Topic: Official Push Square Xbox Thread

It is weird too @LtSarge because we also have hindsight now. In 2020 it was the pandemic, a fresh generation of consoles, wide eyed optimism of a new suite of games with all the time in the world to play them.

Look how that turned out.

A lot of the biggest releases at that Xbox show that were exclusive to the platform were either not very good, or are still not out yet. I guess Xbox fans are so tired of being miserable that they are just hyping that show and I guess power to them, it might turn out differently this time and obviously I hope it does!

But I won't say I have any extra confidence than I did going into this show, in fact I might actually have less.

I'm no PC gamer or anything, so just posting this for the peeps that are.

@JohnnyShoulder Good to know. My mum is going to need some upgrades then.

I'm actually impressed. This seems to suggest its pretty well optimised.

Ah, Starfield. It certainly does look good. It doesn’t mention a saintly level of patience and forgiveness in the minimum requirements though, so I am calling BS on that one.

@BearsEatBeets Your mum, or the PC she has? Is she a PC gamer then?

@Pizzamorg Cool cool cool. Glad that you don't need a monster setup to experience.

@kyleforrester87 Do you need a hug or something? I can send some jam your way.

@JohnnyShoulder yeah, I could use a hug.

Don't get me wrong, those recommended specs are still decently heavy @JohnnyShoulder but it seemed like every new PC game (which conveniently had a ***** port) was telling us a 40 series was required to play the game in 1080p 30fps. I dunno if they think that's a brag, but its actually a self own, as that just suggests dogshit optimisation (which is probably why those ports all turned out so bad).

Admittedly resolution and performance are not listed here, either, but a 20 series with 16 gig of ram sounds very reasonable given the scale they are proposing with this game. And given what else we have seen. Sounds like at 1440p most mid range rigs should be able to find a healthy balance between fidelity and performance.

@JohnnyShoulder 😄yeah my mum is a pc gamer. She loved the elder scroll games and NMS so Starfield looks promising. I've done a few upgrades for her over the years but it looks like it's that time again.

@JohnnyShoulder Don't send him the raspberry. That's diabolical.

I have a RoG Zephyrus Duo laptop with a Ryzen 9 6900HX CPU and a RTX3080ti so I could play Starfield at 60fps (or try to) on this, but I also have just received my RoG Ally 'handheld' PC and ordered a RoG XG Mobile RTX4090 dock for it so I should be able to get 4k/60 on my 4k TV with the use of DLSS 3 at least.

To be honest though, I expected 30fps on Console - its traditional for these games to 'launch' at 30fps and maybe in the future, add a Performance mode or wait until new/mid gen hardware boosts frame rates. Some things don't scale with resolution so if they are pushing these new CPU's hard with Physics, AI, RT GI, Procedural generation etc, then I don't expect 60fps. 60fps reduces the amount of work the CPU and GPU can do per frame in half. Reduces the amount of Data that can be transferred and processed in half as you only have 'half' the time. If you have 100 enemies with AI, Physics etc, that doesn't change the AI or Physics calculations at lower res so doesn't scale with Res.

Certainly looks an interesting game - almost overwhelming the scale and ambition of this. So much so that it could be off-putting for some - especially those who don't have much time to dedicate to a game. With the Procedural generation, no two playthroughs would be identical. You can't even say to a friend, did you explore that 'abandoned mine' on 'X' planet because that may not be 'randomly generated content' for them when they explore. That intrigues me too though - the more 'Random' the game, the more it feels 'organic', the more Believable it can become.

I'm not a big fan of them doing procedurally generated content in Starfield. Not because I hated procedurally generated content in general, because many games that I love do.

But because of two reasons.
-The first being Bethesda. Many of their open world have felt very copy-paste in the past. It's why I think people were so enamoured with The Witcher 3 versus Skyrim. In Skyrim most caves didn't feel meaningful, whereas in The Witcher 3 many of them would have a backstory, someone referencing them. The Witcher 3 was such a game changer for me that it made it harder for me to still enjoy games like Breath of the Wild and Ubi games, where spaces were often meaningless. (It's also why From Soft games are great).
Now Bethesda worlds have often felt lifeless, copy-paste dungeons, et cetera. And procedurally generated content might not make it worse, but it certainly isn't going to improve the game feeling carefully created. It's the exact opposite of what I want Spacerim to be.

• The second being No Man's Sky. I didn't feel anything exploring its hundreds of planets. Exploring a planet in that game didn't make me interested in the planet itself, but felt like a shopping list: what shrine is here to visit, what animals are here, been there, done that, bye.

And I also kind of doubt how many player agency there will be with regards to the skill tree. So many games nowadays present you with the illusion of choice. Instead of picking a direction for your character, you're only picking the order in which these abilities unlock, not working towards a custom build (like From Soft games and previous Bethesda games).

Anyway, I'm very wary of this game. The fact that the deep dive we got was only vertical slices, instead of uncut gameplay is something worrying to me as well. But we'll see when those reviews come in!
Xbox' showcase was great, but Starfield was really the least interesting thing to come out of it in my opinion.

@Kidfried whilst I still think Starfield looks like it's going to be a good game I certainly agree with the points you've made. I think Fallout 4 ended up feeling quite flat to me because it came out after The Witcher 3.
The chopped up gameplay is definitely something I've pondered. I'd love to see 15/20 minutes of unedited gameplay (similar to SW:Outlaws) of doing a quest and moving from one planet to another to see how it all flows. Also to see how getting about a planet works, is it all on foot?

@Kidfried I dunno, the first two Elder Scrolls were procedurally generated and that really does help them feel like you’re exploring the unknown. I’m excited to see what a modern take on that would be.

@nessisonett You're right about that, and it works in a game like Returnal too. But like I said, Fallout 4 and No Man's Sky have made me more doubtful towards this release than I maybe should me.

@BearsEatBeets Yea, I really expected the deep dive to be closer to when we first saw gameplay of Skyrim, instead of super short cuts of moments that look cool, intertwined with some actor devs talking about how they love the game. Game could be good, but them not showing it to me is this game's first red flag.

@Kidfried From what I gather, its using Procedural elements to enhance the game-play by 'crafting' numerous different events that can appear. You could turn up to a planet, start exploring and find someone who needs your help or an abandoned mine, cave or whatever but its only in 'your' playthrough. Someone else could land at the exact same spot and find something else there. Its the same with random encounters - you may find Space Pirates around a planet, but someone else finds a pleasure cruiser or 'nothing'.

Its not going to be the exact same for everyone - its more 'dynamic' than that. Its like the game is reacting to you rather than being completely scripted and basically the same for everyone. That your 'Starfield' Galaxy is unique, dynamic etc and as such, you never quite know what you'll find/see in your journey - even if you start another Playthrough.

Of course there are very scripted and 'static' areas that will be the same for everyone as they were crafted that way, but they also rely on Procedurally generated 'events'. You could do a Side Quest that 'feels' like it was 'crafted' (because it is in essence) but its been randomly generated to give you a 'reason' to explore. With so many planets, so much freedom to go 'anywhere', they can't script 'everything'. They want you to go where you want and 'stumble' on something.

@colonelkilgore Well, I'm glad he didn't jump.
As for that guff that Phil said, how does it go?
"If you build it, they will come". Muppet.

@CaptD yeah great games has and always will be the main thrust behind satisfying an existing fan base… and enticing a new one. I find it hard to believe that he doesn’t know that at his core. Will be interested to see how some of these games turn out.