this post was submitted on 09 Sep 2023
110 points (75.9% liked)

Games

32952 readers
660 users here now

Welcome to the largest gaming community on Lemmy! Discussion for all kinds of games. Video games, tabletop games, card games etc.

Weekly Threads:

What Are You Playing?

The Weekly Discussion Topic

Rules:

  1. Submissions have to be related to games

  2. No bigotry or harassment, be civil

  3. No excessive self-promotion

  4. Stay on-topic; no memes, funny videos, giveaways, reposts, or low-effort posts

  5. Mark Spoilers and NSFW

  6. No linking to piracy

More information about the community rules can be found here.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
110
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by c0mbatbag3l to c/games
 

Seems kind of like the game is just suffering from reactionaries, but I definitely don't put that much stock in critic reviews these days either.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Defaced 20 points 1 year ago (5 children)

I don't like it, so many loading screens, the faction bounties are copy/paste, the space combat is awkward, neon was a huge disappointment to me being just one long corridor with neon signs, the main quest railroads you like no other Bethesda game before it and it's just not fun to me. I've come to the conclusion it's just not for me and moved back over to baldurs gate 3 and recently started another new run in the outer worlds.

[–] c0mbatbag3l 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'll keep plying the low atmo worlds in Elite until the game for me comes out, I guess.

[–] Defaced 6 points 1 year ago

I mean, my opinion is anecdotal I suppose. I have friends that like it and some that think it's just okay. For me, I just wasn't having fun and that's the point of games, to have fun. I also don't really think their whole "NASApunk" style is very good. It doesn't feel like it has any unique style or identity. It's honestly baffling to me how it's gotten some 9's and 10's for scores. It's easily a 7 out of 10 for me, maybe even a 6. It's definitely not the game Bethesda sold everyone on with marketing IMO.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Are you on an HDD? new PC, new SSD, haven't sat in a loading screen for more than 3 seconds but usually less than 1.

[–] Defaced 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Nope, running off a series s which uses internal nvme SSD storage.

[–] rDrDr 5 points 1 year ago

Ya it seems to load much faster on a PC. 1-3 seconds on a PCIE 4X4 drive.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I don't even notice losing screen. They are almost instant for me.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

It's not that loading screens are slow (I run on SSD), it's that it's loading screens everywhere. Want to enter a building? There's a loading screen for that. Enter your ship? Loading screen. Launch to orbit? Loading. Travel to another planet's orbit? Loading. Land on a planet? Oh loading, again.

At least in Skyrim and Fallout 4, you can have a seamless overworld experience. In Starfield, it's all loading screens.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

But those last like one second or less for me, so I don't even notice them. The only one that annoys me is the take-off and landing ones because those are cutscenes.

Plus, you can do all of those actions you just mentioned with only one loading screen. You just go to your map and click where you want to go on any planet in any system, and as long as you aren't in a cave or anything, you will fast travel from wherever you are to the location on the new planet with only one loading screen.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I also hate the ship launch and landing loading screens. The exiting and entering loading for ships are justifiable as ship interiors are customizable and are unloaded for performance. The problem is, loading screens still adds up. For example:

spoilerThe rescue Barrett quest is a recent quest I did that illustrates this. From the lodge, you can probably fast travel to the mining outpost directly? (Haven't tested fast travel in interiors), so that's +1 loading screen. Then you exit your ship (+1 loading screen). Talk to Lin, and enter one of the buildings to check the comms relay thingy (+1 loading screen). Find three power cells, one inside the comms relay building, one outside (+1), and the last one in another building (+1). You exit that other building, (+1), enter the comms relay building (+1), fix the relay, exit the comms relay building (+1), talk to Lin. At this point we've had 8 loading screens, and this is like 1/3rd into the quest.
All in all, it feels like a series of interiors and set pieces connected by loading screens, not a series of interiors and set pieces connected by a seamless world. Again, previous titles also had a lot of loading screens, but at least they had a seamless overworld that you can explore without experiencing one loading screen.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Yes, from the lodge, you can fast travel to the mining outpost directly. About a 1 second load time for me, and I'm there. I wouldn't even notice the load time.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Honestly not sure why they're there since those areas are already loaded anyway.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Skip the loading screens and just jump the walls or off balconies. Duh.

[–] CharlestonChewbacca 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I thought the main quest lines were pretty great.

All the side content is pretty bland though.

The loading screens aren't bad if you're properly using fast travel.

[–] Defaced 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The loading screens are atrocious even for a Bethesda game. Walk up a ladder, loading screen, open a door, loading screen, dock with another ship, loading screen, travel to another planet in the same system, loading screen, land on a planet that's already loaded, loading screen, exit the ship, loading screen. Maybe it's different on PC, but I'm playing on a series S that has pretty fast read/write speeds and that's just absurd. Pretty sure if my character could use the toilet there would be a loading screen for the bathroom.

[–] CharlestonChewbacca -3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

You don't need to do all that stuff though. Use your missions tab and the map to travel directly where you need to go.

It's a massive open world game, there are going to be loading screens. But you can limit them by fast traveling directly.

[–] Kachilde 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

So your suggestion is to not play the open-world part of the open-world game?

[–] CharlestonChewbacca 1 points 1 year ago

It's still open world in the sense that there are plenty of places you can go to and in any order without being gated through a linear story line.

Even if you were to ignore my advice, it wouldn't be any more open world because travelling between these areas is always gated by loading screens.

My suggestion is merely to reduce the amount of loading screens between zones.

Instead of leaving constellation, loading Jameisom, getting on the train, loading the shipyard, entering your ship, loading the ship interior, taking off, loading space, going to your map, selecting warp to sol, loading sol, selecting a landing site on Cydonia, loading your ship interior on cydonia, leaving your ship, and loading cydonia.

I'm suggesting you fast travel straight from the lodge to cydonia. Cutting 7 loading screens down to 1.

Of course, I also recommend that you take time to explore the areas you're in.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

You're right that the loading screens can be minimized with fast travel, but also, some of the best parts of a game like this is the immersion, which doesn't really work well with loading directly from point to point on your to-do list. I think Starfield is fine, tbh, but I do agree that the amount of loading screens is excessive. Games like NMS and Elite Dangerous have been doing seamless space travel for a long time now. There's really no excuse.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The excuse is the engine they refuse to let die. It's not a good excuse, but that's a lot of the trademark Bethesda wonk.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago

Yeah, that tracks. I get that as a company, they're gonna wring every resource dry before ponying up the money to redevelop, but that engine's been showing its age for a while now, and Starfield is a great concept that deserved better.

[–] CharlestonChewbacca 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I get what you're saying, but eliminating loading screens in a game like this just isn't feasible.

NMS or Elite Dangerous style space travel might be, but then it would have a similarly cartoonist reduced scale. I wouldn't mind that personally, but I get why they didn't do it.

My primary complaint is that the cities themselves are split up into multiple zones. If Skyrim can be entirely open, so to should Jameison.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago

I'm not saying they need to eliminate them entirely, just agreeing that there are way too many, and "fast travel to the plot" isn't a reasonable solution in a game like this. I do think (mostly) seamless space travel would go a very long way to helping the overall experience.