Starfield has a release date

[Sly Boots]

I'm going to have to redownload it having preloaded it as well, as I've since learned it really needs to be on an SSD to avoid a lot of the technical issues people are having. So I've had to order an £80 SSD to play an £80 game I'm playing for free on Game Pass

[Wrathbone]

My mate stayed up until 1am this morning to start playing. Neither the PC or Xbox version was working, he had to re-download on the PC which took 3 hours before he could play. It apparently happened to others including streamers which isn't a great start.

I got it on Steam and after it had unlocked the preloaded files it wouldn't let me play until I'd restarted Steam, so I wonder if the Xbox store is more millitant about it.

I'm going to have to redownload it having preloaded it as well, as I've since learned it really needs to be on an SSD to avoid a lot of the technical issues people are having. So I've had to order an £80 SSD to play an £80 game I'm playing for free on Game Pass

It'll make a huge difference. There are lots of area transitions, most of which only take a couple of seconds, but it would certainly become frustrating with longer load times on a HDD.

7 hours in now and it's excellent. I can't imagine it'll win over anyone who doesn't already like Bethesda RPGs, but it's a smorgasboard of space adventuring.

[Animalmother]

Played about 3 hours on the Xbox, enjoying so far. Nicely detailed models on pretty much everything and the sound is great. Combat is...fine I suppose, I can imagine just chewing through enemies once you get more powerful weapons. The first largely populated city you land in has NPC's milling about (sometimes into walls). I was talking to someone in a shop and an npc got stuck against him and it looked like some dickhead photobombing a tv report
The city reminded me of wandering around The Citadel in Mass Effect, it just has the same feel.

It's early days yet but I can see it being a real time sink and forget about all other games for a good while. Once the modders getting going it's going to be spectacular.

[Wrathbone]

The first largely populated city you land in has NPC's milling about (sometimes into walls). I was talking to someone in a shop and an npc got stuck against him and it looked like some dickhead photobombing a tv report

One of the only bugs I’ve encountered so far was when I entered a ship and my NPC companion went sprinting headfirst into a wall and refused to stop.

[Animalmother]

It's not really a bug I suppose but enemies I looted earlier could be looted again once I came back to the bodies later. Handy for getting gear and ammo.

[Wrathbone]

I don’t know what some reviewers are on about saying it takes 12 hours or so to really enjoy the game. I’ve enjoyed it from the start and 16 hours in it’s only getting better. When I was 8 or 9, playing Elite 2: Frontier on the Amiga for hours on end, this is the game I wanted it to be. I started the day intending to survey an unexplored planet, but here are some of the things I got distracted by instead:

- A distress call which led to an extremely difficult space fight.

- I landed on a random spot on a planet and discovered a base of religious fanatics.

- At another generated location there was a mining outpost where things had clearly gone awry and there were several highly valuable contraband items stashed away (I have no way of concealing my ship’s hold yet, so I’ve hidden them away for some future smuggling profits).

- I hunted down and killed an infamous pirate.

- I was hired to investigate a strange and unresponsive ship, which led to a superb mission that I won’t spoil.

- I met a woman who asked me to go to another star system to get her a particular type of beer. I haven’t gone yet, but the gall of it made me laugh.

- Speaking of booze, I discovered to my horror some box whisky with a straw.

- I followed a lead to a planet from a log I’d read and ended up on a treasure hunt that landed me a second ship.


I’ve done a bunch of other minor things as well, all of which I’ve enjoyed. There’s so much to do and so many places to explore (handcrafted places, that is, though the generated locations have been decent too) that it’s a little overwhelming. I can see myself discovering new things a decade from now.

[Animalmother]

Yeah I'm really enjoying it as well.

I got caught with contraband in my ship (20,000 fucking credits worth ) which was seized and now I'm being strong armed into a mission set.

Spoke to a random miner and ended up raiding a bandit base which had a fun gun battle.

Made an alien sandwich (sounds sexual but it's just a sandwich)

Apples are square....

[Animalmother]

I have a few niggles with the game despite how well made it is...

It can often be very unclear where a mission location is on the map, this seems to happen when your trying to select a side mission.

The ship can store absolutely fuck all of your gear, my character can currently walk around with more weight. It's basically your base so should be able to hold an unlimited amount. Or it should have dedicated gun and space suit racks.

Some of the voice acting is a bit low tier in places. The same actors trying different accents and all sounding silly.

[Wrathbone]

The ship can store absolutely fuck all of your gear, my character can currently walk around with more weight. It's basically your base so should be able to hold an unlimited amount. Or it should have dedicated gun and space suit racks.

My new ship has exactly that! Plus a storage container with seemingly unlimited capacity. Resources are the real weight hogs, so I store them all in a container at the Lodge basement where all the research and modding tables are, as that’s the only place I need them.

One gripe I have is the city maps, which are basically non-existent. I fully expect there to be a maps mod before long.

[Animalmother]

The mods for this are going to be amazing.

Found a world that's basically Firefly, everyone talks with cowboy accents and it's all very rustic looking. Got myself an antique pump action shotgun there.

[Wrathbone]

One thing that’s really surprised me is how much I’m enjoying the generated content. It’s partly because I’m often not 100% that it is generated rather than hand-crafted, which is a huge leap in itself from Skyrim and Fallout 4, but it’s also because the combat is fun enough for me to intentionally wander over to a random pirate base and clear it out. Gravity plays a bizarrely significant part in that, because each planet’s gravity changes my approach to a fight, whether it’s bounding across the air on a 0.3G planet or going for traditional cover shooter tactics on a heavier planet. Environmental hazards can add another factor too. It keeps things fresh.

The huge variety of base weapons that you can modify is impressive as well. I’d recently sorted out my ‘standard’ set of 11 weapons I’d haul round with me, and now I’ve just picked up four entirely new base weapons I’m going to have to try out. I don’t want to ditch any of my current weapons - I need more quick slots!

[Animalmother]

They've expanded on the affliction mechanic from Fallout. I caught some really nasty respiratory disease on an alien planet that had me hacking and coughing, it takes chunks out of your O2 levels and kills your stamina. You have to find or craft the right medicine for it to fully cure. There's heat/cold damage, radiation and physical injuries as well. Don't forget to put your spacesuit on before stepping outside....that really messes you up as I discovered

Leveling up a trait now needs you to complete a challenge before unlocking the next level. To upgrade your O2 you need to run 1km while overburdened, get 20 pistol kills to increase ballistic damage etc. It's going to make leveling up much more involved.

2 more days before everyone gets to have a go, its going to be great!!


Speaking of guns, I got this monster yesterday by joining a local marshall service.

[Wrathbone]

Leveling up a trait now needs you to complete a challenge before unlocking the next level. To upgrade your O2 you need to run 1km while overburdened, get 20 pistol kills to increase ballistic damage etc. It's going to make leveling up much more involved.

Yeah, it's a neat little twist to skills that actually engages you. It's interesting that they put some basic abilities like sneaking and targeting of specific ship systems behind skills, which confused me at first until I realised that was the case. It makes you seriously consider each level up because things like targeting are a requirement for boarding enemy ships (i.e. you have to target the engines), which can be highly lucrative.

This morning I've finally paid off my in-game mortage (from the Dream House trait you can choose in character creation) and damn... that's a nice house! It's completely empty though, and I'm not sure I want to spend ages deocrating it yet, so it may have been 125,000 credits poorly spent. It'd be nice if you pay a companion to do it for you or something, because I can picture it being a glorious display museum for my space loot.

[Animalmother]

Wow, I didn't think anyone would pick the starting bonus of a massive mortgage and wondered why they included it. To each their own I suppose

[Wrathbone]

I do like having a base of operations in these games, but in retrospect your ship acts as that, so unless you have a burning desire to do some home decor then it’s a really dumb choice. Oh well, maybe I can sell it back to the bank.

On the other hand, another character option I chose was the one where you can visit your parents, and that is absolutely worth it.