look… No one is against them improving anything about the engine or game.
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I do hope it’s something they can improve if they do a game with lots of smaller zones again rather than massive areas.
One way that might work is less junk to keep track of - while I’m very impressed how it keeps track of everything, the sheer amount of junk in each location makes checking everywhere for decent loot a pain.
By the time you’ve done a few missions you don’t want to pick up wrenches etc that weigh a lot but are practically worthless - so every location having tonnes of junk they have to track probably doesn’t help the loading issue or save game sizes, and I bet apart from some odd people most gamers end up ignoring the cheap stuff for 90% of the game.
It can be frustrating as my brain doesn’t like things not done fully the right way, so I have to check every item in a room to see if there’s anything of value and the clutter makes this so much harder.
I know it’s a Bethesda tradition to have junk (and to get overloaded due to it) but I really wish I couldn’t add something to my pack unless it’s got a use - either as food / medicine / crafting materials / weapons or to display on my ship, or I can do something with it.
Going back to the spanner for example, if I needed tools to do some repairs I might actually pick them up and keep one around.
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I’m sure it would have been possible, but it probably wasn’t worth the time to implement it. People forget that games are hard to make and there are deadlines, so not everything is going to be possible.
Like Jesse said, Starfield is just different from an Elder Scrolls or Fallout. People complain about having to go through a loading screen when entering shops in a city in Skyrim for example, and while it’s totally possibly to make every shop a part of the same city cell, you’d have a situation where your poor cpu would have to do endless calculations for every object in the entire city, not just for it’s placement in the city but the physics for them as well. Add to that the pathfinding for every citizen and whether they collide with the previously mentioned objects, the lighting calculations from the “sun” and every other thing that I’m forgetting.
It would also be a nightmare trying to work on all of that with multiple people. You essentially have to have one person working on it. The Cells approach makes this all easier not just from how the game will run and perform, but in how you can actually make the game itself. With cells, you can have dozens of people working on the city, it’s shops, houses and whatever else.
That’s how I see it anyway based on my time modding for Oblivion and Skyrim. If someone else has a better grasp of it, please feel free to correct me.
This as well. I would love any improvements to the engine to make things more immersive, but I’m not going to expect them to completely change how they make their games. In essence, I’m ok with how things are as long as they keep giving me the game experience that I love.
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If it is CPU bound, it might mean it’ll improve next gen (as I doubt ES6 will hit the Series console generation).
So there’s a bit of hope there - but in a massive single world like the Elder Scrolls it’s less of an issue so would love it instead if they put it more into realistic routines for NPCs, as you mention the pathfinding etc.
I’m going to be there Day 1 no matter what, I love the series and as others have mentioned the new version of the engine is much prettier and it does faces much better - I suspect even with no changes it’ll be one of the best-looking “medieval” games around, which is great as there aren’t that enough for my liking
I’m one of the odd ones… I love being a hamster in these games. That was actually one of my disappointments with Starfield -the junk really was junk. Pointless. In Fallout I collect so much stuff for crafting and repairs and I find it very fun. I did that for the first mission in Starfield like I use to but soon realized it was just clutter. I have no idea what the point is of having all these things just scattered everywhere in this game.
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I’d like for them to figure something out if possible, I consider the loading a deterrent for exploration. Emphasis on the if.
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…but xbox is lying.
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Same, I think you bring up great points, junk had an aesthetic but also kinesthetic use in fallout. If there were something similar in Starfield it really makes you observe the little details of the environments with more intent.
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Coincidental on my end. Saw a South Park episode where Cartman got his amusement park and if you know the ending, well I like to think Cartman is bunch of Xbox hater and laughed at the thought of Square, mainly FF, never coming to Xbox. Well, the chance has risen. Only time will tell.
It’s been a long time coming, and to be honest I’m really glad their sales have been poor that it’s forced them to reconsider their approach.
It’s still going to a bit silly though if they don’t go back and tidy up the back catalogue too - who would buy an Octopath Traveler 3 on Xbox or PlayStation given you can only play 1 or 2 respectively so can’t play all 3?
They’re truly weird in their platforms, and I’m really hoping this means a standard approach from now on - although I’m intrigued how they include Nintendo given the power discrepancy.
Are they going to just run at 10fps on the Switch 2 (given they already don’t run great on the PS5), or will they improve their engine / cut games down a bit so they can grab more of the massive Nintendo userbase?
Hogwarts Legacy miraculously shows you can have the best of all worlds, but Square’s engine hasn’t seemed to be up to that level.
I’ll probably be slightly amused if FF7R3 ends up being not much better looks / world wise than the first game, purely because Square are already think post-exclusivity Switch 2 release…
I mean when you look at Capcom and especially Sega, who once had platform exclusive like Persona and even Yakuza once upon a time, and their performance in sales, how can you not move to that strategy. This is not anti-PS talking, the exclusive, timed or not, was actually hurting them. Maybe just maybe FF7R2 was the final straw.
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Persona and Yakuza were two series that I was always gutted that they never looked like making their way to Xbox…but not enough to shell out for a Playstation. So when they finally made the jump I was over the moon. Initially played the Yakuza’s on gamepass but from 7 onwards I’ve bought new games in the series at full price (same with Persona now).
I’ll probably do the same with FF16 and especially FF7 Remake(which I am very envious of as being exclusive). Granted I am an incredibly small sample size 
but I guess it shows making your stuff multiplatform will lead to more people buying your stuff (even if certain fanboys think a FF7 will only sell 5 copies on Xbox and isn’t worth porting)
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In fairness junk in Starfield isn’t uniquely useless. In the three big Bethesda RPGs, Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Starfield junk is only truly useful in Fallout.
And that makes sense for the setting. It’s post-apocalyptic, scavenging is inherent to the setting. In the other two it isn’t really worth picking up, which is setting appropriate. But it does add subtlety to the world. It’s nice to use a dragon power or hit something and see things fall or topple versus dragon shouting some guy across the room and every piece of parchment on the desk beside him staying still.
Is that worth it? It’s really neat to me, but in the absence of knowing what the alternatives are they could deliver with those resources I’m not sure.
The other thing is people look at the junk and go the junk is useless and also the junk is why we have cells which is why we have loading screens. And that’s not really how cells work in Bethesda games. When you play Skyrim or Fallout the game is always dynamically loading and unloading somewhere between like 9 and 24 cells around you. There’s no loading screens for that. The loading screen for the city areas is as much an optimization thing as anything. You can remove those. But loading screens for interiors and dungeons exist for a different reason altogether.
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This is an excellent response, and you are correct. It is almost exclusively in Fallout where collecting items and junk plays a significant role. In Skyrim, it contributed more to the narrative arc, as there was an emotional distinction between stealing from a noble/high-ranking citizen as opposed to a peasant(a testament to its world-building). It felt different; it hit different. In the context of Starfield, none of those clutter scenarios really come to mind. However, I do believe Bethesda could implement this, even if it means synthesizing clutter in your ship like in Prey, which would add an extra dimension for me.
In conclusion, I must say this: I believe the Creation Engine (especially version 2.0) is vastly underrated for its capabilities and achievements.
https://x.com/vgc_news/status/1789936938025124115?s=46&t=O_AGT9SEnlptKOF_2SxtqQ
In case someone will say, “Maybe one extra platform like PS5 Pro.”
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You love to see it
Also good to see Benji back, was worried something was wrong with him
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Hopefully this means several older AAA games too, such as 7R and 16.
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Very likely, especially they are big titles. Smaller ones will be up to debate.
Sweet. Wonder what the chances are of updates on this during Xbox show.