Starfield will soon be leaving Microsoft exclusivity, joining many of the world's greatest games across the Pond (that other one) on the PlayStation 5. It'll also be receiving a massive free update alongside its long-awaited port, and it may not be the last we see of Bethesda's star-faring RPG.
The free update, titled Free Lanes, is going to massively expand the game's content, bringing in numerous fixes, enemies, locations, quests, vehicles, crew, quality-of-life improvements, and so on and so forth. It targets just about every aspect of the game, seeking to make Starfield into the title it deserves to be. But the most important addition here is the Cruise Mode, allowing players to explore entire star systems, rather than just the planets inside of them.
This is done by engaging your cruise mode and setting off toward another planet, which can now be manually traveled to using this new mechanic. No longer are you forced to fast travel or enter loading screens (that should now be faster on the PS5), and you are given the opportunity to make the trip at your own pace and in your own way.
To fill in the spaces between the planets, Bethesda has put in loads of content in there, including dynamic events, that should make each trip exciting and worthwhile, opening the previously empty space to exploration and adventure, rather than just being there as a backdrop. It's an exciting update, to put it mildly, and finally brings Starfield up to speed with other star-faring games that have had similar mechanics for some time now.
Though it's huge and free, it'll probably be the game's final update, at least the last "named" patch it'll receive. However, Tim Lamb, Bethesda's lead creative producer, said in a Q&A with media that there is still a lot that the teams would love to do with the game but did not offer concrete promises about any more updates down the line.
"When we make a game, our plan is always to support it for a number of years after launch," Lamb said. "There are places the team still wants to explore. There are things in the lore that we are still excited about, so we [do] have some plans, but nothing to announce [right now]," he added.
So there are "plans" and a general desire to expand Starfield even further, but I feel this is about as good as the game will get. This update adds a major mechanic that should probably have been there from the get-go and embraces most of the suggestions and feedback players have been putting out there over the years.
At any rate, Starfield is healthy and alive and being propped up by a massive new content drop, both via Free Lanes and the Terran Armada DLC, which will offer more in the story and narrative departments.
Starfield comes to the PS5 on April 7, with Free Lanes and Terran Armada coming alongside it.
The post Starfield’s next massive update is free for everyone, with tantalizing prospects: ‘There are places the team still wants to explore’ appeared first on Destructoid.
