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Digital Foundry: Starfield: The Digital Foundry Tech Review
- Thread starter adamsapple
- Start date
BbMajor7th
Member
It's a disappointing review to be honest. The only comparisons drawn are against Bethesda's old games. If I watched a tech review for Far Cry 6 I wouldn't expect them to spend forty minutes talking about how much better it looks than Far Cry 3.
It's a particularly bad showing in this case as, firstly, Bethesda's older games we're technically unimpressive even in their own time, secondly, you have a lot of games where there's meaningful comparisons to be made, and third, he only really draws comparisons when it flatters Starfield - when he notes that you can't swim underwater, for example, he doesn't mention that this was a feature in prior Bethesda games.
Later, he speculates that flying between planets and freely traversing whole planets would have ultimately been boring, without considering how this is done in other games like No Man's Sky.
Also very weird argue in the intro that 'galactic exploration' has reached 'a new milestone with the release of Starfield', before pointing out that it's not especially 'cutting-edge', it's 'an RPG with space as a background - not a space simulation' and that while you can 'go off and explore the planets', 'it's not really the goal here'.
It's a particularly bad showing in this case as, firstly, Bethesda's older games we're technically unimpressive even in their own time, secondly, you have a lot of games where there's meaningful comparisons to be made, and third, he only really draws comparisons when it flatters Starfield - when he notes that you can't swim underwater, for example, he doesn't mention that this was a feature in prior Bethesda games.
Later, he speculates that flying between planets and freely traversing whole planets would have ultimately been boring, without considering how this is done in other games like No Man's Sky.
Also very weird argue in the intro that 'galactic exploration' has reached 'a new milestone with the release of Starfield', before pointing out that it's not especially 'cutting-edge', it's 'an RPG with space as a background - not a space simulation' and that while you can 'go off and explore the planets', 'it's not really the goal here'.
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Dr. Wilkinson
Member
With comments like this it’s like, did we watch the same video? Are you sure you had the sound on? Good Lord the hyperbole. It was certainly plenty critical at many different points. Was the entire video supposed to be only critiques? I don’t understand what your expectation was going in. With what other outlet doing reviews—technical or otherwise— where any praise for the work being critiqued is looked at as inappropriate?
He overall thought they did a good job but there were lots of noticeable issues and he goes over them in detail. A review after all *is subjective and just the reviewer’s opinion. Same as with any other outlet.
Very odd/ inconsistent/ cherry-picky expectations on here from people for DF coverage.
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BbMajor7th
Member
Not really, his analysis cherry picks in odd ways: when testing the game's systems he spent several minutes checking for world persistence in a fixed inner city location (something Bethesda have been doing for decades) rather than in the procedurally generated planet surface (something they've never done).
The latter would have been a meaningful test of whether world persistence could be maintained at such considerable scale with proc-gen in play; what he ends up confirming is that Bethesda are still doing something they were doing in Morrowind.
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Unknown Soldier
Member
LMAO so glad to see this Creation Engine classic meme is still a thing.
For those who don't understand, Creation Engine stores every single change in every single object in the world in some gigantic ass database. That's written to every save game, which is why the save games of Creation Engine games balloon to such huge sizes in late game saves. In the notorious case of the PS3 version of Skyrim, the memory architecture of that console famously did not work well with Creation Engine and so after playing many hours of Skyrim on PS3, the game would get slower and slower and eventually just always crash when loading that save. Bethesda was never able to fully fix it either on PS3 Skyrim because it's fundamentally how Creation Engine works to manage changes to the game world state.
I expect that just as with Skyrim and FO3/4, once you've got hundreds of hours in your save file or you install a lot of mods, you will find the game will become progressively longer and longer to load and less and less stable. That's just how Creation Engine is.
its his usual shtick regardles of the platform, when doing these type of videos.
gloss over any positives, poke the blatant issues with kids gloves.
probably not to deal with unhinged fanboys, and to keep on the good side of devs.
the problem is, when compared to something like horizon
this engine is at least a whole generation outdated.
so here his usual flattery seems completely disingenuous and fake.
gloss over any positives, poke the blatant issues with kids gloves.
probably not to deal with unhinged fanboys, and to keep on the good side of devs.
the problem is, when compared to something like horizon
this engine is at least a whole generation outdated.
so here his usual flattery seems completely disingenuous and fake.
charles8771
Member
yeah unfortunately games don't release in a vacuum,
id even say fallout in 2015 was more comparable to its peers back then.
the industry simply flew past this archaic engine.
MarkMe2525
Gold Member
When is someone going to tell this guy that with video games, it's always an illusion of scale.
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Watched the review. Read all the replies here, on df's twitter and john's.
There is literally no xbox fan who went after him for pointing out negatives. All i saw were playstation fans who attacked him and df cause they expected to ridicule the game. Which is really telling how toxic and hateful the ps fanbase is.
There is literally no xbox fan who went after him for pointing out negatives. All i saw were playstation fans who attacked him and df cause they expected to ridicule the game. Which is really telling how toxic and hateful the ps fanbase is.
Senua
Gold Member
This has absolutely always been the case, anyone saying he's a fanboy of a specific platform are ironically, fanboys themselves! It's a madhouse!!!
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Xtib81
Member
I feel like it wasn't as much prominent in the past. I remember reading on several occasions from John how much criticism on twitter and forums affected him, so this might be why.
lol only if i havent seen the barrage of idiots on twitter actively harrasing reviewers for scoring the game what it deserved.
yeah real peaceful fanbase on xbox there.
Senua
Gold Member
The guy is very fragile for sure but DF always threw very weak punches, except Alex who takes a dump on basically anything console and AMD. Even Richard seems pained when he has to say a GPU is bad in a review, they just avoid being super critical for the most part. I genuinely believe they just love the medium and try to see the positives in bad situations. Now whether that's the attitude you want your tech analyzer/reviewer to have is another story entirely
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sankt-Antonio
:^)--?-<
Strange that they compare it to other Bethesda games from ten years ago and praise that it’s looking better (no shit?) and not that much to contemporary open world games.
skneogaf
Member
Some beautiful assets and graphics on parts of the game in this video, it's a shame everything isn't seamless though and the water, reflections and some of the effects like the mist definitely need work.
I had hoped digital foundry would say if the game supports 3D audio like dolby atmos but nope.
I'm looking forward to trying it on game pass but I'm likely to wait to properly play it after things like hdr get patched on pc.
I had hoped digital foundry would say if the game supports 3D audio like dolby atmos but nope.
I'm looking forward to trying it on game pass but I'm likely to wait to properly play it after things like hdr get patched on pc.
Thirty7ven
Banned
Mostly the game gets metallic surfaces right which have been the easiest surfaces to get right in forever.
mckmas8808
Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
RoboFu
One of the green rats
I’ve mostly been playing 60fps ( mostly ) on pc and idk what the bottle necks are but they should have made a 60 fps mode on Xbox series X. It’s just too stark a contrast for me to go back and forth.
All first party games on all
Consoles should always have 60 fps mode.
All first party games on all
Consoles should always have 60 fps mode.
charles8771
Member
Console peasants can't see difference between 30fps and 60fps
They said that 30fps is more cinematic
You buy a PC if you care about frame rates
Bogroll
Likes moldy games
I don't think it would be possible, not yet anyway, needs a PC what is quit a bit more beefy than a SX to hit 60. Maybe in the future a mode that is within the VRR range.
CloudShiner
Member
It was excellent to see DF shit on Eurogamer in their direct this week about the whiny 'no review code' article they posted. Leadbetter said they had no god given right to expect an early copy and it's up to the publishers who and when they give them to. He said he didn't like the tone that Eurogamer took over the game.
Also, his second chin is doing very well and he is now only one chin behind Linneman. Good work, guys.
Also, his second chin is doing very well and he is now only one chin behind Linneman. Good work, guys.
Hugare
Member
Love John's analyses because his editing is pretty good
But yeah, he tends to be too soft on the games problems. Not just this one, all of them.
Being honest, the game can look gorgeous sometimes. Loadings are really bothersome tho, as well as some stuff straight out of 2010 like NPCs disapearing when entering elevators.
My main problems with it are gameplay related, not technical. It's quite heavy tho.
But yeah, he tends to be too soft on the games problems. Not just this one, all of them.
Being honest, the game can look gorgeous sometimes. Loadings are really bothersome tho, as well as some stuff straight out of 2010 like NPCs disapearing when entering elevators.
My main problems with it are gameplay related, not technical. It's quite heavy tho.
MarkMe2525
Gold Member
You ok?
nkarafo
Member
Your ship is the most impressive thing I saw in the game in the first hours. Almost CGi level:
Good detail but very bad lighting. And it doesn't look that much more detailed than the Submarine areas in New Colossus or most of the areas in Alien Isolation.
TonyK
Member
Very bad lighting? Strange, in my opinion inner scenarios lighting is the best graphical aspect of the game and what it gives it the next gen feeling.
Is the Intel A770 slower than the Nvidia 1070ti or the AMD RX5700? Bethesda says the A770 dosen't meet the minimum requirement.
videocardz.com
Intel releases new Starfield driver, while Bethesda claims Arc A770 does not meet minimum requirements - VideoCardz.com
Intel optimizing Starfield Arc gaming experience, Bethesda claims Arc A770 is no match for the game The company released a second major driver specifically for Starfield. Starfield holds significant importance in the gaming landscape for 2023, and Intel recognizes the need to provide gamers...
videocardz.com