Starfield 2022 vs 2023 Video Graphics Comparison shows noticeable downgrades

Early graphics video comparison between the 2022 and 2023 demos of Starfield.

[Obscure_Observer]

Lol!

The author is clearly blind! Game got massive improvement in 95% of everything! Only facial animations in characters creation looks dated. All the rest looks amazing!

Even in the comments most people are pointing how the game improved after one year delay.

I think this site´s owner might be desperate for some clicks.

Even it´s readers are saying in the comments that this John dude, needs his eyes checked. Haha

[Jin_Sakai]

Have to agree with you this time. The game has looks much better now. This site is clearly looking for clicks since Starfield is trending.

https://i.ibb.co/PFsq96S/D6...

[bababooiy]

Riiight, all those real time shadows, volumetric fog etc being removed is just a artistic choice im sure.

[Jin_Sakai]

“Riiight, all those real time shadows, volumetric fog etc being removed is just an artistic choice im sure.”

And the comparison I posted shows a huge upgrade. Are we just going to ignore that? Also see that you created an account just 8 days ago and have been trolling Xbox since.

[4Sh0w]

You know it looks amazing which is why bababooiy made a account 8 days ago just to attack it and the usual suspects who aren't the least bit interested in Starfield somehow mistakenly stumble upon every Starfield thread. lol

Just go to youtube look at all the tons of Starfield Direct reactions almost all of them indeed notice the huge upgrade compared to what we saw a year ago....so let me guess it must be a conspiracy even when the overwhelming majority of non-pro-Xbox channels notice the huge upgrade. Bethesda knew they would, Phil knew it and thats exactly why they confidently showed off the game for what many are saying should be the standard for showcasing a upcoming big AAA game. I agree, best deep dive presentation for 1 game I've seen in ages.

[NoFanBoy]

Nah mate seems, lower res textures, Lighting, reflections etc. It all looks less 3D/flatter.

[shinoff2183]

4show

It goes round and round you'll catch xbox fans in ff Spiderman articles also. I'm a ps fan but pretty hyped for starfield myself.

[outsider1624]

Agreed. The texture, lighting, shadows do look improved. I dont see any downgrade. Even the character models well..they still need fixing.

[PhillyDonJawn]

He definitely on something lol. The poor lighting and lack of shadows 2022 had stick out so much. Click bait at its best

[FACTUAL evidence]

@ obscure_observer

Not trying to be funny but when starfield was first showcased everyone clowned on how unappealing the graphics were, especially with the character models. Now the fact that the game was delayed a year and looks downgraded from what was shown previously is even more of a kick in the balls. Not saying the game won’t be fun, but if graphics were the selling point at either point of development then I’m definitely not sold. You have to be delusional to think this looks better than the earlier build.

[Obscure_Observer]

@FACTUAL evidence

Who cares what you think or want? Starfield looks amazing there´s absolutely nothing in the market that comes close to that game given its scope and scale!

DF foundry already made their analysis and like I said, they are definitely impressed with Starfield´s graphics and evolution after one year delay.

They even made comparisons with Star Citizen which already costed 1 half-billion dollars and its graphics can´t come close to Starfield´s. Starfield literally stomped Star Citizen in every single way!

So I rather take the opinion of professionals rather than some random bozos on the internet any day of the year!

[FACTUAL evidence]

@obscure_observer

You’re right, it’s not what I think. It’s obviously what’s been shown. I didn’t give out an opinion. What’s factual is the visual downgrade.
I’m sure they’ve optimized the game to run better within the last year, but the graphical fidelity isn’t catching at all. From graphics, to actual object not even having definition. So basically by reading your comment it’s more or less who cares what you think.

[neutralgamer1992]

Agreed I don’t know what the heck is going on man. People are so thirsty for clicks

[Amplitude]

I didn't even watch the video. I just saw it's DSOGaming and can say with 100% certainty that you are correct

[fr0sty]

Some of it is just changes in art direction decisions made, different lighting, etc, some shots even looks better now than before, but some is an obvious downgrade, such as the foliage on the ground, lighting on character models, etc.

[Charal]

Get real man, there is no downgrade, but neither “95% massive improvement” lol.

[Magog]

Yeah, they're right. It's taken a big hit and they still can't keep a stable 30fps at 1200p. Things are looking bleak over at Bethesda King Blizzard Microsoft Activision.

https://i.ibb.co/j6qX6BJ/et...

[SullysCigar]

Check out this analysis pointing out all the shilling Digital Foundry is doing for Starfiled. Straight up, demonstrably lying at times!

https://www.youtube.com/wat...

In terms of the downgrade, even the thumbnail of the trailer shows this clearly. The only thing I would say is better on that particular character is the hair. Everything else is awful by comparison. They fixed the wonky eye and replaced with straight ones that no longer even look like real eyes. Just flat, bland textures.

[StarkR3ality]

@sully

Digital foundry are wrong are they?

Whenever they say an Xbox game runs better than PS5 or that an Xbox game has improved it's performance or visuals, they're Xbox fan boys. But what about when they speak glowingly about playstation games that deserve it, or when they acknowledge that some games on Playstation run better?

They're not actually bias at all, it's the people on this website that are, grow up man.

[SullysCigar]

So rather than asking me how exactly their claims about Starfield are - as I said "demonstrably" lying - you went straight for the ad hominem. Yet you think I'M the one that needs to grow up? Lol

Off the top of my head, Digital Foundry - while defending the sub-30fps performance on xbox Series X - called this an "Open Universe" game, despite the game constantly loading and the fact that you can't even take off or land the ship - it goes to a cutscene while it loads. They also said it's understandable that it's <30fps due to the persistent items feature, despite Switch games offering the feature as well.

Bear this in mind as you watch the gameplay footage of Star Wars Outlaw, with it's VASTLY superior graphics, animation, character models, as the protagonist walks in and out of buildings and NPC interactions, has a gunfight, escapes, jumps on a speeder bike and hurtles across detailed terrain, reaches the ship, climbs aboard, takes the controls and flies up and out of the atmosphere straight into a space battle... ALL in seamless gameplay, with no loading and guess what? At 60 FPS.

The only way we're getting native 4k OR 60fps for Starfield is if we play on PC. The double standards are shocking.

[StarkR3ality]

@Sully

Are you seriously using a Ubisoft title that does not have the complexity of a game like Skyrim, let alone Starfield. No loading? You think that flying through a cloud where all you can see is said cloud and spaceship isn't a loading screen?

Also how many loading screens in Starfield have we seen? Starfield has thousands of planets, while tracking every object and every NPC going about their Day to day routines in the game.

The fact you're comparing those 2 games is why you're extremely uneducated as to how games work. But you know more than the guys at DF right? The guys who actually help Devs discover ways to improve their games, you know better than them?

Since you mentioned star wars, Jedi survivor doesn't run at 60 FPS on console at an internal resolution of like 700p? Shit it barely runs at 60fps on a 4090 But you expect Starfield to run at 60fps on a £450 system.. right okay then.

Problem is that with games at the moment they are heavily ham strung by CPU and VRAM, not because Starfield is a bad game or that Bethesda are a bad Dev, or the series X is a bad console.

Just as a last note, if you genuinely think that outlaws is graphically superior to Starfield after watching that 45 mins direct, then you seriously need to get your eyes checked, all of you.

[sinspirit]

@Stark

They never talk "glowingly" about PlayStation. If PlayStation performs better then they admit that but don't really go deep into it. Every time XBox might have one better example they point it out heavily and never gloss over it. Remember PS3 and 360 era? They were so harsh on PS3 every single time. As soon as the power shift of PS4 to XBox One occurred they never pointed out the graphical differences as strongly when PS4 was clearly ahead every single time. In fact, they loved that Destiny even ran the same as the PS4 version on XBox, but wouldn't point out that PS4 version was held back for parity with XBox.

[StarkR3ality]

@sin

That's just straight up lies pal. I watch all of their videos and they have nothing but praise for the likes of naughty dog, insomniac, Santa Monica. They call out the differences between the 2 platforms and when playstation is better the most recent examples I can think of being Jedi survivor, the Witcher 3 next gen, cyberpunk etc. They mention the performance different between the 2 down to the percent.

Just because they also mention the games that Xbox performs better in, and that goes against your guys narrative that the PS5 is crafted by Jesus himself, doesn't mean that they are in favour of Xbox.

Get a grip honestly.

[4Sh0w]

Stark,

Don't bother, just look at the kind of people SullysCigar listens to, he linked King Thrash Gaming youtube channel. These are the headlines in the last two weeks from that channel, and trust me basically if you go further back it doesn't get any better:

"Digital Foundry Lied About Starfield" _2 days ago
"The Downgraded Xbox Exclusive, The Starfield Analysis 2" _5 days ago
"Worst Game of the Show, Avowed Analysis" _7days ago
"The Worst Show Ever, The Xbox Showcase Was A Massive Failure" _8 days ago
"Why MS Will Fail, Will Xbox Have The Tools?" _9 days ago
"What the Xbox Showcase Is Missing Most" _2 weeks ago
"Xbox Showcase Poised To Fail More Devs Quit Xbox _2 weeks ago

-I've never seen his channel most likely because I avoid obvious hate channels, lol the hate is strong with him, seriously I can respect any channel that just prefers or is pure xbox or ps loyal but judging by his headlines other than spiderman, & god of war praise Xbox games live rent free in his head.

-Lastly whats even worst is the guy is just plain uneducated about gaming but actually thinks we should take his word for it over DF when he says stuff like "A open world game doesn't have loads" so by his logic Zelda BoTW, RDR2, Elden Ring and on, and on aren't open world??? Also the "open-universe" phrase he used was just a description to say that the game was bigger than 99% of even the typical open world games and more complex, NOT a new genre, just much bigger, which is what great analyst do they *describe what they mean visually so the reader/audience understands what they are saying....but he's just trying to change the narrative rather than address the *point DF was making which is the game is so massive & complex that neither $500 console is going to run all that at 4K 60fps without sacrificing something, Bethesda had good reason to choose 30fps on console and it you got a great pc then its 60. I just can't help at laugh at people who are so self un-aware, I mean sure we can always disagree with something but DF has a professional background where they *specialize in game tech analysis, yet Sugar and this King whoever guy with a huge Xbox hater track record somehow is suppose to have more creditability. Same guy loved when the same DF awarded games like Horizon FW with best graphics of the year and gush over GoW R., no questions.

[sinspirit]

@Stark

Uhh. No. You didn't read what I said. They compliment PlayStation for obvious reasons.. but they don't prioritize it the way they do when XBox performs better. They don't hover over any time that PlayStation performs better. It's their job to state it but that's it. When XBox does better they audibly sound more excited and their words are more exciting and draw attention to the times XBox is ahead. Like I said. They aren't liars, but they are clearly more inclined to make XBox sound better when they can by showing more coverage of those times it seems ahead.

[Lightning77]

Wait, wait, wait. Did you literally link a video by King Thrash? Loool. King Trash who's life's mission is to trash everything Xbox. The same Kingtrash that gets bodied by everybody for his extreme and I mean EXTREME stupidity? There's videos of ppl making fun of this guy constantly. If you follow him that's says allot about your intelligence so I would avoid him unless you're just like him. The "Volcanoeing" guy himself lol.

Please tell me you're joking because it doesn't get any worse than him. DF even said the Character models haven't changed a whole lot and they were was expecting better. They said the models aren't horrible but more work could of been done on that. Other than that DF praised everything else in the game and haven't pointed a downgrade at all just upgrades.

@Stark the video is uploaded by a known extremist fanboy. His video went viral when he tried to "review" Forza Horizon and tried to do what DF does with is "analysis" and failed spectacularly as he always does. He's known to own himself on the daily basis it's funny lol.

[FGHFGHFGH]

@StarkR3ality

DIgital foundry are totally biased for xbox. They straight lied about Gears 5. They were reading off notes sent to them from the devs.

[cell989]

Wait a sec!!!! You're telling me I won't be able to get in my ship and fly into outer space and into a nearby moon or planet manually? So is it like some type of fast travel feature??? This really takes me back :/ that's not a true space open world game then

[shinoff2183]

Stark

To be fair star wars jedi and whatever this new one is. It's different devs.

Anyway carry on

[Sonic1881]

"It will be like No Man's Sky but full of bugs and lacking the ability to seemlessly transition from space to the surface."

What's mind-boggling about that is Starfield is supposed to be developed by way more people and a AAA game and they still couldn't add that feature to the game. No man sky developer is a small team and still added that feature

[Chevalier]

Funny people complain. NMS has 12 people vs the biggest Bethesda team ever at over 500. Yet NMS does a lot of things better than Starfield, but, apparently 500 people isn't enough?

[NoFanBoy]

Evolution of a crap engine, with a liar at the helm and a game being gimped by a weak console (Series S).
Starfield will be Fallout 4 in space with NMS type loot/resource planets.

[lucian229]

Even before the downgrade it didn't look good lmao

[Aloymetal]

Lol, it is a Bethesda game after all.

[CantThinkOfAUsername]

I'm the least fan of Bethesda and has zero interest in Starfield, but John Pompous here is out of his mind. He picked the worst two cases to make his point. The game is objectively better looking. Whoever worked on that lighting upgrade needs a big fat cheque. Managing to eliminate the GameBryo's Tint™ from a Bethesda game is pure wizardry (speaking from a rendering point-of-view).

Just look at the arm and hand comparison at 0:33; night and day.

[Fonsecap]

The writing of the article says one thing and the video another, the video only shows that the lighting is different, more realistic in 2023 by the way and the characters less plastic-ish... So I don't get this...

[anast]

The game isn't going to look good and it is going to be shallow...Skyrim fans will love it I suppose.

[MatrixxGT]

“Skyrim fans will love it I suppose”

I mean there’s a lot of Skyrim fans…enough to sell 60mil copies regardless of how many platforms it released on.

[anast]

That's why I said it.

[pitythefool]

Yeah sorry, but no.

The flip flopping, backtracking and flat out gibberish about why the game is 30fps on consoles has been amusing, however this article is definitely nonsense.

It looks better almost across the board in the 2023 shots.

[Magog]

Hard disagree.

https://i.ibb.co/j6qX6BJ/et...

Terrible hobo beards, weird claymation vibe and dead eyes.

[pitythefool]

Key word being “almost”

[InUrFoxHole]

When you show me 2 great looking things but want me to feel a certain way...

[pitythefool]

On another note, those fighting tooth and nail about being so certain that all the marketing speak and analysis are 100% true in regards to the games console performance should probably pump the brakes slightly.

There’s at least a good chance PC players with a PC of similar spec to a SX will get the game running rather well at 60fps.

It’s a situation that could make you and all the outlets look silly.

[Crows90]

Some things look better, some look worse and some are just completely different. Happens with most games.

[Binarycode]

The original was running on a RTX 4090

The new one is running on the series x. 24fps.

[specialguest]

Also now running on the PS5 at 0fps lol

[tay8701]

Wow saw the same specs leaked for FF16 and Spiderman 2 on xbox. Lol

[Binarycode]

I'm not into starfield or any Bethesda game tbh. I still like seeing new things and tech etc.

But if I was into those games, They would run happily on my PC:)

[specialguest]

@Binarycode

Of course everything runs best on PC with the brute force of a highend gpu/cpu combo. Who do you think I am with my PC master race avatar?? lol

[PhillyDonJawn]

This guy is definitely blind if he think 2022 looks better

[FACTUAL evidence]

I’m seriously not surprised. Honestly, with any game no matter the platform, if it’s delayed most of the times expect the visuals to not be so appealing like when you first seen them. I can name so many titles that been through this. Here’s a couple. Infamous second son(still amazing nonetheless), watchdogs, forspoken, cyberpunk 2077, the list can go on. I personally never believe the visuals are what they are until I see the entire hud. If there is no hud in the gameplay it is most likely not the actual build. Even when I do see a hud in an early build I’m still highly skeptical. Basically what I’m saying is smoke and mirrors has been used since gen 6. This is not a surprise anymore.

[BehindTheRows]

What was wrong with inFAMOUS Second Son? There's one prerendered trailer (when it was first unveiled) on the engine, but the final game looked like all previous gameplay footage. There were filter changes, but the art was spot on. Certainly not a downgrade and nothing close to "unappealing" from the E3 2013 build.

https://www.youtube.com/wat...

[S2Killinit]

Oh boy

[Destiny1080]

it looks like craigs sister

[purple101]

Err some bits worse but most bits better. ?

[RupeeHoarder]

In some places yes, in some places no. The places where I would say "no" are very minor details like skin texture detail and some lighting areas. This is grasping.

[DafunkyRebel]

Characters models and some environments looks worst but overall the gameplay looks good and that's fine by me

[Akira2020]

Don't buy on day-1. You'll be sadly disappointed with all the bugs.#HistoryRepeats

[ManMarmalade]

Can't wait to see the bug compilation videos

[NoFanBoy]

Sad, maybe downgraded to run on the Series S. Looks like console verses PC version.

[specialguest]

Art direction is a huge improvement. The original had a cold blue-ish tone to it with too much dark contrast. Look at the aerial shot of the base to see that blue-ish tone and compare that to the 2023 version. Also the cowboy saloon stage.
The astronaut walking away from the ship scene just didn't feel right. It just felt like the world was dark and bleak. The 2023 version improved it with a softer tone. The 2023 version is a lot better than the original 2022 version

[Outlawzz]

2022 looks great. 2023 looks great. I see an epic game in the works that's all I'll say, I don't even own an Xbox but I'm thankful I can play this on pc.

[Northpoint]

I'm not a fanboy on this but it's not really downgraded. They just made some changes to the objects and skin textures to compensate for more objects onscreen. In one of the image comparisons, you can see way more smoke effects in the background over the 2022 image. Different lighting and sun angles so of course one may appear superior over the other. I used to take a ton of screenshots when playing Ace Combat and in some angles the images look realistic, while other angles you can instantly tell it's game or in this case "downgraded."

[flak]

Both are fine, gameplay is king.

[siccstepsccs]

Huge downgrade with shadow quality and charcter model. Thank god im playing this on my PC who plays FPS on 30 frames come on now its 2023 xbox bar is so low smh

[Gameseeker_Frampt]

Ahh, the YouTuber behind the whole Spider-Man PuddleGate downgrade is back. I'm sure N4G will react the same way now as it did then...

https://n4g.com/news/208056...

[headshotfrosty]

Understandable downgrade but not so significant considering the final scale. Looks mostly like lighting and some advanced details and textures but definitely not redefining the overall look and feel.

[GhostScholar]

Anyone who agrees with that is blind or dumb. Say what you want but it’s was drastically better looking this time around. I watched it in 4k both times and it is vastly better looking and also the gunplay is vastly improved. This article is just a bold faced lie.

[StitchJones74]

Oh look a fishing rod,,, and there some bait trying to catch Clicks.

[babadivad]

Still looks great.

[Abear21]

The lighting in this game is going to be insane!

[Charal]

Everything is pretty much the same except some lighting changes, it is hardly a downgrade.
2022 trailer has more vivid colors also, but nothing an ENB cannot change easily.

The only “downgrade” I see is framerate, especially during slowdowns it is clear that 2023 trailer runs slower.

[LucidIllusion]

This game has a lot of pressure riding on it. It's gonna make or break MS this year.

[mkis007]

Eh it really isn't a slam dunk obvious downgrade...A lot can just be due to lighting conditions and camera angles. The skin is about the only major thing I see, but it looks like it's just due to lighting. Hair was upgraded.

After watching...nah it's been upgraded on the balance few things look downgraded due to lighting...but mostly upgrades. I hate the downgrade talk that hits major releases. Spiderman, Horizon, god of war...I mean can't we just understanding lighting changes during the dev cycle on most games.

[Profchaos]

Different camera angles and times of day everywhere in the comparison so they are really incomparable.