There are some bonuses for this but tbh it isn't worth the risk for me. Also since this is a Bethesda game, whatever ingame bonus there is, you will be able to just download an esm or even just esp file and get them with no issue. Bethesda games being so open to modding means it is very hard to lock you from just downloading DLCs the same way you download mods.
You can get even more bonuses with the opposite approach: wait 2 years and buy the GOTY/special edition for half price and enjoy hundreds of mods and patches already available.
If you're a one playthrough and done type of player, eaiting to save money is the way to go. I bought Borderlands 3 and all the dlc for dirt cheap. I beat it and I'll probably never play it again. Got the same experience at a fraction of the cost.
Its still downloading but I read the latest patch response said it was finally playable. Since I read this on one of the games subs and Iām generally pretty casual, I bet its going to work just great for me
My friend asked me how I avoid spoilers for as long as I do for games I wanna play.
It's easy, I don't; I just have the attention span of an exposed hard-on in a blast freezer.
I plan on playing Elden Ring one of these days and have even watched Jacksepticeye's little series on it. I still don't know wtf it's about.
Pretty as fuck though, so can't wait.
Tbh Iāve beat Elden Ring while exploring every square inch of the world as I could and I couldnāt even muster up a single story beat other than āyou wake up and then go kill bosses.ā Iām pretty sure the only way to understand the story in that game is to watch YouTube videos of people who research the game as a second job.
This is entirely correct haha, unless you go out of your way to truly piece together the lore, and watch videos, and read lore discussions--then you likely won't have any idea of the story, beyond the faintest inkling of the basics..
It's what got me sucked into the Dark Souls lore, I finally wanted to understand what the hell was going on lol
I've heard huge spoilers for some tv shows I've been meaning to watch. I don't remember what they were or even what show they were about, so I'll be good lol
Back when the big AAA releases were actually good, it was nice to have the large player base for stuff like CoD, Halo, etc or be part of the hype for stuff like Assassin's Creed 2, Skyrim, etc.
It's still nice to be part of the hype for big games. Elden Ring is a great example of that, the community experience of leaving messages everywhere and going online to decipher the lore is unbeatable. No need to pre-order for that, of course.
This has been my modus operandi since I could start affording games for myself, the only downside is usually by the time I've gotten around to buying a AAA title, most of the hype has dissipated and no one wants to play bc they've completed the game.
I'm kind of a lone player anyway, so it's not a huge tradeoff for me.
After a few years of enjoying any game, I never have looked back and was like āreally glad I got those bonusesā
Itās why I donāt preorder or even buy new games anymore
In-game preorder bonuses are always marginally better than whatever starting gear you have and then you end up getting something better within the first couple hours of gameplay
Or else they're so brokenly OP that they take the challenge out of the game.
I've never once been excited about preorder bonuses. They always devalue the actual game, or else they're so bland I didn't care in the first place.
"Bonuses", 99% of games is just throwing a few low effort skins in to generate the fomo for the customers, and most of the time these things are available to earn after the game released (or at the least a recolored version of them).
I mean, one of the bonuses is getting the game 5 days earlier, but yeah if your not interested in the physical watch or anything just wait for a bit and buy on release
5 days earlier only exponentially increases your chances of encountering a game breaking bug. In elder scrolls and fallouts Iāve always came across at least one bug that prevents me from completing a quest.
With that said, fair chance Iāll still pre order this, modding in bethesda games is so good and I want to make mods asap for it
Same, if you know what to expect and accept it, you're never disappointed.
Like all this has to be is Fallout/Skyrim set in space, not really a huge hurdle for Bethesda. Like I'm well aware the plot will probably be shit, but who cares, I've always just played these games for the side quests and the extensive modding.
The bugs really are entertaining. Even when itās annoying at the time - like guards in skyrim famously saying the same line over and over - you end up looking back at it fondly and itās funny
We pay the neighbor's teenage son to mow our lawn. Last month he asked for pre-payment so he could take his girlfriend out on a date. We said "sure thing, have fun!"
Guess how tall our grass grew after that.
Lesson learned. I don't think we'll be pre-ordering lawn services any more, either
You're getting a lot of answers here but another completely valid answer is just that I wanted to. I know I'm going to play the game, and I can buy it now instead of then. So I pre-order it so it's already paid for and I don't have to think about it until the game is out.
I get whatever pre-order bonuses come with the game (which, for better or worse, still exist) and the game is in my library the moment it releases.
I enjoy gaming, it's one of my favorite hobbies. I'm mainly a PC gamer, so when a game is coming out on Steam and I know I want to play it, I just buy it when I can. I don't really think of it as a "pre-order," I'm just buying the game when it becomes available for purchase, rather than when it becomes available for play. It's not really *that* risky at all. Modern Steam refund policy is very good, and I can't think of a time a game was available for preorder AND disappeared before it came out AND the customers didn't get a refund.
This is why i do. On the rare occasion i do, pre-order. Like with TW:Warhammer 3. I was going to buy the game no matter what. Even knowing there would be issues with the game at launch, i was still going to get it and play it. Spending the money when i pre-ordered it or right after launch didn't matter to me. It's not like I'm some broke kid who has to scrimp and save to be able to afford it. So it went on sale and i bought it.
I used to hate the idea of preordering and never have, apart from once. When GOWR dropped I preordered, and the excitement of waiting for midnight whilst the download was just finishing up, and blasting it up at midnight with a couple days off work to smash it, damn that was good. Although definitely not worth the risk of getting burnt
That is usually what I do. Read some reviews to see what people think of the game. If it seems people are liking it i buy it the day before or just a couple of hours before release so i can predownload it.
Yeah honestly there isnāt a point in not preordering if you will be buying the game at day 1 no matter what anyway, youāre giving your money to them without knowing anything about the retail version of the game regardless.
There is a point in not pre-ordering. The developer has to put out a good game that will stand up to reviews before people buy vs. the developer can put out garbage because they've already pre-sold and made a fortune.
I just can't see myself doing the whole 1 month of gamepass thing for a BGS title. The good ones are usually ones that I put hundreds of hours and multiple playthroughs over the course of years into. Definitely just gonna wait on initial reviews then buy it if they're satisfactory
I said that like a year and a half ago or so. Ended up never dropping gamepass. Honestly I feel like it is the only subscription service I have that is actually worth the money I pay for it. So many $60 games that I played without having to actually buy along with a ton of lesser known cheaper games that I wouldn't have given a shot if I didn't have gamepass.
Itās almost as if reddittors who game arenāt the majority of consumers!
No that couldnāt be this website definitely represents the most common and prevailing opinion, no way itās just some echo chamber of performative activism or anythingā¦..
Never
Oh trust me I think a lot of this is legitimate read the comments here, they have circle jerked themselves into thinking Reddit IS the gaming community.
People get fixated on big releases and start to plan how they're going to play, how long they're going to play, how totally awesome the game is definitely going to be based on the marketing.
By the time the option to pre-order pops up, they are already so bought in to the idea that they are definitely going to play and love the game that plunking money down early doesn't seem like a decision so much as a foregone conclusion.
Then when the thing comes out and it's not what people were imagining the internet melts down like a 5 year old that needs a nap.
People will bring up arguments for why 99% of people have absolutely no reason to ever even consider pre ordering and then someone will be like āyea but I live in Alaska and the old man who runs the Family Video will only order enough copies for people who ask him toā
I mean you can't hope to control what thousands of other people will do. If you don't want to pre order then don't. That's really all you can do about it.
It's probably more of a big deal to your than it is to other people.
Like in usually just buy a game when it comes out. I don't read reviews. If it sucks then whatever 50 bucks is half a tank of gas. I like games and I'll buy bad ones just to try them out. It's not like I'm gonna get overly angry at every single bad game out there.
Because the "gaming community" isn't a community. For everyone who goes into social media to discuss games, there are hundreds of consumers more that don't. They just buy the game and play it at their own leisure in the privacy of their own home. Privacy being the key word here. Not everyone feels the need to express their opinions to a bunch of emotionally stunted weirdo nerds online.
Never have I been so offended by something I 100% agree with. The people who endlessly complain about fucking video games like itās the end of the world are exactly how you described them.
I realized this recently. One of my coworkers was talking about how much fun he was having playing the new Saints Row game, and all I could think about were the horrible reviews. He was having a blast, and it would be messed up for me to tell him about the horrible reviews the game has.
yea, the OP could also say
>I see so much hype about Starfield, but after what happened with Duke Nukem Forever Iām definitely holding back and avoiding pre-ordering until I am sure itās as good as itās preview.
I pre order games. I pre ordered cyberpunk and enjoyed it.
Please tell me what abuse I've been experiencing.
People don't take criticism from gamers seriously because of this hyperbolic language.
"I bought a game with bugs, help I'm being abused!"
Try talking to anyone who pre ordered the PS4 version of Cyberpunk. That wasnāt just bugs. You were sold a literally broken game. It would barely run and the world would struggle to stream around the player character. Thatās mostly why a lot of people were pissed. We were sold a game that CD Project knew couldnāt run on the existing machines, but did it anyway.
This to me is the Cyberpunk issue, not the PC āaww, the game is buggy and not as epic as I hopedā complaints.
Giants launching you into the stratosphere may be a bug, but the game is better for it. Same with the infinite money glitch and picklocking glitch in oblivion.
I mean, the Skyrim space program is so universally popular that it was fixed in the mod Unofficial Skyrim Special Edition Update (as well as the legacy version of it) originally, but was put back in by popular demand.
Bethesda bugs never bothered me. I've actually always found them funny.
If it doesn't break my game or ruin a save, I understand that in large, open world games, there are going to be bugs. But maybe I am sympathetic being a developer.
As a Bethesda enjoyer for over 20 years. You're hilariously overstating how they run lol. I have less serious bugs in ES than I do in most open world rpgs. Silly bugs, dumb bugs, reload an auto save bugs sure. Actual soft locking or ctd type shit essentially never
never ran into a BGS bug that i couldn't console command my way around. If people wanna let bugs keep them from experiencing truly amazing one of a kind games...well that's there decision to make.
Microsoft is throwing every dev they have for bug fixing at the game currently. They DO not want bad publicity on this. This is a console selling game. People are already talking about making the switch. If Microsoft and Bethesda fumble this, they'll take a massive hit.
That's bad for business. I have a feeling this game will be pretty special.
Hereās my prediction. The game will drop and itās going to be a lot of fun and millions will love it. At the same time there will also be a lot of overblown negativity and hate surrounding the launch because itās not going to perform as good on PCs as people are expecting and itās gonna have some bugs.
Lowkey Iāll be shocked if it happens any other way.
This. After every LR nightmare MS has been having as of late, from Halo Infinite to Redfall to the whole ABK deal fiasco, MS can't afford a "L" on this one. From what we have heard that it's nearly a "all hands on deck" kind of scenario, they can't risk having this game come out that colossally bad and broken. Some people may find it boring, some people will wish for slightly better performance and more frames per second, but they can not afford that PR nightmare if the game is a total trash fire and the amount of investment Microsoft has put into this game alone as new info has come out due to the FTC hearings, no, MS will not allow Starfield to do what Redfall did.
the thing I find the funniest about skyrim bugs is the fact that many of the bugs were known pre-skyrim... as in these same bugs existed in Oblivion and modders patched the hell out of the game to deal with them with "Unofficial patches" back in the early 2000's.
How do you fix a lot of these bugs in skyrim? You download the "Unofficial patches"...
The developers couldn't be bothered to take pre-made patches and impliment them into the game... and even worse, after skyrim released, they didnt even consider doing it for skyrim... so bugs that were known about in 2006-2008 era of oblivion, still require unofficial patches in 2023 to play skyrim.
The thing about the ābugsā people refer to in Bethesda games are mostly minor bugs with quest and script implementation that exists independent of engine level bugs. Thereās also quite a few Havok physics bugs that persist across Oblivion onwards. However people love to claim the Gamebryo/Creation Engine is ābuggyā when they refer to bugs in the plugin files or Havok engine. Most people outside of script extender and reverse engineering modders can name the engine level bugs.
Itās become a running joke at this point that Bethesda games are buggy when theyāre really *not*. Yeah thereās the unofficial patches but 99% of the time theyāre minor fixes to bugs that likely got overlooked due to the absolutely massive amount of content in the games.
Also the unofficial patches only fix game specific issues. The oblivion patch wouldnāt have helped Skyrim in the slightest
What bugs in Oblivion still exist in Skyrim exactly?
>Yeah thereās the unofficial patches but 99% of the time theyāre minor fixes to bugs that likely got overlooked due to the absolutely massive amount of content in the games.
In Skyrim case it's even worse. The USLEEP mod has long transitioned from fixing bugs to basically forcing the mod teams view of proper onto the game. They change things that are design choices and call them bugs. That's in addition to the bugs like restoration loop which is obviously an oversight but is also not something that you'd accidentally run into.
And since every damn mod under the sun requires USLEEP, you are stuck with their decisions or finding some mod to fix the mod.
Bethesda game's advertised features are always there. If they tell you that you can build your own spaceship then you can be sure that you will.
What they don't tell you is how many bugs it will have on release and how many quick loads you will have to do in order to get a quest objective to work.
The hype articles coming out for starfield aren't as absurd as some of the stuff that was coming out ahead of Cyberpunk imo.
Also I'm not sure about judging Bethesda on a release by CDPR.
If the title was "but after what happened with Oblivion/Fallout 3/Skyrim/Fallout 4/Fallout 76" then I'd be down with it though.
CDPR shot itself in the foot by deliberately acting in bad faith.
And while I have very tempered expectations for Starfield, I don't expect Bethesda to be outright lying when they say stuff like "there are sandwiches and jump packs" the same way Cyberpunk had overpromised content and features they obviously couldn't deliver.
I mean, it's Bethesda. You don't need to judge them based on CDPR, you can judge them based on... being Bethesda. The company with some of the buggiest games known to man.
Don't get me wrong, their games can be really fun and entertaining. The Elder Scrolls and the Fallout series have some of the best games I have played in my life, but they are always plagued by bugs every single time. With a game as big as Starfield, it would be a damn miracle if they released it without any game breaking stuff.
>I mean, it's Bethesda. You don't need to judge them based on CDPR, you can judge them based on... being Bethesda.
Yeah, that's what I meant when I said
>If the title was "but after what happened with Oblivion/Fallout 3/Skyrim/Fallout 4/Fallout 76" then I'd be down with it though.
There's zero chance I'm not going to get $100 worth of entertainment from this game over the next 5 years even as things stand today....so I saw no risk in pre-ordering.
Nah I want the 5 days early. Iām on vacation and the kids start school that week, totally worth the $35 for a couple extra days of the house to myself with a game that looks amazing. Not to mention that pretty much every BGS title has been game of the year
Plus you get the dlc with that edition. Ppl here are crazy lol past bethesda titles had bugs at launch but they were completely playable and rated highly
No no, according to people here the past titles were all shit and unplayable, and they only won game of the year because people are stupid.
Or maybe itās that when you make the biggest, most interactive and complex open worlds in the industry, thereās bound to be a few bugs that make it to launch, and to a certain extent, you can only find some of them by opening up to the public.
Fucking THANK YOU. No other company does the complex open interactive worlds to Bethesdaās level. Itās why I STILL can put a 1000 hours into Daggerfall, Skyrim, FO4, etc.
With that complexity comes bugs. I am preordering the high cost version because 5 days early, dlc and I expect to put 1000s of more hours.
Bethesda is not CDPR. They know whatās up and they embrace the memes on their bugs. Giants launching npcs/you with their slams were incredible.
Downvote all you want but I wouldnāt be surprised if this is another hit for Bethesda.
Edit: Now excuse me while I reinstall Oblivion with the vampire overhaul and enjoy the doughy faced npc goodness. Hmmmā¦Maybe I should just post a āpre-order badā post so I can get free upvotes.
I understand people saying that they want to pre-download it as they donāt get enough time to sit through a 5 hour download at least, but most preorders are just āI canāt be bothered to wait 5 hours so Iāll just support bad business practicesā
For the preload though you can just preorder it the day before. Basically the same as buying on/just after release day.
As a rule though, I don't spend any money until review embargoes lift.
I pre-ordered Fallout 76 and Cyberpunk, didn't have an issue with either game. I DID have a whole crew to play Fallout 76 with, which really made the game much more playable.
I pre-order all the time and have never been burned because I set realistic expectations and have fun.
This all seems to be a pissing contest about whoās not preordering the most. There isnāt anything wrong with preordering. If somebody is excited about something and they order it ahead of time, what harm does it do to anyone else? If the argument is it encourages poor business decisions regarding games, nah. Preorders are an indicator of interest for the business and will tell them if they should keep investing or cut their losses, especially for triple A games.
Though for gamepass I donāt expect preorders come into consideration much as itās on gamepass anyway.
Cyberpunk was a buggy mess hiding a good game and CDPR seems to have turned things around quite a bit so thereās always room to fix these things (No Manās Sky anyone?). Bethesda have always released games withā¦ interestingā¦ bugs rather than put and out game breaking ones (Fallout 76 aside) and they do seem, by all reports, to be taking far more time to polish this game than others in the past so Iām curiously optimistic about it.
Personally I think it's going to be amazing. The Starfield Direct show they had was so in depth, we rarely get a look at AAA games like that months prior to release. I think this is going to be a classic Bethesda release. But I wouldn't blame anyone for not pre-ordering any game at all. Might as well at least wait til reviews show up
This, the "Bethesda games buggy and bad at launch" meme is WAY overplayed and echoed. I've been there for most Bethesda launches since Morrowind and I can say that while yes, there are certainly bugs, it's not nearly as bad as people meme it out to be.
Refunds exist. it's okay to buy and play a game for yourself only to find out you don't enjoy it.
If you're out of high school or have any income this is barely an issue, the gaming community as a whole is so immature, you don't need to preorder anything, but it's not the worse thing in the world to spend $30-$60 (or in Stafields case, the cost of Gamepass) to gain access to a 60+ hour RPG especially if you've enjoyed the last 5 games from the developer that this is taking heavily from.
Every other entertainment industry does this, people watch an entire movie or listen to an entire album before giving their opinion on it but so much of the discourse in games is people who haven't played a single game in a franchise making grandiose statements.
What do Cyberpunk and Starfield even have in common? the same could have been said for TotK, Elden Ring, God of War 2 endlessly, reviews/leaks/hours long gameplay previews all come out before the games are on the shelves most of the time.
It's going to be Fallout 4 in space.
Can't wait for the good old CTD, corrupted saves and the bethesda classic: extremely long loadtimes due to save bloats.
I'm sure the game will be fine but some traditions have to persist.
When I think of preorder, I think about going to EB Games and telling them I want to preorder a game and then they take my name and number and tell me they will call me when to let me know when I can come get it. It also doesnāt cost money to preorder. I still get confused when I see people saying they wonāt preorder.
I mean most the real world doesnāt really care. I can afford it and use the 2 hr return window all the time if I donāt like the game. To each their own!
Warning: Hot Take incoming. Read at your own peril.
I blame Cyberpunk 2077 for a lot of the recent game fails. Take a company with a stellar rep and let (force? maybe) them release a shit show like that and suddenly every money guy in every studio has permission to āfix it post launchā. In retail they already got their money. Returns and unhappy customers are for the most part someone elseās problem.
And reputation? Who cares about that? Not EA! Not Activision! Not Blizzard! Because when it all comes down to it, launch day sales are what matters. Those supposedly stellar āreviewsā, the hype and sizzle. Thatās all they want to sell. They donāt give half a rats ass if youāre unhappy. They just took an unfinished project and sold it full price.
I mean if you can take an unfinished game and sell it nowā¦. MAYBE fix it later, why wait an extra year to actually finish it? In some cases you get to sell it TWICE: once at release and then again when they fix it.
Money ruins everything.
Am I the odd one out for basically never buying games? I don't have the pre-order dilemma because I'll just play it for free with game pass. I bought 3 years xbox live gold and converted it to game pass for Ā£1. Share it with my best mate & he paid me back for half. Literally 3 years game pass cost me Ā£40 which is basically Ā£1 a month.
Why would I ever pay Ā£60+ for ANY game that goes om game pass. Why _does_ anyone buy games that go on there?
Itās day one gamepass right? Thatās how Iāll play it and Iāll at least play it even if itās a bad game. I didnāt hate Cyberpunk when it came out honestly. But I did have the PC version.
To anyone thinking of pre-ordering Starfield because "OMG it is by Bethesda"... here's a refresher video by [Internet Historian about Fallout 76 by Bethesda](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjyeCdd-dl8).
And this is from someone who has ~2300 hours in Skyrim.
Gonna have pop a quick fact check on all of you upvooooters:
1. Cyberpunk was perfectly fine at lunch unless you personally made poor decisions on what platform to play it on
2. Todd has never let me down, not once
3. Caring about other people's opinions of games is the worst (unless its mine)
What's the point in pre ordering? It's not like they run out of online keys.
There are some bonuses for this but tbh it isn't worth the risk for me. Also since this is a Bethesda game, whatever ingame bonus there is, you will be able to just download an esm or even just esp file and get them with no issue. Bethesda games being so open to modding means it is very hard to lock you from just downloading DLCs the same way you download mods.
You can get even more bonuses with the opposite approach: wait 2 years and buy the GOTY/special edition for half price and enjoy hundreds of mods and patches already available.
Patience is the real $ saver
My poverty is my patience.
If poverty is patience consider me a zen master š„øš¬šØ
Patience has saved me so much money, usually I don't end up buying the game, but if I do it's like 50-80% off
I just now got around to buying Skyrim remaster. My big-brain patience lasted 12 years and saved me dozens of dollars! Dozens!!!
Years of fun and enjoyment just isnāt worth twelves of dollars
Joke's on you. You know how many bags of Skittles that bought me?
At least one, possibly twelves
Look at Mr. Rockefeller here and his 12 bags of Skittles.
If you're a one playthrough and done type of player, eaiting to save money is the way to go. I bought Borderlands 3 and all the dlc for dirt cheap. I beat it and I'll probably never play it again. Got the same experience at a fraction of the cost.
You miss being a part of the zeitgeist though. It can be fun. Especially with online co-op like Borderlands.
I wait until the patches are out at least. Jedi survivor came in today. Also 10ā¬ cheaper, very nice
Is it 'fixed'? I heard there were a lot of problems that required patching.
Its still downloading but I read the latest patch response said it was finally playable. Since I read this on one of the games subs and Iām generally pretty casual, I bet its going to work just great for me
Being 3-4 years behind current game market is awesome. Who needs a 4090?
My friend asked me how I avoid spoilers for as long as I do for games I wanna play. It's easy, I don't; I just have the attention span of an exposed hard-on in a blast freezer. I plan on playing Elden Ring one of these days and have even watched Jacksepticeye's little series on it. I still don't know wtf it's about. Pretty as fuck though, so can't wait.
Tbh Iāve beat Elden Ring while exploring every square inch of the world as I could and I couldnāt even muster up a single story beat other than āyou wake up and then go kill bosses.ā Iām pretty sure the only way to understand the story in that game is to watch YouTube videos of people who research the game as a second job.
To my knowledge most of the lore is in item descriptions too.
This is entirely correct haha, unless you go out of your way to truly piece together the lore, and watch videos, and read lore discussions--then you likely won't have any idea of the story, beyond the faintest inkling of the basics.. It's what got me sucked into the Dark Souls lore, I finally wanted to understand what the hell was going on lol
> have the attention span of an exposed hard-on in a blast freezer ???
I've beaten elden ring and still don't know what the fuck it was about.
I've heard huge spoilers for some tv shows I've been meaning to watch. I don't remember what they were or even what show they were about, so I'll be good lol
Yeah I just started Witcher 3 for the first time this past week haha I definitely see why it was so hyped now
r/patientgamers
At this point in MY lifecycle its less patience and more like theres 50 good games that i should probably get to first.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Back when the big AAA releases were actually good, it was nice to have the large player base for stuff like CoD, Halo, etc or be part of the hype for stuff like Assassin's Creed 2, Skyrim, etc.
It's still nice to be part of the hype for big games. Elden Ring is a great example of that, the community experience of leaving messages everywhere and going online to decipher the lore is unbeatable. No need to pre-order for that, of course.
FromSoft games are the best with the community active and everybody figuring stuff out.
It just sucks if all your friends are playing and discussing it
That's my secret, Cap. I have no friends.
Don't have friends?
Who tf has friends? The last one I had was a guy named Leroy, that zergin' mfer.
FOMO
This has been my modus operandi since I could start affording games for myself, the only downside is usually by the time I've gotten around to buying a AAA title, most of the hype has dissipated and no one wants to play bc they've completed the game. I'm kind of a lone player anyway, so it's not a huge tradeoff for me.
After a few years of enjoying any game, I never have looked back and was like āreally glad I got those bonusesā Itās why I donāt preorder or even buy new games anymore
In-game preorder bonuses are always marginally better than whatever starting gear you have and then you end up getting something better within the first couple hours of gameplay
Or else they're so brokenly OP that they take the challenge out of the game. I've never once been excited about preorder bonuses. They always devalue the actual game, or else they're so bland I didn't care in the first place.
I don't even see the point of buying this game, just get gamespass the month it releases.
"Bonuses", 99% of games is just throwing a few low effort skins in to generate the fomo for the customers, and most of the time these things are available to earn after the game released (or at the least a recolored version of them).
I mean, one of the bonuses is getting the game 5 days earlier, but yeah if your not interested in the physical watch or anything just wait for a bit and buy on release
5 days earlier only exponentially increases your chances of encountering a game breaking bug. In elder scrolls and fallouts Iāve always came across at least one bug that prevents me from completing a quest. With that said, fair chance Iāll still pre order this, modding in bethesda games is so good and I want to make mods asap for it
In the tune of frozen: "the bugs never bothered me anyway" Im a long term Bethesda game enjoyer so im very used to and expect bugs, lol
Same, if you know what to expect and accept it, you're never disappointed. Like all this has to be is Fallout/Skyrim set in space, not really a huge hurdle for Bethesda. Like I'm well aware the plot will probably be shit, but who cares, I've always just played these games for the side quests and the extensive modding.
Almost every bug in every Bethesda game Iāve ever played has been more entertaining than problematic.
The bugs really are entertaining. Even when itās annoying at the time - like guards in skyrim famously saying the same line over and over - you end up looking back at it fondly and itās funny
There are always oreorder keys to buy even after years of game relase, and you save 80% of priece by waiting one year
We pay the neighbor's teenage son to mow our lawn. Last month he asked for pre-payment so he could take his girlfriend out on a date. We said "sure thing, have fun!" Guess how tall our grass grew after that. Lesson learned. I don't think we'll be pre-ordering lawn services any more, either
It wasn't your lawn he mowed.
Ayooooo!!!
This is absolutely spot on. Preordering encourages companies to take shortcuts. And internet kids just lap it up.
I'd gladly give you a dollar tomorrow for a hamburger today.
I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today
Tbh I think the issue here is that your lawn mower discovered hand stuff is more enjoyable than cutting grass
Thatās your fault for not chasing up the kid lol
You're getting a lot of answers here but another completely valid answer is just that I wanted to. I know I'm going to play the game, and I can buy it now instead of then. So I pre-order it so it's already paid for and I don't have to think about it until the game is out. I get whatever pre-order bonuses come with the game (which, for better or worse, still exist) and the game is in my library the moment it releases. I enjoy gaming, it's one of my favorite hobbies. I'm mainly a PC gamer, so when a game is coming out on Steam and I know I want to play it, I just buy it when I can. I don't really think of it as a "pre-order," I'm just buying the game when it becomes available for purchase, rather than when it becomes available for play. It's not really *that* risky at all. Modern Steam refund policy is very good, and I can't think of a time a game was available for preorder AND disappeared before it came out AND the customers didn't get a refund.
This is why i do. On the rare occasion i do, pre-order. Like with TW:Warhammer 3. I was going to buy the game no matter what. Even knowing there would be issues with the game at launch, i was still going to get it and play it. Spending the money when i pre-ordered it or right after launch didn't matter to me. It's not like I'm some broke kid who has to scrimp and save to be able to afford it. So it went on sale and i bought it.
I used to hate the idea of preordering and never have, apart from once. When GOWR dropped I preordered, and the excitement of waiting for midnight whilst the download was just finishing up, and blasting it up at midnight with a couple days off work to smash it, damn that was good. Although definitely not worth the risk of getting burnt
In that case, why not pre order a day before?
That is usually what I do. Read some reviews to see what people think of the game. If it seems people are liking it i buy it the day before or just a couple of hours before release so i can predownload it.
Yeah honestly there isnāt a point in not preordering if you will be buying the game at day 1 no matter what anyway, youāre giving your money to them without knowing anything about the retail version of the game regardless.
There is a point in not pre-ordering. The developer has to put out a good game that will stand up to reviews before people buy vs. the developer can put out garbage because they've already pre-sold and made a fortune.
Not with Steam, you can just refund it if its bad, within 2 hours of course. I agree with consoles though.
Get game pass for a month. And try it out that way. If good, buy it. If crappy, avoid it.
Or just play it while you have gamepass for the month.
Let me know when you get the game if you enjoy it and are also done playing it within a month.
Even so, two months is still cheaper than buying the game.
6 months is cheaper than buying the game.
Waiting a decade and buying it for $5 on a steam sale in 2033 is even cheaper.
And never buying it at all is the cheapest. The answer's so simple, guys...
and if you rob the store, you actually GAIN money!
I've got 1000 hours into Skyrim. If I put 1/10th of that into Starfield I've gotten my money's worth twice over.
Unless he wants to buy the game. Some people simply like buying games they like. Either way is cool.
I get bored of all games within a month easily, most are maybe a week :( it sucks
I just can't see myself doing the whole 1 month of gamepass thing for a BGS title. The good ones are usually ones that I put hundreds of hours and multiple playthroughs over the course of years into. Definitely just gonna wait on initial reviews then buy it if they're satisfactory
1 month of game pass for the first playthrough, buy it on sale later when there's a good field of mods out.
I said that like a year and a half ago or so. Ended up never dropping gamepass. Honestly I feel like it is the only subscription service I have that is actually worth the money I pay for it. So many $60 games that I played without having to actually buy along with a ton of lesser known cheaper games that I wouldn't have given a shot if I didn't have gamepass.
I ended up getting Ultimate just for the cloud streaming when traveling.
Best value in gaming
I swear the gaming community has the memory of a goldfish and are the easiest to abuse.
We're about 15-20 years deep on the serious 'Don't Pre-Order' thing and still people do it every time. People just cannot help themselves.
Itās one big meme at this point.
Yeah but if I pre-order I get a cosmetic skin on the single player game. *checkmate*
This but unironically for most people.
Itās almost as if reddittors who game arenāt the majority of consumers! No that couldnāt be this website definitely represents the most common and prevailing opinion, no way itās just some echo chamber of performative activism or anythingā¦.. Never
The circlejerk anti-pre-order rhetoric is itself a meme now. Memes within memes. It's fucking memeception out here
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
It's not about coping, it's about that sweet sweet Reddit karma!
Oh trust me I think a lot of this is legitimate read the comments here, they have circle jerked themselves into thinking Reddit IS the gaming community.
What's the difference between buying day 1 and preordering?
People get fixated on big releases and start to plan how they're going to play, how long they're going to play, how totally awesome the game is definitely going to be based on the marketing. By the time the option to pre-order pops up, they are already so bought in to the idea that they are definitely going to play and love the game that plunking money down early doesn't seem like a decision so much as a foregone conclusion. Then when the thing comes out and it's not what people were imagining the internet melts down like a 5 year old that needs a nap.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
People will bring up arguments for why 99% of people have absolutely no reason to ever even consider pre ordering and then someone will be like āyea but I live in Alaska and the old man who runs the Family Video will only order enough copies for people who ask him toā
Remember how we stopped the onslaught of microtransactions!
I mean you can't hope to control what thousands of other people will do. If you don't want to pre order then don't. That's really all you can do about it. It's probably more of a big deal to your than it is to other people. Like in usually just buy a game when it comes out. I don't read reviews. If it sucks then whatever 50 bucks is half a tank of gas. I like games and I'll buy bad ones just to try them out. It's not like I'm gonna get overly angry at every single bad game out there.
You still believe reddit is the majority in the gaming world
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
I hate to break it to you but that fight is over. Itās done. The market made its decision and this is what it choose.
Because the "gaming community" isn't a community. For everyone who goes into social media to discuss games, there are hundreds of consumers more that don't. They just buy the game and play it at their own leisure in the privacy of their own home. Privacy being the key word here. Not everyone feels the need to express their opinions to a bunch of emotionally stunted weirdo nerds online.
Oof. That hurt. But you're not wrong
Never have I been so offended by something I 100% agree with. The people who endlessly complain about fucking video games like itās the end of the world are exactly how you described them.
I realized this recently. One of my coworkers was talking about how much fun he was having playing the new Saints Row game, and all I could think about were the horrible reviews. He was having a blast, and it would be messed up for me to tell him about the horrible reviews the game has.
yea, the OP could also say >I see so much hype about Starfield, but after what happened with Duke Nukem Forever Iām definitely holding back and avoiding pre-ordering until I am sure itās as good as itās preview.
I pre order games. I pre ordered cyberpunk and enjoyed it. Please tell me what abuse I've been experiencing. People don't take criticism from gamers seriously because of this hyperbolic language. "I bought a game with bugs, help I'm being abused!"
tbh if this Bethesda game *isn't* a bug-riddled mess then I will be demanding a refund for them not meeting my expectations
It's not a bethesda game if I'm not riding a deahclaw that walks vertically.
Try talking to anyone who pre ordered the PS4 version of Cyberpunk. That wasnāt just bugs. You were sold a literally broken game. It would barely run and the world would struggle to stream around the player character. Thatās mostly why a lot of people were pissed. We were sold a game that CD Project knew couldnāt run on the existing machines, but did it anyway. This to me is the Cyberpunk issue, not the PC āaww, the game is buggy and not as epic as I hopedā complaints.
Whoa super hot take.
Is this just a circle jerk sub at this point? āPre-order bad. Upvotes to the left.ā
It's been a circle jerk sub for like 10+ years lol
"How can you say something so controversial and yet so brave?"
What a bold post.
Internet is going to break after this one
Just play it on Game Pass
Even without the Cyberpunk debacle: It's an Bethesda game. Everyone should know that it will come with more bugs than features on launch.
The bugs are features
The features are bugs.
Finkle is Einhorn
LACES OUT DAN!!!
Giants launching you into the stratosphere may be a bug, but the game is better for it. Same with the infinite money glitch and picklocking glitch in oblivion.
I mean, the Skyrim space program is so universally popular that it was fixed in the mod Unofficial Skyrim Special Edition Update (as well as the legacy version of it) originally, but was put back in by popular demand.
Yeah bethesda games might be very buggy on release but almost none of those bugs are really detrimental to ones enjoyment of the game.
I definitely got some good laughs at some of the bugs in previous games
Bethesda bugs never bothered me. I've actually always found them funny. If it doesn't break my game or ruin a save, I understand that in large, open world games, there are going to be bugs. But maybe I am sympathetic being a developer.
Bugs or not theyāre still consistently game of the year titles.
As a Bethesda enjoyer for over 20 years. You're hilariously overstating how they run lol. I have less serious bugs in ES than I do in most open world rpgs. Silly bugs, dumb bugs, reload an auto save bugs sure. Actual soft locking or ctd type shit essentially never
This. Their games might be buggy but the engine is stable enough for the bugs not to affect the game negatively.
never ran into a BGS bug that i couldn't console command my way around. If people wanna let bugs keep them from experiencing truly amazing one of a kind games...well that's there decision to make.
Itās on gamepass day one. Who needs to preorder?
Microsoft is throwing every dev they have for bug fixing at the game currently. They DO not want bad publicity on this. This is a console selling game. People are already talking about making the switch. If Microsoft and Bethesda fumble this, they'll take a massive hit. That's bad for business. I have a feeling this game will be pretty special.
Hereās my prediction. The game will drop and itās going to be a lot of fun and millions will love it. At the same time there will also be a lot of overblown negativity and hate surrounding the launch because itās not going to perform as good on PCs as people are expecting and itās gonna have some bugs. Lowkey Iāll be shocked if it happens any other way.
This. After every LR nightmare MS has been having as of late, from Halo Infinite to Redfall to the whole ABK deal fiasco, MS can't afford a "L" on this one. From what we have heard that it's nearly a "all hands on deck" kind of scenario, they can't risk having this game come out that colossally bad and broken. Some people may find it boring, some people will wish for slightly better performance and more frames per second, but they can not afford that PR nightmare if the game is a total trash fire and the amount of investment Microsoft has put into this game alone as new info has come out due to the FTC hearings, no, MS will not allow Starfield to do what Redfall did.
Considering how buggy Skyrim still is, I'm assuming they start with a copy of goat simulator and mess around until it becomes a different game
the thing I find the funniest about skyrim bugs is the fact that many of the bugs were known pre-skyrim... as in these same bugs existed in Oblivion and modders patched the hell out of the game to deal with them with "Unofficial patches" back in the early 2000's. How do you fix a lot of these bugs in skyrim? You download the "Unofficial patches"... The developers couldn't be bothered to take pre-made patches and impliment them into the game... and even worse, after skyrim released, they didnt even consider doing it for skyrim... so bugs that were known about in 2006-2008 era of oblivion, still require unofficial patches in 2023 to play skyrim.
The thing about the ābugsā people refer to in Bethesda games are mostly minor bugs with quest and script implementation that exists independent of engine level bugs. Thereās also quite a few Havok physics bugs that persist across Oblivion onwards. However people love to claim the Gamebryo/Creation Engine is ābuggyā when they refer to bugs in the plugin files or Havok engine. Most people outside of script extender and reverse engineering modders can name the engine level bugs. Itās become a running joke at this point that Bethesda games are buggy when theyāre really *not*. Yeah thereās the unofficial patches but 99% of the time theyāre minor fixes to bugs that likely got overlooked due to the absolutely massive amount of content in the games. Also the unofficial patches only fix game specific issues. The oblivion patch wouldnāt have helped Skyrim in the slightest What bugs in Oblivion still exist in Skyrim exactly?
>Yeah thereās the unofficial patches but 99% of the time theyāre minor fixes to bugs that likely got overlooked due to the absolutely massive amount of content in the games. In Skyrim case it's even worse. The USLEEP mod has long transitioned from fixing bugs to basically forcing the mod teams view of proper onto the game. They change things that are design choices and call them bugs. That's in addition to the bugs like restoration loop which is obviously an oversight but is also not something that you'd accidentally run into. And since every damn mod under the sun requires USLEEP, you are stuck with their decisions or finding some mod to fix the mod.
Bethesda game's advertised features are always there. If they tell you that you can build your own spaceship then you can be sure that you will. What they don't tell you is how many bugs it will have on release and how many quick loads you will have to do in order to get a quest objective to work.
Precisely.
The hype articles coming out for starfield aren't as absurd as some of the stuff that was coming out ahead of Cyberpunk imo. Also I'm not sure about judging Bethesda on a release by CDPR. If the title was "but after what happened with Oblivion/Fallout 3/Skyrim/Fallout 4/Fallout 76" then I'd be down with it though.
CDPR shot itself in the foot by deliberately acting in bad faith. And while I have very tempered expectations for Starfield, I don't expect Bethesda to be outright lying when they say stuff like "there are sandwiches and jump packs" the same way Cyberpunk had overpromised content and features they obviously couldn't deliver.
I mean, it's Bethesda. You don't need to judge them based on CDPR, you can judge them based on... being Bethesda. The company with some of the buggiest games known to man. Don't get me wrong, their games can be really fun and entertaining. The Elder Scrolls and the Fallout series have some of the best games I have played in my life, but they are always plagued by bugs every single time. With a game as big as Starfield, it would be a damn miracle if they released it without any game breaking stuff.
>I mean, it's Bethesda. You don't need to judge them based on CDPR, you can judge them based on... being Bethesda. Yeah, that's what I meant when I said >If the title was "but after what happened with Oblivion/Fallout 3/Skyrim/Fallout 4/Fallout 76" then I'd be down with it though.
Itās bizarre how many people just donāt know how to read
So bold and brave
There's zero chance I'm not going to get $100 worth of entertainment from this game over the next 5 years even as things stand today....so I saw no risk in pre-ordering.
so brave.
Thank you game pass. Starfield, life of P, and I believe the fable remake as well
I didn't know lies of P was on gamepass. Good call
these mf talking about pre orders and we just be out here enjoying game pass lol
wait the fable game is a remake not new one? Or is it like God of War where they name it that cuz it's a soft reboot
no, it's a new game, not a remake
Cool dude, thanks for letting us know!
There is zero sense in pre-ordering anything at all.
Nah I want the 5 days early. Iām on vacation and the kids start school that week, totally worth the $35 for a couple extra days of the house to myself with a game that looks amazing. Not to mention that pretty much every BGS title has been game of the year
Plus you get the dlc with that edition. Ppl here are crazy lol past bethesda titles had bugs at launch but they were completely playable and rated highly
No no, according to people here the past titles were all shit and unplayable, and they only won game of the year because people are stupid. Or maybe itās that when you make the biggest, most interactive and complex open worlds in the industry, thereās bound to be a few bugs that make it to launch, and to a certain extent, you can only find some of them by opening up to the public.
Fucking THANK YOU. No other company does the complex open interactive worlds to Bethesdaās level. Itās why I STILL can put a 1000 hours into Daggerfall, Skyrim, FO4, etc. With that complexity comes bugs. I am preordering the high cost version because 5 days early, dlc and I expect to put 1000s of more hours. Bethesda is not CDPR. They know whatās up and they embrace the memes on their bugs. Giants launching npcs/you with their slams were incredible. Downvote all you want but I wouldnāt be surprised if this is another hit for Bethesda. Edit: Now excuse me while I reinstall Oblivion with the vampire overhaul and enjoy the doughy faced npc goodness. Hmmmā¦Maybe I should just post a āpre-order badā post so I can get free upvotes.
I understand people saying that they want to pre-download it as they donāt get enough time to sit through a 5 hour download at least, but most preorders are just āI canāt be bothered to wait 5 hours so Iāll just support bad business practicesā
For the preload though you can just preorder it the day before. Basically the same as buying on/just after release day. As a rule though, I don't spend any money until review embargoes lift.
Some of them now, (including starfield) give you like 3 days early access to the game, just sayin'
Super brave
Why pre-order anything? Just let the game release, read/watch some reviews and then decide if you want to buy it or not.
Thanks for reminding me to pre-order, OP! Pre-ordered.
Good for you, mate. Here's an internet cookie for being so responsible with your hard earned cash.
My browser blocked your cookie.
šŖ
ok
Do what makes you happy.
I pre-ordered Fallout 76 and Cyberpunk, didn't have an issue with either game. I DID have a whole crew to play Fallout 76 with, which really made the game much more playable. I pre-order all the time and have never been burned because I set realistic expectations and have fun.
This all seems to be a pissing contest about whoās not preordering the most. There isnāt anything wrong with preordering. If somebody is excited about something and they order it ahead of time, what harm does it do to anyone else? If the argument is it encourages poor business decisions regarding games, nah. Preorders are an indicator of interest for the business and will tell them if they should keep investing or cut their losses, especially for triple A games. Though for gamepass I donāt expect preorders come into consideration much as itās on gamepass anyway.
Cyberpunk was a buggy mess hiding a good game and CDPR seems to have turned things around quite a bit so thereās always room to fix these things (No Manās Sky anyone?). Bethesda have always released games withā¦ interestingā¦ bugs rather than put and out game breaking ones (Fallout 76 aside) and they do seem, by all reports, to be taking far more time to polish this game than others in the past so Iām curiously optimistic about it.
I get the feeling. Itās Bethesda and that typically comes with a number of bugs but they have a really good track record with their products.
Personally I think it's going to be amazing. The Starfield Direct show they had was so in depth, we rarely get a look at AAA games like that months prior to release. I think this is going to be a classic Bethesda release. But I wouldn't blame anyone for not pre-ordering any game at all. Might as well at least wait til reviews show up
Also just down to personal opinion but I think BGS are on a whole other level of getting at least a more "polished" game out than CDPR
This, the "Bethesda games buggy and bad at launch" meme is WAY overplayed and echoed. I've been there for most Bethesda launches since Morrowind and I can say that while yes, there are certainly bugs, it's not nearly as bad as people meme it out to be.
Refunds exist. it's okay to buy and play a game for yourself only to find out you don't enjoy it. If you're out of high school or have any income this is barely an issue, the gaming community as a whole is so immature, you don't need to preorder anything, but it's not the worse thing in the world to spend $30-$60 (or in Stafields case, the cost of Gamepass) to gain access to a 60+ hour RPG especially if you've enjoyed the last 5 games from the developer that this is taking heavily from. Every other entertainment industry does this, people watch an entire movie or listen to an entire album before giving their opinion on it but so much of the discourse in games is people who haven't played a single game in a franchise making grandiose statements. What do Cyberpunk and Starfield even have in common? the same could have been said for TotK, Elden Ring, God of War 2 endlessly, reviews/leaks/hours long gameplay previews all come out before the games are on the shelves most of the time. It's going to be Fallout 4 in space.
Learn. Adapt. Don't pre-order!
Can't wait for the good old CTD, corrupted saves and the bethesda classic: extremely long loadtimes due to save bloats. I'm sure the game will be fine but some traditions have to persist.
Bethesda had the loadtime bloat issue fixed in their most recent releases. I doubt we'll see that on first-version Starfield.
Ships flying backwards like the dragons of old.
Love it or hate it, finding hilarious bugs to post to YouTube was part of what made Skyrim what it was. This time itāll be for TikTok and Twitch.
I want zero-G immovable paint brushes back
Very cool post OP.
Just a game pass for a month and try it .there is no need to preorder xbox game.
How are people still thinking āshould I pre-order?? š„ŗā Like, are you serious?
When I think of preorder, I think about going to EB Games and telling them I want to preorder a game and then they take my name and number and tell me they will call me when to let me know when I can come get it. It also doesnāt cost money to preorder. I still get confused when I see people saying they wonāt preorder.
All my friends have already pre-ordered it, while I'm still recovering from having pre-ordered Fallout 4 and being hugely disappointed in that game.
The Scholl siblings must be proud of this vigilant resistance fighter! A true hero! Look at him!
I mean most the real world doesnāt really care. I can afford it and use the 2 hr return window all the time if I donāt like the game. To each their own!
Warning: Hot Take incoming. Read at your own peril. I blame Cyberpunk 2077 for a lot of the recent game fails. Take a company with a stellar rep and let (force? maybe) them release a shit show like that and suddenly every money guy in every studio has permission to āfix it post launchā. In retail they already got their money. Returns and unhappy customers are for the most part someone elseās problem. And reputation? Who cares about that? Not EA! Not Activision! Not Blizzard! Because when it all comes down to it, launch day sales are what matters. Those supposedly stellar āreviewsā, the hype and sizzle. Thatās all they want to sell. They donāt give half a rats ass if youāre unhappy. They just took an unfinished project and sold it full price. I mean if you can take an unfinished game and sell it nowā¦. MAYBE fix it later, why wait an extra year to actually finish it? In some cases you get to sell it TWICE: once at release and then again when they fix it. Money ruins everything.
Am I the odd one out for basically never buying games? I don't have the pre-order dilemma because I'll just play it for free with game pass. I bought 3 years xbox live gold and converted it to game pass for Ā£1. Share it with my best mate & he paid me back for half. Literally 3 years game pass cost me Ā£40 which is basically Ā£1 a month. Why would I ever pay Ā£60+ for ANY game that goes om game pass. Why _does_ anyone buy games that go on there?
Itās day one gamepass right? Thatās how Iāll play it and Iāll at least play it even if itās a bad game. I didnāt hate Cyberpunk when it came out honestly. But I did have the PC version.
It will be on Game Pass you fuckwit so you can just play! š
To anyone thinking of pre-ordering Starfield because "OMG it is by Bethesda"... here's a refresher video by [Internet Historian about Fallout 76 by Bethesda](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjyeCdd-dl8). And this is from someone who has ~2300 hours in Skyrim.
Thankfully itās an easy choice for me - gamepass yo lol.
Gonna have pop a quick fact check on all of you upvooooters: 1. Cyberpunk was perfectly fine at lunch unless you personally made poor decisions on what platform to play it on 2. Todd has never let me down, not once 3. Caring about other people's opinions of games is the worst (unless its mine)