Starfield: The Digital Foundry Tech Review

All footage captured on Xbox Series X. This is the Digital Foundry deep dive in Bethesda Games Studios' highly ambitious Starfield. John Linneman shares his journey through the game, discussing game design, rendering features, visuals, audio and just how free and open this new galaxy actually is. PC coverage is coming soon, along with a Starfield DF Direct Special.
Looking for detail on how Xbox Series X and Series X compare? Go here: • Starfield - Xbox Serie...
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00:00 - Introduction
02:25 - How Does Starfield Fit Together?
04:36 - Your Ship is so Detailed!
05:38 - The Cities of Starfield
08:11 - Reflections - Still Cube Maps
09:07 - Characters: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
11:08 - Landscape Showcase
13:40 - Global Illumination
14:29 - World Materials
16:00 - The Blemishes
17:28 - Structure and Loading
20:24 - I Dropped Soap Dispensers on the Bathroom Floor
21:34 - Edge of the World
22:48 - Additional Frame-rate Tests
24:07 - Loading Times and Playtime
25:52 - The Sound
27:27 - Let's Wrap This Up

[@lord.frosty]

This kind of technical breakdown feels like a well produced documentary. Tremendous work by John once again!

[@datruth4766]

My only issue is the video footage appears to be running at 60fps, and we know the game doesn't run like that on Series X.

[@mikailmaqsood818]

Seconded. Love the production on this video - so informative, clear and stylish too

[@lord.frosty]

@@datruth4766 The footage runs at 30fps. The video is encoded to 2160p 60fps to take advantage of the best bitrate KZbin can offer. But the game runs at 30fps and that is clear in the video as well.

[@DeltaNovum]

The writing in this video is top notch. That intro, beautiful!

[@caleb_widogast_fan]

​@@datruth4766dude no, the video itself is 60fps but the footage in 30. It's clear in action scenes

[@balazsmarton5789]

Mass Effect's music brings back so many memories, it hurts that I still haven't found a game that captures space exploration as good as those games.

[@UlyssesM]

No man's sky? I guess it's less narrative focused but space exploration in that game is huge.

[@balazsmarton5789]

@@UlyssesM I tried to get into it a few times, but the lack of true narrative made the whole experience feel a little empty for me. The exploration was great though!

[@IguanaFilmArts]

Starfield has better exploration than Mass Effect. It just lacks ground vehicles. Also Starfield's writing is more about dramatic set pieces than actual sci-fi philosophical concepts or historical backgrounds of alien species such as in Mass Effect. Very different games.

[@doctorfresh3856]

You should try Star Citizen.

[@phnarf]

Thank you John for mentioning the washed-out HDR. This is also a problem in Fallout 76 and I wish they would provide HDR calibration or adjustment options as I don't like the washed-out blacks and shadows.

[@m.b2948]

It's not an issue that Bethesda can fix. Because they been using the same outdated engine since skyrim.... You really would have thought Bethesda would make a new engine by now.... Its been literally well over 12 years of this overused old and buggy engine.

[@dave93x]

HDR is so inconsistent I don't even enable it now. Some games looks great with it, like both Horizon games, but then you load another game up and it looks terrible or requires a bunch of tweaking. Not to mention the handshaking not being completely reliable. HDR needs some streamlining still.

[@Tosslehoffe]

@@m.b2948 They've been using this engine since Morrowind. Just because it's called Creation Engine doesn't mean it's not Gamebryo under the surface. Oblivion and Skyrim were basically just Morrowind with Havok physics and shit game design.

[@RGS0503]

Yeah I was looking forward to playing on an oled and it doesn't look good. The first planet looked pretty good when I was outdoors. But I think I'm the only one that thinks just doesn't look great. Everyone keeps saying it looks great and it has its moments but I thought new Atlantis looked pretty bad.

[@parallelsmoke7800]

​@rgs7341 I made the picture look damn good by just changing the setting on my LG OLED. Assuming that you have game optimizer enabled, first enable HDR Tone Mapping in the advanced picture settings (instead of HGIG), then tweak the black point and white point levels in the game optimizer. Black point level down to 5 or so seemed to fix the grey wash. I know it's not 'true' hdr implemented by the game engine, but it has made the game playable and looks damn good on my setup. Give it a shot.

[@Raedbeard]

Thanks for the comments on HDR and blacks. I thought I was going crazy cranking up the settings on my new monitor and wondering what was happening. Hopefully this is something they can add settings for in the future for those who want custom settings.

[@igorthelight]

"Hopefully this is something they can add settings for" - of course they can! Would they tho? ;-)

[@geoffreybassett6741]

Seconded. For a next gen experience I think this is something that definitely needs to be addressed.

[@TheNerd]

@@igorthelight Nah, Tripple A games focus on the experience of shareholders, so not gonna happen

[@thingi]

It's an issue, a massive issue. The Black-level is so high on my OLED (LG C1) that's it's not remotely funny. Enabling Win11 AutoHDR via hacks doesn't fix the ridiculous black level (well grey level) and just makes the HUD so searingly bright I'm be too afraid of burn-in to use the hack. The xbox version has the same HDR issues at Windows :(

[@Raedbeard]

@@thingi Yeah, Im on an Xbox+monitor and I had to bump up contract and black enhancer. Also went warm color temp and different gamma mode to get a somewhat consistent image. But day scenes are sometimes a little too blown out in so many ways 😂

[@UnnDunn]

21:14 It’s nice that the game keeps track of items this way, and this perfectly illustrates that. Still, doesn’t that hotel have a cleaning crew? If those soap bottles had disappeared, I wouldn’t be mad. 😂

[@youtou252]

Also, it's absolutely certain there's a limit to the number of persistent objects. It makes no sense whatsoever to think this is an excuse to the poor framerate. Also, soap bottles don't need to be updated per frame. Quite disappointing from DF to excuse this.

[@Snow.2040]

@@youtou252Who said this is an excuse for the frame rate? DF was just showcasing a cool feature.

[@jonny5143]

​@@youtou252you seem like a salty Sony fanboy, just calm down and enjoy this stellar game my dude

[@youtou252]

@@Snow.2040As far as I remember they mentioned it multiple times in previous videos. Now they don't even address it anymore as if it wasn't a big deal

[@youtou252]

@@jonny5143every time someone has something to say about a game, they're a sony fan boy ? you sound like a prepubescent teenager, not everyone is a console fanboy

[@The92Waffles]

That middle ground John talked about for space travel; my idea would be if they allowed an AI speedily travel to your destination for you, meanwhile you can get out of your cockpit and do whatever while you in real time are being taken to your destination (albeit in an expedited timeframe). You could use this time to craft things or do whatever hijinks the game allows in your ship. I think it would be nice for immersion

[@lumaseed6490]

This ^

[@__-fm5qv]

That would be really cool yeah, plus if you could set the navigation in first person from the helm and then hit "go" (warp speed/hyper speed etc etc) that would be really cool. Then the animation of the stars whizzing by while it loads the next environment in the background and you can get up and walk around the ship and do stuff would be ideal I think. That way its effectively a similar thing, just way more immersive.

[@javonnepatrick5447]

Like Jedi Survivor or Fallen Order

[@paul1979uk2000]

Star Citizen does something like that, so like you could be travelling to another planet and can do other things on the ship, and if you have a big ship, that's opens up a lot of options that travel time because less of an issue. With all that said, I don't think many of us want long travel times, so a middle ground is probably a better option to keep the fun factor going.

[@mal-avcisi9783]

where is alex, still lazy making no videos ?

[@little_lotte]

Just a note regarding space travel which a lot of people don't seem to know about, if you are flying your ship and open your scanner (F on pc, don't know the button on console), you can point your ship at a planet/nearby system and select it with E, then hold R to travel there and it does a little cutscene of the ship flying/grav jumping. You can also do this with landing on planets, so if you are looking at Jemison and open the scanner you can point the reticle at new atlantis which will appear as like a white marker on the surface and then hold R to land there. The game doesn't explain any of this for some reason though.

[@rankcolour8780]

Sounds like it was added in as an afterthought from what you have said.

[@brewski535]

Thank you! I was wondering why you couldn't do this earlier.

[@TheManHank]

It would've been so much more immersive if that had simply replaced the often black loading screen with an animation of warping to the destination,. The takeoff and landing animations are cool but I wish the were stitched together into one long animation hiding the loading in the background

[@Razumen]

@@TheManHank It would've been so much more immersive if we could just fly there, can you imagine being able to take off and land on planets, all while being in total control, with no loading or cinemetics? That would be NUTS-it's not like any other games have done this yet! Nope, not a single one!

[@BlackPersonGuy]

@@Razumenballs

[@mxskmg4]

those New Atlantis garden walkway shots look 15 years old

[@campocalypse]

16:48 - I'm amazed that in 2023, Bethesda still hasn't figured out how to do water in a video game. This problem exists in every version of Skyrim, and they somehow made it even worse Starfield

[@Christoph22KakaFan]

that information of him is false. There is a swimming animation. He said there is no swimming. False

[@campocalypse]

@@Christoph22KakaFan Go to the timestamp, that's not what I'm talking about. If you played Skyrim enough, you'll see it right away

[@flowerthencrranger3854]

I think that making the player have to point to their destination to activate fast travel, and if the cutscene was in first person, it could have been a nice way to keep the ilusion of a space journey.

[@l_ChillZone_l]

yes, just like jedi survivor

[@__-fm5qv]

And also if you were able to set the navigation just using the ships systems and displays, which it doesn't look like is possible? Imo that would really add to the immersion.

[@bobjoe5937]

Maybe this could be a mod? Really good idea though.

[@OsaculnenolajO]

Yeah I really hope they patch in some tweaks. I just want some more immersive space travel.

[@mhwtf5965]

Yeah this game could greatly benefit from a "do things in game instead of in pause menu" ux

[@eldenringer6466]

30fps!? Oh that's so sad. In 2023 for a game that looks like this I hoped 60fps would be a given...

[@Anita028]

After seem how many load screens in between maps, we definitely need to give more praise to No Man's Sky, such small team and they are able to developed they own ingame engine, you can board your ship at the space station or your freighter and you can literally explore the entire solar system from there 100% seamlessly, including landing on any planet of the solar system in any spot you want and the game still manage to run at 4k 60fps on current gen consoles with really good graphics, and the base building is insane currently.

[@Anita028]

I know Starfield is an rpg with space background but still...

[@ryanloveless3870]

I think a real time atmospheric entrance could have worked. I do think it would still be scripted and out of the players control, due to the specific landing location. So essentially a hidden loading screen, which is still more immersive than seeing the screen fade to black.

[@ricepony33]

Hello Games needs to be purchased and funded after their epic recovery.

[@MVPMTKING]

It was very impressive that they did that as an Indie Studio, but there was little depth to exploration, the planets get boring looking. The art style is very simplistic and when traveling the graphics would often look playdough like. Not to knock it I liked NMS years back, but its not THAT impressive considering it's the only impressive thing they do in my opinion

[@nickhard7615]

​​@@MVPMTKINGdoes that imply that Starfields exploration has more depth? Because I'd say they're both on about the same boring level, maybe Starfield being a little bit worse than No Man's Sky

[@mikeadams1371]

You dont have to always bring up the menu to travel to a planet. Just scan in your ship look at a planet press A and you can land on planets

[@advanceddarkness3]

Still lame. You cant fly in open space from planet to planet like Elite Dangerous, you dont manually land or take-off either..... You're constantly stuck in an invisible wall arena no matter if your in space or on land. Point and click fast travel simulator.

[@ma9217]

​@advanceddarkness3 If it's so important, then go play elite dangerous.

[@aaronthomas6183]

Thank you bro. I’ve been saying this,because with this game. A lotta of the complaints ,that people make. can be worked around by just learning the game mechanics.

[@MrMightyZ]

Discovering this was a literal game changer. Maybe John left it out considering it a spoiler.

[@craigharris41]

@@advanceddarkness3 Your not wrong, however Elite Dangerous is a Space Sim, Starfield is a RPG in Space. Bethesda however did misrepresent that for the last 16 months.

[@DiminishingAugmentation]

I'm actually amazed at how this game looks like it came out of 2017. Not even screenspace reflections on bodies of water? The water at 9:00 looks like a joke. Also the tress and overall lighting is bad. Looks like it's lacking ambient occlusion.

[@vandammage1747]

Imagine if they did target 60fps😂

[@REZPUBLIKA]

When surveying a planet, and points of interest are 1000m apart... and running is severely restricted, it seems like vehicles must've been cut content. There's no way they expected players to run around 1000m+ of wasteland with nothing to do but tap an occasional mining node inbetween (if your inventory isn't already full, which it probably is).

[@ProsecutorToddShaw]

It kills planet exploration for me. It is just a bore just aimlessly running towards points of interest. Managing the stamina is so annoying too and just makes the whole thing even more tedious.

[@elimalinsky7069]

I think that the whole space travel aspect was severely cut back during development. There is a lot of missed opportunity there. At one point Bethesda likely decided to focus almost entirely on the planet ground content. Sure there are missions in space, exploring derelict ships and the like, but it feels like so much more was planned but ultimately scrapped because the scope was proving way too big to tackle.

[@ProsecutorToddShaw]

@@elimalinsky7069 I don't think so. I don't think Bethesda ever bothered to have such a big scope because of their ancient engine.

[@MrQuackenbush]

@@ProsecutorToddShaw If you're on foot and scan the location, like a cave for example, then you can use your ship to re-land closer, rather than walk all them meters.

[@lolitaexpresspilot88]

the game is extremely cut itself and really poor on content, they probably rushed with release by a year or so

[@rethla]

"Its a giant leap compared to Bethesdas previous games" and then shows a comparison to 12 year old Skyrim..... Whatabout Fallout 76????

[@seanpitt27]

That would look to familiar 😂 they had to show the old decade comparison.. DF guys are mates with phill and Bethesda team they don’t want to make them look bad

[@SDMasterYoda]

8:22 It's concrete, not cement! Cement is an ingredient in concrete like flour is an ingredient in cake. Portland cement is mixed with water and aggregates like sand and gravel and cures to create concrete.

[@davidvillamarin-lj2pf]

So df is comparing starfield to games with 5 to 12 years.... Very strange but understandable tech review from df... The problem is that the reality is very diferent, this game needed a next gen engine and more time.

[@Maggpieify]

24:55 that floor shimmering and Bethesda having awefull AA is not something worth mentioning for a channel focused on graphics and performance? Like at all? Some locations and scenes are literally ruined by insane shimmering how come no ones talking about this?

[@8K240hz]

Hearing a lot of excuses for bad game design which felt a bit off brand for john and digital foundry... although the game may not have delivered what i personally was hoping for it still looks pretty fun.

[@william8217]

I kept myself totally spoiler free before playing and I was let down too. I was hoping for a game with the intuitive exploration from NMS, the sense of distance and awe from Elite Dangerous, all wrapped up with Bethesda’s attention to detail and set dressing. Instead this is Outer Worlds++ and I refunded it.

[@ethanwright752]

not accusing them of accepting any bribes or anything but I thought the same exact thing... DF usually is relentless in pursuit of excellence on these tech reviews and this series of DF vids on starfield is EXTREMELY forgiving

[@Fuuntag]

“My God, It's Full of Loading Screens”

[@Resech1]

So, after 7 years in development, Starfield has finally reached the level of Parkan 2 (2005) in terms of level segmentation

[@steve833333]

lol yeah no way this game took 7 years of development that was a lie

[@BeardlyNova]

I still dont understand why its only 30fps if theres no RT, I think thats bs

[@jinx20001]

its pretty awesome but im struggling to motivate myself to play it, the beginning hours are so boring but i know that will change, but it is missing that element of ''do you see that in the distance, you can go there'', its a big deal because when i see a moon in the sky in no mans sky i can jump on my ship and manually travel there and its super cool, that sense that the planet or moon is rendered in and i can go there (ofcourse its not actually rendered in), its just missing in starfield with nothing but hubs you can fast travel to.

[@sneakysnake3344]

40 fps mode would be so perfect for this. And great Video with lots of interesting infos

[@ActNasty5]

Thats what my pc has been getting in heavy areas and above 60 in other areas. 40 is definitely good enough when i use a controller

[@Cosmycal]

Yep, 40fps VRR mode on Series X and S would be perfect.

[@grtcara8386]

@@Cosmycala mod will unlock it

[@mantid83]

I'm getting 50fps on my PC running in 4k and medium settings.

[@paul1979uk2000]

40fps is probably doable on consoles, seeing as it's very consistent at 30fps, but 60fps might be pushing it a little, after all, pushing the frame rate higher will push the cpu harder and that's probably too much to get to 60fps even with some major cut backs on visuals, but 40fps, who knows, it depends on how tapped out the cpu is.

[@dcarpenter85]

Thank you for touching on HDR! This is an area I’d love to see more DF content focus on as I feel it is one of the most important visual features in games.

[@shock_me]

Absolutely!

[@christinaedwards5084]

Outside of turning my monitor screen brightness to 100 I can’t see what hdr does 😂

[@thespeedtapper4]

​@@christinaedwards5084It's supposed to drastically increase contrast levels and making lighting more accurate.

[@christinaedwards5084]

@@thespeedtapper4 I’m but a mere mortal 😂 It’s all the same to me, even when others talk about colour accuracy it’s all the same. 8 bit colour, 10 bit colour, it’s all the same. I was watching comparisons of 4k, QHD, ultra high med it’s all the same can’t see a difference. The only thing I noticed was on low settings was decrease in vegetation and shadows disappearing

[@thespeedtapper4]

@@christinaedwards5084 That's understandable. With 1080p to 4K it's not a monumental difference when you're looking from a distance. So you would have to get closer to the screen to notice the differences. The closer you are, the more immediately noticable the differences are, especially on a large 4K screen. Playing 1080p content on a 55" or larger 4K screen will make it a lot easier to see the differences.

[@CaptainNow2]

All of the other videos feel rushed in order to get them out for views. This is by far the absolute best in terms of editing and information. Thank you so much.

[@GeorgeTsiros]

In short, there is no spaceflight and there are no planets.

[@scalpingsnake]

On the topic of having a space travel middle ground: The way I imagine it should work is if you wanted to travel somewhere normally it literally takes 30 years, but the fast travel/grav jump system takes 30 seconds. You ship actively takes the course you see when you fast travel, and the game simulates you going to route you would if you were to/could travel there manually. That way it can then dynamically take you out of travelling to surprise with different events like a pirate attack or distress beacon etc. You could even happen upon derelict ships and choose if you want to go explore them or not. Maybe even some side quests could start by randomly finding something. You could also still use the power allocation system where putting power into grav jump lets you get there quicker but putting power into shields makes you safer if combat does start. With this idea you could also move around your ship while fast travelling and magange your inventory. I think overall this should feel like you are exploring/moving through space while also not wasting your time. Personally I think they really messed up letting you just fast travel everywhere instantly.

[@jameswayton2340]

Thanks for sharing this i really like it. Overal there are some things like this they can do to improve space travel or improve the illusion basiaclly. I mean yea flying into the planet and all is not going to happen but thats not the most important thing i think. I never really felt like ''oh planets are fake bladiebla'' when playing mass effect. But so far from what i see of starfield.. first off all people don't know you can also travel fromout the cockpit without using a map. And the second thing i notice is that the flying animation can be a lot better. As in in mass effect you see your ship ''flying'' before it lands on a new planet. In starfield i just drops off and you see the last two seconds. Thats a little bad haha. Makes you feel even more that its just a map being loaded.

[@scalpingsnake]

@@jameswayton2340 Yeah heard about this 2 changes which would help with the illusion but definitely wouldn't immediately change my mind unfortunately :/ A lot of it seems quite core to the experience the lack of exploration in space and the lack of needing to actually fly in space. I fear even modders will have a tough time changing it. I suppose DLC might give me hope?

[@techknow9237]

No matter what event you put in it when travelling across space it will start to become a chore and predictable esp in a game size like Starfield.

[@scalpingsnake]

@@techknow9237 Then you give people options, if you want to avoid pirates maybe you could have a specific ship or part that let's you avoid them. Or if you want to find more places out there you can improve your radar etc

[@techknow9237]

@@scalpingsnake If it is we need to put this in, put that in, give this option, give these options or players demanding I want this, I want that, it should be like this or that...etc.. we will never have a game like Starfiekd, Skyrim, Red Dead Redemption 2..etc

[@AlexandruTataru]

Really enjoyed this video as all the other tech breakdown and developer interviews and technology breakdown. I imagine this is a lot more time consuming than a DF Direct or a normal game video but it is worth it. Keep doing a great job guys!

[@reaper378]

Really superb vid John ! A great watch thanks !

[@darkcloud192able]

Mate, your camera shots are incredible. Great tech review!

[@TheProjectOverload]

I was eagerly waiting for the full DF Starfield review - As usual the production quality, content and overall effort are top notch. Thank you for sharing.

[@positivevibesrfc]

Yeah it was a really good presentation. John is brilliant.

[@mctapoutos7426]

Creation engine more like Ancient engine

[@zombiegeorge749]

21:27 how does this make the game better? what use is it?

[@rafaelizquierdolizama6260]

As always DF my place for reviews, nothing else matters! Thanks John!

[@saimysilvia]

hmm... why have a ship if your just going to use menus and loading screens?

[@johnhorak2000]

So 5 minutes of gameplay equals to 4 loading screens of 30 seconds. Absolutely no upgrade of this Morrowind engine in 20+ years.

[@Episode_13]

Not true

[@johnhorak2000]

@@Episode_13 its literally showed in the video you are commenting LOL

[@Episode_13]

@@johnhorak2000 not in a row. Stuff in between etc. It's not a big deal at all. And they are quick. Come on now.

[@johnhorak2000]

@@Episode_13 there is literally passage where he goes from city to ship to space with 4 loadinge and timer during loadings. In 5 minutes of playing (or even less) they have 30 seconds of loading. You can defend this in 2023 how you want, but its 2023 and not 2003 and this is not Morrowind but game which want to compete with likes of Elden Ring or RDR2 (massive worlds with minimum loading screens) or space sims where seamless landing on planets is implemented like last 10 years or so? Using Morrowind engine for modern game with its 2003 limitations in 2023 is embarssing. No excuses there.

[@kemoselimagic1479]

Leaving soap dispensers next to a toilet for 10 days or whatever and they are still there is probably the most unrealistic thing in the game.

[@Ziplock9000]

More confirmation this game has lots of very serious core gameplay issues, many can't ever be fixed without putting the game back into pre-alpha. Thanks. I'll continue with BG3

[@xxzedlingxxyt9519]

I was like why are there 3 hour old comments on a minute old video until I realized that the videos are up for Early Access

[@hugobarakas1187]

Early Access for an early access game.

[@Blingchachink]

Scam access

[@RantKid]

People paying for the ability to comment first ☠️☠️

[@bladeOf3]

The biggest issue with the graphics is how washed out everything is. Anything that is slightly dark is just grey. If they could add some decent HDR the game would look twice as good. I doubt Bethesda will bother so I'll have to wait for the reshade mods to fix the colors like previous Bethesda games.

[@ZimmermanTelegram]

disable film grain and motion blur.

[@thanksbetotap]

@@ZimmermanTelegramThose have nothing to do with what he’s talking about…

[@IsraelWokoh]

@@ZimmermanTelegram ?

[@xBINARYGODx]

@@thanksbetotapthey help a lot, but also, there are mods that get rid of the washed out thing which is really a filter affect easily removed. I mean, on PC, of course - but I mean, if you are on console, then that is your choice and you know what to expect - the devs tell you how you like it 99% of the time, with 99% of the game.

[@DaywalkerTR67]

I have the same feeling. It looks so liveless on my series x and lgc1 oled

[@rippenzong2455]

i will say visually this game is very pleasing. i think its the consistent frame rates and high quality textures. you dont get alot of frames but it is consistent

[@demonreturns4336]

I feel like this game would’ve been served better had they made it smaller and then made the few planets more detailed and you can fly to them instead of using loading screens

[@Christoph22KakaFan]

if you like that flying shit play everspace 2

[@kajerlou]

Traversal, I think is helped a great deal by how high you can jump on many worlds/moons and your booster pack too. It feels fun usually.

[@ooiiooiiooii]

@@InnerFury666and the traversal is still trash. The whole point of games like this is to explore but it is so limited and pointless

[@ProsecutorToddShaw]

@@ooiiooiiooii yep. It is such a bore to traverse planets.

[@gamesmaster1060]

@@ProsecutorToddShaw These sound like non complaints

[@ProsecutorToddShaw]

@@gamesmaster1060 Your mother thinks you're a non complaint.

[@a.g.m8790]

No it isn’t

[@sordel5866]

Re: the detergent bottles, this is a case where greater realism would support lesser game sophistication, since in any real restroom those bottles would have been cleared up by now.

[@jablocanas]

One thing everyone misses is you don't need to travel directly to your ship to fast travel between planets, you can access the galaxy map menu directly from the menu screen and travel anywhere from any world. That saves several minutes of steps every time...

[@SixSioux]

This you say is exactly what's wrong with this game. This cr@p totally brakes immersion.

[@chr1srugby]

​@@SixSiouxnobody is forcing you to fast travel to your ship... You can still walk to it if you'd rather waste your time than actually do the interesting bits?

[@Blackwolf-gr6ch]

@@SixSioux did you miss the point where it's just an OPTION? you can still manually walk to your ship, sit on the cockpit, and liftoff, then punch the coordinates to jump, if you did not have the option to fast travel like that you would be complaining about that lol

[@austin_shock]

Did anyone else see the red flag disappear at the bottom left of the shot at 7:09?

[@austin_shock]

Thought I may have had too many gummies, but then took a second look lol 😅 Not a big deal though, just curious as to how that would disappear.

[@kieran.grant_]

​@@austin_shockprobably just culling it too early, dropping the asset when it isn't being viewed

[@austin_shock]

@kieran.grant_ That's what ai assumed, I'm just not too savvy on the tech. Hoping to get to play the game soon, waiting on my payday lol

[@krisirizarry]

I love hearing the Mass Effect music and it works with these visuals beautifully-nice touch 👏 ✨

[@lukasfruit]

Went straight to the comments if anyone noticed the same easter egg :D

[@RdVortex]

@@lukasfruitIndeed, was watching the video and thinking "Hmm... That sounds very familiar (and nostalgic)."

[@MacCanma]

sometimes I hope I’ll hear some of the Mass Effect ambient music ingame, it would fit sooooo well!

[@MrMikeyGlasses]

It made me want to jump straight into a new ME2 playthrough!

[@user-of6yk5jd2y]

Love Mass effect and this is my new love

[@cristi8183]

14:45 Gotta love the Mass Effect song he added! 👌🏻❤️

[@desertfish74]

Wrex!

[@whygamewhy]

U know how bad the game runs at launch when u keep hearing DF trying their best to sugarcoat the review by only comparing the game to its infamous predecessors.

[@Abykitty06]

first off, DF has no reason to do this, they arent being sponsored here, and when they are, they say it clearly, and there is no being payed behind the scenes, DF is a somewhat small youtube channel that mostly tech nerds care about (look at their average view count). Second off, there is a huge reason for that, bethesda is, for a strange reason, a small team for triple A standards, and their way of crafting worlds does not have a lot of the things that make a game like the witcher look like it does, because of how much of the game logic considers each space at all times, its kind of a tech nightmare, very similar to no man's sky, which mainly runs at 60 (not consistently on 8th gen mind you) because its assets are usually closer to gamecube models in complexity. And if you prefer the themepark like design from companies like CD project, rockstar, or even nintendo RND 1, then you never liked this studio.

[@BoJangles42]

PC performance review coming anytime soon? Not everyone plays on console.

[@ToadyEN]

This makes me realise how ahead of its time mass effect was

[@desertfish74]

I’m tempting to reinstall the trilogy after seeing the (non overhyped) reviews of starfield….

[@kentagent6343]

I like mass effect but when playing through the LE without any prior experience to the genre I felt like it was robbed of a lot of opportunity between ME1 and ME2. ME2 and 3 were waay more linear than the first installement.

[@arsnakehert]

Bespoke at 4:18 Digital Foundry is truly Digital Foundry

[@bombjack1984]

But where are the caveats? I swear I hadn't heard that word in years before DF.

[@SiixCurses]

It looks better in motion here than it does while playing on Series X. I wish they would've aimed for 60fps and trimmed it down.

[@vandammage1747]

Because watching 30fps feels much better than playing it. 30fps is poop

[@masterodst1]

This is my favorite type of content from you guys

[@slaynnyt8130]

Nice review! Btw at 22:50 that's some impressive marksmanship 😅

[@beetheimmortal]

I just love the fact that console games still run at 30 FPS in 2023, while looking worse than games made in 2013, and this is somehow acceptable now.

[@dariosandoval3608]

Does this looks worse than Fallout 4 from 2015?

[@beetheimmortal]

@@dariosandoval3608 Obviously not, but that's not a particularly high bar to jump over, now is it? Fallout 4 looked embarassing for 2015. I was comparing it to other games by other devs, if that somehow wasn't clear. I could also talk about the fact that this game can't even run on a 4070 at 1080p, but that's probably redundant at this point.

[@justj.r.670]

I mean if you want to play at +60 fps then get a PC. This was bound to happen sooner or later.

[@beetheimmortal]

@@justj.r.670 I do play on PC, I just find the situation funny, because everyone was saying at the beginning of this generation that the consoles would finally be able to play at 60 fps. Everyone was also talking about the SSDs and look where that got us, with minute-long loading screens for a game like this.

[@boosted2022]

Obvious ps fanboy or pc elitist detected.

[@NattyDread011]

damn John, these intros are everything amazing footage as well

[@user-cg9yu4gx2q]

Great review john, love your technical insight!

[@FOXofOJAI]

I assumed HDR was not supported, because there are no in game options to indicate that its on. Couple this with the poor black levels, and it seemed almost certainly disabled. Thanks for confirming that it at least "works" :)

[@Xurx0r]

I may be mistaken, but in my opinion, using photo mode to analyze texture quality and details doesn't provide a fair representation of the game's visual quality, the variation is vast. Compare the hutch texture and level of detail in 5'16" and 18'18", even though they are not the exact same hutches, it is the same texture and asset.

[@danielallen7384]

When I go into photo mode in Starfield it looks identical to the gameplay.

[@Xurx0r]

@@danielallen7384 Here you have ALL the options in photo mode, it is not the same: Camera options Camera options (identified by a camera icon) do what it says on the tin. These options allow you to set options specific to the in-game camera, including whether you have free reign over your camera angles and how close to your subject the camera is. Here’s a breakdown of the available camera options: Camera type There are three options here: free, orbital, or selfie. Free allows you to move the camera as you please, orbital fixes in one position, while selfie allows you to take, well, a selfie. Field of view This is a scale. The higher you set your field of view, the more of an area you can see, the lower the field of view, the closer the camera, reducing the visible area. Camera roll This is also a scale and tilts your camera left or right. Lower on the scale tilts you left, higher tilts you right. Depth of field This can be toggled on or off and controls the focus of your image. This is helpful if you want to take a close-up image but focus on a particular aspect of it, blurring the background. If you turn this on then you can also control the strength and how much it is near start or near plane (which lets you blur parts of your image) Character options These options let you control whether your character is in the photo and, if they are, what pose they’re doing. Here are all the options: Show player This option allows you to either have your character in the photo or not. You can toggle this off or on. Pose category From what I’ve seen, this is set to standard and can’t be changed. Pose If you choose to keep your character in the shot, then you can choose the pose they do in the photo (but you can opt to not do a pose at all). Here are the available poses: Boxer Cower Hands on hips Jump Kneeling Sit on ground Sneak Wave What’s up? None Brightness and contrast options These options allow you to change the brightness, saturation, and contrast of your photo. Here’s a breakdown: Brightness Fairly straightforward. This slider allows you to set how bright the image is overall. Saturation The saturation slider lets you set the depth and intensity of the colors in your image. Contrast This slider lets you set how obvious the differences in luminance are in the image. Higher makes your image darker and lower makes it lighter. Filter options You don’t have to set a filter on your images, but these options do let you get more creative with your photography. Here are the options: Filter A filter adds a layer over your photo that changes its overall look or color, imagine you put a special lens over your camera. There are several filters available under this option but none include dog face: None Mercury Era Gemini Era Apollo Era 1 Apollo Era 2 Dusty Binary Astral Bloodshot Dystopia Grunge Bleach Bypass Abandoned Swamp Black & White Film Noir Vintage Night Vision Negative Filter intensity This slider allows you to set how prominent your filter is. Higher means your filter is more prominent and lower makes it less. Vignette intensity This slider lets you set how dark the corners of your photo are. Texture Category This is set as standard and can’t be changed from what I’ve seen so far. Texture Texture in photography focuses on the micro-depth of areas, rather than the overall picture. This is a great way to make your images look that bit more interesting. There are a couple of options here: None Reseau Grid 1 Reseau Grid 2 Reticle 1 Reticle 2 Texture Intensity This slider sets just how prominent the above texture is in the image. Frame options Now, frames aren’t for everyone and you may not want to add them if you’re looking for a more natural, professional look. There are, however, some great options available. Frame category There are three frame category options: themed, factions, or branded. The themed category offers a number of novel options, like your image on the front of a magazine. Factions allows you to add faction-specific frames to your image. Branded frames are all Starfield-specific. Related Limits on joining factions in Starfield: Can you join them all? Explained Should you join the United Colonies (UC) in Starfield? Frame Frame options depend on which frame category you choose, but here are all the available frames for each category. Themed frames None Classic cover Flight manual Vintage poster Field notebook NASA punk Letterbox Field scope Viewfinder 1 Viewfinder 2 Danger Chronomark Faction frames None Constellation 1 Constellation 2 Constellation 3 Constellation 4 United colonies Freestar Crimson fleet Ryujin Vanguard Branded frames None Blue livery White livery Logo Grav wave logo Grav waves Bracketed logo H stripes V stripes Launch Adventure Starfield Wanderers

[@RobVespa]

Wonderful commentary and video. Thank you. All the best.

[@eugkra33]

I don't know if it's the depth of field effect, but so many shots in this video make the game assets look miniature. It's like a collection of model replica of space stations.

[@Creamcups]

It's a tilt shift effect, you can do it in photo mode.

[@L4veyan]

The fact that it runs so bad on PC without even having SSR is confusing since SSR usually has a big performance hit.

[@extofer]

I don’t like the sentiment that because it’s less buggy than previous Bethesda games, then it gets a pass. Compared to current games - load times, frame rate, writing, etc, should be looked at with more scrutiny and criticism. Comparing this game to Skyrim or Fallout 4 just does nothing for me, as someone that played neither. How is this game actually good and how does it set itself apart from any other big game released this year?

[@jamesbb4]

This has been xbox last hope for awhile now. It was always going to get a Nintendo type pass with performance. Why they didn't include even a 1080p 60 mode is strange

[@extofer]

@@jamesbb4 right? DF is making a lot of excuses for a PS4 looking game.

[@Cwluc]

Excellent review as always John but I have to point out that your intro is absolutely fantastic. In 02:25 it does the job of grabbing people's attention exceptionally well. So well I had shared the video with everyone I knew before I even made it all the way through screaming, "This intro is fire!!!"

[@dava00007]

This whole video sounds like a PR puff piece.

[@BigChiefx07362]

Yeah it's bad, especially from a game in development for 10 years and what we got was lies ..

[@Slytalion]

John could you please share what settings you changed on your tv to combat the elevated black levels, was it simply brightness or did you do something else?

[@consorte101]

Read my mind! The washed out blacks are particularly egregious within caves.

[@BurritoKingdom]

I think he's playing on the PC, Oliver played the Xbox versions.

[@reveredrobin9457]

​@@BurritoKingdomAll this footage is from series X, it even says so in the title

[@BigChiefx07362]

Even when they are saying "when you land your ship" is a lie, because you can't.. the game lands your ship since it's all loading screens

[@tangodancer1447]

The audio in Starfield is top tier 👌

[@jisjis87]

I really like these tech reviews by John. Very well done. Thank you!!

[@khs511]

If they are not going to give us full HDR due to artistic vision they should fine tune it to work better on OLEDs. Do hope they fix some issues, like water and shadowed areas. And disguise loading better. Game is gorgeous otherwise.

[@diuran1919]

I saw already after all modding black lev, and looks terrible, prefer Vanilla ver. With film like effect.

[@yinsolaya]

Artistic vision my ass. They couldn't even be bothered to add an FOV slider, despite even Fallout 76 having one. SpecialK just did the developer's job btw, and finally added HDR.

[@tomoakley760]

Seriously? "Artistic vision"? The blackness of space contrasted with sun beating on no-atmosphere planets is the sort of scene that HDR was "born" to depict in its full glory.

[@diuran1919]

With FOV and other missing sliders, I agree. @@yinsolaya

[@Epicjaack]

The only where oled works is when game boots saying starfield. Then Gone inside game :D

[@AleksLazar]

Yeah I’d preferred an optional getting in/out of stasis sequence for space jumps as well as proper landing into planets with fire and what not when entering the atmosphere

[@EhEhEhEINSTEIN]

I'm betting modders will do something about it

[@Vurt72]

Skyrim has more variety in terms of actual numbers of models for flora, trees, shrubs. Which to me was rather shocking after looking at the files. It's one region, this is 1000 planets, it should have way more variety than it has. 400 more people worked on this, it took longer to make - what were all those extra 400 people doing? Grasses doesn't even bend as you walk onto it, it just clips through you, this was OK like 15 years ago. For Morrowind we modded this in AGES ago.

[@PhyrexJ]

You not understanding it, doesn't mean you're right

[@Vurt72]

@@PhyrexJand you can't even mention exactly what i'm "not understanding"? Please make me laugh and go at it. If you mean i'm not understanding models or files? i've made some of the most successful mods for Skyrim, Morrowind and many other games from Bethesda, with many millions of downloads, i'll gladly link them.

[@ekopermana7150]

​@@PhyrexJfanboy 🤣

[@ozzyp97]

I had the same intro experience once when I started Skyrim VR with my Index set to 120Hz. It was... interesting, I almost lost my footing on flat ground.

[@360Fov]

I'm walking around the settlement on Mars at the moment, and based on the reviews and commentary, I guess my expectations were low, but God it's got such a great atmosphere. There are so many NPCs! It feels occupied and alive, with an insane amount of detail everywhere....from the way sand collects and settles on the parts of the floor with bumps and ridges, to the graffiti and the industrial feeling design of the buildings, with thick metal sheets. Super super impressed!

[@GhostInPajamas]

I’m right there with you. Going to Mars for the first time got me so excited. The hazy sky, the massive industrial towers and cranes. It’s a shame the game is getting so much criticism, I’m loving it

[@Fearls1]

The graphics are next level. The ai and story are ass.

[@MCP2002]

Totally agree.

[@alexlyster3459]

Alot of haters out there were desperate to try and downplay this game. Drilling down on nitpicks (or just straight up lies) rather than what the game does really well.

[@ZimmermanTelegram]

Don't listen to the haters. It's so good!

[@DELTABOY04]

this game is def a last gen game in all fascets ...they trying to doll it up

[@xandergaming46]

You are saying 'All footage captured on Xbox Series X' but I can clearly see some 60fps footage there, how is this possible since both Xbox versions are locked to 30fps?

[@TheNerd]

The graphics of this game would impress me, if Star Citizen didn't exist. Star Citizen proves, that there is no reason to "tile the world" like they did. The huge world of Starfield, feels like a collection of maps stiched together, not like a Space Exploration game.

[@somethinglikethat2176]

Tbf Star Citizen's development highlights why Bethesda's choice here wasn't necessarily a bad one.

[@pocketpc_]

I'd say the absurd development costs and timeline of that "game" proves exactly the opposite.

[@WMCheerman]

You guys are truly the best at “reviewing” video games. Thank you so much for your work.

[@mytop3467]

You mean DF are the best at reviewing the technology behind the video games. The best overall reviewer would be ACG.

[@RetroJack]

What's with the quotation marks?

[@David-tp7mc]

Yeah igns review was garbage

[@WMCheerman]

@@RetroJack they don’t do typical reviews

[@RetroJack]

@@WMCheerman Meh, seemed like a perfectly normal review to me.

[@DerdOn0ner]

I like how almost everyone talking about the game says “it’s a Bethesda game” and every gamer immediately understands 😂

[@konverzny]

Exactly. Empty open world with shallow gameplay, poorly written, and with a lot of bugs. Overhyped to hell and back because see that mountain? You can climb it. Or rather see that planet? You can go through 5 loading screens to teleport there.

[@H4GRlD]

Yeah let's be thankful that we got a consistent 30 fps experience. 😂

[@ipolarisi2381]

⁠@@konverzny How are Bethesda games so popular with all of these problems? It’s almost like what you said was… complete and utter bullshit

[@shiny460]

​​@@konverznyExcept this game has good writing and characters, a shit ton of things to do with more depth than their previous work, and isn't particularly buggy. But I guess it's easier to lie about a game you haven't played. Seethe harder, nerd

[@dexter1910]

@@ipolarisi2381 mods

[@nyx7608]

I genuinely don't trust this guys anymore after seeing phil spencer with digital foundry together. They like they been bought out

[@TylerMBuller12]

Ya they are def xbox shills. But honestly I think they will shill with whoever pays them.

[@packersredhot]

The absence of 60fps should be outlawed.

[@miikasuominen3845]

Btw, I really HATE increased black levels... Once you have an OLED and have become accustomed to "black black", it kinda stands out... Been trying it on PC for a little and I have to say I'm kinda impressed. There are bugs and missing things etc. but nowhere near other Bethesda launches. Which is nice.

[@mal-avcisi9783]

where is alex, still lazy making no videos ?

[@colin7225]

Black levels are not raised are they? Don't seem to be to me.

[@jasonstatham483]

@@colin7225 Yea, there is just no any in the game. No black color at all. Gray is darkest.

[@colin7225]

@@jasonstatham483 oh it didn't seem that bad too me.

[@jasonstatham483]

@@colin7225 Without filters it looks 1000% better. Filters ruins everything, and there is no option to turn it off. Stupid devs.

[@wilbar99]

Awesome review, you truly are a star in your field. ;)

[@DavidHunter]

Really dislike the extreme lack of actual exploration the game seems to offer and what I felt was the huge promise it had in the way they initially presented it. If you had everything else but you could actually travel manually between locations it would be infinitely more immersive (with various methods to shorten or completely remove such segments should you want to. But to completely fail at space exploration and planetary exploration just feels like a backwards step to me.

[@tjw6550]

Absolutely love that you have some Mass Effect Music in the background. 14:50 for example. Even seem to have matched locations somewhat. Music from the citadel for new atlantis, and Eden prime for the train station.

[@phoenixhegner3370]

I've noticed that too 😄

[@Test-yy2up]

Item persistence is such a weird hill to die on. I would rather have no loading screen than item persistence.

[@guitarzilla555]

I could listen to John talk about physically based materials all day.

[@TRH2243]

Cringe

[@irecordwithaphone1856]

​​@@TRH2243Why are you here? It's okay to enjoy things. It's not cringe to feel positive. Very sorry for you

[@TRH2243]

@@irecordwithaphone1856 because I’m interested in this title. That comment made me ill though

[@luisguerreiro8045]

@@TRH2243 Why so sad bro, reach out to a friend

[@TRH2243]

@@luisguerreiro8045 I’m not sad at all. The comment made me cringe

[@Constellasian]

I'm enjoying the game so far, but some typical Bethesda bugs still exist. The first bug was an NPC randomly floating away into the sky. The Adoring Fan spoke to me while he was sleeping. He didn't get up. He just laid there in bed with eyes closed and talking. I encountered this bug in older games like Oblivion, Skyrim, and Fallout 3 & 4. Another bug was when I killed an alien creature with the cutter and the creature was hilariously launched extremely high into the air. This reminded me of the Skyrim bug where giants launched victims upon killing them... including dragons.

[@gzdoitez]

Thank you for showing some 3rd person footage! I have not seen any coverage that has shown that option.

[@majormononoke8958]

why does the game looks like a miniature ? Is it because of the ground texture which seems not so differente or low ?

[@RoboHasi]

Really nice review, a fair assessment of what it does well and not considering the engine and scope. But that use of the Mass Effect soundtrack to play my feelings was sneaky!!

[@RoboHasi]

thats really good to hear, I was expecting more space sim but honestly that sounds even better (if my picture didn't give it away lol) so excited for Wednesday!

[@DerFuhrer76]

Awesome review John, congratulations

[@cowledclown1323]

Man, the pronunciation of Sputnik in the beginning killed me 💀 Be better. You learned how to say Wolfenstein, you can learn that too.

[@Pickle_Pee]

I think the harsh realization alot of space lovers find is that in actuality Earth is the most interesting place in the universe 😢😂 I imagine after 10 minutes on Mars most people would be bored

[@reveredrobin9457]

Yeah if we ever actually send people up to mars in the future, I'll feel sorry for the first group of people up there as there'll literally be nothing to do

[@Foxhound_Maisey]

i love the mass effect theme running through the video haha

[@freshprinceofcharlotte]

All this game does is truly show how INCREDIBLE no mans sky is , no loading screens ,actual full planet exploration, true space to planet landing , planet to planet travel, multitude of vehicles to use on planets for traversing long distances , the mining is waaaaaay more intuative, SWIMING 😂 , Its art style in my opinion is cooler without being based as much on reality like this game. God i could only imagine what a no mas sky 2 would look like if sony bought the studio gave them full control of team hireing and basically secured a ps5 exclusive gave them more money for a engine rehaul for this gen graphics it would be the best game of all time of they made the galaxy smaller so it would be even more detailed instead of spreading it thinner .... i could only imagine. Yet no mans sky period is better then this game just not in story mode .

[@william8217]

I totally agree. Imagine if Starfield had NMS’s exploration and the realism from Elite Dangerous. That’s what I was hoping for anyway.

[@freshprinceofcharlotte]

@@william8217 havent played that game. Yea no mans sky isnt perfect by no means the story being the weakest part even tho ive gotten into it but its alot of reading and isnt rpg at all but its the best space exploration game so far from a small staff studio and there first real aaa game they have so much potential. Sadly theyve already said there next game isnt no mans sky 2 😔 i just pray theg keep the same ceo and remember how to make it i can see nms 2 on ps6 or ps5 pro a true masterpiece industry game changing as much as nms is since studios followed making a procedual generated space game which now theres like 3 from major studios much bigger then hello games.

[@scrubpar965]

30 fps cap in 2023. What a time to be alive.

[@Cosmycal]

A good one

[@mrglass7133]

​@@Cosmycala very good time😮