Why would someone buy Starfield?
Starfield PS5 players demand refunds, reporting widespread bugs and glitches that leave the game "unplayable"
Submitted 4 weeks ago by hal_5700X@sh.itjust.works to games@lemmy.world
Comments
FerretyFever0@fedia.io 4 weeks ago
TemplaerDude@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
Some people enjoy bad games and that’s okay.
entwine@programming.dev 3 weeks ago
I got it for free with my cpu
Doom@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
What year is it? Didn’t we already do this?
58008@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
I liked Starfield (I even 100%ed the achievements on Steam). I also loved No Man’s Sky long before the shift in pubic sentiment towards it, so maybe I’m just weird. But if you’re reading this and thinking “this guy wouldn’t know a good game if it shat a voxel-based turd onto his chest”, you’re WRONG. I also loved MindsEye. So there.
absquatulate@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Omg me too. Wasn’t there a marketing term for person that buys only failed products and based on them liking a product they could predict whether it would fail or not? Always thought I’m one of those. Mafia 3 - loved it, but hated mafia 2. Love AC 1,3 and syndicate but didn’t vibe with 2 or black flag. Loved Borderlands 1, hated all the sequels etc. Still, I feel the hate against starfield is way overblown.
GalacticHero@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
“Harbinger of failure” is the term you’re looking for. Not sure it applies here, though; I think most of these games were commercially successful.
And because I can’t resist sticking my own opinion everywhere, I personally thought Starfield had a ton of potential and squandered it with some highly questionable design choices and poor execution. Some of that may be fixed now, but some of it is baked in. There’s genuinely a lot to like, but as a whole I thought it was really dragged down by some of those bad decisions.
I also liked AC1, though, and was a little disappointed with 2. The first one was imperfect but bold and new and interesting. The second got rid of most of what made the first one unique in an effort to appeal to broader audiences. I still liked it, but it wasn’t special.
zalgotext@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
A game can be either great or awful, with no more room for meh games.
I think it’s more just that expectations are much higher for a AAA studio like Bethesda. They built so much hype and asked for nearly $100 at launch for a game that didn’t live up. There’s plenty of meh games out there, they’re just priced accordingly. There’s also a ton of really great games out there priced way lower than what AAA studios are asking. I think it’s very fair to hold those studios to a standard that reflects the prices they’re charging.
brucethemoose@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Actually this makes perfect sense.
Starfield… is a bad cinematic RPG. It’s trying to be part Mass Effect with big-budget cutscenes, and it’s truly awful at it.
I’d argue it’s a bad “Bethesda RPG,” without the quirky, charming side areas Oblivion or even Fallout 76 have.
But it’s an alright No Man’s Sky-like. You want some crafting? A vast amount of chill exploration area? Reasonable “I’m in space” fidelity and some tasks to follow? Starfield’s got it in droves. BGS games scratched this “sandbox” itch for some, when there was no good alternative back then, and I think Starfield leans into it more.
Hence my experience is that gamers who love No Man’s Sky like Starfield, those who are looking more for “Mass Effect 2” loathe Starfield. And you seem to be another datapoint supporting that.
The problem is Starfield’s expectation for most us internet dwellers was “Skyrim in space.” And it’s… not great at that. And it’s kind of Bethesda’/ fault for setting that expectation instead of leaning into Starfield’s real niche.
ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
You bought a Bethesda game before a community patch was available.
They knew what they were doing.
SethW@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
That doesnt work this time because the modding community abandoned it quickly after launch due to them just not enjoying the game enough to work on it – I was expecting to do this one with VR but it remains unfinished
ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
Still does because they should just continue to wait until it’s there before buying.
87Six@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
They saw the mess it was on PC and somehow thought it was going to be a good idea to buy it?..
garretble@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I feel like Bethesda had their moment in the sun with Skyrim and Fallout 3, but since those days they really haven’t made a big RPG that’s felt good.
And as I enter hour 120+ in Kingdom Come Deliverance 2, still happily playing DLC and side quests, I can’t imagine wanting to go back to play a Bethesda RPG. They’ve been lapped, in my opinion, at this point.
Blackmist@feddit.uk 3 weeks ago
They’re still in an Xbox 360 mindset, in a world where Baldur’s Gate 3 and KCD2 exist.
Action gamers are spoiled for choice. RPG gamers are spoiled for choice. I just don’t see where Bethesda’s “here’s a wonky game engine and a big map” approach fits in that.
garretble@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Even the “big map” thing is done better by other companies at this point.
There’s basically one loading screen in KCD2 (besides pure fast travel) and it’s between the two giant maps in the game. Otherwise, you can walk Henry’s silly ass from one end of the map to the other and go into any number of buildings and never see a loading screen.
And most games do this type of asset streaming now, so when Bethesda rolls up with a “open world” RPG with loading screens all over the place it’s like “what is this?”
echodot@feddit.uk 3 weeks ago
The thing is you can do massive maps without having to use something custom. So they really have no excuse for continuing to stick with their massively out of date wonkfest of an engine
brucethemoose@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Thing is, they aren’t really being punished for it because tons of people are still buying it and might have no idea games like KCDII or even a fixed-up CP2077 exist.
Luminous5481@anarchist.nexus 3 weeks ago
The game was trash on the PC, and they thought that downgrading it to a console was going to make it playable?
entwine@programming.dev 3 weeks ago
I recently tried playing it again, and I wouldn’t say it’s “trash”. Yes, they completely dropped the ball on the exploration part of their exploration game, but the meat and bones of a Bethesda RPG are still in there. It’s a good time for anyone bored of replaying Skyrim and/or Fallout if you get it on sale.
Also it runs perfectly on Linux
M0oP0o@mander.xyz 3 weeks ago
The thing that ruined it for me was the story just kinda falls apart and the society they made seems laughably small, like total universe has like 30,000 total people in it. Then you add in the loading into loading to watch a cutscene to cover a loading of the next area and the kinda bad ship combat. Eh the end result is not the worst game, but not a game that anyone should pay more then like $15 for.
mnemonicmonkeys@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
This. Bethesda cheaped out on environmental storytelling and fleshed out characters (which is unfortunate since that’s their thing). But the systems they’ve built up in Creation Engine have gotten really good
87Six@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
This sad excuse of wasted dev keystroles is not even comparable to skyrim and fallout, not adjusted for the time of release or even otherwise
hodgepodgin@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
It amazes me that people are talking about this garbage game in 2026 that I got for free with my GPU and immediately uninstalled after realizing how boring it was
SirHery@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Nononno, you don’t understand, with the new update it finally got even more boring and we have new expensive ships.
DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
I have about 140 hours in the game on PC, since launch. I haven’t played it since. I was just poking around the mods at Nexus, I see the Genesis thing. That might be worth playing it again.
Mods keep Bethesda games going, I have over 6700 hours in FO4. That’s only because of the mods.
circuitfarmer@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
Sadly mods won’t fix the fact you have to play a loading screen.
The fact that Bethesda thought they could get away with their ancient engine once again is laughable.
mnemonicmonkeys@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
I’m willing to bet that you’ve never actually played Starfield, you’re just parrotting what others have complained about.
Does Starfield have problems? Yes. But anyone who goes “hurr durr ancient engine” clearly hasn’t played a Bethesda game since Skyrim
nocturne@slrpnk.net 4 weeks ago
lol I sent this article to my brother and he sent me like 20 texts defending the game.
Strider@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
Be kind to him, he’s in a abusive relationship with them 😁
ICastFist@programming.dev 3 weeks ago
No surprise there, Bethesda didn’t fix shit for any of the re-re-re-re-releases of Skyrim, why would anyone think they’d do that for Starfield?
mnemonicmonkeys@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
didn’t fix shit for any of the re-re-re-re-releases of Skyrim
Skyrim Special Edition was built for x64 architecture (the original was on x32), is significantly more stable, and supports 4096+254 plugin files (vs 255 in the original). The modding scene has only gotten better frome the update. And let’s not forget the VR support.
You have no idea what you’re talking about. They didn’t change any of the gameplay because 1: the base game is still fun to play anr 2: people already mod the hell out of it to fit what they want
KingGimpicus@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
Porting a buggy game on a technically satisfactory level does not excuse porting the games with the bugs included.
UESP has existed since like 6 months after the original release of Skyrim and addresses hundreds if not thousands of bugs from minor to quest breaking.
Why go through the effort of a remaster if you can’t address basic gameplay bugs?
huggingstars@programming.dev 3 weeks ago
USSEP is still around the last time I checked.
TwinTitans@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
Not even a proper release on PS5. Glitchy as hell and not complete on disk for physical. Embarrassing.
Jakeroxs@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
Genuine question, are literally any PS5 gamed actually physically on the disk fully?
artyom@piefed.social 4 weeks ago
LOL imagine creating a game that runs like total ass on a powerful PC and then releasing it on Playstation…
0li0li@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
kandoh@reddthat.com 3 weeks ago
I played 300 hours of this game when it came out and stopped playing right before the final mission.
You can definitely tell it all went wrong when they decided to do thousands of procedural generated worlds instead of a tight dozen or so.
Another aspect where they went wrong was having the Constilation home base be on the capital planet instead of being your space ship. You know, like how it is on every sci-fi show from Firefly, to Star Trek, to The Expanse.
I’ve played so many Bethesda games that the tricks they used to make the engine and environments seem larger and more sophisticated stick out like a sore thumb.
All that is to say, there was absolutely a great game in Starfield somewhere.
LifeLikeLady@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
So a normal Bethesda launch. Has no one told these “gamers” what they were buying?
BigBananaDealer@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
on Playstation no less, notoriously shit at running bethesda games (see new vegas)
RightHandOfIkaros@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
New Vegas wasn’t a Bethesda game, it was developed by Obsidian and only published by Bethesda. Sure, it runs on Fallout 3s game engine, but Fallout 3 is more stable on PS3 than New Vegas.
I hate Sony, but New Vegas getting cherry picked here for instability is laughable when New Vegas is widely known as perhaps the least stable game published by Bethesda.
Compared to New Vegas, Starfield is a vastly better and more stable game on a technical level. Sure the writing isnt better, but the mechanical parts of the game are.
TwinTitans@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
It’s not even fully on the disk. Trash release.
mfed1122@discuss.tchncs.de 3 weeks ago
Maybe they should get a more powerful PS5
Aerlorn@sopuli.xyz 3 weeks ago
They won’t patch it until they can release a “Next Gen Upgrade”
verdi@tarte.nuage-libre.fr 4 weeks ago
Imagine spending money on Starfield instead of NMS, eeeesh…
devolution@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
Hahahahahhaahaha…
Bethesda. Bethesda never changes.
Foos Raa GLITCHED!
MantisToboggon@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
First Bethesda game?