Your biggest Starfield questions, answered

With Starfield now out, modders are already beginning to use the tools that they have at their disposal to improve and change the massive sci-fi RPG in a number of ways. And of course, this being a Bethesda RPG, there’s plenty of excitement surrounding what will be possible once the game’s full modding toolset is at the disposal of the community.

Bethesda’s Todd Howard has discussed the benefits of Starfield being an Xbox console exclusive.

Bethesda development chief Todd Howard has discussed the benefits of Starfield being Xbox exclusive, namechecking the brand association Nintendo enjoys with its first party games.

«We could make a safer, less buggy, less risky game if we wanted to» harrumphed Pete Hines last week, talking about Starfield while claiming Bethesda's reputation for buggy games is undeserved. But, you see, that reputation is deserved and that's why we love them. A wise friend once observed to me that everyone talks about Skyrim in terms of grand adventure and epic storytelling, whereas for him it was a game about fly-tipping cows down mountains and watching the physics scramble to cope.

Bethesda Game Studios’ titles have always had a reputation for being technically rough, buggy games, and though Starfield is very clearly the most polished a BGS game has been at launch in a long, long time, it still has its fair share of technical hiccups.

With Starfield's long-awaited launch upon us, Bethesda has been doing the media rounds to chat about the upcoming RPG. The studio has released a few buggy games in its history, so a question was eventually raised about the bug in the room – a timely subject with Starfield already releasing via pre-order early access. 

If you were hopeful that mod support would be featured in Starfield right out of the gate, you might be in for some disappointment. Fortunately, we knew Starfield would feature mod support. The video game is easily one of the more anticipated titles to launch this year and arguably one of the biggest for the Xbox team in a very long time. However, with the game nearly here with the official launch and those on early access getting to dive in, you will have to enjoy the vanilla experience of the game. All the extra goodies that come packed from mods will be coming later.

The Elder Scrolls 6 is seemingly in active development, right as Starfield launches.

Planetary exploration has been the subject of much debate among Starfield fans in the lead-up to the game’s launch and early access period this Friday. Most want to be able to explore the entirety of all 1,000 planets, walking in a straight line around their circumferences, but some would prefer it if that weren’t the case.

Starfield is just days away from launch and ahead of that the Bethesda RPG has seen several leaks. Copies of the game are currently in the hands of select reviewers and even some players who obtained it illegally, before sharing a plethora of screenshots and gameplay videos online. One such clip that's now causing concern for fans about Starfield's scope was first leaked on a Chinese forum, over the weekend, which suggested that a player could run non-stop in one direction for 40 minutes, before being met with a ‘Boundary Reached' message. The videos have since been removed, though players are now questioning the legitimacy of developer Bethesda's claims.

Bethesda Game Studios’ titles have a long and stories tradition of being heaven for the modding community, and titles put out by the studio has enjoyed incredibly long lives as a result of what the community has created using their modding tools. Unsurprisingly, Starfield looks set to continue that tradition.

How long we spend in video games is dependent on several factors. First, the type of game it is. Second, how long the game’s story is, should it have a campaign mode. Third, if a title has a long gameplay loop, you can keep diving into it endlessly, such as with several FPS franchises. Finally, how big the world or universe of the game is, which is always determined by the developers. In the case of Starfield, Bethesda has promised a massive universe for gamers to dive into and seek out whatever they want. One person who has felt this “experience” for many hours is Pete Hines.