Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Did Bethesda Under-Promise and Over-Deliver?
1.2k Plays5 months ago
Michael and Duane talk about the recent 'small update' and the effects of it, while looking at the first year and examining their promises. We also discuss what might be next and when we might know about it...
Get the podcast ad-free and early by supporting our Patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/NormalPeopleGaming
Chat with us and other fans in our discord:
Recommended
Transcript
Starfield's First Year: Underpromised or Overdelivered?
00:00:00
Speaker
Did Starfield underpromise and overdeliver in their first year?
00:00:14
Speaker
Welcome to episode 45 of Starfield with Normal People. My name is Michael, and as always, I am here with Duane. Yes, indeed you are. Hello, everyone.
November 2024 Patch: Vehicle Update
00:00:25
Speaker
It has been an awesome week, Michael, because we got a patch for November 2024, and it's pretty exciting.
00:00:33
Speaker
It actually is. it's not I wouldn't say it's a huge patch, no but there is a couple of things that they did that I would agree is very exciting. You got to love that there is a new vehicle. Yes. Anytime I see something like that, that is an immediate, I want to jump in get this update and start playing because it's just so cool, especially after the Rev8 being, I think, critically and user acclaimed, if you will. Yeah, it was a hit. In other words, it was a hit. Yeah. And to see the new vehicle, I actually have not have not tried it yet, but it looks even like more fun. Did you watch the video or have you actually tried it I watched the trailer, haven't tried it yet. I am feeling the pull of Starfield once again, the gravitational pull, if you will. yeah Because as our title suggests, we are normal people. We're not ah obsessively playing one game nonstop, we play other games. And we've got an amazing discord full of Starfield fans who also play
Gaming Experiences and Discord Community
00:01:37
Speaker
other games. And even though look I've been playing like Call of Duty and I've been dabbling in a little
00:01:43
Speaker
the Flight Simulator 2024, which just came out. Oh, nice. Yeah, I saw that. Yeah, it's challenging, man. It's challenging. It always has been. But I got to say, I play a little of this, a little of that, a little of this, a little of that, and then I start to feel that pull towards Starfield. And this new vehicle surprised me. The trailer surprised me because Here's what I expected. I expected the the first vehicle, the Reve, to be an all-rounder. I expected any other vehicles to be like, well, this one has more armor but less speed. yeah And this one has more firepower, but less speed and less armor, et cetera, et cetera. I was shocked that this one seems seems to be faster, stronger,
00:02:36
Speaker
and more deadly. It does and it also has a cool skid effect which I don't know if the Rev-8 has that or not but I saw it in the trailer and it kind of at the end it comes to like a skidding stop and the wheels kind of lock up and it slides a little bit forward.
00:02:51
Speaker
Yeah. I was like, oh, that's cool. I'm absolutely going to jump in. For sure. It seems higher off the ground physically. So does it have like one of those brodozer step ladders that like pops out the side so you can like a clamber up and inside of it? Or how does that work exactly? I kind of hope so. I mean, if you're in a low G environment, all you got to do is just do a little moon hop up into yeah the Dymog.
Creation Club: Verified Creations
00:03:15
Speaker
So yeah, DIMOG, DMOG, DMOG. The other big thing about this update, which is very exciting for me, is that verified creations. So these are creations not made by Bethesda necessarily, but they've been verified by Bethesda. It has the blue check mark next to it, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
00:03:41
Speaker
Oh wait, no, does it really? Oh, I was just making fun of Twitter. it's got something okay it's it's It's funny because it it does. Boy, that the blue check mark used to really mean something. It really did. Now it's everywhere. Who cares? Who cares if you get the blue? Now you pay for it.
00:03:58
Speaker
Anyone can just buy the blue checkmark. It's definitely kind of meaningless at this point. But in the Creation Club, the blue checkmark does mean not only that they're verified, ah but some of them, not all of them, but some will have an achievement friendly tag. Saw that, yes.
00:04:18
Speaker
This is a big deal because number one, for obvious reasons, if you just started the game and you want to start putting mods in there, you can already start putting these things expanding on the game, expanding on your favorite parts of the game without disabling achievements. Right.
00:04:35
Speaker
Now, I've gotten all the achievements, so what does that mean to me? Well, number one, future DLC comes out, achievements are still unlocked, whatever. It just feels like an extra level of, hey, Bethesda took a look at this. We checked it out. It just, it makes it feel a little more official to me, like it makes me more willing to spend money maybe on some of these creations? Absolutely, it does. It's funny because getting back to the subject of everything's being verified now, I just recently sold something on eBay. It's been a while, a couple of years since I sold something. And this happened to be a brand name piece of clothing.
00:05:18
Speaker
And there's an authenticity verification now. Oh, apparently I had no idea. I was just like, Oh, it just, you know, selected
Product Authenticity and Future Speculations
00:05:26
Speaker
that it was an authentic Adidas jacket or whatever. And apparently it gets sent to ah an actual person who looks at it and I authenticates it. And then it, wow. I guess. I mean, I just skim through, like, because I saw as I sold it, I was like, Oh, what's this? Like it has to go through an authentication step.
00:05:46
Speaker
There must have been so many people making bootleg stuff. Swap meet Louie, as we used to call it. But yeah, Louis Vuitton. And how long is it before we get food that is like has a blue check mark next to it? You're in the grocery store and and you want to get like an ah official Hostess cupcake and you have to get the one that has the check mark.
00:06:08
Speaker
I mean, honestly, we're not that far away from crazy stuff like that. Hey, man, I'll eat a bootleg Twinkie if it's the same recipe. If it's fresh. If it's not stale. Yeah. But I mean, they don't get stale, right? Like, you can have a Twinkie from 50 years ago and taste the same, essentially. Yeah, I think they last a long time. But that does make me think, like, never had a fresh Twinkie from the oven, still warm. Could be good. Right.
00:06:37
Speaker
That should be a thing, like all these donut specialty shops that pop up that have like, oh, it's pink donuts or it's, uh, I don't even know. There's, there seems to be like half a dozen, yeah for lack of a better term, uh, of new donut restaurants in here in the area.
00:06:54
Speaker
Yeah, why are there so many? How much better could your donut be than the donut? Why are there so many different donut shops? That is, oh, you know why? Why? so I'm just gonna say, because I think a lot of people have that dream of like, they get up early and then they're they're done, like they're done with by like 1 p.m. when they've got the rest of the day. Okay, Starfield though. No wait, I don't wait i don't understand that.
00:07:24
Speaker
ah done by i because because like a lot of breakfast type spots like coffee shops privately owned you know mom pop shops a lot of times that some of them will close at like 3 p.m so it's kind of like you get up early people get their coffee their donut and then they're they're done i could be I could be completely wrong about this. I swear there's some of them, but modders can put Twinkies into Starfield. See, it's related. Right. That entire segment is probably going to get axed. I mean, but we'll call it the donut segment.
00:08:02
Speaker
No, you're right, though. I mean, like the the ability to have achievements in Starfield is awesome with them with the creations, because you said in a in a former podcast that you're like, I don't really want to you know want to get the achievements I want to get first, and then I'm going to go back and go crazy with the creations. So this this is a wonderful addition.
00:08:24
Speaker
But that's what's, but the, and that's the thing is like me personally, I said that I was going to do that and then I kind of don't do it because i I get in there and I look at all the creations and I go, I don't know. Like it just feels like if anything feels like it's going to alter the game in a way that like kind of makes it not what Bethesda intended. I don't know. I'm i'm weird about that. I'm neurotic about that. Other people, it doesn't bother them, and that's fine. But for people like me, I do feel like this new achievement-friendly tag is gonna be that, it's gonna take down that barrier. It's gonna say, oh cool, someone someone at Bethesda looked at this. yeah Who is that someone?
00:09:10
Speaker
I want to know, is it just one person sitting in a pod like somewhere and like looking at endless mods and being like, okay, this one's good. This one's not worth it. ah First off, I would love to talk to that person. I would love to have that person on the show. Second off, I would like to be hired to be that person. but pes If you need, that would be a fun. Oh, you would be the best at this job. Absolutely.
00:09:36
Speaker
Even better for me would be deciding on the lore friendly tag. oh Because that's that's something, ah there's a tag for lore friendly. So if it's like Boba Fett, no. Boba Fett's not lore friendly. What's that other podcast, the lore cast? Yeah, it's lore cast, lore cast, yeah. Starfield lore cast. Lore cast, eat your heart out lore cast. We're talking about lore now. Yeah, we're talking about lore. We're covering all of it.
00:10:02
Speaker
We're your one stop shop now for Starfield Podcasts. That's right. We are. I would love that though. i would I'd be one of those people that it's like chunks, it would be a chunks new flavor and I'd be like, it's not in the lore. Rhubarb. Not lore friendly. Rhubarb is not, you cannot grow rhubarb on Yeah, so I find out that like yeah rhubarb was one of the the plants that was lost like Like sorry, you're not getting the lore friendly tag you can get the achievement friendly. That's okay But yes, this is a great update I grew up in rural Idaho and for some reason like every old lady back then that was like a the thing that they brought to the pot looked at was like rhubarb pie. That was really big. I don't know why, but that was really a big thing.
Naming the New Starfield Vehicle: DMOG
00:10:58
Speaker
Carrot salad. What is carrot salad exactly? Yeah, I mean... What? Yeah, carrot salad. It's a thing. Is it just like shredded carrots and then they throw some dressing on it? It is. It's like shredded carrots and then there would be like raisins, I think, in there.
00:11:13
Speaker
And sometimes it'd be really watery. Sometimes it'd be thick. So yeah. That's funny. That's your carrot salad update. and Yeah. I want to know. Not a fan. Don't want that. Hey, let me ask you this. The DMOG, I wonder if that's a shout out to the Unimog, which is a off-road four-wheel vehicle here on Earth. I see. I wonder if it's kind of like a a nod to that.
00:11:42
Speaker
Okay, I think you're on to something because when we saw a leak of these vehicles, which there's a third vehicle that has not come out yet from that leak. The leak was just a silhouette, just to be clear. It was just a silhouette, yeah. But it was labeled DMOG. And I remember at the time, I thought, oh, it's gonna be a Demos vehicle, but I don't, i and I didn't know why it was called that. Now that you're telling me that,
00:12:12
Speaker
it It has to be, it has to be in reference to this existing thing. I think they took the word Deimos and combined it with, you said Unimog? Yep, Unimog, mm-hmm. Interesting, yeah, I'd bet on it. It's kind of like a Pinsgauer. Have you ever heard of a Pinsgauer? This is a new term for me. No, I... We're getting deep into off-road culture now, but I wonder if the neon city car will be like a Cybertruck.
00:12:40
Speaker
kind of The closest I've ever gotten to off-road culture is that I drink Monster Energy from time to time. You don't have a jeep and and do the jeep wave. Who was it that just got a jeep? Zegra? You just got a jeep. Yeah, Zegra got a jeep. She didn't even know about the jeep wave either. It's like all these people are waving at me. It's like, did I have my headlights on or what what am I doing wrong here? But it just turned out. Yeah, there's a there's a whole... I actually did know that there's this jeep culture where people... Yeah.
00:13:12
Speaker
When I drove a ah beat up 85 Skylark in in high school, it was it was it wasn't ah it was more a middle finger wave when people saw that thing coming. What else is on that update? Well, in the update, the uncapped frame rate option for Xbox Series X came back. and no We had it and then it went away. Yeah, I saw that and I thought of you immediately. I'm like, what does that make a difference to you or tell me about it? Not to me. so If you have a television with VRR, variable refresh rate, right this is a ah good thing for you.
00:13:51
Speaker
I don't have that, so. It's sort of like a smart frame rate. Like if you have the ability to run faster, it will. Right. Deep in New Atlantis, it'll slow down on your behalf. Well, for me, because of the way my TV is designed, it's, you know, 60 Hertz. I get 60 frames per second or it drops to 30 frames per second. Whereas if you have VRR in your TV, you can get any.
00:14:17
Speaker
Number of frames. So so so sometimes you get like 45. Yeah. yeah okay and And what's nice is it it is 45. It's like if if your game is pushing it and can't do 60, something like 45 is still going to look a lot better than 30. That's definitely something on my list. It's not like super important to me. That's why I haven't really gone out and gotten that type of TV yet. But if you have it, it's really nice. Look for the blue check mark next to the TV.
00:14:46
Speaker
Yeah. You're good. Actually, this is sort of a big deal. So I've i've heard that Creation Kit modders didn't have access to lip-sync animation. So what would happen is you know you could have characters that speak and everything, but they wouldn't like have the the nice lip-syncing that a lot of like the the main game has. right So I'm seeing here that the Creation Kit actually has lip-sync animation data generation.
00:15:16
Speaker
that's now available. So if you're creating like a story or you're creating a lot of people
Update Features: Lip-sync and New Quest
00:15:21
Speaker
will make companions that ah and they'll actually get some voice actors. Now you can actually have them lip syncing correctly. So nice that adds to the immersion. Yeah. Yeah, it does. Well, there was also a ah new quest called the perfect recipe. That's right. Somewhere there was discussion, I think in our discord regarding No Man's Sky. It was No Man's Sky versus Starfield and they were saying the story doesn't compare. This is another check mark in the Starfield column because right it's a very character driven quest line from what I understand. Right. I said we get another like full fully fleshed out storyline quest.
00:16:02
Speaker
Yeah, I'm really excited to play that. And they timed it to come out around Thanksgiving. So for a lot of people, Thanksgiving is all about food. That's pretty much what's most exciting for me is the food. Yes. I'm totally ready to jump back into Starfield, get that demog, and drive it to that mission. Yeah, very excited to do that.
00:16:29
Speaker
They yeah they did a general performance and stability and improvements as well, which. You know, that's a short sentence. And it actually it kind of encompasses what I want to talk about today as our main topic, Michael, if you're ready to to move on. I would love to. Yeah. OK, so it's basically.
00:16:49
Speaker
under-promising and over-delivering. In that one sentence, general stability improvements or general performance and stability improvements, that's like 20 people working since since the game was released full-time. That's thousands of man hours for that one sentence.
Community Expectations and Future Updates
00:17:10
Speaker
And it sort of, like I said, it embodies the spirit of what I feel Bethesda has been doing, which is,
00:17:18
Speaker
under-promising and over-delivering. Someone in our Discord, actually, do you want to speak to who to that conversation? Because I know you had a conversation. Yes, in our Discord, I was having a good conversation with user Shellshock and a Drifting Dusty, and our friend Brad even jumped in as well. So it all sort of started when Shellshock was ah voicing sort of a frustration, and and not not one that I disagree with, but um it's basically, it was a frustration with not knowing what's next.
00:17:55
Speaker
And we had a great conversation, Drifting Dusty came in, Brad came in saying basically that Starfield has already delivered us a game. It's a full game, it's a big game. We're not owed anything. And I sort of came in and just agreed kind of like I do sometimes, being very diplomatic.
00:18:25
Speaker
But I agree with everyone. On one hand, they they delivered. They gave us everything that they said that they were going to give us. Now, is there more coming? Probably. Is it frustrating not to know? Yes. So, in a way, I agree with Shellshock because um It's just a desire. That frustration is born from a place of of anticipation and liking but whatever it is that you're waiting for. Yeah. What's important is that you don't let the frustration become toxicity. right I think it's okay to just think like, oh man, like I really want to know what's next. I do. I i do get that way where I'm like,
00:19:13
Speaker
When is Bethesda going to tell us what's coming next? you know like um' But like you said, like it's born out of love. It's a love for the game. And you want more. You can't let it develop into an anger towards developers. And i don't I don't think Shellshock is. So this is this is a positive shout out to Shellshock and also a very positive shout out to Drifting Dusty and Brad coming in.
00:19:41
Speaker
Honestly, I felt that they were the voice of reason in this because i feel I feel those feelings and they came in and they they just said, you know what? Starfield promised some things and delivered on everything. right To your point, you talk about over promising. Now, I just wanted to say real quick, general performance and stability improvements is not an exciting thing to read. Correct. Because we want new stuff. You gloss right over that. It's the first bullet point. Yeah. And you're like, okay, yeah, that's kind of expected. Fix your S. Fix your stuff, right?
00:20:23
Speaker
but but But I agree, though. I agree with what you're saying. And I want to point this out because some because some people might be hearing this and going, dude, that's just general performance stability improvements. Like, whatever. Like, it's not exciting. To me, that is awesome. Because games used to just come out, and they were out, and that's it. What you got was what you got. The fact that, like what you said, there is a team of people still to this day going in, can they make it run better? Can they make it, you know, ah just better in whatever way? I appreciate that because I'm gonna keep playing this game for a long time. And if it continues to improve,
00:21:11
Speaker
Like, how could I be mad at that? You can't be unless you're giving unreal expectations in your mind to what content you're looking forward to. I think we saw a little bit of that with Shattered Space because it was such a big addition to the game. A lot of content came in. Everyone has their own expectations of what it is, what it can be. But that's just- I was guilty of that. Yeah, they're never gonna be able to live up to what's in your head.
00:21:39
Speaker
I loved Shattered Space. They never once said, Shattered Space will have new ships. And in my brain, I was like, yeah, but they got they gotta have new ships. Right. And they did it. And I was kind of like, oh, man, I thought there'd be new ships. Why did I think that? Because I made it up. There was a post showing the public release that Bethesda did for Starfield. I think it was like a year, year ago, not a year ago, but it was in the early days after the game came out and it said, here's what we're planning. And it was very short sentences, very succinct. And I think that reinforces what I said earlier. They kind of under promised the content to come. If you go back and you look at that screenshot and maybe we'll link it in the show notes. But what was actually delivered was far beyond that in my opinion. I know there's there's always criticisms, but I do feel
00:22:37
Speaker
that they're very good about just keeping expectations, ah at least when they publicly release information, it's pretty basic. And then when the actual content comes out, it's usually fully fleshed out and you know quite expansive.
00:22:52
Speaker
One of the biggest examples of that, I think, was when they said knew they were going to introduce new ways to travel. And there were yes, there were many people that were saying, oh, ground vehicle maybe. But I saw a lot of people saying, ah, it probably just means something with the boost pack. Like, it's just going to be a change with the boost pack.
00:23:16
Speaker
Dude, when that Rev 8 trailer came out and they were like, available now, everyone was blown away. It was like Bethesda finally had some goodwill with even the haters. Right. it Because, yeah, i lot I saw a lot of people going, oh, OK, now I'm paying attention. and You felt a shift in kind of the collective collective feeling for Starfield on the Internet. Yeah, I really did. There was more positive reviews. In
Rev-8 Vehicle Release Impact
00:23:42
Speaker
fact, I think the actual Steam reviews Yeah, they started to improve a lot. Yeah. Recently in an interview, Todd Howard said, he was like, I wonder if we should have waited to release the Rev 8 with Shattered Space. I disagree with that completely. I do too. Yeah, and I have my personal reason, but basically he was saying, I think he was just laughing at the fact that like,
00:24:11
Speaker
They released this new feature for free to everyone. And everyone was like, cool. And then the and then Shattered Space comes out, which is a huge DLC. Huge story, new location, new enemies. And people were like, we want new features. He's just like, yeah, maybe we should have released the Rev-8 at the same time. And then people would think that. It's a lose-lose for critics yeah you know that if you would have released it with with the DLC then it would have been kind of lost in all the content. yeah It wouldn't have been as fun or notable or I believe it actually built anticipation for the DLC. I remember when when it yeah came out I was like,
00:24:53
Speaker
Could this mean that you're gonna use it more? In your case, you didn't. Yep. On Varun, but... I chose not to, and I'll tell you this. I love the Rev-8, and when it came out, I used it a lot on barren planets, and it was super fun. And for me personally, on the Series X,
00:25:14
Speaker
Driving around the Rev 8 was a little bit rough on Varun Kai. So I just didn't do it. And I didn't really need it. like it the It was fun to just hoof it. If it's like 15 seconds to say a minute to get to your next content point, which it seems like it is on Varun Kai, then I would be boost packing as well. yeah I do want Bethesda, like we're talking about potentially unrealistic expectations. I do want a different melee system. I do too. With those enemies kind of excited me and I talked about it in ah in a preview of the of the DLC pod pod that we did. I want there to be like kind of more hand-to-hand combat animations and effects. I always say this like it'd be so cool to to smash
00:26:10
Speaker
I know it's different on, because there's an atmosphere on Vrunkai, but... like in the base game, if you're on a planet and they have a helmet, it'd be cool to smash their helmet open to see them like go down to their knees and start choking because they can't get air. you know Just more effects and more things that happen in melee combat. I agree. Melee needs, for me personally, I would love a melee overhaul. um we I feel like we've mentioned this since the beginning. We've talked it to death, for sure. That's the the most frustrating thing I think right now with with melee is just
00:26:44
Speaker
the same animations over and over again. um Maybe there's a way to, I mean, you can sort of change it up a little bit. I would love to do a wield. You can do a wield in Skyrim. So, yeah i I know that they they know how to do it.
00:26:59
Speaker
and so that would be really cool. This November update was a thank you. That's how Bethesda pitched it. I thank you for 15 million players since launching in September of 2023. They hit six million players on its day of release. um This is from the the actual press release, but they said it was the biggest launch in Bethesda Game Studios history, ye surpassing the likes of Skyrim. Because you just mentioned Skyrim, that's what made me think of this. So player numbers were boosted, of course, by Starfield's day one launch into Game Pass, which they actually say, yeah quote, right there. It was a massive launch, absolutely. And here's what I think about this update. I think that it's ah it's a little smaller.
00:27:45
Speaker
I could be completely wrong. I don't want to get anyone's hopes up. But coming up in December is the Game Awards. I would not be surprised if we get some sort of teaser or trailer for some whatever is coming next. Whatever the next big thing for Starfield is, I would not be surprised if we get a look at it like at the Game Awards. Xbox has a history of doing this. They they revealed the they revealed the Series X. like No one was expecting it. like They revealed that trailer at the Game Awards. So it would not be ah too surprising
00:28:31
Speaker
to get a Starfield revelation there. But again, if it doesn't happen, let's not get mad. Do you think they'll tease a Series Y that has a GPU upgrade because the PS5 Pro?
00:28:46
Speaker
No, I think that ship has sailed. I don't think they're working on that because i from from what I've seen, the rumor is Xbox is already working on the next system because their strategy with the 360 really worked. And this was like forever ago now, but the 360 came out like, I think at least a year before the PS3 or right around there.
00:29:14
Speaker
And that worked really well for them. That generation, the 360 was on fire. PS3 just kind of did okay. I think it did fine, but that they definitely kind of won. And then they have not won ever since. The PS5 Pro came out. That's great. But Xbox, the rumor is that they want to launch a new system by 2026. Hmm. Okay. Well, I'd love to see Sega get back into the game, but I don't think that's ever going to happen. and You know what's crazy though? Sega just released, like last year, they released this trailer, but just about games, because remember a long time ago, they were like, we're not making systems anymore. We're just making games. But last year, weirdly, they were like,
00:30:04
Speaker
We are making new games in all these properties we own. It was like crazy taxi and all these things that we hadn't seen in a while. Outrun. Dwayne, I've got just a thought. It's just poking around in my head. I'm like, why are they showing all these trailers for all these different games that they own? What if?
00:30:29
Speaker
What if in like a year, they're like, that's right, MFers, new system. I mean, you think about the logistics, clearly, it's hard, and it's very expensive to create a console from scratch. However, and I think of the Seinfeld episode, or maybe it was Curb Your Enthusiasm, he's like,
00:30:51
Speaker
Doesn't, having said that, doesn't having said that negate everything what you just said? So why even say what you just said? Anyway, I got off track. yeah Having said that, they their library of games is incredible. yes Think about if they had a game pass style system where day one you get your Sega console and then you have this library of pass hits.
00:31:16
Speaker
You don't even have to make a remake. You'd have like one flagship one, of course. yep And then all the old ah Sonic games and everything else. I mean, I would play the original Sonic, if if I could right now, on on a console. Yeah. That's the conspiracy side of my brain working though. When they released a trailer for all these different games, and and like at once, I was like, they are up to something. Like, think about it this way.
00:31:44
Speaker
Why would they launch seven of their properties all at the same time? And I'm not saying that that's what they said they would do, but but why are they getting everyone jazzed up about like seven to 10 of their games? It would only make sense to me if they surprise dropped a new system and said,
00:32:07
Speaker
all these games available right now at launch on our new Sega console. And to your point, I didn't even think about that, that maybe, yeah, it's just a membership and like Game Pass, all Sega Pass. All these games and all these consoles, somebody's gonna get happy.
00:32:29
Speaker
Sorry. There's gonna be someone that knows that reference. It's not me today. I think personally, Bethesda has over-delivered and under-promised, so i I admire them for that. I know a lot of people are going to disagree with me. People will disagree. That's okay. that's okay They're allowed to. Yeah.
00:32:51
Speaker
The reasons why I think that is number one, I have a star field podcast. I have to. No, I'm just kidding. I'm kidding. ah I genuinely love the game and my expectations were different.
00:33:07
Speaker
from that initial gameplay because because I'm coming out of Fallout and Fallout 3 and 4 and New Vegas. Right. By the way, we just had New Vegas Day here in Las Vegas where people come out and they go to Good Springs and so shout out to anyone that that did that and came to our wonderful city. Hope you had fun. I think ah my expectations were completely different. The
Starfield's Delivery: Expectations vs. Reality
00:33:29
Speaker
game for me delivered and everything that I saw I'd say aside from the the big initial trailer delivered and it over delivered. Now the reason why I say besides that trailer is because of my own expectations. My expectations were yes more fallout-ish coming into this or so maybe a lot of people were more Skyrim. Yeah, I had expectations that were born out of hopes and wants and it is it is what it is, you know, and and I agree.
00:34:03
Speaker
They delivered. Yeah. If you don't think they delivered, tell us why in the comments, but keep it civil. and please have a valid point. you don't You can't just say something like, well, they suck. You can't say something without merit or just a general insult. It has to have some sort of like reasoning behind it. like yeah I can't take the melee in this game. That's the reason why I ate it or something to that effect. Yeah, totally. But let us know in the comments. Speaking of comments, do you want to talk about a few or do you you have anything more to say about the promises that Bethesda?
00:34:39
Speaker
No, i think I think that about covers it. I would love to... Let's take a look. Read some comments. Yeah. There were quite a few excellent comments. Thank you so much to everyone that did comment. And that was our episode, the Post DLC Blues, Michael. Yeah. Here's a great comment from the iTech Lab.
00:34:56
Speaker
who says, speaking on the post-DLC blues, I've gone back to Skyrim after three years and am enjoying it. But after a month away from Starfield, I'm ready to hop back in. Michael, this is exactly what you said at the top of the show. Exactly, yeah. I'm ready to hop back in and finish my current playthrough post-Shattered Space. I think Starfield has become my new comfort game. That's, again, wait, did you write this? Because this sounds exactly like you. It sounds so much like me.
00:35:23
Speaker
Yeah. That I always return back to. I put 300 hours into the game since launch, which is a lot for me. I think I only have 400 hours into Skyrim total across all platforms after picking it up in 2013. Wow. 2013. Yeah. And I'm on pace to pass that 400 hours in Starfield in the next six months or so. So yeah, they've put the same amount of time into a Starfield as a game that they've owned for 11 years. So that speaks well to Starfield.
00:35:52
Speaker
That is what is insane about Starfield. And this is my, I mean, similar, man, it's so similar. You're right. It sounds like like I wrote that comment. I have put so much time into Starfield and it has nothing to do with the podcast because you and I are, we're very, we were honest at the top of the episode, very honest. I, like I said it, I haven't been playing Starfield the last,
00:36:19
Speaker
few weeks. I'm playing other games. We're honest about that. And I will tell you right now, I have put so much time into this game, just because I like living in in that world. Right. Starfield keeps me sometimes from playing other games, like I'll jump in, I'll start them. And then I'm like, oh let me get back into Starfield. And I'm about to go back again. That was definitely Skyrim for me.
00:36:44
Speaker
But not as much? Yeah, definitely. Not as much. Fallout has the gameplay, and it's got the guns, and it's this and that. It's like got so much good stuff. It's got the atmosphere, the radio. I love that. It's also a depressing world. Right. What Starfield has done, it doesn't have everything that Fallout has. you You don't want it to, because you will still want a reason to go back and play Fallout. But it has enough. And then it's also just this, like,
00:37:14
Speaker
wonderful place to be in, depending on where you go. It really is. If you're an optimistic person who is thinking that the human race is going to make it, this game is for you because this is us potentially in 500 years.
00:37:30
Speaker
300 years, 1,000 years? Who knows? Maybe. Who knows? At least in one timeline, right? Yeah. I want to read one other comment here from TheChenney73. Now,
Community Q&A: World-building and Content Updates
00:37:45
Speaker
They say, I personally love the game. My only critique is why build all those worlds if you're not going to add to them? It's been over a year. How hard is it to add POIs to this galaxy? Why are they not just dropping content in the galaxy for us to find? Now, I like this comment. i don't this Again, we've talked about how sometimes these these frustrations are born out of ah of a love for the game, right? um But I want to respond to this because Number one,
00:38:18
Speaker
i love people people say, ah, this game should have been like five worlds. It should have been one solar system and then really, really developed. like And that's not what the channel is saying, but it reminds me of that comment. And here is what I will say.
00:38:32
Speaker
They gave us a thousand planets and moons because it makes it feel a thousand. It makes it feel so vast. And it's, you have to understand like these, the quote unquote empty moons, especially out at the edge of the galaxy, there's planets that just, as far as I know, don't even have any POIs or if they do, they're extremely rare.
00:38:59
Speaker
It'd be such a buzzkill if you landed on a little moon. there It was just filled with stuff. It's like, i I want a barren moon every once in a while. But go on. There is enough content elsewhere. having all those it's just a You get a feeling, you get a feeling a vastness of of space to have these empty places. Also, my second point that I want to talk to, the Chinese says, why not give us stuff that we can just... They're saying drop content in there for us to find. I'll tell you why.
00:39:32
Speaker
because 95% of players are not going to play for hundreds of hours and find that rare, rare thing. Right. They have to make it for the masses. Yeah, they've got it like Starfield is a game made for the masses.
00:39:49
Speaker
for the most part. It it is and it isn't. like You just have to find that balance. It's always funny to me like when you beat the game and you get a diamond achievement, which means like less than 10% people got that achievement. yeah And so then you're like, and I'm not saying that that's what it is for finishing the game, but but that does happen, right? You're like, oh wow, most people didn't even get to the ending. It's just it's just crazy, yeah. Unfortunately, they're not gonna just stealth drop stuff into the world.
00:40:19
Speaker
The only for the 1% of players that that play for thousands of hours. That's why the demog is Immediately available. Yeah, you don't have to go through some world of warcraft Yeah epic quest line that takes 300 hours to get this unlockable vehicle. It's just there because oh, yeah, the achievement would be like 5% of people have unlocked the demog if that was the case, right?
00:40:45
Speaker
And that, yes, and that is that was an issue I had with the Trackers Alliance update was right away you open the scanner and you can see bounties and you can just take them down or what or turn them in. And right away I was like, oh, why, what? They just gave it to us? Why did they have to earn it? Let it explore and find a bounty, right?
00:41:10
Speaker
Yeah. And I thought, well, it's so that a player that doesn't know about all these updates opens their scanner and says, oh, wow, why is that person red? Oh, they're a bounty. Oh, cool. ah You know what I mean? It's like not everyone's going to be an expert in the game. I think it's excellent how they make it approachable. The game in general, the game is approachable. You can turn it on and start playing some semblance of a video game right away, even if you have no experience with Bethesda games in the past or video games in general, you could probably figure it out and start doing something pretty much right away. yeah It yeah then allows that player who has, let's say, a thousand hours in the game to also keep playing it because it does reward
00:42:01
Speaker
players that like to explore. There are some little hidden things or there is extra content out there for Although it's not the main content. It's not the Rev eight. It's not that kind of stuff. Yeah. Yeah. I want to read one more. I want to shout out ad three super who said, yes, Todd did say it was like Skyrim in space. It was in a Washington post news article oh on June 13th, 2021. Ashley Chang then immediately said it's like a Han Solo simulator to her. Right.
00:42:31
Speaker
Now, what ad three super said, quote, how I see it, keep in mind the audience of people who read it or pay attention to the Washington Post. Now, keep in mind how many people who read from them would know any Bethesda game or other than maybe Skyrim in the first place.
00:42:47
Speaker
Yes. Excellent point. Very good point. That article was intended to be a media event and Todd is kind of making it palatable to general audiences. Yeah. And hopefully selling more video games. so
Starfield's Communication to Media and Public
00:43:02
Speaker
Right. Absolutely a great point, yeah. to To us seasoned game players, well, it's nothing like Skyrim in space, but we're not the target audience for that. Yeah, we can pick it apart. Yeah, we have enough knowledge of these games. Some people might say, well, actually, you know, the land generation is more like how they did, ah you know, Daggerfall. The general public is not going to know these things. The general public, they know Mortal Kombat, Halo,
00:43:32
Speaker
Mario. Skyrim. Skyrim. And so, yeah, Mario. So it out of those four games, it's closest to Skyrim. So it's like that's, yeah, that's what they're going to understand. But I was very grateful for this comment because i I honestly thought that that was something that Todd Howard did not say, that it was just what we were saying as a group. But no, he did. So thank you.
00:43:58
Speaker
Yeah, Todd also said that he has a working version of Starfield for PlayStation, and he lets his kids play it at home on his PS5 Pro. That's what we believe. that there's There's a secret PS5 Pro version of the game that runs at 8K.
00:44:23
Speaker
So many Ks. So many Ks. You thought you only needed it four. i I saw, it was funny, um the developer, one of the developers working on No Man's Sky, they did an 8K update for the PS5 Pro, like like no joke. Wow. And he said, and this made me mad, not really, but if but he said. Did you write a letter?
00:44:51
Speaker
i'm ah I'm going to he said working on this update made me realize like I he said something like I used to say they can't really tell the difference between 4k and 8k and That this made him realize like he really can and I was just like alright Well, I'll take your word for it now and then in 25 years when I can afford an 8k television I'll let you know if I agree Right. The other thing is like with the graphics card technology, they're scaling on our behalf. So the game may only output in 4k.
00:45:28
Speaker
it soon will be able to be scaled to whatever case you have you know like without slowing down the frame rate. yeah It's just through through better programming. Maybe AI is going to help us out. Who knows? Well, that's the amazing thing about like DLSS and like these techs that scale up the the resolution. yeah it's It's incredible.
Listener Feedback on Starfield Issues
00:45:52
Speaker
Well, here's a ah comment I wanted to read. It's from Old Man.
00:45:55
Speaker
Arba, Arba 5 1 1 2 who says shattered was such a disappointment. I don't play anymore until BGS fixes the underlining problems with Starfield.
00:46:09
Speaker
That's the kind of comment that I want you to expand on people. If you if you leave us a comment like that, you need to say why. What are the underlying problems? What are the underlying problems? yeah I agree. yeah I don't know what they are ah from you. I mean, I could guess, but if you think it's something specific and you want to make a comment, tell us what that problem is. i'll tell you what man yes explain because we're not crazy if there is a problem we love the game but there are problems so if like if you can actually say
00:46:41
Speaker
well this is an issue or this an issue like There are times where I go, oh, you know what? They're not wrong. yeah Yeah. Come to think of it. Because there are things that I forgive and forget. Like if I'm playing a game that I enjoy, there's things I don't like and I i forgive and forget. And if you remind me, then I'll say, oh yeah, you know what? That is a good point. I would like them to fix that.
Acknowledgment of Patreon Supporters
00:47:08
Speaker
I would like to drive the Rev-8 around Varun-kai.
00:47:11
Speaker
There you go. There's an issue. You know who likes to drive the Rev-8 around Varun Kai, Michael? Who? Our legendary Patreon members. Yes. Who are they, by the way? Especially with the update. And and the you know maybe it's ah a lot smoother now. And maybe it's going to be the DMOC. Yeah. Hey, they must they must feel better about the update if they're putting in a faster vehicle. I'll tell you that much. And I'll i'll tell you by the next episode if if it worked or not.
00:47:42
Speaker
Our legendary Patreon members are the Great Serpent, Bergenstock, Space Cadet 829, Kitah Lahara, Rampage American X, Cherry Bomb RN, Griffin, and Zebra Rocks. These are all amazing people, not just because they're on Patreon, but also these are the people that you and I talk to all the time in the Discord.
00:48:10
Speaker
Which, yes by the way, the Discord, that's free. Just come in and talk to us. But we appreciate our Patreon members so much because it keeps this beautiful machine going. Absolutely. And shout out to everyone else who supports us on Patreon, our Rare members. And our Normals. And our Normals. Yes, thank you. I want to give a quick shout out to Anarchy Nova Oliver.
00:48:36
Speaker
and Cherry Bomb also, who are our three moderators on the Discord. Thank you guys. Yes, big thank you. Thanks to everyone
Promotion and Community Interaction
00:48:44
Speaker
that listens on Spotify, Apple, and thank you to those watching on YouTube. All links are provided in the show notes below. Michael, did you know that we have another podcast called The Normal People Gaming?
00:48:57
Speaker
podcast? Yes, I did know that. And it's a fun podcast. Right. If you just can't get enough of the comedic stylings of Michael and Dwayne, then, and you want to hear more about just video gaming in general, then you should go ah check out our other podcast.
00:49:15
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. So like we said before, we all, we love Starfield and we love other games as well. So check out the normal people gaming podcast and subscribe so you don't miss an episode. Also an extra special thanks for comments and feedback. If you have a comment, suggestion, or an in-game story to share, you can leave it on our YouTube page or come into our Discord and talk to us directly.
00:49:39
Speaker
Yeah, and Hoodoo Vayne actually won our last drive competition. We have a shipbuilding competition in there. Yeah. Shout out to Hoodoo. I just sent him a mug this morning. And I think we're starting a new contest soon. So if you like building ships, get on in there. Yeah. Also, if you like our show, consider dropping a five star review on your favorite podcast app. That would really help us out.
00:50:05
Speaker
Thanks for traveling the star field with us. Make sure you subscribe because we will be back for more. We will see you then.