It sure feels impossible to have an honest conversation about Starfield online right now.

  • Blake [he/him]@feddit.uk
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    7
    ·
    1 year ago

    I’m struggling to see how it ate so many dev hours.

    Lots of stuff got added: space combat, ship building, the new research system, the rank challenges stuff, new lockpicking, and I bet loads of stuff besides that I forgot. Adding all of that stuff to a new game from scratch would take a good chunk of time, but I can imagine patching it all in to an ancient game engine that’s probably barely hanging together honestly it’s surprising they got some of it working at all

    • HarkMahlberg@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      1 year ago

      an ancient game engine that’s probably barely hanging together

      I think Bethesda is a company full of people at the terminus of their careers - they don’t know how to make any other kind of game than “Bethesda RPG,” they don’t know how to use any other game engine, and they are unable to learn either of those skills. Many other game studios have learned to evolve and shift their resources and assets - Naughty Dog doesn’t still use the Jak and Daxter engine, From Software went from making mecha games like Armored Core to defining an entire genre with Dark Souls. It seems like Bethesda doesn’t have the capacity to change like other companies.

      • HelixTitan@beehaw.org
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        That’s actually a bad comparison. Elden Ring and AC6 use the same engine, which is at least a heavily modified Demon Souls engine. FromSoftware is much closer to Bethesda in how they reuse tech than you realize

        • HarkMahlberg@kbin.social
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          I was referring to the Armored Core games that From developed starting with the original PlayStation in 1997. But to your point, it speaks to their flexibility in using the same engine to make games of two fairly different genres.