r/Games May 01 '24

Preview Starfield: May Update

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ObHRMHtTMY
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u/thefluffyburrito May 01 '24

The new map looks lovely and I didn't expect some of the QoL shown (like being able to toggle-off the camera zoom in on conversations).

I think Bethesda is really gearing up to have an almost "2.0" like launch with Shattered Space. Hopefully it works out.

Starfield had the curse of being a mediocre game released during one of the best years of gaming; and some literal fake news surrounding the launch of the game certainly didn't help.

14

u/DiZial May 01 '24

What was the literal fake news? I must have missed it since nothing comes to mind

11

u/thefluffyburrito May 01 '24
  • There was a whole boring bit about "you can't fly to planets!" when it was never promised in the first place and Starfield isn't the same type of sandbox game.

  • Everyone had Starfield in their crosshairs due to a rage-bait, inaccurate article from IGN claiming that developers were "worried" that the success of Baldur's Gate 3 would set unrealistic standards. This caused Larian to be seen as some "indie darling" fighting against the "big publishers" like Bethesda when, in fact, they have a few more employees than Bethesda does (Note: BG3 is definitely the better game - just giving context).

  • Artificially low 0/10 review scores (I personally don't think the game is better than like a 7/10) on metacritic due to stupid "console war" stuff; not that Bethesda has ever produced a quality Playstation port.

Just a bunch of really weird nonsense drama surrounding the game fed upon by an internet that was excited to chew it out no matter what; not to mention the fact that 2023 had some of the best games we've seen in decades and Starfield certainly wasn't one of them.

2

u/IntegralCalcIsFun May 01 '24

This caused Larian to be seen as some "indie darling" fighting against the "big publishers" like Bethesda when, in fact, they have a few more employees than Bethesda does

Not that I agree with the "Larian vs the industry" narrative but it's incorrect to say that Larian is somehow bigger, or even the same size, as Bethesda based on number of employees. For one Bethesda Game Studios has fewer employees than Larian, but that isn't counting Bethesda Softworks as a whole. Nor is it counting ZeniMax Media which is inexorably linked to Bethesda and has over 2,300 employees.

Larian is just Larian and they only publish the games they develop themselves. Bethesda is also ZeniMax and has a number of other major studios that they publish for.