Gaming Starfield | Metacritic (Series X): 83, OpenCritic: 86



This guy apparently stole copies (along with a bunch of other stuff) from the warehouse he worked at. He posted 40+ minutes of the opening of the game, shot in portrait from his phone with a baby crying in the background. 10 minutes of the footage is him trying to equip a helmet.

Later he posted a review that included phrases like, "It takes time, you gotta read it," and "Todd, no offense, man, but that's a good game," while smoking a blunt on his porch.

He then started requesting money be deposited in his CashApp for more footage.

It was then revealed that he had multiple copies of the game available on his Mercari store, which he linked people to, and filmed videos of him going to FedEx to ship the copies. In his store, he also was selling large lots of other video games, cologne, and other random items.

Now, he was arrested after posting videos of his obvious crimes with his full name clearly visible and the location where he lived as part of his gamertag.

Sounds like your average Xbox gamer.
 
Shhhh! You guys know she'll feck us all up if she reads this!


Btw, anyone played Phas of late? I've just seen there's a big update and they've finally redone the progression system...

Nope, but sign me up if you want to give it a go. All my other mates are cowards and don't have the game.
 
Nope, but sign me up if you want to give it a go. All my other mates are cowards and don't have the game.

Tomorrow evening could be good. I haven't played since we all last did, I don't even know anything about stuff like the Tarot cards, so it could be like that new game fun again. Round up whatever troops still play!

The first slam of the door in your face and hearing you cry out "lambsssssss!" is going to be so sweet :lol:
 
Tomorrow evening could be good. I haven't played since we all last did, I don't even know anything about stuff like the Tarot cards, so it could be like that new game fun again. Round up whatever troops still play!

The first slam of the door in your face and hearing you cry out "lambsssssss!" is going to be so sweet :lol:

Excellent, I'll get the brown trousers on.
 
So it has come out you can't actually move freely around the planets, which is very odd and could hurt it. You can visit everywhere on a planet, but you are tied to your ship.

No doubt it's a memory thing (S isn't holding anything back!) but it's still odd. There are ways around that, and in this day and age you'd expect it to be seamless. Especially if "90% of the planets are empty".


Still, I did get the early access on Steam in the end like a sucker. God knows when it releases for download though.
 
So it has come out you can't actually move freely around the planets, which is very odd and could hurt it. You can visit everywhere on a planet, but you are tied to your ship.

No doubt it's a memory thing (S isn't holding anything back!) but it's still odd. There are ways around that, and in this day and age you'd expect it to be seamless. Especially if "90% of the planets are empty".


Still, I did get the early access on Steam in the end like a sucker. God knows when it releases for download though.
So the reports/leaks are super conflicting! But yes, it seems you cannot "walk around a planet in its entirety".

Why you would even want to do that is beyond me. Seems to have kicked off a whole debate around boundaries. But also some reports that the tiles you land on and are generated around your ship are bigger than the skyrim map :eek:

I get wanting a more seamless experience but I really don't think scale is going to be an issue.
 
So it has come out you can't actually move freely around the planets, which is very odd and could hurt it. You can visit everywhere on a planet, but you are tied to your ship.

No doubt it's a memory thing (S isn't holding anything back!) but it's still odd. There are ways around that, and in this day and age you'd expect it to be seamless. Especially if "90% of the planets are empty".


Still, I did get the early access on Steam in the end like a sucker. God knows when it releases for download though.
Outer Wilds is still the goat then
 
So the reports/leaks are super conflicting! But yes, it seems you cannot "walk around a planet in its entirety".

Why you would even want to do that is beyond me. Seems to have kicked off a whole debate around boundaries. But also some reports that the tiles you land on and are generated around your ship are bigger than the skyrim map :eek:

I get wanting a more seamless experience but I really don't think scale is going to be an issue.

I'm not looking at too much as I don't want it spoiled, I just saw a video keep popping up and watched a bit, but I imagine it could be tedious if you have to go all the way back to your ship when you spot a town or something nearby but can't get to because if invisible walls or something.
 
I'm not looking at too much as I don't want it spoiled, I just saw a video keep popping up and watched a bit, but I imagine it could be tedious if you have to go all the way back to your ship when you spot a town or something nearby but can't get to because if invisible walls or something.

If it's some sort of artificial boundary which it sounds like I'm sure it will be modded out or extended within a few days on PC. It depends on the size of it as well to be fair and if the rumours are true about it being a huge distance and bigger than the Skyrim map it'll probably rarely happen in normal play.
 
If it's some sort of artificial boundary which it sounds like I'm sure it will be modded out or extended within a few days on PC. It depends on the size of it as well to be fair and if the rumours are true about it being a huge distance and bigger than the Skyrim map it'll probably rarely happen in normal play.

As long as it doesn't hinder my sandwich fort, then I'm sure I'll cope.

Just seems a bit odd on a technical level, hopefully it doesn't mean the engine is struggling to cope anymore than it already is with the aforementioned sandwich physics.
 
As long as it doesn't hinder my sandwich fort, then I'm sure I'll cope.

Just seems a bit odd on a technical level, hopefully it doesn't mean the engine is struggling to cope anymore than it already is with the aforementioned sandwich physics.

It could be the MS rules on Series S feature parity with series X and limitations coming from that. If it does get taken out pretty quickly by mods then it would make it pretty likely I guess.

It's either that or a limit of one sandwich factory per generated tile to keep Sandwich Processing Time to a minimum.
 
It could be that the worlds are hub based rather than open world. So you have a hub based around your landing point, and the engine procedurally generates that hub.
 
It could be that the worlds are hub based rather than open world. So you have a hub based around your landing point, and the engine procedurally generates that hub.

Well, that's exactly what it is. The question is more why.

Being serious, it's obviously to do with memory and stuff like tracked objects. Much like the 30fps limit is there for sandwiches. Sad thing about that is a large portion of the playerbase won't even come close to using the engine and what it does to it's fullest extent. Much like the recent Zelda games on that front. That's not a slight either, the whole point of sandbox games is for people to play how they want, it's more based on your own imagination and creativity what you do with the tools given.
 
Last edited:
Well, that's exactly what it is. The question is more why.

Being serious, it's obviously to do with memory and stuff like tracked objects. Much like the 30fps limit is there for sandwiches. Sad thing about that is a large portion of the playerbase won't even come close to using the engine and what it does to it's fullest extent. Much like the recent Zelda games on that front. That's not a slight either, the whole point of sandbox games is for people to play how they want, it's more based on your own imagination and creativity what you do with the tools given.
Yeah, it could be that
Or.
It could be to cut down on the emptiness. With 1000 planets, I doubt that they have filled every inch of every planet with content, so having a hub that has content on it could be their solution.
 
Yeah, it could be that
Or.
It could be to cut down on the emptiness. With 1000 planets, I doubt that they have filled every inch of every planet with content, so having a hub that has content on it could be their solution.

Ah I get what you mean. No, you can still land anywhere on the planet so it's not like that. The distance is tied to your ship, not specific spots.

Well it seems anyway, I'm sure we'll know more within minutes of launch and I won't be the sucker who tests that. I have my own things to try to break on launch :lol:



Yeah they spoke about this a while back. Should be very interesting, 100% people will be making game worlds within it and I'm there for that!
 
Someone just said that the boundaries are just in the tutorial. Now, I don't know how true that is. I guess we will find out in 3 days. Someone is bound to mention it in their review on Thursday.
 
Supposedly the boundary is a 40 minute walk in each direction from the ship, which would make it bigger than Skyrims map. Sounds more than big enough to me, especially when you can just move the ship to your current position if you need to go further.
 
I thought we had moved beyond the obsession with the size of an open world and more towards the density of interesting things to do.
 
I thought we had moved beyond the obsession with the size of an open world and more towards the density of interesting things to do.

That's not at all what this conversation is about.

And there's 1000 planets, Alock has said 90% will be empty. So it in essence is going to be the biggest and most empty open world ever if he is to be believed.


Supposedly the boundary is a 40 minute walk in each direction from the ship, which would make it bigger than Skyrims map. Sounds more than big enough to me, especially when you can just move the ship to your current position if you need to go further.

Yeah, until you get to the 39th minute and see a town after a whole load of nothing, get blocked by an invisible wall, and have to walk all the way back to "get your ship".

10/10 gaming experience.


(I am, of course, kidding.)
 
That's not at all what this conversation is about.

And there's 1000 planets, Alock has said 90% will be empty. So it in essence is going to be the biggest and most empty open world ever if he is to be believed.




Yeah, until you get to the 39th minute and see a town after a whole load of nothing, get blocked by an invisible wall, and have to walk all the way back to "get your ship".

10/10 gaming experience.


(I am, of course, kidding.)
If you don't want to go to a planet without life on it, don't.
 
If you don't want to go to a planet without life on it, don't.

Huh? I'm not the one moaning about the size of open worlds, you haven't followed.

I'll be visiting as many as I can thank you very much. I was very happy with the system in Mass Effect 1 of driving around exploring and finding very little but having fun doing it. If there's an interesting way of traversal, I'm going for it.
 
And there's 1000 planets, Alock has said 90% will be empty.
The planets that don't support life/fauna aren't necessarily empty. Many will still contain man made structures/research bases/abandoned ships etc. No doubt there will be many that are just there to mine resources though.
 
That's not at all what this conversation is about.

And there's 1000 planets, Alock has said 90% will be empty. So it in essence is going to be the biggest and most empty open world ever if he is to be believed.




Yeah, until you get to the 39th minute and see a town after a whole load of nothing, get blocked by an invisible wall, and have to walk all the way back to "get your ship".

10/10 gaming experience.


(I am, of course, kidding.)
Can't be bigger and emptier than No Man's Sky, surely. 18 quintillion planets! Somehow, that's not even a joke.
 
Can't be bigger and emptier than No Man's Sky, surely. 18 quintillion planets! Somehow, that's not even a joke.

Indeed. But as usual the xbots are missing the joke :lol:

Funny thing is, I'll undoubtedly visit more of these planets than most in here. And that isn't a joke, I'll be getting all OCD about it as I always do.
 
Huh? I'm not the one moaning about the size of open worlds, you haven't followed.

I'll be visiting as many as I can thank you very much. I was very happy with the system in Mass Effect 1 of driving around exploring and finding very little but having fun doing it. If there's an interesting way of traversal, I'm going for it.
Okay.
Pete Hines recons get the jet pack perk as soon as possible as he loves traversing with it.
 
That's not at all what this conversation is about.

And there's 1000 planets, Alock has said 90% will be empty. So it in essence is going to be the biggest and most empty open world ever if he is to be believed.

No I said 90% of the planets will be empty not 90% of the game. Resources, outpost opportunities and open field for modders gives them merit to still exist.

The other 10% plus the main cities/locations I'm sure will be more dense than the vast majority of open world games this last decade.

Oh I'm just joking by the way, FYI.
 
No I said 90% of the planets will be empty not 90% of the game. Resources, outpost opportunities and open field for modders gives them merit to still exist.

The other 10% plus the main cities/locations I'm sure will be more dense than the vast majority of open world games this last decade.

Oh I'm just joking by the way, FYI.

Me too, FYI.
 
Who cares. 85% of Earth is empty, and this is the busiest planet in our known universe.
 
The obsessive fans and detractors this has attracted are genuinely bizarre. There are 40% out there ready to love it no matter what, another 40% ready to destroy it no matter what and the rest of us like 'Well, let's see if this is any good'.
 
Shhhh! You guys know she'll feck us all up if she reads this!


Btw, anyone played Phas of late? I've just seen there's a big update and they've finally redone the progression system...
I'm waiting for the PSVR2 version, but in general, is it good?

So it has come out you can't actually move freely around the planets, which is very odd and could hurt it. You can visit everywhere on a planet, but you are tied to your ship.

No doubt it's a memory thing (S isn't holding anything back!) but it's still odd. There are ways around that, and in this day and age you'd expect it to be seamless. Especially if "90% of the planets are empty".


Still, I did get the early access on Steam in the end like a sucker. God knows when it releases for download though.
Tbf, in a game like NMS, how far do you really wander from your ship?

Edit: In fact sometimes you jump in an exocraft and drive for ages.... been a while since I've played. So I guess it's an issue although not a large one.
 
The obsessive fans and detractors this has attracted are genuinely bizarre. There are 40% out there ready to love it no matter what, another 40% ready to destroy it no matter what and the rest of us like 'Well, let's see if this is any good'.

Bit bizarre any gamer wanting something to be shit, always has been. But this time it's obviously mostly the jealous Sony boys.

I'm waiting for the PSVR2 version, but in general, is it good?

Phas? Yeah it's excellent if it clicks with you. Fantastic if you have a group of players, and especially someone you like trying to get killed. I highly recommend @RedSky for that :lol: And is updated a lot. In VR it is probably one of the scariest games you can play, even to this day some of the jump scares still get me.

It is still great in non-VR too and it's not something you'll tire of if you like it, so there's nothing to ruin by waiting. In fact, even though originally the game was built for VR, you'll probably learn better at the start normally.
 
Last edited:
Sea of Stars coming to PS Plus

On the one hand I'm thinking about playing this on Game Pass and letting Starfield get a patch or two first, on the other hand I kind of want to see how broken Starfield is at launch