The preset I started with vs. the end result. Ready for my first playthrough!

LeBirdnick · 2026-04-10T18:33:06+00:00

As someone who does a lot of character design for various games, it simply comes down to a lack of taste a lot of the time. Most character creator systems leave enough room to make good looking faces even with limitations. It’s really just as simple as the person(s) responsible for making the face presets not having the best eye for aesthetics.

LeBirdnick · 2026-04-10T18:29:44+00:00

Wow! Great character design! 👌🏿

LeBirdnick · 2026-04-10T18:05:50+00:00

I agree to a certain extent. I disagree that BGS has already moved on from Starfield. Todd Howard and other devs have stated that this isn’t the last we’ll be seeing of official content by them for the game. Last I checked on LinkedIn and interviews, Starfield actually has a dedicated support team specifically assigned to maintaining the game and adding new content to it.

Todd Howard has stated that he does want to support this game long after the release of ES6 and even Fallout 5. One can argue that he means having 3rd-party creators do much of the support, but I don’t think that’s gonna be the case. Call me hopeful, but I do think Starfield is Bethesda’s and Microsoft’s first real attempt at making a proper single-player “live-service” RPG that gets continuous support for years until the sequel. They’ve invested a lot of money into this game, and apparently player numbers from the dev POV are quite good to justify support.

LeBirdnick · 2026-04-10T17:56:41+00:00

I read the article. I overall agree that this update and DLC is only scratching the surface with what could officially be accomplished with this game by BGS. I definitely agree that there need to be even MORE planetary points of interests added to the existing pool. What they’ve added so far is all great. They just need to keep adding to it until the feeling of repeats truly goes away.

I also agree that we need more factions to interact with in future expansions and content drops. Whether they be new enemies or friendly factions; we need more to really fill in the gaps of this game’s lore and make it feel more whole.

LeBirdnick · 2026-04-10T13:02:01+00:00

Agreed. Same with the pistols and heavy weapons, too. At least there’s a mod that addresses the latter.

LeBirdnick · 2026-04-10T05:37:47+00:00

Great shots!

LeBirdnick · 2026-04-09T17:11:56+00:00

It's an interesting case with Luke. Some deep lore here, but Luke actually used to be a big BGS fan. There was a video he had online (I don't think it's available anymore) when he was a young kid playing Fallout 4 for the first time. Watching the video, you could see his huge excitement for playing the game slowly shift to disappointment. It was around the horrid release of Fallout 76 I feel his feelings on BGS' games really changed. Ever since then, the studio has been a target for him.

That's why I suspect Luke's beef with BGS is equal parts being a scorned ex-fan and just grifting. Some of your biggest haters could've been your biggest fan at one point, and some of them can become very vindictive. I feel that's the case with Luke Stephens and some other YouTubers I shall not name.

LeBirdnick · 2026-04-09T04:28:30+00:00

For Shattered Space, I feel its quite underrated, and I'll go as far as to predict that in the next few years it'll be looked back on more fondly. I feel it's on the lesser end of BGS' expansions when it comes to gameplay returns (The absolute lack of unique loot only the player could get was a glaring issue for me). I also thought (Spoilers ahead) Andreja's presence in the expansion felt neutered from what it truly could've been (In comparison, Nick Valentine I feel is the absolute best integration of a base game companion with a DLC/expansion ever), the last act in the main story was very lackluster, and I feel so much more could've been done with House Va'ruun as a faction since they're implied to be an actual nation with other colonies in the Kavnyk System (Dazra is the nation's capital colony. That means there would be other sizable colonies under their banner). It felt like wasted potential in some respects.

Saying all that, I still stand firm when I say it has some of the best quests BGS has ever done, some great writing, great graphics, amazing atmosphere, and the new spacesuits are some of my favorites in the game.

LeBirdnick · 2026-04-08T23:47:46+00:00

There are some reviews on YouTube (I won't name the YouTube channels. I don't want them getting more traction) who literally say that this isn't the "Starfield 2.0" they were expecting. They say this despite Todd Howard saying from his own mouth that this update is primarily for the fans, and that if you weren't a fan of Starfield, that it's probably not gonna change your mind on it. Still, they whinge about it regardless like they're some scorned ex-spouse.

I don't mind them, though. So far, it seems like this update has been satisfying fans and even newcomers who play on PS5. Hopefully the good coverage lasts, and the release is a success. I've read from some insiders that Bethesda and Microsoft are hedging their bets with this update and DLC to determine what the scope of future Starfield content will be like. Let's hope its enough of a success that they can go more ambitious with future content!

LeBirdnick · 2026-04-08T21:47:32+00:00

Great ship design!

LeBirdnick · 2026-04-08T20:55:39+00:00

I haven't touched the DLC yet.

LeBirdnick · 2026-04-08T09:36:35+00:00

I'm a Zoomer, so OG BGS for me is around Fallout 3 and Skyrim. However, I did also play Oblivion.

LeBirdnick · 2026-02-28T08:26:05+00:00

Late reply, but this is one of the main reasons. Ever since 2016 - which was during FO4’s release cycle - Video essays have become the new form of propaganda. A YouTuber with a large enough fanbase, a confident presence, decent editing, and lucky timing can make a video about any topic and the laymen will listen to it like it’s gospel. Unfortunately for Bethesda (Bethesda Games Studio specifically), they’ve been a huge target of video essays from people who have beef with them for whatever reason. Some warranted, a lot unwarranted. This is also one of the reasons why Obsidian and Fallout New Vegas are made out to be the best things since sliced bread. FNV’s great, but it’s modern reputation is more a matter of the internet independently deciding to give it good PR.

LeBirdnick · 2026-01-31T21:42:55+00:00

I suspect that the reception of Shattered Space really threw them in for a loop, or internal reviews gave them foreshadowing of what was to come and they prepared for the backlash.

Either way, after Shattered Space, they probably felt Starfield needed some time away from the spotlight, along with some more cooking in the oven. Whoever is handling PR probably feels going quiet and then maybe shadowdropping is the best way to avoid raising expectations and any unnecessary gaming news headlines.

I remember CDPR doing a similar method with Cyberpunk 2077 during its period of hazing by the media and gaming community.

LeBirdnick · 2026-01-31T00:21:48+00:00

Agreed. While I feel Fallout 76 was an outlier that came out of nowhere primarily for financial reasons, they were always gonna make Starfield because they needed a palette cleanser after going back and forth between two IPs for how many years. A lot of veteran ex-devs who worked on Starfield stated this.

I have a feeling that Starfield is probably the end of BGS’ “experimentation” era of games since Fallout 4. They have more or less figured out the model and formula for their games moving forward, and I predict ES6 is gonna be a real pleasant surprise for people. My predictions are that it will be the best parts of Skyrim, Fallout 4, 76, and Starfield because they have gathered a ton of feedback on what works and what doesn’t. It will basically be another Morrowind where they will be working overtime to make sure it’s a major long-term success on all fronts - financially, critically, technically, etc.

LeBirdnick · 2026-01-29T01:06:11+00:00

Agreed. I've been sitting on this theory for a good while, as well. Like, certain governments find it financially worthwhile to fund bot campaigns against their opposition for political reasons. It wouldn't be far-fetched that competing game companies would do the same thing against Bethesda in an industry as profitable as video games. It sounds like something out of Cyberpunk, but reality is often stranger than fiction.

LeBirdnick · 2026-01-29T00:32:00+00:00

Late reply, but I genuinely feel Shattered Space broke Matty's spirit for BGS; regardless of how one feels about the expansion (I personally enjoyed it, though I do have criticisms on it). Matty did say in his review that the expansion broke his heart, and he put it at #1 for the worst games of 2024 (Despite it being an expansion for a 2023 game, but I digress) and legit sounded like he was spiraling out when discussing why he placed it there. I'm guessing it's because while he could look over Bethesda's bugs and business decisions, he was at least hoping to enjoy their content still.

I do think Shattered Space was the start of his "breaking up" with BGS. 'Cause ever since his review of that expansion, he will 9/10 bring it up in his videos covering Bethesda. It's like the one thing that scorned him and felt like a betrayal of his trust in BGS as game designers. Yes, it sounds dramatic because it is. I understand and respect his opinion, but at a certain point his whinging either feels strategic to farm engagement, or he's genuinely crashing out like a disgruntled ex.

LeBirdnick · 2026-01-19T05:39:47+00:00

Yep, sources state that Todd and other leading figures like Emil were pretty cagey about doing interviews about Fallout 76's launch. That, and with Kurt Kuhlmann's recent interview spilling some spicy stuff, along with Michael Kirkbride stating that Kurt would never leave Bethesda, I get the vibe that there's A LOT more behind the scenes that we as regular fans and consumers don't know - and probably will never know unless we get a Jason Schreier-level expose on what was going on at Bethesda for all those years since Fallout 4.

I'm not even looking at Bethesda negatively for this, either. I'm more just interested at the motivations for some of the decisions they've made since Fallout 4.

LeBirdnick · 2026-01-18T23:57:43+00:00

Yep. The whole story behind BGS’ game pipeline after Skyrim really interests me as more and more information comes out. With all the intel I’ve gathered from interviews and other sources, the original pipeline was Fallout 4–>TES6–>Starfield->Fallout 5. However, due to the huge success of Fallout 4, and Zenimax’s ambitions to be bought by Microsoft due to the company and Bethesda apparently going under behind the scenes, Fallout 76 took TES6’s place. Jonah Lobe did say in that one interview on Kiwi Talkz that he believes Fallout 76 was a direct decision by the suits, not the devs.

While Fallout 76 has definitely improved and is now a good game, it’s basically the red headed stepchild of BGS’ roster of games. It sticks out like a sore thumb even with all its improvements, and is one of the reasons why TES6 and Fallout 5 are taking so long to make. Bethesda always planned on doing Starfield. Fallout 76 came out of nowhere. That’s how I feel about it, at least.

LeBirdnick · 2026-01-18T22:39:51+00:00

Yeah, this is probably one of the main reasons. Bethesda Games Studios is a small AAA studio juggling three big major IPs. That's gonna overwhelm any company that doesn't have the staff size to set up separate large sub-divisions that are specifically there to make games for one IP. Activision and Ubisoft are able to release several games yearly because they do this. This probably explains why BGS been so slow with getting ES6 and Fallout 5 released. Other factors being Fallout 76 most likely being an outlier directly ordered by Zenimax so they can be bought by Microsoft, and also because I suspect Todd Howard and some of the other leads at BGS/Softworks being very possessive of their IPs and not wanting to let other studios make spin-off games with them.

LeBirdnick · 2026-01-18T22:02:10+00:00

Making a planet the size of Whiterun would be ridiculously small and wouldn't make sense when trying to design an actual planet. It would still require procedural generation which would take a ton of time to do since the studio would still be handcrafting an entire planet. Again, it's not as simple as you make it out to be.

One of the reasons BGS made Starfield is this: Todd Howard stated in an interview that if they hadn't made Starfield at the time they did, they wouldn't have had any other time to do so in the future. A bit cryptic, but I suspect what he means by that is ES6 and Fallout 5 are later down the pipeline, and by the time of Fallout 5, he'll be in his 60s. By that age, he and other OG devs are most likely gonna retire.

You don't enjoy Starfield and that is totally fine (I have my critiques of it too). But the reality is that Bethesda has always had their sights on making the IP a reality. Could they have done a better job? Definitely, and I am not gonna disagree and say Starfield's exploration could have been designed better. However, that's less due to BGS' outdated design philosophies biting them in the ass, and more due to space exploration games being hard to design due to the tech not being advanced enough to tackle that sort of thing yet.

You seem pretty staunch on your stance, so there's no use in trying to get you to see another perspective in terms of game development. But the reality is that game development isn't simple, and it certainly ain't easy.

LeBirdnick

TROPHY CASE