Release date has been confirmed as November of 2022 for Bethesda's new space oriented action-RPG.


Additional Information can found here at the game's official site: https://bethesda.net/en/game/starfield

Recent Developer Vlog highlighting the game's environment and location: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoZAAebhnxs

Thanks so much for the links, TM!

It sounds like a long way off, but it really isn't that far away.

Bethesda always tells us release dates, but next to nothing on what's in the game. Fallout 3, 4, 76, Skyrim, etc. were all handled that way. This is to prevent over-promising and potentially angering the players. Cyberpunk 2077 was a case where we were told in advance practically everything: release date, in-game features, storylines, everything. And when the game ended up missing release date and features, players became ballistic. Either you tell customers the release date, or what's in the game. But never both. If you only tell people what's in the game, the release date can be whatever you want. If you tell them only the release date, you can cut features to meet the release date if necessarily without angering the public.

Here's a pretty recent gameplay video of it - https://youtu.be/NagIJRhIfug. Looks like it will be released this year.

There's a lot of Mass Effect/Andromeda/Outer Worlds in there. Looks promising, though.

So I'll phrase this as "tentative" , it looks like Starfield will be now be released at the end of August 08/31.

Oiks! And I was getting all geared up for a run through Cyberpunk 2077 with all the DLC. Now this! And BG3! And I bought Elden Ring, too,

Oh, and I haven't played ESO for a couple of years and must have a gazillion points to spend on stuff.

Sigh. I need two lives.

.....was announced March 8th according to this launch date announcement. Long awaited Starfield finally can be played. This action / adventure / RPG looks very good. It appears it will be released as an "Early Access". I normally don't get involved with this type of game but after watching its videos and reading what I could about Starfield it has me very interested. I gotta try it. It will definately be a learning experience for me. I can't tell you how many times I wished I had learned to play RPG, Shooter and Management games besides playing adventure games but never went there

There is quite a bit out there on Starfield. Here is some of that:

Official Website - Definately check out
"Media" if have not

16 Minutes Gameplay Demo (4K 60FPS UHD)

1 Hour Gameplay Demo

Discussions

Wikipedia

Starfield releasing still as "Early Access" will no doubt be in "EA" for some time to come working out all kinds of issues being the type of game it is. Does one wait to purchase or grab it now and begin the journey. Good question.............

Thanks for all the great information Orion! As for when to join in journey, depends on what "floats your boat".

"Early Access" usually translates to a Beta or a similar release meaning there will be bugs, and from Bethesda's previous history, game ending bugs. So if you're curious, or if they offer perks for bug reports then by all means, jump into the fray. Personally, I did enough beta testing back in the day, but I do tend to check out early releases just to see how stable they are and get a feel for the game mechanics. My running theory is that if the early release is a mess, then I'll probably wait until well after the official release to purchase the game under the assumption that they will have patched the nastiest stuff by then.

There is no doubt Starfield will be an experimental play for awhile Trail_Mystic. It would be best to hold off on getting it for a bit just to see what kind of issues Starfield will have and how fast Bethesada gets around to updates/patches. Hopefully it wont be a total mess. I have seen major updates on other games in "EA" similiar to Starfield's build that were a complete start over removing all ones progress. You talk about some players getting irate. I don't want to be in that "boat" so it will be a "watch and wait" for now I guess

While I am "watching and waiting" I've got an issue of my own....POWER! I don't have enough. I need to upgrade. I have been putting it off for too long now. I guess it could not have come at a better time. Origin has some discounts running:

Back to School

Starfield Bundle - thats timing

If I can save $1000 somehow on a laptop getting back up to speed without having to refinance the home, well that would be nice. Gonna have to give them a call today

Yeah, gaming laptops always come at a premium and you have to be SO careful with overheating. It's the reason I only build desktops for gaming.

Agreed, I also stay away from prebuilds. Although when setting up my portable kit this year for video review and minor editing I wanted a decently powerful laptop that didn't take a second mortgage. I went with the newer MSI Crosshair 15 (at the time was on sale at Best Buy for under 1k), which so far is running well after I got rid of the bloatware, upgraded the memory and M.2 drives and loaded Win 11 Pro.

Orion, do some shopping around. While Origin tends to be thought of as a top-tier builder, they are sometimes overpriced for what you're getting and do have some customer services issues (their rating with the BBB is pretty abysmal).

We need a running hardware and build thread in the Glitches forum Drac so this mod doesn't go off topic so often

I am looking forward to Starfield, although the BG3 release is absolutely beautiful, so I'll be glued to that for awhile.

Excellent observation about Origin, Trail!

Thank you for Drac for reminding me about possible overheating in laptops. I'll keep that in mind as I look around

I'll take a look at their customer service issues Trail. Have done some shopping around. The discounts caught my attention on top of being a top tier builder. I'll check out a few more sites. Thank you

Merging individual threads into one that we can use to talk about all things Starfield.

Great idea. If all goes well I will definately need advice / help playing Starfield. First game of this type for me but first I have to take care of this "needing more power" to run it.

Could I please get some opinions on which processor, video card and mother board are a better way to go in building a system. Build AMD all the way or go with an Intel processor, Nvidia video card and what motherboard. Does it make a difference?

The reason I am asking is you can get Starfield for free by choosing select AMD product. Besides that I would want what is considered the better of course

I have always been an Intel believer / buyer but I really don't know if one is better than the other. Not only can I get $200 to $1000 off depending on Desktop or laptop but can also get Starfield for free. If Intel and Nvidia are considered top of the line I would just purchase the game

I have not called on a new system yet but will today to start getting some estimates and see what deals are available

I don't have an opinion on Nvidia or AMD. When I build I always use Nvidia and Intel, but other people prefer AMD. AMD "used" to generally be less expensive, but I don't think that's true any more. If you are considering a desktop, check out this builder. They are really reasonable and the reason at least a dozen people here at GB have used them plus many others at Mystery Manor, is the customer service. It is second to none. Greyfuss here was missing a little foot for the case and they took one off another case and sent it to him within the day as an example! I recent contacted Mike - the owner - to ask a question about a computer they'd built 10 years earlier and he responded with an answer and a suggestion within the day.

EcollegePC

*Warning: Long winded mod blathering ahead*

Look at your needs over the industry hype. If your monitor is 1080p and you don't intend on upgrading for a number of years then you can settle for a less powerful set-up. All the talk about ray-tracing and so on becomes mute if the monitor can't interpret what the card can produce.

It's good to check the various manufacturer forums and reviews at channels/sites like Gamer's Nexus or Tom's Hardware. They are both a good source for reviews on any hardware and even full pre-built units.

Also, when looking at a pre-build you want to consider connectivity: Do you want USB 3.2 or is 3.0 OK? How many monitors are you running, will they always be connected via HDMI or do you want to use DisplayPort or maybe Thunderbolt? Do you want a better audio output to speakers and a subwoofer or is a headphone jack all you need? Are you going to need a DVD/CD drive? While not very common now-a-days some folks have games that aren't yet available on cloud services, so like to have that option. So think about those kinds of things too and look at the ports that will be available.

When building I tend to look for what the best bang for my buck will be. That usually means building a generation back from the most current offerings. My last builds are using the 2nd gen RTX 3060 Ti's because those had a brief (and surprising) price drop right around the time the 4000 series cards were coming out, and were far more reasonable.

Now though, you have the RTX 4060, which is in the same price category if not cheaper for some models and provides a somewhat stronger offering than the 3060. I also went with the i7 (13700) CPU as opposed to the i9 due to the large cost differential compared to real world performance. As for Intel and nVidia versus AMD, it's personal preference, but I prefer going the Intel CPU, nVidia GPU route. For brands of motherboards and vid cards I generally stick with ASUS or Asrock (same company), Gigabyte and MSI. There are number of other makers out there like Intel that are perfectly reputable as well. Just need to check and see what kind of experience people are having with them and the company's customer service. One brand I would stay away from at the moment is EVGA for motherboards or vid cards. They've been going through a lot of drama lately and not sure how much longer they will be around. Too bad, they used to make some great stuff. Generally, you want a motherboard that will accommodate 12th and/or 13th gen Intel CPU's or, I think AMD Ryzen 7 or 9 CPU's (BIG caveat on the AMD comment. I am not versed in their current operations or performance, what I mentioned are just the most recent.)

System Memory is also important. You can get away with 16GB for most applications, but I prefer to be in the 32-64GB range if possible. The amount of Graphics memory you need in the Vid Card is really dependent on the version. Good example are those 3060's I mentioned. Those are 8GB as compared to the generation 1 that had 16GB. That GPU had a refresh and the 2nd gen actually provides better performance with less memory than the previous generation. Some Graphics Card makers will throw a bunch of memory in to make the card seem better than it actually is.

One overlooked piece of hardware in pre-builds is the Power Supply. Check what the power demands are at load for the components (CPU, GPU) in a prebuild and make sure the PSU they are supplying meets those demands.

While building out my newer gaming machine I'm using a build I did 6 years ago with an i7 8700 CPU and GTX 1070. It doesn't qualify for Windows 11, but I'm still running the universal graphics setting for Baldur's Gate 3 on Ultra with only a touch of stuttering when starting up the game. I'm sure I'm not seeing all the cool fog and god-ray effects that come with the new vid cards, but I'm not missing them either at this point.

This made me smile, Trail, because I like to get those last generation components when the prices drop as soon as the newest and bestest comes out! I also went for the Core i7 (10700K) over the Core i9 for the same reason. I loved the Gigabyte motherboards, but my last 3 have been ASUS motherboards and I really like them.

Best advice ever from Trail, Orion!

Yeah, I really lucked out on those 3060's. As soon as the RTX 4000 series hit the shelves, the OC Ti 3060 price dropped like a rock. Now the price is back up again - go figure. I swear there's some conspiracy theory brewing about how the illuminati controls the prices of GPU's

For Starfield, I think the one requirement that throws some people is the 125GB SSD space requirement. If it's going to be one of those games that allows multiple play throughs with various character types, then your going to burn way more space with all those saves. Baldur's gate is just under 100GB and they recommend 150GB available to accommodate updates and saves. So given the way that Bethesda kicks out expansion packs, you probably want to have around 200GB available. So, speaking of drives I would look for something in the 2 TB range. 1 TB is ok though. SSD, M.2 or otherwise is ideal, but good platter drives are fine. They just equate to longer load times.

Other than that, the CPU and GPU requirements are pretty reasonable, citing CPU generations all the way down to the 6800K i7 and 2600x Ryzen 5 and GPU's all the way down to the 1070.

Sticking with a mid-grade CPU and GPU is usually a good thing to give yourself some future proofing, while not breaking the bank.

For quite awhile there when supply chains were a nightmare, you had to sell a kidney to get a decent GPU!

Those are some hefty space requirements!

Thank you both very much for the info and guidance. I will keep it all in mind as I go forward. Starfield's requirements are fairly steep. I was gonna bump them up to make sure we will be good for awhile. I would like to be able to upgrade where needed, memory, graphics and processor. This is my start config:

ASUS motherboard
I7 Intel processor. If not upgradable I will consider an I9
Series 3 Nvidia graphics card if not a 4 - not really needed at this point
Good memory / RAM
2T SSD
The right power supply keeping in mind upgrading the CPU and GPU down the road when / if needed
WIN 11
VR Ready

My wife is a computer technician / IT. We built our Win 7 a few years back. We could not upgrade the CPU. Still one of the best machines we have ever had only used to download / play Steam and GOG games. Might save a little if we were to build this one. I'll get it figured out

What are the advantages of going with more CPU cores, 10+ core instead of an 8 core. I read where it has something to do with the SSD running up to it's speed potential. Are there other reasons to get more cores, do the amount of cores somehow help other components, hardware and software, for performance? I know the more cores a CPU has the higher temps will run. Other than that do you have to be conscious of core count. What do they go up to nowadays.... 24 cores?

You don't necessarily need to limit yourself to Asus as a motherboard manufacturer. Asrock, Gigabyte and MSI make great motherboards as well. Good to keep your options open, base it on your need, budget and reviews. Even Asus produces a bad-egg now and again, it's just sort of the nature of the industry now-a-days.

As for number of CPU cores, it's about multi-tasking and usually gets leveraged more with heavy business utilization (i.e. automation, calculations, an so on.) Gaming mainly leverages the Graphics Card and drives more often, although some games do work through background calcs and network communication on a regular basis so would see some performance increase using more cores.

The CPU doesn't determine the speed of the SSD, it's based on the pathway that is used for storage exchange on the motherboard and the type of SSD that's used. Generation 1 SSD's, the ones that look like 2.5" laptop drives use the same SATA pathway as platter drives, but do it more efficiently. They access and write their data faster so the speed is perceived as quicker than a platter drive, but once the data hits the SATA channel on the motherboard it will run at the same speed. So it's the write and read access that's quicker. For some of the newer M.2 SSD drives (that's the new form factor, doesn't have anything to do with their speed), the ones that are about the size of a stick of gum, those may leverage a different path than that of the previous generation. The newer drives use the PCIe path, which is the same paths as the expansion cards (like graphics cards) use.

SATA drives use only 1 lane of "traffic" to exchange data, while PCIe drives use 4, so the data exchange speed, along with the read, write speed is substantially higher than SATA SSD or Platter drives. nVME M.2 drives I believe are the fastest because they are configured to take the most advantage of the lanes that are available to them with the PCIe interface. What can impact their speed is what path they are relegated to on the motherboard. If the M.2 drive slot on the motherboard shares the path used by one of the expansion cards, then the available lanes will be reduced if you use both an expansion card and an M.2 drive together. Although really for our purposes the speed reduction is negligible and still blazing fast compared to platter or gen 1 SSD drives.

Building a PC can help save money, but mainly give you the confidence of knowing exactly what went into the unit.

That is good information to know Trail. I would have never known or even thought that this kind of technical information could be of benefit. Every little bit helps. Thank you

I wanted a 970 EVO Plus NVMe M.2 SSD 2TB installed on a laptop. I was told by a few sites that SSD's are not available yet for laptops so now I am leaning towards a desktop. I don't want a desktop. I can go with a different HD on a laptop or go desktop. I can get a 2TB Samsung 970 EVO Plus PCIe NVMe hard drive installed on a laptop but this is not SSD like required by Starfield besides that I want a SSD drive. I don't know what to do at this point. I am gonna call Samsung this morn to find out about this SSD issue, do they make them for laptops and just not offered at these sites I have looked at and called

What are your thoughts on CPU and GPU temps. I have read that 85*c / 185* F CPU temp for any length of time could damage the CPU. 80* C / 176* F are exceptable. What are your thoughts on CPU and GPU temps. Laptops do run hotter then Desktops. A few laptop reviews with benchmarks I have looked at have temps running around 85* C. These are shooter of course. Won't be playing much of them except for Starfield. I am concerned about these temps though

My laptop config so far, what is offered:

Intel Core i9-11900K 8-Cores up to 5.3 GHz

UHD 3840 x 2160 17.3" IPS Level G-SYNC Display - 4K

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 16GB GDDR6 Max-P [VR Ready]

CORSAIR VENGEANCE 32GB 2666MHz (2X16GB) - This memory is not upgradable any further

2TB Samsung 970 EVO Plus PCIe NVMe - Calling Samsung on a SSD. It seems that a 2TB Samsung 970 EVO Plus NVMe M.2 is SSD but not available for laptops. See EDIT

MS Windows 11 Pro

Adding 2 year warranty - Parts, labor and shipping


This config has a price tag of $3000. I get it for $2000. I have until the end of the month to decide on it

If I have to go to a desktop I will call Drac's recommendation - ecollegepc

EDIT:

Looking over the options again for OSD's and Storage Drives in the customization of laptops at the sites I checked the hard drive I wanted is SSD. It does not title as such but looking at the diagram it says SSD on it. These sales people apparently did not know what they were talking about. Guess I need to make another call