Starfield Gets Big Update That Adds Detailed Surface Maps, Ship Decoration, and 60fps on Xbox Series X
Starfield is set for a significant update in May that adds a number of highly requested features to the space game.
The update, currently in Steam Beta before going live for all players on May 15, finally adds detailed surface maps. In the patch notes, Bethesda acknowledged players have called for improved maps ever since Starfield came out in September last year. “We’ve heard your feedback, and we’ve made some big improvements to surface maps, so you’ll always know just where to go and no longer ‘get lost’ on the way to your parents’ place (and they weren’t buying that excuse anyway, you should really go visit them),” Bethesda joked.
Elsewhere, there are new difficulty options in the settings menu, the addition of ship decoration to the interior of ships, and added display settings for Xbox Series X to prioritize Visuals or Performance. This adds the ability to run Starfield at 60 frames per second on Xbox Series X only (Xbox Series S does not have this feature.)
Speaking to IGN in June last year, Bethesda development chief Todd Howard said the company's controversial decision to lock Starfield at 30fps across both Xbox Series X and S was to ensure “consistency” of performance.
Speaking now as part of the May update patch notes, Bethesda said it had "heard from many that you’d like to have more control over the graphic fidelity and performance on Xbox, similar to how PC players can customize their experience." The studio continued: “We’re now enabling that on Xbox Series X with a few options that you can use to find the best fit for your playstyle and display.”
Here’s how it works, per Bethesda:
In a recent interview, Todd Howard revealed that Starfield’s Shattered Space expansion is due out this fall. A subsequent report claimed it will launch in September. If true, Shattered Space will arrive one year after Starfield launched as a much-hyped PC and Xbox game and the first new intellectual property from Bethesda in years. IGN’s Starfield review returned a 7/10. We said:
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