Pre-release Starfield critique goes beyond ridiculous

destructoid.com:

Bethesda’s Starfield is one of the most hotly anticipated titles of 2023, which is a heck of an achievement for a year that’s already played host to heavy hitters like Hogwarts Legacy, Resident Evil 4, and Diablo 4, to list a few. It’s easy to see the appeal, too, as the game’s been described as “Skyrim in space” by Todd Howard himself. It’s a given, of course, that not everyone will find themselves enjoying what appears to be a classic Bethesda Game Studios RPG, but some may have taken their biases a tad too far.

In fact, some early critique coming from a particular game developer has drawn the ire of Bethesda Game Studios’ own Head of Publishing, Pete Hines. Certainly, there’s room for critique in every project – especially one as large and substantial as Starfield appears to be. Whether the critique that’s now being directed at the game is valid or not, however, is a wholly different matter.

The physiognomy of start screens.

The start screen of a game can reveal a lot about how rushed the team was and how much pride they took in their work.

Starfield's start screen either shows hasty shipping deadlines by a passionate team overworked, or a team that didn't care. pic.twitter.com/Ok4gzQ3DVo

— Grummz (@Grummz) August 19, 2023

Mark Kern of Firefall infamy has taken to Twitter/X to argue about the “physiognomy” of Starfield‘s main menu screen, claiming that its simplicity betrays “hasty shipping deadlines.” Rather pointedly, Kern feels that Starfield is a game that’s been made by a “passionate team overworked, or a team that didn’t care.” Before making these claims, Kern said that a given game’s start screen is, in fact, extremely telling of how much pride a dev team has taken in its work, and that it’s something that’s