Starfield

[al_infierno]

The mods scene for this game will be, as the children say these days, "off the hook."

Lookin' forward to the big mods that add Klendathu and LV-426!

[SirAndrewD]

Well, once I hacked the resolution I've been enjoying it so far!

Very much an RPG.  Very smooth mechanics and it just overall feels nice to move around.

Very easy character customization too. 

[Grim.Reaper]

I ended up caving and buying the premium edition as I often do.....not sure what to make of it so far.  First of all, I am actually playing on Xbox and graphic/performance wise I have had zero issues, pleasantly surprised.  Kind of cool when you do buy the Xbox version, you get a copy of the PC game FREE so at some point I may install that and see if any major differences.  But unless I run into any crazy issues, I likely will mainly stick with the console.

From a gameplay perspective, way too early for any deep impressions...have been in a couple of fire fights on land and in space and those were OK so far.  Nothing drastically different from what I have seen before.  Still getting used to all the options and how to use things within the game.  Although very early, hasn't really been any "wow" moments for me and maybe that is because the game was in development so long that nothing will be extremely cutting edge...but again, maybe that comes later.

Even if not a great game, think it's large content (hopefully not largely empty) will keep this game going for quite some time so I doubt there will be any regrets based on longevity.  If I wasn't so anxious and always need new shiny toys, probably could have waited for the standard release and wouldn't have mattered much.  Time will tell...

[Jarhead0331]

I've heard this game is a slow burn. Apparently, it starts off very slowly and does not start to really pull away from the herd until many ours in, like 10-15 hours in. I agree, I enjoyed my initial experience, but nothing mind blowing or revolutionary. I mean, in the weeks leading up to release, this game was hyped as if it was the second coming of Christ. I think I can tell though that this is not that.

[Grim.Reaper]

I've heard this game is a slow burn. Apparently, it starts off very slowly and does not start to really pull away from the herd until many ours in, like 10-15 hours in. I agree, I enjoyed my initial experience, but nothing mind blowing or revolutionary. I mean, in the weeks leading up to release, this game was hyped as if it was the second coming of Christ. I think I can tell though that this is not that.

I agree and although it might be a "good" game, the media and the developer really hyped this thing massively over the years and likely because of that it won't live up to those expectations and once they open Steam reviews, I fully expect this to get hammered because of it.  They should have just set realistic expectations and been OK with a good game but of course that wouldn't get as much money:)

With that said, still looking forward to getting deeper into this game and I don't expect any quick satisfaction so hopefully over the long haul it turns out worth it.....but wouldn't be the first big dollar game that didn't gel with me:)

[ArizonaTank]

How can the game tell if you have an SSD?

I don't think it can.

From the scuttlebutt the SSD requirement is a soft one. The game will install on an HDD but on the vast majority of conventional unenhanced mechanical drives the load times will be so slow as to be prohibitive, hence the SSD "requirement". 

Imagine it like any minimum required specs sheet.  That's not always a hard and fast rule when you're talking gear that's just below the minimum.  It might work, but you won't have an experience that is even remotely playable.

I can confirm this. I accidentally loaded the game on a standard internal hard drive. The game ran, but there were highly annoying "pauses" of up to three or four seconds and the voices were often out of synch with the screen. 

I reinstalled on my SSD and there are no issues.

But like many people, my SSD space is at a premium, so I am not thrilled with having to do this.

[CaptainKoloth]

I've heard this game is a slow burn. Apparently, it starts off very slowly and does not start to really pull away from the herd until many ours in, like 10-15 hours in. I agree, I enjoyed my initial experience, but nothing mind blowing or revolutionary. I mean, in the weeks leading up to release, this game was hyped as if it was the second coming of Christ. I think I can tell though that this is not that.

I agree and although it might be a "good" game, the media and the developer really hyped this thing massively over the years and likely because of that it won't live up to those expectations and once they open Steam reviews, I fully expect this to get hammered because of it.  They should have just set realistic expectations and been OK with a good game but of course that wouldn't get as much money:)

With that said, still looking forward to getting deeper into this game and I don't expect any quick satisfaction so hopefully over the long haul it turns out worth it.....but wouldn't be the first big dollar game that didn't gel with me:)

And I think it was inevitable it would turn out this way. No real game could have lived up to the insane hype that it was going to be this 1:1 perfect recreation of a future universe, not even with an unlimited budget (I'm looking at you, Star Citizen...) No Man's Sky suffered from the same problem and was similarly pummeled at launch. I think this will be one of those "critics 85%, Steam reviews 40% from people who all have 1000 hours in-game" situations for a while, and as the more rabid fans calm down and the game gets patched, those reviews will converge at a higher number eventually.

[Jarhead0331]

^Definitely reminiscent of the whole No Man's Sky fiasco. Although, that really was some next level stuff. They made promises that they just couldn't fulfill and they knew that throughout the marketing. It was unprecedented at the time. But equally unprecedented is how the developer took responsibility, stood by the game and has continued to improve it to deliver as much of what they said they would as possible. It was a reasonably good game at release despite all the shortcomings. It's an excellent game now.

[CaptainKoloth]

^Definitely reminiscent of the whole No Man's Sky fiasco. Although, that really was some next level stuff. They made promises that they just couldn't fulfill and they knew that throughout the marketing. It was unprecedented at the time. But equally unprecedented is how the developer took responsibility, stood by the game and has continued to improve it to deliver as much of what they said they would as possible. It was a reasonably good game at release despite all the shortcomings. It's an excellent game now.

Yes. In fact I just finally bought a copy because I had heard so much about how great the developer has made it by now, and without charging anything extra for it.

[SirAndrewD]

My initial impressions are the same as the others. 

About 4 hours in it's a bit of a slow start.  It's about what I expected, a Bethesda Fallout RPG in space, although the start didn't quite grab me as much as Fallout's did.

Not too surprising since I was fully immersed in the Fallout universe since the 90's.

Still, outside of some of the graphical side of things I had fun getting started in the world and am eager to see where it goes.  It's not QUITE the Starflight/Star Control experience, at least not yet, but I need to get a lot deeper in that regard. 

My only real disappointment at the first stage is combat.  It feels like Fallout without VATS and while I have no real problem with not having that system, it makes it not a lot more than just a point and clicker, at least in the early fights. 

I'd prefer something a bit more, especially in space but again, it's early.  I've yet to even really dig into what kind of heavy customization we can do on the ships and what crew does for you.

It's not Star Citizen or Elite, and that may be a good thing.  It absolutely is in the case of Star Citizen.  I still prefer Elite's feel of actually being in space but as I've said, I want a story and engagement here, something Elite's pure Sandbox has never really accomplished.

[Grim.Reaper]

I actually decided to refund it, not that it's that bad of a game and I won't play it, but don't think it justifies the $100 premium order price, which I have serious doubts if I will play it through.  I'll just play it through Gamepass instead...only reason I bought it separate, I was thinking about stopping my subscription to gamepass, but I will keep it for now.   I was surprised Microsoft allowed me to return it, but received the full refund without questions within a minute.

 I can wait for the regular release date from what I saw:)

[SirAndrewD]

From what I've been hearing you should be able to refund it with over two hours of playtime since the premium play period is prior to the release date.  However I'd say if you're fence sitting and worried about going over two hours that you wait a bit to confirm that. 

I'm going to keep on going with it, but  would agree it's not worth the Premium pre-order price as it stands right now, even future DLC considered.  It's very much a "Good not Great" experience in the first few hours. 

I really do hope space combat improves a bit and starts feeling less like a mini-game, this so far is my biggest gripe and it may just be a factor of dealing with early game enemies.

[Grim.Reaper]

Yep, already did my refund and received it.  I have never refunded from Microsoft directly before but it was a very easy process.  Looking at their info, you have to refund within 14 days and not played a lot (they don't give a specific duration).  I'll have to keep that in mind in the future as I didn't think they did refunds:)

[Jarhead0331]

I actually decided to refund it, not that it's that bad of a game and I won't play it, but don't think it justifies the $100 premium order price, which I have serious doubts if I will play it through.  I'll just play it through Gamepass instead...only reason I bought it separate, I was thinking about stopping my subscription to gamepass, but I will keep it for now.  I was surprised Microsoft allowed me to return it, but received the full refund without questions within a minute.

 I can wait for the regular release date from what I saw:)

How did you pay $100 for the premium version? With gamepass, it should only have cost you $30. That's all I paid.  Was this because you were going to cancel?

[Grim.Reaper]

I actually decided to refund it, not that it's that bad of a game and I won't play it, but don't think it justifies the $100 premium order price, which I have serious doubts if I will play it through.  I'll just play it through Gamepass instead...only reason I bought it separate, I was thinking about stopping my subscription to gamepass, but I will keep it for now.  I was surprised Microsoft allowed me to return it, but received the full refund without questions within a minute.

 I can wait for the regular release date from what I saw:)

How did you pay $100 for the premium version? With gamepass, it should only have cost you $30. That's all I paid.  Was this because you were going to cancel?

Although I have Gamepass, I was thinking about canceling my subscription (don't use it much) and thinking I would play this a long time, I bought the regular version.  So I paid the full premium price of $100 for Xbox version.  Since this didn't grab me and I doubt the longevity for me from what I saw, just going to keep Gamepass for awhile longer and see if it grows on me and I have no problem now waiting to the standard release date.

I could buy the $30 upgrade like you did, but if I do end up canceling then that is a lost cost....although not a huge cost:)