STARFIELD an outstanding achievement in visual,audio/musical,storytelling mastery where even at the lowest setting on my i7 8700, 16gb ram, ssd, RTX 2060 with 6gb vram with all current drivers including those for Window 10 runs flawlessly with no lag or crashing with the exact same extremely satisfying experience with a mix of medium/higher settings. Happy days indeed!

Exploration is a wondrous journey of joyful awe and discovery as one learns the makeup of a planet's character gathering resources with countless uses from research to crafting in all their multitude of layers from creating medical aids to enhancing weapons and building the ultimate death machine space ship.

During these dreamlike moments of exploration your ears will be graced with the sweetest of musical sounds never heard in a video game reminding me of many a childhood grand science fiction musical score from a 1960's science fiction movie.

Combat is adrenaline electrifying overwhelming the senses with a terror driven instinct to survive as a universe of horrors reach out from the great vastness of the out there to shred your guts with shrapnel or rip and devour your flesh with screeching alien mandibles . Watching one's ammo count and health while moving at ninja like speeds is paramount if another day is to be seen without becoming a bleached skull from an alien sun as flesh has been stripped away by decay.

Many are the weapons ballistic and melee at your disposal which with training and skill can be upgraded with mods to make them even more effective in their killing prowess.

Skill tree is a mountain of knowledge with so much that can be learned and so many paths that may be followed all according to your choices with that classic skill improvement realism of Bethesda games where the more you use a skill the more it improves. Crafting and research is a major blast to do with all its multiple layers of progress to attain new levels of knowledge where resource gathering, research and crafting all come together to a most enjoyable level of satisfaction.

Character creation is the best yet to come from Bethesda with the variety of DAGGERFALL and the detail of MORROWIND alongside a mesmerizing face/body creation system where it feels like your a sculptor shaping your digital flesh into gaming reality. If you choose the perk where you start out with your own house which comes with your parents said parents will also have some of the same physical features as the ones on your character. Also your parents won't be just sitting at home like pieces of furniture they will actually be traveling about in the game universe where you may end up encountering them while they are on a vacation trip or shopping etc. Hairstyles, facial shaping, makeup, eye shape/color,many varities of skin tones and skin conditions including aging effects all add to some great immersive game play.

Npcs and companions are interesting with so much dialogue to be shared. Walking around in city settings there was an endless sea of chatter from npcs with all sorts of background lore and personal interaction being expressed giving everything a sense of busy city life with great areas to visit such as the commercial district with coffee shops and places to change your appearance without having to start a new character. Constellations members are a joy to with and am looking forward to the adventures which yet await us especially with Sarah Morgan. Vasco is also an incredible companion and am very happy to see i got him at my side from the get go for his great conversation and ability to lighten my carry load.

World and level design are a visual feast of graphical excellence with consistent environments and mind staggering elegance of item placement where everything gives off a real world vibe even when its a chaotic mess of a trashed base space pirates have ravaged. Landscapes are mesmerizing with their day and night cycles triggering moments of reflection in their display of light and shadow upon mountains and cities. Dungeons! DUNGEONS! DUNGEONS WITH MONSTERS! and TREASURES BEYOND MEASURE!!! As always dungeons and monsters are the main attraction for me when it comes to Bethesda ever since the days of TERMINATOR 2029 and ARENA.

I recently saw a video that may explain why many areas are a bit spacious when trekking across planets on foot with it having something to do with the spawn point of where you land and the further you move away from it the more there is a chance of things going wrong like items getting tossed everywhere.


Ai is surreal and uncanny in its realism where space pirates can be persuaded to not attack. Alien life on planets are not psychotic murder machines. They will react in realistic ways where at first i will notice their body movements showing slight agitation at my approach. If i continue to approach they will become more defensive in their movements where eventually it will turn aggressive with growling as a final warning to move away before they finally attack. This is done to different degrees with some creatures and humanoids showing different degrees of patience and leeway including those who will charge in from afar.

Scanning, surveying and mining on planets are very intuitive with multiple layers of detailed fun never feeling cumbersome and quite relaxing during those non hostile moments or when a sudden loud sound warns you there might be something very threatening lurking about or perhaps nearby environmental dangers which can cause serious damage such as burns or lung damage where oxygen intake can be effected leading to further faster depletion of oxygen when over encumbered.

Space combat and travel is very well done where even someone like me who does not play space simulators found it very satisfying and fun when going up against space pirates or mining for resources in space.

I could go on and on about STARFIELD but it would probably take at least a year to describe all that STARFIELD has to offer in its excellence of game design and execution so i will just say thank you Bethesda for another senses shattering obsession to get lost in bringing the comfort as all your inspiring previous masterpieces still and always will from the ground breaking ARENA to the dream world surreal FALLOUT 4.

Things i would like to see in the game perhaps thru updates or paid DLC:

Multiple radio stations that play many styles of music from jazz, classical, experimental ambient, music from earth's past before it was destroyed, radio station which only plays talk shows with guest interviews fleshing out the lore of the STARFIELD universe like what led up to the destruction of the earth to all current and past wars and how those in political/military power are influencing current events etc. Add in some feel good broadcasts covering topics on morality, the spiritual similar to the speeches by President Eden in FALLOUT 3.

A major increase of ship storage space where it would take exploring 25% to 50% of the planet to fill up the cargo space of a ship with resources/salvage. Human carry weight can stay as it is but could be increased with new research perks which once learned would allow the player to use exo-skeletons for a 20% or so increase in carry weight.

The ability to build communication antennas across a planets landscape which would allow more radio transmissions to be picked up over the air waves some which might be ancient earth messages similar to the recorded messages in FALLOUT 4.

A survival mode as brutal as the one in FALLOUT 4 but the ability to save anywhere.

End of list of things which i would like added in the game.

Lastly major congratulations to Todd Howard for making his dream game a reality. May it blossom and flourish in this incredible age of gaming for many decades to come.

STARFIELD, Buy it! Play it! Experience mankind's future where SCIENCE FICTION has become REALITY!!! A SCI FI DUNGEON UNIVERSE!!! BEYOND ANYTHING YOU HAVE EXPERIENCED IN A BETHESDA RPG!!!

I have played the tabletop game like crazy for about ten years from the mid 1980s to the mid 90s before getting totally into the video game versions on the Amiga and intel pcs. So for me everything comes across very intuitively as if my brain is hardwired for BATTLETECH. Battles have a eloquent sense of randomness where they can be brutal and challenging one minute and then on another mission it can be a cake walk with some decent income and a bit of salvage.

Add in the economic system where you have to budget employee costs, supply logistics, upkeep, ship and battlemech repairs, battle injuries, negotiating merc contracts, training mechwarriors, interpersonal relationship issues with the crew that may come up etc etc and you have a whole lot of separate interesting game components which come together to immerse yourself in.

For fans who have played the tabletop game fanatically like i have its a dream come true and to have it thirty plus years makes it even more of a treat.

Graphics are stunning with the amazing combat cam its like zooming down on the tabletop version and seeing the varied planetary environments which look like gorgeous science fiction artwork from the 1970s magazine STARLOG pop out into chaotic metal mayhem gaming life.Battlemechs have the deep detail and intricate paint schemes of masterfully crafted minitures as if done by Ral Partha himself. Battlemechs rage alive with limited ammo ballistics and heat inducing energy weapons fire devastating landscape and foe alike. Seeing arms blasted off as myomar bundles and actuators sparkle with electricity dangling from now laser seared orifices is a sensual satisfying sight like no other to behold.

Graphical options include being able to choose your mercenary companies banner of which there are many to choose from. You can also choose different camouflage patterns along with painting your Battlemechs giving a nice personal tabletop minitures touch.

Graphics even have footprints on the ground when the Battlemechs move. Buildings collapse into a dust bowl of rubble as monstrous metal gods crash into them like some GODZILLA mass destruction movie. Battlemechs jump jet across the darkness of night time forests lighting up their paths like some nightmarish Halloween scene of black clad witches on fiery brooms.

Heat buildup and keeping one's Battlemechs standing as a inferno of screaming metal conflict flows all around one is all important as heat can cause internal damage to the Mechwarrior and Battlemech where eventually it can lead to a shutdown where one is a easy target for enemy fire and vice versa if an enemy Battlemech shuts down.

Sound effects are earth shaking devastating as LRM missiles soar across the battlefield ripping into ground vehicle armor like shredded paper. PPC fire is chunky and thumpy hitting with impactful might doing all sorts of havoc on the target's systems. Autocannons fire thunderously shattering Battlemech armor like a wrecking ball into a brick building. Mechwarriors grunt and howl in agony from shrapnel hits as their cockpits take a head shot garanteeing a stay in the med bay if they survive the mission contract. Then there are the many times Mechwarriors will shout in inspiring tones motivating all to fight on improving battlefield moral.

Music is emotionally moving and epic capturing the tone of the BATTLETECH universe with all its political intrigue, treachery and unimaginable bloodshed perfectly with a mix of classical GAME OF THRONES drama and David Van Tiegham futurism.

Nice tutorial where anybody who has played the tabletop game will intuitively know what to do as it plays out.

The game credits are also really well done with plenty of great photos of the Dev team during development of BATTLETECH.

BATTLETECH a stunning dreamy masterpiece of gaming artistic creation. A happy time for BATTLETECH fans is here for all to enjoy.

Thank you very much Jordan Weisman and HBS along with PARADOX for making this dream come true possible as well as all the fans who financially backed this masterpiece during the Kickstarter period.

BATTLETECH, In The 31st Century Life Is Cheap But Battlemechs Are'nt.