YouTube’s ‘Cycu1’ has shared an early graphics video comparison between the 2022 and 2023 demos of Bethesda’s upcoming triple-A title, Starfield. And, as the title implies, there have been some noticeable downgrades.
As you can see, the faces and facial hair of all characters look noticeably worse in the 2023 demo. I really don’t know what’s going on here, but the characters were my main issue with the 2023 demo. All of them now appear flat, and their facial hair looks awful. Their eyes also now lack a lot of detail, making them feel lifeless and… dare to say… even worse than old-gen characters.
Seriously, take a look at these two comparisons. The difference is HUGE. I’m not exaggerating here. The 2022 demo feels like a remaster compared to the 2023 demo.
The good news is that Bethesda was able to maintain the quality of the game’s environments. Not only that, but it has added a few higher-quality environmental assets in some areas. The TOD (time of day) has also changed in some scenes, meaning that we don’t have 1-1 comparisons for its lighting/TOD.
And yes, there are some “artistic” changes. For instance, the main room at 2:00 now has a dust/haze effect and a different TOD. These are fine, and we don’t really mind these changes. However, we can’t overlook the major downgrade of all of the game’s characters.
I also can’t believe that nobody has mentioned these graphical downgrades. Again, these aren’t “artistic” changes. And if the media criticized The Witcher 3 or Watch_Dogs or other games for their downgrades, they should as hell criticize Bethesda for these lackluster characters. Bethesda, Naughty Dog, or your favorite studio should not be getting a free pass. Be objective and treat all studios the same way, as simple as that.
Starfield will release in around three months from now, so I don’t expect Bethesda to suddenly overhaul its characters. This appears to be representative of what we’ll get.
Lastly, and from what we know, there won’t be any RT effects in it. Still, the game would benefit from some RT treatment on PC. We also don’t know whether the game will support DLSS 3. And, to be honest, this is something that needs to happen. Starfield will most likely be a CPU-heavy game. Thus, DLSS 3 would significantly improve its performance.
Stay tuned for more!
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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