Starfield early access pre-order shenanigans must be one of the more disgusting anti-consumer things that spawned from the depraved minds of the games industry of late. In my case, if you pay 99,99€ for the premium edition of the game on Steam, you get a five-day “early access” to it, compared to the peasant who can only shell out a measly 69,99€. Have we reached a new low perhaps? Pre-order bonuses were already pretty bad, but this is just a new level altogether. I hope to God this doesn’t become a new thing. Also, I think Bethesda might have shot themself in the foot with this one since you can already pirate the game. I imagine the ones waiting for a legit 70 euro release now must feel like a true sucker.
However, I can’t blame Bethesda single-handedly for this since it works. I read something that about 200-300k already play it on Steam, which indicates that there are a lot of people out there willing to pay big bucks for an earlier taste, even if it’s only five days.
Other than that there isn’t much more to add. I was thinking of getting a month of Microsoft Game Pass for a review, but after checking out an hour or two of gameplay on YouTube, it put me right off that thought. Starfield looks way too similar to Fallout 4, but now instead of having an open world to explore, you just travel to randomized drab-looking outposts through fade-to-black fast-traveling to find health-bloated bandits and mercenaries to kill. It looks very depressive and dull, and I would say the world of Fallout, even after Bethesda lore re-writes looks like a better and more tolerable dystopia than the one presented in Starfield – and this game is not even supposed to be one!
/Thomas
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