Today we're going to talk about the latest news and updates from Starfield. Todd Howard just shared some details about the PC version of the game, which caused a heated discussion in the community. The Digital Imaging Lab actually raises some concerns, which I'll illustrate. As you know, Starfield only has 4 romantic options, which has left many fans upset. However, according to a 3A developer from the Dragon Age series, this is actually a good thing, not a negative thing. However, we will come into more detail on this later. Finally, we'll discuss some of my guesses about how the game started, and more. So check out the video chapter table of contents and let's get started.
First, let's take a look at AMD's big news about Starfield, which worries the community. The news came from Todd Howard himself. So in the video, Todd said, "We're very excited to work with AMD on Starfield. This is the most ambitious game we've ever made. We developed a new technology and production engine2 for it, and worked with AMD to create engine 2 to make it look and run great. It's really a very special collaboration. ”
"We have AMD engineers working on FSR2 image processing and upsampling in the code, and it looks incredible," he said. Todd says you'll obviously get these benefits on PC, but it's the same on Xbox. We are very excited and can't wait to show you more. Thank you so much. In response, AMD representatives said: "I can't wait to explore thousands of planets by myself." We are proud to partner with Todd and Bethesda to bring the best of Starfield to everyone." So what does this mean for you PC gamers? If you own an NVIDIA graphics card, you've probably heard of DLSS, or Deep Learning Supersampling, which is essentially an AI upsampling technique designed to boost performance. Its working principle is that the graphics card outputs a certain resolution, and then the AI core of the NVIDIA graphics card upsamples the image to improve its image quality without taking up too many resources. DLSS is currently the industry standard AI upsampling technology. At least so far, it's the best.
Perhaps AMD did some work in Starfield, and its FSR2 achieves at least close to DLSS. It's hard to say at the moment, but it's unfortunate that AMD pays a high price for exclusivity, especially considering that so many people use AMD graphics cards. It looks like you won't be able to use DLSS in Starfield, it simply won't be supported. The same applies to Intel Arc's XCSS, which is their own AI upsampling technology. All we know so far is that Starfield will use AMD's FSR2 on PC and Xbox, which is designed for multithreaded chips. Of course, this has caused concern for many PC gamers who are looking forward to Starfield, especially those who use NVIDIA graphics cards.
Admittedly, FSR2 is nowhere near as good as DLSS, and the fact that Starfield won't include DLSS is really worrying, as it's essentially limiting the options for PC players. So, let's all hope that Starfield is a well-optimized game on PC, and if they remove DLSS due to their partnership with AMD, and the game is not optimized well on startup on the PC side, I can foresee an absolute catastrophe. So let's all hope that Starfield is in excellent condition on the PC side, and that the implementation of AMD FSR is really excellent. There's no 100% confirmation yet that AMD's exclusivity means there won't be DLSS, but let's be honest, I don't see that going to happen.
It is expected that the game will only have FSR2, and then it is hoped that some mod developers will add DLSS and XCSS to future mods. It's also worth mentioning that this game can be CPU-limited, so if you turn on FSR or CAS, that shouldn't really affect CPU usage. But I'll stop talking nonsense and leave the voice to the experts in the Digital Imaging Lab. Next, let's talk about the romantic options in Starfield. As you know, Todd Howard recently confirmed that there are only 4 partners in the game who can develop romantic relationships. This was revealed during an interview with Todd Howard with Kinda Funny. So let's quickly comb through the background. The question is: "Can only four zodiac sign couples develop romantic relationships?" Todd replied, "The four main horoscope companions support the full quest line as well as romantic development."
So now, the only partners we know of who can develop romantic relationships are Sam Coy and Sarah Morgan. But interestingly, they say that there are also four main zodiac sign mates with complete quest lines to develop romance. This leads me to think that there are other partners in the game who can develop romantic relationships, except that they don't have a full questline like those four main horoscope companions. So Todd's statement on the Kinda Funny podcast doesn't completely rule out other romance options, which I think is a good thing. This leads to a similar view by a pre-Dragon Age writer.
He quoted: "We did a PC gamer article saying that there are 1,000 planets for romantic development." He commented, and I quoted him as saying: "I think it's a good thing, hopefully it reflects the mentality of quality over quantity, at least in terms of narrative." Unless a meaningful romance arc is something that people envision AI can create, in which case you..."
He further stated that he wouldn't really call the romance in the previous Bethesda game a real romance. Then say that skepticism can come from the promise of unlimited content, but at the same time meaningful content, and so far, the two are not quite compatible. I guess we'll see.
So if you're worried about the romance options in Starfield, just know that there's going to be something crazy going on. I mean, look at the ratings of the ESRB (Video Game Software Rating Board). In a quote it says, "I'm in favor of a little bit crazy, but next time we can try it without a jetpack." Next, let's talk about some news about the physical and digital versions. Whether the standard version of the game will contain discs has been highly controversial. In particular, I would like to clarify a lot of misinformation with you, especially if you plan to purchase the physical version of Starfield.
So will the physical version of Starfield include a physical version on CD? Yes, physical discs will be included in the standard version of the game. But if you buy the Constellation Edition, the collector's edition with cool watches, as I did, this version of the game won't have a physical version. It won't have a disc at all. It will have a prepaid card with a laser-burned game code, which for me is what I really prefer. I'm a digital version of the game anyway, so I don't really have a reason to buy the physical version. But I know many of you collectors plan to buy the game, so if you want a disc, just buy the Standard Edition and it will come with one.
Next, I would like to talk about some news about loading screens. As you know, every game in Bethesda has become a meme in this regard, especially The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim. It's a fact that BGS games have loading screens, and that doesn't change in Starfield. However, since the game requires SSDs instead of loading screens at each new area entrance, there will be different loading points, but there will be loading screens inside the building. Now this Reddit post has been widely circulated on Twitter and I was also linked to it. It says: "Announcement: There will be loading points, but there will be few loading screens." Reddit user Fonso Lodge said: "There are loading points, but there are very few loading screens." So when they say loading point, they mean that the spacecraft lands on a planet, the spacecraft takes off from the planet, the spacecraft jumps to another solar system, connects to another ship like docking, sits in the cockpit, and gets up from the pilot's position to walk inside your ship. These will be the loading points.
But if you watch this part of the live stream, you'll see the door to the abandoned robotics lab open. When the door opens, this is essentially another loading point into the building. So I guess that's one of the reasons why they ask for SSDs. So whenever the door is opened and the game loads, the actual loading point will not be too obvious. I guess there will be specific loading screens for some aspects of the game, or as in Hogwarts Relics, there will be a small loading bar whenever you open some doors. In Hogwarts Legends, this is just another area, much larger than when the door is opened. It only takes a second to load everything inside the render, and then the door opens.
One of the core elements of Starfield is their use of process generation, from planets to biomes to creatures and more. Of course, this has sparked debate in the community, and I won't delve into it. I talked about it in the previous video, but I wanted to show these two images generated by the process. As you can see, the player's region or planet looks similar, but each screenshot has different details. If you look at the image on the left, you can see blue crystals emerging from the ground, while in the other screenshot is a structure. Now, all this leads me to think about the most curious aspect of the game at the moment, which is where did our journey in Starfield begin? Will the game start with us all in the same place, or will we all start at a random location that looks completely different?
Now, if you remember the very first game demo, some would think we'd start with Crete or the new Atlantis City on the planet Jamieson. But the more I think about it, the more I think everyone's journey will start differently. I think when we all launch the game, it's possible that we'll all start in a system that is very close to the centrifugal star, but not in that system. But it is also possible to determine where we start in the game based on the career path we choose in Starfield. Currently, the game has 16 backgrounds, from beast hunters to bouncers to cyber runners and even professors. Any character background we choose may determine our starting point in the game.
Now, there's probably and most likely we'll start with New Atlantis, but I don't think it's going to be as dramatic as the first jump to Centrifuge, where all the cargo was scanned, and then landed on New Atlantis for the first time. This will mean that the decisions we make for the characters will immediately affect the game, which also provides a lot of repetitive playability for the game. This will give you reasons to start with different career paths. Now from games like The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim and the Fallout series, one of the most popular mods is the Alternative Opening mods, so the possibility of Starfield including alternative openings in the game from the start is something I never thought would be possible, but it's a welcome possibility.
With less than two months to go until Starfield's official release date, September 6, questions have been asked about when Bethesda's next official news source will be. It was recently confirmed that Starfield won't be featured at the upcoming QuakeCon. So we don't have to expect too much from the news out there. But what does this mean for the hype before launch? Will we see another Starry Sky in-depth live stream closer to launch? Do we get game previews or events from journalists or creators? My hope is that we can get the original uncut gameplay video from Xbox Series X and S as well as PC. Probably played by Todd Howard himself, similar to how Nintendo played The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom by AJR Numa before launch. But until then, we'll have to wait for official news from Bethesda Game Studios.