Exploring Starfield's planets was a lot harder before Bethesda "nerfed the hell out of it"

Starfield has been out for about six weeks, and as the dust settles on the honeymoon period, some players are finding that the spacefaring RPG just doesn't have the staying power of Bethesda's previous games, most notably Skyrim. 

The surprise sequel Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 was announced back in July, and it struck us as something of a do-over, but with a heavy emphasis on more: More stages and updates of existing stages, a new campaign mode, more modes in general, crossplay, a visual spit-shine to every existing character, new minigames, and of course new characters. And now we've got the reveal of the final character coming to the lineup: It's the Avatar firebender Azula, princess of the Fire Nation and daughter of Fire Lord Ozai.

Starfield players have been testing the game's ship building features ever since launch, creating all sorts of weird and wonderful vessels that vary greatly in how spaceworthy they actually are. You could create something cool like a replica of the The Normandy from Mass Effect, or you could terrorize the Settled Systems with a big cube or a ship the size of a bathtub.

Bethesda Game Studio’s creative director, Todd Howard, wasn’t expecting our Starfield ships to be so damn cool.

Apple was never serious about replacing Google with Microsoft's Bing as the default search engine in Macs and iPhones, but kept the possibility open as a "bargaining chip'' to extract bigger payments from Google, a Microsoft executive testified Wednesday in the biggest U.S. antitrust trial in a quarter century.

If there's one thing I love in this world, it's trinkets. Tchotchkes. Doodads and thingamajigs. Nothing enables this desire for collecting crud more than a good old-fashioned Bethesda game. Forks, mugs, spoons, bowls—you name it, it's probably in my inventory.

Exploring Starfield's planets was previously a lot harder, Bethesda has revealed, before the developer decided to dial back some «very punitive» atmosphere effects.

If you land and go exploring on one of Starfield's many planets, you might become afflicted with a status effect. It won't bother you too much, though, and you can cure the effect with an item or a quick trip to a doctor.

I've walked on nearly 200 different planets in Starfield in environments ranging from frozen tundra to baking infernos to toxic atmospheres. And in all that time I've only suffered one affliction that I felt a need to rush to a doctor to fix: I contracted a lung condition that eventually got so bad it made sprinting consume my oxygen supply in a matter of seconds, and I didn't have the meds to cure it myself.

Starfield is the biggest Bethesda RPG to date, so of course features, mechanics, and ideas either got cut, reduced, or changed during development. This natural part of the development has been highlighted by Starfield director Todd Howard, who’s explained why a more in-depth planetary affliction system was cut down in favor of other mechanics.

Starfield's planets were originally supposed to be much more punishing for players, that is until Bethesda "nerfed the hell out of it," reveals Todd Howard.

Reworked skill trees and new minigames aside, Cyberpunk 2077's 2.0 update includes a Ukrainian localisation of the game's million-plus-word script. It turns out the Ukrainian version is awash with references to Russia's on-going invasion of Ukraine, all of it seemingly in support of the latter. The news comes via Zone of Games, who have published a few side-by-side comparisons from the game's files, underlining differences between the English and Ukrainian translations in various bits of dialogue and menu text.