Although it couldn’t meet fans’ expectations after waiting for over a decade for its release, Starfield pleased and convinced millions of players. Xbox and Bethesda are happy with the game’s sales performance and the idea is that, in five years, the title will be something completely new and vast.
Now, Starfield has officially released its biggest update to date, bringing notable improvements to the textures, lighting, and shadows of the game, while also fixing major issues such as saved game corruption and “asteroid pets”.
While players eagerly await the release of Shattered Space and the Creation Kit, Bethesda’s efforts to address the major technical issues of Starfield are the first step in their roadmap for 2024.
What the biggest Starfield update to date brings
The Starfield update entered beta testing on Steam on January 18, 2024, and its fixes are now available to PC, Xbox Series S, and Xbox Series X players.
Although Starfield is Bethesda’s worst-rated title on Steam, the consensus among fans is that the game has a lot of untapped potential. Players have enjoyed its ship and weapon building mechanics, although many were expecting a more open-world experience that relied less on procedural generation and more on the handcrafted content that defined Bethesda’s previous games.
Bethesda has shared on social media the patch notes for the final update 1.9.51.0 of Starfield, which include many fixes and improvements.
In particular, players will no longer have to worry about their characters’ eyes remaining closed in third-person view, and the phase time power bug that occurred during Starfield’s New Game Plus should also be fixed.
Although fun at first, many fans were annoyed by Starfield’s persistent bug of asteroids that kept following their ship through space, and the latest update claims to have found another solution.
The new Starfield update also improves character shadows, enhances water reflection, and fixes various artifact issues found throughout the game.
Although this patch may not address the complaints that Starfield players have had about its gameplay, it is certainly a step in the right direction.
It remains to be seen what Shattered Space will bring to Starfield, but fans are hoping it will offer a more rewarding experience when exploring the worlds of the Settled Systems.
Since there are still more than 250 employees assigned to Starfield, Bethesda’s scope for post-launch support for the game seems ambitious. In addition, the developers have promised a regular patch cadence. The idea is to turn it into the Skyrim of space.
