Starfield, Bethesda Game Studios Upcoming Title Options

[TheCheshireKhajiit]

I thought we already had a thread for this but I couldn’t find it. Anyway, some supposed screens have “leaked”, which is funny given the timing right after the big Microsoft deal.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PmeKGon_Z5M&t=633s

The guys are kinda annoying but the info they present is interesting.

[RaderOfTheLostArk]

At long last, we get to play Starfield! Well, if you have early access, at least. I have one of the editions with early access (though that wasn't the reason I bought that one) and played a couple hours very late last night. Here are some of my first impressions with the game.

• Even at the beginning, it just feels like a Bethesda game. It's hard to explain, but I'm sure you all know the kind of feeling I'm talking about.
• There's been a lot of talk about Starfield being BGS' most polished release yet, and I sure hope it would be considering the delays. But it really does feel very polished. Again, though, I'm only a couple hours in. Previous Bethesda games' jank mostly didn't really start appearing until you're some time into the game.
• The combat and movement is VASTLY improved. The latest previews of the game showed that, but to actually feel it for myself was cool.
• The ship-fighting is going to take more time to get used to, but I think it will be fun.
• One of the things I was looking for was how fluid the conversations between NPCs were. We all know how janky that could be prior to Fallout 4 with those awkward pauses as the next line of dialogue would be loaded (Fallout 76 really took a step back in this regard after Fallout 4 hugely improved on the issue, which I assume is because of the online component of 76). I'm happy to report that the conversations between NPCs indeed feel fluid, even when they include your character's responses.
• While I'm fine with the UI being more minimalistic aesthetically, it initially feels kind of clunky to navigate. But that could very well change as I get used to it, though UIs have never been a Bethesda strong suit. One neat improvement, though, is when you open the main part of the pause menu (similar to Skyrim's 4 arrows to inventory, map, etc.), which has several "dots" along a circle indicating a submenu. There are pictures near each submenu "dot" that indicate the kind of stuff you'll find there. (The dots don't say what submenu it is until you hover over it.) For example, next to the inventory submenu "dot" may be a picture of your current weapon; the starmap submenu has a picture of the planet you are on. That's if I remember correctly. When I play later tonight, I will confirm.
• I was surprised at the lockpicking minigame (lockpicks are called "digipicks" in Starfield) and how it actually requires some measure of skill. I imagine the character's skill in it will be much more at play with harder locks, but it isn't pathetically simple for the player like in Fallout 3/4/76 or Skyrim. It's sort of hard for me to explain how it works in Starfield, but I'll try.
  [**] There are multiple, for lack of a better term, "checkpoints" you have to clear to open a lock by rotating dashes to align with open points in a circle. You have several of these layouts of dashes where you have to find the correct order to put them in, but you may find one set of dashes works at one point when it should've been used later on. If you find this to be the case, you can undo actions...at the cost of 1 digipick with each undo. The availability of digipicks remains to be seen, but the game has not thrown them at me yet like in previous Bethesda games.
• Voice acting is much better across the board.