On January 12, Bethesda Game Studios announced that Starfield will get its biggest update yet “with over 100 fixes and improvements”. The update was planned for Steam Beta on January 17 with other players getting the updates two weeks later. However, the studio encountered a last-minute hiccup that forced them to push forward the update release to today.
“We discovered an issue we want to address before releasing our update into the Steam Beta,” Bethesda shared on X on Tuesday, January 16. “We’re aiming to release it later this week but we’ll confirm timing when we know for sure. Thanks for your patience!”
Interestingly, fans of Starfield didn’t have to wait for too long to get the news about the update. Yesterday, January 17 which was supposed to be the original release date, Bethesda shared new information about the much-anticipated update.
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“Update: the issue has been resolved and the Steam Beta for our next update will be going live tomorrow morning,” the studio wrote as a comment to the original announcement. “Stay tuned for the full patch notes when it opens!”
Late last year, Bethesda announced that it plans to roll out fixes and updates for Starfield every six weeks through this year. Some of the new features the studio is currently trying to bring to Starfield include new ways to travel, city maps, and mod support.
Although Starfield was one of the most-anticipated games of 2023, it failed to live up to the marketing hype just a few months after its release. The game only managed one nomination at The Game Awards—and eventually lost.
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Starfield eventually won the most innovative gameplay at the Steam Awards 2023. However, many people believe the award was ironic since it was based on 100% of gamers’ votes. A few weeks before the announcement, Starfield’s rating had slipped to mostly negative as players were infuriated by Bethesda’s awkward way of responding to criticism.
What will Starfield’s biggest update have?
Earlier on January 12, Bethesda highlighted some of the features that will come with Starfield’s biggest update. It will include fixes to Quests and some of the numerous hiccups that players have complained about.
“Eye of the Storm issues such as being unable to dock with the Legacy or data transfer not starting and Temples not showing up in Into the Unknown, will no longer prevent Constellation from exploring the cosmos.”
The latest Starfield update will bring stability and numerous graphic improvements. For example, players can now make more subtle changes to their character’s facial tone. To achieve that, Bethesda has included additional widescreen support and improved the shadows and lighting.
“Other fixes and improvements include sun disk geometry, planet ring shadows, bulldozed objects reappearing when returning to an Outpost, ship hatches marked inaccessible, and another fix for asteroids following ships,” the studio explained.
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While some fans of Starfield are genuinely excited about the upcoming update, others have bemoaned how the update is all about graphics fixes and nothing about new features that will make the gameplay more interesting.
“Not hearing anything that will actually make the game more fun to play?” wrote @thegaminglot. “It’s graphics aren’t the games problem, so improving them is a bit 🤷♂️. Yet to hear of any genuinely interesting improvements being scheduled”.
Starfield has the potential to be a great game. However, it feels rushed, which robbed it of the genuine appreciation that it deserves. Although Bethesda has promised regular updates to Starfield, the big question is how long and how many updates will it take to bring the game to the intended destination?
