BETHESDA's NEW IP 'STARFIELD': WHY we SHOULD be WORRIED!


Bethesda. A behemoth of the industry, yet infamous

Many of their games, even their flagship franchises, are riddled with bugs and less-than-perfect launches. 

Their most popular series, Fallout and Elder Scrolls, have gained mainstream popularity not due to their decent gameplay, but amazing stories. The lore, or overarching story that spans across all the media, is one of the fullest of any video game released. There are videos with millions of views that explain the rich stories of the games and entire channels dedicated to covering the expansive worlds that Bethesda creates. Even today, new details and easter eggs are discovered in releases from years in the past. 

Yet, while they do pair the story with good gameplay, they seem to often come up short.  Many entries can be found on the internet, encompassing the treasure trove of shoddy gameplay mechanics in their products, namely Fallout 76, and Skyrim. Long lists of known bugs and issues with their open world video games are no secret and not a rarity, with Bethesda even having the reputation of releasing broken games

Starfield is supposed to be their big new launch, and their "first new universe in 25 years". If they cannot be trusted on to deliver a good product to their customer, why should anybody be excited for an entirely new IP (intellectual property), that is sure to come infested with bugs? 

A new engine, Creation Engine 2, will be used for this game. One can draw the probable conclusion, at least from the first Creation engine, that this new engine will also have it's own new quirks and issues. Not to mention, that there has not been any promotional content nor significant news on the game released by Bethesda. One of the only things we have is a small teaser trailer that fails to show much of anything.


Worse yet, Todd Howard described the game as "It's like 'Skyrim' in space."  Ashley Cheng, another Bethesda executive, stated that "The game is ‘the Han Solo simulator". These vague blanket statements reveal nothing, and give no information on the game other than an open world game in space. The statements project empty promises. What even is a Han Solo simulator? Not only that, but Skyrim, at launch, had many issues that made it so many players could not enjoy it as it was meant to. This, even with its technical failures, was considered Bethesda's "most solid release yet". 

Many game company apologists seek to defend these, to what it boils down to, anti-consumer practices. An organization should not be given leeway to release products that are not as they are advertised. Tolerating mediocrity will only show companies that they can create subpar products. Unfortunately, this is occuring in the gaming industry more commonly. Even video game companies known for releasing technically sound games have fallen prey to selling false promises

I fear that spells out that this game is truly dead on arrival.  Keep in mind those statements were said in June of 2021, and we have not gotten any significant news since then. Their official website also provides no additional information, other than grand descriptions and concept art of a game without a real trailer:

"Starfield is the first new universe in 25 years from Bethesda Game Studios, the award-winning creators of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Fallout 4. In this next generation role-playing game set amongst the stars, create any character you want and explore with unparalleled freedom. Harnessing the power of next-gen technology and built on the all-new Creation Engine 2, Starfield takes you on a journey through space as you strive to answer humanity’s greatest mystery." 



At least it's pretty, right?

I wonder where else we have seen these grandiose depictions of a game that turned out to not be true whatsoever. 

I'm all for a new realistic open-world space game, with beautiful graphics, but I am not for yet another game released by yet another company built on unsubstantiated hype (No Man's Sky, Battlefield 2042, Cyberpunk 2077, Marvel's Avengers, Watch Dogs Legion, COD Cold War... the list goes on you get it). 

However, the landscape is changing a bit, with game companies partnering up with new studios. Sony acquired Bungie, makers of the biggest series of their rivals (Microsoft). Sony has history of releasing great generation-spanning video game franchises. These franchises include the Uncharted, Spiderman, Infamous, Ghost of Tsushima, The Last of Us, and the God of War series. We'll see what the future holds, although currently, it's looking quite bleak. Hope is a positive thing to have.



Comments

  1. I will share it with my other friends as the information is really very useful. Read more info about Cash Prize Competition Games Online. Keep sharing your excellent work.

    ReplyDelete
  2. 28 years since they created a new universe, fallout universe was created by interplay productions and had nothing to do with bethesda. They just bought the IP when interplay was in bankruptcy.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I read this article, it is really informative one. Your way of writing and making things clear is very impressive. Singapore betting sitesThanking you for such an informative article.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What is Highrise City?: A New Cities-Skylines Competitor [EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW]

The Best Jaylen Brown Poster Dunks of All-Time

Who is Payton Pritchard?

Was the Derrick White Trade Worth It For the Boston Celtics? Who is Derrick White?

Why is Minecraft Still Popular?