Starfield - The Bear and Badger

Paul the sparky

Blocks100 wrote:

I am beginning to agree with Bob

That's a sure sign you're pissing up the wrong tree isn't it?

Yossarian

Blocks100 wrote:

We'll always have Fallout 76....

But srsly, this is the most un-Bethesda way of doing things, this 'marketing campaign' for Starfield. For every AAA release they ever did, it was nothing, nada, no news whatsoever...then they would drop something substantial at an E3 about 6 months prior to actual release. A big news blackout and then Boom! It saved them from the folly that other Devs fall foul of - launching a runnaway hype train that goes off the rails when titles failed to deliver, a la Cyberpunk.

But this inconsequential drip feed of tit-bits ain't delivering no hype or even answering the most basic of questions. If you have a new persuasion dialogue system, then lets see it in action, rather than showing some footage of Oblivion for christs sake!

I am beginning to agree with Bob. I think this Starfield thing is in big big trouble.

I think that the slight shift in marketing is more down to the Microsoft purchase. MS know that they don’t have a lot of first party stuff out each year so have asked for a bit more from Bethesda. Bethesda want to keep the big reveal for the summer, so this seems like a good compromise; longer hype cycle for MS to sell consoles with, no need for Beth to change much in their plans.

Blocks100

Except this shift in marketing strategy occurred before their acquisition by M$oft.

The release of concept art in lieu of actual gameplay footage is something they have been doing from the start and even now still persisting with a mere 8 months from release - they are nervous about something and I don't know what it is. Negative fan reaction regarding a creaky looking Creation Engine 2.0 perhaps?

That 8 second clip of the talking robot is the worst kind of prick tease stuff. Either shut up or put up - but Bethesda are failing to do either.

In essence:

Spoiler:

Yossarian

Blocks100 wrote:

Except this shift in marketing strategy occurred before their acquisition by M$oft.

The deal closed in May last year, the in-engine trailer was in June, these concept art vids have been in the past three months?

Blocks100

Ah, I stand corrected then. It's just that they've been drip feeding concept art for soooo long now that it's beginning to seriously grate, much longer than 3 months I reckon. The CGI video gave no insight into gameplay either.

I guess I take issue with the rather annoyingly coy way they're releasing info about Starfield. At one point in this latest video one of the Devs remarks that your character, dependent on their traits / background, will have a 'really cool start'. Which would seem to indicate alternative starts for player-characters - this would be a HUGE departure for Bethesda RPG's which have always had your blank slate character waking up in a prison cell. The fans have been calling for alternative starts for eons now (thank god for the mod community).

But instead of such a big feature being clearly spelt out, it's mentioned almost in passing, as an aside. Shhhhhhh we shouldn't really tell you this but.... I find this way of communicating to your fanbase vexing in the extreme. I could quite happily wait until E3 now for a big info dump rather than listen to anymore of this tit bit teasing.

I know I'm probably alone in feeling this way, but just hush Bethesda until you've got something to actually show.

Bob

It’s a stark contrast to the amount of pre-release info
Around Skyrim

Bob

Delayed until 2023.. definitely not vaporware though! There's screenshots!

Paul the sparky

Only a few months. That's good going considering the pandemic

Yossarian

Hopefully this means less crunch and a more polished game.

Edit: they mention showing gameplay for this and Redfall soon. Surely it will be shown off at the showcase on the 12th.

SpaceGazelle

If this is Skyrim in space I'm in.

b0r1s

Everyone has been saying this was a definite for this year. What else we got Xbox?

Yossarian

Maybe Forza Motorsport?

Hopefully they’ve got a couple of surprises up their sleeves, there seem to be quite a lot of publishing partnerships happening which could potentially come to fruition this year, but I guess we’ll find out on the 12th.

SpaceGazelle

Isn't that today? What's happening?

Speedhaak

Yossarian wrote:

Hopefully this means less crunch and a more polished game

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAH....HA...HA!

Good one Yoss. This is Bethesda we're talking about. Janksville almost but a guarantee.

afgavinstan

I personally can't wait for the Todd Howard memes.

Bob

afgavinstan wrote:

I personally can't wait for the Todd Howard memes.

I took a lazerbeam to the knee!

Yossarian

Speedhaak wrote:

Yossarian wrote:

Hopefully this means less crunch and a more polished game

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAH....HA...HA!

Good one Yoss. This is Bethesda we're talking about. Janksville almost but a guarantee.

More polished is relative, TBF.

Raiziel

Goddammit! There’s only one new game I was truly looking forward to this year, and Starfield was it, and I really did think they were going to do it, having enshrined that date in the trailer last year. Oh well. Hopefully the next gen upgrade to The Witcher 3 (which was also recently delayed!) hurries up and come out in the second half of the year.

mistercrayon

There were memes about how this avoided breath of the wild 2 but it’s gone back towards it now (and switch 2)

Paul the sparky

Where did you see these memes?

mistercrayon

Maybe it was just a post on a forum.

Blocks100

Bob wrote:

Delayed until 2023.. definitely not vaporware though! There's screenshots!

No there isn't. There is a fuck tonne of concept art though. Which I always said was a bad sign.

(I'm not counting the teaser trailer as screenshot worthy, because the stills from that don't reveal any actual gameplay).

Nonetheless, I am surprised by this announcement. Bethesda like the supposed symmetry of dates like 22.11.22 - set so far off in the distant future that it was a safe date for launch. Guess not.

It'll be interesting to see what, if anything, they decide to show at their version of E3 which is, what?, coming up next month?

Yossarian

It’s exactly one month away.

The announcement of this delay says that we’ll be seeing a deep dive on gameplay soon, so presumably at the showcase.

https://twitter.com/bethesda/status/1524721132720566272

mistercrayon

Very cyberpunkish.

Yossarian

Because it’s delayed?

Paul the sparky

Cyberpunk was bad. The delay didn't bother me. The bugs I can get past. Framing it as something it was never going to be is unacceptable.

Then of course there's the plain ineptitude. Cop AI, fuck me

Blocks100

Starfield's hypetrain has barely left the station and when it does, it's going to be more of a slow chug chug than a woo! woo! full steam ahead and careening off the rails like what Cyberpunk's was.

Paul the sparky

Yeah, I don't think too many are that disappointed as there's not enough to get hype about just yet

equinox_code

Curious how anyone has summoned optimism for this.

equinox_code

Bethesda reached a dead end with the way they make games some 10 years ago. I reckon they are too far gone to fix themselves. Sure, there is a thing they can do, but it's not actually good anymore, and I just can't see them starting over from scratch, which is probably what they need to do.

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