trying to decide which sacrifice to make. I may wait until there are some early reviews as if they "Cyberpunk" it (meaning it struggles on the lesser systems) then I'll have no choice but to play it on PC. 

[odessasteps]

Maybe a silly question, but couldn't you connect the PC to the TV and get the best of both worlds? 

[Kevin Wilson]

9 minutes ago, odessasteps said:

Maybe a silly question, but couldn't you connect the PC to the TV and get the best of both worlds? 

Just too far away, I use my computer (as it is setup) for work with a three monitor setup so it would require me on a daily basis unplugging it, lugging the 40 pound box upstairs, plugging it in, unplugging it, putting it back etc. for however long it takes me to beat the game. I did consider it tho.

[Raziel]

2 hours ago, Contentious C said:

This game may be the death knell of PC gaming for me.  My PC can *just* squeak past the minimum requirements, and I'm not really in a position where getting a Series X is a good idea at the moment.  But damn if it isn't a much better idea than upgrading my PC, which would need...everything, and would run up a $2000 tab in the process. 

Luckily, it's a "Play Anywhere" game, so hopefully that just means I can shift it over someday if it turns out my PC runs worse than a Series S.

I have nothing that'll play it.  Now on one hand, GeForce NOW is going live with GamePass this week.  The down side is that "only select games will be available".  So, I'm hoping that one of teh available GamePass games will be Starfield and that'll just have to be how I play it, since when I tested GFN it works spectacularly on my laptop.

[odessasteps]

58 minutes ago, Kevin Wilson said:

Just too far away, I use my computer (as it is setup) for work with a three monitor setup so it would require me on a daily basis unplugging it, lugging the 40 pound box upstairs, plugging it in, unplugging it, putting it back etc. for however long it takes me to beat the game. I did consider it tho.

Luckily, my new laptop is both lightweight and has a new RTX GPU. 

[Casey]

Bethesda really needs to not be so lax on giving out review codes next time. Or maybe it’s part of the plan. Some dude that’s stoned as fuuuuck is leaking stuff. Nothing story wise that I can see, but just gameplay beats and the opening 40 minutes.

I’m getting this next Wednesday, and I have Saturday & Sunday off work that week. LFG. This is the entire reason I bought a Series S. My body is ready.

[J.T.]

I will be taking a staycation all Labor Day week and left my S/X on when I went in for work during the morning of pre-loading day..  I am ready to explore the void.  I only purchased the SE but I think that only PE people get the early access, so I may buy the PE upgrade tomorrow on payday.

It's not like I couldn't be playing other stuff until the 6th, though.  I still have an ongoing Skyrim playthrough and Sea of Stars comes out on the 29th.

Edited August 23, 2023 by J.T.

[odessasteps]

The upgrade was on sale recently. Not sure if it still is or not. 

[J.T.]

13 minutes ago, odessasteps said:

The upgrade was on sale recently. Not sure if it still is or not. 

I think it is on sale this week as a part of a Gamescon promotion.  All I want is early access and the Shattered Space story expansion.  I don't give a shit about the online artbook or the soundtrack.

I just hope that inevitable slug of Creation Club mods don't break Starfield.  My Khajiit still has notes and shit from the Fishing quests in Skyrim that cannot be dropped because they are bugged quest items. 

I have had to resort to getting arrested on purpose in order to clear crap out of my inventory.

Edited August 23, 2023 by J.T.

[odessasteps]

It's funny that the extras downloaded as a separate item in my xbox account. Still locked though. I guess the art book would be spoileriffic to read ahead of time, although I bet it's already been delivered to bookstores, so I'm sure someone will post screenshots before next week. 

[Craig H]

19 hours ago, Death From Above said:

There's a very real possibility that if they don't fuck this up, this could be the video game I've been dreaming about since I was 12, thirty years ago.

 

I thought No Man's Sky would be that game for me and maybe to an extent it has evolved into that game, but it's also just too big to get into now. Any time I go back to it, I'm just totally lost.

This though? With half the support NMS has received? Yeah, this is definitely the game I've been craving for what seems like forever. Take what NMS did, refine it, hone it, sharpen it, and have an 8 year development cycle to eliminate a lot of the typical Bethesda bullshit and...yeah...I'm counting the days.

[Craig H]

I was also contemplating upgrading from my 3080 to a 4070 12 GB card, but it seems like for the time being that will be pointless. Performance wise, they're pretty identical and the main upgrade for the 4070 is much better DLSS performance, but annoyingly, Bethesda has a deal with AMD so Nvidia cards are left out in the cold or it's up to modders to provide support. I guess I'll stick with the 3080 for now and see how it runs. Although lately, running Diablo 4 and BG3 have made my PC sound like a vacuum cleaner with how loud it is from all the fans kicking on. That has also made me start thinking about getting an AIO liquid cooling system except I had a friend who did that and the coolant spewed all over his mobo and CPU and fucked the whole thing.

At least I have the Series X to play this on as well. And the one decent thing about this impending layoff/role elimination/whatever corporate bullshit you want to call it is that all of my work has been offloaded to others to afford me the time for job searching and job searching doesn't exactly take long, so I'll be all in with Starfield on the early release day.

[odessasteps]

I wouldn't think you need to upgrade now. My laptop had a RTX 1050 and no SSD, so it was getting a new laptop or getting a new Xbox, which I didn't want to do, since I just got a PS5. But my old laptop is also like 5 or 6 years old. It's wonderful how much faster it is and lighter too. 

[odessasteps]

Just saw that people are having their super fancy (the one with the watch) pre-orders canceled out of the blue. 

[Death From Above]

NMS definitely has come a long way but it will always lack the kind of character to character interaction that makes Bethesda tick, which for me is the missing element. We're getting to the point with how complex game dialogue trees get that the illusion of endless dialogue is becoming more of a thing, makes the world feel more alive.

I've genuinely avoided looking at nearly anything that can be avoided about Starfield because the ability to truly dive into a world of this scale to explore blind is just too sweet. I do know there's going to be spaceship and crew customization which makes me unreasonably happy.

[Kevin Wilson]

10 hours ago, odessasteps said:

Just saw that people are having their super fancy (the one with the watch) pre-orders canceled out of the blue. 

I just cancelled mine, so someone else can have it. Am just going to go with the premium upgrade instead.

[Casey]

I don’t know if any of us will ever touch it (maybe?) but this’ll be the first Bethesda game with a New Game+.

[Craig H]

No spoilers here, but this is a recap on Reddit of the Pete Hines Q&A. My response? Stop. I can only get so errect.

Legit, this is the game I've been waiting forever for.

[Craig H]

And regarding playtime, I've never been someone to 100% a game, but the hours to put into a single player game are no longer daunting. I don't even know how many hours I put into Breath of the Wild, but I do know that for Elden Ring I clocked in over 150 hours for that and that didn't seem like a lot of time.

I'm also basically done with Diablo 4 considering the shit show that turned into, so it's basically going to be this, BG3, and Tears of the Kingdom that I'll be playing. I'll probably play this on my PC while my friends waste time in Diablo 4 and just chat with them over Discord. Only other thing I can see myself playing are some releases in October, one of them being Helldivers 2, but that depends on if that game winds up being as good as the first considering it's now a third person shooter and not a top down shooter.

[Casey]

I can’t get the Constellation Edition of the game; and don’t need the controller, so I said fuck it and got the headphones earlier tonight. I need some for the Xbox anyway, and they look pretty cool.

Now we wait for Wednesday, where I can cash in my Microsoft Rewards points and pay like $80-$85 for the premium edition, and then play: Thursday night - Work Friday - then I’m off until the following Friday.

[Chaos]

4 hours ago, Casey said:

Now we wait for Wednesday, where I can cash in my Microsoft Rewards points and pay like $80-$85 for the premium edition, and then play: Thursday night - Work Friday - then I’m off until the following Friday.

If you have Gamepass, the premium upgrade is $31.50 I believe with the discount. Obviously requires gamepass to play the base game. I snagged it last week.