Update (Wed 7th Jun, 2023): With the Starfield Direct taking place this Sunday, we thought we'd give this feature a bump! We'll also throw our guide to the Xbox Games Showcase 2023 below, which the Starfield Direct will be a part of.


Original story (Fri 10th Mar, 2023): After what feels like an age, we finally have confirmation of two big Starfield events: the game's release date, and the next time we'll see Bethesda's RPG in action. The game is now set to launch on September 6th, and we'll next see gameplay at the Starfield Direct on June 11th.

While we don't really know any specifics in relation to the Direct itself yet, we're expecting it to be Starfield's main blowout of information prior to the game's September launch. As a result, we want to see lots and lots of Bethesda goodness here.

We have reason to believe the team will deliver the goods as well. In their recent launch date trailer, Todd Howard himself said Bethesda Game Studios has "so much that we still have to show" about Starfield. Well Todd, here are six things we want you to show us.

Extended Starfield Spaceship Gameplay

We've seen bits and pieces of what Starfield looks like from the skies, but we want to see some real extended footage of spaceship gameplay at the Direct in June. How does dogfighting really work? How do you initiate combat with other factions while in your spaceship? What does the whole flying process look like from start to finish?

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A bunch of this was condensed into a sizzle reel of sorts within last summer's gameplay deep dive, but we want to see it uninterrupted this time around. Basically, show us how much chaos we'll inevitably cause while trying to move from planet to planet.

A Lengthy Look At Some Of Starfield's Huge Settlements

At this point, Todd & co. have made it known that Starfield will feature hundreds of planets for players to explore. And yet, we really want to see some of the major cities and settlements that are situated within these planets.

The team has shown off 'New Atlantis' a number of times within various gameplay clips, and it does look like it'll be one of the game's main settlements. Still, we'd love a full-on walkthrough of something on that kind of scale - maybe a different city on a different planet.

Just how many things you can interact with and how many folks you can talk to within these settlements should tell us a lot about how deep Starfield is beneath the surface. We know it has lots of planets, and now we want to know how dense the most populated ones are.

The Full Scope Of Starfield's World

Towards the end of last summer's gameplay deep dive, Todd took a moment or two to talk to us about the sheer scale of Starfield's world. "Over 100 solar systems" and "over 1,000 planets" are the numbers being thrown out there by the team.

While these numbers are very impressive, we'd like to see some reassurance that lots of Starfield's planets are actually worth exploring. It's okay to tout those sorts of numbers - we just hope that lots of these systems and the planets within them are worth venturing out to.

Some of the logistics behind travelling between all of these places would be nice to know about as well. Maybe a quick showcase of the game's fast travel system to show off those super speedy Xbox Series X|S storage drives would be a good shout?

60FPS Gameplay On Xbox Series X And S

Look, we know Bethesda titles aren't exactly known for their blistering console performance, but we've gotten used to 60FPS now and we want to see it in Starfield.

We understand this is a huge game and the visuals may need to take a hit for 60 — especially if the team can get those performance levels on Series S — but we just want to see that option available in some form.

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This is now a game under Xbox's banner and we'd hope that performance on its new consoles would be a big priority for all of the teams working on Starfield. A very pretty 30FPS mode would be nice as well, especially for the folks that want to see the stars at the highest detail possible!

A Look At Starfield's Combat Arsenal

A fairly hefty chunk of the gameplay released during last summer's Xbox showcase focused on a few gunfights after landing on a planet. While it was nice to see these extended combat sequences, at the time, things did look a little clunky, and the clips only showed off a few weapons and gadgets.

At this year's Starfield Direct, we think it's time to blow the doors open on Starfield's arsenal; open up that inventory and detail exactly what we're looking at when it comes to weapons, skills, abilities - the whole nine yards.

This would also be a good time to show off how far the game has come along since its last delay, and how the team's shooting mechanics have evolved since Fallout 4.

Starfield Quest Variety & Dialogue Options

Since its launch back in 2010, Obsidian's Fallout: New Vegas has become a fan favourite Fallout title - in large part due to how developer Obsidian handled the game's branching storylines and player-driven dialogue options.

While we understand that it can be hard to show off such systems within a gameplay reveal, we'd like to hear Todd touch on how Starfield will handle these aspects, and how the team is still making sure this is a Bethesda RPG at its core.

There's so much potential for some epic stories amongst the starfield, and we have faith that Todd and the team can deliver them. Let's see if they reward that faith in June!


These are just six things we'd love to see Bethesda Game Studios show off during its Starfield Direct on June 11th. There's less than a week to go until the big summer show... bring it on!

What do you think to our Starfield Direct wishlist? Anything you'd like to add? Let us hear it!